LATEST Piece of Gear in Your Stack - What is it?

[Bob Romano]

I was asked about my experience with the Surround Master. I would, without hesitation, buy one again. It is a great piece in my system and gives excellent results in either QS SQ or upmixing stereo sources!!

 

[bmoura]

I was asked about my experience with the Surround Master. I would, without hesitation, buy one again. It is a great piece in my system and gives excellent results in either QS SQ or upmixing stereo sources!!

I agree 100% - the Surround Master is a no brainer purchase. Even if you are just using the Stereo to Surround mode.

 

[alaric smith]

I have just ordered the Sound Master. My second Sony SQA200 has a habit of dropping the right channels after half an hour or so, just like my other one. The amps are OK, swapped sources, etc. - so definitely the SQA200. I will probably hang on to both of them (for no other reason than they are still very cool). There is a bloke in a nearby town who is great at fixing the weird stuff I turn up with, so I might let him work on them. Its a good thing I put some pennies aside.

 

[Q8]

Harmon/Kardon TD102 Ultrawideband Linear Phase (can someone tell me what that means¿) Cassette Deck

I picked this elegant working 2-head deck up at goodwill for $10

 

[Fishhead]

just surfing through.always enjoyable to see the items that are on this thread. my latest addition and all restored is my 1956 Telefunken Opus7.

 

[Fishhead]

fully agree with you Doug currently have my Sansui 838 turntable on top of my 9001.I had the turntable sitting on the upper far right side of the receiver.that way most of all the air vents are not covered where are the transformer is.I replace the platter mad with an acro Mat.
QUOTE=Doug G.;188329]It's still impressive to see one of the big quad receivers (like the QRX-9001) and it is way big enough to accomodate a turntable sitting on top.



Doug[/QUOTE]

 

[Fishhead]

about a year agoI pulled all my audio gear from out of the homemade cabinets and various other places and now everything is out in the open to get a full benefit of ventilation

 

[wavelength]

Replaced my 3 Arcam Alpha amps with a Parasound P7 multi-channel analog preamp. I'm hearing a lot more detail in every channel and a much better defined surround field. This is the best piece I've ever purchased. It's definitely making me hungry for future upgrades.
View attachment 6881

Well that was nearly 2 years ago. A year after that I added the Oppo 105 and now the P7 is back in mothballs. In my current configuration I'm running the Oppo directly to my power amps. I'd read lots of posts elsewhere of people doing this but figured no way is that going to sound better. I finally decided what the heck - might as well try it myself. First impression - "Sweet!" Not saying it's for everyone but wow I've managed to ratchet up my system a couple of more notches by REMOVING gear.

I'm just wondering how long it's going to take my wife to notice that I'm not using it anymore after telling her how much I needed it. It won't be that she'll notice it gone from my audio stand. Oh no. It will be the day when she asks "what's in that box?"

 

[kap'n krunch]

After more than a month of having my system in boxes because of the move, I decided it was time to get ...
A CENTER CHANNEL!
So ...I'm gonna have to listen to all of my surround collection again..heh heh heh..
Graduating to 5.0 from 4.0
http://eu.jbl.com/jbl_product_detail_eu/loft-20.html

A "cheapo" JBL which will get here next week and will probably wind up underneath the TV...gonna see if I can make sure the TV is stable enough...
Next weekend...INSTALLATION!!! (Hoping to get next Monday off for experimentation purposes)

 

[fredblue]

After more than a month of having my system in boxes because of the move, I decided it was time to get ...
A CENTER CHANNEL!
So ...I'm gonna have to listen to all of my surround collection again..heh heh heh..
Graduating to 5.0 from 4.0
http://eu.jbl.com/jbl_product_detail_eu/loft-20.html

A "cheapo" JBL which will get here next week and will probably wind up underneath the TV...gonna see if I can make sure the TV is stable enough...
Next weekend...INSTALLATION!!! (Hoping to get next Monday off for experimentation purposes)

Yeay! What are you going to play first?

May I suggest a few centre heavy try outs?

all the Classic Elton SACDs (turning all the other speakers off and isolating EJ in the centre was a revelation to me!),
the Marvin Gaye Collection SACD,
Steely Dan/Gaucho DTS CD (more going on in the centre than the later SACD/DVDA remix),
461 Ocean Boulevard SACD (Guzauski 5.1),
Carpenters Surround SACD,
the 2 x Billy Joel Surround SACDs,
Queen The Game DVDA (some tracks have Freddie hard in the centre, others prominent instrumentation).

can't wait to hear what you think of adding the centre speaker!

 

[kap'n krunch]

Yeay! What are you going to play first?

May I suggest a few centre heavy try outs?

all the Classic Elton SACDs (turning all the other speakers off and isolating EJ in the centre was a revelation to me!),
the Marvin Gaye Collection SACD,
Steely Dan/Gaucho DTS CD (more going on in the centre than the later SACD/DVDA remix),
461 Ocean Boulevard SACD (Guzauski 5.1),
Carpenters Surround SACD,
the 2 x Billy Joel Surround SACDs,
Queen The Game DVDA (some tracks have Freddie hard in the centre, others prominent instrumentation).

can't wait to hear what you think of adding the centre speaker!

