Yeah...what EW said...
I certainly do not need to tell AK'ers about the quality of Glenn's work - his rep speaks for itself. When this process started, I had NO idea how much work this unit needed (and that was even before the "peanuts" incident...BTW, Glenn, I can't even tell where the shipping damage was! And I am keeping the box/packing materials you returned it with fo' sure...).
Neither did Glenn.
But his dogged determination to get things "right" made all the difference to me. If the OnSemi decision had ANY impact on the performance of the unit, I certainly can't tell...the sound is
wonderful! One example that I gave Glenn that I will share with you...one of the first things I listened to was the CD of Little Feat's "Waiting For Columbus" (a fine compilation of their stuff that is also pretty well recorded...with lots of things to listen to...the bass line...the percussion...a good disc for listening to "spacing" and soundstage, IMO)...after "Join The Band", the first real song on the disc is "Fat Man In The Bathtub"...for those of you familiar with the recording, after the instrumental break in the middle, the verse comes back...and after Lowell George sings the line, "runnin' down the street yellin' at the top of his lungs...", there is a background baritone vocal that sings (almost on top of him), "ohhhh yea-h-h-h..."
It's hard to describe if you don't know the passage...but is just sounds SO sweet. Clear. Full of nuance. It's the kind of thing that we all focus on when we hear a better quality recording or hear a song on upgraded gear...and it's moments like that where we appreciate that step-function of quality of sound...
And it's ALL there.
The phono stage sounds great as well (which was extremely important to me as the AU-919 is the engine of this vinyl-centric system). If anything, the one thing that Glenn's work did was take the sound of this unit (which I have been told lends itself to an uncolored, flat, ACCURATE rendering of the music) and amped it up on steriods. The Ohm Walsh's - while great speakers for what they do - are not exactly low-frequency monsters, and when coupled with the unfailing preciseness, clarity and lack of tone adjustments (what - you mean that you don't just bypass the tone controls? LOL...), I am giving serious consideration to adding a Hsu sub just to give the system a little low-end rump...
And cosmetically? Glenn painted and baked the cover. Looks like new.
Everything about this process, from the initial rceipt of the amp (erk) to the constant flow of info as Glenn peeled back the layers of crap that kept coming...and coming...and coming...was VERY much appreciated. I hope that I
never have to send anything to Glenn like this again...but it is good to know that if I
had to have something like this fixed in the future, that I have a place to take it. As members of this forum surely know, Glenn is simply
aces to deal with, and I hope to find the opportunity to buy him a beer sometime "further on down the road..."
Bill
I'm confident you'll get a good solution figured out. :thmbsp:
