willsw

Responses from willsw

Warm, lush and dark ... Dac up to 1.2K
Disclosure: I rep for both of these DACs, but I chose to do so because of their performance and actually make very little money on salesI third the MHDT suggestion, they sound perfect, and the Border Patrol DAC is also a great one. Some really goo... 
Yggy DAC
The Aurender has a full-featured, advanced DAC internally, and I imagine the differences could be small between it and the Yggy. I've personally done group comparisons with the Yggy and other DACs and do not doubt what my ears and their ears found... 
My jazz collection told me to get a *real* system
The Bay area is one of the best places to be able to actually listen to potential purchases, and if you're willing to drive up to Portland, you can expand that experience. I love jazz with the right headphones, with the right speakers, with the ri... 
A vote for the little guy suppliers
A goal of ours is to fill our listening room only with components that not only sound great, but are made by people we know personally. Anytime I want to, I know I can easily have a lengthy conversation with Gary (Border Patrol), Joe (Wolf Audio S... 
Schiit Vidar.... Anyone heard one yet?
the salesman there said it sounds identical to the speaker taps 60W output from the back of the (more expensive) Ragnarok headphone amp.I doubt this, as, I believe, much of the development delays had to do with the new topology (not using the same... 
Focal Headphones with Linear Tube Audio
Had some people in with the Utopia today. The MZ2 does a great job with them.  
Tekton Double Impacts
Al, he states that almost all (he doesn't say which were not) measurements were taken from the RCA jacks, which would be the preamp outputs. As the outputs are wired in parallel, the output impedance should be 2 ohms, as are the headphone and spea... 
Tekton Double Impacts
nicks25,Well Pleased AV has decided to go with a different amplifier pairing for LA and will no longer have the MZ2, so we will unfortunately not be present at the show.Regarding two pre outs/splitting the output, the output impedance of the MZ2's... 
More discrete R2R Mulibit dacs.
I picked up a Denafrips Ares after my USB-only Wavelength Brick was no longer enough for the TV and other devices that I wanted the best sound quality possible out of. I've been burning it in fully before trying any comparisons, but locally some g... 
Linear Tube Audio- Any feedback on their amps/ Preamp?
Lance, thanks for hosting that shootout! We had another with Mark's system and we've decided to go full Genalex Gold Lion for both the ZOTL40 and the ZOTL10. KT77, 12AU7, and 12AX7 for the 40 and EL84, 12AT7, and 12AU7 for the 10.These Gold Lions ... 
Linear Tube Audio- Any feedback on their amps/ Preamp?
Because the ZOTL circuit reveals the character of the tubes (and most components in the signal path) so strongly, now that we've made more ZOTL40s and heard them in different systems, we've decided to find some new tube options, as the Tung-sol EL... 
Capital Audio Fest 2016
We both noted that the analogue setup in the room with the Brinkman table/cartridge was defective; it sounded out of phase. I asked the vendor about this and he acknowledged that somewhere in transit, it appears that the cartridge went bad (not w... 
Capital Audio Fest 2016
There should be rooms featuring Bluetooth source enabled complete systems for easy entry at various price points for people with smart phones and tablets who like what they hear at the show and aspire to good sound at home. That's a good idea. At ... 
Capital Audio Fest 2016
I say two rooms with Voxactiv speakers in them and I liked what I heard--very clear and dynamic sound, minus the shrill and peaky quality that is often heard with wide-range drivers. The big Voxactiv speaker at the show had to be listened to at q... 
Capital Audio Fest 2016
berning/voxitive custom hornsTo add more info, that room had Linear Tube Audio amps (the boards designed for us by David Berning) and Gary Gill built the horns. That was one room playing CDs, through a modified Icon Audio tube-output CD player, as...