Recent content by W9TR

You’ll be looking for an amp with minimal iron and heatsink weight. That means a Class AB design (since you haven’t heard a class D amp you’ve liked) with a switch mode power supply. A bridged class AB amp may be the ticket. 4x the power off the same supply rails. There are a bunch of them out...

Masimo bought Sound United for $1.05 Bn in 2022. Sold it to Harmon for $350 M in 2025. That’s the way to make millions in audio manufacturing. Not. :) Was it a bargain at $350M? Dunno. Sometimes after buying a bargain you find you are catching a falling knife.

The press release says it is designed and built in the US. I’d be curious about who engineered this line, and where they are based. Are any of the legacy ML designers still around? Seems like the emphasis is on aesthetics.

As the saying goes - “there’s a pony in here somewhere” The passion around the subject of tariffs is indicative of just how important this is to everyone here. A discussion of tariffs is incomplete without a discussion of outsourcing. I searched this thread for the word outsourcing and got...

That’s cheating. :) He says, as I sit here looking at my McIntosh MR 77 wondering what I’m going to do with it. I took my 6 element yagi off the roof for a remodel and I’m not sure I’ll put it back up. FM OTA fidelity can be better than streaming. Sometimes.

The ST-2 will perform better than a dipole antenna so maybe it is worth a try. But there are a lot of factors involved in FM reception so there are no guarantees. Getting an antenna as high as possible and free from obstructions is most important thing you can do. So mounting the ST-2...

I usually listen to each tap for awhile before I decide. The higher impedance tap will be louder so you have to adjust the volume to compensate for that. Looks like either the 4 or 8 ohm tap will work just fine. To me that looks like an 8 ohm speaker with just a small dip below that.

Keep in mind that all the smart TV’s are tracking your viewing /listening selections and selling the data to third parties. It’s all in the EULA that no one reads. Apple does the same with the Apple TV, and they claim to not sell the data, recent lawsuits to the contrary aside. There are...

I worked for a consumer electronics company and our strategy was contrarian. We built in the continent the gear was sold. By the time I left there was so little labor in the product that it really didn’t matter where you built it. Many manufacturers have been chasing cheap labor across the...

The Hunter has some very prominent bass lines. I’ll check it out, it’s a fun listen.

A few days ago I was listening to an old Audiophile favorite - Jennifer Warnes’ Famous Blue Raincoat. I thought, damn, this sure sounds awesome. I’ve always wanted a stereo that sounded this good. And now I’ve got it! I’m a happy camper! Who here is jazzed by what they’ve carefully assembled...

They did it again. New SW update for features I don’t use and now my iOS app fails after opening. Damn.

I go through this calculus every year at ROON renewal time. So far I’m still a ROON user and like the seamless integration with my local content and streamed content from Qobuz. But I totally get where you are coming from as ROON seems to be concentrating on features I don’t use.

I have found the same thing in many studio recordings, so you are not alone. All the classical recordings I have, irrespective of format, have well balanced bass and decent tonality. Sure, some are better than others. With studio recorded music, especially post LP mastered digital titles...

For you headphone heads out there, the article highlights variation in test rigs. That’s true - anything over 4 kHz can be totally ignored. A 1/4” movement of the headphone on the rest rig will get you a completely different response. The 70’s distortion wars and Stereo Review’s Julian “I...