Luther, as always a stunning setup that I'm sure sounds superb. I've always admired the DIY stuff you've done. Classy. I wish I had the money and room for such gear, but I'm downsizing tremendously and will be going small for future endeavors.
Wayne, I have to agree with the sentiments above. You're wife is a very pretty lady.
Bruce, sorry to hear about your back. I can relate. Take it easy and do some PT if possible. Prayers for a speedy recovery.
The only constant is change. I built this stereo rack over the weekend. It is made from 1-1/2" Baltic birch and stained in black cherry. I replaced the McIntosh C36 pre with a Sonic Euphoria passive pre (autoformers) and added the Lounge LCR phono stage.
Wayne Parham Messages: 18752 Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
Stunning. Good blending match between the rack and the speakers. How do you like the sound of your passive attenuator and your new phono stage?
Still loving the looks of the blue light highlights under your plinth and in the amp racks on the floor.
Have you been getting tapes from Dan Schmalle? I've been wanting to get involved in that, and I'm thinking of upgrading my Pioneer RT-909. Any suggestions on a good deck?
I really like the autoformers the pre uses. I don't need any gain with my amps and speakers. The Mac was way overkill. The Sonic Euphoria does a great job of getting out of the way of the music. There is a lot of air and detail.
The Lounge phono stage is nice out of the box. I expect it to get even better with time. It is an outstanding bang for the buck.
Yes, tapes are from The Tape Project. It doesn't get any better than these with a good deck. Analog goodness with CD black background. As for a deck, I really like the Tascam BR20 I'm using. Other options are the Revox C270, Technics RS1500, and Otari MX-5050.
Wayne Parham Messages: 18752 Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
Thanks for those suggestions. I might just pull the trigger on one of those decks.
And like you, I've become a fan of passive attenuators instead of preamps. I designed one a few years back for some of my amp builder friends, mostly a way to provide a remote control for them. See the link below for details. But after building a couple of prototypes, I fell in love with the passive setup and never went back.
Mine is a resistive attenuator rather than an autoformer, and there are differences, to be sure. But I think the main thing is minimizing the number of gain stages. I'm running a single-ended tube amp, and with a good source, it's just about as simple a circuit as one can get.