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    What's Your Favorite Single Malt Scotch

    Macallan cask strength.....Mmmmmmmm goooooooood ! Tom
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    Ampex electronics for the best possible sound

    That's the main reason I have such high regard for machines like the 300/350, and still use them. Think of all the great recordings made on those machines, then ask yourself why it's not appropriate to play those recordings back on the same equipment. Listing to older music on my Ampex gear is...
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    Ampex electronics for the best possible sound

    A Bigger Project This project has been ongoing for over two years, but we're making progress and it's coming together. This is my 300 playback rig, which has both solid state (AG-350) and tube (350) electronics. The transport started out as a 300-3 and was modified with a four-speed DC servo...
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    Ampex electronics for the best possible sound

    Except for re-wiring the capstan solenoid, it's all ready to go. It took several months to refurbish/rebuild the constituent parts....it only took 8 hours to put it all back together. Cleaning/polishing/waxing parts is very time-consuming. Many of the parts taken off of other transports had...
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    Ampex electronics for the best possible sound

    Most of the parts for the rebuild are stock Ampex, except for the playback which is Flux from JRF. A friend donated an immaculate stainless faceplate, which I swapped onto my one-piece aircraft aluminum deckplate, as it is supposed to offer a more rigid transport framework compared to the stock...
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    Ampex electronics for the best possible sound

    Restoring a Classic Time to get this Ampex thread going again! My 350 needed some attention, so I decided to tear it down for a complete rebuild and give it some goodies along the way. Parts like brakes, relays, solenoids and push buttons were obtained as NOS replacements, other items...
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    My friend´s new toy!

    The 300 has a fairly long tape path, no scrape idler in the head assy (as stock), and of course the rubber-tire capstan drive...which was probably quite good when new but can be a roadblock on older machines. It seems your friend has addressed some of these issues, can you go into more detail...
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    My friend´s new toy!

    400? Nah....it's a 300-2, likely one of the later versions. Could well have been converted from a 1/2" machine, due to the two unused 1/2" idler holes adjacent to the idler roller. As a playback rig I give that 9 in coolness...... :) Tom
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    Ampex electronics for the best possible sound

    Roger- I can forgive the dust, dirt, and occasional boogered repair, but the guy that put the O-rings on the drive tire is my hero :) What were they doing...... Poor man's 30 IPS conversion? Tom B.
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    Gary’s stupid good music *server*

    Added the Benchmark DAC1 to the system tonight and I am now floored by the quality of the playback from the little server. The HiFace alone didn't quite get the job done; it left the music a bit flat on the bottom end and was missing 'something'... whatever it was is now fixed with the addition...
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    What's Your Favorite Single Malt Scotch

    Favorite: Macallan 12 yr Sherry Oak, if I'm in the mood for something smokey then it's Ardmore Highland single malt. It took forever to find a source for the Macallan in my area, but a new retailer opened up and they are stocking most of the sherry/fine oak ranges. Tom
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    Gary’s stupid good music *server*

    Good eye, Steve. The KPS25s is a great unit and is the one piece of gear that's earned a permanent spot in my audio room. I use it mainly as a preamp as the CD transport occasionally comes up with read errors, but at some point it will have to go in for service. Up to that point the CD...
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    Gary’s stupid good music *server*

    Thanks, Gary, for the info on the streaming modes. I asked around but was getting mixed information from my techie-friends. So far the little laptop has been fun to tinker with. Wish my DAC were here.... Tom
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    Gary’s stupid good music *server*

    Kernel or WASAPI? Perhaps Gary can chime in on this one: While researching USB DACs/bridges, many of the devices offer drivers for both WASAPI and Kernel streaming, with Kernel streaming getting more attention. In the scope of this project, does Kernel offer any benefit (if possible) over...
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    Gary’s stupid good music *server*

    My DAC is supposed to arrive tomorrow, a Benchmark DAC1, which will do 192kHz on its SPDIF input. The M2TECH bridge might however be the ultimate limiting factor in hi-rez output quality....some people love it and others not so much. It was cheap and fits the immediate need...in fact with the...
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    Gary’s stupid good music *server*

