• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

Spec vs. Elite

Arkay said:
Retro, I don't doubt at all the truth of what you say. What I'm wondering is... since you mentioned the SPEC gear had benefitted from EW's magic toudh, was the M91 in as good a condition as the SPEC gear, or was it suffering from sllightly aging caps, etc...? [Of course the M91 isn't as old to begin with, but you understand what I mean.]

Hard to reconcile such adamantly differing opinions. I kind of "root for" the vintage silver, but appreciate good newer stuff, too. Even given that everyone "hears" differently, there sure seems to be two camps on this comparison. Would be nice to figure out why, and what (if any) "ultimate truth" is reliable here.

Oh, and that comparator might be "sterile", but I would LOVE to have one of those to route my gear through! :yes: Although the wiring would be a gordion-knot nightmare, it would make playing with (and playing) different systems/combinations 1000 percent easier!
Click to expand...


Your question would be a hard one to answer, and you're right, the SPEC gear I have is 30 years old, and the M-91, at the most, was 12 years old. I don't believe EchoWars really beefed anything up on the SPEC 2, although we should get him in here to answer that in person, but he did replace all the big caps.

FWIW, my thinking would be that no, I don't believe that anything Glenn did to the SPEC 2 would have likewise benefitted the M-91, because it was still relatively new, in "well-built" electronic years anyway.

I don't want anybody to get the wrong impression here, I still wouldn't kick the Pioneer Elite M-91 out of bed for eating crackers, so to speak, but for me, because of the incredibly innefficient speakers I run, I preferrred the SPEC 2, and that is all it really came down to.





Retro
 
Retro, none of my test speakers are power hungry- good point. The DCMs have a flat impedance curve at about 5 ohms and about 89dB efficient. (the flattest I have ever measured) The G7s are nice enough at 6 ohms and 92-3dB and the G333s are 6 ohms average, 91dB, but a wild impedance curve that has caused a few big amps to get unstable (namely my denon POA1500). I would not call any of my test speakers a tough load. To be honest, testing the big amps at full power is a risky business, one slip with the earthing on the cro probes and up goes the output stage along with a lot of copper PCB traces. (only ever did it once with a HMA8300 hitachi (200+200) and that wasn't pretty)
I'll test the M91 soon enough as now I am interested to see what it does. Will post the results.
 
Spec Vs Eilite

I have owned much classic Pioneer gear and at present My Elite Reference A71 is an effortless sweet powerful integrated the build and over engineered Power supply and construction in general superb..but i love my SX850 as well just good solid desig:yes:ns..i know i prefer the Elite to my Naim Nait 5i or Sansui 4900.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom