High End Stereo

M

munk

Joined
Mar 22, 2002
Messages
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Welcome to what's left of High End Stereo.

I've been researching this on and off for a year now. There aren't many places which sell the 'old fashioned' two channel type power amps. I have a pair of Polk speakers that are 250 watts a channel into 8 ohms.

There's a little place in Great Falls MT that quoted me a reasonable offer on a Rotel pre amp and amp for 1350 bucks delivered to my door. I thought, "Hmm; wonder if those high end shops in LA CA can beat this? I should note that we are talking about a 200 watt amp for a 1000 bucks and a preamp for 500.

I got ahold of a clerk in a Los Angeles shop. LA was a Mecca for high end 20 years ago. I figured I might save. I was wrong. But the funny thing was the attitude of the guy over the phone. I mentioned it was very hard to find high end stereo equipment today. He sniffed, "The Rotel is not high end; it is mid level only." Well, I'm glad he corrected that. How droll of me.

Ah...the days where a clerk would lord it over you. They were members of an Aristocracy and you a Rube. If you knew a little bit, and had bucks, they might warm to you, but mostly they let it be know you'll never be one of them. Keepers of the Gate. Upper crust. I work in a stereo store and my ears are not disimilar to Gold Plated Pus- ....oops. When I dream at night it is always from Mt. Olympus. Even my poop is rarified. My cuticles are trim. My hair is cut neatly.

Where do they get these guys?

No one other retail field I can think of is quite like it.

The clerk refused to quote me a price, only saying if I was in the shop he could cut it some. I really want to drive to LA and pay the high sales tax....

So now, where do I get 1350 bucks? Don't know. But I can dream, can't I?

In the meantime my poor Carver 2000 lies dead and there is no music from munk on munk hill.

I called back the clerk in Great Falls and told him soon as I rob a liquor store I'll get the equipment. I told him what the other clerk had said. He laughed.
"What is High End?" I asked.

"Well, what that guy was talking about was 3000 dollars for a preamp and another 3000 for an amp."

Well, this rube cannot pull six thousand bucks out of pocket, any more than I have 1500.

munk
 
You cut a pretty mean figure up on Mt. Olympus, munk.

Say, which kukri do you carry with you in your dreams? Or is it your wheelgun?


I imagine the sound system up there is one of the best too. Crystal clear, no speakers even .. just comes out of thin air.



And always the right song.



~ b
 
High end ? Sir , never even being able to approach such bliss from child to adult , I chose as a child to regard quantity as a substitute for quality . I took an el-cheapo guitar amp and wired it up to a scratchy old record player . Both my family and neighbours thought I was posessed . My father may have tolerated it more because it stopped me from sneaking down in the night , unplugging his alarm clock radio and retire to my room to listen to far away stations brought in clear in the stillness of the night . Of course the fact that my dad not having an alarm clock in the morning never crossed my mind ! Well maybe after the first couple of times ! L:O:L

With my first job at thirteen I graduated to a complete Lloyds stereo for 120 bucks . I think the guitar amplifier sounded better !
I don,t even bother looking at sound equipment that approaches the price of a down payment on a chunk of land . I do think that a reasonable quality system with good separation of sounds is do-able. Your average home theater system is good enough for these tired old ears . I have a Sony 5+1 speaker system that does me quite well . You can tailor the sound to suit your needs and control volume on each speaker individually . Quality and fidelity are reasonable and as I mentioned that while separation of individual instruments might be a bit much to ask , individual taloring of speaker outputs approximates this well enough for me . If I ever want to return to the good old days of my youth I can crank up the sub-woofer on the system or sneak over to my parents house and steal my dads clock radio ! L:O:L
 
Munk,

What do you want to spend? Your budget?

How many speakers do you want to drive? 2? 4? 5 or 6 AND a Subwoofer? Powered subwoofer? What RMS wattage of your existing or proposed to buy speakers?

What inputs do you need? If you can get by without the optical, component and PMC, your choices are better.

What equipment will you be inputting? CD? DVD? TIVO? VHS? Do you want to run your video input(s) through your A/V Tuner/Amp?

