The Stereo 70 is a wonderful amp. I could never quite bring myself to part with mine.
There are thousands and thousands of Stereo 70s sill in use for a reason.
The best of the rest. My spare-gear system.
- Thread starter JohnVF
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The Stereo 70 is a wonderful amp. I could never quite bring myself to part with mine.
There are thousands and thousands of Stereo 70s sill in use for a reason.
This particular one has had a few modifications and a drastic increase in parts quality, with every part picked for sound quality reasons and matched channel to channel by a sound engineer who took it on as a person challenge. The only visual cue that its not stock is a different choke, which sticks out of the bottom requiring the amp to sit on feet. I love this amp. You might even get me to admit that its one of the best sounding amps I've owned, as uncool as that seems. It sounds a lot different than some other Stereo 70s I've heard..less tubey/warm, more open clean and detailed but it hasn't lost what people love about it, either.The Stereo 70 is a wonderful amp. I could never quite bring myself to part with mine.
There are thousands and thousands of Stereo 70s sill in use for a reason.
GuyK
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DSC_8300Your pics reveal a particularly good natured animal. You've had good fortune in making the acquaintance of such a splendid creature; please wish him well for me. Pax vobiscum.
The Stereo 70 is a wonderful amp. I could never quite bring myself to part with mine.
There are thousands and thousands of Stereo 70s sill in use for a reason.
Coming from you, that's not much of a compliment.
Coming from you, that's not much of a compliment.
Such is the magnitude of my affection for audio gear that there is plenty to go around.
Last night I set about taming the penchant for boominess in the Elacs when placed as they are about 12-18" from the back wall. First I ventured into the basement to see if I could find anything to deaden the speakers resting place on the large Target stands I'm using. Not having any idea what would do what, I found some old sheets of cork that I'd bought to make platter mats out of, and used two of them cut to the dimensions of the tops of the speaker stands. So I placed that between the speakers and stands and that actually helped out a lot. I thought it might muddy the bass but instead it tightened them up across the board. I'm going to pick up some BluTack and try that as well in place of the cork. I rarely use light/small speakers (in a system that I'm this concerned about perfecting) so this is a new territory for me. I've had these stands for ages, and don't even remember the last time I used them. I think it was under my old Kef 103.2s.
Also, it's time to fill the speaker stands. There's a lot of space to fill so maybe clay kitty litter? I'm trying to do this on the cheap because, well, I'm sick of spending money on this hobby.
Also, ICTwoody is sending me some foam to bung the speaker ports (bungholes?). Which is an awesome gesture, thank you. I cut some foam from some unused wall treatments and loosely stuffed it in the ports and the boominess went away but so did some of the immediacy and some of the lower bass, even with just a little. I'm hoping this more open celled foam that will be arriving is the perfect medium between none and what I tried. If the speakers are about 3' out into the room this boominess isn't nearly the problem it becomes with the ports closer to the wall. Something to consider if you're looking for Elacs.
Also, it's time to fill the speaker stands. There's a lot of space to fill so maybe clay kitty litter? I'm trying to do this on the cheap because, well, I'm sick of spending money on this hobby.
Also, ICTwoody is sending me some foam to bung the speaker ports (bungholes?). Which is an awesome gesture, thank you. I cut some foam from some unused wall treatments and loosely stuffed it in the ports and the boominess went away but so did some of the immediacy and some of the lower bass, even with just a little. I'm hoping this more open celled foam that will be arriving is the perfect medium between none and what I tried. If the speakers are about 3' out into the room this boominess isn't nearly the problem it becomes with the ports closer to the wall. Something to consider if you're looking for Elacs.
It's a good place to be back to.
Well, I did say this was the best of the rest system. And the Leben is actually the best of the entire lot. It's my best sounding amp, but it comes with limits on power. Here that limit is helping to deal with the bass boom that the 100 wpc VAC brought to the game.
The Leben was the amp driving them before, but the system had the BlueSound Vault without a separate DAC, and the Elacs were sitting on the cabinet with foam under them. Now they're on very heavy, filled, four-post Target R2 stands. The DAC and especially the stands really changed the sound for the better. It's not a background system anymore.
The Leben was the amp driving them before, but the system had the BlueSound Vault without a separate DAC, and the Elacs were sitting on the cabinet with foam under them. Now they're on very heavy, filled, four-post Target R2 stands. The DAC and especially the stands really changed the sound for the better. It's not a background system anymore.
And...now I'm back to the Stereo 70.
This sounds REALLY NICE. I'm getting a really nice synergy with it and the Elacs. With the aquarium filter foam from ICTwoody bunging the ports (Bung the ports fellas! Those shells are coming in hot! Hazzah!" the Elacs have tightened up nicely.
The Stereo 70 is kind of sonically a midpoint between the VAC and Leben. It's not as forward and powerful in the bass as the VAC, nor as open and refined as the Leben. It sits in a happy place. I don't really prefer it to the other three so much as see them all as viable options. The VAC appears to be losing yet another KT-88z, so it's down for a bit.
Kids, don't buy Shuguang Treasure KT-88z. This is the second one I've had go south and they ain't cheap.
This sounds REALLY NICE. I'm getting a really nice synergy with it and the Elacs. With the aquarium filter foam from ICTwoody bunging the ports (Bung the ports fellas! Those shells are coming in hot! Hazzah!" the Elacs have tightened up nicely.
The Stereo 70 is kind of sonically a midpoint between the VAC and Leben. It's not as forward and powerful in the bass as the VAC, nor as open and refined as the Leben. It sits in a happy place. I don't really prefer it to the other three so much as see them all as viable options. The VAC appears to be losing yet another KT-88z, so it's down for a bit.
Kids, don't buy Shuguang Treasure KT-88z. This is the second one I've had go south and they ain't cheap.
I used to buy my treasure tubes from Grant Fidelity back when Ian Grant was still alive. I ran 4 of them in my old Rita 880 integrated. When I finaly traded the amp , the treasures still tested strong and the spare set was new unused. Bummer that they are not reliable anymore because they sound great!
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They really do sound fantastic. Maybe this amp runs them particularly hard. It's a tough hit when they cost about $120 a pop.
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