who repairs sonic frontiers?

Don't use UPS as they will hit you up for customs "brokerage fees" and these can be steep. Consider shipping the cost of doing business. I have a Line 1 and am very happy with it. If you Americans keep buying enough good hi-fi stuff from us then maybe we can stop using Monopoly money as a currency here. Yes it is a conspiricy and the fifth column (consumer electronics) is moving in. We want your warmer winter weather. That's the real reason there are so many Canucks playing UT: it's too damn cold outside.

I had a good laugh at it all. One correction - 80% of us are on our border! Peace.

Mdomnick,
Have you done any tube rolling yet and if so, what tubes?
Chances of seeing me in UT are slim to none - I'm getting too old to have reflexes fast enough to play that. Diablo2 and Strategy games are about my speed. I have some relatives in California, Missouri, and Jersey - all of which probably have warmer winter than Illinois. But I can guarantee you that my winter is far and away colder but without the humidity you likely get from the great lakes.

Mdomnick,

Ok, the guy beats me by five. Still, I've never been good at first person shooters. Besides, when I get into a game I tend to go off the deepend and forget about all other things in this world - like eating, sleeping....

I just picked up the Line 1 a week and a half ago used ($950US or $1500 in Monopoly money $C). I am enjoying the sound quite a bit. I had been using my Onkyo 747 SRS receiver as a pre into my Anthem MCA-20 and the Line 1 just adds all kinds of good things like high frequency extension and air. The soundstage depth has improved tremendously. I have ordered an Audition cable package from Virtual Dynamics ( http://www.virtualdynamics.ca ). They should arrive Tuesday (Monday is Thanksgiving here). I have the Power 3 and Power 1 power cords here and they made a tremendous improvement in low end dynamics and added a little extra oomph to the sound level in that range as well. What got me going to the Audition package was that I had to exchange the Power 3 due to a defect in the IEC end plus I needed an extra PC now that I've added the pre and the cost would have been about 40% for what I truly needed but for the extra I get a whole lot more. I will report back once I get them and have time to do a proper evaluation on them. I will probably start a new thread in the cable section at that time. Currently using HT Pro-11 for speakers and HT Truthlinks between pre and amp. Cardas crosslink between Musical Fidelity A3CD and pre. Should connect my tape deck one of these days... .

Keep me posted on the tube experiments. I currently have the original 2.5 year old Sovteks in. Perhaps it might be time to go around to some of the old TV shop and look for NOS tubes.

T^2

M,

I also have the Studio 100's plus a PW220 plus a Studio CC plus a pair of Paradigm Mini Monitors on Atlantis stands in the rear. The Onkyo passes through the Line 1 for HT. I don't need the greatest fidelity for HT because I am more focused on the picture to worry overly much about the sound so long as it's adequate. Toshiba SD-5700 DVD. My critical listening is in the realm of two channel.

I've read about the rearmost two tubes trick. I am going to wait until the cables are in and settled before trying to determine what pair of tubes to order to tailor the sound just right. I can hardly wait as the sound is just about "that close" to where I want it.

The Musical Fidelity A3CD is a single disk unit I've been very happy with since picking it up in the Spring. I may go to a Musical Fidelity A3-24 DAC down the road but am not in any particular rush to do so, the sound is that good. I've spent too much money this year as it is - way too much. This is the nature of addiction I guess.

I have heard really good things about the Amp 2 and wanted one but took the MCA-20 instead. Couldn't find an Amp 2 as Anthem has dicontinued all their tube gear. The 20 is good enough for now. I may wind up using it for the HF down the road and biamp with a Bryston 4B SST on the bottom down the road but again no rush. I would really like to try some Oval 9's in my system in a bi-wire setup with the 9's of course on the bottom as I hear the do wonders on bass signals. I will wait until I evaluate this complete VD Audition cable package before continuing hunting for more cables.

There was an SE version of the Amp 2 released a while back. I wonder if Anthem was also doing SE upgrades to existing product. I might send my Line 1 to Toronto next spring for the SE upgrade.

One thing about the system now though is if I put on a badly mastered/EQ'd CD I won't leave it on because the sound is just too poor to listen to. A number of my older CD's are trash. This is mostly stuff from the 70's and early 80's transfered quickly to CD for the record companies to cash in on the new format. Fortunately some of the old stuff is being remastered and released once again. The early David Bowie is a good example. Don't get the feeling that I'm living in the past. For most of my friends there hasn't been any good music made since 1982. I on the other hand will listen to almost anything from classical to hard core so I have lots of musical options. Having said that there are still bad recordings being released in this day and age which is inexcuseable.

That's enough early Sat AM rant. Thanks for listening.

Peace,
T^2