 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
JANUARY 2007
Best Wishes for 2007! Let’s hope that it is a better year for this planet than
2006 was.
My Rogue Stereo 90 amp is on its way to Rogue Audio’s service
department. It refused to turn on in mid-December. After checking it over
and making sure that it was getting power, for lack of any better ideas, I
flipped the Ultralinear/triode switch on the back a couple of times. It turned
on. There is a relay somewhere inside the amp that can be heard when
switching between the two modes. About two weeks later, it refused to turn
on again and, this time, flipping the switch did no good at all. This
happened the week before Christmas, of course. Since Rogue was closed
from Christmas until after the New Year, I didn’t ship the amp until January
2nd. I have no idea how long it will be gone or what it will cost. What is
certain at this point is that it was badly misrepresented on Audiogon as to
its condition. It has had much more than “light, occasional use.”
The thing that I am wondering about now is: since flipping the mode switch
got it working the first time, could the fact that I heard no difference
between the Ultralinear and triode power modes be related to the turn-on
problem? Maybe it never switched between the two modes? I will certainly
be checking this theory out once the amp returns.
In the meantime, I am still putting what break-in hours I can on the Audio
Experience +R preamp using my old VTL amp. The combination sounds
much better than the VTL did with the old Audio Experiment preamp so it
has been no hardship to listen to. The new preamp is providing noticeably
more information, which has been really eye-opening on CDs that I thought I
knew well. There is something of a treble emphasis present with the
Experience preamp so far, though, but as it is not broken-in yet, I am
hoping that will diminish. It is the only semi-negative that I am hearing.
With my daughter home from college, I won’t get a lot of listening time in
this month. The Rogue may actually be back before I get significantly more
hours on the Experience preamp.
The Heathkit TT-1 tube tester is also traveling in January. It will go to my
friend Tom Boffa in Colorado to be completely checked out. I finally got all
the in formation I needed to re-bias this unit but, after discussing it with
Tom, it became evident that a thorough check-out and capacitor upgrade
really needed to be done. It is an almost forty-year-old piece of equipment.
Given his experience, expertise, and test equipment it didn’t require much
thought to turn everything over to him and let him do it right. This is a nice
tube tester and I really want to feel confident that it is working properly.
Reflecting back on 2006 from an audio perspective, a surprising amount of
things changed around here.
The living room system got completely reworked and reorganized as did my
Eico HF-81 amp. The addition of the Primus 360 speakers made a big
improvement. I still intend to move the VTL 50-50 amp and Audio
Experiment preamp into the living room system in the near future. I think it
is going to be a great system once this is done. The only thing, for now,
that I am thinking about trying in the living room system is a pair of Alpha
Core Goertz speaker cables. These worked so well with the VTL in my main
system that I would really like to see what they do in the living room.
I did not anticipate changing both the amplifier and preamplifier in my main
system this year but was lucky enough to be able to do both. The priority
for now is to get the Audio Experience preamp broken-in now and see how it
works out before making any other changes to the system. Then, of
course, I will have to determine what, if anything, has changed with the
Rogue once it returns. I expect that it will take a while to accomplish all of
this.
Along with getting the equipment that I have working its best and just
enjoying the music, I do have some plans for this year. We shall see how
they work out and where they lead.
Hope all of your plans lead to good things this year.
Kent Johnson
January 4, 2007
Best Wishes for 2007! Let’s hope that it is a better year for this planet than
2006 was.
My Rogue Stereo 90 amp is on its way to Rogue Audio’s service
department. It refused to turn on in mid-December. After checking it over
and making sure that it was getting power, for lack of any better ideas, I
flipped the Ultralinear/triode switch on the back a couple of times. It turned
on. There is a relay somewhere inside the amp that can be heard when
switching between the two modes. About two weeks later, it refused to turn
on again and, this time, flipping the switch did no good at all. This
happened the week before Christmas, of course. Since Rogue was closed
from Christmas until after the New Year, I didn’t ship the amp until January
2nd. I have no idea how long it will be gone or what it will cost. What is
certain at this point is that it was badly misrepresented on Audiogon as to
its condition. It has had much more than “light, occasional use.”
The thing that I am wondering about now is: since flipping the mode switch
got it working the first time, could the fact that I heard no difference
between the Ultralinear and triode power modes be related to the turn-on
problem? Maybe it never switched between the two modes? I will certainly
be checking this theory out once the amp returns.
In the meantime, I am still putting what break-in hours I can on the Audio
Experience +R preamp using my old VTL amp. The combination sounds
much better than the VTL did with the old Audio Experiment preamp so it
has been no hardship to listen to. The new preamp is providing noticeably
more information, which has been really eye-opening on CDs that I thought I
knew well. There is something of a treble emphasis present with the
Experience preamp so far, though, but as it is not broken-in yet, I am
hoping that will diminish. It is the only semi-negative that I am hearing.
With my daughter home from college, I won’t get a lot of listening time in
this month. The Rogue may actually be back before I get significantly more
hours on the Experience preamp.
The Heathkit TT-1 tube tester is also traveling in January. It will go to my
friend Tom Boffa in Colorado to be completely checked out. I finally got all
the in formation I needed to re-bias this unit but, after discussing it with
Tom, it became evident that a thorough check-out and capacitor upgrade
really needed to be done. It is an almost forty-year-old piece of equipment.
Given his experience, expertise, and test equipment it didn’t require much
thought to turn everything over to him and let him do it right. This is a nice
tube tester and I really want to feel confident that it is working properly.
Reflecting back on 2006 from an audio perspective, a surprising amount of
things changed around here.
The living room system got completely reworked and reorganized as did my
Eico HF-81 amp. The addition of the Primus 360 speakers made a big
improvement. I still intend to move the VTL 50-50 amp and Audio
Experiment preamp into the living room system in the near future. I think it
is going to be a great system once this is done. The only thing, for now,
that I am thinking about trying in the living room system is a pair of Alpha
Core Goertz speaker cables. These worked so well with the VTL in my main
system that I would really like to see what they do in the living room.
I did not anticipate changing both the amplifier and preamplifier in my main
system this year but was lucky enough to be able to do both. The priority
for now is to get the Audio Experience preamp broken-in now and see how it
works out before making any other changes to the system. Then, of
course, I will have to determine what, if anything, has changed with the
Rogue once it returns. I expect that it will take a while to accomplish all of
this.
Along with getting the equipment that I have working its best and just
enjoying the music, I do have some plans for this year. We shall see how
they work out and where they lead.
Hope all of your plans lead to good things this year.
Kent Johnson
January 4, 2007