All the Chi-Fi stuff (Iām not making any claims to quality or lack of quality) that he gets falls under the same umbrella. All those Chinese brands he claims are the best are all owned by the same conglomerate. AAAAAANDā¦he just happens to be the guy who runs their Chinese social ads. I really donāt want to have to dig for the details to make my case but if needed, I will. Needless to say, all the gear he claims is best happens to be made by a company that PAYS him $$$$$$$$.
People are free to believe whatever they want. Even in the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus and, Lizard People.
Hmm ,
Iāve sparked off another discussion, which I didnāt really want, and itās getting too deep again, so weāre getting away from the real issue.
I was only interested in whether the good one here is tube-suitable enough, nothing more really.
Why is actually quite simple.
Sometimes I feel like doing something like that.
As I said, I heard a clean Mcintosh tube amp and was quite taken with it.
That I searched a little further.
That I found something at Asr was a coincidence.
So far, my experience of various products I have bought has always been the opposite of what was mentioned there.
And if I did, I didnāt notice it, so it didnāt bother me at all.
But Asr is mostly condemned here in the forum, which I can also understand where.
Because measurements were not a purchase criterion for me, but my ears.
Unfortunately, itās not common enough in Europe.Audiophonics sells it for 1200ā¬.Iāll probably get better or even importing it will be cheaper for me.
But all in all it is currently interesting - the question is whether it will stay that way.
Currently, the Audiovalve Luminare or Solaris are at the top of my wish list and with one of these I would have had enough. Letās see, the year 2021 has only just begun.
Clean tube amps, there is a lot of selection 2K and up with an output transformers and the right tubes.
I donāt really count hybrids in the tube amp camp.
Under 1K the pickings are slim, SW51+ if you can actually buy one and deal with the wait, Haggerman Tuba (would have to ship from Hawaii), you might get a used MicroZotl MZ2 again not sure if there is any euro distribution, Feliks is probably available, but I havenāt heard them.
Iām not really sure about availability in Europe.
Do you know which McIntosh you heard?
What are you looking to driver with it?
I think it was the Mcintosh C2700 that I heard.
Currently I have the Fostex Tr x00,Denon D2000 both modded and the Lcd 2 C.
I think the headphone collection will grow in the next few years.
Iāve read a bit about Felkis but never bothered with them.
Iād probably have to wait for Audiovalve but that would be the least of my problems.
The equipment is a monster and the Stax connection could be interesting for later.
From that point of view, youād actually be set for life as far as thatās concerned, including the all-in-one solution.
But I havenāt decided on anything yet.
I didnāt think the Xuoddo T20 was bad, but the circuit board is a bit meh for the money.
The LP does a lot of stuff during power up, and it takes a good 5 minutes for it to lose a distinctly audible hiss that slowly fades away to nothingness during those first five minutes or so. Donāt know if this is a thing with my amp or itās an issue with the Valve type Genalex tubes but I pretty much turn it on and go make myself a drink etc before I get back to my desk just to let it settle in.
Absolutely no audible noise after that, I mean besides the noise ASR measured of course.
The issue is linear regulators usually have absolute maximum ratings of 37v input voltage. Combine with a voltage drop of just over 1V in the regulators themself and you donāt meet the 36V the Liquid Platinum demands.
There are ways to work around that, it gets complicated and expensive fast though.
Thanks for the well-wishes. We live in a much less urban area and there are already lots of houses up on the market. Thatās before the usual springtime real estate surge, too. So hereās hopingā¦
FWIW, Iād wait, there are going to be a lot of foreclosures/sales once the pandemic starts to subside, and eviction moratorea expire (if your area has one)
I hate to pray on other peoples misfortune, but itās likely to impact the overall market at least in the short term.
Of course point of disclosure I have only ever lost money on houses, so you might be better off finding advice elsewhere.
Itās advice weāll certainly consider, thanks. Does it make me a bad person if a small part of me hopes for a market depression large enough that I get a great 2 channel room out of it for no added cost?
I am up in Canada and there are way more houses on the market than I have ever seen in the winter. I am guessing lots of folks are having troubles covering that mortgage.
Even our apartment building, while not real high end, has seen a lot of November/December moves which is unusual.
House prices in my area are up almost 10% this year, but itās a weird market, no ones selling because no one can afford/wants to move and the lack of inventory is pushing prices up.
Itāll be interesting to see if that normalizes as things start to return to normal, but it was an issue here even before the pandemic.
The pandemic itself has no bearing on soaring home prices. Itās the negative lending rates due to the massive money printing. People are paying premiums on houses because with the super low interest rates, in the long term it actually ends up being cheaper. The other driver is wealthy people. They need a place to invest their money which will not depreciate in case thereās huge inflation caused by (once again) the massive money-printing. Although at the end of the day, the money-printing is necessitated by the economic destruction caused by Covid. So forget everything I said - the cause IS indeed the pandemic
Yes but also houses listed easily 50-100k over what they were asking and multiple offers at 30k over that doesnt really negate the low rates.
My budget of under 500k for a house is now we have to spend 600k for something thats a comp. Going lower things need real work and a rip out and you need a home loan because you just spent everything on the house itself Im also hearing home improvement loans are hard to get and are not the same rates.
The sellers also need to be regulated, contracts are being broken, dangerous conditions are being laid out for buyers, and sellers are colluding. Most houses are sold day of and open houses are just a pony show to see if anyone blows them out with a cash offer but the real estate already has someone lined up. Our taxes are among the highest in the country and even the county said things are so unregulated right now they cant do tax reassesments or else things would be too high.
Honestly, and im sorry as i dont know people here and their ages, the baby boomer generation can eat my butt hole. Complaining for years that āthey dont think their kids could live here the way things are goingā, then doing everything they could to make it harder for the next generation while voting and destroying what they could and selling their unupdated 1950s house for over half a million with 15k taxes because they were too lazy to grieve or put on a bunch of illegal stuff the next seller has to deal with.
I ranted about this before, and it may be too derailing for this thread. So if deemed necessary please move my post. @A_Jedi this isnt aimed at you just, sometimes the frustration comes out.
You should have tried buying in CA at the top of the prime lending bubble.
It was common to list a house as much as 200K below what you expected to sell for to encourage people into an open house and a subsequent bidding war.
A friend of mine moved back to France in that period, listed his redwood shores house at 700K, sold it at 990K within a week.
My wife watches my areaās housing market the way I used to monitor for new/used gear. We arenāt planning to move, but she likes to look at houses . She says there are a lot of pre-foreclosures showing up recently. Its very similar to how things were in 2010 when housing bottomed out. If you know of a neighborhood you like, you can track some houses that may come down the pipeline.
which I can also understand where.
. She says there are a lot of pre-foreclosures showing up recently. Its very similar to how things were in 2010 when housing bottomed out. If you know of a neighborhood you like, you can track some houses that may come down the pipeline.