Jon L

If you thought choosing your source was tough, picking speakers is at least an order of magnitude harder and more crucial. While there are plenty of nice box speakers, such as on your list, speaker audition should always include some reasonable alternatives: Planar-magnetic (Magnepan), electrostats (Martin Logans (urggg), used Quads, older Acoustats, used Innersounds (budget-stretcher), etc), single-drivers and/or horns. I'll say this much. If you are a planar lover (yet undiscovered), you will regret not going with one from the get-go, and vice versa.

"50 stereo watts" = 25 watts per channel? Reno HiFi who sells First Watt has F5 listed as 25 wpc..

But not including the chassis, toroid, binding posts, etc?

and how he sells these so darn cheap. MSRP on F5 is technically $3K!

Here's a rather long (as usual) review of F5 in 6Moons. 6moons audio reviews: FirstWatt F5

the Rawsonte First Watt F5 clone off Agon. He immediately removed the listing as soon as I paid, so I don't have a photo, but I can't believe I caught his ad exactly when he put it up and got it I plan to drive various things with this 25 watter, including HE Audio He1.2b electrostats, Sennheiser HE60, and my various speakers. Offical F5 photo

I used to run EML 45 solid plates in my 45 SET. Now I have 2A3 SET and have both Sovtek 2A3 and Shuaguang 2A3C (newest version). The Shuaguang's are quite excellent compared to Sovtek, and it would be interesting to compare EML45 to Shuaguang 2A3C, as I do not believe the EML45 will unquestionably win, especially if more power will be of benefit..

Electraprint trannies and polypro for PSU is a nice touch. What is between the driver tube and output tube, though? Cap-coupled? Which cap..

How about some internal pics

Yeah, I thought about it yesterday before it was sold. But I don't need another push-pull amp in my life about now and all those Hammond transformers...

Shanling became known only due to its unconventional looks and the fact they were one of the first interesting Chi-Fi audio gear. These days, there are lots of choices from overseas, many better IMO. All the Shalings I've heard including T100, 200, and even T300 were very average sounding, nothing special. The T200A SACD sports just op-amp I/V stage, followed by op-amp output stage, followed by superfluous tube "buffer" stage to muck up the sound. You can pick up this configuration for around $300 from other Chi-Fi companies.

Cyrus Brenneman Audio makes some terrific under-appreciated amps, and the 15 wpc, $3500 Cavalier Plus with single-ended KT100 tube should go nicely with Duke's speakers from what I've heard of both. Cavalier Plus Specs

It's kind of a moot point since you are unlikely to find good film caps at the uF ranges your Blackgates probably represent. Even if you can, it's definitely not going to fit due to the size. For smaller size coupling caps, I love teflons and suggest starting with Russian FT-3 teflon capacitors, as there may not be a need to spend much more on more fancy teflon caps if FT-3 fits in well with your gear.

I would take Theta Gen V (or Va) way over Levinson 36. Theta really had some magic going with their Gen V DAC's with outstanding output stages. It was very detailed, very dynamic, with SOTA bass, and very fun to listen to, unlike DAC's that try to sound way too "smooth" and boring like Levinson 36 (or even 36S). Unmodded P-3A is good, but it doesn't take off until at least Modwright mods, and even better yet Empirical Turbo mods, especially with their own PS.

Then I don't see how you can NOT "marry" yourself to a good electrostat system.

Audio Alchemy DDS Pro transport is another fine CD-only transport sound-wise. A rude awakening for those using run-of-the-mill DVD player as CD transport, I'm sure, especiallly for dynamics and bass authority..

So true yet seems like a concept most designers and consumers seem determined to ignore, almost subconsciously. I wish more effort was put into doing straight, simple 16bit/44.1kHz superbly instead of putting that effort into upsampling, number-crunching, marketing (32 bit, right..)..

Normally I would enthusiastically trash this overpriced duck with the rest of you, but one of the best sounding systems I've listened to at an audio show happened to feature the Dynastation as the source, so I'll at least give it benefit of the doubt...

At $20,000 "base" price, I would have liked to have seen better specs than this: Frequency Response: 56

Cool. Three questions: 1. Without cooling fans, does the HD stay cool enough not to shorten its lifespan? 2. Is it suitable for a "quiet PC" used for audio when HD noise is fully exposed to the outside? How noisy is something like that WD HD you have in the photo? 3. Have you noticed significantly slow speed due to the USB2.0 connection compared to internal HD slots?

Would you say you have at least 100 Hours burn-in? Big oil caps are a funky thing, and while I haven't personally tried their LeClanche NOS PIO, I'm positive it will take FOREVER for that cap to reach its final sound, which you may or may not like anyway. After adequate burn-in and play time, if you are still not satisfied in a big way, I would talk to RAM about some other options.

You APL customers are So. Unbelievably. Frekking. PATIENT

http://www.dagogo.com/CambridgeAzur840C.html "That

That's what we kept telling them, but for unclear (to me) reasons, they absolutely refuse to just go with the Stax plug. They would absolutely sell more that way.. Of course, all my complaints about that 5-pin XLR will go away if HE audio introduces a killer direct-coupled tube 'stat amp at a reasonable price with the XLR

I welcome any and all new developments in the 'stat/amp arena. About 20 years more of constant new products in the 'stat arena should get us close. Direct-coupled new Woo 'stat amp with 5-pin XLR for HE Audio eh1.2b sounds just..about..