Hello Outlaws - Just a note to let you know I've ridden back into town after hiding out in the badlands for a couple years.

The old timers will remember me as Soundhound, but now I'm Altec (to confuse the Sheriff).

Here's a link to pictures of my studio/theater: http://community.webshots.com/user/soundhound

Glad your back !!

Welcome back, you were missed!

Scott

Thanks guys, it's great to be back!

Is the 950 still in the rack?

Oh yes, it's still there. I'm resisting the change to the new HiRez video formats until things shake out with a clear winner, so there is no need to upgrade from the 950.

I find I'm listening to a lot more vinyl these days, since I purchased a good moving coil cartridge, but still make all my recordings in digital.

Glad to see you dropping back by, Altec. As Scott says, you were missed.

Altec (I don't think I was here when you were Soundhound), what kind of MC cartridge (and presumably preamp) are you using? I'm pleased with the 990's performance with my Audio Technica or Grado Red but in ca$e I get the de$ire to upgrade . . .

The cartridge is a NOS "high output" moving coil distributed originally by SAE, which has a Shibata type stylus.

In common with a lot of my gear, the phono preamp I designed and built myself. The preamp is op-amp based, but with a few design tricks thrown in.

In two channel mode, this goes into one of the inputs of a vacuum tube preamp (pictured in my photos), and then goes to an active crossover, passive line-level EQ to replace the loudspeaker "voicing" that a passive crossover would normally accomplish, and finally to vacuum tube power amps: modified Dynaco 60 watt MK IIIs for the woofers and a modified 300B based single-ended-triode amp for the HF horns.

Altec,

It truly is a pleasure to welcome you back.We have always enjoyed your posts. Your experience in high quality audio is invaluable to all of us.
We look forward to some lively discussions.

Peter