Its like a REALLY good pair of headphones...
...but not like Beats by Dr. Dre. This heres the full monte kids, 3 stinkin' watts of shit-your-pants tube power. Never underestimate the wattage, these 3 will rattle walls, alert the police, and maybe even make you deaf. I ran a tone generator through it and got a solid 34Hz through the speakers, lower than what many subwoofers will hit. Not bad at all, considering most music doesnt go below 40Hz, so nothing is missing here
. Theres been a few upgrades since the last time around...
I swapped out the old Soviet military capacitors for some Jensen Copper foil capacitors. I was a little scared to get them, considering they were $35 each, but they really opened this baby up. The tone, separation, and atmosphere are bar-none. These are probably one of the finest capacitors out there. Theyre also really popular for guitar amps.
Up top, I ended up getting a very nice deal on a pair of WWII era Tung Sol US military tubes...the one with the brown base. Theyre extra special because theyre built like tanks, and have black glass to ward off those pesky RF signals. That particular one was made in 1944, got it brand new in the original JAN (Joint Army Navy) box. This is among the best tubes Tung Sol has made...highly sought after. Ive seen them go for $200+ per pair depending on the market.
On to my new digital-to-analog converter, the Benchmark DAC1. I got it for a very nice price, no way was I gonna drop $1000 on a brand new one. The price I got was too good to pass up, got it from the original owner. Here she is with the media source, the Squeezebox Duet. The Duet feeds the DAC1 FLAC files, which are lossless audio files. On most systems, you cant distinguish between FLAC and 320k mp3, but on this one, all mp3s stick out like a sore thumb.
Added some white grill cloth to the Barzilay speaker cabinets. They originally came with black, but the white really sets them off.
When you turn the lights low, the feel you get from all this is on the border of surreal. You can hear everything; subtle transients, fret noise, string noise, pick noise, artists amps buzzing noise, etc. The sound engulfs you, most times, youd swear there were more than 2 speakers. The sound is thick, balanced, and buttery smooth...almost like you can grab it right out of the air. This is how music is meant to be...a communal activity to share with your friends. Everybody sitting around, having a few drinks, and/or smoking a little cheeb, just enjoying the music and letting it carry you away. The iStuff generation hasnt a clue
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks