Recent content by Salectric

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    Sophia (blue) EL-34-ST Tubes

    Your description of “hard, brittle and bright” just sounds so different from my experience. I would describe the GL KT-77, once fully broken in, as a warm tonal balance with a rich lower midrange and slightly soft treble, with excellent dynamics and excellent midrange detail. Of course your...
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    Sophia (blue) EL-34-ST Tubes

    The gold lion KT-77 change rather dramatically after a long break in, more so than any other output tubes I’ve tried. If you didn’t use yours for at least 50 hours, I suggest you try them again.
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    ARC announces price increase effective Mid-March '24

    I am skeptical. I just checked Michael Percy’s Audio catalog and he sells the Vishay TX2352 bulk foil resistors (their top model) for $11.95 each for most values. Now it’s true that values over 100K do cost more, up to $39.50 for 249K, but you can still buy the vast majority of values for...
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    Modern speakers vs Vintage speakers

    I agree. Since I use woofers made in 1947 and a midrange horn made in the late 1940s, I could say that anything made after the Korean War is modern. But I won't.
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    Review of EMIA Autoformer

    Words like "right" and "wrong" overstate the issue. Like everything else in a system, cables should be selected to give the proper balance, and sometimes a particular silver cable gives the best balance, and sometimes a particular copper cable does. I said "particular" cable because not all...
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    Modern speakers vs Vintage speakers

    My complaints about modern speakers are that most of them: (1) have unnatural bass. With many the bass is too lean in the upper bass and lower midrange, not warm enough, which contributes to a sense of restrained dynamics;. With other modern speakers, the bass has an unnatural boom and thumpy...
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    EMIA Elmaformer (volume control) review

    There’s an interesting review of the EMIA Remote Autoformer in the April 2024 Stereophile. The reviewer Alex Halberstadt actually had two versions at hand, the copper and silver, and overall he seems to prefer the copper. I have the copper Slagleformer in my system but I haven’t compared it to...
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    Review of EMIA Autoformer

    There’s an interesting review of the EMIA Remote Autoformer in the April 2024 Stereophile. The reviewer Alex Halberstadt actually had two versions at hand, the copper and silver, and overall he seems to prefer the copper. I have the copper Slagleformer in my system but I haven’t compared it to...
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    Modern speakers vs Vintage speakers

    We each have our own comfort level. All of the big crossover caps in my speakers are old paper in oil caps from the PCB era. None of them are leaking and I use them all standing up vertically to minimize any possibility of leakage. I would like to use non-PCB caps if they sounded as good but...
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    Modern speakers vs Vintage speakers

    Don't forget YL Acoustics (Yoshimura Labs). They made great sounding drivers and horns.
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    Modern speakers vs Vintage speakers

    I don't have a satisfying technical explanation for the changes. Even with a first-order crossover, the electrical response is down quite a bit in the bass; and of course the tweeter's response drops like a stone below 1K. I highly doubt there is any measurable change in bass frequency...
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    Modern speakers vs Vintage speakers

    This has been my experience as well. For example, my horn tweeter uses a first-order crossover at 6500 Hz. Changing the crossover cap to a different brand of the same value not only changes the sound of the treble but it also can have a significant impact on the low frequency performance. The...
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    David Karmeli’s Bionor/Lamm/AS-2000 Audio System

    I just exercised the Ignore function for the first time regarding a certain member who will go unnamed whose posts are of no value and are clearly intended to annoy. I feel better already.
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    General Question about Belt Drive Turntables

    @PeterA Your photo reminds me of what some Platine Verdier owners did in years past. They had the motor pod several feet away from the platter, often on a separate rack, and it was connected to the platter with a long, loose thread. The platter on the Platine Verdier also has an air bearing...

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