What was the the last audio-related item you purchased?
- Thread starter Romeo Wolf
- Start date
Does it count if it was free? 
I had visited Audio Video Therapy in Nashua NH in early April, about 3 or 4 weeks before a business trip to Switzerland to see about a pair of KEF MU7 wireless noise-cancelling headphones. They didn't have those in stock, though did have others at higher and lower price points than the KEF MU7 @ $399. I'm a brand lover, so told the owner John R to order a pair for me.
My trip came around and I departed May 2nd, carrying my older KEF/Porsche Design Space One wired noise-cancelling set. They work great for the n/c action and sound good, just wanted to shed the cable. Oh well.
On the 4th day of my 12-day trip I get an international call from AV Therapy that the MU7 headphones are in. I let Robin know that I didn't need them at this point and forgot about them. Yesterday I'm at home working on cleaning the kitchen and I get a call from John R @ AVT, telling me something about "they're still here" and I should come pick them up. I didn't know what the heck he was talking about but agreed to drive the 55 miles each way to see what he wanted. On the drive up, I was wracking my brain and realized what this was.
I get there and he leads me to his office and handed me a box. It was a new pair of MU7 headphones. Free. A gift. He said he was sorry it took so long, but it was because "the guy who had to approve it" had been on vacation and they didn't ship in time. He was talking about the area rep for KEF, another John. I'd only met him once, seemed a decent guy. It's John R @ AV Therapy who did the push for a "complimentary" gift for a solid KEF customer, and I'm very grateful to both.
These are REALLY good! Best sound of any I own and most that I tried, certainly best in the $400 price range. I'm smitten! The guys at Audio Video Therapy of Nashua NH are superior customer service people, never pushy salespeople on commission. I've spent lower 5-figure sums there, so was happy to be gifted a couple of beer glasses left over from the dealer event they held the Friday after Memorial Day, one where KEF was again a featured brand. (I was on a long-planned motorcycle weekend in Vermont and missed it.)
I had visited Audio Video Therapy in Nashua NH in early April, about 3 or 4 weeks before a business trip to Switzerland to see about a pair of KEF MU7 wireless noise-cancelling headphones. They didn't have those in stock, though did have others at higher and lower price points than the KEF MU7 @ $399. I'm a brand lover, so told the owner John R to order a pair for me.
My trip came around and I departed May 2nd, carrying my older KEF/Porsche Design Space One wired noise-cancelling set. They work great for the n/c action and sound good, just wanted to shed the cable. Oh well.
On the 4th day of my 12-day trip I get an international call from AV Therapy that the MU7 headphones are in. I let Robin know that I didn't need them at this point and forgot about them. Yesterday I'm at home working on cleaning the kitchen and I get a call from John R @ AVT, telling me something about "they're still here" and I should come pick them up. I didn't know what the heck he was talking about but agreed to drive the 55 miles each way to see what he wanted. On the drive up, I was wracking my brain and realized what this was.
I get there and he leads me to his office and handed me a box. It was a new pair of MU7 headphones. Free. A gift. He said he was sorry it took so long, but it was because "the guy who had to approve it" had been on vacation and they didn't ship in time. He was talking about the area rep for KEF, another John. I'd only met him once, seemed a decent guy. It's John R @ AV Therapy who did the push for a "complimentary" gift for a solid KEF customer, and I'm very grateful to both.
These are REALLY good! Best sound of any I own and most that I tried, certainly best in the $400 price range. I'm smitten! The guys at Audio Video Therapy of Nashua NH are superior customer service people, never pushy salespeople on commission. I've spent lower 5-figure sums there, so was happy to be gifted a couple of beer glasses left over from the dealer event they held the Friday after Memorial Day, one where KEF was again a featured brand. (I was on a long-planned motorcycle weekend in Vermont and missed it.)
Had zero fun crawling around on the floor hooking the speaker wires up... had to take the cables out to the garage and put them in the vice to flatten the spades out (45 degree angle was too steep and the "wings" hit the cable preventing me from tightening them up. When I got the cables all hooked up I had no sound out of the left channel, AARG! While checking all the wiring I broke the key off the bottom of one of my socket savers... another AARG ! As it turns out I had inadvertently flipped the input switch on the back of the amp from XLR to RCA, once I figured that out I was relieved to have glorious stereo sound.I bought some Vampire "Wing Nut" binding posts (Mark Levinson version, on sale for $30 not the normal $60) for my KEF R7 Meta speakers... I hate crawling around on the floor with a pair of pliers trying to tighten up the metal binding posts, so they are outta here! I made some new plates out of 1/8" thick black plexiglass and painted them light brown to match the feet. The Vampire posts have 5/16" shafts so I had to go down to Ace Hardware and get some 14 gauge 5/16" ring connectors and solder them on to the speaker wires and I used copper crush gaskets on top of the rings. Now I have to crawl around on the floor to hook my new speaker wires up to the amps/speakers tomorrow in the daylight when I can see (Worlds Best Cables - Canare S411 Bi-Wires with soldered on Eminence E900 gold plated spades).
