CarlSeibert

For me, with the stock rectifier tube, the 6SE is too "warm". With the Sophia 274B, just warm enough (which is only very slightly, I think). That's using my ears. Your climatic preferences may vary. The 5 is "just right" for me, too. And a damn fine amp, bettering the 6, particularly in the bass IMHO - if you've got the money handy. -Carl

Yipes! Thanks for mentioning that. It actually looked smaller than most clamps to me, so that thought never even dawned on me. -Carl

I had a moment's pause when I heard the 22 at CanJam, too. (The 6SE that was there was mine. I hadn't yet taken delivery of it.) But it was more money. And the thought of re-recabling my headphones didn't sound like a ton of fun. In the end, I'm pretty thrilled with the 6SE. -Carl

For a few tens of thousands of your closest friends. Somehow this naming rights thing rubs me a little strangely, too. Dolphin stadium is now Land Shark Stadium. Appropriate, I suppose, but odd. -Carl

This "DIY Hydra" Power Conditioner on 10 Audio might be useful.

I tried one of these on a lark. It looked like it would work on my Regas, with their teenie weenie stubby little spindles. My really old Planar 3's spindle was too short even for this gizmo. But my merely old one accepts the thing just fine. Amazingly, it actually works. It ain't no Sota Reflex Clamp but it does help bass and image focus. It costs $29 and works on spindle-challenged tables, so what's not to love? (If you haven't seen one, it's a little clear plastic saucer that looks like it just escaped from under a cup of cafe Cubano, or maybe from being the lid for a cat food tin. I'm sure most of the 29 bucks goes to paying off the mold. I don't see much DIY potential here, but somebody with a lathe, a scrap of Lucite and a sense of humor might have a go at it.) -Carl

And what's more, it looks like he's coming to South Florida, at the Office Depot Center in October. On my birthday, no less! -Carl

x2 -Carl

I'm pretty sure he meant that you will one day be old and beautiful. Happy Birthday!

A good rule of diy-ing (followed mostly by people smarter than I am) is don't skimp on the parts or functionality because by the time you've put the thing together and built or bought a case for it you will have so much time and money in you will have forgotten how much the parts cost in the first place. That said, a quick look on DigiKey suggests that you could do two Grayhill rotaries of decent-looking quality for less than $50. Then there's always Elmas from Goldpoint. -Carl

x2 quote works, too.

i was having a problem earlier todau where, if i went Usr CP - subscribed threads - some thread, i would drop out of the mobile theme. buy now is working fine on my Motoro la Q99c.

So now I'm well confused. There is already a mobile themed version? Was it there already, or did you guys jump on Johnny's suggestion double plus quick? And if it comes to it, I'd vote for two different URLs for mobile and normal version. Sometimes, the normal version of a site is worth the extra effort. I get annoyed when my phone gets automatically redirected to the mobile version. -Carl

Would be nice. Head Case is almost comfortable on my WM phone now, but a real mobile presentation would be better. The other forum, on the other hand, is un-viewable on my phone. -Carl

And there's tape "print-through" on the master tape, too. How the heck you tell the difference, I don't actually know. -Carl

Hmmm. Maybe that didn't come off exactly right. I tend to think of myself as a warm/tubey sort, but the more I learn, I'm coming to realize that my tastes are only a TINY bit off neutral. So don't take my comment to mean that I think either Woo is too colored. I was debating between the 4 and the 6 SE. (I do have the need for at least minimal switching capability) I never got a listen to a 4, other than for a few minutes at CanJam '08. I was drawn to the upgraded 6 Jack had on show then. That, and the fact that everybody and his brother seems to have a 6SE and very few people have fours entered into consideration. In the end, Jack more or less steered me toward the 6 SE. I liked the 22 at the year's CanJam. But it's hard to say much from listening at a meet or show. In the end, broken-in, in my own den, with my own source and cans, I can't complain about the results with the 6 SE. Gene's had a 6 SE longer than I have, maybe he'll weigh in. -Carl

