Klipsch RF-7 III $3600 Per Pair (49h, 13 7/8w, 17 7/8d, 97lbs, 100dB SPL)
Klipsch’s RF-7 is now here. Made in Hope, Arkansas, RF-7 is a big tower. SO WHAT?!
If you want your music to hit big and hard, you need major league muscle. RF-7 doesn’t apologize for being a sizable tower.
RF-7 uses a new 1.75” Titanium Horn Tweeter. It hands the ball off to two, 10” cast frame Cerametallic cone woofers. This very simple, highly efficient speaker system can deliver music to you in life sized doses, without owning Herculean power. Of course, if you HAVE big time power the RF-7 will have even more to offer you. Available in black, cherry & walnut real wood finishes.
Please notice RF-7 runs 100dB SPL! That means you can drive it with a modest amp!
NAD C-556 Turntable $450 With Cartridge
Almost all of you have heard of Rega of England. Rega makes the vaunted Planar One turntable with Carbon cartridge for $475.
It’s a great combo at just under five bills. Well surprise, surprise! NAD’s brand new C-556 is built by Rega. It has a slightly different power supply and arm. But it is barely different and lands at $450 with the same cartridge.
The state of the art for an entry level table has just dropped. If you are interested in pursuing vinyl, don’t buy a plastic table at big box for $200. You can now buy a serious table from a serious manufacturer for not a lot more. Your LPs will thank you.
C-556 is a fully manual, belt drive table. 33/45. Comes with precision main bearing and low vibration motor. The platter is phenolic resin. The tonearm is low mass and energy absorbing. It sounds good with the accompanying cartridge, but is ready to accept something quite a bit better.
How about Ortofon’s MM Red for $100?
My point is, while C-556 is a fine budget table to run with its included MM cart, the table/arm are certainly able to accommodate you moving NORTH. We have found a lot of Rega One buyers move up much sooner than they thought they would. Once the vinyl bug bites- look out!
NAD C-558 Turntable $550 With Cartridge
For only ONE bill more than C-556, you can get a platter akin to Rega’s famous glass platter, upgraded record playing deck & tone arm. Spend the buxx.
For many years the glass platter has been the indicator that you’re now in higher-fi territory. Hence we welcome C-558 which has the superior platter, along with a more refined arm than C-556.
C-588 also comes with the entry level cartridge. On this model we really want you to spend a C-Note more to get the Orto Red. For only $650 with Orto (made in Denmark) you have a wonderful, CUT ABOVE, record playing value. Or, by the way, the Orto Blue is even better and runs $236. With the ever affordable C-558 in the plan, it would only run $786 for the C-558 with Orto MM Blue!
McIntosh MC-152 Power Amp $5000 (150×2: 6h, 17.5w, 21.5d, 75 lbs)
Mac has made battle ship power amps for many years. Most weigh 100lbs or more and run about $7k. Yep, they still do.
But fairly new to the market is the MC-152. With Mac’s full bore design, including autoformers and protection circuits, and expressive blue meters (of course), you can now land a ferocious Mac
amp for only $5k. You get the same quality as the Mac brontosaurus amps, including balanced and RCA operation, sans a touch of octane. Most people won’t need more than MC-152!
Further, MC-152 is significantly smaller than its bigger brothers. You just might be able to
fit this guy into your size and budget confines. Consider a full blown Mac power amp for $5k.
Emotiva ERC-4 Red Book CD Player $600 (4h, 17w, 14d, 21 lbs)
Emo has a new version of its venerable BALANCED CD Player. ERC-4 supports RCA and XLR analog outs. ERC-4 has a new, quieter laser reader. Its OLED readout is much bigger and more
readable from across the room. ERC-4 offers true balanced operation at a very reasonable price tag-and has a five year warranty!
ERC-4 has transport OUTPUTS of OPT, Coax & XLR. Weighing in at 21 pounds, ERC-4 can make a great transport.
ERC-4 has INPUTS of OPT & Coax to use its new on board AD 1955 DAC.
Top Ten Guitarists As Voted By Louder Website
10-Ritchie Blackmore
9-Slash
8-Alex Lifeson
7-Brian May
6-Stevie Ray Vaughn
5-Eric Clapton
4-David Gilmour
3-Eddie Van Halen
2-Jimmy Page
1-Jimi Hendrix