Bigman80
Grandmaster
AA Founding Member & Bigbottle Audio Creator
Posts: 16,074
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Post by Bigman80 on May 24, 2022 8:35:56 GMT
It's like eating a burger when you've got Wagyu on the plate. Oh Oli you have sipped a bit in my estimation I had you pegged as a Kobi guy Haha, working class metaphors mate.
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Post by misterc on May 24, 2022 8:52:34 GMT
To be fair, some Wagyu is exceptional good no question and somewhat less costly than Kobi!
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Post by macca on May 24, 2022 9:18:45 GMT
Now we are getting into the meat of the discussion.
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Post by antonio on May 24, 2022 9:38:55 GMT
misterc I've got to disagree with you regarding Audio Research sound quality, my brother owning both LS25 and Ref 5se pre amps, and would probably never have moved away from the brand had there not been reliability problems. Both were extremely musical devices that gave plenty of emotion and he would have not upgraded had he thought the Ref model not better. You mentioned you had the two box for a short period of time, was it even 'run in' when you gave it the push? Whether or not you are a believer in running in time, valves really do need time in my opinion, more so than solid state, so you may not have been listening to it at it full potential. We will never go back to AR due to 'Absolute Clowns' being the distributor and the way my brother was treated when a problem arose with Ref5se when it was only 3yrs old.
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Post by misterc on May 24, 2022 10:05:51 GMT
Dave The LS ranges are more engaging but not as detailed or as open. But for musicallity not in a million years we are going to disagree on this one, but thats fine if everything in life was equal we all be listening to DCS by now
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Post by macca on May 24, 2022 10:19:04 GMT
Only ever listened to one system that used Audio Research amplification, it sounded as rough as a badger's arse on anything but the simplest programme. Did the breathy female vocal over a sparse mix thing with a sort of 'halo' of fairy dust over it but with rock music, forget it.
Unlike most blokes my age I've not really got any interest in the whole breathy female vocal thing so it was an overall fail for me at least.
Was quite surprised as I'd expected good things, of course may not have been the amplification to blame, it was an unfamiliar system to me, but I didn't get the impression the amps were helping any. Can't recall for the life of me what the loudspeakers were, it was about fifteen years ago now.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2022 11:02:43 GMT
To be fair, some Wagyu is exceptional good no question and somewhat less costly than Kobi! Kobe is a type of Wagyu. Here, I am perfectly happy with Aubrac and Charolais. It has not travelled half way around the world to get here, so you can be sure it has been aged correctly.
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Preamps
May 24, 2022 15:42:21 GMT
via mobile
Post by hifinutt on May 24, 2022 15:42:21 GMT
Yes absolute sounds dont have the best rep for repairs . And yes reliability can be an issue with arc and other valve amps
Life is stressful enough which is why i tend to stick to SS which are more reliable by and large
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Post by lurch on May 24, 2022 16:40:36 GMT
Absolute sounds, don't you mean Absolute Shysters. When I had my sub 10 seconds of usage Koetsu Urushi Vermilion 'inspected' by them, their report said I'd mishandled it whilst fitting and had snapped the stylus off. COBBLERS. I checked myself when I got it back with a 30x loupe and it was obvious that it was a manufacturing fault, the tip of the cantalever had sheared off due to a stress fracture leaving behind the telltail granular face and fracture chevrons leading away from the remains of a V notch where the stylus hade been. Tried talking to them but they said they knew what they were doing and it was my fault. Luckily insurance paid out but they can kiss my ar$e as far as any future business goes.
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Post by Pigmy Pony on May 24, 2022 17:24:02 GMT
To be fair, some Wagyu is exceptional good no question and somewhat less costly than Kobi! Kobe is a type of Wagyu.Here, I am perfectly happy with Aubrac and Charolais. It has not travelled half way around the world to get here, so you can be sure it has been aged correctly. These are all unfamiliar names to me. Are they anything like Spam?
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Bigman80
Grandmaster
AA Founding Member & Bigbottle Audio Creator
Posts: 16,074
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Post by Bigman80 on May 24, 2022 17:32:04 GMT
Kobe is a type of Wagyu.Here, I am perfectly happy with Aubrac and Charolais. It has not travelled half way around the world to get here, so you can be sure it has been aged correctly. These are all unfamiliar names to me. Are they anything like Spam? Like spam before it was spam. Imagine spam as a kind of tribute act to a lump of gammon.
