Recent content by Salectric

  1. S

    American Sound, "The Absolute Nothing"

    Very true!
  2. S

    Autoformer volume control in an active tube preamp?

    Fred Volz told me, maybe 10 years ago, the best sounding preamp he ever made had the Epifania circuitry with Slagle autoformers on the output. @Glide3 maybe that was yours? My custom Epifania predates that one. I also have a standalone Slagle AVC box and I have compared it to the Epifania...
  3. S

    "Long-Term Equipment Loans: A Win-Win for Everyone" by Robert Harley, The Absolute Sound

    “Modern” and “Vintage” are somewhat in the eye of the beholder. In my book, 1994 is modern! For some context, my woofers were made in 1947. They are 15” Jensens with paper cones and Alnico 3 magnets. My previous Jensens were 10-15 years younger and sported “modern” Alnico 5 magnets. The...
  4. S

    Todd's AG Trio G3 System -- it's about time

    @Germanboxers I have been through a similar process of going back and forth between active linestage and passive. In my case, it was between an Emotive Epifania tube linestage and Slagle EMIA AVC passive. For a long time, I preferred the very slightly better clarity and bass weight of the AVC...
  5. S

    Best phono stage?

    Here are two other important design elements that are easy to spot from just a peek inside the chassis. First, no toroid transformers. Second, if the tube heater supply is DC, as most are, there should be a separate power transformer for the heater supply. Feeding the heater rectifiers from...
  6. S

    Best phono stage?

    My feelings exactly. I don’t discuss my electronics very often in this forum since they are all DIY but you just described my phono stage—-two tube stages per channel (D3a and 5687) with nickel output transformer, no loop feedback, outboard power supply with tube rectifier, all parts selected...
  7. S

    Sophia (blue) EL-34-ST Tubes

    Your description of “hard, brittle and bright” just sounds so different from my experience. I would describe the GL KT-77, once fully broken in, as a warm tonal balance with a rich lower midrange and slightly soft treble, with excellent dynamics and excellent midrange detail. Of course your...
  8. S

    Sophia (blue) EL-34-ST Tubes

    The gold lion KT-77 change rather dramatically after a long break in, more so than any other output tubes I’ve tried. If you didn’t use yours for at least 50 hours, I suggest you try them again.
  9. S

    ARC announces price increase effective Mid-March '24

    I am skeptical. I just checked Michael Percy’s Audio catalog and he sells the Vishay TX2352 bulk foil resistors (their top model) for $11.95 each for most values. Now it’s true that values over 100K do cost more, up to $39.50 for 249K, but you can still buy the vast majority of values for...
  10. S

    Modern speakers vs Vintage speakers

    I agree. Since I use woofers made in 1947 and a midrange horn made in the late 1940s, I could say that anything made after the Korean War is modern. But I won't.
  11. S

    Review of EMIA Autoformer

    Words like "right" and "wrong" overstate the issue. Like everything else in a system, cables should be selected to give the proper balance, and sometimes a particular silver cable gives the best balance, and sometimes a particular copper cable does. I said "particular" cable because not all...
  12. S

    Modern speakers vs Vintage speakers

    My complaints about modern speakers are that most of them: (1) have unnatural bass. With many the bass is too lean in the upper bass and lower midrange, not warm enough, which contributes to a sense of restrained dynamics;. With other modern speakers, the bass has an unnatural boom and thumpy...
  13. S

    EMIA Elmaformer (volume control) review

    There’s an interesting review of the EMIA Remote Autoformer in the April 2024 Stereophile. The reviewer Alex Halberstadt actually had two versions at hand, the copper and silver, and overall he seems to prefer the copper. I have the copper Slagleformer in my system but I haven’t compared it to...
  14. S

    Review of EMIA Autoformer

    There’s an interesting review of the EMIA Remote Autoformer in the April 2024 Stereophile. The reviewer Alex Halberstadt actually had two versions at hand, the copper and silver, and overall he seems to prefer the copper. I have the copper Slagleformer in my system but I haven’t compared it to...
  15. S

    Modern speakers vs Vintage speakers

    We each have our own comfort level. All of the big crossover caps in my speakers are old paper in oil caps from the PCB era. None of them are leaking and I use them all standing up vertically to minimize any possibility of leakage. I would like to use non-PCB caps if they sounded as good but...
See more

About us

  • What’s Best Forum is THE forum for high end audio, product reviews, advice and sharing experiences on the best of everything else. This is THE place where audiophiles and audio companies discuss vintage, contemporary and new audio products, music servers, music streamers, computer audio, digital-to-analog converters, turntables, phono stages, cartridges, reel-to-reel tape machines, speakers, headphones and tube and solid-state amplification. Founded in 2010 What’s Best Forum invites intelligent and courteous people of all interests and backgrounds to describe and discuss the best of everything. From beginners to life-long hobbyists to industry professionals, we enjoy learning about new things and meeting new people, and participating in spirited debates.

Quick Navigation

Home Forums Contact us

User Menu

Login
Steve Williams
Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator
Ron Resnick
Site Co-Owner | Administrator
Julian (The Fixer)
Website Build | Marketing Managersing
Top Bottom