Suppose you can take only one amp with you to a desert island, which
would it be? (To make it easy, we'll assume your record collection, a
source and speakers are waiting for you, and the island is plugged in
to the universal mains electricity.) Why would it be that particular
amp?

various options. I can't choose:

I am quite happy with my Quad 44/405-2 combination.
They are old and could be more transparant but they are always musical,
dependable and effortless.
And, while I rarely have a need for tone controls, on some bad sounding
CD's I really love the peculiar Quad tone controls, esp. the filters.

An audiophile friend had the 34/306 combination, I liked this as well.
He should have never sold it. I think he now feels sorry for selling
the 306. This amp was very musical for a reasonable price.

If I would buy a new amp today (as opposed to start building), I might
be swayed by the Quad 909.

A while ago I heard a particulartly synergetic amp/speaker combination:
a Jadis tube amp combined with Magneplanars. Fluid music abounded. It
was very convincing, one of those moments when you think: I could live
with this forever and never look at other hifi again. Not a cheap
combination but in some way not crazily priced either. In the USA
Magneplanars ar ein my opinion a bargain. Unfortunately they cost at
least double in Europe...

I have heard a few Mcintosh transistor amps (their "big" integrated
amp, the 6900 I believe, and a pre/power combo). I always liked their
slightly warm, musical tone. I adore the gothic looks. Unfortunately
they cost far more than what I am prepared to pay for hifi.
I have no idea how Mc OPTs are regarded. Are they as good as, say,
Lundahl? They sure should have the experience to build world-class
OPTs. And anyway, I really like the sound of the Mc amps.

Two amps I have not yet heard but that I would like to investigate: a
Harman Kardon fully digital 5.1 receiver. The concept interests me. Yes
it's as far removed from tube audio as you can get, but I am open to
new experiences. The other one I would like to hear is the incredibly
affordable and very nicely constructed Melody SP3 tube amp.

Finally, since I am reading up on tube theory, hoping to build one this
year, hopefully I would refer to my own amp if you'd ask the same
question in 2007!
FYI, currently I am tempted by the 2 fully explained designs on the
Lundahl site: an 8W EL34 SET, and a 30W PP. The SET is probably the
most refined one, the PP should also be very good yet can be still be
used if I ever would like to build speakers with low-efficiency
scanspeak drivers, for example. Choices, choices...

Tom

On 27 Jan 2006 17:49:18 -0800, "Andre Jute" wrote:

Most posters on these two conferences are senior audiophiles; almost by
definition they have more than one amp, and sweet memories of perhaps
many more they have parted from. Here's a tough question:

Suppose you can take only one amp with you to a desert island, which
would it be? (To make it easy, we'll assume your record collection, a
source and speakers are waiting for you, and the island is plugged in
to the universal mains electricity.) Why would it be that particular
amp?

Anything that drives the speakers, and definitely *not* a tubed amp -
where do you get spare tubes?
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering

In article .com,
Andre Jute writes
Most posters on these two conferences are senior audiophiles; almost by
definition they have more than one amp, and sweet memories of perhaps
many more they have parted from. Here's a tough question:

Suppose you can take only one amp with you to a desert island, which
would it be? (To make it easy, we'll assume your record collection, a
source and speakers are waiting for you, and the island is plugged in
to the universal mains electricity.) Why would it be that particular
amp?

Try to keep it clean, fellows.

Andre Jute


Could you specify where the power is coming from;-).....
--
Tony Sayer

On Fri, 27 Jan 2006 17:49:18 -0800, Andre Jute burbled:
Most posters on these two conferences are senior audiophiles; almost by
definition they have more than one amp, and sweet memories of perhaps many
more they have parted from. Here's a tough question:

Suppose you can take only one amp with you to a desert island, which would
it be? (To make it easy, we'll assume your record collection, a source and
speakers are waiting for you, and the island is plugged in to the
universal mains electricity.) Why would it be that particular amp?


Hmmm.....
For sheer downright reliability I rather like my old system of a Nad 3020
(original version) used as a preamp with a pair of Crimson Elektrik
monoblocks (the old "square" type - 530? something like that...) to give
the welly. Sorry, no valves in this case. All very 70s, I know. :-) Does
this count as one amp though? It's 3 boxes.

--
Mick
(no M$ software on here... :-) )
Web: http://www.nascom.info

I'd probably have a three stage PP amp with something like 26, 71A and
2a3. Something along those lines. O-netics outputs. Plenty of
polypropylene caps and ckokes in the power supply. Andy

"Andre Jute" said:

Suppose you can take only one amp with you to a desert island, which
would it be? (To make it easy, we'll assume your record collection, a
source and speakers are waiting for you, and the island is plugged in
to the universal mains electricity.) Why would it be that particular
amp?


My 2A3 push pull amp.
It drives reasonably efficient speakers like no other amp I've ever
built, including those hybrid MOSFET class A monsters.

And that is exactly why I keep this little amp around, instead of
tearing it down again like all my other tube amps.
I have 3 working systems at this moment (all decent 2-channel stereo,
no multi-channel mumbo jumbo for me), and each and every one of them
has its own strong and weak points.
The 2A3 system however is the most versatile system that I have.
Regardless of the type of music, it always sounds involving,
effortlessly.

