Jon L

Two transformers and a pretty interesting discrete output stage. Unbelievable at the price..Reserved one! "The DAC used in the XDA is the AD1955 which is the same DAC as used in the ERC-1, But the real magic is in the analog drive stage after the DAC. In the ERC it has a single stage drive where the XDA uses a Dual Differential input stage with cross linked current sources, Darlington VAS stage and Darlington output stages. The discrete output stage can easily produce in excess of 2 amps of current and swing in excess of 12v. So it will completely take all cables out of the equation."

That's how I feel also. The Titans require a pretty large room, so that's another thing holding me back. Dr. Edgar's shop is within one-hour driving distance from me, so when I win the lottery, buy a bigger house with a large listening room, I'll drive down there and demand a pair.

I once heard a direct comparison of a multicell horn vs. Edgar salad bowl horn with same driver/setup, and that midrange was so much cleaner, purer, with much better imaging via the round salad bowl. What made you abandon the Edgar stuff? I haven't heard any older stuff before Titan, though.

I don't think one can expect to achieve the sound quality of Exemplar's highly modded horns to stock units or consumer-modded ones. Dual Karlson subs with SS amplification also helps, but obviously, one must have the room for this sort of setup!

Some people get to have all the fun!

Have you tried the eXtrata and what did you think, esp for OII? After going through a bunch of electronica, dance music, hip hop, etc, my current bass issue via SRD7 MkII/2A3 SET seems to be actually a little too much bass (actually more like lack of drum-tight definition) centered around 60-80Hz and lack of true extension in deep bass below that, confirmed by playing around with EQ a little bit. Cutting by 1-2 dB in 60-80 Hz and boosting by 1-2 dB in 20-40 Hz range sounds more balanced but a little more authority and impact across the range would be useful.

I didn't say it didn't sound "good." In fact, HE-60 sounded pretty good to great out of BHSE, but it didn't have that "magical" quality I love. I'm typing as I'm listening to some well-recorded chick-with-guitar-music via OII/SRD7 II/EML 2A3 SET, and that voice is Soooo sexy, clear, intimate, detailed, dense yet sparkling, and yes "magical." I did not used to be a SET die-hard, but how do I argue against what's coming through my ears right now? Now, if could just find a little more bass and impact...

So the OII's arrived, which makes the question of an appropriate amp more urgent all of a sudden. With Stax SRD-7 MkII powered by my heavily modded Bottlehead 3 watt 2A3 SET and 5 watt Almarro single-ended pentode, I can get sound that satisfies me enough with HE60 and HE Audio through various tube/capacitor/cable rolling. OII's give me that magical single-ended intimacy through this setup, but the bass suffers a lot, both in quantity and impact, much more than the other 'stats I have. So what 'stat amp would power all these 'stats convincingly without breaking the bank? Woo GES/WES, eXStatA, or get a better transformer box with bigger amp? I have never quite liked the KGSS sound, even with OII. BHSE would be great for OII, but the price and availability is a problem along with the fact it didn't sound all that magical with HE60 and HE Audio in past to me. RSA A-10 sounds pretty good with HE60 and HE Audio but not so magical with OII, and there's that price thing.

Brilliant! That iPhone-iPad no tethering thing is a slap in the face also: an AT&T spokeswoman told us via email today that it won't be possible to tether the iPhone to the iPad to share Internet access with the Apple slate, citing the fact that the iPad doesn't have any USB ports to enable a wired connection between the devices. Wait a second, what about Bluetooth? Apple own support page makes it clear that the iPhone allows wireless Bluetooth tethering. But in another TechFlash comment, Mac expert and Seattle journalist Glenn Fleishman notes that he "discovered in testing that the iPad includes the Bluetooth profile required for tethering, but it is not enabled."

I guess it's that unsubsidized phone price thing that Bl*** "What about iPhone customers who want to upgrade equipment? Surprisingly enough, there's good news there. You can keep your existing unlimited iPhone plan and migrate it to new equipment to upgrade or replace your handset, and even can renew your contract with that plan."

