What stereo gear are you planning to purchase in 2021?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by LeeS, Dec 4, 2020.

  1. Blair G.

    Blair G. Senior Member

    Location:
    Delta, BC, Canada
    Thinkin about a sub for my two channel room.
    Maybe a REL
    And seriously tempted by the Modwright tube buffer, if it ever comes out.
     
    Tawaun A Williams likes this.
  2. Daedalus

    Daedalus I haven't heard it all.....

    Those are speakers that re-produce live concert recordings with all the scale and drama you could ask for! Efficient-yes, but do they respond well to power-yes. Congrats on your purchase!
     
    Clonesteak likes this.
  3. Drew769

    Drew769 Buyer of s*** I never knew I lacked

    Location:
    NJ
    Kirmuss is a well-made machine and it is priced right. However, it is anything but a “pop your new records in and let it rip“ kind of machine. it is extremely labor-intensive, and requires you to go through all the steps. It does tend to create a white paste like substance if you try to take a shortcut. You also have to change out the distilled water after every session, and this machine takes more distilled water than most. I also do not like the drying aspect, or rather, the lack thereof. I was an early adopter, but I sold mine last year and traded it in on a Degritter. It is much more expensive, however, it truly is a “drop your new record in and let it rip“ kind of machine. A record cleaning machine is only good if you actually use it. I clean every record now because it is so easy.

    if you do go through all of the steps with a Kirmuss machine, you can clean two records in about 20 minutes time properly. Using my wet drying machine to give a final clean rinse and vacuum always yielded the best results, and it did bring outstanding results when I invested that time. For reference, the Degritter on a deep clean cycle can take close to 10 minutes as well, however, there is no work involved whatsoever and you can do it anytime as long as there is distilled water in the tank.
     
    Last edited: Jan 6, 2022
  4. imthetxman

    imthetxman HardMediaMan

    Location:
    USA
    I currently use a manual spin clean set up - "record friend" from big fudge. It works ok but have always wondered if the $3k cost of a Degritter would be worth the investment. Sounds like you speak highly of it. Have you noticed a difference in how the records play and hold up over time?
     
  5. Drew769

    Drew769 Buyer of s*** I never knew I lacked

    Location:
    NJ
    I haven’t noticed any degradation after cleaning them. I generally take care in how I handle and store my records, so they tend to stay clean and quiet.

    Regarding value, the absolute best value in RCMs is just your most basic Nitty Gritty or VPI machine (or similar with vacuum). I bought a used NG many years ago for something like $150, and I can clean records quickly and effectively within a couple of minutes. The Degritter is great, and involves no effort at all, but I’m not sure it’s $2700 better than my Nitty Gritty. By the way, I still sometimes use the NG in tandem with the Drgritter. There is no substitute for a good scrubbing on some records, or a good wet rinse.
     
    imthetxman likes this.
  6. LeeS

    LeeS Music Fan Thread Starter

    Location:
    Atlanta
    Sadly, I must report that the Degritter quiet a bit better than the vacuum machines. If you buy or collect a lot of records, it is well worth it.
     
  7. Tony Plachy

    Tony Plachy Senior Member

    Location:
    Pleasantville, NY
    I have an FM tuner in my system and it is 20 years old. It is a Magnum Dynalab MD 108 that I got in 2002 for a little less than $5K which was a discount price. One of the switches on it had stopped working and I wanted to get it repaired and see if it could be upgraded to having a remote. So around Christmas time I spoke with Jim Richards, the owner of MD ( a good guy and a huge football fan ) and he suggested I trade it in for the latest version the MD 108T SE that has a remote and sells for $9K. My old tuner would cost about $7800 in today's money. He gave me $4350 in trade ( which is about 55% of today's value of my old tuner ). I took the deal and in about three weeks my new tuner arrived. I checked it out, everything works great, it sounds wonderful and the remote is the biggest one I have ever seen. I called Jim when I shipped back my old tuner to let him know it was on the way and he told me it was already sold. I was shocked, however, I thought for a moment and asked him if the supply chain problems had hit his business. You can guess the answer, YES, if he was able to sell a 20 year old refurbished tuner before he even had the unit back in the factory. He told me customers want stuff now not six months from now. Sadly folks wanting to buy new stereo gear in 2022 may find higher prices and much longer wait times to get the gear.
     
