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Post by Moz on Nov 26, 2007 10:21:04 GMT 7
    This was sort of a shoot-out on three vintage amps to find good synergy to the Epos 11 and Paradigm Signature speakers. The Eico HF 81, I must say in almost minty condition sounded very nice on the Paradigm. You can see Dennis smiling from ear to ear over his new vintage find. The ASP 433 from Stromberg was no slouch either. It had a deeper tone with greater presence and speed being ss rectified over the more romantic eico 81. Can't play down an el84 based amp for sure. The next two are the ampex mono amps on 6V6 tubes which I mentioned above in an earlier post. Rich tone and well extended clear sounding vintage amp that I've heard from any old amp. A potential amp for the 11 ohm LS3/5A since the speaker taps are for 12 ohms JBLs. |
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Post by Moz on Nov 26, 2007 10:24:32 GMT 7
Nice session you had there. What music did you listen to?
Are those your new Ampex's?
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Post by splendor on Nov 26, 2007 13:32:20 GMT 7
Let's get physical. That's Dennis in the first shot grinning happily ever after over his new found vintage amps. His first amp (bought from Francis S) was a Fisher X100, an el84 late Fisher model in the mid 60s I think. It's not shown here in the pictures. But there's another Fisher el84 amp (the 101) shown in some of the shots which he had listened to and compared to the other amps shown here. We'll get to the winner in a while.
The silvery CDP shown is a Rotel that we used as our only source to the music and listening. White speaker cables are by Van Den Hul. I forgot the brand of the interconnect and I hope Dennis can tell us later when he sees this post.
Two pairs of speakers are on stage. The ageing Epos 11 which he had for 12 years or more, and the new highly regarded Paradigm Signature. Paradigm as we all know is a Canadian company that relies heavily on their own national data bank on speakers largely influenced by British designs.
Sorry guys, I forgot the name of the other speaker cable trained to the paradigm.
Since Dennis likes female vocals (who doesn't, we even marry them), our listening always revolved around some of the audiophile vocals CD collection 1 to 4. He's got all four of them! Quite telling. We also played Ms. Lodwick since this was a new CD he just bought after hearing this pinay from Oscar's abode the previous week or so.
On Eico HF81, vocals on the Paradigm were a little restrained for its own good. This was so in exhange for a more relaxing if not a little laid back warmish tone and body. I think the more romantic sound is due to tube rectification as well.
On the Stromberg Carlson, the Paradigm speakers changes somewhat in presentation. There's a tapering of the residual thickness of the tone specially in the lower midrange upper bass range that makes for a livelier clearer if a little faster sound on all vocals.
We also played some classical pieces on cello by Oprah Harnoy. The Eico 81 gave Harnoy's cello a rich golden ripe tone that is as full bodied as the amp's power can give it. By contrast, the Stromberg gave it a firmer tone that lets one hear detail and texture quite readily. There's but little overcrowding in the heavier passages between cello and other instruments of music in the score.
We can't end all this without asking the question: which does Dennis prefer, the Eico HF81 or the Stromberg Carlson?
And the not so surprising answer is: he likes both! He bought the SC as well!
I have to mention this since it's in the picture. The silver amp below is a Creek integrated amp that was doing duty driving the Paradigm speakers until the oldies but goodies came into the picture. Will Dennis retire this? Your guess is as good as mine.
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Post by seaview05 q11xkdz on Dec 2, 2007 19:04:10 GMT 7
Splendor/Moz, Sorry for the late reply, been out in the field for the past week. James, has been a mentor to me when it comes to vintage amps. Had my 1st fisher 100x 5-6yrs back. Liked the bloom of the tube amp especially vintage . Back to the shoot out, after a week of nightly slug fest of around 5 vintage amps, the eico hf 81 and SC just came out the "better amps " for my ears. Maybe its the el 84's sound that i find soothing. The eico will be the new bedroom amp. and either the fisher or strom will be side by side with my creek destiny ss amp. in my living room. Now i have a nice problem to think of, which speaker to partner them with. Cables used were, van den hull snowline (12 yrs) ixos 806 and 706. Interconnects, audience and xlo. Knowing am just a vintage newbie, im really enjoying this music journey.  seaview05 |
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Post by splendor on Dec 2, 2007 20:31:49 GMT 7
It's time for you to sign in. This is not just an LS forum but a vintage one for the young once and ones!
Thanks for filling in some more details. My pleasure to share some of the delights of going by the old amps of yore. Back in the early days of ss amps, it was quite our ritual to bring our open reel tapes to a shop in Aurora blvrd called "Stereo Exchange." The tech guy there had all the new ss amps from fisher and scott and sansui, but he always prefered using the old scott and fisher tube amps to copy for us the music we selected. When we get home, it was some of the most beautiful sounds our neighbors would hear from our open reels, and that really made us very happy.
I guess it's hard to go wrong with most good music played thru tube amps. There's very little that one needs to learn to tell there's good music to its sound. Enjoy them!
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Post by Moz on Dec 4, 2007 18:27:54 GMT 7
Hi Dennis,
It's always a delight not just to tube roll but to try out different amps in a single session as well. Each amp imparts its character to the music. Sometimes when you don't want to be anal about extension, soundstage, details, etc and just want listen to music for music's sake, swapping amps can make a big difference in the portrayal of the song's rendition as well.
Take for example the Pilot232 with its more mellow and emotional tone and then swap a fisher like an SA-16 and you'll immediately hear a more lively presentation.
Enjoy the music!
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odaey
Junior Member
Posts: 62
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Post by odaey on Dec 4, 2007 20:36:05 GMT 7
Very intersting comparisson. What seems to be consistent with these vintage gears is that it gets your mind off "analyze mode" and just hits your heart with the music, Just like the Ls3/5a.
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Post by splendor on Dec 4, 2007 21:17:48 GMT 7
I couldn't agree more. That's among the reasopns why I prefer them over the more expensive
modern amps wherein you're forced to continually "listen" where your money went!
Moz, I didn't bother to relate anymore the first shoot-out we had. Amps were the Pilot SA 232, Eico ST40, and a Fisher power amp model st 460 using el84s. The Fisher amp was trained to an eico HF85 preamp, and the combination made the Paradigm open up and sing!
We were like in Carnegie Hall with Harry Belafonte! So fleshed out and lively!
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seaview05