[mcgsxr]

Ahhh, Dmason's experimentation pays off, and hopefully many will benefit from all his fun over the last couple of years!

I will take a long hard look at whatever it ends up being, even though I have more power than the design will need.

From the looks of that craft, the design might be a 4 foot ribbon, mated to a 6 inch full range Alnico driver!  But I suspect that the ribbon would prove too expensive... guess I too will have to wait with baited breath!

[TheChairGuy]

No more AC for me..... the only missing link in this audionic Darwinism is a battery transport.

Good doctor, I have found your elixir and have just ordered one for $76 to my door...

http://www.cobyusa.com/product/item.php?item=DVD707&pcat=dvd&pscat=dvd_player&pscat2=

Will let ya'll know soon how it works solo and hooked up with either coax digital or optical outputs to DAC.  My DAC, currently, is an MSB (yes, A/C)...but I'll have to try a non-OS battery jobbie soon.

For $90, you can all exit the transport grid...$14.99 sale at Radio Shack (in US) for a 7 aH SLA....

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=&product%5Fid=23-275&site=search

[Vinnie R.]

Good doctor, I have found your elixir and have just ordered one for $76 to my door...

http://www.cobyusa.com/product/item.php?item=DVD707&pcat=dvd&pscat=dvd_player&pscat2=

Will let ya'll know soon how it works solo and hooked up with either coax digital or optical outputs to DAC.  My DAC, currently, is an MSB (yes, A/C)...but I'll have to try a non-OS battery jobbie soon.

For $90, you can all exit the transport grid...$14.99 sale at Radio Shack (in US) for a 7 aH SLA....

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=&product%5Fid=23-275&site=search

TCG,

Not to be a damper, but I tried something very similar to the product that you ordered and the digital output signal quality was aweful!  Yes, a battery powered transport is a great thing, but Coby (and the cheap brand that I tried) tend to have the crappiest designs and the results can be terrible (even if battery powered).    

Of course, I didn't try the one you purchased and it would be incredible if it actually makes for a good battery transport!  Please keep us posted!

Thanks,

[TheChairGuy]

Hey Vinnie, I'll let ya'll know soon.

I actually bought it for a new, small TV we just put in the bedroom....but thought it a great opportunity to hear a (typically - maybe awful?) battery powered transport in action.  I also bought it because it has an optical output, as well, giving me a range of options to explore with it.

It ships from CA, so it'll be here quite sooooooooooon.

As long as it has passable video, it was money well spent.  If it turns out to be anything more, that's bonus.

So, have you explored other options for battery powered transports...surely there must be at least one toiling in your DC powered brain right now   Would either the cheapo one you bought and hated, or another, be candidates for modding to great effect as a SLA-led transport?

[Vinnie R.]

So, have you explored other options for battery powered transports...surely there must be at least one toiling in your DC powered brain right now  Would either the cheapo one you bought and hated, or another, be candidates for modding to great effect as a SLA-led transport?
...

TCG,

Yes, this definitely something that I'll be investigating...  

Right now, I need to get ready for the Montreal show.  Louis and I have a "surprise amp" that will be there.  
Pictures will be taken!

Hope the DVD player works out great.  Yes, I may mod something like this to make for a very good battery powered transport...but it MUST operate and sound VERY GOOD or fhagettabout-it!  

Regards,

[brj]

I haven't opened up any transports, but I'm assuming that the bulk of the power required is consumed by the mechanism to spin the disk, which I suspect is less sensitve to "quality" of power than the electronics themselves.  I'm wondering if you could simply power the pickup and electronics via battery and leave the mechanicals plugged into the wall.  This would probably lower the battery requirement substantially and simplify and mods.

[Gordy]

I see traditional portable cd players are now getting up to 100 hrs. of playing time on aa batteries!  This one even claims a 'digital' amp and includes the recharger... http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_techspecs_full.php/masterid=6810049#description

[byteme]

The addition of a BPT Balanced Power unit last year improved my listening pleasure immensely...then with two honkin' 100 watt class AB amps. Now, it serves the same duty tidying things up before it reaches the overachieving little JVC F10. In fact, it improves it so thoroughly that I've really thought of little else insofar as amplification goes, with the tandem in play.

