[XCSSA] "Retro Thing" Audiophile Site

[xcssa@xcssa.org]

On Jun 19, 2007, at 4:50 PM, xcssa-admin@xcssa.org wrote:

> Hey Charles..
>
> Saw this blog and thought of you.  Pretty cool stuff in there:
> http://www.retrothing.com/hifi_audio/index.html

Interesting.  As soon as I get my McIntosh 225 tube amp fixed and  
refurbed, I'll bring it in.  I'll play an iPod through it.

http://www.audioclassics.com/detail.php3?detail=MC225&nav=cat

I have two pairs (bedroom and kitchen) of wonderful Revel M20's (mine  
are in a dark wood finish), Class A rated by Stereophile:

http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/492/

They have flat response, no distortion or resonances, and a smooth  
but extended sound.  Very sweet.  They're not huge, but they really  
do have serious bass response down to 40Hz or so, but I combine them  
with SVS subwoofers, such as a 16-46 in my bedroom (response to 13Hz  
in my room):

http://www.svsound.com/products-sub-cyl-plpow1.cfm

what I'd really like to get for the living room, if I had the money  
and space, would be a pair of Orions:

http://www.linkwitzlab.com/

Linkwitz pioneered the 24dB/octave Linkwitz-Riley crossover in the  
1970's, which has become pretty standard among the best speakers.   
Now he's gotten into dipole speaker designs, which have been highly  
esteemed by audiophiles since the 1950's.  He's a retired microwave  
engineer from Hewlett Packard, and he understands the mathematics of  
speaker design better than anyone, and he's a good listener too.

Two problems: (1) despite lack of retail markup, they are still very  
expensive (parts and custom building), and (2) like all dipole  
speakers, they need to be 3 feet out from the back wall, etc., and I  
don't have that kind of extra space in my living room.

>
> Talk about taking me back! hehe..  Even the font on that page takes me
> back to  lying in my teen age bedroom lusting over all the audiophile
> stuff that I couldn't afford.. hehe.

I have no need for a super high end power amp like a Krell or Mark  
Levinson, and I don't even believe anymore that good amplifiers can  
sound different, but I still lust after them anyway:

http://www.avrev.com/equip/levinson336/index.html

Charles