Amazon.com: WORLDS BEST CABLES 5 Foot - Canare 4S11 – Audiophile Grade - HiFi Star-Quad Bi-Wire Speaker Cable Pair with Eminence Gold Spade Connectors : Musical Instruments
Amazon.com: WORLDS BEST CABLES 5 Foot - Canare 4S11 – Audiophile Grade - HiFi Star-Quad Bi-Wire Speaker Cable Pair with Eminence Gold Spade Connectors : Musical Instrumentswww.amazon.com
Vampire Connector "Wing Nut" Style Series Binding Post (Mark Levinson Version)
Purchase Vampire Connector "Wing Nut" Style Series Binding Post (Mark Levinson Version) from Partsconnexion. Get the best prices with fast shipping. Order today!partsconnexion.com
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The new Psvane Summit tubes are very revealing- maybe too revealing right now - they play whatever is on the LP (or digital stream) and I found that a lot of music recorded in the 1960's sounds like SCHIIT (over blown bass, too many loud cymbals). A perfect example was when I tried listening to Roberta Flack's Killing Me Softly but the kick drum is atrocious. It probably sounds fine on a vintage speaker with slow moving 15" drivers, but with the KEF's super fast/tight 6" drivers it is plain NASTY.
Conversely, music that was recorded properly is superb- Zeppelin and Pink Floyd were awesome-the sound stage is insane with these tubes. All my Tidal streaming music from the mid 70's on sound fine, so I have a hypothesis for the 60's tunes sounding so bad: Maybe- just maybe- they were recorded with the bass and highs tweaked up so that folks could hear it on their AM radios (which have horrid SQ), especially the AM radios in cars... by the mid 70's FM radio became predominant and they stopped the tweaking of the highs and lows in the recordings ??????
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N2552
Super Member
Just now my €90,- euros buy now sold AS-IS for parts or repair no sound Philips 22AH308 got delivered and unboxed by me 
First troubleshooting conclusion. The amp DOES NOT come out of protection,!
But it's complete and kinda dirty but "minty", etc. So I am very happy with it.
First troubleshooting conclusion. The amp DOES NOT come out of protection,!
But it's complete and kinda dirty but "minty", etc. So I am very happy with it.
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Obviously not at all concerned about the 5-year warranty on the speakers.
While I understand the thought process of have an easier time torquing the binding posts a bit more, I have owned R series and never even considered that the stock binding posts weren't good enough. In fact, I think they're rather nice, though we all have different views. The binding posts on my Blade 2 Meta speakers are WBT brand and similar round plastic to the originals on your R7 Meta. I feel I can get plenty enough grip on the spade terminals of my Canare 4S11 cables. Twice a year I go loosen and retighten all connections, coinciding with the Daylight Time shifts, so there's little to no chance of corrosion starting. I've never found a loose one.
Glad it works for you. Looks good.
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be even cheaper if it was out of flatness beyond where it was cost effective to resurface. Its useless for metrology that requires truly high precision, at that point its just a big paperweight. Fair bet anyplace that really needs one of these for accuracy is more interested in just getting it out of the way than getting money back so they probably just go in the dumpster.
resale value on precision stuff tends to be pretty lousy vs initial cost. Anyone who really needs the accuracy is going to pay for the cert rather than buy used, so you're largely left with hobbyist / non-critical applications buying the old junk. Its also big and heavy, combined thats a pretty small market. The stuff sells for pretty close to scrap value in many cases.
Blue Shadow
Waiting for Vintage Gear from this century
The device has a calibration sticker with 5 year interval. Starrett has recalibration, resurfacing listed on their website.
Spe@kerBox
Addicted Member
BA-3 gain stage from diy audio. Using as a preamp. Sounds great.
Burning Amplifier Zero Feedback Gain Stage
Burning Amplifier 3 Gain Stage Board (BAGS-N). One board works for 2 channels. The BA-3 gain stage is the latest feedback-less "front end" for the Burning Amp series of Class A Mosfet follower output stages. Illustrated Build guide for the BA-3 The BA-3 gain stage can also be used as a...
diyaudiostore.com
I didn't know they made clear ones... I have several sets of their black ones that I use under my DVD players and one CD player.
I thought I already posted here, but just noticed that there's a "What's your latest audio purchase?" thread
https://audiokarma.org/forums/threads/whats-your-latest-audio-purchase.418419/
AND this thread "What was the the last audio-related item you purchased?"
Oh well.. The five or so 'What are you listening threads to' win the thread-multiplicity prize anyway..
https://audiokarma.org/forums/threads/whats-your-latest-audio-purchase.418419/
AND this thread "What was the the last audio-related item you purchased?"
Oh well.. The five or so 'What are you listening threads to' win the thread-multiplicity prize anyway..
N2552
Super Member
I hadn't noticed that! Or more precise; I forgot! O well, but it neither makes much sense to post this new to me 2nd Philips 22AH308 also in the other thread?!
The control freak in me just wishes that these kind of duplicate topics would be merged.
I have the Zoom H2n -- it has 5 built-in mics that I guess allow you to do 5.1 recording, though I haven't played with that. I think the H2 has 4 mics.
I also have a Zoom H8, which is a pretty amazing device for multi-channel live music recording (do all the recording on the device, then export the multi-channels to Pro Tools). It's pretty amazing the technology they stuff in those small devices.
Technics RS-955 for $5 at an estate sale. Surprisingly, it works 100%. I need a really good deck but this one will get me by for a bit. Very good sounding
knotscott
Super Member
PRV DSP 2.4x - Purchased new for $55. I power it with an older 13.8 VDC regulated linear power supply I had on hand. I only run it on the woofer end of my bi-amped setup below 100hz. It has an excellent active crossover, and some very useful features for taming room nodes, which both made audible improvements. There are 4 separate outputs with adjustments for gain, phase, delay, crossover frequency & slope, PEQ, GEQ, and separate PEQ on the input. Outstanding purchase.
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Welcome to the community of digital recorders. I started with a Sony D8 dac(digital audio cassette) still have a Sound Devices MixPre 3, that still gets used several times a year.