What the? I just bought the iPad today without knowing the pricing changes. I was going to cancel the data plan for the iphone and just use wi-fi with it and use iPad for when there is no wi-fi. However, I am now feeling the strong need to grandfather both in for the never-to-return UNlimited Data plan.. Does anyone know whether grand-fathering in now will continue when you upgrade to next-generation iPhone or iPad?

Saw that a while back; W4S keeps delaying the DAC-2 shipping date, though, currently on "5/14." "There's further talk of Cullen Circuits modifying existing transports to add the HDMI/I

LOL. That's funny. Seriously, I have asked W4S sound about their 24/192 (!) asynch USB, and they said they're not licensing it from Wavelength, which is limited to 96 kHz USB not 192. I'm guessing it's one of the 24/192 Chinese solutions (Musiland?).

Was your amp direct-coupled design? Apparently, certain modern tubes including EML have issues with stripping cathodes with turn-on transients if the amp is direct-coupled. 300b tubes I'm enjoying my EML 2A3 solids on my cap-coupled amp, and I sure hope it lasts a lonnng time.

AudiogoN ForSale: Nakamichi Dragon CD - rare I haven't seen one of these for sale in a long while...

Jeff *is* a nice guy, but I thought the Palladium version simply had the output wiring to the jacks replaced with their "Palladium" wiring, probably a few inches at most. I'm somewhat surprised to find the op-amp output stage instead of discrete, which I presume is also inside the 218, which is a very nice sounding DAC. I suppose OPA627 is not a bad choice if going non-discrete...

My K1000 looked like your with the fine wire, etc. My serial numbers were >10,000; what are you guys' serial numbers like?

Looks like one power switch is for "stand-by" mode, and the glass is removable. -----------------------

Yes, the stock value is 0.047 uF, and it's technically "sufficient" as far as bass extension in numbers. However, after trying a gazillion caps, I have found that even the caps of same uF value can have vastly different subjective bass response, which usually carries over into midrange and overall balance as well. There are caps that are 0.047 that seems to have lower bass response and punch than 0.22, for example. For speakers and headphones I have used (HE Audio, Senn HE60, K701, RS1, K1000, K340, Sextett), I have consistently found 0.22 to yield better satisfaction, not just in terms of bass extension/quantity but overall balance and richness of sound. 0.1 uF will do also. For AmpOhm, 0.1 and 0.22 prices are similar, and yes you need two (one per channel)..

Jim, I can't believe you're still running stock Almarro Both of you should at least replace the C1 (and I suggest 0.22 uF instead for mo better bass response) with these AmpOhm tin foil paper in oil. They are only like $15, and I prefer them now to the likes of Mundorf silver oil. Ampohm Paper in Oil, Tin Foil Capacitors As far as EL84, I honestly haven't run into any "bad" sounding EL84, but my faves include Ei, Sylvania, Siemens. The 12AX7 position is very interesting. I used to use the likes of Sylvania triple mica 5751, RCA 5751, Amperex, and all kinds of exotics, but lately, the lowly(?) RCA 12AX7A/7025 and Raytheon 12AX7A/7025 have been doing some serious damage in my home, especially with speakers.

I tried *real* hard to get used to cPlay since I agree it sounds better than Foobar 0.9.x. But having no playlist capability, no library management to speak of, no real GUI (my Flac files just show as "Track 1" without any imbedded info), and using the ludicrous exercise of being able to load and play only ONE file at a time, it's just not compatible with life, especially if you have a huge music collection.

Could it be a hybrid with SS output stage?

Congrats and excellent choice. Could you compare the CD spun on the Cary vs. digital input on the Cary (lossless from computer) and share your thoughts on the differences later? TIA

Almost makes me regret selling both my K1000's. Speaker outputs for my speakers, too, though 8 watts into 8 Ohms is about half of other 6C33C-B amps like Almarro A318B... $2500. How much was the now sold-out Balancing Act again?

Hehe. My sister's kid turned up my variac to max without my knowledge, so I had the "glowing red" EL84 tubes when I next turned on the amp. Luckily, it only goes up to 130V and my amp and tubes (surprisingly) survived. I expect nothing like this to ever happen again as I've exiled the kid to North Pole and surrounded my system with barbed wire