Chairguy - are you running your amps through the BPT as well?  At this point I've got everything except my amps running through my BPT 3.5 Signature.  Amps are Odyssey Extreme Monos.

[TheChairGuy]

I see traditional portable cd players are now getting up to 100 hrs. of playing time on aa batteries!  This one even claims a 'digital' amp and includes the recharger... http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_techspecs_full.php/masterid=6810049#description

Pretty nifty...makes good sense to use digi amps here.  Too bad Sony doesn't have optical outputs any longer on their walkman...I think it's been 10 years + since they offered this feature on them.

[TheChairGuy]

Chairguy - are you running your amps through the BPT as well?  At this point I've got everything except my amps running through my BPT 3.5 Signature.  Amps are Odyssey Extreme Monos.

Hey byteme - long time no dialogue between us!...hope you're well.

I only use my JVC F10 (Hybrid Digital receiver - more akin to the Tripath's out there than the Panny's, Sony's and the like) for amplification now, I sold off the Norh's (I used as monoblocks at 150 watts a side) and AudioSource 150 watter I used with my BPT 2.  Klaus recommends getting your juice from the wall I think, but have you tried them thru your BPT?

The level of improvement I got with the F10 was many times that of the Class AB amps thru the BPT...if that is of any guide to you.

[byteme]

Things are well, thanks for asking!

I ran the Stereo Stratos through it prior to going to two mono extremes and have since run them straight from the wall as you point out Klaus suggests.  I haven't really had a chance to play around much or listen critically since getting the mono's - the couple times I did made me realize the upgrade was WELL worth it    So I'll have to give that a go and see how it works out.  I've got a couple other things I need to try too, like putting the Tritium IC's with built in level 25 triphazers back in line to compare the to the TS Premium IC's I'm running now.

[-Richard-]

There can be no doubt that a solid ground
for an audio culture on AC has formed
around our mutual interests in establishing a
high level of sound reproduction on the
cheap...a counter-culture in very real terms...
since the main audio culture is based on
a conditioned knee-jerk response to expensive audio
gear that reflects little in the way of real innovation...

Nice to hear that you are going into business DMason...
your considerable energy and unshakable belief in the
truth and honesty of your own audio investigations...
and your wish to present your products for a reasonable
price...should be a wonderful antidote to the high ends
pricey spiritual rigamortis...

Right now I am enjoying my Omega 8 R's with a simple
6 watt tube pentoid integrated amp...thanks to a very
harmonically rich and "alive" sounding JJ/Tesla 6L6G
output tube that turns this ordinarily "hard" sounding
amp into an SET-like jewel...

What is most interesting for me is that this combination
sounds like the juke boxes of the late 1940's and 50's.
Which means that I have definitely moved out of the
"realism" camp of desired musical reproduction and
have found myself in the "over-the-top" rich-and
-palpable and alive-in-your-room camp of musical
devotees...seductive, compelling...a straight line
to the emotional fibers that really like being vibrated
in this way...

Nothing less than a descent into the artificial...to some
extent...but so alive...so dimensional...so there...

God forgive me. But accurate sound reproduction may
be a thing of the past for me...in favor of this surrealist,
hyper colored, tonally rich, throbbing aural world of
yesterday...

Yes... I am Lost in the garden of aural pleasure...
and loving every minute of it...an Eden of sorts,
the Omega 8's have allowed me to slip past the
flaming sword...

Warm regards to all.

Another of your inspired threads ChairGuy.
Let's hope you always find time to ruminate
and share your thoughts with us.

-Richard-

[skrivis]

Nice to hear that you are going into business DMason...
your considerable energy and unshakable belief in the
truth and honesty of your own audio investigations...

Are you saying he's delusional?

[TheChairGuy]

-Richard-, there are a lot of folks I automatically read when I see they've posted, no matter the subject - be it at or over my head, but yours are at the top of my list!

