re: Audiophile/Vinyl Thread - Post Pics, Advice, Questions, Setups, etc.

Yeh... If hate to not get the Lehman especially with a better table...
I just think I need to set a limit

I will think about it though. You sure you aren't a salesman in the industry?

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HerbertFest08

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That table my friend has may no longer be available...he believes it may be sold already.

I have had a few phono stages that were all under $500 and they all had a fair amount of background noise to them--that's kinda the norm for such inexpensive gear.

The Lehman really surprised me as it was just dead silent--and I had it plugged into the big rig with the volume almost all the way up and you just heard silence.

That is German engineering there.

I would do base Carbon table...you can get them for $360.

Then get a center weight. The "puck-it" is kinda expensive at $80, but it fits with the cover closed and is a good weight. There is a pic in the last couple of pages of another poster that has a different center weight and I can't tell what it is (maybe river man?) but I don't know if it fits when the cover is on and closed. I will try to find out.

You should be able to get the Black Cube for $395 or less. If you need help negotiating it, let me know...I have a long standing relationship with Music Direct and Elusive Disc and usually get 20% off everything I purchase. I will be happy to call them on your behalf to get it extended to you.

So we are at $360 for table, $395 for Cube and +/-$50 for a weight...if you have a budget of $1200, you probably can do the Blue Point Cart ($400) too--with some to spare.

You can run with the Ortofon M2 Red cart as well...it is a decent cart, but the Blue Point steps it up a great deal (I actually had one in an old Pioneer PL-41 table).

If you need, I will give you my info and you can contact me regarding placing an order with my discounts.

Appreciate the info Marco! I'll see what I can get done here either this week or next. I have a skeleton crew at the office and it's nuts right now. Appreciate the help again... Hopefully I don't have to ask to see if they will hook me up!

marco, I am hoping you can give me some advice. i'm looking to upgrade my amp and preamp. My current set up is one of your side rigs I believe.

Rotel 1075 amp
Rotel 1068 pre
Klipsch epic cf-3's
Acoustic Research turntable

My choices on amps are a Mac M352 or a Pass Labs X250.5. I haven't heard the pass but have owned nakamichi gear in the past and liked it. Any thoughts on these two?

On the preamp side i'm thinking the Mac C2300 or a Cary SLP-05. Have you listened to any Cary products?
Apparently, no Cary dealers in LA.

I really like the Klipsch and the a.r. table and will keep those for as long as they hold out.

Thanks!

River man... You in the BR area? Was curious about who you got to do the granite piece to set your table on?

I'm closer to N.O. but I picked mine up in Gonzales at Ascension Marble & Granite. I went through their scraps and got one cut to the size I wanted. It really makes a difference with the Vibrapods beneath it. Here's a pic...

Alice In Chains "Jar of Flies", 2010 Music On Vinyl reissue. This is one side (and one record), flip it over and you got...



Alice In Chains "Sap", a great, early EP.

And how cool is this??

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mardigraspete

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Ok...here goes...


You are going in the wrong direction...

I am very familiar with the SLP-05---had one in the rig for a few months. As far as Pass Labs goes, it is top notch.

However, if you plan on staying with your Klipsch, you should not be looking for more powerful amps, but better, more precise, lower powered amps. That Klipsch speaker is a horn speaker, and has an efficiency rating of 100dB--crazy efficient...which means it will rock n roll with just a few watts of power. You can easily make them sing with just 20-30 watts of power. All horn speakers are extremely efficient and share very high efficiency specs--meaning you hardly need any power to drive the hell out of them.

If you want to do Pass Labs, look into their XA line, which is Class A power for the full bandwith. The XA-30 and XA -60 will be more than adequate. The regular Pass Labs X series amps leave class A after about 10 watts of power and revert to Class AB...hence their way higher watts per channel power outputs. The Pass Labs XA amps are the real deal. It will give you most of the attributes of a tube amp without the tubes!

Same with McIntosh. I would look into an MC275 tube amp for those speakers. That amp is one of the longest running amps Mac has made (50 years and 6th generation now). They are bulletproof and have a voluptuous sound. 75 X 2 watts per channel. The MC275 uses KT-88 or KT-120 power tubes.

Now as far as a pre amp--your call. Some like to mate tube pre with tube amp, and others like tube pre with solid state power. It depends on your preference (and input/output impedences matching too--the old 10x rule here).

The McIntosh tube or solid state pre amp with an MC 275 power amp will be glorious with your speakers.

The pass XA-30 or XA-60 monos and a pass pre amp will also be fantastic. Don't write off Pass XA series--they are really good.

If you want to run with the Cary SLP-05, I would mate it with either an older Cary V-12R power amp (EL-34 tubes...12 of them--60wpc triode or 120wpc pentode) or the newer one that replaced it (forget the model, but it outputs 120 watts and runs about $5500 new--12 tubes I believe--also EL-34s).

I prefer, in lower powered tube amps, the EL-34 tube. The KT-88/90/120/150 tube will give a higher power output, but loses some of that old school glorious tube sound (if that makes sense).

Usually, I like EL-34 tubes in amps 50wpc or less--which is way more than you need with a Klipsch speaker with a 100dB efficiency rating.