--

- Never argue with idiots, they drag you down their level and beat you with experience. -

tony sayer wrote:

In article .com,
Andre Jute writes
Most posters on these two conferences are senior audiophiles; almost by
definition they have more than one amp, and sweet memories of perhaps
many more they have parted from. Here's a tough question:

Suppose you can take only one amp with you to a desert island, which
would it be? (To make it easy, we'll assume your record collection, a
source and speakers are waiting for you, and the island is plugged in
to the universal mains electricity.) Why would it be that particular
amp?

Try to keep it clean, fellows.

Andre Jute


Could you specify where the power is coming from;-).....
--
Tony Sayer

By day from the sun, by night from your magnetic personality?

Andre Jute
The difficult we do immediately. The impossible may have to wait until
after lunch.

In article . com, Andre
Jute writes

tony sayer wrote:

In article .com,
Andre Jute writes
Most posters on these two conferences are senior audiophiles; almost by
definition they have more than one amp, and sweet memories of perhaps
many more they have parted from. Here's a tough question:

Suppose you can take only one amp with you to a desert island, which
would it be? (To make it easy, we'll assume your record collection, a
source and speakers are waiting for you, and the island is plugged in
to the universal mains electricity.) Why would it be that particular
amp?

Try to keep it clean, fellows.

Andre Jute


Could you specify where the power is coming from;-).....
--
Tony Sayer

By day from the sun, by night from your magnetic personality?

Andre Jute
The difficult we do immediately. The impossible may have to wait until
after lunch.


Better not be Class A then;-!!
--
Tony Sayer

Andre Jute wrote:

tony sayer wrote:

In article .com,
Andre Jute writes
Most posters on these two conferences are senior audiophiles; almost by
definition they have more than one amp, and sweet memories of perhaps
many more they have parted from. Here's a tough question:

Suppose you can take only one amp with you to a desert island, which
would it be? (To make it easy, we'll assume your record collection, a
source and speakers are waiting for you, and the island is plugged in
to the universal mains electricity.) Why would it be that particular
amp?

Try to keep it clean, fellows.

Andre Jute


Could you specify where the power is coming from;-).....
--
Tony Sayer

By day from the sun, by night from your magnetic personality?

Andre Jute
The difficult we do immediately. The impossible may have to wait until
after lunch.

I think I am already on an island which has 240V ac in most places.
There is very little culture, since culture declines proportionately to the
square root
of the distance one is from Paris, or even Prague,
and my island has many acres of desert, and is a bloody huge desert island.

So its hard to really feel there is point to keeping a huge recording
collection,
since its so depressing to not be able to catch a train or tram to a suitable
opera out of many available for
an evening. One is forced to live in fantasy land, one where only the feint
imagining of
culture, ie, recordings are all one mainly experiences.

Some people here go quite troppo, and give up trying to be european,
and they invent screaching artistes like Kylie Minogue.

But some escape from my island to the real culture world elsewhere and do OK,
Dame Joan Sutherland did for quite awhile.

But for june or july Dunk Island in far nth Qld would be a nice place if you
could
get all the drunk tourists to go home.

Patrick Turner.

"Patrick Turner" wrote in message
...


Andre Jute wrote:

tony sayer wrote:

In article .com,
Andre Jute writes
Most posters on these two conferences are senior audiophiles; almost
by
definition they have more than one amp, and sweet memories of perhaps
many more they have parted from. Here's a tough question:

Suppose you can take only one amp with you to a desert island, which
would it be? (To make it easy, we'll assume your record collection, a
source and speakers are waiting for you, and the island is plugged in
to the universal mains electricity.) Why would it be that particular
amp?

Try to keep it clean, fellows.

Andre Jute


Could you specify where the power is coming from;-).....
--
Tony Sayer

By day from the sun, by night from your magnetic personality?

Andre Jute
The difficult we do immediately. The impossible may have to wait until
after lunch.

I think I am already on an island which has 240V ac in most places.
There is very little culture, since culture declines proportionately to
the
square root
of the distance one is from Paris, or even Prague,
and my island has many acres of desert, and is a bloody huge desert
island.

So its hard to really feel there is point to keeping a huge recording
collection,
since its so depressing to not be able to catch a train or tram to a
suitable
opera out of many available for
an evening. One is forced to live in fantasy land, one where only the
feint
imagining of
culture, ie, recordings are all one mainly experiences.

Some people here go quite troppo, and give up trying to be european,
and they invent screaching artistes like Kylie Minogue.

But some escape from my island to the real culture world elsewhere and do
OK,
Dame Joan Sutherland did for quite awhile.

But for june or july Dunk Island in far nth Qld would be a nice place if
you
could
get all the drunk tourists to go home.

Patrick Turner.



Dunk Island. Isn't 'dunk' the sound your amp makes after it slipped though
the cargo net. Beautiful place but tropical rainforest though, not such a
quiet place for listening I'd guess.
My fav amps, Nestorovic Labs Alpha One's, wished I'd never sold them.

Mike