The remote, the relay pots (like in my Freya), and the build quality. Totally worth it even after just a few days enjoying it. I'm sure the Lokius sounds great also as do the 2 Lokis I've used, so there may not be that much incentive to get the Max if you already have a Lokius. Note that it's not always in the mix but it works so well when it is (like the Loki it replaced...now relegated to my headphone amp. My other Loki in in my video rig) it's just cool. I wish they could have somehow put little lights in the knobs so you could see what's what from the listening position (I have a preamp with a tiny knob light that works great, relegated to the video stuff), but...meh. Maybe I'll put a little paint dot on the knobs. Another good thing is that the lights aren't too bright...I went through hell taking my original version Freya apart to paint the lights with something to dim them, as re-assembling the Freya with the lights matching their respective holes was very difficult. Whew. I tried the balanced inputs on the Max and they sound exactly like the RCAs so I'm leaving in the RCAs (take up less space). Highly recommended.
What new gear have you just bought?
I figured this might be an interesting topic for people of all levels of audio knowledge. For folks like me at the lower end of the spectrum, we might even learn some things from it.
I'll start off with a couple of my recent purchases which entails a CD recorder and a CD player.
A couple of weeks ago I purchased the Tascam CD-RW900SX CD Recorder/Player. I bought this to make a CD out of an old cassette I made way back in 1988. The tape still sounds mint but it won't forever so I wanted the digital copy before it was too late. The machine itself works pretty good. I had a tough time with some of the instructions but finally figured most of it out. The CD's came out great. It took two blank CD's because it is a 90 minute cassette. If anybody is wondering, I used Maxell blank CD's. I'll get some Verbatim blank discs now that I know what I'm doing. The cassette was done on a Maxell XLll blank tape 35 years ago.
My other recent purchase was this week. I bought a Rotel CD11 Tribute (Black) CD player. The Rotel name seems to come up on Audiogon a lot so I figured it must be decent for it's price range. I could simply use the aforementioned recorder as a player also but I don't want to use the transport in the recorder for simple playback so it will last longer. The Rotel sounds pretty good to me in my system for as much as I've tried it out so far. Especially for it's price range. All I've played so far was Robert Plant Fate of Nations because it was the first thing I grabbed off the shelf. This weekend I'll check it out further with some Pink Floyd and a little classical music to boot. Specifically,Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. I love the rendition I have of that with real cannon and musket fire!
The Rotel CD11 Tribute is not a super expensive CD player but it will be a good stand-in until I can get my vintage Harman Kardon CD players serviced. Two of them stopped reading discs just a few weeks apart.
Anybody else want to share some recent purchases? I'll be sure to look up more information on anything that piques my interest. Also, if anyone has any questions on my recent acquisitions I'll do my best to answer them . Thanks.
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- 92 posts total
- 92 posts total