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Mederlock posted:I dunno bro the MT-45 is basically the same type of amp as those others, let us know how it sounds! I've honestly been tempted by those China hi-fi amps for a while but a session in front of my FOSI gear keeps me satisfied enough to not be tempted.. so far. No the (especially mk 3) MT-45 looks way better than those. Cayin stuff always looked a cut above the Willsentons, etc, and their most recent product runs look best so far. Always spent years kind of looking at them erstwhile and Trump’s tariff run lit a bit of a fire under my rear end to try to get some bigger discretionary buys (particularly from Asia/abroad) done before prices/shipping get totally turbofucked. Glad to get in under the wire before he apparently killed affordable + fast direct shipping. I paid $822 shipped with tax with a coupon from Cayin’s official AliExpress store. The price seems to fluctuate wildly between like ~$800 and $1700 depending on whether it has bluetooth or not (a $150-200 difference, so the bluetooth-free model has been like $760-$1499 recently). I have no clue what this emergent Trump economy will do to those prices, but as things currently stand I would tell anybody not to pay more than like a thousand for one of these. Definitely do not pay $2k+ which is what they and their twin the Jazz 80 seem to go for from some dealers. Their bluetooth implementation actually seems quite sound aside from the fact that I think you always have to pair it, in any case I decided to save $200 and bring my own DAC/Wiim. Plus the front panel with the ‘Bluetooth’ in lowercase letters while everything else is fully uppercase just makes it look jank, and also I figured it would be more “timeless” without a wireless tech that will be outclassed in a few years. Plus as funny as a tube amp with onboard Bluetooth is, it just looks pretty jank in general, IDK. I’ll post a trip report once I get the time and space to get it out of its box and situated. It’s a big, heavy fucker.
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Apr 3, 2025 22:55
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trilobite terror posted:No the (especially mk 3) MT-45 looks way better than those. Cayin stuff always looked a cut above the Willsentons, etc, and their most recent product runs look best so far. LOL at paying $800+ for a hifi tube amp. The only place tube amps are relevant is in guitar/bass amps where you want the tube overdrive. You never ever want your hifi amp to overdrive. Hifi amplification is a solved problem.
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Apr 3, 2025 23:04
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cdc posted:LOL at paying $800+ for a hifi tube amp. The only place tube amps are relevant is in guitar/bass amps where you want the tube overdrive. You never ever want your hifi amp to overdrive. Hifi amplification is a solved problem. I know. I wanted a pretty handmade statement trinket for my home/collection. It lights up and it’s shiny, it’s built like a brick shithouse, and it takes up a fuckton of space on the credenza. The fact that it plays music is arguably icing if you look at it from a certain perspective, although I went with the MT45 because 40 WPC should drive pretty much any speakers I could ever conceivably use. I like my decor pieces to be functional/interesting, and this is kind of a historical/sculptural curio without looking too steampunky or nerdy. I looked at some cheaper stuff, like the Cayin MT-12 that’s on Drop for $475 (and I might still cop if I like the MT-45 👀) and it’s a lot smaller and less impressive/less polished looking than this thing, so I decided to go in and get a bit spendier than I normally would on this sort of thing on the big quad KT88s which look nice and I have a bunch of vintage hifi gear that I love and enjoy rotating through, and some contemporary pieces, but didn’t have any tube stuff until now. I have enough 78s and pre-70s media that part of me also kind of wondered about playing with tube gear for authenticity nerdery’s sake, just to rly try to better replicate the experience of midcentury hifi, although this isn’t mono/remotely what would’ve been used lol. I’ve spent years looking at this stuff and a lot of cheaper poo poo, and outside of stuff for headphones or stuff that looks either unimpressively dinky or way too DIY, $800 is about as cheap as you can go. It’s this, Elekit (which I definitely want to get my hands on, building an amp looks like a fun time), Schiit Freya, and then a bunch of gear that’s 2, 3, 4+ times more expensive and definitely not stuff I’m particularly interested in. I only wish this had preamp out, so I could DI/record stuff through it and use it with beefier power amps. Ironically enough that you mention it, I’m kinda done with tube guitar/bass gear and pretty much fully in the digital/modeling/solid state realm at this point.