I'm thrilled so far with my 6SE. (I've had it about a month) I like that it will drive all sorts of cans, given its two output taps. Beyond the performance, the casework is top notch. I do recommend the Sophia 274B rectifier. It made a major positive difference (to my ears). My amp has the upgraded passive parts, too. I only have brief meet-impressions of the 2, so I can't compare the sound. Jack set up my 6SE with a loop-out downstream of the input selector switch, so it serves as an input switch for the integrated speaker amp downstream of it. Mike is right. These amps are excellent, but they are not without character. A good listen to the candidates is in order. -Carl

I've got a 15 foot run to a crappy plug strip in my den. That thing just deserves to get replaced on principle. In hospital grade that's got to be at least $25 by itself, so I shouldn't have much problem with the minmum order. If I fall short, I could a micro-group-buy with somebody who just needs one or two cords. -Carl

Update: I just ordered parts from TakeFive. I'll go with the design I've used before. I know it works well with the Woo. There's nothing like a known quantity. Whilst looking around, I stumbled upon the Quail hospital grade cords. They look like an interesting option for "everything else". They're within a couple bucks of the Volexes. Their hospital grade plug strip looks interesting. It should have good contact pressure receptacles. Hmmm. -Carl

Thanks for the tip. I just listened to the samples on Amazon. Very cool. Will be on the lookout for that vinyl!

To clarify, it's 12 credits for a 6 or 8 song album so you can get the last song. You can't just buy that song for 4 credits or any other price. Ironically, eMusic, when they trying to sell their price increase as a great deal, tried to claim the 12-credit album pricing would be a great boon for jazz and classical fans. Right. Jazz albums often being only five or six songs. I agree with Dusty, it would be one thing to charge more for a 20 minute symphonic track. But holding out the signature song on an pop album - the one that most people who are only interested in one track would go for - is just scummy. Uncompressed music, at least most of the sort of stuff I buy, on physical CDs no less, is running about $7 an album including shipping on Amazon New and Used now. Even if eMusic hadn't turned to sleaze, they wouldn't make much sense at the new prices. -Carl

Just canceled. I logged on to clean up a couple things in my Saved for Later list and to download one Sony title just for the hell of it. These people know no bounds. They have designated certain tracks to only be available with the purchase of an entire album (which is annoying, but not necessarily sleazy - Music Giants does it) but they have the nerve to charge several credits for that one track. "Born to Run" on the Springsteen album of the same name is four credits Ditto for one track on a Modern Jazz Quartet album. Good grief. To add annoyance to injury, the download manager quit working somehow in the transition. I thought maybe it was just a problem with my Linux version, so I downloaded the Mac version. Nope. It was broken, too. eMusic was nice while it lasted, but I can't say I'll miss the bums. -Carl

Damn. I hate it when that happens. I wonder if they still sell stuff in the UK with no plug on the mains wire? Oh dear. Terrible thought. Monster makes power cords. I want my laaaaawwwwwwyerrrrrr......!

Conduit gives me a warm and fuzzy about hum and interference as well. Sadly, I don't have conduit and the rafter space in my house isn't accessible. If it was, I'd have dedicated 20 amp lines to both the living room and den systems in a heartbeat. I once lived in an apartment and the receptacle my system was plugged into was a mess - old, corroded, loose. I marched over to the local hardware store and bought the heaviest-duty-looking receptacle they had. It was generic 20 amp job. It cost less than $2. (And yeah, this was a 15 amp circuit. Did I mention "rental apartment". I hope I had sense enough to take the thing out when I left, but honestly, I just don't remember.) Anyway, the improvement was amazing. For two bucks. A few minutes with some DeOxit and the cardboard shaft of a Q-tip can work wonders for next to nothing, too. -Carl

>>>"harvest and redirect the AC line noise into a storage tank" OK then. -Carl