    JorgeGvb, Tajo1960, jonwoody and 3 others like this.
  8. Classic Car Guy

    Classic Car Guy - Touch the Face of God -

    Location:
    Northwest, USA
    In today system besides I can't even afford to buy the once I really want. It was a blessing that I bought it earlier and maybe some of the used ones too. I never haggle with prices. I look at mainly in the hours of use and how it was taken care of . Bingo besides it sound like gold, I don't need to look any further on upgrade and surprisingly its worth triple now.
    I bought another 80's Teac A-6300 reel. I thought I gave the guy what he wanted for it was almost new in a box and if I buy a new manufactured reel today, I don't know if I can afford to pay $25,000.
     
    jonwoody and MikeJedi like this.
  9. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    The last dedicated tuner I had was a Radio Shack kit that I built. I think it was something like $39.95, but that was about fifty years ago. With inflation, I'm sure that it would cost a lot more today!
     
    klockwerk likes this.
  10. Lenny99

    Lenny99 The truth sets you free.

    Location:
    Clarksburg WV
    Hi:

    I have considered upgrading my cart/stylus. I have an Audio Technica ATWP7, which came with an Audio Technica WM530EB. I have since upgraded that stylus to the VNM30EN, one step up.

    I might go with the Audio Technica VMN40ML, a stylus that has a good rep on this site, or the Ortofon 2M Blue as I have the 2M Red. I'm still considering my choices including doing nothing.
     
  11. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    I'm have a tuner in my main system too. I also have a rotor antenna on the roof, which is mandatory for me. I didn't realize MD tuners were so expensive. I am a little surprised that there was a demand for tuners of this quality.
     
  12. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    The problem with tuners today is they can't receive the same signals as vintage tuners could, back in the day.
     
    Classic Car Guy likes this.
  13. Old Zorki II

    Old Zorki II Storm Watcher

    Location:
    near Tampa, FL
    Can you elaborate? Not a lot of stations?
    I have not seen tuners on any audio show for many years )). But there are some people who love remaining stations, especially classical, even if we can assume they play music from digital sources not better than CD.
     
  14. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    I don't believe this is true. My McIntosh MR88 can do FM signals only. I know radio stations here in Boston send two signals simultaneously FM and Digital.
     
    bjlefebvre likes this.
  15. Classic Car Guy

    Classic Car Guy - Touch the Face of God -

    Location:
    Northwest, USA
    Not just that but the broadcasting station nowadays are non-powerhouse like in the analog days.
    There are few that I'm getting but mostly are concentrated out of the states.
    Theres actually a lot of great sounding Dutch and German stations.
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  16. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    Sorry guys, not what I ment. I will try to offer a better explanation.

    Even in my early teens, I liked to listen to music on FM stations. They had all kinds of music, not just classical, which I don't often listen to. Very few commercials either. As years passed, underground rock stations made their way onto the FM dial. Late at night, they would play entire albums, instead of what was playing on the AM pop charts.

    I enjoy vintage gear. I have a 60's era vintage restored Ficher 500C receiver. I can hook up one of my vintage Dual 1219 turntables to it and play from my vintage record selection.

    However, if I flip over to FM, I don't hear vintage sounds, just the crap that has migrated over from AM, Toyota commercials and all. I used to listen to FM radio in my car. I find it so horrible now, that I can no longer listen to it.
     
    MikeJedi and Eigenvector like this.
  17. Slimpickens

    Slimpickens Forum Resident

    Location:
    Las Vegas
    Well I had pre-ordered a Technics SU-G700m2, but am hearing it's going to be summer before they ship and only 200 made per year, so I'm guessing the waiting lists are longer than that. I cancelled the Crutchfield order today and I went ahead and snagged the SU-G700. Only $200 cheaper, but MD had it in stock and should ship tomorrow. So that's the big Audio purchase this year....so far....
     
