Any audiophile types...or (like me) just wannabees?

Nice thread, I love tunes ,I have about 500 albums vinyl a bunch of cassettes & Cd's Not real high end stuff HT set up is Denon receiver ,turntable & Dvd
Yamaha cassette . The other set up is for upstairs speakers in living room ,on the deck and in the garage, it's a Yamaha receiver&cd player with an Audio Control 10 equalizer with sirius sat radio. Speakers all all Mirage omni series with one pair of Energy . I also have a pair of Kenwood KL-777 bought them in 1971 when a buddy of mine was stationed in Japan they can rock that's a 15" woofer ,2 5" mids, 2 horn tweeters and 1 super tweeter they weigh like 50lbs each they take up a bit of floor space they are stored away now which makes the wifey happy .

 

I forgot spending a lot of time on line listening to tunes decided to get a good set of speakers I got a pair of Swan D1010's they are awesome.
http://www.theaudioinsider.com/index.php?loudspeakers=swan-active-desktop-sound&cPath=21_24

 

Yeah. The other day when hanging out with the kids, I threw Abbey road on the turntable. Trying to get them hooked young. Its been a while since I had the big set cranked up and Im sitting there just and just to myself "what great soundstage" (and its just an average pressing) . When you are listening to peoples iPods on tiny speakers all the time you forget just how much of the dynamic range and stereo imaging gets lost in these compressed digital formats. Its like wood heat, most folks never heard any better so they just dont know whats missing.

/jealous
It was all I could do to get the wife to allow my 10" floor standers in the living room, and only by hiding them as side tables. I had wanted to build double 12inch tower jobs but she gave me that look every married guy knows when I suggested it!

 

I got mine children hooked on Abbey Road I think it was my sons 1st cd purchase just got to raise them right

 

I like audio. I have two systems...one at work and at home.

This was my old room at home before the baby came and had to be dismantled and put in the basement. I've added some Magnepan rear speakers and a new center channel / used Lexicon disc player / used Enlightened Audio Designs home theater preamp since this picture was taken.



Here's my stereo at the office. Running a Music Hall cd player into an Audio Research preamp into a PS Audio solid state amp or a 1963 Harman Kardon tube amp. Don't use the tubes all that often. More of a hassle than a solid state. I could use a sub in this system but there's really no where to put it in my office to get good sound out of it. Subs are best coupled with a corner or some other location to use the room to amplify the bass.

 

Nice set ups. Love that H/K! It's also really nice to see room treatment, that's more important than any other piece of gear in my opinion.

 

Methinks I see some KT88/6550 tubes there ... Is that H/K a Citation II ? nice setup.


My dad has an old H/K integrated amp and tuner combo that he kit built when he was in his 20s (early 60s). I dont remember what kind of tubes it ran but they were smaller, EL84s or something, maybe 20 wpc. haven't run in years and Ive tried to talk him into getting them rebuilt but its just not his thing anymore.

 

I agree

 

Problem with the tubes also is they are expensive to replace matched sets of those 6550. These are Electroharmonix tubes on here now. I don't use it that much but it does sound great when listening to certain kinds of music. One good example would be a Norah Jones type voice would have a better sound with a tube setup than solid state. I like convenience of solid state. At one time, I used to leave my big amp at home on all the time so it would be warmed up. But now I'm a workaholic and listen to my mini system at the office more when I find time to.

That is a Citation II that Decibel Audio in Chicago restored. John Cusack wore a Decibel Audio shirt in that movie High Fidelity. It's right down the street from the record store where that movie was filmed. The problem I have with this amp is that there was a bias needle on the back where you could switch amongst each 6550 and bias it individually, but it no longer works. I can't tell a difference in sound, but I wish it worked.

I've always liked good music. Whatever a person's tastes are is great as long as they have a love for it.

 

Yea tell me about it! My Mac runs 6L6-GC. When I rebuilt it in the late 90s I got a matched quad of Svetlana's from Triode electronics (the 'old' Svetlana thats now sold as Winged-C, not the new Svetlana made by Sovtek). Those were around a hundred back then, I checked the price recently and they are now pushing $200 a set!!!! damm.

I thought my HH Scott was a lost cause as it runs 7591 which where completely unavailable for years but now I hear EH and JJ have introduced new ones. Might have to get that working again eventually.

 

But aren't you burning wood to save money to buy tubes?

That is a nice looking amp. I have never heard a Citation. I did try 6550s on my VTA ST70 but I didn't like them. I preference either the EL34 or KT66 on it.

 

I like the 6550 cause I think this amp has enough grunt to drive almost any speakers. My setup at home has a pair of towers with 2 eights, 2 sevens, and a tweet in each cabinet. the citation could drive those just fine. currently, i'm running a classe 300 watt per channel into those speakers. that amp has more power than I will ever need.

 

Here's my center channel addition for home that I was breaking in this summer at the office. It's fairly hefty weighing in at about 40 pounds. I have this hooked up to a Classe 3 X 150 watt amp along with a pair of mini Magnepans for the surround speakers.




I run audio cables from Signal Cable. High end cables without the high end price. Frank is a good guy.

www.signalcable.com

 

I didnt think that 6550s worked in a Dynaco 70? EL34 and KT66s and 6L6 mostly interchange with some re-biasing, but i thought the 6550s where in a whole other class?

EDIT: Im thinking of a stock St70, not familiar with te VTA board versions....

 

I don't know what you are running for cables, but those make a difference. I try to find the budget cables that are still good.

 

BTW, never expected to find a bunch of tube heads on a woodheat forum.

 

I'm not really that saavy with working on the stuff unfortunately. If I was, I'd have fixed the bias meter on the back of my amp.

 

I like tube stuff. Wanted to try a CJ preamp, but they were a little steep for me. I have a Jolida tube tuner at home. Very rarely used, and I'm not sure why I bought it. Pretty well built though.

 

I think there are personality types that are consistent. I can see people who would be really into music would be people who would enjoy wood heat and the process of gathering wood and getting into the science behind it. What I'm getting at is it's a bit geeky.

 

You are right, stock Dynaco ST70s cannot. The VTA 'Dynaclone' ST70 has a bigger power tranny that can handle the 6550.

Me either.

They do, I was able to get a good deal on some Cardas cables. (That's why I'm burning wood ).