Dusty Chalk

Yeah, that's how I understood it, and what I was responding to, when I made my "contrast" comment. See, the way it works is, you can have little girly accents around, but depending how you carry yourself, you end up appearing more manly in contrast to those accents.

Only if you aren't confident with your sexuality. I think the contrast would make me look more manly. That said, I would have gone for black opal, myself.

Audiophiles don't like EQ because it messes with the sound.

Re: Hirsch's post -- yeah, most of that was what I suspected, and not really news. Which is why I said if it was just tubes, we could try them, but if it was more (such as the voltages), then...I'm not holding my breath. It is his system, after all.

It's not a matter of whether or not, but how much. Yes, you do. You've heard about Steve Hoffman's cutting table, haven't you? It actually has a separate foundation. Foundation, as in the concrete floor is physically separate from the rest of the building. That's hardcore.

Well, think about it -- current induces magnetic fields which are orthogonal to the direction of the current; jiggling current (jiggling is orthogonal to current) causes current in new and wonderful directions (now back to in the same direction as current and/or perpendicular -- it's kind of like measuring turbulence)...hence, noise/hash/distortion.

It's a guy thing. You know how the only thing you really need to know in a car is the horsepower, but guys still need to know their displacement? It's like that. It's like saying, "I don't want to have to think about the amp, just get me some good powered speakers." They want to know that Bryston made the amps in the PMC Actives (which they do). There's also Meridian, ATC, Dynaudio, and Quad. I'm sure there are others.

Yes, I remain skeptical. Hirsch did have the other pair at one point, which I'm sure he would have let me hear, as I've had this same argument with him. On their best days, they were still "lean" in the bass, and I don't remember them ever having the impact of my L3000's (yes, I now understand that comment was made in jest, but my confusion should have been clear since my "bs" post was responding directly to that, and you responded to my bs post). I do. I do want to hear R10's with bass. That would be awesome. However at this point, it sounds fantastical. I'm quite happy with my L3000's (other than the minor midrange swale, which I understand can be fixed with a recable). I'm sure it's probably the best R10's can muster, but I remain skeptical that it is adequate to my admittedly spoiled ears. However, the visit won't be happening any time soon. Thanks for the invite all the same, I may take you up on it at some point in the future.

Oh. Well, I was cloh...oh, who am I kidding, I was way off.

Where is "here"? I'm going to San Francisco in early October. You're in California somewhere, right? No, I don't. Why would someone who likes bass have bought R10's without having heard what they were capable of, which, presumably, you hadn't, until you coaxed this theoretical "bass" out of them?

Try audiokarma.org or audioreview.com.

Heynow. I am skeptical to the point of ruling it out until proven otherwise, but if I ever do hear what I would even call adequate bass ("lean" does not count, I've heard lean) out of the R10's, I will...um...admit it. I'm not one of those guys who can't be proven wrong -- I hate being wrong, so if it is pointed out that I am wrong, I will be the first to jump, so that the window of being wrong is as short as possible. "Killer bass" -- that includes impact.

Well, "transparent" is something that a system is more or less of. There is no such thing as a completely transparent system. That said, there was a layer of "hash" that was missing in the first Singlepower I ever heard compared to every other amp I've ever heard. The Singlepower Supra is pretty much the only amp I know of that have this transparency. An order of magnitude, really.

Well, admittedly, "bass" is not what Hirsch "tuned" his amp to the R10's for. But I've had this discussion with him, and he's tried to get bass out of R10's, and the best he could do was LS3/5A bass (I.E. it may have been controlled, but it starts trailing off early, I wouldn't call it deep, although it was deeper than it appears on first listen). But he tries to get at least a semblance of full frequency response, and it's just not there. Also, I don't think this is true -- Hirsch has two R10's, and I don't think he kept the bass-light versions in both cases -- one of the ones he has is definitely a later serial number R10, though I'm not sure if that's the balanced one or the single-ended one. It's the early models that are bass-light. And unfortunately, I don't think he has the high-voltage switch -- that's just not an option on his amp, AFAIK.

No, really, you can stop with the joking now. I've heard R10's. They don't even have bass potential. And to compare it to the L3000? Dude, that's the bass reference. Tell me what tubes you are using, please. Hirsch has a balanced R10 and a SDS XLR, and he probably has that particular tube compliment -- if he does, I will take a listen for myself. And you will laugh, "ha! He fell for it. He actually thought that a R10 could have bass!" PS I got my Rotrings. They have little red circles on them. Other than that, they're all black.

Just finished a sammich from Quizno's.

Yeah, I think that's it. The only disadvantage is that you have to buy them together. It'd be cool if some high-end speakers came with active crossovers instead of passive, but then you'd be obliged to (a) get monoblocks, and ( get one for each driver set (I.E. normally, in a 3-way design, you'd need 6 monoblocks, but if you had symmetrical midrange drivers or something, you'd theoretically only need one amplifier for both midrange drivers -- but that's the exception, not the rule).

I think you mean url, not irl. (Universal Resource Locator vs. In Real Life, LOL).

I'm going to be out of town on 10/6, and still en route back on 10/13, alas.

I'd go shiny (and one "reality" pic).

Living Stereo SACD's this weekend: Dvor?k's New World Symphony and Other Orchestral Masterworks Ravel: Bolero; La Valse; Rapsodie Espagnole The Chopin Ballades & Scherzos