Tír Na HiFi

bleeding gorgeous, hard to see how that will make the trip back to the shop. lucky man.

Dead jealous. Interesting that it's made you question selling the Ushers too...

Would love to hear that! Really looks amazing! Drools.... :D

That is a thing of beauty Dave!!!

Sure it's in the system gallery thread now, you can't send it back!


How are the dual volume controls working out?


Fran

Well, it was only a matter of time before somebody bit the bullet!! Well done Dave!! Great to see the recession has not beaten us all!!

I hope it works out well for you, will you be running it with a pre amp or just use the direct inputs?

Fran wrote: How are the dual volume controls working out?
Fran

No problem for CD as I use the Wadia via the remote to fine tune the volume, the Airtight is left at a fixed setting at about 1/2 its max volume.
For vinyl I have to use the dual controls on the amp but I had to do this with the Music First pre anyway. The controls on the Airtight have much finer adjustments over the Music First so that's a plus for me.

One ever so *slight* issue that I have is that I have some brightness on some recordings. There is more detail there for sure along with many other improvements but I notice an extra bit of brightness on some female vocals. This was unexpected as I was expecting a smoother and more rounded sound given that its a valve amp. Not sure where this is coming from. It's common on both my CD and Vinyl. All cables in the system are Nordost. I'm somewhat a cable skeptic but perhaps I should look at the cabling. Ivor has offered a lend of his Music Stradas so those will be interesting.

@Adrian. I'm using the direct inputs on the amp. My Music First preamp is up for sale now.

I have heard it said in the past that this amp is on the brighter end of the spectrum, certainly not warm and cuddly. That said, I'd really try a bit of cable sampling here, suspending disbelief as long as necessary!

Diapason wrote:I have heard it said in the past that this amp is on the brighter end of the spectrum, certainly not warm and cuddly. That said, I'd really try a bit of cable sampling here, suspending disbelief as long as necessary!

I think I will try that. I'm using Nordost superflatline speaker cable and I've read in a few places that some people think its bright. I will also try Algorithm C on the Wadia as that's supposed to give a more relaxed presentation.

I've been using Algorithm C recently and, while the effect is subtle, it is indeed a little more relaxed. If you can get some hands on some Kubala Sosna cable to try, that might be worth a go.