    MikeJedi likes this.
  18. 2022 is shaping up to be a productive year for upgrading and extending the system I bought four years ago. I'm still waiting for the Rega P6 that I purchased on January 3 as an upgrade to the P3 I bought and sold last year to arrive (I'm told it's stuck on a freight ship off the coast of Texas waiting in the queue to dock and unload). But to assuage my impatience I've acquired a Schiit Jotunheim 2 and a set of Dan Clark Aeon 2 Noire headphones which were delivered last week. And unless some unexpected calamity delivers a blow to my finances this year (fingers crossed), I'm hoping to upgrade my Rega Brio to the Elex-R in the next few months. And then I will probably replace my Rega DAC-R with something a bit more versatile to handle DSD playback (as yet undecided). Once all these upgrades and improvements have been completed I should be set for another four years or more, I hope.

    (Oh yeah I forgot, I'm probably gonna wanna get some kinda record cleaning system at some point as well).
     
    MikeJedi, Slimpickens and jonwoody like this.
  19. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    Ok, you meant programing and not actual signals. In Boston we have College radio stations and a few independent radio stations. So, there are some good stations here. I agree that FM radio is not what is was in the 70's.
     
    Oddiofyl, Morbius and SandAndGlass like this.
  20. HIRES_FAN

    HIRES_FAN Forum Resident

    Planned purchase for 2022: Technics SU-R1000
     
    MikeJedi and Slimpickens like this.
  21. yamfan

    yamfan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Missouri
    Wasn't planning to but ended up buying(all because I thought my receiver went bad--actually my right ear was partially plugged with cerumen):
    A Yamaha M4 amplifier
    A Zero Zone Chinese Tube preamplifier
    An Emotiva BasXPT 100 preamp
    An emotiva BT add on for the pre-amp.
    A Technics SL-B2
    A Technics SL-D2
    A Denon DL 300 cartridge

    And topped it off by buying two Quicksilver mid mono amplifiers.
    The tube amps make it seem everything is more live. For example, today I was listening to a wonderful song sung by Georges Brassens from the Studer 60th Anniversary CD. With the tube amps, it sounds like he's standing there singing it in front of you.
    [​IMG]
     
    Tlay, MikeJedi and Slimpickens like this.
  22. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    Well, the programming is what is embedded within the signals, lowering their overall quality for what they might have been.

    There is a difference between AM and FM signals though.

    With AM, you always have a carrier. This "signal" is present whether of not a record is playing.

    With FM, if there is nothing playing, you really don't have a "signal" as such. Therefore the signal itself is the music (or other information such as the radio station sees fit to broadcast.

    So, on a technical level, modern FM signals are inferior to vintage FM signals, IMHO. :p
     
  23. Tony Plachy

    Tony Plachy Senior Member

    Location:
    Pleasantville, NY
    First, let me say I did not intent to start a discussion on FM radio and tuners when I posted here.

    Larry, I do not understand what you are saying. Yes, there are differences between AM and FM radio signals. Do you understand the difference between AM ( amplitude modulation ) and FM ( frequency modulation )?
     
  24. Tony Plachy

    Tony Plachy Senior Member

    Location:
    Pleasantville, NY
    I'm lucky I have two good FM radio stations practically in my backyard. WXPK 107.1 ( the PEAK ) and WFUV ( Fordam University station ). I use a half wave rod antena to get them. It is also made by Magnum Dynalab.
     
  25. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    In as much as I passed the DCC 2nd Class Radio Exam back in the early 80's, zi believe that I have something of a grasp on the technology.

    My comments earlier in the thread were intended to be facetious in nature.

    You can have a vintage receiver, but you must listen to modern FM (and AM) music on it.

    Yes, technically there is a carrier present but without music playing, there are no frequencies to modulate. The frequency modulations only exist when there is program material to modulate them.

    With AM, the same carrier is always there when the station is transmitting, whether or not there is program information present to modulate its amplitude.
     

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