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Apr 4, 2025 00:09
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trilobite terror posted:I know. I wanted a pretty handmade statement trinket for my home/collection. It lights up and it’s shiny, it’s built like a brick shithouse, and it takes up a fuckton of space on the credenza. honestly, your tube journey feels like the audio equivalent of restoring a vintage Porsche just to idle it in the driveway because aesthetics. Respect.
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Apr 4, 2025 00:18
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cdc posted:honestly, your tube journey feels like the audio equivalent of restoring a vintage Porsche just to idle it in the driveway because aesthetics. Respect. dogg, I daily my old fun cars
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Apr 4, 2025 00:24
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trilobite terror posted:dogg, I daily my old fun cars Well good for you buddy. I'm just amazed that you want tube hifi stuff when there's really nothing to gain from it. But you do you I guess.
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Apr 4, 2025 00:33
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cdc posted:Well good for you buddy. there’s nothing to gain with any of this stuff vinyl, tapes, cds, etc, is all moot from a personal use standpoint if it’s been properly digitized. Vintage vs new, etc. None of it matters Literally nothing matters I mean, hell you’re gonna die one day. From a certain point of view you’re already dead
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Apr 4, 2025 00:37
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trilobite terror posted:I mean, hell you’re gonna die one day. From a certain point of view you’re already dead Oh I wish I was dead, but life is gonna keep loving me over for some time.
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Apr 4, 2025 00:48
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Yeah I have a very nice turntable and record collection and it all gets digitized and fed through an eq and would certainly be easier and sound better straight from qobuz but I like playing around with records so I do both. I wouldn't judge anyone for listening through whatever gear they want to add long as they're not deluding themselves about analog purity or something
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Apr 4, 2025 01:19
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trilobite terror posted:
You could sample an impulse response and simulate the tube sound from this amp 
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Apr 4, 2025 01:46
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cdc posted:Oh I wish I was dead, but life is gonna keep loving me over for some time. lol you got mad that I razzed your dirty crusty goon keyboard in the mac thread so you posted mean things about my cool amp
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Apr 4, 2025 01:46
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trilobite terror posted:lol you got mad that I razzed your dirty crusty goon keyboard in the mac thread so you posted mean things about my cool amp LOL Nah, I'm cool with your amp, I just think the gloves are funny. And don't razz my v key.
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Apr 4, 2025 02:12
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cdc posted:LOL I've cleaned it, clean enough for ya? 
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Apr 4, 2025 02:24
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Aight, more focused ask this time. I got a pair of JBL 305s years ago and I'm happy with the sound, but they're just not cut out to be couch listening speakers (~6-10 feet away) which, to be fair, they're not intended to be. They're going up to my office, so I need some new living room speakers, something with a bigger / louder sound than the 305s. First thought is just to get a pair of 308s, they're even on sale right now, but a. I'm not sure how much better they'd be for my purpose and b. I'm feeling spendy and could be talked into $3-400 speakers if they're worth it. I see a lot of hype around the Kali IN-8, but its backordered everywhere.
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Apr 4, 2025 03:26
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Fantastic Foreskin posted:Aight, more focused ask this time. I got a pair of JBL 305s years ago and I'm happy with the sound, but they're just not cut out to be couch listening speakers (~6-10 feet away) which, to be fair, they're not intended to be. They're going up to my office, so I need some new living room speakers, something with a bigger / louder sound than the 305s. First thought is just to get a pair of 308s, they're even on sale right now, but a. I'm not sure how much better they'd be for my purpose and b. I'm feeling spendy and could be talked into $3-400 speakers if they're worth it. I see a lot of hype around the Kali IN-8, but its backordered everywhere. why not passive speakers + a receiver or amp, etc?
