The design and performance of the audio system are challenged, given the Roadster's open cockpit (convertible). You lose not only the walls and ceiling for reflection but, more importantly, introduce the ambient noise that can be as high as 95 dB on an interstate at 65 mph. The impact is a significant reduction in base and mid-range and the solutions to improve the performance range from picking different roads to drive on at a lower speed/less ambient noise , increasing the number of speakers and amps and competing with the 95 dB like a loud rock concert, develop aftermarket noise cancellatio ..read more

I graduated from South Whidbey High School in the class of 1983. The same car I drove during those high school years and to graduation, a 1976 MGB Roadster, accompanied me to Linfield College. It's still with me, having recently completed a lengthy 10-year restoration process. Yup, you read that right, 10 years! After a fruitful existence, the Roadster was primarily stored in barns. It became unrivaled, acquiring dents from passing tractors and gathering dust, dirt, spiders, and mice. At some point, I resolved to fully restore my former high school ride. I'm not sure what sparked this decision ..read more

I graduated from South Whidbey High School in the class of 1983. The same car I drove during those high school years and to graduation, a 1976 MGB Roadster, accompanied me to Linfield College. It's still with me, having recently completed a lengthy 10-year restoration process. Yup, you read that right, 10 years! After a fruitful existence, the Roadster was primarily stored in barns. It became unrivaled, acquiring dents from passing tractors and gathering dust, dirt, spiders, and mice. At some point, I resolved to fully restore my former high school ride. I'm not sure what sparked this decision ..read more

As a car and audio enthusiast with a passion for vintage automobiles, there's nothing quite like blending the timeless charm of a classic car with the cutting-edge performance of modern audio systems. The journey began with a well-thought-out plan, but as we all know, even the best-laid plans can change - and change they did. The initial plan for my vintage car audio upgrade involved a straightforward speaker and amplifier setup featuring Sony RSX-GS9 with its high-resolution built-in DAC as the head unit, supporting 192 kHz/24 bit. However, after reevaluating the project, it became apparent t ..read more

Happy New Year. As we drive into a new year, I am shifting gears a bit ( pun intended). Posting an update about my 1976 MGB Roadster, which has been in the makeover for the past year. Although much of the basics are the same as home audio, car audio has significantly more challenges, especially with the after-market and retrofit of a vintage car. The listening room, cockpit in this case, is like a fishbowl with not only glass but a variety of materials and angles not conducive to the best audio performance. These challenges do not include complications from a convertible car. The challenges co ..read more

The 4th of July weekend required I break out the vintage McIntosh MC275 amps not from a historical perspective but out of necessity. The Acoustic Research Reference 160M seemed flat after a proper warm-up and system test. Flat enough, that motivated several tests, followed by swapping the amps with the previous champions of my system, the MC275s. However, for this quick swap, I used 2 of the MC275s in mono-block mode or a straight swap-out with no changes to the speaker driving regarding horizontal or vertical Bi-amping. The vintage MC275s played well, in fact, better than I remembered, so I t ..read more

No doubt, Vinyl has made a long-term comeback from the abyss, growing from an annual 1.2 m units in 2001 to over 47.7 m units in 2021; (source: Luminate). RIAA states the Year-over-Year growth was 61% reaching $1B in revenue for 2021. But will this continue as consumers begin to leave the house to engage in other entertainment activities under the headwinds of inflation and a pending economic slowdown? Having been an analog music fan, I have been following this market very closely and I made some observations over the last few months. First, I was pleased to see the investments in vinyl manufa ..read more

Vintage audio is known for its warm sound, which can be attributed to the vacuum tubes and components used in amplifiers and preamplifiers . Also known as valves, vacuum tubes are what make vintage audio so popular today. If you are drawn to history, it's rich with how the audio has evolved over the decades and the history of devices, designs, companies, formats and, of course, the people that made it happen. An educational appreciation if you're so inclined, but with practical use allowing you to leverage excellent vintage gear that in many cases can still outperform new-age systems. Furtherm ..read more

The vintage Macintosh C22, although legendary, was a suspect in limiting performance when paired with the Reference 160M’s. It exhibited actual limits that could be heard or not heard by the revolving nature of the 160M’s; enter the Nagra HD Preamplifier. The Nagra is a heavyweight contender regarding Preamps and an unfair comparison. Still, I needed to see how far we could push the system and free up additional performance paired with the Reference 160M’s. For 30 days, I was able to evaluate a demo unit from Alma Audio and in that period, ran through what seemed to be endless tests, including ..read more

After successfully installing Audio Research Reference 160M Monoblock Amplifier, I needed to review the power cable options since the previous vintage McIntosh MC275 amps used hard-wired cables and were not compatible with the 160M’s. Regarding power cables, everyone has an opinion and yes, the power cables and power management makes a significant difference in the performance. After all, it’s the primary component that feeds all of the parts to what you hear. I wrote about the importance of power in an earlier post here. The power for the 160M amps comes from 2 separate and dedicated 20 amp c ..read more