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So, what did you get yourself for the holidays?

My guess is that most of us are "hard to buy for". That said, I get my own presents.

Outside of audio, this holiday season I treated myself to a 3D printer (Bambu Lab P1S), a ZWO Seestar S50 smart telescope, and I will be ordering a PiFinder for my 20" telescope next week.

In the world of audio I upgraded my Rogue Cronus Magnum II to the III. I added the home theater feature so I can put a tube pre-amp between my DAC and the amp at a later date. And since they had the amp in the shop I added a processor loop in the event my hearing would benefit from additional processing in years to come. I'm a small spender for this group and I expect this is my ultimate amp. I will upgrade other components over time, but this is making me very happy right now. Besides, my astronomy hobby is where most of my extra money goes. 

I've been playing the CR III for the past week and it is an amazing upgrade. It also helps that my backup amp was a major step down and since I hand delivered and picked up the amp I've been without the CM since October.

As far as the new amp goes, I love the triode mode and the phono pre-amp is noticeably improved. I'll test out the new headphone circuit in January, I don't use headphones often so I won't be able to weigh in on any improvement, just the end result.

So, what did you get for yourself?

 

 

 

markcasazza
foggyus91's avatar
foggyus91
612 posts
 

@buellrider97 I will pull a pair from my other amp and do a comparison so it is apples to apples. Stand by. 

 

how do those sound compared to the NOS Tekefunken E88CC’s ? 

zavato's avatar
zavato
1,483 posts
 

Fun question! A couple of LPs. For me, at this point, my system is well set and it’s all about the music 

 

markcasazza's avatar
markcasazza OP
50 posts
 

I forgot all about the media. I'm a vinyl fan and true to the budget audiophile that I claim to be I buy everything used and clean it well. I've been on a bit of a burn since Thanksgiving. I just added Jethro Tull to my target list earlier this year and I have just about every release now. I even picked up one for my wife. This is what is new to my collection:

Tommy Shaw What If
Chris Squire Fish Out Of Water
AD Time Line
Jethro Tull Thick As A Brick
Jethro Tull A Passion Play
Jethro Tull Stand Up
Jethro Tull Too Old To Rock 'N' Roll: Too Young To Die!
Jethro Tull Crest Of A Knave
Jethro Tull Benefit
Jethro Tull Heavy Horses
Chris Rea Tennis
The Hooters Zig Zag
The Moody Blues In The Beginning...
The Doors Other Voices
Steve Winwood Steve Winwood
Uriah Heep Abominog
Rick Springfield Hard To Hold - Soundtrack Recording
bassbuyer's avatar
bassbuyer
886 posts
 

For audio SVS upgrades.  SB 3000 sub, Evolution center channel and a pair of Evolution Elevation speakers.  For video, a Samsung S90F 55 inch TV.  

faustuss's avatar
faustuss
815 posts
 

"On the audiophile front I’m thinking about snagging a Rotel a8 integrated in silver to use with the Dali Oberon 5s I bought for kicks and an inexpensive if I can find one mc step up transformer to use with it’s phono input. Think it will work a treat with my Luxman PD151 MKII and my Hana ML cartridge as a change of pace."

I have an update on this since as of yesterday I found an a8, open box at MD in the silver finish I wanted and immediately ordered it and last night after contemplating for a while now what to do for a step-up transformer to use with the phono stage in the Rotel I decided on a very inexpensive WisWinDa Pro RCA passive preamp with a 1:2 step-up. I considered Bellari, the newly introduced Pro-Ject MC Step-up Box S3 or maybe buying a used Ortofon one. I also looked at several of the versions of the Reisong ones that actually seem to get some acclaim but prices for the exact same units varies from well under a $100 to well over $200! Looks sketchy and in all of the above cases I couldn't justify the expense for the a8, so the WisWinDa got my vote for $70 plus tax and freight. It looks cool and it's supposed to arrive Tuesday. With so little risk, I'll see if it floats.

I've completely forgotten about all the other stuff I've been doing. Friday, the three Analog Products reissues of the Julie London albums arrived, I preordered the two Etta James albums scheduled, one arriving in January and I ordered a short stack of out-of-print Mofi Frank Sinatra LPs from MD yesterday that'll probably be here by the end of the week. Been on a kind of a splurge!

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