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Apr 4, 2025 03:42
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trilobite terror posted:why not passive speakers + a receiver or amp, etc? Mostly, I'm familiar with the 305s, so my mind went straight to their bigger brother and I started looking at their competition, which puts you in active territory. Partly its just simpler. One fewer thing to haul around or shop for. I'm not opposed to passives, they're just not something I have a lot of awareness about.
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Apr 4, 2025 03:51
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Fantastic Foreskin posted:Mostly, I'm familiar with the 305s, so my mind went straight to their bigger brother and I started looking at their competition, which puts you in active territory. Partly its just simpler. One fewer thing to haul around or shop for. For a bigger room I would definitely go with an amp and passive speakers. And I just can't recommend my NAD 316 enough. It's just so lovely and musical. I use it with some very old and large B&W speakers, but something like the ELAC Debut 2.0 B6.2 or the Wharfedale Diamond 12.2 might be a good fit if you dont want huge monoliths in your living room.
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Apr 4, 2025 04:11
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yeah depending on, but also arguably irrespective of, your budget passives are probably gonna be a way better value for you both in the short term and long term. Plus you can thrift/buy used/upgrade piecemeal/mix+match in a way that you can't rly do with actives. I don't hate active speakers, clearly, my computer speakers are a pair of 305 mk2s, but there are real downsides to them that make me leery about buying/recommending them for most cases and I do wish that the contemporary market for passive monitors and integrated monitor amps was much stronger/existent at all at the budget and mid-range than things currently are (I mean, amps are kind of a solved problem regardless, tons of good, ruler flat rack + studio amps out there. But passive monitors are basically a nonentity outside of the DIY, vintage/classic repro, and more niche high end/custom build setups.
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Apr 4, 2025 10:55
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currently pouring out my coffee for the Yamaha P-S series of A/B amps, the previous standard for pro/studio amps getting co-opted for hifi. taken too soon from us and replaced with some Class Ds that you hear almost nothing about (which seems like more of a good thing than a bad thing?) but look way better aesthetically/featurewise/buildwise than the Crown amps that went low-key viral in the scene if not for the fact that everything gets sent through an obligatory ADC/processor/DAC pipeline (IDK if this is bad or not, AfAIK pretty much any DSP does this, but it's like the one complaint I've found when I've entertained getting one of these) I'm shocked that no redditors or ASR nerds have really tried these, what with the attention that Crown got and the fact that Yamaha already has a presence in hifi
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Apr 4, 2025 11:03
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With the incoming tariffs, mise make any big purchases now. Lets say I'm willing to spend $1000 on a pair of speakers (separate from the price of an amp). Wharfedale has a pair of Diamond 12.4 for $1k, the Evo 4.2 are available for $850, and the KEF Q350 are on sale for $500, all of which I've heard good things about. Anything else I should be looking into? I move next week so I'm not sure of the distance/positioning in room yet, but I rent so its not like they'll be locked to that room for the foreseeable future. With audiophilia being what it is, finding trustworthy reviews on speakers is difficult. Any recommendations on resources?
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Apr 5, 2025 00:00
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Fantastic Foreskin posted:With the incoming tariffs, mise make any big purchases now. Lets say I'm willing to spend $1000 on a pair of speakers (separate from the price of an amp). Wharfedale has a pair of Diamond 12.4 for $1k, the Evo 4.2 are available for $850, and the KEF Q350 are on sale for $500, all of which I've heard good things about. Anything else I should be looking into? I move next week so I'm not sure of the distance/positioning in room yet, but I rent so its not like they'll be locked to that room for the foreseeable future. Can you stretch for the Q Concerto Meta at like $1200-1300?
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Apr 5, 2025 00:15
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trilobite terror posted:Can you stretch for the Q Concerto Meta at like $1200-1300? There's some flexibility, but looks like I can get them open box for under a grand. Any recommendations for an amp? I was going to trawl through ASR for anything decently reviewed / reasonably priced, but it looks like they've gotten rid of the review index widget so that's going to take a minute.
