Doctor's Orders-Part Two-The New Listening Room Of Steve Williams

Hi Lloyd

my mantra in this hobby has always been "did I hear something better or merely something different. If something better, how so?"

Not only what I heard was better but I described how so

Hi Steve...what I meant was to compare your Lamm ML3 and Preamp LL1 to the Doshi Alaap and Jhor 90 monos. sorry if my first post wasn't clear.
 
The Holy Grail of 12AT7's

My Doshi tape head preamp shipped today and due to arrive in a few days. Nick Doshi arrives on Saturday to integrate it with my Studer. The switch had been previously made but Nick needs to make an internal board to modify the switch.

Nick uses 3 pair of 12AT7's one pair in the output stage and one pair in each of the NAB and IEC settings. Since I never listen to NAB recorded tapes I elected to roll only 2 pair of these tubes and after a lengQthy search I was able to find a quad matched set of Telefunken NOS ECC801S circa early 60's which are brand new and never been used. All four tubes have the same serial number and the measurements on all 4 tubes are almost identical. Needless to say I bought them and they will be integrated into Nick's unit

Here are some photos as these are as rare as hen's teeth.

Stay tuned. I am really looking forward to getting this unit into my system











Bottom of the tube showing the famous "diamond"






Steve,

Where did you buy those tele's ? TIA
Congrats !
 
Congrats on your tape pre, Steve. I hope to have one someday; I haven't heard any better source.
 
Congrats on your tape pre, Steve. I hope to have one someday; I haven't heard any better source.

Having experienced the "Doshi sound" myself I can only bet how wonderful your system must sound. I had a long talk with Larry about the amp and preamp and he is using it in his system with Wilson WAMM's and loves them
 
Having experienced the "Doshi sound" myself I can only bet how wonderful your system must sound. I had a long talk with Larry about the amp and preamp and he is using it in his system with Wilson WAMM's and loves them

Always interesting to read about what some dealers use at home. Do you know the rest of his system? source? Cables?
 
Having experienced the "Doshi sound" myself I can only bet how wonderful your system must sound. I had a long talk with Larry about the amp and preamp and he is using it in his system with Wilson WAMM's and loves them

I have had the pleasure of hearing Larry's system and his system is one of the most endearing systems I have ever experienced. It was also the first time I had heard WAMM's as well as a tape source and I could swear Oscar Peterson was in the room. I had spent the day auditioning D'Agostino amps (and comparing Sashas to bigger Wilsons) but after hearing Larry's system later that eveing, I just had to audition Doshi (which I did the next day when Larry so graciously opened the store on a Sunday for my wife and I). Obviously it led to me purchasing Doshi and I've been thrilled with my system since.
 
I have had the pleasure of hearing Larry's system and his system is one of the most endearing systems I have ever experienced. It was also the first time I had heard WAMM's as well as a tape source and I could swear Oscar Peterson was in the room. I had spent the day auditioning D'Agostino amps (and comparing Sashas to bigger Wilsons) but after hearing Larry's system later that eveing, I just had to audition Doshi (which I did the next day when Larry so graciously opened the store on a Sunday for my wife and I). Obviously it led to me purchasing Doshi and I've been thrilled with my system since.

Larry has invited me out and Nick suggested I take him up on it.
 
I have had the pleasure of hearing Larry's system and his system is one of the most endearing systems I have ever experienced. It was also the first time I had heard WAMM's as well as a tape source and I could swear Oscar Peterson was in the room. I had spent the day auditioning D'Agostino amps (and comparing Sashas to bigger Wilsons) but after hearing Larry's system later that eveing, I just had to audition Doshi (which I did the next day when Larry so graciously opened the store on a Sunday for my wife and I). Obviously it led to me purchasing Doshi and I've been thrilled with my system since.

MadFloyd,
Do you know of any site where we can find photos and details of such system?
BTW, I found the Doshi preamplifier has two types of output - SE and XLR. Do you find you loose any quality using the XLR with long cables?
 
MadFloyd,
Do you know of any site where we can find photos and details of such system?
BTW, I found the Doshi preamplifier has two types of output - SE and XLR. Do you find you loose any quality using the XLR with long cables?

Here's the website: http://doshiaudio.com/?page_id=4

You'll see photos and details of what I own but unfortunately the website isn't up to date - version 3.0 of the preamp exists along with 160 watt versions of the monoblocks.

As for the XLR outputs, when I used them (I don't anymore) I didn't notice any issues with a 20 foot run.
 
Steve,

Congratulations on the new addition. I fondly remember Nick's tape set up at RMAF and I'm sure it sounds magnificent in your system.

I'm sure they would but my Lamms aren't going anywhere. I would really like to hear Nicks however in my system.

This statement caught my eye and got me to thinking about how audiophiles make their choices and how we are influenced by our biases, especially confirmation bias (favoring information that confirms our preconceptions) and endowment effect (from Wiki "People will pay more to retain something they own than to obtain something owned by someone else—even when there is no cause for attachment, or even if the item was only obtained minutes ago. This is due to the fact that once you own the item, forgoing it feels like a loss, and humans are loss-averse).

Hypothetically, let's say you didn't have a working amplifier and after extensive auditioning it came down to the Doshi and the Lamm. What if you auditioned them head-to-head and the Doshi gear and it wasn't just different, but to your ears it was better? Wouldn't it make sense to buy the Doshi and not the Lamms?

Perhaps a topic for a separate thread...
 
Steve,

Congratulations on the new addition. I fondly remember Nick's tape set up at RMAF and I'm sure it sounds magnificent in your system.



This statement caught my eye and got me to thinking about how audiophiles make their choices and how we are influenced by our biases, especially confirmation bias (favoring information that confirms our preconceptions) and endowment effect (from Wiki "People will pay more to retain something they own than to obtain something owned by someone else—even when there is no cause for attachment, or even if the item was only obtained minutes ago. This is due to the fact that once you own the item, forgoing it feels like a loss, and humans are loss-averse).

Hypothetically, let's say you didn't have a working amplifier and after extensive auditioning it came down to the Doshi and the Lamm. What if you auditioned them head-to-head and the Doshi gear and it wasn't just different, but to your ears it was better? Wouldn't it make sense to buy the Doshi and not the Lamms?

Perhaps a topic for a separate thread...

I do want to audition them head to head in my system. BTW, I am not loss averse at all and knowing what I heard from Nick's tape head preamp it would be fun to have them square off
 
I didn't see in the photos, but where did you end up putting the PS?
 
SO cool...I just found this and all I can say is it looks fantastic!!!! How cool it must have been to be able to do the modifications for the project and I am delighted that you got such a large pair of speakers singing in a smaller room!!!! SO many thanks for sharing this....maybe someday soon I will have my killer system ready and I too can have a photo "tour" for this great site!!!

Cheers,
 

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