Rich,
As always, thanks to you and your family, for allowing us into your home
!
It was a long day, but wonderful to see so many of the guys, again! Mike/mac5u, it was certainly nice to meet you and hope you can join us again.
Definitely a success...the plan of having a G2G with mostly listening to music, was very enjoyable.
Your speakers definitely sounded better, this time around. Your hard work is coming along, nicely. Early on, Shane played some 'rock' tracks; with your Manley's driving them, they didn't sound very good. Even though this speaker is supposed to be very efficient, your amps weren't up to the task. Now, with smooth jazz or classical, played at moderate levels...they were sounding pretty darn good.
Your Clearaudio TT and Buffalo DAC were sounding very nice, as well. I'd have to give the nod to the vinyl, such a smooth/organic sound. The only issue, with the vinyl, is having to get up off my lazy ass, and pick the stylus up from the surface, then having to lift one lp off and putting another on. Man, is digital much more convenient, even though I find it lacking by comparison.
Fast forward to evening, and the arrival of Sol with Shane's new tube monoblocks. These basically had ZERO time on them, however what a revelation. As soon as they were inserted, Rich's speakers just came ALIVE!!! There was excellent PRAT, they sounded much smoother, with lots of punch. They had lots of 'air', pinpoint imaging, excellent extension to the extremes. Rocks tracks (now) were very 'toe-tapping/head-nodding' listenable
.
Well done, Sol!!! Once again, you amaze us with your design accumin. I wish that I had even an iota of the audio electronics knowledge that you possess.
Finally, I did snap some pics and I will working on getting them up, as the day goes by...YAWN. All I could do when I got home at 2:00AM, was to crash into bed...zzzzzzzzz!