John,

That's interesting about the Sansui. One of my buddies has a Sansui pre-amp and 170W/channel power amp (good for 340 clean Watts into 4 Ohms apparently).

Anyway, these things are absolute monsters! He purchased them in 1984 and he has a hand-written certificate from the factory attesting to their tight specifications over the entire frequency range. Over the years he's had to make extensive modifications to improve the cooling inside the power amp and he has to remove and re-insert the termination boards every 6 months because they develop an oxide build-up.

I was over at his place last night listening to Dire Straits through his Nuances and I was totally impressed with the immediacy and tightness of the bass. And when he turned it up loud, it didn't hurt...it just got more filling. Now of course it could be his room acoustics but we'll know for sure by the end of this weekend I think. He's planning on bringing the amps and his Nuances over so that we can do multiple comparisons.

That promises to be interesting.

You're right about needing a reference. I distinctly remember a lonely oboe in one recording though and it was just wafting and begging me to turn it up . I'm pretty sure that was pianissimo so I put myself out of my misery and just cranked it. Of course a few seconds later, a crescendo came along and my heart skipped a few beats .

Pre 1982 Sansui units were built with the best components and materials which gained that company a huge following and rep worldwide. American management was parachuted in shortly thereafter to deal with competition from Sony, Pioneer, and Matsushita, and the rising yen. Their cost-cutting zeal lowered the Sansui brands quality image. The company never recovered and eventually went bankrupt. There is a code in the serial number which reveals when the unit was built and on which production line but any units built before 1982 have really stood the test of time and are usually outstanding buys.

You know, John, if you ever need to unload any of that stuff...

I need to do that Tom. Too much unused stuff around the house which I should get organized for a sale.

Mo, my own listening practices for classical music are similar to those Eric describes and I do want to hear pp or ppp moments somewhere around 50dB, for the effect the composer intended. This uses less than a hundredth of a watt, and even on my most dynamic classical recordings the brief peaks are within the capabilities of my receiver, so I need nothing more, since unused headroom is simply that: unused. The highest max I ever measured was 104dB.

You're very fortunate to have a much quieter room than mine, John. One day I need to figure out where all that noise is coming from.

Don't know if it's been posted already, but CNet Blogs have picked up on on the release of tue Audiobytes! Woo hoo, publicity!


http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9819965-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Man, I can't wait for them to ship!