    Being too impatient to wait for the DAC to arrive, it dawned on me that the new server would happily stream 44.1kHz files through the MTECH HiFace straight into the SPDIF input of my Krell KPS25s preamp. The only coaxial cable available for this initial test was short at 3 feet, which is why the...
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    Gary’s stupid good music *server*

    Quick progress report....still ripping CD collection (dbPoweramp ---> FLAC) but down to just a handful. Stepped into a screaming deal on a gently-used Benchmark DAC1 (non-USB) with the temporary solution for server connection being a M2TECH HiFace. Obviously there are better USB -> SPDIF bridges...
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    Gary’s stupid good music *server*

    Things are moving along quite well this evening...if my DAC was here I would have it made. I downloaded and installed dbPowerAmps CDGrab (their disc ripper) and imported around a dozen discs, then transferred these to the Music Server with a memory stick. It only took a few minutes to...
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    Gary’s stupid good music *server*

    Ki, Following Gary's instructions the setup has gone well so far, the only exception being I did not read the part about needing MSCOMCTL.OCX installed if running FLAC on Win7. That oversight was the only snag I've encountered. Gary mentioned using dbPowerAmp for CD ripping; I am...
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    Gary’s stupid good music *server*

    Ki, I picked up the C675-S7103 due to it's similarity to the machine Gary originally recommended in his newsletter, and am quite pleased with it. In this case the price was not the main factor in making the purchase; this is my first attempt at putting together a music server and wanted...
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    Ampex electronics for the best possible sound

    Roger, If I may go off-track a bit, you've done some tube rolling in your 350's, correct? I've not used anything but the original metal-can types, particularly in the repro gain stage (12SJ7), but I'm sure there are some of the GT variety that might work better. Any suggestions...
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    Gary’s stupid good music *server*

    EAC was designed to take into account any errors introduced by your hardware and factor them out of future rips. It does this at initial configuration by comparing a ripped file to the original disc....or basically something along those lines. It also persistently re-reads tracks to get the best...
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    Gary’s stupid good music *server*

    Are you using dpPowerAmp just for rips or are you also using their audio player? CD Ripper looks interesting...... Tom
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    Gary’s stupid good music *server*

    It seems as if Freedb is declining my actual email address, but will accept odd addresses such as 'me@you.com'......wierd. Even so, I am getting odd data retrievals from Freedb on discs that I had previously ripped and tagged with other services. Will have to try again to see if it is a problem...
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    Gary’s stupid good music *server*

    Gary, So far the setup has gone pretty much as documented...currently about half way done. Foobar is installed and running with the only hitch that it cannot connect to the Freedb server when ripping a CD. Initially this was thought to be a firewall problem with BitDefender; at this point...
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    Gary’s stupid good music *server*

    OK, music server project underway! I was not able to readily dig up the laptop Gary recommended, but Best Buy had a good deal on a similar Toshiba, stock number C675-S7103. For $379 you get a 17.3" LED back-lit display, 4 gig memory and 320 gig hard disk. It has Win 7 Home Premium, but my techie...
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    DAC recommendations

    Just to note, there are three versions of the Mytek Stereo192. Preamp versions in black with LED meters & unbalanced analog inputs, preamp version in silver w/unbalanced analog inputs but no LED meters, and the mastering version in black with LED meters and a pair of BNC SDIF DSD inputs...
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    Gary’s stupid good music *server*

    Thanks Mark. The 0404 looked like a fun toy to try, especially at that price point. The E-MU 0204 is still available, does 192 kHz/24 bit over USB 2.0 but lacks balanced outputs (6.7 dBV). It is however inexpensive...in the $150~200 range from various sellers. The DacMagic is a different...
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    Gary’s stupid good music *server*

    Looks like the 0404 is discontinued. :( Tom
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    Gary’s stupid good music *server*

    Excellent article and instructions, Gary. Thank you. Had I read it previously it would have saved much time and frustration getting EAC w/Flac front end up and running smoothly on a new laptop. Mark-how did you cable the 0404 into your system? I had access to a 'loaner' 0204 but turned it down...

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