Conrad Johnson Owners.com

Here’s a link. It might be fun for vintage McIntosh fans. http://www.mcintoshaudio.com/ AJ, Thanks for the link. I never heard of Tom, but it looks like he has a thriving business. While nobody ever got hurt buying McIntosh, it has been a long time since the company made anything that appealed to m...

I participated in a double blind test in a room full of other interested audio geeks. A-B, back and forth, fast switch, then slow lingering intervals, everyone marking their cards privately so no one knew what anyone else claimed to hear. End result. 50/50. Meaning none of us heard bupkis.

Lots of people would disagree with me, but my experience is that 40 watt tube amps (I started wit an MC240 back in the day) are wonderful as long as you don’t challenge them on the low end. Once you’ve had serious power, you’re spoiled for 40 watts controlling your bass. I could not agree more. Way...

The nicest set up in those days, in my opinion, was the VPI HW19 Mk III I still still have mine, although mine has an SME Series III with a Shure V15 Vmr. I don't get to listen to it much these days as it is in a house we don't use much, but when I do it still mesmerizes. Also, small world, I was i...

Hi Bear, We seem to track on many things. Among many cartridges I have Shure V15-IV, -Vmr, Stanton 881, Ortofon M Black and its mate the M Mono, Audio Technica AT-150ANV (that won Mikey Fremer's comparison a few years ago). So your singing to the choir about moving magnet cartridges. My comment to y...

Hi Bear, I probably should have offered more information in the interests of full disclosure. I know you understand, but for others who may not know, the SL200G and SL1200GAE only differ in that the latter was an introductory offering that has cosmetic upgrades. Performance-wise they are identical. ...

The VPI HW-40 and the SL1200GAE sit side by side on a maple butcher block table that I had purpose built by a company that specializes in laboratory furniture. The VPI is currently set up for stereo and the GAE mostly for mono, although because of the changeable head shell on the latter, I also use ...

Hi RJ, Well this is such a subjective evaluation that assigning a % improvement seems awfully difficult for me. I did make each upgrade one at a time, and I did compare back and forth and in each case took some notes. My comments on the TEA2Max vs. TEA1/3 have already been provided elsewhere in this...

It is nice to know that my impressions of the TEA1/3 seem reasonable to you guys. For the record Steve Javaherian, AKA Stereo Steve, is also my dealer here in South Florida and is top level in every way. Anyway, since there have been a few changes, my current setup is GAT/2, ART150, and TEA1/3. Spea...

That is very interesting. I had a TEA2MAX (GAT2 up from an ET5 originally) and then upgraded to a TEA1series3. I always had a high opinion of the TEA2MAX and was more than a little startled at the improvement wrought by the TEA1, but don't want to spoil your fun so will let it go at that for now. Ex...

I just double checked to make sure, the tubes are Philips PC88 (not EC88), but again Jeff has 2 of them earmarked for the GAT that he said are quieter. they seem to be holding up just fine. A lot better than just the single tube did in my ET5.

Hi Joe, I tried Gold Lions expecting the sound would be warmer, but there was very little difference in sound and they got noisy within no time at all. The OEM Philips ECC88 tubes last a lot longer and sound terrific, so I went back to them. On a related note three weeks ago I took my TEA1 to the fa...

Thanks Joe.

I would like to try the Telefunkens, have read wonderful things about them, but they cost a king's ransom everywhere I look. Any suggested source that you know of?

It sounds to me like you have too much capacitance with the SUT and what not. You have a very very low out put MC cartridge there. Do you have access to another one with a bit more oomph that would allow you to try it without the SUT? Even if it was just temporarily to see where you are at, it would...

OK, I was afraid someone would call me on this and I sort of wish that I was better at describing these things. Anyway, here goes. As you mentioned, a Bob's Devices SUT has been added to my TEA2MAX. It is a Sky10 meaning it has a 10:1 winding ratio with the option to set it to 5:1. The TEA2MAX high ...

I have rolled tubes in my GAT/2 with surprising results. The Gold Lions sound almost the same as the Philips ECC88s! I was expecting they would be warmer and maybe they are, but not really enough to notice. Equally quiet, it will be interesting to see how long they stay quiet. I intend to switch bac...

I don't want to bore people, but if anyone is seriously into vinyl this should be of interest. OTOH, if you are only casually involved with vinyl or just thinking about it, these are very expensive items for beginners. Caution, I am not a professional reviewer by any means, but if you are interested...

I would be interested in learning how this all comes out. Please stay in touch.

You might get two replies from me. Computer burp. Anyway, it seems like you have pretty well answered your own question. Yes of course you need new tubes and yes you need more gain. I added an SUT to my TEA2MAX, in my case I used a Bob's Devices Sky 10 (10:1), which uses a Cine Mag transformer. Soun...