[adias]

Kara is a great preamp. Mostly neutral with 3 stage flavors: passive, x1 gain and fuller x4 gain stages.

Order one and try it for 2 weeks. I kept mine.

 

[tafens]

I think PRaT was a marketing term coined by a well-known British Hi Fi manufacturer back in the 70s.

Plankton is the modern term for this now for me at least

I have come to understand that Plankton is the same as PRaT, but as an acronym for Pace, Rythm and Timing, PRaT is easier to understand for me and Plankton remains more diffuse.
That said, it makes most sense to me as “the toe-tapping factor”, and the Schiit DACs have loads of it, probably much thanks to the timing accuracy of the Mulit-Combo Burrito (tm?) filter

 

[DavidSerig]

My 4 pairs of Dutch-made 1960’s Amperex ECC88 tubes arrived today. As soon as I got home I inspected them and put a pair into my Freya N. I love the Amperex sound: rich, warm, nice soundstage, clear mids, highs that don’t pierce the eardrum, and they make electric guitars sound wonderful. First up tonight is Frank Zappa’s “Hot Rats”, an album that I surprisingly hadn’t listened to before. What a great album - ahead of its time and full of some spectacular jams, particularly “Willie the Pimp” and “The Gumbo Variations”. The album art is…unfortunate.

I came to appreciate this album recently too, just a few years back. If you loved Hot Rats, you will absolutely love Hot Rats Sessions. Listening to Frank work with the musicians and the lingo he uses is super fun. It's not just different versions of the song, it's the pieces of the song coming together from scraps. Hearing how the musicians teach themselves the song was a unique audio experience.

And since we're sharing out new tubes, some Bel came from Pulse and I put them into the FV for a spin. They are superior to stock, more open, maybe more dynamic? Doesn't matter, I grabbed the last two. Anyone suggest others from Pulse they liked? I'm very tempted to try one of their remounted mini-tubes.

 

[strider1007]

Don't know your budget, but the KEF LS50 is one of the most compact speakers with big sound and good bass.

I really love my LS50 OG's, but IIRC the idea is to use a Rekkr.. With an 85dB sensitivity I really doubt if the combo wil work, even in a nearfield setup. My single Aegir sounds great, but as soon as I see an other one in the classifieds I'll jump on it and go mono..

 

[Daniel Johnston]

I really love my LS50 OG's, but IIRC the idea is to use a Rekkr.. With an 85dB sensitivity I really doubt if the combo wil work, even in a nearfield setup. My single Aegir sounds great, but as soon as I see an other one in the classifieds I'll jump on it and go mono..

Fair point. Also, spending $1600 on speakers for a $150 amp is a little extreme.

 

[strider1007]

Allthough... Unless you really, really want the Meta-version.. I bought my OG-version brand new a few weeks ago for 'just' € 700, including taxes..

 

[Erratic Gravy]

There are many subtle aspects to this, but he's probably referring to the use of brakes as a weight transfer tool, so you can stay on the outer perimeter of your traction circle as much as possible (eg. trail braking). Braking is often the last thing any driver masters, even in the professional ranks, and can be the main difference between a fast driver and a really fast driver.

Its very true - if you are driving a powered vehicle ( even a cycle ) intelligent use of brakes can be a race winner !

 

[fendermke]

That's great and all but completely not what I'm looking for. I need recommendations for speakers to go with the Rekkr, not more headphones.

If your space constrained I have and currently use the Paradigm MilleniaOne’s and drive them with an Ageir and that combo works great for a near field desktop setup. In a small room they also work well and fill the room nicely. A sub is needed to fill out the low end though.

When I did a search to see if they are still available I found them at Crutchfield. Links below. When viewing them on Crutfield’s site they also had listed others that were similar. The only one’s that I heard were the Focals and from recollection they sounded good and would be an option.

Paradigm MilleniaOne​

Bookshelf Speakers Comparison

i did stumble across this review also when looking for them.
Sound and Vision Review - Paradigm MilleniaOne

 

[AstronomerXI]

I came to appreciate this album recently too, just a few years back. If you loved Hot Rats, you will absolutely love Hot Rats Sessions. Listening to Frank work with the musicians and the lingo he uses is super fun. It's not just different versions of the song, it's the pieces of the song coming together from scraps. Hearing how the musicians teach themselves the song was a unique audio experience.

And since we're sharing out new tubes, some Bel came from Pulse and I put them into the FV for a spin. They are superior to stock, more open, maybe more dynamic? Doesn't matter, I grabbed the last two. Anyone suggest others from Pulse they liked? I'm very tempted to try one of their remounted mini-tubes.

I'll take a look for the Sessions set. I have a large collection of his work that I haven't gotten around to listening to completely yet. I share the serial-collector gene with my older brother...

 

[GearMe]

And like burning down the house is *not* an acceptable risk in the pursuit of audio perfection? Are you OK?

Of course it is! By the Talking Heads, right?

