Recent content by PJ2000

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    First Impressions of the Magnepan LRS vs. the LRS+

    After months of waiting, I finally received my new LRS+ this week. I had a chance to do some very preliminary listening and testing. These are my subjective opinions and should be taken as such. It would be hard to do a blind test as these speakers sound different enough that you could identify...
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    Amplifier Bakeoff: Purifi Eval1, McIntosh MA252 & Benchmark AHB2

    It is clearly a poor excuse if someone is just looking for an excuse, but if there wasn't a case to improve the quality of some component in the chain, and that that those improvements could lead to better quality, then what exactly is the point of this forum? Could we reach the point of...
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    Amplifier Bakeoff: Purifi Eval1, McIntosh MA252 & Benchmark AHB2

    It was interesting to see if a 'blind' test would result in the same subjective preference that I had. Subjectively I preferred the Purifi in casual listening and then quasi-objectively again in our test that we did, since I ranked them the same in all tests and the Purifi was always in...
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    Amplifier Bakeoff: Purifi Eval1, McIntosh MA252 & Benchmark AHB2

    I think I ended up paying around $1400, which is really dumb considering that VTV sells it for a few hundred dollars less. I didn't realize that they had a Purifi Eval-1 based design as they started out with just the Hypex buffer.
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    Amplifier Bakeoff: Purifi Eval1, McIntosh MA252 & Benchmark AHB2

    Yeah, but we recalibrated each amplifier on each sample, as a result this would introduce a random variation. Your point would be valid if we had only calibrated each amplifier once and then listened to the 6 songs.
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    Amplifier Bakeoff: Purifi Eval1, McIntosh MA252 & Benchmark AHB2

    OK, How so? I would love a more in-depth explanation as I don't understand how that could be the case.
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    Amplifier Bakeoff: Purifi Eval1, McIntosh MA252 & Benchmark AHB2

    Sure, but poor controls should have led to the expected case, i.e. random distribution. Please read the original descriptions on items like extraneous noise. We actually had a very loud movie playing while switching to mask any potential switching noises. Since none of us could see behind us...
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    Amplifier Bakeoff: Purifi Eval1, McIntosh MA252 & Benchmark AHB2

    I don't think that the implication is that amp is 'absolutely' superior, rather that I found it to be subjectively favorable. The more interesting question isn't favorability as much as whether amps with equally great (beyond the threshold of hearing) measurements can be differentiated. As far...
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    Amplifier Bakeoff: Purifi Eval1, McIntosh MA252 & Benchmark AHB2

    Again thanks for comments and ideas, we will definitely factor those in to the next time we do a test. But while the problems that have been pointed out are valid, it doesn't change the fundamental problem of explaining how I ended up with exactly the same sequence of 1,2,3 six times in a row...
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    Amplifier Bakeoff: Purifi Eval1, McIntosh MA252 & Benchmark AHB2

    Well we did to the best of our knowledge. Clearly where there is an opportunity to improve our testing methodology in any future testing, we will for sure. In this case the Mic was on a fixed stand on a heavy table and it was not moved in any way shape or form. The only motion of the Mic in...
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    Amplifier Bakeoff: Purifi Eval1, McIntosh MA252 & Benchmark AHB2

    Fair point. Next time we do this we will try factor in all the feedback on potentially uncontrolled variables. That being said, if there was an error in calibration of levels, that would need to be a systematic error to skew the results in a specific direction vs. adding random 'noise.' Why do...
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    Amplifier Bakeoff: Purifi Eval1, McIntosh MA252 & Benchmark AHB2

    No we were in the same room and the operator was behind us.
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    Amplifier Bakeoff: Purifi Eval1, McIntosh MA252 & Benchmark AHB2

    No we had to use it in the highest gain mode for as close to parity as possible across the amplifers.
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    Amplifier Bakeoff: Purifi Eval1, McIntosh MA252 & Benchmark AHB2

    Yeah it would be nice to have had a 'switch' as that would have made the process faster allowing for more samples also. We will think about that for next time.
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    Amplifier Bakeoff: Purifi Eval1, McIntosh MA252 & Benchmark AHB2

    All the actual recordings we listened to and scored were generally no higher than 90-95 dB. We did try maxing out all the amps to see where they would clip and even the McIntosh could drive the Magicos to decent levels. Frankly none of them were loud enough that any of the amplifiers were...
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