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  1. GregDunn

    Dynaco preamps

    There's no reason not to use any good Dynaco preamp, tube or solid state. In fact, the PAT-5 probably has lower distortion than any other piece of gear Dynaco made - it's certainly as good as any preamp made in the 70s. If you put something like the TL07x series op amps in one, it will even...
  2. GregDunn

    Making my own TO-92 heatsinks, will they be good enough?

    Wait, you're replacing TO-220 cases with TO-92? No matter how well you heat sink them, the case is only designed to dissipate about half a Watt, maybe a little more. TO-220 is designed to dissipate as much as 40-50 Watts if properly sinked. If you're certain the device is only going to be...
  3. GregDunn

    Running out of headroom vs. clipping?

    The Wiki article is pretty good, but there are two small things that aren't completely discussed: 1) The concept of a "current amplifier" vs. a "voltage amplifier" doesn't really apply to the typical stereo system; speakers are designed to be driven by voltage sources (even electrostatics...
  4. GregDunn

    Let's Restore A Dynaco ST-400!

    Well, most electrolytics are -20%, +80% so you're actually more likely to get higher than spec values (like the original Dyna caps). The ones I bought from Digi-Key and Mouser consistently measured below spec, which is not typical of quality caps. I did in fact order values 30-40% larger than...
  5. GregDunn

    Let's Restore a Dynaco PAT-5!

    There's nothing wrong with the PAT-5 or 410; sonically, they're as good as anything you can buy today. Interestingly, for all the brouhaha about re-capping and modifying the Dyna solid state units, every time I've disassembled one for checkout and repair I've found the ancient caps to be in...
  6. GregDunn

    Multiple subwoofers?

    If you're really serious about evening out the bass response, the first thing you should do is find out what you have without subs. Download REW (free) and get a decent calibrated mic such as a UMIK-1, and run a plot on your system. REW also gives you a room simulator to help you find the room...
  7. GregDunn

    Siegfried Linkwitz interview

    Misspelled Russ Riley's name in the video intro... :( Siegfried, we're going to miss you. A true pioneer and a free spirit in a world filled with people who don't understand math or acoustics.
  8. GregDunn

    Stacking speakers?

    After reading The Absolute Sound's rave review of the stacked Advents, I borrowed a friend's pair for the weekend and tried both inverted and side-by-side stacking. I had 400 watts per channel, so I wasn't stressing the amp at all. Result? They were noticeably bigger sounding - more bass and...
  9. GregDunn

    Klipsch KLF10 vs Infinity 7 Kappas vs Infinity Kappa 8.1s

    It's definitely going with what your ears prefer. I haven't yet heard a pair of Klipsch I can stand to be in the room with, especially the horn drivers. All the way from the big Horns to the Heresy, they have had that teeth-grating "edge" to the mids and highs - even with the L-pads down...
  10. GregDunn

    What Speaker Guy or gal are you out of All the brands that ever existed on the Earth?

    It's all about room positioning. Being a vertical line source, if you set the panels up so that the tweeter radiation patterns cross in the right place (depends, but often the optimum is just in front of the listening area) the lateral directivity is sufficiently wide that I can sit comfortably...
  11. GregDunn

    Amp shootout

    How are you ensuring that the levels are accurately matched, and switching quickly between the amps? If you take more than a few seconds to switch amps, any putative sonic differences will evaporate from your short-term memory.
  12. GregDunn

    Firefly

    The best TV series ever to get cancelled.
  13. GregDunn

    What tickets are in your pocket? (What's the next concert you are headed to?)

    I sadly had to miss The Coathangers in Indy last week, due to a photo shoot commitment. The next certain show will be August, when a small Canadian rock band called Motion Device comes to The Vogue on a limited tour. With luck, I'll be able to catch local jazz band The Time Flies in between...
  14. GregDunn

    No new music after 30.

    I'm well over twice the cutoff listed in the original article, and if I can't find something new to listen to every month or so, I feel like I'm wasting my listening time. It always amuses me to run across someone who says things like "Oh, the music from the (pick one: 60s/70s/80s/90s) was the...
  15. GregDunn

    Recommendations for budget solid state preamp with BIG soundstage

    I would say "only". Unless you're running some kind of Dolby-like processing and additional speakers...
  16. GregDunn

    Anybody ever needledrop their lp collection?

    I've sold all my LPs except for the 20-30 or so which have nice cover art (the only weak point of digital media) and the few which I digitized because somehow they were never released in digital form. I think maybe a few were mastered poorly on the CD releases, so I transferred those to digital...
  17. GregDunn

    Todays Speakers vs Vintage Speakers

    The problem I have with these discussions is that I originally got into higher level audio equipment in order to find a system which was more accurate, not one that "sounded better." The whole concept of looking for a speaker which makes appealing noises on the majority of recordings but...
  18. GregDunn

    BIG Speakers. Let's see them!!

    My newly refurbished Tympani 1-C system. Large, but not voluminous. Even though they're just 3/4 inch thick, they still weigh about 200 pounds for the pair (each panel has steel bracing over the heavy wood frames). Add in the Dayton 18" sub with cabinet and amp (not shown), and we're probably...
  19. IMG_1974

    IMG_1974

  20. GregDunn

    KLH Model 9

    I had a chance to listen to a pair back in the 70s; they belonged to a local audiophile who definitely knew what he was doing when he set them up - he spent a lot of time positioning them and even searching for an amp which worked well with their finicky load. Of course, these were the original...
  21. GregDunn

    Remove epoxy from Stereo 410 PC-28 board?

    A quick update - I got all the parts for a complete refresh of the PC-28 boards and did a quick survey of the boards to see if I could get them working with minimal soldering. I plan to completely strip the chassis and have it re-done, but really wanted to be sure there wasn't something major...
  22. GregDunn

    Bose 141....why the hate?

    To me the issue is that a Camry is not priced as an upmarket car, whereas Bose's higher end products are priced as though they are something special. The original 901 was as expensive as a pair of AR3a, yet had a frequency response badly lacking at the extremes compared to it. Yeah, if you...
  23. GregDunn

    Sub port question

    The port volume should be the same for each configuration; calculations using the T-S parameters basically assume a certain mass of the air in the port. So if you're using 3 ports, each one should be 1/3 the volume of the single port version and of course if the depth is the same, the total...
  24. GregDunn

    Passive radiator - what will increase bass output?

    In order to accurately calculate the cone mass for a PR you must know the active driver Thiele-Small parameters as well as the box size, the desired tuning frequency, etc. For a given driver and box, pretty much only one PR cone mass will work properly. As stated above, if you increase the...
  25. GregDunn

    How loud before your planar speakers distort?

    Yup, I'm sure my average power rarely exceeds 10W per panel because the 1A fuse corresponds to roughly 8W. But of course with dynamic source material the peaks can be more than 10 dB higher - and that tracks with my LED meters. Oddly, the music which pushes them the hardest is organ music with...
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