Just arrived. Just refoamed. Sound Dynamics 1200 SMTs

Canadian monster rock icons. I had the Sound Dynamics 12S a couple of years ago and really enjoyed them. These are the big brothers, with much bigger cabinets and passive radiators. They are very cool.

Rega 2 speakers, stock finish.

Kenwood KR-5010 DC Receiver

A very powerful and refined 45 watts/channel. I think this sounds much better than the KR-4600 and KR-5600 I've had in the past.

Catching up.

I'm sorry that it's been a week between posts. I was in Algonquin Park most of last week, and caught up on my day job over the weekend. It was fantastic to be completely unreachable for a few days, and I feel like a new person.

I finished refinishing a pair of vintage 1960s Wharfedales yesterday. I usually strip or sand and reoil the cabinets, but the person I did these for has a young child, and wanted the wood more protected, so I used urethane for my first time, and the result was excellent. The speakers are huge, heavy and vey rich sounding. I'm sorry I can't show you pictures, but the rain kept threatening yesterday, and the speakers were too big to shoot well inside. Trust me, they're beautiful.

I'm continuing to enjoy the Sansui AU-777 with a variety of speakers, and have been less motivated than usual to seek out new stuff, but I know this won't last long.

Quality party speakers since 1976.

I've been driving them with the Nakamichi PA-5, and they sound great.

This is the second pair I've had, and both times I've felt that I'm not hearing the deeeeep bass I expect from a fifteen inch woofer. The design trades off deep bass response for efficiency, and that's one of the reasons it's compared to the Klipsch Heresy. The main one is the horns.

They go deep enough and play loud and clean.

Sunday Update.

I hope you're having a great weekend. I've been listening to the Sansui AU-4400 with all kinds of different speakers, primarily the Altec 5s and JBL L56s. I could happily live with either for a long time. I'm as spoiled with great speaker options as I've ever been.

I enjoyed the Naim Audio combination while it was here, but have to tell you that I don't think it sounded any better than many of the excellent vintage amps I've been lucky to have and enjoy at much more reasonable prices. In the seventies, Naim was one of the british audio manufacturers who's marketing was a calculated combination of mystique and buzz. The british audio press was complicit in putting and keeping Naim at the top of the pyramid. The combination I had was no more powerful in real world use, or more musical, than any of the black (or silver) Sansui amplifiers I've heard this year.

AR1ms speakers. Just refoamed.