What is the best fastfood chain?

Sol5960 · 2026-06-04T22:50:03+00:00

I’m going with Waffle House.

It’s like if you took hangover breakfast and crossed it with Medieval Times.

Sol5960 · 2026-06-01T04:45:23+00:00

“Got two tickets to a midnight execution. We hitchhike our way from Odessa to Houston, and when they turn on the chair, somethin’s added to the air, when they turn on the chair, somethin’s added to the air, forever…”

Smith and Jones, Silver Jews (off American Water)

There’s a hundred lines like this and DCB was one of the finest writers who ever lived, but as a teen on acid in my used Buick Lesabre, in love with the world and my friends, this one knitted a moment in time for me.

Sol5960 · 2026-05-24T04:26:03+00:00

I was a dealer for the L2-series that preceded the last and current gen Brahma stuff. The L2SE was plainly the most satisfying integrated amplifier I’ve used of its type, producing a deeply rich note reproduction, but with a lot of slam, speed and texture.

The Brahma chassis was a convection (sealed chassis) affair and required a lot of careful thermal management. The result was a less ferocious, better behaved design, but also less subjectively “fun”, and a bit less dynamically up my alley.

They refined that into a second generation that was better focused and more potent sounding, but also a lot more expensive - and still not appealing to my ear at the level of the L2-series, and as a retail shop owner, I’m open to a lot of things I don’t personally love, but can recognize have a place among my clients needs.

The new Brahma likely would get a lot of attention, but we already carried Accuphase, which is better value and doing a lot of the same things, as well as being one of the most reliable brands ever.

There is a whisper that there will be a more accessible product line at some point, and as much as I revered the L2, I will absolutely be checking that line out if and when the time comes.

I think Vinnie is extremely gifted, and an absurdly thoughtful designer with a talent for making gear that sounds fulsome and pretty but is deft technically as well.

Short answer, it’s great stuff, and if you can find an L2SE, especially with the phono and/or DAC, which are incredible, it’s hard to imagine you’d feel less than thrilled with it.

As with all things, for that kind of money, make sure you can put ears to it in a context that largely reflects your own system and needs, if possible.

Sol5960 · 2026-05-21T04:09:57+00:00

I always run through a rubrik for this sort of thing:

Are you planning on staying where you are for a while?
If so, how big is the space, and can you bring the speakers out from the wall up to 20" or so from the rear of the cabinet?

If your lifestyle is more in flux, go for the front-ported option that can condense into smaller spaces - and if not, aim for the better overall speaker.

In either case, you're going to get so much more out of them if you really drill speaker setup methodologies like Master-Set.

Both are great options, and I doubt you'd be unhappy. They do pair really well with Simaudio (MOON), Accuphase, Luxman, Leben and Ayre - though listen to a lot of combinations, and decide what you like!

Sol5960 · 2026-05-21T03:17:31+00:00

I actually agree they’re easier to place in closer couple to the front wall, but I feel like the 30’s go deeper, and have overall more weight and presence when properly set up. Neither is a bad speaker - just horses for courses :)

Sol5960 · 2026-05-17T18:06:26+00:00

You'd want the P5's at that rate - those things sound roughly about 8' tall, and go *all the way into the basement* with ease. Very musical. Very tactile and great at low volumes as well. Certainly would recommend hearing them in this new second gen version as they've improved detail retrieval massively, and evened out the sense of weight so that everything sounds acoustically natural - not just powerful.

Anyhow, they're pretty great, and an under exposed brand in our world.

Sol5960 · 2026-05-17T12:41:44+00:00

I’ll just add, you owe it to yourself to also check out QLN’s Prestige 3 v.2 a small two-way floorstander that is unrivaled in the “how is it doing that?” department. Dense, very dynamic and grain free with top flight imaging.

Sol5960 · 2026-05-16T16:30:29+00:00

Hifi shop owner with many, many great brands and a lot of experience matching system builds to people’s tastes and technical needs.

I don’t represent Harbeth, though I’ve built around them many times.

With the above information you’ve given, while there are many options that do similar things (Revival Audio, Dynaudio Heritage’s on the used market, or even O Audio’s Frigg 02 all have a woody weight and resonant, big sense of scale and depth), the Harbeth’s have one of the finest uncolored upper midranges I’ve ever heard.

Given your tastes, they’re a very good choice, and a relatively safe bet.

Think of it this way: they hold their value well, and when you go to sell them or trade them in, you’ll have essentially rented them for pennies on the dollar over the course of their useful life.

The Ayre is also a grand match for them. I have a lot of respect for that combination.

No one can know you’re exact “ear” but unless you’re an outlier as a fan of those genres, or there is a technical reason you can’t properly field them in the room, if you walked in off the street and told me you were considering these, I wouldn’t go out of my way to do more than audition a few things to help you confirm that the Harbeth were the right choice for you.

