ICE is still nice

[shep]

Indeed you have! I kind of doubt it's as sophisticated and thought out as those from Wyred (and not a lot cheaper) since they say nothing about audio-lust parts and tweakery. But who knows. Mine is in the mail and on its way home!

[rollo]

 Well Shep it looks like you bought a winner. What impressed me the most about The Wyered unit is the absolute phase option on the remote. For me its a good thing when a manf. realizes that some recordings are out of phase. Actually for me that feature is a MUST.
     Being a tubeaholic not many SS or digital pieces attract me. However this unit has the Nervosa percolating. The best of luck with your new toy.



charles

[shep]

No absolute phase switch and no remote. More basic than mine cannot be made. There's not even a light!
It is somewhere in France as we speak. UPS is the carrier. I hope one of those cute babes is the driver but I have my doubts.

[lonewolfny42]

Hope this is not your delivery person shep....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcIOy6XcM3s

[richidoo]

I'm sure the amp will go through more than that while loading up the truck. That's why they make em outta metal....   

Can't wait to hear all about it shep!  Maybe Cullen splurged and put a LED on the face for ya! 

[lonewolfny42]

I'm sure the amp will go through more than that while loading up the truck. That's why they make em outta metal....

Oh....you mean like this.....

[richidoo]

My college friend at LIU, Jerome Smith (a great rock drummer) worked on the loading dock in manhattan.  He told me those guys have to throw the packages to meet the quota of 50 packages loaded per minute on the big OTR trailers. Under that pressure the testosterone builds up in muscular young men. Back then the weight limit was lower. If it's heavy they will deliberately abuse it in revenge. I went there with him once when he injured his leg and picked up a check. It was a surreal place. I didn't see the loading, that is well hidden from the outside viewing. Lots more automation now, I'm sure it is so much better now. 

So shep, I guess you'll be camping out in the malebox again tonight?

[shep]

Malebox was opened and replete (this is getting silly!) Actually a gentle French Maleman delivered it today. Three days from California!!! are they using airforce fighters now? That's strictly speaking impossible but there you are. I'm running it on a diet of Isotek burn-in, demag as I speak. A report will follow. Damn nice firm to do business with though I can assure you. If I had the bucks, that's where I would put them.
First impression (of course I couldn't wait) were of greatly enhanced and refined treble extension and a generally more organic tonal presentation (not unlike the review of the pre. on 6-Moons). Early days. The one disappointment stems from my incomplete understanding of what exactly was being done and to what effect. I kind of thought I was going to get more watts out of it: more amplitude. Guess who is driving inefficient speakers in a big room...can't make 2X60 watts operate like 2X600 can you? So the first impression is very positive. The treble is stellar and quite unexpectedly so, as is the general improvement in soundstage. It's too soon to say but I think that slightly bleached quality or whitening, sometimes attributed to ICE amps is totally absent. The little amp that could (and did) travel from America to France TWICE, without mishap or mistreatment and came back much the better for its travels. Wish I could bring this to one of your gatherings. It would be fun to pit it against the BIG boys.

[richidoo]

Awesome, congrats shep...

Glad to hear Mr Cullen's magic works on custom jobs too.
 
About the volume, is it distorting when you turn it up loud enough, or do you need a volume knob to go to 11?


NIGEL: Well, it’s one louder, isn’t it? It’s not ten. You see, most...most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You’re on ten here...all the way up...all the way up....
MARTY: Yeah....
NIGEL: ...all the way up. You’re on ten on your guitar...where can you go from there? Where?
MARTY: I don’t know....
NIGEL: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is if we need that extra.. push over the cliff...you know what we do?
MARTY: Put it up to eleven.
NIGEL: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
MARTY: Why don’t you just make ten louder and make ten be the top... number... and make that a little louder?
(pause)
NIGEL: These go to eleven.

(We can fix the volume control if it's not distorting.)

[shep]

no distortion. Have to go to 2 pm or more for some serious listening levels. I'm not complaining. The quality is there so the hell with the volume.

[richidoo]

Cool!

[shep]

 Better picture of current rig

[richidoo]

Beautiful simple rig, in a nurturing organic space. It must sound amazing with all that stone.

What is that board under the CDP, cork layer?

[shep]

The room is too big, too "hard" and the wooden floors are ancient and not very straight. Still it could be worse.  I had better bass in another house on a concrete slab poured directly on bed rock. No the thing under the cdp is my own invention. A thick piece of felt between two art boards. These are stiff paper with some kind of foam layer. I don't know if it works but given the rather strange metal thing it's on, could hurt right? I listened to the Bach cds you sent me. You did a stellar job of copying. They sound exactly like the originals. The music is great and I still think the recording is mediocre!

[richidoo]

The place looks very cool to me. In NY someone would pay $5k/mo for a place like that.  Glad you like the Bach, ancient instruments sound good on hifi, but kinda quanky on regular stereo.

Over here we have foam core board which his polyester foam sandwiched between plastic sheets. It is easily warped, used for signs and school projects. Model builders use Strathmore Board, which is quality paper sandwiching foam. It is rigid and flat.