Micro did do a lot of contract work for tables, arms and complete decks.
I did a ground-up reengineering of my Rega and have yet to hear it because I got this table and restored it at the same time. It is magnificent in every way.
Didn’t expect to be buying audio equipment today but having moved my Kef lsx speakers to the home office needed something for after hours listening
Ended up with a Vincent 237 mk2 hybrid amp and a pair of Audio Monitor Studio 89s which are delightful
Trialling a Densen b-130 amp for the weekend- might end up taking the Vincent back
Well this little “vintage” project got out of control quickly. My SA400 is back with another Darlington chip at no charge. I had to confess that I put my multimeter on the speakers I was gonna use and they were the culprits. Yes, I rebuilt em. After i was instructed to “beat the living s..t out of” the Technics driving Dark Side O.M. over the shop pro JBL’s (See earlier post) , I was told to go forth and sin no more but i was reminded that his stock of Sanyo chips is finite and reserved for the 7 series Pioneers. Anyway, new AT USB table, Solidsteel rack, Panamax, and because all the vintage speakers I looked at were in need of major surgery, some scratch and dent JBL L82’s from good ole Crutchfield. (“you do know those are not real JBL’s” my repair guy said as we tossed back some booze over the debrief), a fistful of evergreen interconnects, 12 gauge wire and bananna clips, speaker stands arriving tomorrow. Looks like another watch will need selling. This repair shop is so much fun, I wish I had more crap to get fixed. Its great running my vintage Sony cassette deck again. Huge win…My wife cannot hear this system in the bedroom unlike the Rotel/B&W zones.
Late last year we went to the local audio pusher for a demo of Linn's new active speakers - they had flown in a rep from Scotland who did the demo, and these speakers were fantastic...
But out of my price range certainly! One of the songs they used in the demo was this:
Not necessarily my taste in music (although it's got a good groove to it), but it is a challenging song for a system to play well and not be very tiring at a decent volume. When we arrived home, I played it on my speakers (about 5 times less money than the Linns we had just heard it on) and it was tough to listen to at any volume. The issue with transparency is that it can become harsh. The Linns were smooth - that was the word that kept going through my head as we heard the demo.
While we were there, they mentioned that Linn has a deal on for upgrades and trade ins. Linn came out with their own Organik DAC architecture a few years ago, and since they are always making their equipment upgradable, there was an opportunity to upgrade my Klimax streamer, but the upgrade was pricey. Convincing "she who must be convinced" would be a tall order.
The rep said that as a bonus, if you upgrade within a certain time frame, you get a free Utopik power supply upgrade, that would normally be $2500. In addition, post upgrade you get a new 5 year warranty. That last bit did the trick, so a down payment was made, and new parts ordered.
The audio pusher arrived yesterday to install the new parts...here is the steamer opened up:
Out with the old:
Underside of the bottom cover...
New power supply is in...
New DAC in...
The only thing that didn't get changed really is the small board for the display. We did a "before" listen, and then an "after" - the difference was huge. I'm used to very small incremental differences, but this was massive. Much cleaner sound, fuller bass, less straining on the high end. Even my wife reluctantly thought it was worth the money. 😉
I realized that a large part of what made that demo system sound so much better than mine, was the streamer and not really the speakers. So in reality, we this upgrade really saved about 80k here...I haven't yet tried that argument with my wife - I should probably just quit while I'm ahead. 😁
Had some of these components in service but tucked away and had others gathering dust..decided id get them all out in the open and working together. Lusted after these as a poor college student, spent the next 20 years picking units. Finally and for the first time all.up and running at the.same time. Love 90s hifi, and with the addition of a (hidden) streamer pretty much meets my needs.
What surround are you using? Or are you 2.1?
Speaking of surround, are there good surround processors out there still being made? Most I see have 5 million connectors on the back and are giant. I am running 3.1 on an outlaw 975, but the gain is very low for some reason. I have tried everything and it is used in ARC mode. I do like how small it is hough. Am using a buckeye amp with 3 x purifi class d amps. Into a focal center channel and Atlantic fronts.
Speaking of surround, are there good surround processors out there still being made? Most I see have 5 million connectors on the back and are giant. I am running 3.1 on an outlaw 975, but the gain is very low for some reason. I have tried everything and it is used in ARC mode. I do like how small it is hough. Am using a buckeye amp with 3 x purifi class d amps. Into a focal center channel and Atlantic fronts.
I added an eversolo streamer and replaced Apple Music sub with Tidal- getting close to done I think
That said, I might hook up the JBL TLX12’s tomorrow and see how they sound when playing alongside the Monitor Audios
https://www.eversolo.com/Product/index/model/DMP-A6/target/7abWHw++oHhKKmVViAFMcQ==.html
I have a NAIM streamer and finally NAIM updated their firmware so can now stream hi-res MAX labeled directly to the NAIM streamer
