Yeah, I don't have as good an excuse at T-Man for being gone, mostly just lots of work, the stress of not selling our house (which may have finally sold) and other commitments.
But, I had the chance to go to Seattle for a long weekend and spent a couple hours at Definitive Audio, (sorry Art I couldn't recall the name of the place you wanted me to visit) and so I got to hear everything from Paradigm, ERA, Wilson Audio, Magnapans (WOW btw - I've never seen nor heard this style of speaker before), B & Ws of several shapes and sizes and several others.
After listening to the Paradigms and B & Ws I decided that I would have to go quite aways up the lines before I would be willing to buy something that sounds better than my 40 year old Altecs. (Yeah, the salesman told me I was missing better imaging, better transitions, blah blah blah. But, he was about 28 and I explained that he probably needs to listen to the ALs before he discounts them so quickly.) Then, he gave me a listen to a pair of ERAs that I must admit sounded amazing for $899/pair. I would have been very happy with those for surround and daily listening, even though they didn't give the same full sound as some of the B & Ws or Paradigms or my ALs.
Anyway, no real point here other than to say "hi" and check in and let you know that there are a boatload of speakers out there to listen to now. (I probably only scratched the surface of possibly 1/3 or less of the speakers in this store. They were in the process of playing with several of their listening rooms and had speakers not well placed or not hooked up.)
Anyway, hopefully, I'll be able to check in a little more often and catch up on what's up in audio.
Now, anyone want to make a suggestion on a new Universal DVD player that will do SACD, DVD Audio and if we can get to BlueRay or HD-DVD I might go there. The sales guy showed me several Classes - $4500 to $6000, beautiful but out of my price range.
He showed me a couple of very nice NADs and Rotel units that were in the $750 to $1500 range that are more in line with my budget. What say you much brighter than me guys? Thanks, Dave.
Been to Definitive many times. That's where I listened to the Wilson Maxx 2's. When you are at Definitive you are right close to the several others including the Naim & Rega dealer Hawthorne.
Thanks, I was actually in the Bellevue store. My lovely wife did not want to sit there and watch me listen and she wanted to go to Bellevue Square Mall so we arrived at a compromise. But, now I'll know where to wander the next time. Good to hear from you my friend. Dave.
Dave - good to see you're still kickin' around. As far as universal players go I think the Denon 3930 is the one to beat for the money. I heard the NAD Master series Uni player and featurewise it's not a patch on the 3930 (which has 6 audio dacs) as well as one of the best video sections (both film based and video based) around. I would have loved the NAD (being a fan) and could have easily spent my money, but I wasn't overly impressed - needs the OSD to change from multi to 2 channel sacd or back to the cd layer, DTS streaming not a DTS onboard decoder. Upscaling to 1080i (Denon upscales to 1080p). I got a great deal on a demo 3910 and it's a great all rounder, but I'm a bit sorry I didn't hang out a while for the 3930. Arcam has two great uni's with their Diva and FMJ series but they are pricier and they do have a couple of issues. Also, I think it will be a while before BluRay/HD-DVD will be beneficial library wise and before they bring out decent universals. But who knows?
As usual, informative and helpful. Good to hear from you. I read a review on the Denon but since I own the 2200, I thought I'd probably look elsewhere since it tends to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. "I own Denon, Denon is the best, so I'll buy another Denon."
Anyway, I was interested in other's opinions of what's out there and competitive with the Denon 3930. Thanks for the quick review and update. I know I should have posted this in the player section but I knew you guys would be hanging out here. LOL Dave.
I'm surviving life barely. Starting the search on a Universal DVD and checking out speakers. Hey, your friend's speakers the HTR3 are incredible. Tell me more about this man and his speakers. Missed talking to you guys. Dave.