Hey Sckott... My foreplay preamp kit has arrived!

[Drew]

And construction is commencing forthwith!

[Sckott]

Yeah yeah yeah.

Grrr.....

Hey, enjoy. It's a real easy build. Mine is coming in about 1.5 weeks, but you waited waaay longer than I did.

[Gary]

Strange you mentioned this this AM. I just saw one last night - used.

But I need amps, not preamps.

[Drew]

I still need speakers. Steve suggested Tannoy's but they're a little bit (ok WAY) beyond my budget. I even looked in some pawn shops locally like he suggested but with no luck.

Someone suggested Lowthers, but I really don't have the tools in my apartment to build a voigt pipe on other bass horn enclosure for them. And the sites I see that sell them with with enclosures put them out of my reach for now. I've thought about some cheaper Fostex full range drivers but I still would have to build some kind of enclosure.

I'm looking long and hard at the pi speakers forum on audio asylum.

I would be nice to audition some speakers with my SET amp before I plunk down some cash but there really isn't a good store in this part of the world.

I don't know what things are like in L.A. or New York, but in the last 10 years with the proliferation of Best Buy and Circuit City, it seems the locally owned high end stereo stores have gone out of business. At least thats the way it is in this town.
Everywhere you go they're pushing Bose
:p

[Jeffrey]

Hi,

Good ole' Bose. Gotta luv capitalism. Where else can you make speaks for $2-10 ea. & peddle the set for up to $1,000. :rolleyes:

Strongly agree that the loss of the locally owned mid & hi-fi shops is a real bummer. :mad:

Yesterday,
Jeffrey

[Gary]

Drew, if I were you I would wait until a really nice speaker system came along (what a dumb statement - of course you will!!). I'm just trying to advise you to be a patient guy. Something good will come along - you'll see.

Do you have a Buy and Sell newspaper out there? Pawnshops are a good idea. Estate auctions? Garage sales (gotta get there on Saturdays, very very early!)? Try an affluent neighborhood! Newspaper ads - "for sale" column. Try the yellow pages - are there any stereo shops that advertise "New and Used" equipment? A friend of mine found some Tannoy's in a pawn shop $100.00!

I have a friend who is an auctioneer. He has a house FULL of antique stereo equipment. At last count: 10 turntables, 3 mono block tube systems... etc. Do you have a friend who is an auctioneer? If not, call an auctioneer (yellow pages) - they *might* call you or tell you if there is an estate sale coming up with stereo equipment in it. Another friend paid $400.00 for a Linn TT, speakers and components. So you may just get lucky!

Good hunting!

PS Yes, even here in Toronto Canada, the small audiophile shops are suffering. There are just a few left. :(

[Drew]

I work Saturdays :(, so estate sales aren't a good option for me. Don't know any auctioneers, either. I'm not from Columbus, so outside of work, I only know one person who knows anything about high end audio (he's not a local either, ironically enough)

Actually the guys at work are the idiots who are buying Bose at Best Buy, and they laughed at me when I told them I'm buying a tube amp.

Has the economy recovered yet? I think I need a new job.

[Sckott]

You realize what you can build simply even with a few Radio Shack drivers will whoop the *** of anything you can purchase in Best Buy. You don't need to be a rocket scientist or anything, but some tools, couple of crossover, I think they give you the circut cheat sheet and acoustic basics. Laugh, but the drivers you buy for "DIY" speakers at Radio Shack are built stong and they sound really nice. You can be cheap, and not skimp out on sonics. Any Yamaha-ha Bose or JBLs are real jokes, although sometimes they sound amazing, the doode's right. You get gouged - badly.

If I had a skill saw, in the basement, I'd build speakers like nuttty. Problem is, I have Acoustats, so building speakers for me is me going 'way overboard'.

Don't feel bad if you got laughed at at Best Buy. Laughing is contagous in there. I go in there just to laugh my *** off in there once a week.

[JohnnyK]

I live in the Chicago area and there are still a number of high-end audio stores in the area. There is one place in Palatine Illinois called The Sound Lab that has a Martin Login room with the ML Statement on display. This store is amazing. It has tube stuff, home theater stuff, speakers from Wilson Audio, etc. NOW get this. In an effort to augment his audio buisness, the owner opened an adjoining store called Big Boy's Toys that sells "cherry" high-end used cars. Last I looked, he had an XKE, Lotus, AC 289 Cobra, Porsche Speedster and a Bentley. He said that he sells over 100 cars a year. This is the ultimate guy store.

[Drew]

Actually, Its while I'm at work that I get laughed at when I mention the words "vacuum tubes". But I should complain too much, I'm sitting here at work right now building my foreplay preamp and conversing in this public forum. ;)

I was looking at raw drivers at radio shack the other day, but I didn't see any that were much more than 91 db/w/1m efficient. I'd like something in the 100db/w/1m range.

I'd thought about buying Klipsch Heresy's on Ebay (usually in the $400 range). They're only in the 96 db/w/1m range. But Steve said Klipsch has a very colored sound.

But at least it would get me started while I look for something better.

I'm not sure if the virtue of patience is something I really possess.

Those pi speakers at audioasylum.com use Eminence drivers. They're right around 100 db/w/1m range.

[Gary]

What about shopping online and travelling to ... Cinci? ... to hear 'em? It really depends on your ears and what you like - and sometimes how they match with the tubes.

But shopping on eBay would probably be OK - they can be secondary speakers after you get your "dream" speakers. And locate the secondarys in another room - one day.

I did that. I have 4 working speaker systems thru the house. And I love 'em all!

[Unknown]

Originally posted by Drew:
I work Saturdays :(, so estate sales aren't a good option for me. Don't know any auctioneers, either. I'm not from Columbus, so outside of work, I only know one person who knows anything about high end audio (he's not a local either, ironically enough)

Actually the guys at work are the idiots who are buying Bose at Best Buy, and they laughed at me when I told them I'm buying a tube amp.

Has the economy recovered yet? I think I need a new job.

Drew, I may be able to help a bit, but you're going to have to drive.

I lived in Dayton till April of this year. My only foray into Columbus was Al Villa Rosa (a very smelly dive) for a King's X show.

Anyway, in Dayton (technically Fairborn), there is a dealer called Audio Etc on Colonel Glenn Highway (essentially right across the street from Wright State, where I was going to school). They have NHT, Magnepan (no good for you), and several other good brands.

Moving south towards Cincy: check out Audible Elegance (http://www.audibleelegance.com/) in Montgomery. They have lots of good brands in a very cool store. Moving literally right down the road from Audible Elegance, IIRC, is Alamo Audio. A bit less of a high-end store, but they still have several good brands like Boston and PSB. And get some ribs while you are there.

You need a *new* job? Be glad you have a job, period. I don't. :(

[ November 09, 2001: Message edited by: Patrick M ]

[Drew]

Your right Gary, I shouldn't complain because my problems are very small compared to some other people.

I'm also kinda familiar with that part of Dayton. I saw YES at Nutter Center 10 years ago while I was going to school here. I spent a few years traveling all over the country right after that and thought I'd never get sent back to Columbus.

I also spent most of day at work assembling my Foreplay preamp ;)

[Unknown]

Originally posted by Drew:
Your right Gary, I shouldn't complain because my problems are very small compared to some other people.

I'm also kinda familiar with that part of Dayton. I saw YES at Nutter Center 10 years ago while I was going to school here.

...Gary?

If you can make it to Nutter, you can find this place. Go through the stoplight in front of Nutter, take a left so you turn in beside Taco Bell (on the right, Bob Evans on the left). It's back in there behind Bob Evans.