I am often asked why vinyl sounds so darn good and why compact disc (CD) was created if vinyl was/is a ‘better’ medium. So, let’s answer the question: “Vinyl vs CD – is vinyl higher resolution?” Vinyl vs CD – what’s better? This isn’t a simple question to answer. What makes a ‘better’ medium in […]
The classic Dual 601 turntable isn’t as well-known as contemporaries from Thorens and Rega, but it is a great turntable. Features The Dual 601 is a lovely belt-drive deck and offers quite a bit that other contemporaries don’t in terms of deck automation, vernier speed adjustment and noise isolation. I should note that these decks
I was recently asked by a customer to repair and service his Marantz CD-63 KI Signature CD player. The player was misbehaving, not reading the table of contents (TOC) with some discs and was also skipping occasionally. I was actually really pleased to work on one of these classic disc spinners again. The Marantz players
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In this article, I discuss the history of the LM3886/chip-amp/gaincard and run through building my own dual-mono LM3886 gainclone amplifier. The LM3886 is one of Texas Instrument’s single-chip monolithic amplifier integrated circuits. It’s almost an entire amplifier-on-a-chip, with only a few extra parts required to build a fully functional, high-performance amplifier. The LM3886 features low
I recently restored this gorgeous Luxman M-4000A power amplifier and matching C-5000A preamplifier. Let’s start with the beautiful M-4000A. Apparently, the legendary Tim De Paravicini designed the original M-4000. The improved and even rarer Luxman M-4000A probably also came from De Paravicini’s hand, but nobody seems to know for sure. UPDATE: Check out my recent
I recently modified a Musical Fidelity X-CAN V3 headphone amplifier. My goal was to see what sort of improvements I could make without spending too much cash. The Musical Fidelity X-CAN V3 uses bipolar output devices, with a tube driver stage. The tube driver stage is a JAN (Joint Army/Navy) 6922 mil-spec dual-triode tube, per
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A lovely customer of mine rang me to tell me that his beloved Pioneer SX-1250 monster receiver had died in a cloud of acrid smoke. Naturally, he was devastated and asked if I could restore the old beast for him. The Pioneer SX-1250 is a monster receiver in the truest sense of the term. There
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