Ah...watch out you might get what you're after

 

[Bowmoreman]

My experience has very much been the same. When I purchased my Duetta Sig's, I was very much pushed into purchasing a set of bi-wired Symo cables. After receiving my pair of Vidar's, placing them right behind each speaker, I decided to make my own short (3') set of speaker cables, using Canare 4S11G cable and some heavy spades sourced from Amazon. I honestly could hear no difference.... Selling the Symo's pretty much covered the cost of the Vidars

This. I suspect the ONLY difference for us was that you did this more recently than 1990. Symo was all the “rage” for Apogees back then. My home-made 2 guage biwire set was every bit as good (going on 30+ year old memories here now). Despite JUST having laid out $16+K for the entire system, I just couldn’t stomach more for speaker cables than I had just spent on my Moving Coil!

You get those siggies used? How’re your ribbon foams holding out? (Or have you had the re-do?).

 

[Bowmoreman]

Kara - sound character, what?

As a former Schiit product owner, I was considering a new Kara preamp - possibly buying / trying / evaluating and comparing to other higher $ preamps on my own dime.
If it worked out to be a "keeper", the plan was to put Kara in rotation to pair up with my Class A 50w solid state amplifier -or- with my two KT120/KT150 mono block tube amplifiers.

I've read posts by members reportedly hearing a difference and improvement after 1.5 to 2 weeks of playing time with the new Kara. I still cannot discern from comments if the character of the Kara is mostly a neutral, clear, more analytical sound -or- if Kara has any character that makes it smooth, or lush, or resist to say, "musical" in a memorable way.

I sent some email questions in to the Schiit house, and no response. I'll probably go a different direction, yet still enjoy reading posts by members who feel comfortable sharing thoughts and impressions about how it sounds -or hearing from anyone actively comparing to other (industry known) Class A preamps, and which ones.

ASK:
Are there any Head-Fi members here running home audio systems who care to comment -or- help to raise the fog a little bit more for me, what am I missing about Kara?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Perhaps you missed my thoughts, versus Classe’ DR6R (still to this day a most excellent preamp/phono).

TL;DR - Kara is every bit as good, perhaps ever so slightly less warm, lower noise floor (line and phono). When fed by the Skoll, the combo is the equal of my Classe’ for phono. (Run balanced from Skoll to Kara).

THAT is the company it plays in; reminds me very much of the old original Mark Levinson sound back in the late 70’s early 80’s, but better and clearer and less dark.

Its dynamic range is huge.

Dude, if you are racing Class A preamps, just get one and play with it; it’s price is NOISE versus today’s so-called/claimed “Class A” pre’s.

Oh, and it has a remote.

 

[GumbyDammit223]

For an extension cord from an outlet, in this case 20 amp, I use these around the RV and, ahem, ahhhh, maybe, possibly on rare occasions other places where you want a plug that actually grips and lets the current through and retains it grip.

Some might balk at my local hardware stores price. It's for illustration. So similar plugs that carry 20 amps with ease and keep their grip with use is the idea. I realize indoors you're less likely to step on the plug and crack the plastic....


If it's on display I would probably go the bcowen route. Especially if you like making stuff you have to see everyday!

https://www.acehardware.com/departm...VHIRaBR0O9ArrEAQYAiABEgJ4S_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

While we're at it a lot of residential wall outlets are, let's say, a bit marginal?

Don't want to start a war or anything, but if the regular 'ol IEC cords Schiit ships with their equipment aren't long enough, and I wanted to go through the effort of building a new one to length, I'd probably go with something like this. Now saying the rhodium plated plugs/receptacles aren't pretty, but it's just not for me. As the saying goes, you do you.

 

[GumbyDammit223]

In the house I've been renting for the past 1.5 years, probably 80% of the outlets can barely grip even the lightest, most basic plugs and I don't even know what to do about it. It's always felt like something I should be bugging my landlord about as it seems to be a safety issue as much as one of inconvenience.

The maintenance guy for the apartment complex I live in told me that he's fixed a LARGE number of walls in the buildings because fires have started in outlets because they barely held onto the plugs. So, YES it's a safety concern! If the landlord won't replace them, you can do it yourself and deduct the cost of the outlets from next month's rent! Or, get an electrician to do it and deduct HIS bill from your rent! Don't leave them like that. Something bad is bound to happen probably sooner than later!

 

[Bai Shen]

Oh. That's easier.

Klipsch and Schiit work well.

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_714R50M/Klipsch-Reference-R-50M.html

Don't know your budget, but the KEF LS50 is one of the most compact speakers with big sound and good bass.

The LS50 are definitely outside of my budget.

What is your budget?

I'm not completely sure, especially since I have to factor in the purchase price of the Rekkr. I'm thinking maybe $300 but there's some flexibility.

I guess one of the things I'm trying to figure out is if Rekkr plus $150 speakers will sound better or worse than a $300 set of powered speakers. I hate to pay for functionality I won't use since I already have a DAC with the Modi and I'm concerned that the powered speakers will eventually end up doing the same hissing as my current set.