Thinking..........

There have been numerous reports of people using the KT-150 in the Ref 75 and feeling that it does provide an upgrade in performance.
 
i probably already mentioned this somewhere around here. but the allnic t2000 i heard was setup with the kt120s and was a nice and very impressive integrated. second time i went to visit, it was running kt150s and i was blown away by it. changed it into a gorgeous sounding beast of an integrated. cant believe the 120-150 difference i heard. and was all with the same exact equipment. i wouldnt even think about using the 120s if i purchased it.
 
nbrowser said:
Ed Zachery !
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Not sure if I would note someone on this thread as """ Ed Zachary: Disease is when your face looks exactly like your ass, meaning you are extremely ugly" :disbelief:

" A woman was very distraught at the fact that she had not had a date or any sex in quite some time.

She was afraid she might have something wrong with her, so she decided to seek the medical expertise of a sex therapist. Her doctor recommended that she see Dr. Chang, the well-known Chinese sex therapist, so she went to see him.

Upon entering the examination room, Dr. Chang said, "OK, take off all you crose." The woman did as she was told. "Now, get down and craw reery, reery fass to odder side of room." Again, the woman did as she was instructed. Dr. Chang then said, "OK, now craw reery, reery fass back to me." So she did.

Dr. Chang shook his head slowly and said, "Your probrem vewy bad. You haf Ed Zachary Disease. Worse case I ever see. Dat why you not haf sex or dates."

Worried, the woman asked anxiously, "Oh my God, Dr. Chang, what is Ed Zachary Disease?"

Dr. Chang looked the woman in the eye and replied, "Ed Zachary Disease is when your face rook Ed Zachary rike your ass."
 
I thought it was "squeal like a pig" not a monkey!
 
mep said:
I think you need to quit thinking if these are the ideas you come up with. :P Seriously, unless you are under duress from your wife, I wouldn't consider giving up separates for an integrated amp.
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I think the latest high end integrateds are superb (8k+) and often better than separates from other companies- such as my DarTZeel which replaced 3 boxes. Unless your speakers are extremely tough to drive (which I would never buy something like that anyways), integrateds offer an elegant solution.

The biggest hurdle is admitting that an integrated can sound good- I know many audiophiles who won't believe that on principle. The fact is when one hears a 10k integrated vs. 30k separates, the differences often are slighter than most like to admit. But the integrated has to have an active preamplification stage for me even to have an audition.

And yes, the ARC LS series sucks :)
 
KeithR said:
I think the latest high end integrateds are superb (8k+) and often better than separates from other companies- such as my DarTZeel which replaced 3 boxes. Unless your speakers are extremely tough to drive (which I would never buy something like that anyways), integrateds offer an elegant solution.

The biggest hurdle is admitting that an integrated can sound good- I know many audiophiles who won't believe that on principle. The fact is when one hears a 10k integrated vs. 30k separates, the differences often are slighter than most like to admit. But the integrated has to have an active preamplification stage for me even to have an audition.

And yes, the ARC LS series sucks :)
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Go that right , I got rid of a nice Rogue Athena pre-amp for a AR LS27se. Worst mistake I ever made in this hobby. The rogue had such a sweet sound...
 
KeithR said:
I think the latest high end integrateds are superb (8k+) and often better than separates from other companies- such as my DarTZeel which replaced 3 boxes. Unless your speakers are extremely tough to drive (which I would never buy something like that anyways), integrateds offer an elegant solution.

The biggest hurdle is admitting that an integrated can sound good- I know many audiophiles who won't believe that on principle. The fact is when one hears a 10k integrated vs. 30k separates, the differences often are slighter than most like to admit. But the integrated has to have an active preamplification stage for me even to have an audition.

And yes, the ARC LS series sucks :)
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I disagree with you about the ARC LS series. I had an LS15 for nearly 15 years and never once did it let me down.
 
KeithR said:
I think the latest high end integrateds are superb (8k+) and often better than separates from other companies- such as my DarTZeel which replaced 3 boxes. Unless your speakers are extremely tough to drive (which I would never buy something like that anyways), integrateds offer an elegant solution.

The biggest hurdle is admitting that an integrated can sound good- I know many audiophiles who won't believe that on principle. The fact is when one hears a 10k integrated vs. 30k separates, the differences often are slighter than most like to admit. But the integrated has to have an active preamplification stage for me even to have an audition.

And yes, the ARC LS series sucks :)
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I have no doubts that an integrated amp can sound "good." But "good" is the enemy of great. Integrated amps can make elegant solutions to the problems of dealing with multiple boxes and more ICs, but it doesn't mean they will sound as good as separates with big, beefy power supplies instead of one box that contains one power transformer that is powering the linestage, phono stage, possibly a DAC too, and then the power amplifier. I will take $30k worth of separates over a $10k integrated amp any day of the week assuming I get to pick them out.
 
mep said:
I have no doubts that an integrated amp can sound "good." But "good" is the enemy of great. Integrated amps can make elegant solutions to the problems of dealing with multiple boxes and more ICs, but it doesn't mean they will sound as good as separates with big, beefy power supplies instead of one box that contains one power transformer that is powering the linestage, phono stage, possibly a DAC too, and then the power amplifier. I will take $30k worth of separates over a $10k integrated amp any day of the week assuming I get to pick them out.
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My Dart is great and I feel outperforms many common sets of separates, including ones that I previously owned. I know several others that do as well.

The point is I don't have to spend 30k on a minor increase in performance that most of the time, isn't necessary. I have no doubt that Dart separates are better (8550 means 85% of the performance at 1/2 the cost). The key is having efficient speakers- if you have Thiels, you have to double your amp budget just to drive them. I find that backwards.

KeithR

ps. many integrateds are dual mono these days. mine has separate tformers for preamp and amp even.
 
KeithR said:
My Dart is great and I feel outperforms many common sets of separates, including ones that I previously owned. I know several others that do as well.

ps. many integrateds are dual mono these days. mine has separate tformers for preamp and amp even.
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+1. I don't think I can think of a pair of separates that I'd rather have, instead of a CTH-8550, for the same $$$ of course...


alexandre
 
KeithR said:
My Dart is great and I feel outperforms many common sets of separates, including ones that I previously owned. I know several others that do as well.

The point is I don't have to spend 30k on a minor increase in performance that most of the time, isn't necessary. I have no doubt that Dart separates are better (8550 means 85% of the performance at 1/2 the cost). The key is having efficient speakers- if you have Thiels, you have to double your amp budget just to drive them. I find that backwards.

KeithR

ps. many integrateds are dual mono these days. mine has separate tformers for preamp and amp even.
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So does your integrated have four power transformers? One for each channel of the preamp and power amp?
 
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