What music will you be listening to? How critcial is the range of sound? Do you want a frequency range that will drive the dogs and coons away? Or just something that most people can hear? Some systems produce such high freqencies that only a bat can hear them.

Personally I would look to Costco. One thing that I really like about Costco is good prices and a lifetime return warranty (except for computers). Keep your receipt. You will not find High End stuff there, but you will find VERY GOOD!
 
Well, I don't want any of the home theatre stuff. I don't want 6 channels with 50 watts each.


Maybe later on surround sound theatre stuff.



I was hoping to spend under a thou. Looks like it'll be a little more.

You understand I'm not getting anything at current time, though. Fixing the house took it all away.


munk
 
What I'm dying to know is how in hell did you manage to blow a Carver amp?
Have you condidered finding out if it can be fixed?

Rotel makes good stuff...don't let those pretentious idiots tell you differently.

BTW IMHO surround sound is crap! Give me two good speakers and a decent clean amp any day!
 
There is a guy who lives near me that hand builds some of the best stereo speakers in the world. He built his own stereo system (with vacuum tubes - including some monstrous things that are truly beautiful to watch - in a plexiglass casing).

I met him picking up some radio tubes for my dad (who restored antique radios and stereos as a hobby) and he gave me a tour and played a few different types of music on the system. It was truly something special.

In a way, it cured me of wanting to spend a lot on anything high-end since none of it has equalled what I'd heard there. In another way, it has left me wanting to be able to sit down after a long day of work and just listen for an hour and get completely lost in it.
 
Edward; the reciever is 20 years old. It was Carver's top of the line at the time. Things age. I think all that's happened is the off on switch is broken. But I think the machine has degraded. The sonic holography disapeared a year ago.

Heat is a killer. Lots of people have 'killed' Carver amps, and everybodyelse's amps. Amps die like everything else. I will eventually try to repair the Carver, but why sink money into degraded components?


munk
 
one of the advantages of being an old fart is that alot of assorted firearms have assaulted my earholes & permanently numbed my cochlear hairs to the extent that the cheap stereo systems sound just as good as the 'spensive ones. rather spend my money on sharp pointy things now, they last longer & don't jack up the 'lectricity bill.
 
Munk,

Email me or PM me with your needs and desires. You are speaking in my native tongue. I have worked in the hifi business in the Southwest market for over two decades (based in Los Angeles). I spent the first dozen years working in retail stores and the last ten years working for an independent manufacturer's representative firm. An independent rep firm is a company that a factory like Rotel would hire to be their local presence to handle wholesale sales, marketing and dealer support in a regional area. With us it is the Southwest US, and in fact, we were the Rotel reps for nine years until last September when they fired all their rep firms nationally and went factory direct. We earned National Rep of The Year three times, last time for 2003. I have a stack of Rotel in living room. I'm also pretty familiar with Carver as I've been Bob Carver's rep with his most recent company, Sunfire, since I took this job in 1996 and have a few Rep of the Year plaques from them as well.

While the world has gone multi channel and surround sound and he has had to do the same, Bob Carver's still got a 2 channel heart. Sunfire makes a couple nice 2 channel amps and a sweet tube preamp although they're piced WAY above where Rotel is these days. His current Surround Sound receiver is $5000.00!

Speaking of Rotel, they are the top end of mid-fi in the big picture. Companies like Krell and Classe Audio and even Sunfire have taken two channel music to heights that Rotel can only dream of, but the price of admission is very high to be in the true high end. Rotel still makes great stuff for the money and is true to the music lover's soul.

Something else to consider is that some manufacturers have very strict distribution policies. Rotel in specific is one that prohibits their dealers from selling via the internet of by mail order, which may be why you exprienced a less than optimum reception from the dealer you aproached (if they're in LA, I bet I know them personally).

If you want to get your old Carver fixed, I have what survives today as the factory service in my cell phone's speed dial and can put you in touch with the right folks.

It's late and I'm tired so I'm done typing on this subject as I could go on for hours, but I'd be happy to try and help. Email me and I'll see what I can do for you.
 
Check out the top of the line Von Schweikert speakers for truly exceptional sound; there's a big difference from the fare offered at CircuitCity... :rolleyes:
 
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