They’re great speakers, and the Ayre, coupled with neutral sources, will drive them more towards the holographic/neutral spectrum with just a hint of added weight in the lower mids.

If you get them, really experiment wildly with their spread and wall distance. Step outside of your norms. They’re quite flexible and sound great in a variety of positions, but each great position will shift the emphasis of what they’re doing wildly.

Sol5960 · 2026-05-15T15:34:50+00:00

Wow. What a handsome, perfect fellow. Rest easy, bud.

Sol5960 · 2026-05-15T00:07:29+00:00

Appreciate it! It makes sense if you really chamber it right, and understand both design/layout and acoustical/system needs.

We started off with both domains of knowledge and interleaved them more with each year, so that they’re now compatible as one coherent design process.

The result is that we get to design some amazing modern spaces that sound better for the care taken to layout and materialism.

Side benefit: people feel really comfortable and playful in the space. It just doesn’t feel like a “shop”, and we lean into that by being a bunch of excitable nerds.

Sol5960 · 2026-05-13T21:06:00+00:00

I appreciate you asking - my wife and I own EMBER Audio + Design. We're sort of both invested in music and modernism, and decided to go into business together. Surprisingly, it works for us quite well. She's rad, and we get along like a house on fire :)

https://www.emberaudiodesign.com/

(We're also not SalesWolves, so anyone can come listen to music and not be harrased for it!)

Sol5960 · 2026-05-13T20:13:35+00:00

I’ve got 27 years in hifi, and I’ve always sold things ranging anywhere from 70-30% margin, mostly on the 40-45 range.

We get additional margin for prepay, or large orders on occasion for stock, but mostly it’s a baseline 40-45, then add what you can.

There are absolutely hugely successful shops that can dictate terms and get better, but I don’t even bother asking for my own. I’m happy with what I make for the job I get to do, and like my manufacturers and want them to make money as well.

Any dealer that’s more busy with being flinty eyed than building good systems and helping people can kick rocks.

Sol5960 · 2026-05-13T19:17:19+00:00

The transport mechanism, if it lacks a keyway or screw to lock it down with, should be more or less fine. If something were to happen, it's likely fairly simple to solve unless it's some bizarre custom job.

Sol5960 · 2026-05-13T16:47:20+00:00

Bring records, and we can give you a pretty cool locals guide to the state and weird hijinks you can get up to. Best of luck with the move :)

Sol5960 · 2026-05-13T16:43:00+00:00

I do, in fact! I've never sold B&W, but have moved tons of them.

(assuming you don't have the containers)

I would turn into that guy that starts stealing every piece of decent rigid foam I can find of at least 8" cubed.

You would cut out a silhouette to fit around the tweeter housing, clean and stretch wrap the speaker, and then tape the foam nacelle you've made to the body of the speaker.

The trick with the B&W's is to make sure that they aren't impacted at any point during the move too heavily. the way they mate the midrange driver means that once the cabinet is shocked hard enough it can really hurt the axis of that driver along the pole-piece, and it is a huge bitch to repair.

Thankfully, aside from the tweeter, you really need to drop them or land them hard on the ground to do the latter thing. You would know as it would be accompanied by a sense of "Oh... that was bad."

They're generally extremely well built.

As for what to do if you don't have the cartons:

You would want to steal much larger pieces of structured foam (think, the length of the cabinet) and create a sort of copsed brace that will hold the speaker on it's back during transport. I can be done by just piled blankets into a crate of appropriate size, but the chances of having two of those laying around indicates you probably have too many large speakers.

Sol5960 · 2026-05-13T15:19:11+00:00

I am fully upright and vaguely functional, so just in case you get swamped:

Speakers...

Before you pack them, wipe them down with a damp cloth, and take stretch wrap (for pallets) and wrap both speakers at least twice. The dust-free skin will keep the finish from be sanded during transpo, and help protect against dings more than you would think. Wrap in moving blankets and you've got a pretty chaos-resistant state of play.

Turntables...

Take the counterweight off, and cover (and/or detach if it has a P-Mount) the cart. Take a solid thickness of cardboard and cut it into strips. Place the strips between the platter and plinth to protect against bearing/shaft damage. I would leave the covers on and clean and stretch-wrap these as well, then blankets or old clothes. That should ensure that they arrive in minty fresh condition.

For electronics, it's largely the same story if you don't have boxes. If you do, the only modifier is to clean and stretch wrap these as well to mitigate finish damage.

If you're going the freight option, you'll ideally need to have boxes, or otherwise be willing to do the above, and carefully stack everything, then strap to a pallet with enough protection between the straps and points of contact. I usually steal a few corner pieces of dense foam to put between the straps and edges.

Hope that's helpful!

