[fabaudio]

Richard

  "I wish I could hear the Fi on my Omega Grand 8 R's..."

   I still wonder what your impression would be with the ol' F10. I would lend you mine if I had a spare.

   HELLO! DOES ANYONE HAVE A JVC RX-F10 TO SPARE? IS ANYONE LISTENING?

[onemug]

Richard, you definitely seem to be a candidate for SET's.  As I said earlier, I only had the Clari-t for a week or so to demo, I don't know what long term would reveal, but I liked what I heard and will probably buy the Lotus in the future. It would be fun to satisfy the different tastes and moods. For now the Fi keeps me happy. It was recommeded to me and I chose it because of it's direct coupling. You hear more of the tube and less of the circuit. I like Don Garber's thinking alot. Also Ron Welborne. I recently got his DRD300b which is also a fairlly direct design. So between the 45, 2a3 and 300b tubes both NOS and Meshplates, I'm having a ball. Good luck and let me know what you decide on and what you hear.

[-Richard-]

Ahhh Fabaudio you are so right...I wish I had my
F10 back again...unbroken and working...I  LOVED IT!!!!

I am keeping my eye on the new iterations of the JVC to see
what the early adopters are thinking... I wish that some of the
stalwart purchasers of the new JVC had the F10 to compare it too...
or perhaps an audio gathering could be arranged in the not too distant
future where both units could be brought together...that would be very
interesting...

Meanwhile JLM has pointed me yet again to an interesting product...
It seems, JLM, that you are most certainly on a creative roll these days...
with enclosure designs for the B200 Visaton speakers and now
Channel Island Audio's really interesting digital amps...

I spoke to Dusty today...without any doubt the most knowledgeable person
I have ever encountered regarding the fundamentals and implementation
of the new digital paradigms...a revelation really...

And you are quite right JLM, their amps do look very interesting and
one seems to be getting a lot for your money there...Dusty uses large
heavy transformers to stabilize his circuit...he does not seem to use
switching transistors like most class D digital amps...he claims to have
tried the tripath and ice chips and found them noisy and in need of
filters to calm them down...his first amp sounds a bit tube like but I have
heard that they could sound a bit rolled off on top...his second and newest
amp seems to be less tube like and much clearer and transparent...

Well I was looking at the name after you mentioned it in this thread JLM,
and realized that I live right near the Channel Islands...so I am going to
hear both amps as soon as I get back from a trip to Albuquerque to visit
my dentist there (I lived in Silver City NM before I moved to Ojai 6 months
ago and need to finish up some work I started). Dusty also told me I could
take home both amps for an in-home demo...GREAT!!!!!

I am very interested in hearing both amps on my Omega Grand 8 r's...

Thanks Fabaudio (love that name) for commiserating with me on the
loss of the F10...Thanks JLM, for pointing me (and everyone else) to
the Channel Island "digital" amps...Thanks Onemug for your further
insights into the Fi 2A3 monoblocks and now the Wellborn labs 300B
SET amps...I wish I had a bigger budget for the Fi mono's...they are not
cheap!

I will report to everyone who might be interested what I hear when I
audition the Channel Island amps...perhaps in 4 weeks...

And oh yes...It looks like I will be getting the Nuforce amps to listen
to on my Omega's next week if Mike Garner comes through on his
promises to send me one for an in-home audition...so I will have the
Nuforce and the Channel Island to compare to...using Deb as a second
opinion...any SS sound for her is like chalk on a blackboard...so she
is a perfect music lover to have listening for a second opinion...

Warm regards -Richard-