Dennis Had Inspire Amps

[straitwire]

Spent some time with Dennis yesterday at the shop listening to and working on a contour network for the speakers that bearcity built.
Afterwards we took them to Dennis's house and listened some more.
These speakers are amazing, and are probably the best sounding speakers I have ever heard...I'm not kidding...
I am ordering a pair of drivers for myself.
Now I just need to get bearcity to make some of his beautiful cabinets for me.

[IMG][/IMG]

[Comzee]

Originally Posted by straitwire

These speakers are amazing, and are probably the best sounding speakers I have ever heard...I'm not kidding...
I am ordering a pair of drivers for myself.

What's the make and model of the drivers? After this praise I'm interested myself.

[straitwire]

Hey comzee, They use LII audio 15" fullrange drivers.
The speaker is an acoustic suspension design with a filter network.
Dennis beleives they are head and shoulders above the Tannoy Kensington SE's.

[pcprincipal]

[QUOTE=straitwire;1022638]Spent some time with Dennis yesterday at the shop listening to and working on a contour network for the speakers that bearcity built.
Afterwards we took them to Dennis's house and listened some more.
These speakers are amazing, and are probably the best sounding speakers I have ever heard...I'm not kidding...
I am ordering a pair of drivers for myself.
Now I just need to get bearcity to make some of his beautiful cabinets for me.

Could you give some information on the contour network and the cabinets? Dennis had shown me his speakers when just got them, that's about the last I heard from him, I need to follow up.

[straitwire]

Hey pcprincipal, the contour network/filter isn't finalized yet.
The cabinets were designed and built by bearcity.
The drivers were chosen by bearcity also.

[oldominion]

Hey all, and happy holidays to you all, whatever those holidays may be!

Am curious to learn more about the new KT88/Inspire, which sounds an awful lot like my FireBottle, which is among my favorite amps of all time (and I've had plenty). Straitwire, I sent an email to Dennis last week inquiring about the KT88 w volume control and the possibility of adding two inputs so I could run it without a preamp. Have not heard back.

I've got a Yamamoto 2a3 amp w a vol control and have been enjoying the heck out of not having to mess with a preamp. Yes, it's kind of a pain switching cables between my phono stage and my streamer, but at the end of the day it's not that big a deal. (This amp is an absolute stunner, btw). Does anyone else out there have an opinion on this matter of preamp vs no preamp? I really enjoy the musings and aesthetic of Kevin at Glow in the Dark Audio dot com, and he eschews preamps and prefers the simplicity and purity of single-ended amps with vol controls. Got to say I'm coming around to his way of thinking!

Anyhow, I know Dennis is a busy man but since he chooses not to have a normal website offering information on his products and he seems to be the only person who can address these various product-oriented questions...well, you now what comes next!

My primary question is this: Does Dennis take trade-ins of his products and offer credit towards new ones? If not, no big deal. But if so, I'd like to talk turkey (gobble gobble) about trading in my FireBottle Universal and 3.1 preamp towards a single KT88 (universalish?) with a vol knob. Thanks!

[TheHammsBear]

Originally Posted by oldominion

Does anyone else out there have an opinion on this matter of preamp vs no preamp?

All I can say is there’s a huge difference between the CJ5 preamp and the schiit sys which was basically just a volume knob with 2 inputs.

[FloridaBoy]

Originally Posted by oldominion

Hey all, and happy holidays to you all, whatever those holidays may be!

Am curious to learn more about the new KT88/Inspire, which sounds an awful lot like my FireBottle, which is among my favorite amps of all time (and I've had plenty). Straitwire, I sent an email to Dennis last week inquiring about the KT88 w volume control and the possibility of adding two inputs so I could run it without a preamp. Have not heard back.

I've got a Yamamoto 2a3 amp w a vol control and have been enjoying the heck out of not having to mess with a preamp. Yes, it's kind of a pain switching cables between my phono stage and my streamer, but at the end of the day it's not that big a deal. (This amp is an absolute stunner, btw). Does anyone else out there have an opinion on this matter of preamp vs no preamp? I really enjoy the musings and aesthetic of Kevin at Glow in the Dark Audio dot com, and he eschews preamps and prefers the simplicity and purity of single-ended amps with vol controls. Got to say I'm coming around to his way of thinking!

Anyhow, I know Dennis is a busy man but since he chooses not to have a normal website offering information on his products and he seems to be the only person who can address these various product-oriented questions...well, you now what comes next!

My primary question is this: Does Dennis take trade-ins of his products and offer credit towards new ones? If not, no big deal. But if so, I'd like to talk turkey (gobble gobble) about trading in my FireBottle Universal and 3.1 preamp towards a single KT88 (universalish?) with a vol knob. Thanks!

Read this review. http://6moons.com/audioreviews/yamamoto2/45_5.html

You may want to try a TVC, transformer volume control with the Yamamoto. This one was recommended in the review.

https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/...mages/2837246/ Not mine, no affiliation.

IMHO, the Inspire gear sounds best with an Inspire preamp.

[oldominion]

The Schiit Sys is an absolute piece of schiit minus the c and one i. Bought one, put it in my system, and immediately knew it sucked. Soundstage collapsed, was getting some weird distortion. A horrible product, IMO, not even worth five bucks.

Funny, I thought I'd read recently that more and more of us Dennis fans were moving to Inspire amps with onboard vol controls and no preamps?

Thanks for the link, FlaBoy.

Used my 3.1 preamp with the Yammy and it didn't do it for me. Love it with the Inspire, however. I guess, from a purist's perspective, I'm more interested in the sound of a single component rather than a combination of two components. I've always been a huge fan of integrated amps--the simplicity, fewer cables to worry about, etc.

[FloridaBoy]

Originally Posted by oldominion

The Schiit Sys is an absolute piece of schiit minus the c and one i. Bought one, put it in my system, and immediately knew it sucked. Soundstage collapsed, was getting some weird distortion. A horrible product, IMO, not even worth five bucks.

Funny, I thought I'd read recently that more and more of us Dennis fans were moving to Inspire amps with onboard vol controls and no preamps?

Thanks for the link, FlaBoy.

Used my 3.1 preamp with the Yammy and it didn't do it for me. Love it with the Inspire, however. I guess, from a purist's perspective, I'm more interested in the sound of a single component rather than a combination of two components. I've always been a huge fan of integrated amps--the simplicity, fewer cables to worry about, etc.

The LP 3.1 may not be a good match with the Yammy. The review link suggested a TVC as a preamp....but if your fine with swapping cables...

I have a 45/2A3 Inspire with a volume control. It sounds best to me with a preamp.