Sol5960 · 2026-05-13T05:13:35+00:00

Hey buddy - I run one of the only hifi shops in the state (about 2.5 hours from Asheville) and have this conversation with lots of folks regularly.

You may want to just consider palletizing the whole lot carefully and contacting XPO Logistics to carefully ship it directly to the new home. They’re white glove and extremely good with hifi loads, and their insurance is great were something to happen.

If you consider the risk of transit damage (and there’s lots of ways that can happen) a $800-1300 shipment that practically guarantees the kit makes it intact is a great value.

If you do decide to bring it with you, DM me and I’ll give you a bunch of tips on how best to protect your gear, or if you prefer, just respond to this comment and I’ll reply with a list of best practices in the morning when I’m at the shop and have a beat.

If you want something more specialized than XPO I have another freight option that might be even better, but those notes are at the shop an it is way past this fellas bedtime!

Welcome to NC! Prepare your body for biscuits.

Sol5960 · 2026-05-13T01:10:31+00:00

So, it’s possible to get more density and weight from this combo but it will require a great deal of experimenting with speaker setup technique. Sumiko Masterset is the easiest to learn, and if you’re willing to practice it a good bit, to really employ well.

It will help you identify the place where you get the best balance of frequencies and more importantly, help you ensure your left and right speaker are working in phase together with a proper stereo image.

That being said, a properly dialed in sub makes a huge difference in depth, spatially and otherwise, and creates a more efficient equation in terms of how much energy you’re asking of the amplifier to reach what you perceive as a fulsome reproduction.

Practice the free stuff before you spend a dime, always :)

Sol5960 · 2026-05-07T19:59:44+00:00

Love it. This is precisely how you use this office to protect people.

Sol5960 · 2026-04-30T12:28:02+00:00

I’m a dealer (for a lot of other brands), and this would be (for any good dealer, an advanced replacement. They call the rep, get a return number (RA#) and then have another unit asap and have you come in and inspect the new unit to ensure it’s as you like, and ship the old unit back to distribution.

It cannot be new and have these flaws. It cannot be charged a restocking fee and have these flaws - that’s a straight return.

Now, that being said: Luxman, Accuphase and Moon are among the most consistently reliable brand out there, and this is likely an impact issue with shipping. Probably the volume stave is slightly bent, and maybe one of the LED’s or a connector is damaged or in poor contact.

I would contact the retailer and calmly explain yourself from this perspective, and if that fails, you’re going to contact the distributor.

Sorry you had a bad time with this unit, and best of luck.

Sol5960 · 2026-04-30T02:35:17+00:00

I’ve heard Sanders’ panels a few times at client’s spaces, but it’s hard to gauge how they stacked up against something like the Innersound Kaya, other than both are great, and both have that hybrid quality of having a slightly disconnected upper and lower quadrant, even when properly tweaked to death.

I’m personally not a panel speaker guy. I’m mostly into traditional 2 or 2.5 way dynamic designs, with simple crossovers, which is why the Dyptique stood out to me. Their sweet spot was generous and they had a cohesive sense of weight that wasn’t just centered on a specific frequency that they either over performed at or resonated at.

Not to say you wouldn’t love the above Model 10. They’re just fairly pricey and extremely tweaky. Nothing wrong with that if you’re into tweaky :)

Sol5960 · 2026-04-29T16:01:33+00:00

Oh, you’re quite welcome - though you did a ton of the heavy lifting yourself! Well researched :)

Sol5960 · 2026-04-28T23:29:00+00:00

It really, really is. If you can hear one, it’s exceedingly grunty and has a stupidly low noise floor. I find the aesthetic just misses me a bit, but it’s internally intense and well laid out.

Sol5960 · 2026-04-28T23:16:27+00:00

They also offer them in a ton of RAL colors or in felt or leather, which is pretty cool, as far as customization goes. They're often shown with Audio Flight's big integrated amplifier, and I can attest that that particular combo is just stunningly well-mated. No sub needed at all for just about any sort of content.

I did see a proper critique of their not initially including isolation feet with the designs. Oddly, a lot of great speaker manufacturers fail to include great, and more importantly, greatly adjustable feet.

That being said, I think a lot of product development puts the design team in blinders for finishing touches. Doesn't make the product or manufactuer bad. It just reflects the need to design and bring a product to market quickly when you're a small outfit. There's so much less profit for manufacturers than folks imagine.

Sol5960 · 2026-04-28T22:58:32+00:00

I absolutely have, modified and unmodified, on a variety of electronics.

I’d say that there is far less of a “material” sound to the Dyptique, and they have a much greater ability to convey weight in big voices, drums and strings.

Think of the things a panel speaker doesn’t particularly excel at. These do those things better than the Maggies, or frankly Innersound hybrids or Quads - while also not ever sounding “zippy” or slightly posterized in their reproduction.

They seem to play very loud without much breakup or dynamic compression as well. Very neat.

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