Creative Solution and a new toy to boot (long)

Radio Road

Which tuner to get and getting the most from it. Thank God, for the radio!

Hello All,
I wanted to share with you all how I convinced my wife to get me an Accuphase T 100 for my upcoming 40th birthday.
My bedroom system includes a Conrad Johnson Premier 17LS, which I think sounds wonderful but has a couple quirks (which others have noted on these forums too):
1. It does not play very quietly even on the lowest setting, which can be too much late at night in the bedroom. This has never been a problem with any LPs because of the lower output (Rega Planar 3, Goldring 1042, and Rotel phonostage), has been a problem only with the loudest of my CDs (Rotel 971), but has ALWAYS been a problem with my Rotel tuner. We simply could not listen to the radio at night, which sucks because I really like the blues and jazz programs on WGBH in Boston.
2. The Rotel tuner's remote control also changes the settings on the 17LS. Turn the tuner on, or hit a preset, etc., and the preamp setting would change everytime! So, no way to use the remote without then resetting the preamp.
My initial reaction was to sadly unload the 17LS after about 3 years of ownership, and I went so far as to consider exchanging it for a less expensive Classe demo at the dealers. That would have entailed swapping an approximately $4,200 preamp for a $2,600 preamp, but I was pretty sick of the 17LS's quirkiness and too lazy to auction it off on eBay or Audiogon. The dealer was willing to do the trade, and allowed me to audition the Classe at home for a few days.
The Classe radically changed the sound of the system. Though I preferred the CJ a lot, I thought the Classe was listenable, and I was willing to live with the down grade just so I could listen to the radio at night and stop worrying about the power surge. But my wife (bless her soul) refused. She said that the Classe took all the magic out of the system, that only now did she appreciate how beautifully the CJ sounded, and that we had better find other solutions to the problems. Who would have known she cared? She even insisted on inviting audiophile-neighbors of ours over for a second opinion, and they agreed that the difference was just too much of a sacrifice. I was secretly thrilled, because I really love the C-J and, in any event, I've wanted a tuner for the HT system, and the Rotel fits the bill perfectly (it sounds nice and gets good reception where I live).
So, our dealer allowed us to home-audition the latest NAD tuner. It actually solved both problems quite well. First, it's output is quite a bit lower and we could fairly comfortably listen to even the loadest stations late at night on the lowest preamp volume setting. Second, the NAD remote control was invisible to the C-J. And it sounded quite nice to my ears and also got good reception on the stations I care about.
But being that this is an obsessive hobby and all, I decided to think it over and search the web. In doing so, I found that another local dealer in Brookline had an excellent condition T 100 for $495, then learned of its reputation in archived posts right here, and then convinced my wife to let me get it because (1) it has a variable output option, which would solve the loudness issue, and (2) it DOESN'T HAVE a remote, so there is no risk of affecting the settings on the C-J, right? :-)
I am really enjoying this tuner! I quickly discovered that the controlled output doesn't sound nearly as good as the fixed output, but just as quickly came up with the solution: We have the fixed output jacks going into the tuner input on the C-J and the controlled output jacks going into the Aux2 input. We only use the latter for late night listening.
So, I solved two of the 17LS's quirks (there is a third, but it's not relevant to this post) and picked up a beautiful new tuner as a birthday present from my lovely wife.
By the way, when I told my dealer I wouldn't be getting the NAD because I bought a used Accuphase T 100 somewhere else, his eyes actually lit up and he gushed about what a great choice I'd made! (I have been a good customer of his over the years)
So, everyone's happy, though my wife is now getting a bit impatient with my new obsession - what interconnects to use with this tuner? Your advice on that front, and on what best indoor-only antenna to use, can be your 40th birthday present to me, if you are feeling generous!
Regards,
Josh

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Topic - Creative Solution and a new toy to boot (long) - JoshT 13:12:42 07/11/05 (2)

in what direction, or directions, are 'both of your' stations? - Timbo in Oz 00:36:17 07/12/05 (1)

Re: in what direction, or directions, are 'both of your' stations? - JoshT 11:57:08 07/14/05 (0)

You can not post to an archived thread.