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Hey all, Merry Sexmas! What did everyone get that was awesome? I received some cool shit from myself. I started hard on analog about a month and a half ago, and I have been busy researching vinyl rigs. Now that I have most of my gear in place, I will share and ask for some advice. Technics 1200 turntables are a really good platform to build off of, but they are older and have some shortcomings. Fortunately, Audio Technica has a mid level (for them) table that is a scary knock off of the T1200. Granted, it did need a little mod work (namely removing the internal preamp, swapping the mat from foam to cork, and swapping out the stylus. All these mods (except the cartidge/stylus) are so cheap they can almost be considered free. So I grabbed one... All mods are done at this point. I also have a Shure 97 with an avic stylus on it's way. Thus far I have been running it on my Elite with amazing results. Thank God it has a kick ass phono stage built into it! I also just received my first full on power tube amp today. I got an older Jolida SJ 502-A amp for a hell of a deal. I have been finding them used for ~$1000-1200 and I managed to snag one up for $650 shipped. It's a heavy fucker at ~50 pounds! The amp is absolutely pristine, so I was really fucking stoked when it arrived! I expected it to be a bit rough, but with only 600 hours on it, it is barely broken in. I took it to a local tube guru who is going to mod the unit for me. He will replace caps, resistors, and remove the balance pot as well as put in a couple new pre tubes. For those of you that remember my old AV with the glowing tubes, that was a pic of a SJ502A all lit up. Now I am in the process of working on a phono stage to go with this amp. Obviously, the goal is to stick with an all analog set up. Jolida has a nice tube phono stage, but it is costly. Yaqin ms12b is a strong competitor, as is the Budgie. I thought the Belaris were decent, but I am reading a lot of bad shit about them. Even the Yaqin seems to have some negatives about it, but I see a ton of positives on audiophile sites I have been on, touting it as worth 3X it's price, comparing it to some Manley units. Does anyone here have any input on tube phono stages that may help in my decision? I really want to keep it under $350, but I may be OK strtching it to $500

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The Fi X series is just underutilized, and severely so. SSA has the same problem with the DCON and I would suppose even the GCON as well and I'm certain that Incriminator sees the same issues with their two lower powered lines. For some reason everyone thinks they have to have at least 3kw of subs and amps to make a good and loud setup and it's just so far from the truth. My sister's single 12" DCON on ~500watts sounds impressively good, can rattle your teeth just fine, and didn't cost an arm and a leg to pick up. It didn't need $1K in electrical upgrades (none actually) and it gets loud enough, even for me. The Fi X's are targeted toward people who for whatever reason are limited to running in the 500-800 wrms per sub power range. While they can handle more, especially so with the BP option, pushing power levels to them that far over their rating bring the user to the point that the SSD's become the next logical step up and the price difference reflects that, IMO. The X is the more budget oriented line. It's a great sub in it's own right but not quite up on the same level as the SSD. While both are for daily listening setups, both have triple progressive spider packs, both are 3" voice coils, and both have cooling options, the size and configuration of the motors plays to the subtle fact that the SSD will have an edge in output. Neither are going to disappoint though so you/your customer can buy with confidence they're getting a great sub.