[DTB300]

Wish I could have stayed longer but the boss "texted" me wondering when I would get back home... 

Had a great time listening to some great new music and met some great new people.  It was quite easy to remember names as everyone was named Rich except me...   Ha Ha......Just kidding...

Host Rich - thanks for letting us in your home to sit back and enjoy some tunes with some great company.  If you have time, can you post some info about your Pre and Tube Amp.  Forgot to write it down, and older brain does not remember as well - LOL.

Phil and Jon - Very nice meeting both of you.

HAL Rich - nice looking little computer music server you came up with.  It will be interesting to see MS-2 when it is born.

Sorry I forgot the person who came in with Rich (HAL) and the guy sitting next to me on the couch.

It was great meeting all of you, and I look forward to future meetings and some more new music to hear.

[r.wasserstrom]

HAL,
You are most welcome.  I enjoyed our talk and seeing everyone.  Glad to hear you liked my system.  Phil did all the heavy lifting on the REL and got it to integrate with the Quads.  Thanks for helping me get my computer audio system running again during our session.  As such things go, it stopped working again after you left, so I have to think that your mere presence was enough to get it going.  I'm going to wrestle with my old system a bit; I plan to pull the USB PCI card, delete the drivers, and let Windows replace them.  After I get that going (assuming that it does),  I'll pull the Lynx card, flush the drivers, replace them, and see if it plays music.  If not, I'll take the hammer to it and start building my new server.  Or, I'll finally decide to separate my music playback system from my everyday computer and not worry about driver problems.  If I decide to do that, I will look to your new server.  Please keep us informed as you develop it.
I will pick up a USB cable tomorrow and try that input on my DAC.  I'll move my computer closer to my audio system rack, as you suggested, so I can meet the USB cable limit.  Maybe we can have another session when I get both the SPDIF and USB inputs working.
The SoMD sounds interesting and I'd like to hear what it can do.

Cheers,
Rich

[r.wasserstrom]

DTB300,
Nice meeting you, too.  I really enjoyed the piano trio music you brought.  Off course, I forgot who the pianist was; all I remember is he did two albums, Numbers 5 and 6.  It's amazing what sticks in your head and what you forget.  Getting old is not pretty.  Please post the name of the pianist and albums.  I will post some info about my pre and amp and maybe a picture or two.
Scotty was the guy sitting on the couch next to you and I think James came in with HAL.  But I could be wrong about that. 
I look forward to our next get together.
Rich

[Phil A]

Or, I'll finally decide to separate my music playback system from my everyday computer and not worry about driver problems.  If I decide to do that, I will look to your new server.  Please keep us informed as you develop it.

Cheers,
Rich

HAL (Rich).  Please keep us informed.  I definitely will be getting one.  Early next year is my target for digitizing stuff to the point where I will want something.  Phil

[DTB300]

Nice meeting you, too.  I really enjoyed the piano trio music you brought.  Off course, I forgot who the pianist was; all I remember is he did two albums, Numbers 5 and 6.  It's amazing what sticks in your head and what you forget.  Getting old is not pretty.  Please post the name of the pianist and albums. 

Hank Jones on the Eighty-Eights Label.   Great tunes with Hank and the 88's have always received great talk about their sound quality.

http://www.eastwindimport.com/default.asp?categoryname=Eighty-Eight%27s

Dan

[r.wasserstrom]

Dan,
Thanks.  The East Wind website reminded me that Hank Jones was a member of the Great Jazz Trio. I have a couple of these and would have played a couple of tunes from them had i remembered.
Rich

[r.wasserstrom]

Host Rich - thanks for letting us in your home to sit back and enjoy some tunes with some great company.  If you have time, can you post some info about your Pre and Tube Amp.  Forgot to write it down, and older brain does not remember as well - LOL.

As Dan requested here are some details about my tube amp and preamp, which we listened to last Saturday.  I got these details from my friend, Foster Blair, who designed, engineered, and built them.  These may be more (or less) than you may find useful.

Amp--It's an EL-84 based, linear, voltage amplifier with zero-feedback.  It operates in ultra-linear mode.  It has a very large unregulated power supply and is cathode biased, with precision matched cathode plate resistors.  As I mentioned Saturday, it uses Heath power and output transformers, which are the same as those from the Heath UA-1 mono amps, which are well regarded by Quad 57 folks. The driver is an Electro Harmonix 6H30 Gold, the voltage amp is an E88CC/6922 Tungstram tube, and the rectifier tube is a Chatham 5R4W.  The amp produces 17 watts, more than enough to drive my Quads.

Preamp--My preamp is a tube-FET hybrid with no negative feedback.  It uses three 6922 triodes, one in the line stage and two in the phono stage. It uses FET transistors instead of plate resistors. The design requires tubes that are precision-matched to the current sources, so tube rolling is really not possible.  The RIAA stage is passive.  It employs a highly regulated power supply.  It's got a very large power supply, which I think contributes to what I find is its great sound quality.

Any errors in these descriptions are mine and not Foster's.

Rich

[pansixt]

Rich, Yes, Thanks again for the GTG and your system is sounding amazing. Phil can be the wizard and has much experience.
The other Rich (HAL) is another audio wizard and I did come in with him. He came in carrying the bag and I carried it out.
In the bag was his last MS-1 server which I will be setting up tomorrow

It was great also to meet Scotty and Dan, and of course talking with Jon. I want to make it over to Jon's to check out his systems.
Especially the Maggie AV setup.

Look forward to the next shindig hopefully in So MD or at Josh's, and also hopefully Scott and Rim and even Bunky and others can make it.


James

[Phil A]

The other Rich (HAL) is another audio wizard and I did come in with him. He came in carrying the bag and I carried it out.
In the bag was his last MS-1 server which I will be setting up tomorrow



James

James, by all means share your impressions of the MS-1 vs. the SB Touch.  I'm busy back up SACD ISO files on Blu-Rays and going to do that will all the hi-rez stuff and store them in jewel cases so I can sleep at night.  I'll still eventually get multiple hard drives but I like the extra security.  I guess it's my years of dependence on physical media    I am shooting for a few months to have stuff done and ready for the MS-2 with the Bryston USB box.  That will hold me over until I move to a DSD DAC sometime in the near future.