so you got a collins and a fairchild (or just the collins, SH. i ran a fairchild in the '70's...a pretty stripped down thing...but man, it passed some good sound. glass faders..it was a early '60's model...about 24 chs. earlier i was head engineer for a little studio in missa-sip ee. had a wonderful RCA board to ampex 8 trk heads...and the reverb..tube...was just incredible! we used ta make funny noises threw it. my soundcraft spirit is cleaner and sounds great...but it isn't 'fat' like those collins 'n rca's could be. collins...i used ta work on their military gear in the '60's. had almost forgot about em. i'd like to hear that cd. not over this thing tho. how do they get sound below the dither? tryin to figure that one out. you can hear the edits on some of my older Lpees.. a friend w/ a studio was over the other day...freaked him out..listening to mint 'box tops'...he even knew what kinda reverb/echo box they were using...i think i made a convert outta him. as to the step-up...was that the original ? or was that somewhere else. my only regret with the ARC,is that it's a MM input only, i think. no man-uel. got it used. need to go to their site...duhhh...i've only had it for four years! not enough time to look it up. using an old cartridge a friend gave me. he had it packed away for years n never used it. an 'Audiophile', Empire...the thing is rated from...get this, 5hz. to way past 20k. i couldn't believe the difference between it and the one that came w/ the Music Hall..that is a steal of a table. my pro-ject costs 2x it...and i prefer the MH by a slight margin. had a B & O for years that was very good n sexy. very smooth response, very expensive...the Empire/MH smokes it. wish i'd grabbed a sota when i was pushin stereo. there r so many good tables out there now 'nd cartridges n step ups too. the ARC is very similar in sound to the c-j. ahhh,but i do love c-j. now their step ups r oh so nice. useta make a nuvistor model, is it still being made? vistor's were on a card in a box suspended inside the chassis. mew-cho expensive,tho.

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t higg