True but I was tallking about the HEA and they (Magico) hold their own.. frankly the A5 would give some of our darlings som serious competition .. ... of course they (Magico) being of the HEA have some nonsense but...
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What gear you wouldn't buy because of its name or cult status.
- Thread starter Liya
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Beautiful system... Wow!
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A good outdoor antenna, especially motorized so you can orient it.
billyjoebob
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No. No. No herd mentality here!This unfortunate answer? yes. There are brands that I liked without any reason other than convinced that they sounded good. I would think that many subjectivist audiophiles behave that way too. There is a herd mentality in the HEA. Out of nowhere a brand comes and people flock to it and it, sometimes, disappears, comes another and the cycle continues... . Back in the days, in the late 80's, early 90's there was a school of "synergy", it is still around, perhaps not as strong or perhaps I haven't kept up with what's going on at the HEA (High End Audio) level: They would marry said-dark tonalities components with lighter-shade of tones, components. And they would assign such "quality" to a brand... and, the subjective audiophiles, will believe... For example Spectral was "cold", Mark Levinson "dark", Rowland a bit "mellow", tube-like, Audio Research was supposed to be the more neutral of tubes-wares and Conrad Johnson the more "chocolatey", "velvety"... So you married a "cold" preamp to a "warm" amp, using "neutral" sources that were leaning toward the "mellow" and of couse with cables of appropriate character.... And you spent increasingly more money, lot of it, chasing that forever wrong-sounding audio system, with amplifier changes, preamplifier changes, cable changes, eventually speaker changes, you dropped without any measurements a forest of tall cylinders in your listening environment, the famous ASC Tube Traps, found out the bass lacking then bought a different cable, amp, speaker...
I did like and continue to respect some HEA brands that tend to produce components of serious quality and objective performances, among these :Magico, YG Acoustics, Revel, Bryston (they of the 20 years warranty)... There are others that I can't recall at the moment, nor do I want to
Peace.
Just amused at such a long list!
I don't typically take notice of negative thread topics, yours was just long, and made me laugh. Not a personal attack! Sorry.
Ricardus
Addicted to Fun and Learning
Full disclosure. I own a Carver 900 Receiver that I bought in about 1988. I feel like it served me well. I haven't plugged it in, in a few years, but it was working last time I used it. I might recap it one of these days.
EarlyQuits
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1st post here. Surprised no one has replied with
MONSTER CABLE
yet.
MONSTER CABLE
yet.
Ralph_Cramden
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Tuner Information Center - Vintage Stereo Tuners
Reviews and photos of vintage stereo tuners, including Kenwood, Sansui, Pioneer, McIntosh, Yamaha, Accuphase, Onkyo, Denon, Rotel, Technics, Tandberg, Magnum Dynalab. Ceramic filter modifications.
I’ve had several good ones, but they don’t make a lot of sense anymore locally - maybe in a large cosmopolitan city.
Only one I’ve kept is the 8-gang Kenwood Supreme 600T. Love its deviation meter - NPR is the only station where it moves, a lot. The others all peg at full scale, all the time.
Agreed. I have the Fanfare that looks like car antenna and works great in my remote location. But sadly you can only get them used. I guess streaming is slowly killing FM.
The Sony XRD- FM1HD tuners often get high praise.
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As totally weird as you describe it, it was more often the case than not, in the tweako 'high end'.
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There was nothing wrong with the Bob Carver, from his 'blue collar' Phase Linear and Carver Corp. days. He offered value for your dollar, in spite of the sometimes goofiness of his marketing.
His later tube stuff (possibly excepting the Silver Seven, and only within the overall context of a too-often outrageous 'high end' thing), is a different animal, and probably best avoided, if it can't be forgotten.
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In the days of FM, you needed a good antenna. Absolutely. It would make an average tuner perfectly serviceable.
On the other hand, if you lived near a powerful station transmitting on a wavelength close to a more distant weaker station, or lived in the middle of NYC with all its high rises, or needed to listen to a distant station, the tuner itself was an important consideration. Unless you had one of those requirements, by the late '70s, any mid-level tuner was as good as you'd likely need. In those circumstances, you read Len Feldman's tuner reviews.
But, generally, the cheaper option for the vast majority of suburban listeners back then was to install an outdoor yagi. I bought mine from Radio Shack. Totally worthwhile.
I'm reminded of some tuner reviews by David Rich and Richard Modafferi (designer of the McIntosh MR78) in the Audio Critic. One of the best tuners was a car audio unit from Blau (I believe it was). But who wants a car radio in their system? On the other hand, a super expensive (but lovely) Accuphase came misaligned, out of the box.
FM tuners and open reel--two audio components I'll never miss.
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If a name I usually deride offers something I like which I think offers value then I wouldn't boycott it on the basis of the name. I can't stand Audioquest and their snake oil cable BS but I still have a soft spot for the Nighthawk headphones and am glad I have a pair.
Ricardus
Addicted to Fun and Learning
I listened to about a million hours of music with that thing, and cosmetically it's still mint.
I looked for the opposite in those badges (thanx @restorer-john) the one I would avoid the most is the Sony nameplate.
Daang!... I even worked for them for a decade but my hate is because of their many territorial 'proprietary/format shenanigans': ...'nuf said!
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Vacceo
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I listen to a lot, really a lot of talk radio. When I moved to the US I still listened to radio stations from back home, the time difference was a fun extra (listening to the afternoon programs in the morning at work). TuneIn and Chromecast were some of the best discoveries I did over there and I still use it. Forgetting about the tuner was, I agree with you, one of the best things I have ever done.In the days of FM, you needed a good antenna. Absolutely. It would make an average tuner perfectly serviceable.
On the other hand, if you lived near a powerful station transmitting on a wavelength close to a more distant weaker station, or lived in the middle of NYC with all its high rises, or needed to listen to a distant station, the tuner itself was an important consideration. Unless you had one of those requirements, by the late '70s, any mid-level tuner was as good as you'd likely need. In those circumstances, you read Len Feldman's tuner reviews.
But, generally, the cheaper option for the vast majority of suburban listeners back then was to install an outdoor yagi. I bought mine from Radio Shack. Totally worthwhile.
I'm reminded of some tuner reviews by David Rich and Richard Modafferi (designer of the McIntosh MR78) in the Audio Critic. One of the best tuners was a car audio unit from Blau (I believe it was). But who wants a car radio in their system? On the other hand, a super expensive (but lovely) Accuphase came misaligned, out of the box.
FM tuners and open reel--two audio components I'll never miss.
Blaupunkt, you know your stuff. They were legendary and expensive compared to the Japanese and American radios. Way better than Delco " the more you know, the more you know Delco"
Blaupunkt - Wikipedia
Pretty much everything on 6moon, particularly the esoteric stuff reviewed by Marja&Henk. I am very sorry though to hear of their recent passing: looking at the pictures of their living room, audio clearly was a passion of theirs, I just couldn't agree with their idea of physics.
