AudioCircle
Audio/Video Gear and Systems => Owner's Circles => Bent Audio Owners => Topic started by: John Chapman on 18 Oct 2006, 02:06 am
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Hello!
Starting to get some info online about the TAP. Should be even more soon. I don't tend to 'promote' my stuff here in the forum but thought these may be of interest.
Pos feedback: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue27/tap.htm
6 moons preliminary notes: http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/musicfirst2/tap.html
In French:
http://magazine-audio.com/essais-hi-fi/essais-appareils-hi-fi/104
and
http://magazine-audio.com/essais-hi-fi/essais-appareils-hi-fi/110
(I'll have to get someone to tell me if they liked it! Wishing I had studied french in school years back...... )
Thanks!
John
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:duh:http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en (http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en)
John,
For a crude translation, you can type in the French webpage link into Google Language Tools. It will give you an acceptable translation.
Michael Shibata
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Hi John
Wanted to congratulate you for the first wave of postive reviews! There will be more to follow, I feel sure! You have a winner in the TAP!
Best Regards
Dennis
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Hi John,
Congratulations on the fantastic early reviews. You deserve every success for all of your time and hard work.
I noticed in the French review photos that some of the RCA connectors were the WBT NextGen variety and these are presumably point-to-point wired to the PCB.
Is the rear input/output PCB held onto the back panel by the remaining Bent Audio RCA and XLR connectors? If so would it be possible to use all WBT NextGen RCAs and just rely on the few XLR input and output connectors to fix the PCB to the rear panel? I am asking from more of a DIY perspective.
I must say that the more photos I see of the TAP the more I am growing to like the green LEDs and display although blue would still be my number one choice.
Aesthetic issues aside I am sure that the TAP would sound simply amazing in the right system (low output impedance source and high input impedance amp).
Thanks again for your efforts John.
Regards,
Aaron
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I think the blue display is for the silver version while green is for the copper trannies!
Dennis
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Hello!
Shib,
Thanks for reminding me about these translators. They are good fun if nothing else. I especially liked this bit:
"What misses Tit with the TAP?"
Made my day.
Skywalker,
Yes - any RCA's you'd like can be used with the TAP circuit boards - although in the TAP chassis they must fit a 1/2" hole size. I put some WBT nextgens in some of these first builds to get some feedback on them. There have been a few issues with them - not sonic but mechanical - so I don't know if we'd do them later except on special request.
As denjo notes I did the intial round of builds with Blue 7 segment elements for the silver TX102 units and green for copper TX102 based units - just to be able to easily distinguish between them. Unfortunately I could not find bi-color T1 leds with blue and some other color so those stay the same. I tend to like blue leds in general although i must say I find the green 7 segs easier to read from a distance. If anyone knows of a bi-color blue/x T1 led then please let me know! If we continue with the blue 7 segs in the future then it would be nice to match up the leds on the front panel with them.
Thanks!
John
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Hello John, and a huge congrad on the reviews. Luvin my Tap it keeps me :D
Regards,
Dave
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Re: WBT Nextgen issues
So far, I haven't had any issues with the Nextgens. However, I do not frequently disconnect/connect interconnects, and am careful when doing so.
I was wondering what mechanical issues John is aware of.
Michael Shibata
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Hello!
I won't go on about it at length - not exactly wanting to be saying anything negative about WBT since overall I have found them quite decent! I suspect that Shib has hit the nail on the head - I have tended in my testing to do a lot of swapping cables so I likely give them a bigger workout than most would! The things I found were:
1- It seems there is a chance that (likely with a particularly large male rca center pin) the center contact assembly can slide back as the rca in inserted. This is likely very rare but still worried me. I only had it happen once here. I am told they have addressed this issue.
2- The small colored inserts have tended to pop out when pulling out the male rca's. This is not a huge issue but still......
3- With bullet plugs you must be careful to rotate the male plug so the ground tab hits the ground tab on the nextgen. Kinda funny in a way - given they are rivals - that these two would not work perfectly! Again not a big deal but it took me a bit to see what was up the first time that connection was not made perfectly here in my shop.
For diy folks these would not be issues at all really - you'd be aware of them and easily able to fix things up. For me sending pre-amps long distances away it was enough to slow me down using them as the standard connectors all the time.
Thansk!
John
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I've experienced the Bullet <> NextGen ground trouble myself. I had installed a pair of Silver NextGen's on my amps and didn't realize the ground wasn't connected/lined up on one channel when I powered them up. A very loud hum, fortunately nothing was harmed but since all my IC's had Bullet plugs, the NextGen's had to to come out of the amps as I wasn't willing to risk that happening again.
Not trying to derail your thread John, but your mention of this reminded me of my experiece with the same thing. :) Congrats on the positive reviews. :thumb:
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I've experienced the Bullet <> NextGen ground trouble myself. I had installed a pair of Silver NextGen's on my amps and didn't realize the ground wasn't connected/lined up on one channel when I powered them up. A very loud hum, fortunately nothing was harmed but since all my IC's had Bullet plugs, the NextGen's had to to come out of the amps as I wasn't willing to risk that happening again.
Not trying to derail your thread John, but your mention of this reminded me of my experience with the same thing. :) Congrats on the positive reviews. :thumb:
I sold those NextGens for a very short period of time and my impression was that they wouldn't take much abuse. I've never liked the Bullet plugs for the same reason. Call me old fashion and boring but I think I'll stick with a proven solution. ;-)
Great reviews John... even the French gave you a thumbs up and they have to be the toughest crowd in the world to please. They didn't like your slanty chassis but loved the way the unit performs. :lol:
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Everybody, thanks for the clarification on the Nextgen observations. Good to know!
I, too, apologize for derailing the thread. Now, let's get back to the positive reviews!!!
John, I cannot recall the last review that I have read in which the reviewer has said so little about the sound as a result of the transparency of the component. Because of the nature of TVC's and component compatibility, I am thankful of the reminder this serves to all as to the importance of system matching and the danger of taking comments as absolutes.
Congratulations on the positive comments! Additionally, even with the price increase the TAP is still a good value.