montytx

Responses from montytx

Do dormant cables need "RE" Broken In? If so how long can they sit dormant?
Anytime I've reinstalled cables that have been in storage for months, it has taken around 200 hours for them to stabilize. Sometimes you hit a wall where they don't seem to be improving. In those instances, I disconnect them and reinstall them and... 
Best 12AU7 Type Tubes for a Preamp
I've never been impressed with the RCA clear tops...or Mullards for that matter. The best I've heard are the German tubes, be it Telefunken or Valvo or whatever brand got stamped on the glass. The labels are meaningless for most NOS tubes and the ... 
TUBES: Telefunken EL84 & ECC801
Valvos and Teles are as good as I've heard. If you want to go hard the other direction, try Mullards. Be careful shopping for the European tubes and their high prices. Often times, the labels are meaningless and don't match the actual plant that p... 
What is the answer?
The crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe. 
Do you always keep the Amplifier powered on
On my solid state stuff, I keep the amp AND tuner on and playing 24hrs a day. Sometimes for months. 
Define power hungry...B&W speakers
They're not particularly fussy. Reasonably sensitive at 88db and not dipping below 4.6 ohms according to their specs. How much power depends on what kind of music you listen to, how large your room is and how loud you listen. In a smallish room, 3... 
Test CD
John Atkinson, Editor of Stereophile, created a series of test cds with various tracks to help set-up a system. Frequency response was certainly one of them. You might see if Stereophile still sells them on their site. If not, I've seen them come ... 
cable reviews?
Audioquest Type 4 speaker cable and Audioquest King Cobra are good mates for modest systems. Kimber's PBJ is still a great budget IC if you don't need shielding. Get comfortable with some modestly priced cables and let them settle for a month of l... 
Directional speaker cables - switching direction
While I'm a big believer in cabling, I'm a bigger believer in cable settling, which can take a long time regardless of the directionality of the wire. If you haven't used the wire for a couple of years, you will be essentially settling a new cable... 
Quality system, make poor recordings sound better?
There are certainly numerous ways a recording can be of poor quality, especially with digital recordings. If the recording is suffering from excessive Dynamic Range Compression, which is very common with modern pop recordings and even remastering ... 
How to tell vacuum tube is gone bad??
The brightness of the various tubes are mostly a non-issue as this isn't an indication of the condition of the tube, but more related to where the plates and cathode are in relation to each other. The soot on the glass is also of no concern. Mulla... 
Who believes that Robert Plant
RJ Dio or Klaus Meine. 
Using the Wilson Audio Duette as a center channel?
I would think it wouldn't be a good mate because of its native very forward projection of sound. Not to mention the outboard crossover and the combined size of the speakers and crossover. I love the Duette and would be thrilled to have a pair, but... 
Need some recommendations - hard driving big band
Henry Mancini and John Williams immediately come to mind. Especially if you like movie scores. Mancini's Silver Streak would be something to sample on youtube just to see if you like that sort of thing. 
humming noise
Given your description, I would suspect the cartridge may have moved one of the wire leads into headshell. I'd double check that really good first.