Holiday (In Canada) Monday Update

Just arrived: Marantz 1200 integrated amp. Vintage 1971. One hundred watts per channel. Made in Sun Valley, California. Needs work. Sounds great through headphones, one channel weak through speakers. Spendor BCIIs, in stunning, near mint condition, sounding amazing! Pictures soon.

Just arrived. Mission 710s. The original Mission 2 way monitors.

Mission Electronics debuted with 3 models. The top of the line used a Celestion tweeter (big surprise to me), a Coles super tweeter, a 5 inch midrange of unknown (to me) origin (when I had the 720s I should've looked, but didn't), and a 10 inch (probably Seas)woofer in a sealed cabinet. The middle of the line used the same woofer and mid with a single Seas tweeter in a sealed cabinet. The baby of the line used an 8 inch woofer and a Seas tweeter in a ported cabinet... the prototype for the 770.

Recently arrived. Just restored. Merak M3s.

I haven't seen a pair in 3 years.

Mission Cyrus One photos.

I'm very happy with this amp, and finally got the time to clean and repaint it. Having it in pieces helped me appreciate the superb industrial design even more. As you might imagine, I'm very excited to finally have a Mission amplifier in house, and will have more to say soon.

Sounds fabulous. Real pictures coming soon.

Just arrived. Mission Cyrus One. Marantz 2240.

Rest In Peace, Sam Sniderman.

Toronto fondly remembers the king of music retailing.

A new little DAC.

  I bought the Fiio D3 because it's $27.00 (I also spent $14.00 on an optical cable to connect it to my mac), and uses the same Wolfson D/A chip as much more expensive DACs from Rega and Cambridge Audio. I'm enjoying the sound immensely, and think it's an improvement over my previous USB DAC (which used the also popular Burr-Brown D/A chip). Whether the improvement is due to the superiority of an optical connection from the computer to the DAC over USB (which is also the DACs power source), the different D/A chip, or a combination of both, I can't tell you. I can tell you 2 things, though:

1. It's hard for me to imagine that a Rega DAC, which costs 44 times as much, sounds even 5 times better. That's something I hope to investigate soon.

2. If you currently connect a computer based digital music source to vintage amplification using the mini headphone out jack on your computer, and your computer has a digital optical or coaxial output, you should buy one of these babies right now.

An interesting design issue.

  Here's something to think about that has big implications for those of us who use computers (and their graphical user interfaces) as their digital music source.

New Brauns, new bliss.

  I picked up a pair of Braun SM 1005/8 speakers this past weekend. They appear to be identical to these Braun L830s that I repaired & loved 2 years ago, but with proper connectors, not cheesy captive wires, and more refined cabinet construction details. They're wonderful sounding speakers, the best yet with the Sansui 250 that I've been so happy with lately (their 4 ohm impedance doesn't hurt). I'm going to refinish them by the weekend, and I'll show you pictures then.

Record cleaner.

  I promised to tell you more about the record cleaning system I started using last week. It's a competitor to the Spin Clean system, and very similar. It's called Disco Anti-Stat, and it's made in Germany by knosti. The products perceived value for money isn't encouraging at all...you get a plastic trough with 2 goat hair brushes inside, a drying rack that stores away inside the trough, two threaded plastic label protectors that screw together with a protruding spindle that fits into a notch in the trough,a funnel to filter and reuse cleaning fluid, and that's all. No cleaning fluid, no spare brushes. I'm disappointed by the poor value, but can't think of anything I could do with $95 (plus cleaning fluid that you can buy or make...more about that later) that has made such a big difference to my enjoyment of the music. At $40, this would be an amazing product. At almost $100 I recommend it highly, but with no enthusiasm.

New JBL L36s

  I removed the original cloth cleaned it, and carefully remounted it on the frames, keeping the hole for the badge in it's original spot and stretching around it. It was worth the trouble, they look almost new.

Current Bliss.

UPDATE: I moved the Sansui 250 over to try it with the Mission Argonaut Reference speakers. It drives them beautifully.

Tonight I'm listening to a remarkably solid and well made Technics SLQ212 direct drive turntable with a brand new Ortofon OM10 Super cartridge. It's connected to the Sansui 250 tube receiver driving a just arrived pair of Mission 707s. It's making beautiful music, with episodes of startling realism.

I bought a record cleaning system.

  I can't think of another modest investment that's made such a big difference to my enjoyment of the music. I'll tell you more about using it in a couple of days. It's similar to the Spin Clean system, newly arrived here, but made and used in Germany for the past 30 years. The brushes are goat hair. 

  It works well, and I'm listening to beautiful and rare recordings that I bought for 50 cents at the Salvation Army, and they sound like heaven.