cheap and cheerful

[Bob in St. Louis]

You should have a chat with my wife. 

[shep]

About cute tube amps or gentlemen who over-indulge (in them)?

[Bob in St. Louis]

.......About referring to me as a gentleman in general. 

As far as the amp is concerned, I find it "cute", but way too small for my needs. Despite having fairly efficient speakers (96dB), it lacks the 'nads for home theater and the headroom for music when I get that wild hair to crank it. Kinda like giving up your Police trained German Shepard for a Chihuahua. It has some bark, but not much bite. 

Bob

[shep]

A friendly bark is better than a vicious bite? Don't get me started or before you know it I will have ordered the damn thing and I'll never dare show my face around here again for the shame of it.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Nah...You need more 'bite' than that Shep. Especially with 86dB drivers. In my (very) humble opinion, unless your speakers are closer 100dB, you'll find yourself "wanting". Then you'd soon be selling it for a fraction of the retail price, bumping the ad every day, miserable the entire time regretting your purchase. The perspective buyers would be limited due to it's size, specs, and possibly questionable components making the sale drag on forever. Your wife would be mad that you've "done it again", then you'd be in the dog house.
Either that, or you'll fall in love with the sound from the amp, but it's diminutive size and power rating would still leave you "wanting" for more. So then you'd have to go buy new, high efficiency speakers, hence spending more money on a purchase you shouldn't have made in the first place. Again, the wife would be mad that you're never happy and spending more money on "this damn hobby".
See how that works?

Bob

[shep]

  no wife, no dog house, no dog...just myself to blame myself. Pure unadulterated neurotic audio lust, without a shred of sense. I was sort of thinking of a conversation piece...like on the mantle and when asked how it sounds I'll look wise and all-knowing and say "it needs time to settle in". I think I'm convinced and it's time to move on. I DO need batter spkr cables. Can we return to reality? or what passes for it here on the internet ranch.

[Bob in St. Louis]

no wife, no dog house, no dog...just myself to blame myself. Pure unadulterated neurotic audio lust, without a shred of sense. I was sort of thinking of a conversation piece...like on the mantle.......

Well Hell Shep, if that's the case, you should get yourself a Nixie clock. 

Glad I could help. 
Bob

[shep]

I don't know what a Nixie clock is so should I get two (mono's)?

[richidoo]

One is way more than enough.  Last year we almost had Carlman talked into buying one.

Nixie gives you the thrill of vacuum tubes without any messy audio entanglements.

shep, just buy the little amp. It's $200 bucks. You're entitled to spend a little pissin money. You got no wife telling you to stay in the budget, so you might as well take advantage of that... So what if it sucks, it won't be that bad. Better than 2W which is totally useless. 92dB is pretty loud, but it will sound annoyingly thick and luscious after you adjust. Just listen at low volumes where it's clean. For stuff like Bach harpsichord no problem. At least you don't have wife, dog, kids making extraneous noise and quiet listening is very satisfying when there is no noise.  Even if it doesn't work out, you can only lose $200 max! Name another amp with that benefit?

Now I am devils advocate.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Yea, being a bachelor, you should have a pair of monos.
Fur shur dude....  


EDIT: Whoops, Rich beat me to it.

http://www.nixieclock.net/

 

[shep]

Rich you are being naughty. I just talked myself out of the damn mini amps! Talk me into spending 200$ on new speaker cables instead. I'm waiting patiently for someone to report on Grover's new ones.
Being single has its moments but frankly I'm ready for a change. I'll happily give up some "freedom" for some other, more interesting experiences than solitary male pursuits. I'm moving to another space. A smaller room. It might suit my speakers better. They just can't drive the big space they are in now. It appears I have just been "published" again by 6Moons. On the subject of...wouldn't you know. Ouch. I thought we were having a private chat. I better hold my tongue in the future. Have a nice Sunday guys. The weather is stunning here but Fall is in the air. 

[richidoo]

I just read the entire 6 moons News page and the entire Industry page. I still don't know what the hell you're talking about.  Happy Sunday to you too. Weather is beautiful here.

[shep]

"letters/feedback"

[richidoo]

Nope still can't find it. That's OK. I have run across lots of great announcements, reviews, opinions and other tantalizing "tit-bits" from the world of audio. It is great the Srajan prints all the minutia of the industry as he does.

[shep]

http://www.6moons.com/lettersfeedback/lettersfeedback.html