what is driving your altecs?

[Mike Gibson]

Nope, no Wadia. A Sony 707esd and a Mac mcd-205.

[timp]

How do you like your sony compare to the mac? I hear that sony makes a wonderful transport.

Tim

[GM]

Well, thanks to Brad I have a 9444A/SA on loan, but despite his and several other's considerable efforts I've still no preamp to drive it at a distortion level I can tolerate and just when I thought I might could go buy at least a refurbished used one, life tossed yet a few more financial 'roadblocks' up..........

Regardless, my Sony TA3200F would still be driving the mids/HF if it were working and the Mac MC2300 I used for decades would be driving the 515s. I have auditioned many tube and SS amps, especially on mids and/or HF horns (depending on what was in the system at the time), but when properly set up I heard nothing that improved on these WRT my performance goals.

GM

[Mike Gibson]

Tim, to these old ears there is no contest. The 205 is just so much better. The Sony is no slouch but the newer DACs in the 205 make a difference even I can hear.

The transport on the Sony is heavier than most new CD players. Someday I may buy a newer DAC for it if I can find a good used one.

The Mac is a changer and uses the Nakamichi changer which is reputed to be a good unit.

I still think for the best bang for your buck is a older Denon if you can live with used. The 1500, 1500II, 1560, 2560 and 3300 can be had fairly cheaply these days. I have this weakness for orphaned Denons so have several laying around

[bfish]

GM
That 9444's yours man, I made no "loan" agreement (so if it breaks...tough stuff...)

The parts I ordered (and received) for your HK pre still haven't shown themselves in my repeat searches through my bottomless pit of "stuff", so either I'll have to reorder or attempt it with house stock. Been too busy lately making ends meet to make headway on much of anything. Starting to look like I may have to get a (choke/roll eyes/sweat/shiver/shudder) j-o-b* again.

*now there's a word that the badwordbot SHOULD filter!

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ June 07, 2008 11:57 AM: Message edited by: bfish ]</font>

[bfish]

Bummer. There went any faith I might have had in Sony's published specs. For the DVP-NS700P, they claim +/- 0.5dB from 2Hz to 20kHz from CD on the analog output. PCM out is downsampled to 48kHz, but that shouldn't give HF emphasis for any reason I'm aware of.

I always thought my Sony DVD/SACD combo had a bit of HF tilt when set flat too. Just dismissed it as a room thing and EQ'd to ear.

[selmerdave]

GM,

Wouldn't those sound characteristics be the result of the DAC/output section rather than the transport? IOW, would those same characteristics show up in the digital signal from the transport?

FWIW I just got a relatively low-end Sony DVD player for use as a transport with my CAL player's output section, so I guess I'll find out. I just need to make a digital IC and I'll report my findings.

Dave

[timp]

Sorry folks. I meant to say that the 707es makes a good transport. I didn't mean the entire sony cd products.

Tim

[GM]

Originally posted by bfish:
GM
That 9444's yours man, I made no "loan" agreement (so if it breaks...tough stuff...)

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">OK, thanks! Fair enough. I just assumed it was only on loan until you could fix the Sony. I hear you WRT the $$ crunch. I've been trying to collect my pension due me come Aug. 1 for months now, but they're doing everything legally possible to short me a sizable percentage and unfortunately the laws are so slack in their favor that they can drag it on until I'm 65 in the hope that I'll be forced to accept their bogus terms. Unfortunately, getting a job isn't much of an option for me, so not sure what I'm going to do since my financial planning didn't allow for this type of setback.

GM

[GM]

Originally posted by timp:

Hey GM. Your speakers were one of the best systems I've heard. Mine doesn't come close to yours.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Greets!

Thanks! Well, it's not designed to, so not a fair comparison just as my previous system was at least as much different/better (and probably more so) than between yours and my current one.

GM