Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo help with stereo choice

Ola wid
Biasing is infrequent and easy with ASL amps with their beautiful meters. Tubes last a long time and changing tube type changes the sound - tube rolling is fun. 5 wpc is more than enough for the M3s, it certainly is enough for the M22 like, Michaura M55s.

The sound of a good tube amp (not necessarly an expensive amp) is great ... really great.

JMO

You are right Rick, and many visitors that come at our place think I am crazy for spending such money in a setup like this. However, if I can afford it with what I make, which is not that much, how about the people that make 100K a year or more, or those who have just as much at the bank account? It is all matter of personal preferences and priorities. That does not mean that I live in a trailer or eat peanut butter sandwiches, because I purchased my Rotels and Axioms ;-)

Cisco, nobody has suggested that you "downgrade" your receiver/amp choice, but simply that you should consider spending less of your limited budget on it. The main reason for this is that excellent receivers are available at quite low cost which will provide you with audibly flawless amplification, so no "downgrade" in this respect would be involved. Despite frequent reports of some amplifiers mysteriously having "better sound", there appears to be no factual support for this, as controlled blind tests have indicated. On the other hand, speakers differ significantly in their sonic qualities and should be allotted a high proportion of the total budget.

I agree with JohnK that there are many great sounding receivers out there and that some of them can be had for a very reasonable amount of money. I very much disagree with the idea that all solid state amps (receivers) sound the same. That having been said, I had Technics SX? 940 (5 or 6 x 100 watts) I used it for 2 channel with a pair of M3s before I got my ASL tube amp. The Technics had terrific sound quality, noticeably better than my Harman Kardon AVR65 or Sony STRDB 1070. I found the Technics at Frys for something like $150. The HK was expensive. Go figure.

Anyway, I'd consider the following choices for a 2 channel system:

1. Panasonic SAXR 25, 45 or 55 (55 can be had on Amazon for $230, the 25 can be had for under $200. These receivers have digital amplification and have been very well received by folks (who can hear the difference between different amps/receivers) who use them for 2 channel music.

2. check your local classifieds for a high quality 2 channel amp ... I like the Kenwood KA 9100, but there are many great amps out there (you should only consider integrated amps so you don't have to buy a preamp)

Get those M3s, they're great speakers.

If you really want to knock your socks off, fish around for a nice used tube amp (Single End Triode).

Skerdi,

By no means was I saying it was the wrong thing to do by spending what you ( and I ) did on a what we have.I was trying to convey that it does no good to tell the op to go the seperates route when the budget will not allow for it.If by chance he had asked about such a system then I would have said " go fo it ".I have had seperates for nearly 20 years and see no going back to a reciever any time soon.To me the bottom line is if we are happy with we bought then it is all worth it.That is what this is suppose to be about in the first place, isn't it ?

I agree and I am totally happy with my system. That is why many times I can't help but suggest it to others :-)

Why exactly are separates better? So, using Rotel as an example, the RB-1050 and RC-1070 combo (70 wpc) is $400 + $500 resp. = $900 versus the integrated RA-1062 for $700. Please forgive me if these prices are not the lowest, I just did a quick search.

So what is the extra $200 for? Well, 10 wpc. Also the added convenience of being able to upgrade separately. Is there anything else? Any why should there be? What is the intrinsic benefit of building two separate components instead of one? Is it only upgradablility/ flexibility? Is the preamp built into the 1062 inferior to the RC-1070? Again, why not make them the same?

One more question: As I implied in my other post, I will want to really only hook up my computer to this system. Can I hook it up directly to an amp (and therefore control the volume on my computer) or do I need an int. amp or pre-amp first? I guess I really don't know what the preamp does. Even if the sound wasn't the best this way it would give me an upgrade path later on...

I want to understand some of this before I invest in something. I actually have an old technics sa-gx130. The volume control doesn't work well anymore (crackling as I move it) but I may try to fix it, by the M60s ($900) and then upgrade the amp later on if necessary. If the amp isn't THAT important to sound quality this may be the best idea...

Cisco

I would sggest agian you look at the new Outlaw RR2150 receiver which has just come out. It is designed to be a top notch stereo receiver with modern features like usb input direct from a computer. Reports are that it sounds great.

They are, without a doubt, theoretically better. And they can probably be shown to be better in practice, as well. The main thing going for separates is that not everything needs to be crammed into one reasonably-sized box, but can be split across multuple physically separate boxes. One benefit of this is that you can really isolate the power side of your equipment from the audio processing side and reduce possible intference, among other things. As a product designer, you can also splurge on larger, more expensive parts that just would fit into integrated equipment like your average receiver.

In reality, however, it is pretty much impossible to reliably tell the difference between separates and integrated components when compared in a double-blind tests.

Hmmm...that makes sense. Good.

And I am taking a look at the outlaw, thanks Mark.

Cisco