Justin & Jerry's Hifi Blog

[jandl100]

No, no, Alan
Of course I have lava lamps - loads of 'em!!

[Marco]

Thread now tidied up, Jerry... Don't say I'm not good to you!

Marco.

[DSJR]

The Myst amps were beautifully made inside I remember and I think used a derivative of the Hitachi MOS-FET design unless I'm very mistaken. As you say Jerry, very capable of subtlety if it's there further back in the chain. I don't think they were dealt a fair hand by the ubiquitous Linn/Naim brigade at the time - I remember how, despite my remembering the Myst amps sounding better in most ways than CB Naim, our Naim-centric sales director basically showed them the door...

[jandl100]

Thanks, Marco -- I hope you have saved the pearls of automotive wisdom in a safe place.

__

Ah, the sins of the Flat Earth era, Dave. They were manyfold. Many a fine product and company was suppressed by the bully boy tactics of the Linn/Naim axis.

Chez Jerry it came to a tussle between the Myst G-Ohm amps and the Restek Challenger.



I suspect that in the end it was 130wpc vs 80wpc that won out - or maybe the frog made the difference - but the Restek simply had just that bit more power and freedom into my rather inefficient speakers (rated at 84dB/W). Both amps were excellent at the things that are most important to me - transparency, resolution, image focus and depth. I suspect that putting aside power considerations, the Myst had a bit more in the way of taut bass control. Both have loads of rez at high frequencies but thankfully fail to shriek.
So the Myst is now residing with its hopefully happy new owner and I remain surprisingly happy with the Restek. There's a real synergy between me, my MBLs and that Amp.

Other hifi news at Jerry Towers? - had my lovely vintage Marantz receiver and cassette deck serviced.



Been using the cassette deck quite a lot with my collection of commercial pre-recorded tapes - what a fine source! It sounds great.

I've bought a little switch box to allow a few more sources to go through my Antimode DAC/ADC/pre so now everything in my system can go thru that fine little system controller -- in order of amount of usage -- live streaming, record deck, cassette, CD, DVD.

At the prompting of a thread on the TAS forum I tried a few ferrite rings around cables. Excellent results with my laptop->DAC USB cable , sounded dire around interconnects , marginal change around some power cords so far tried (some maybe a tad better, others closed the sound in a bit).

Planned changes? .... None!! Sheesh. And I call myself a boxswapper. I'll have to see what comes along that takes my fancy, but I have to confess to being extraordinarily happy with my system at the moment.

[howlindawg]

IMPOSTER!!!

Planned changes? .... None!!

[jandl100]

IMPOSTER!!!

I think I've been taken over by aliens ....

.... but that happened years ago.

I've tried a few different components recently - amps, DACs, cables - but ended up staying with what I had.

[mikeyb]

The carpet's from an old folk's home, though.....

Nope, the carpets where I work are definitely more up to date lol.

[Firebottle]

Jerry I can't believe it

Interesting that the Myst came so close to being a keeper.

Maybe you would like to try my stand alone Firebottle Tri phono stage once I have made one
It is going to be the phono only section from the Firebottle KIN that I so cruelly let you listen to and then took away again.

Watching your further developments with interest (I don't think you have stopped boxswapping.........)

Alan

[jandl100]

Jerry I can't believe it

Interesting that the Myst came so close to being a keeper.

Maybe you would like to try my stand alone Firebottle Tri phono stage once I have made one

Hmm, yes, that would be interesting, it sounded fab! Not sure I can afford it, though.

It is going to be the phono only section from the Firebottle KIN that I so cruelly let you listen to and then took away again.

Yeah, that was a bugger of a thing to do!

Watching your further developments with interest (I don't think you have stopped boxswapping.........)

Alan

Yup, I'm sure you are correct.

--- btw, have you had a chance to check your spares box, Alan, for those two input selection buttons for my big vintage Rotel amp?

[Barry]

Uuuh! That's 'loud' on the eyes - not quite 'bling' but 'loud' nonetheless.