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Apr 5, 2025 14:23
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Fantastic Foreskin posted:Any recommendations for an amp? I was going to trawl through ASR for anything decently reviewed / reasonably priced, but it looks like they've gotten rid of the review index widget so that's going to take a minute. For a single box the Wiim Amp Pro should get you to decent listening levels. If you want a more standard component solution maybe the Yamaha R-N600/800, they're on AC4L. Amir generally hates receivers and integrated amps, at least ones under 3 grand because you can "do better" objectively with a jenga tower of separates with 10 power cords that don't have remote volume or input switching.
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Apr 5, 2025 16:06
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Fantastic Foreskin posted:There's some flexibility, but looks like I can get them open box for under a grand. Budget? I like the Yamaha AS701, or 501 if you can’t stretch that far (look at A4L, etc, don’t pay MSRP on any Yamaha gear ever), or any of the comparable receivers. You can add everything from a phono pre to Bluetooth to AirPlay to Sonos to HDMI to pretty much every amp/receiver with the right dongle so the world is pretty much your oyster inasmuch as your budget/space/needs/taste allows Do you want ostentatious or discrete or invisible? Modern or vintage or timeless? Silver or black?
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Apr 5, 2025 16:21
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I loved my AS801 silver face and sold it for what I bought it for after a couple of years when I wanted to try something with more power.
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Apr 5, 2025 16:31
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trilobite terror posted:Budget? Ideally not more than $200, could push to 300. I gave all my vinyl to my brother ages ago and don't have any desire to recollect, so this is only ever going to be hooked up to an old laptop, or stream over bluetooth. I prefer something that can be tucked out of the way; its just there to make the speaker work. Looking at the AIYIMA A80; it reviews well has integrated bluetooth for an all-in-one solution.
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Apr 5, 2025 22:31
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Fantastic Foreskin posted:Ideally not more than $200, could push to 300. I gave all my vinyl to my brother ages ago and don't have any desire to recollect, so this is only ever going to be hooked up to an old laptop, or stream over bluetooth. I prefer something that can be tucked out of the way; its just there to make the speaker work. Looking at the AIYIMA A80; it reviews well has integrated bluetooth for an all-in-one solution. For $200 that looks great!
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Apr 6, 2025 00:31
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You can't go wrong with an aiyima or Fosi amp at that price point, and the Wiim amp is worth looking at too
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Apr 6, 2025 00:47
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I would buy one of the Wiim amps with that budget
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Apr 6, 2025 00:52
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I have the Wiim mini streamer and it's freaking awesome. Paired it with a FOSI TB10D and some older Wharfedale bookshelf speakers for my bedroom and now my wife is always using it while she's napping or chillin in bed or whatever It was one of the few, rare moments she actually appreciated my gear hobby
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Apr 6, 2025 15:31
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I've posted about my never ending speaker build in here before, but I made some more upgrades this weekend. For the last year or so I've been using components that are pretty closely aligned to the original Altec voice of the theatre speakers, with the addition of a JBL supertweeter for the higher end, inside salvaged cabinets I restored & refinished.  This weekend I changed out the metal sectoral four-cell horn with the Altec compression driver for a wooden reproduction of the Altec multicellular horns, but with a JBL driver that's like 3x bigger. Side by side:   Final look:  Sound is insane, I'm extremely happy with it, the sweet spot for imaging is wayyyyy bigger than with the sectoral horns. Previously you kind of had to sit in one specific spot and now it's much wider. They also look sick. Super pleased. However, the caviar-green that I had painted the cabinets doesn't feel as cohesive with the warm tones of the wood, so I think I either need to stain the horns a darker walnut (similar to the supertweeter mounts pictured) or repaint the cabinets in maybe a warmer battleship grey or a super dark navy/midnight black. I will never be finished tinkering with these speakers.
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Apr 20, 2025 19:41
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