I was advised to steer clear of the current crop of cheap variacs imported from china. A high quality used Made-in-U.S.A. variac (5, 7.5, or 10 amp) from companys such as General Radio, Technipower, or Staco is a better value at under $75. These show up used on eBay, usually from estate sales...

As with any audio system components such as loudspeakers and headphones the quality of the sound has alot to do with the synergy among the various components used in the system. The vintage integrated amplifiers and receivers are often a terrific value and can offer some very fine sound with...

Good, you have determined that the source of the buzzing noise is not in the preamplifier stage nor is it in the power supply. There are one or more faulty components, probably capacitors, in the power amplifier section of the receiver that are the source of the buzzing. A good repair shop...

The Advent 300 receiver had a very good FM stereo tuner, a well regarded headphone output, and an excellent phono stage preamplifier similar to the circuit used in the Apt Holman preamplifier. As you've discovered, the downside of the Advent 300 was in the quality of the parts. That combined...

I have been a champion of the Marantz 1060 as a headphone amplifier ever since I began experimenting with various headphone and amplifier combinations in 2002. The Marantz 1060 pairs up well with high impedance phones such as the Senn HD-580, 600, 650. The results with low impedance phones will...

Noise and distortion are separate artifacts. Total Harmonic Distortion (THD)of 0.9% is inaudible under most any music listening scenario. As this is the maximum allowable THD that Marantz spec'd for the 2215 at rated power (15 watts RMS per channel) the actual distortion level at typical power...

Read the following thread, it may provide a solution to the problem with your Luxman receiver. http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=172259

You can use the Radio Shack contact cleaner and lubricant spray or Caig's Deoxit. The parts you need to reach require removing the case to get inside the receiver. Use the nozzle extension to spray inside (one or two times each) the following switches or controls. Be sure to work the control a...

Essentially what you want to do is take the same measurement used to determine the source impedance of an amplifier. This in turn can be used to determine the damping factor of the amplifier, however it is only correct for the specific frequency used in the test. The following post describes...

Often there is very good synergy between the higher impedance headphones and a vintage amplifier/receiver, however, some prefer to listen to low impedance phones connected to older audio gear. So it is a good idea to audition your chosen headphones with the specific vintage amplifier you are...

The better vintage integrated amplifiers and receivers can keep up with much of today's gear. The secret is in the sauce. In this case the secret ingredient is in the robust power supplies usually found in these units. Oversized, rock solid, with very little ripple. Today's power supplies are...

The original model was the MG Head DT. I believe DT stands for Divergent Technologies, the original North American (actually Canadian) importer of this product. OTL stands for output transformerless operation. This feature was added to later versions of the MG Head. In an amplifier that features...

The MG Head is a good match for use with HD-580 headphones. There is a ton of information on this unit in the Amplification forum. Just search for 'MG Head'. The MG Head will draw you into tube rolling, where changing either the single driver tube and/or the pair of output tubes will noticably...

I have no personal experience with the Pioneer model, top of the line in its day, but there are some good postings at Audio Asylum, such as this one. http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.mpl?...28&r=&session=

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