Any audio gear junkies here?

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ecotourist
Nice gear, that No 23 is a beast and I always wondered how the Mirage would sound. Built in Canada IIRC, lot's of great audio designers from up there.
Have you tried some deoxit on the NAD? I swear by that stuff for my vintage gear.

OVERKILL
I hear you about electricity prices, old school watts cost money for sure. Lots of great digital style amps out there these days, is the Denon class d?

Lubener
I agree tubes sound great but there is also some fine sand based amps as well. My current integrated is right up there with my glass amps.

stro_cruiser
Its all about the sound like you say. I have heard $200 systems that kick the [censored] out of 20k system. As long as there is enjoyment
 
Originally Posted By: BeerCan

OVERKILL
I hear you about electricity prices, old school watts cost money for sure. Lots of great digital style amps out there these days, is the Denon class d?



Denon doesn't list it on their spec sheet, so I'm not sure
21.gif
Searching now to see if I can find out.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: BeerCan
ecotourist
Nice gear, that No 23 is a beast and I always wondered how the Mirage would sound. Built in Canada IIRC, lot's of great audio designers from up there.
Have you tried some deoxit on the NAD? I swear by that stuff for my vintage gear.

Yes the No 23 is a beast when you want it to be (with 200 Watts RMS/channel) it can rock you, but it can be very subtle too. I find it excellent all round. It drives those M1's really well. I used to have it hooked up to the KEFs at one time. They can take an amazing amount of power too.

The Mirage M1's are superb. They were designed with the aid of the National Research Council's anechoic chamber in Ottawa. "Absolute Sound" rated them as the best speakers in the world in their heyday (early '90s). They are huge though and have to be 3' from the side wall, 3' from the back wall and 6' apart so you need a fairly big room (and an understanding spouse). My mother said they looked like coffins; she had a way of saying just the right thing.

I haven't had much luck trying to clean pots with contact cleaner but I should try deoxit. I haven't tried to clean either the NAD or the Cyrus but it could be worth it (because in spite of their ages, either one may be better than that Yamaha).
 
Anyone remember the Phase Linear DRS-900? According to them,it had the dynamic headroom capability of momentary bursts of 900 watts per channel. I've never seen one in person,only in magazines (mid 1980s).
 
I've got a bunch of various amps/receivers and speakers, but most of it is currently sitting in storage as we are in-between houses, and have been for longer than we initially anticipated.

The only receiver currently not packed up in the box is the below Yamaha RX-V471, hooked up to some small DefTech speakers and a Velodyne sub.

P1000589.jpg


HK-3490...
DSC_0437.jpg


AudioSource 310:
DSC_4914.jpg


At one point in time, I used this Behringer Feedback Destroyer to smooth out bass response in my home theater:
DSP1124P_front.jpg


These Jamo towers used to play in my old home office. Hoping I can make use of them again at some point:
P1050347.jpg


They sounded surprisingly good powered by this little baby Onkyo:
P1050212.jpg



Various other speakers that I still have somewhere: PSB Alpha B, Mission M-something, Jamo C603...
P1050125.jpg


SVS cylinder sub:
P1020080.jpg


This little baby Onkyo sits in my current home office:
DSC_5113.jpg
 
I had a monster Pioneer for many years. It eventually lost a channel and I sold it but IMO it was one of the best sounding pieces of audio equipment I have ever owned. Admittedly there was a bit of nostalgia attached to it. I took the weekend off to go to Nashville, so I will post pictures when I get back.
 
Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
I want a couple of these! 1200 watt mono amp and weights 140 pounds,good lord!!

http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/us/Products/...oductId=MC1.2KW


My aunt ended up with a pile of McIntosh gear when a rather wealthy family friend was renovating her home theatre (literally a theatre). Tons of amps, speakers, probably 100+ tweeters. The stuff does sound awesome
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Though she sold most of it.

I really like this unit:
http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/us/Products/...ProductId=MC452

And at $7,500 it isn't unobtainium at least, LOL!
 
It depends on the venue/room/environment more than anything else. I have had some esoteric equipment that couldn't compensate for modern American Architecture of MacDonalds. Systems with the latest elements and the vintage Western Electric or Yoshimura Labs components. And the break-point came when I gave away a pair of lowly Yamaha NS Series bookshelf speakers with deformed (kids) driver surface, driven by a cheapo consumer grade JVC receiver from Silo circa 1990 to my mechanic friend. Gracious degradation of reflections/echo is the key. With the real volume and height of his shop, the lifts and upper beams with trusses that cheapo system produced sound of a Gothic cathedral. After that I stopped wasting my money on audiophile pieces and have a few lowly Vanderdsteens and Marantzes at home. Mr Carver carried out experiments like this years ago..
There was this aristocrat Graf Kaiserlingk, who worked for Russian Crown as the envoy to Saxon Court. he suffered from insomnia and headaches,so he approached J S Bach and commissioned the best gig in Bach's lifetime for his walkman to play at night time for him. The walkman was a young musician and his name was Goldberg. Mr Bach had just written a stack of exercises (uebungen) for a son of his and they came in handy. The kid would sit a few rooms away from the Count's bedroom and play the pieces. They are known as Goldberg Variations nowadays. That's how I listen to most of my music now. I have an old laptop, running KXStudio with an USB DAC output in the room next to my office.
If I want a real immersion experience, it's cheaper to fly to Amsterdam for an evening with Concertgebouw Orchestra than spend for audiophile trinkets. Boston has a very nice acoustic hall among others.
P.S. As we age, our spectral sensitivity decreases, but we increasingly can tell poor sound from a great one by its dynamics.
 
Originally Posted By: hatt
What speaker is needing that 1200 watt Mac?


Agreed, for most home users this is overkill. I equate it to - What car needs 600 hp engine? For most people (me included) it is just because we can or want the bragging rights.

In real life I find I rarely need more than 30 watts and mostly can get away using my 8 watt amps. Only when listening very loud do I notice my smaller wattage stuff running out of steam. Of course speaker load plays an important part as well.
 
I have a Hegel H80 integrated driving a pair of Revel F32's. For sources I have an Oppo BDP-105D. The Oppo feeds the Hegel via coax using the dac in the Hegel. I have an older Marantz ST551 tuner that really sounds pretty good for a modestly priced piece of gear. Nothing I ever owned imaged as good as the Hegel.
 
Those hegel's sure do have a following, they must sound good. Never heard one myself. I had an Oppo BDP-105 (original one) for awhile. I no longer use discs of any kind so I sold it.

Have you compared the dac in the H80 to the oppo? Just wondering, as the oppo gets good reviews on the dac but I never much cared for it.
Dac's are one of my favorite things to collect and I currently have a pretty good assortment. Yggdrasil, a LaScala and a DA-06 plus a few I assembled.
 
Originally Posted By: hatt
What speaker is needing that 1200 watt Mac?


I'd say some really good horns.
 
Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
Originally Posted By: hatt
What speaker is needing that 1200 watt Mac?


I'd say some really good horns.
Don't horns tend to be efficient?
 
Oh yes!
Been a collector of speakers for most all of my life. My wife says I have problems. My home theater has 13 different speaker cabinets and a grand total of 73 individual drivers. 50 of them are in two line arrays I built myself. Here is a picture of my upstairs TV where I was testing the line arrays, and a picture of my downstairs area with the line arrays in their final home. I use the line arrays during sporting events, as they really fill the room like you are at the stadium, during movies and critical listening I use them as my "presence" channel to fill in behind my mains (Infinity).


 
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