Driftwood

I find the Aeronaut is a little bit bigger than I really need and if I fill it it is heavier than I'd like to carry. If I were to do it over I'd still probably go with the Aeronaut just in case, but I'm sure the tri-star will work great, particularly if it isn't your only bag.

Flight was cancelled due to weather although it seems the weather situation wasn't really that bad in MD. Hopefully I'll be able to get back tomorrow.

You can get a SR-007 and a BHSE for $1000?

While I know that at least one post suggesting the JH13 is de rigueur around here for these types of posts, I would have thought you would have suggested the HP1000

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!

Courtesy of Dusty circa 2002...

I had an Aeron at a previous job and it was everything everyone says it is. You can also get the Mirra for cheaper and it is also very nice. However, some time back I went to Ikea and was making disparaging comments about some $20 chair they had there until I sat in it and it was the most comfortable chair I ever sat in. It looked like it might fall apart at any minute though so I ended up with a $40 chair that was almost as comfortable but that looked a lot nicer and didn't seem like it would break within the week. It has been several months now and I'm still impressed how great a chair it is, especially considering the price. I'm now convinced there is an inverse relationship between how comfortable a chair looks and how it performs in practice.

Sounds like it may be bigger than what you are looking for but I recently purchased a Tom Bihn Aeronaut and it has been great. The build quality is fantastic which I would assume would carry over to the tri-star.

Congrats! I love my Concept2!

Here is what I'm talking about: Heatsinks to nowhere with nary a place for any heat to escape except a couple of slots on the top panel -- Granted, I really liked what I heard, but it was at volumes probably louder than I would listen to normally, and in a room that I'm not used to (and that probably behaves a lot better than my own). I'd really like good low volume performance, and I'd rather have finer graduations in the low volume detail even if it means giving up some performance at higher volumes. I guess what I'm trying to say is that intellectually I subscribe to the "first watt" philosophy and was thus considering something like the Pass Labs XA60.5 (if I could get away with the relatively low output) or the Parasound JC-1, but I don't see how I'd ever have an opportunity to audition those with the maggies before purchasing, and really I am looking to buy used to save some money. I could definitely be happy with the Ayre, but I'd just like to know how it compares to other amps around the same price, especially at low volumes.

Oops, I apologize for the confusion, I got my wires crossed. I was listening to them through the C-5xe which seemed like a nice enough player, but what I had meant to say originally is that I listened to the 1.7 first using the MX-R, and then through the V-5xe, both from the C-5xe. It was the V-5xe's internals I was complaining about, the MX-R are of course superbly built and was of course trying to find a way to justify their cost; I think even my wife who was thinking "around $700" for an amp was beginning to warm to them even after hearing the MSRP was $9000 until I explained that was each, and that they each only power one channel.

Thanks for the impressions. What was the associated equipment used with the maggies in you auditions? I listened also to the 3.6 at the first place, that was powered by an audio research integrated and the Cambridge Audio 840c. Even with the better source and amp (but still very low power) my wife and I greatly prefered the 1.7. Though the treble sounded more even to me (maybe because of the lack of "whiteness" you mentioned, it was clear that the treble was coming from a separate point in space from the rest of the sound. I would have been pleased with it had I not heard the 1.7, but overall I thought the 1.7 was more satisfying even though the 3.6 did some things better. Perhaps I should have given the 3.6 a try on the Ayre amps but I am already seeing that the maggies are going to require a greater investment than I had originally anticipated due to their low efficiency.

I know I'm resurrecting a dead thread, and it has been several months since this post, but I have been recently looking at the 1.7 and had my first listen at the dealer you mentioned. I was very impressed by the 1.7 but was definitely underwhelmed by the bass response sans subwoofer, and thought that the specific sub he had paired with the 1.7 was a disappointment. As you mentioned, it was being driven by the Rogue Audio Cronus Integrated. Having read several places that Maggies thrive on MOAR POWAH, I decided I wanted to have a second listen somewhere else. I took a trip last weekend to a dealer in VA where I listened to the 1.7 driven by the Ayre MX-R and C-5xe. The dealer had a much nicer sub of the same manufacture as the first dealer, and I was much more satisfied with the bass response -- especially when I asked how he had the speakers crossed over with the sub and found out that the sub wasn't being used I've become a believer that the Maggies need more than 55wpc to sound their best. However, I did think the low end wasn't quite as tight as I'd like, reading on the 1.5 thread here it seems that I'm not alone in this feeling on the 1 series Magnepans. I don't know if there is anything that can be done to correct that? What are the opinions around here on the C-5xe? I know that Ayre in general is pretty well regarded, and I certainly liked what I heard, but I wasn't much impressed by the internals of the amp when I looked for photos...

In the about box, it says: Special Thanks to: Charles Hansen J. Gordon Rankin Clarke Greene I'd suspect Ayre knows about this.

Why not... I'd be interested in a board set as well.

I'd be interested.