Some of my stuff!

[stewartwen]

Here are some pix of some of my kit.
http://s64.photobucket.com/albums/h166/stewartwen/#!cpZZ2QQtppZZ20

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[keiths]

It's asking for a password mate :scratch:

[stewartwen]

I think you can see it now.
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[DSJR]

Loverly stuff... THREE DC300A's indeed - vintage obscene :)

Deck looks swell too.

What do you use the reel to reel for? Loads of restoration on it by the looks of things.

[stewartwen]

I use the Big Ferro for live recording using the four track headblock!

[stewartwen]

The Studio 8 took about four years to rebuild, tis a heavy beast about 50 kilos, so it isn't used as much as it used to be.
The Crowns are my dream amp. I lusted after these as a young man then I quite literally fell over four of them in a friends shop, made him an offer.......................then the frustration started, although Crown in America were fabulous with their service support. They still have most of the components thro their website, but they don't have any of the large control knobs anymore nor any of the casework nor any of the txs either. But I struggled on, asking silly questions and eventually rebuilt them to component level. I cant think of any power amps I would rather own, and I have tried hundreds, they do what an amplifier is supposed to do. They just reproduce the music as close to the original input as is possible. But that is what HiFi is supposed to be about, isn't it?
BTW the Crowns will be at Scalford this year.
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[DSJR]

My bridged D-60's ain't too bad either and easily reproduce changes upstream of them. I was told a good while ago that the DC300A was a bit harsh toned compared to modern amps. All I can say to that is that the person who told me must be a lover of squidgey old valve stuff, since the 300A I heard just before Christmas (untouched internally as far as we could see) was excellent, limited only by the bog standard IC150 preamp, which itself isn't anywhere near as "bad" as it's painted to be and is fairly easily "sorted" with a hanful of new bits - the IC150 power supply is risky though on this, as it's just this side of buzzing off - cough - ..

While I'm on a rant (apologies for cr@pping on the thread), I despair of people who ONLY use subjective comments to base quality judgements on gear. What I mean is, and with the IC150 especially, this unit was being compared to the likes of old CJ and ARC stodge boxes, which altered the signal presented to them far too much in comparison... Always a good idea to have an honest reference, even if you don't like it overmuch, so you always have a constant to refer to - IMO.

[Haselsh1]

I had two Samson Servo 550 power amps a few years back running into original Mark One Castle Harlech's. The system sounded absolutely stunning with gut wrenching bass and slam. I adore studio amplifiers.

[stewartwen]

"I despair of people who ONLY use subjective comments to base quality judgements on gear." my thoughts exactly. I would like to get the subjectivists to build and design a piece of eqpt. without any form of measurement, then we would see if their argument would hold up.................I know it doesnt!
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[stewartwen]

BTW the Ic 150 is a damn fine preamp, with a rather poor RIAA, but on the whole it is amongst the finest preamps I have ever heard. And twas built to drive PROPER amplifiers!

[DSJR]

The signal coupling caps, especially the input tants, seem to slightly sit on the dynamics available. The output NP caps seem ok, although I replaced them with Muse BP ones.

Now, I get pretty good results from the phono stage (I took Crown's advice and fitted four new 4.7uF decoupling tant caps). The phono-stage gain's set around half way, so hopefully around 100 150mV overload which should be ample.

By the way, NOTHING wrong with subjective comments, but I do wish people who swear by them have a fixed reference for when they do their tweaking, to make sure they don't deviate too far, but just make what they've got better, if you see what I mean :)

There are studio amps and studio amps... The D series Crowns here boast very high damping factor, perfect for porty speakers like mine and transmission lines old and new, but although they drove old sealed AR's well (incredibly well on AR LST's I recall :D), I suspect a "free-er" amp may be far better for IB designs....

[BlueEyes]

Stewart,

Have you got your ATC 100 actives yet that you were having built to your own specification?

[TBL]

Maybe I'm missing something, but what are the speakers?

[BlueEyes]

Stewart mentioned to me some time ago that he was ordering them. A pair of active ATC 100s with his own requested modifications. I hope I haven't spoken out of turn by mentioning them.