New to this forum but have been reading a good bit here lately. I am a certified card carrying member of Audio-aholics as my stash of musical instruments, car and home stereo, albums, CDs and high resolution files is way beyond anything I honestly need LOL. I recently visited a pair of speakers I first heard in the 90's to my best recollection, KEF 104/2 reference floor standing speakers and remembered how great they sounded, to my ears anyway, but the price tag on them for someone not long out of college was staggering.
I was first introduced to KEF via the car speakers KEF KAR of which I had installed in my car at that time and honestly have heard few car speakers to this day that sound better, I actually am still running vintage KEFS in my cars today. Looking at the specs on the 104/2 it was clear I surely did not have the receiver or amp in my possession that could feed those beasts the power they craved so the wheels in my mind started turning, which always ends up leading to spending money LOL. I reseached amps capable generating the amount of clean wattage they seem to desire, looked at older Naim, but don't have a kidney I can sell, McIntosh, Musical Fidelity, Marantz and more and then I though, wait Phase Linear. Yes I have heard the stories of flame outs, speakers burning, devastation of small towns, rivers flowing backward, dogs and cats living together etc, but I did remember a PL400 that a few friends had and how I always wished I had that in my rack so I started searching Ebay and other online stereo sales options and found a good number of older 400's and 700's I am certain in varied states of function and safety. Then I happened upon some forum posts on Audio Karma and Tapeheads regarding WOPL and my interest went to the red line.
My question, and I am sure it has been proposed relentlessly on here, but to me instead of buying one already upgraded I would love to know I was the one that brought the beast back to greatness. Upfront I am definitely a novice on these kind of efforts, yes I have cleaned the internals of several amps and receivers, deoxited pots and switches and tinkered around with a few car amps doing limited work, but I at least at this point want to give it a shot. Am I seeking glory that is not achievable to someone with limited experience at best? I just believe at least in my mind that the clear and powerful wattage it can produce when done running my KEF 104/2 speakers will be that much more enjoyable if I was able to perform the task at hand.
Great forum, full of knowledgeable people and it is a honor for a stereo gear junkie to make my first post here
System I want to run the WOPL with;
Pioneer SA-8800II as the pre-amplifier mainly based on the phono cartridge platform and its options
Pioneer TX 9500II tuner
Pioneer RT-909 R to R
Pioneer PL518 TT
Pioneer SG-9500 EQ
Oppo BPD
KEF 104/2
I was first introduced to KEF via the car speakers KEF KAR of which I had installed in my car at that time and honestly have heard few car speakers to this day that sound better, I actually am still running vintage KEFS in my cars today. Looking at the specs on the 104/2 it was clear I surely did not have the receiver or amp in my possession that could feed those beasts the power they craved so the wheels in my mind started turning, which always ends up leading to spending money LOL. I reseached amps capable generating the amount of clean wattage they seem to desire, looked at older Naim, but don't have a kidney I can sell, McIntosh, Musical Fidelity, Marantz and more and then I though, wait Phase Linear. Yes I have heard the stories of flame outs, speakers burning, devastation of small towns, rivers flowing backward, dogs and cats living together etc, but I did remember a PL400 that a few friends had and how I always wished I had that in my rack so I started searching Ebay and other online stereo sales options and found a good number of older 400's and 700's I am certain in varied states of function and safety. Then I happened upon some forum posts on Audio Karma and Tapeheads regarding WOPL and my interest went to the red line.
My question, and I am sure it has been proposed relentlessly on here, but to me instead of buying one already upgraded I would love to know I was the one that brought the beast back to greatness. Upfront I am definitely a novice on these kind of efforts, yes I have cleaned the internals of several amps and receivers, deoxited pots and switches and tinkered around with a few car amps doing limited work, but I at least at this point want to give it a shot. Am I seeking glory that is not achievable to someone with limited experience at best? I just believe at least in my mind that the clear and powerful wattage it can produce when done running my KEF 104/2 speakers will be that much more enjoyable if I was able to perform the task at hand.
Great forum, full of knowledgeable people and it is a honor for a stereo gear junkie to make my first post here
System I want to run the WOPL with;
Pioneer SA-8800II as the pre-amplifier mainly based on the phono cartridge platform and its options
Pioneer TX 9500II tuner
Pioneer RT-909 R to R
Pioneer PL518 TT
Pioneer SG-9500 EQ
Oppo BPD
KEF 104/2