Thanks for the suggestion!!
Well, of the ones you mention I have all of the EJ ones (except for the 1st one)
the Steely Dan(s),
Clapton and
Billy Joel ones...
I have yet to get the Queen one...
Will report back as soon as I hook it up!!!

 

[fredblue]

Thanks for the suggestion!!
Well, of the ones you mention I have all of the EJ ones (except for the 1st one)
the Steely Dan(s),
Clapton and
Billy Joel ones...
I have yet to get the Queen one...
Will report back as soon as I hook it up!!!

you're v.welcome

you just have to get the self-titled EJ 5.1, Kap!

its something else to hear the young Elton's voice on things like "Your Song" and "I Need You To Turn To", I struggle with him bellowing and huffing and puffing his way through Your Song now at, what is it, 2 days away from his 67th birthday his voice really is worn out.. but back then.. oh what a thing of beauty!

"it's a little bit funny.." isolating his vocals.. but I like it!

 

[kap'n krunch]

you're v.welcome

you just have to get the self-titled EJ 5.1, Kap!

its something else to hear the young Elton's voice on things like "Your Song" and "I Need You To Turn To", I struggle with him bellowing and huffing and puffing his way through Your Song now at, what is it, 2 days away from his 67th birthday his voice really is worn out.. but back then.. oh what a thing of beauty!

"it's a little bit funny.." isolating his vocals.. but I like it!

OK, you MADE ME DO IT!!!!
I just ordered EJ's S/T SACD from yamazon US...
you pusher you,

 

[fredblue]

OK, you MADE ME DO IT!!!!
I just ordered EJ's S/T SACD from yamazon US...
you pusher you,

EXCELLLLLLLLLENTTTTTTTT!!!! :wave

You are gonna have so much FUN with your new 5.1!!! It'll be like rediscovering those surround mixes!!

a lot of the time it's no big deal going without the centre, especially most of Elliot Scheiner's' as his centre info downmixes into L&R in such a way you'd never know that there was much of consequence going on in the centre (his 1st 5.1 of Gaucho is an exception) but for some things like the Billy's and the Elton's, Freddie, Eric & Marvin.. it's just a hoot!! it helps they've all got such fabulous voices of course!

oh, I meant to ask which JBL speaker did you get?

 

[kap'n krunch]

EXCELLLLLLLLLENTTTTTTTT!!!! :wave

You are gonna have so much FUN with your new 5.1!!! It'll be like rediscovering those surround mixes!!

a lot of the time it's no big deal going without the centre, especially most of Elliot Scheiner's' as his centre info downmixes into L&R in such a way you'd never know that there was much of consequence going on in the centre (his 1st 5.1 of Gaucho is an exception) but for some things like the Billy's and the Elton's, Freddie, Eric & Marvin.. it's just a hoot!! it helps they've all got such fabulous voices of course!

oh, I meant to ask which JBL speaker did you get?

Check my first post... JBL Loft 20 from yamazon Espein for about 90EUR (with S&H)

 

[fredblue]

Check my first post... JBL Loft 20 from yamazon Espein for about 90EUR (with S&H)

sorry, I missed the link you posted back then in all the excitement! looks like a good honest box

just as an aside, while I remember it, I had a JBL Centre years ago, that looked the business (replete with titanium tweeter.. they were all the rage at the time) I wasn't too enamoured with it.. but I've since put that largely down to the awful Sony receiver I had it hooked up to at the time that made everything - particularly music - sound absolutely dreadful! I think I still have the JBL stashed away somewhere.

I've had a quick snoop online and the Lofts get v.good feedback pretty much everywhere. you have a really nice Pioneer receiver iirc? I'm sure your experience will be much more positive than mine back then. excitinggggg!!!! :banana:

 

[chuckflhp]

I just replaced my center channel and added another pair of surround channels . So now system consists of a Nautilus HTM2 center, Matrix 802 s3 Fronts, and 4 803 s2,for the rears, and 2 Velodyne subs a DD15 and 18. So now I have 7.2.
So here's the part where I ask you sage experts a question.

I have a chance to swap my 2 pair Matrix 803's for 1 pair of 802 s3 that are friggin minty!:banana:! And they are willing to throw in a real nice pro ject turntable too.
Do I do the swap? Go back to 5.1? I don't know if I would miss 7.2 at all. And if I did it, I would also have the 4 mains exactly the same. For the first time.
Chime in...:howl

 

[Odys]

So far my journey into the world of tubes has consisted of a phono stage and a headphone amp/DAC. Yesterday I took the plunge into an affordable integrated amp when I found this Cayin TA-30 used in a local shop. I haven't had a chance to hook it up yet, but I'm planning on a legthy listening session tonight. (Stock photo, but my used unit looks brand new and just as nice)

 

[QUADradial]

Probably the Sony Minidisc and Sony SACD player from Goodwill. Walter White approves.

 

[cupboy]

Marantz SA8005. Just bought it yesterday. Good idea? Hmmm. Well. Hard to say yet. It only does 2 CH but my Sony does multichannel so that's no problem. just wondering if investing in SACD is the best idea.