I think it may be another year before you get over 100 posts as you put so much thought and soul into each  

[skrivis]

-Richard-, there are a lot of folks I automatically read when I see they've posted, no matter the subject - be it at or over my head, but yours are at the top of my list!

I think it may be another year before you get over 100 posts as you put so much thought and soul into each  

Richard's posts _are_ interesting, and he obviously puts a lot of thought into them.

However, I can't quite agree with the sentiment in this one. I search for audio equipment that _plays_ music, not _makes_ music. That full lush sound you get out of some tube equipment is distortion. Pleasant, but distortion nonetheless.

All audio equipment is flawed. Perhaps Richard simply finds the errors that his current equipment produces to be more acceptable than the errors that some other equipment makes.

I feel that we should strive to obtain the most accurate equipment we can. After all, it's the music that gives the real pleasure, and I want to listen to the music, not my stereo system.

There seems to have been this concept amongst audiophiles of a "window of truth."

I have read many reviews over the years that just gush with praise over how well the midrange is done by Brand X amplifier. All else is forgiven because people feel that this narrow area is a "window of truth."

Some of what I read today concentrates on the same thing. Extremely low-powered SET amps, single driver speakers, battery-powered Tripath amps. Each of these might have an area where it seems to excel. But you give up so much for that small window.

It's also a bit hard to tell if the window is actually truthful. The rest of the spectrum could be so screwed up that the window just sounds great by comparison.

Let's open our windows wide! Don't concentrate so hard on the details that you lose track of the larger picture.

[gary]

Extremely low-powered SET amps, single driver speakers, battery-powered Tripath amps. Each of these might have an area where it seems to excel. But you give up so much for that small window.

Have you heard the Clari-T for yourself? Or, are you just assuming that there must be only a "small area where it seems to excel" with major trade-offs everywhere else?

Gary

[skrivis]

Extremely low-powered SET amps, single driver speakers, battery-powered Tripath amps. Each of these might have an area where it seems to excel. But you give up so much for that small window.

Have you heard the Clari-T for yourself? Or, are you just assuming that there must be only a "small area where it seems to excel" with major trade-offs everywhere else?

Gary

I've heard a couple of amps that use Tripath chips and wasn't horribly impressed. (ARC and Teac.) They both had a very harsh treble.

I wasn't actually naming names, but the Clari-T seems pretty limited. It's battery-powered, and it puts out about 6W. That might be ok for headphones...

Or are you saying that the Clari-T isn't limited at all? I can pop it right into any system and be pleased as punch?

[TheChairGuy]

skrivis, my Dad loves his Bose...marvels at the sound and simplicity of it.

If it brings a smile to one's once pursed lips, then its music - plain and simple; regardless of the reasons behind it.  That's casting the window as wide open as it gets  

[miklorsmith]

I had a PS Audio HCA-2.  Stereophile Class A, load invariant, it would drive anything with aplomp.  Also had the darling Gallo Ref. 3 which everyone's read about.  Man did they sing together.

Until - I tried some hi-eff speakers.  So dynamic and lively that I had to immediately sell the Gallos.  Also, the HCA-2, darling of the audio press, too noisy for the speakers.  Had to go.  Replaced by Clari-T.

Point?  Everything has limitations, which is why system building is more than just filling in the blanks.  Does the Clari-T have limitations?  Sure, but in an optimized situation, those restrictions become nearly irrelevant.

A cheap transformer-based tripath will give you no indication of what you will hear with the Clari-T and proper speakers.

[gary]

Point? Everything has limitations, which is why system building is more than just filling in the blanks. Does the Clari-T have limitations? Sure, but in an optimized situation, those restrictions become nearly irrelevant.

A cheap transformer-based tripath will give you no indication of what you will hear with the Clari-T and proper speakers.

So much for what I was going to say
Very well put. I'll just add that in my opinion...

NOS Battery DAC + Clari-T Amp = Paradigm Shift

Gary