Audioless Winnipeg Group!

These are hands down one of the best modern bookshelf speakers I've heard in long time. It's not easy to "wow" me, and these have. Being Canadian, I have a very soft spots for all things Canadian, especially if they're made in Canada. There are a lot of economic benefits to buy Canadian made. The short story for the creation of the Bryston's speaker line is quite simple. James Tanner approached Ian Colquhoun of Axiom Audio to build him a reference pair of speakers. With that experience, James Tanner decided to create his own line up. Yes, currently Axiom and Bryston are in partnership with one another. Two great Canadian manufacturers. And yes, while there is a lot of shared information from the two companies. The Bryston speaker line up uses different drivers over the Axiom line up. From the Axiom forum, you can find various information regarding this. For example, Bryston uses 3 different kind of 8" mid/bass woofers depending on which model one chooses.

Ah, one of the budget level Fluoroscan receiver from Pioneer, only a step up from the SX-3400. The SX-3500 just has more "fluoroscan" components over the SX-3400. Basic testing shows the fluoroscan are still pretty bright. DC offset are good, controls are being cleaned, FM sounds okay and power meter works! Still need to put it through it paces, I haven't heard one for a very, very long time. More to come!

One of the nicest speaker switch/selector that has been ever made. They are well made, all mechanical, and has banana plugs. No fuses or speaker protection. You can also use it in reverse (2 amplifiers and 1 speakers), just be careful! I would try to do a workup on them but, honestly, there is so much information on the internet, the product speaks for itself. Works extremely well when you power amplifier has only 1 set of speaker taps. Hifiengine description " Extremely low internal resistance for minimum power loss; well below the contact resistance of the amplifier output connectors. The highest grade of heavy-duty, gold-plated, solid-brass, 5-way binding posts, found only in the finest quality instrumentation-grade equipment. Glass fiber epoxy (NEMA FR-4 grad e) circuit board construction with the widest signal traces for minimum power loss; resistance of less than 0.001 ohms; will not degrade the damping-factor of any amplifier. Oxygen Free Copper (OFC), internal wire jumpers

Ariston has a very interesting history with Linn, which I will not get into. The basic design of the Ariston RD-11S is basically the same as an early Linn without the patent spindle bearing. It uses a more convention but, larger ball bearing or captive ball bearing. So, refurbishing this unit was fairly easy as I could source Linn LP-12 springs and grommets. Some tweaks: Other than buying Linn LP-12 springs and rubber grommets. Replace the suspension screws with new 10-32 x 2.25" screws, wing nuts and washer. Keep the internal tooth washer to aid with retention. Talc'ing the belt as well as the rubber grommets and ends of the springs will help with adjusting (turning) the springs/suspension to tune the bounce. These inexpensive tweaks will make your life easier when you're setting up the suspension.  For transit screws: #6 coarse thread screw will work. I am sure there are others but, very limited choices where I live. This Ariston RD-11S was  equipped with a SME 3009 S2 I

I thought I would never buy another vintage receiver, until this HH Scott 337B popped on the market. It was partially recapped and the work was done by a fellow AKer. You can see his work and his ramblings on audiokarma here:  HH Scott 377B I've never heard an American made HH Scott before. While the Japanese made ones sounded nice, they all sounded much like other Japanese made stuff in the late 70s. I was curious about the American made ones. I had an inkling that because it was made in the early 1970s it would be very warm sounding as a lot of early solid state gear replicated the sound of tube amps of the era before. My suspicions were correct, the HH Scott 377B definitely is on the warmer side of things .  Its very nice, very "full/robust" sounding. Definitely a lot more robust sounding over the Pioneer SX-636 I had previously.  It has a certain tube characteristic with an emphasis on the more midrange, which is nice. If matched with a more "brighter" sound