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Post by antonio on May 24, 2022 17:33:15 GMT
We feel exactly the same John, really it was not up to the insurance company to cover your cartridge, one doesn't feel sorry for insurance companies very often, but you can do in this case.
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Post by antonio on May 24, 2022 17:47:03 GMT
lurch We feel exactly the same John, really it was not up to the insurance company to cover your cartridge, one doesn't feel sorry for insurance companies very often, but you can do in this case.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2022 17:48:31 GMT
Kobe is a type of Wagyu.Here, I am perfectly happy with Aubrac and Charolais. It has not travelled half way around the world to get here, so you can be sure it has been aged correctly. These are all unfamiliar names to me. Are they anything like Spam? They are not blocked by my spam filter, so I guess they are not.
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Post by hifinutt on May 27, 2022 20:37:49 GMT
been using the bel canto C5i as a pre amp . its an integrated which as class D in it. ok as an integrated . However it really does sound quite good as a pre amp used into a class AB amp ... i am rather surprised . very sweet top and great bass . very transparent [ in fact as good as townshen allegri imho ] but not even a hint of clinical or sterile sound . Based on this i just might get the new pre 5 possibly
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Post by hifinutt on Jun 17, 2022 19:28:01 GMT
continue to try this C5i as a pre amp. it gets better and better , actually for the money its a superb performer . really enjoying it . as an integrated it didnt blow me away but as a pre .... well . Just trying the inbuilt dac now which seems equally impressive . but will be comparing to the very capable black ice valve dac which is exceptionally [ highly modded] 6moons.com/audioreviews/belcanto2/1.html
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Post by hifinutt on Jan 26, 2023 17:41:26 GMT
finally tracked down a bel canto pre 5 [ bel canto `s replacement for the pre 3 vbs ] yes i know its not the best pre in the world but it has 200 step vol control , sounds beautifully analogue and last for years .
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Post by hifinutt on Mar 3, 2023 18:31:46 GMT
Been a few years since i had my lovely mfa baby ref and audio research ref 5se in the system .my they were just superb for dynamics and spooky realism .especially the ref 5se
Thanks to the assistance of one of our forum members got a bel canto eix dac /pre in the system with some f5 monoblocks .so easy to use and can use the lighter remote of the e_one if you want .just comparing it now to the pre3vbs with dc3 psu . Of course i have now added a better dac in to the equation so its going to sound better
Was playing hergest ridge tonight and when the bells came on i went to the front door as was pretty realistic .playing on the tannoy eatons the soundstage remains big but the transients are better , the sound remains organic but has a shimmer that makes bells sound like they are in the same room .
Certainly a very accomplished pre/dac and would be interesting to have the ref5se back to compare .its half the price of the ref6 but not half the performance i bet
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Post by hifinutt on Mar 11, 2023 16:54:48 GMT
As john says The analog inputs are all digitized to 24/192 via a high-dynamic-range ADC located within centimeters of the analog inputs. John Stronczer says that “all audio signals travel through the same digital path and benefit from the advantages of our unique system architecture So using this with a chord epic aes with a bel canto cd2 as transport into some nice joe henry F5 monoblocks into the tannoy eaton legacy . It replaces a very competant BC pre 3 vbs with a very upgraded sean jacobs dc3 . the advantages of this pre are 1] its American made and build quality is good 2] the remotes from the e-one will work on it as they are lighter than the metal one supplied 3] its very easy to use 4] there are loads of dealers . and Coherant who kindly loaned it have been around for years , bought my first BC stuff from tony well over 10 years ago now . so lots of support 5]the display turns itself off after 2 hours so you can leave it on 24/7 disadvantages 1] there is no xlr input so can`t directly compare to my pre 3vbs which does Been playing a number of cds on it since it arrived . its quite an exhilerating ride with live music . John Campbells Howlin mercy [ `down in the hole` and `when the levee breaks `] have hardly been off as its VERY live sounding , that slide guitar and gravelly voice sounding very real and atmospheric . Because of that fairly ` fast ` nature i might just be a bit cautious about putting it with bright speakers but you can adjust the treble etc with the tilt function . However i have played some fairly bright stuff from Mancini which is pretty smooth and ok . This pre would easily match the MFA baby ref v1 which i have had previously . Its somewhat addictive to listen to Of course the integrated version of this EIX has a class D power amp which will be interesting to compare some pics to show the size against the e-one P1080204 by , on Flickr P1080199 by , on Flickr P1080198 by , on Flickr P1080196 by , on Flickr
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Post by hifinutt on Feb 6, 2024 20:08:51 GMT
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