Recent content by gadawg

When I got my last order of Gold Lion KT88's let just say I had to swap out tubes with the vendor several times to even get within a 10% match. Now I see why tube amp manufacturers charges a premium for getting tubes from them. They go through the hassle for you .. or at least claim they do...

I have no idea about their lower grades .. I bought the top grade with the longest warranty. There are always the Ray Reserve 6SN7's for $242 per tube! :ROFLMAO: So far the 6SN7's have been great and after a year of use all still test as basically new tubes. That said I did try their KT88's and...

I own the Statement 452IQ Mono amps and currently am running the Sophia Electric 6SN7’s. I had some NOS Sylvania 6SN7’s that were better for sure by a long shot but they were just too noisy. I haven’t found a good clean set of those .. 8 tubes in all for me so I’m sticking with the Sophia Blues...

I had hoped that would hold for me also but in my system and for my tastes the Studio Player with the Power Supply easily bested the D1XSE’s and clock at least for me. Just my opinion in my system. My D1XSE’s will be going up for sale soon. George

I went to the show on Saturday and my overall impression was that it was smaller than last year’s show. Many top brands where not there and most (maybe none) of the setup’s were top of the line setup’s. Seemed to be targeting a more moderate price range. I know they have announced the show will...

Still have my complete MIT Oracle setup and no plans on changing anytime soon! Still never heard anything I liked better than their MA-X SHD Oracle cable line! George

Are you trying to pass off a totally subjective opinion as an objective fact? An equally invalid statement could read Class D offers the least value and is unlikely to beat anything even for 2x3 times more money! LOL Cheers! George

Well the title of the thread states switched to class D or get left behind? That insinuates very strongly that is the class of choice which for me at least it is not. That doesn't mean it isn't for someone else but i certainly dont' feel left behind. Cheers! George

I'm running the Statement 452IQ's with the Statement Linestage. I did try some of the RCA 6SN7's and I thought the Sophia Electric were very similar. To be clear I like the RCA's a tiny bit better but stuggled to find 2 matched quads with zero noise. The 6SN7s need to match very closely in these...

I couldn't find their list but the Onix you list I believe is the only SACD transport today that does I2S at all. Its a shame really because brands like MSB and Lampizator which have no transports don't have a great option for SACD playback. I'm not sure that the Onix transport will be...

Why does it matter if it’s Class A, AB, D or tube (triode, Ultralinear, OTL) if it sounds good to you? No one is getting left behind by choosing any of these classes of amps as none of them are taking over any time soon … so sit back with your favorite beverage and tunes and enjoy which ever...

Yeah but the Jays Audio transport doesn’t do SACD and I think I read the PS Audio transport is now sold out maybe not to be replenished?? So are there any other transports out there that would make I2S relevant for DACs that could use that as an input for potential SACD playback? George

Not sure if you’ve done any tube rolling with your VAC gear but in my setup I tried out the Amperex Bugle Boys with Halo getters from the early 60’s (6DJ8’s) and was blown away at the improvement over the stock EHX’s that came with the statement pre. On the amplifier side I stayed with the Gold...

Yes … Now that I am on the NOS bandwagon those tubes will be spared break-in of other components. That said I have managed to gather quite the collection of my favorite NOS tubes but don’t want to waste them regardless. George

I've been responding to the original notion many posts up by a manufacturer that all aspects of audio component performance can be measured now as the science of measurement has advanced greatly over years past. While I agree we can probably measure much more than we did decades ago .. I think...