The Icing on my hifi cake - the final tweaks to my system

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Now i have a set of boxes of elastictrickery that i am completely confident are capable of giving me what i want from my hifi, i am now intent on getting the absolute best out of them.
in my last house, the current set up (even with the dac sat on top of a speaker) sounded a lot better than it did when it first transplanted it into the new house.
the main problem in the new house seems to be related to the suspended floor, and judging by the wide differences in overal sound quality over the course of the day, the mains also seems to be of some issue. there are also issues to do with the shape, size and layout of the room

the system when i first moved in:

http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww282/hamish_gill/dbc1d05e.jpg

this did not sound to hot, not terrible, very different - to the extent it took a bit of getting used to to work out where the problems lay

in comparison to the previous house i had...

very little depth to the bass
splashy and peaky (if thats the right word) trebble
a slightly laid back middle
narrow and shallow sound stage

as the issues with the suspended floor are likely to be difficult/very costly to fit by tackling the floor its self, it seemed logical to address the issue by isolating the equipment from it.

so the first step was to get some bloody big chunks of rock to put the speakers on

http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww282/hamish_gill/98d2293b.jpg

this did indeed have a positive effect on the overall sound - it had the most effect on the bass and lower mids, some positive, some negative.. there was ceratinly more bass, but some frequencies had a very boomy nature to them, especially very low frequencies which became very indestict.

i was then recomended (by alfie) that i try some platfoam to decouple the speakers from the floor like so:

http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww282/hamish_gill/08626973.jpg

very effective indeed - there isnt the depth of bass i had in the last house, but what is there is at least well defined!

(if anyone reads this who goes down the platfoam route in the way alfie recomended .. it doesnt make any difference if you have short bits going width ways or long bits going length ways ... that experiment was a waste of time)

i have had quite a lot of success correcting the sound stage and treble with speaker positioning. idealy i would like to have the speakers firing accross the room, but due to a lack of space this unfortunatly seems quite unlikely as it least would require some costly renovations to the room.

as the speakers are sat in a bay window they seem to be very sensitive to possition.
i wont go to much into the equipment issues in these babbleings but it seems to my ear and from the fiddling that i have been doing that the copper dac, when used with the speakers in the bay, causes a peaky nature to the treble. the use of other dacs seems to fix this but the sound is dull by comparison. the copper dac is currenly on its way to duncan for modification to the output - i am hoping that this well help.. fingers crossed!

i have discovered the splashyness is mostly down to speaker position.
with the speakers decoupled from the floor on the platfoam i have been able to move them around quite easily and by quite small amounts. so far i have discoverd that the best position is quite far out into the room with a very slight toe in. this seems to have solved the splashyness, it has also widend the sound stage.

so next on the agenda is the qudraspire q4 referance stand, turning up tomorrow, i am very interested to see what this does, as there seems to be some quite substantial differings of opinions of the benefit of something like this in what is currently a tt free system (dave still has it form when my cat broke it and i havent had time to sort the insurance yet).

beyond that marco and steve are coming down on monday (18th), steve tells me he is going to rebuild the stand and marco will be waving his mana about the place (although secretly i hope my platfoam wins :) ). steve is also bringing his dac and some other bits and peices for us to tinker with, so it should be an interesting day .. we might even get to listen to some music...

after that i am getting my mains sorted (hopefully in a couple of weeks)
then hopfully convincing mark to sell me a good few mains cables at a "nice price" (has anyone spotted my photos on his site yet http://markgrantcables.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=45_18 im still not happy with how bright they are but it was the best i could do with m ymmid move status )
the last thing i will be doing will be getting (hopefully) is a tube distinctions mians doobry.

if it doesnt sound amazing after all that, i will take it out into the street and perform a ceremonial burning ( to include semi naked danceing and chanting ) - claim on my insurance and by my self a nikon d3s - you will nevr hear from me again... fingers crossed that doesnt happen eh

i shall report on all forthcomeing tweakery in what will hopefully be a
.... stand alone write up..with more of a structure to it....
:)

[flatpopely]

Stella and scotch, good man yerself!

[Spectral Morn]

Excellent start Hamish...keep up the good work :)


Regards D S D L

[Marco]

Good write-up, Hamish, and nice to know that your system is starting to hit the spot :)

One thing I can see though is that there's no way you're going to get a Mana Soundbase underneath the left-hand speaker, as it's too close to your TV cabinet. Therefore if that's the layout you've finally settled on, you'll have to rule out using Mana, unless you move your speakers a bit nearer your system.

Marco.

[Ali Tait]

Perhaps change your rack for an AV style one,and have the telly between the speakers,so they would have a bit more room to breathe?

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Yeah, this is why I was worrying about it the other day marco... Not to mention that fact that with the quadraspire in the bay window there has to be 2 short racks as aposed to 1 tall one.. This has to happen for a couple of reasons - so we can see out of/use the window and to acomodate the tt when it gets back. This will make mana use a very tight fit! The curent tv stand isn't a permanent solution though

I take your point Ali, the tv does seem to react a little with the left speaker as far as the soundstage is concerned, but I would, I think, rather be able to see out of my pretty Victorian stained glass sash windows than block them with that munger black box

[Ali Tait]

Any chance of mounting it on the wall then?

[The Vinyl Adventure]

That was the original plan but the fireplace is to high to put it above without getting bad neck.

[Marco]

It's a tricky one, Hamish. I think the best plan is to bring down the Mana and 'suck it and see'. Only when I see the layout for myself will I know if it's going to work or not.

It's a pity Steve sold the 'minature' Mana soundbases he once used under his Rega Naos, as they'd have been ideal to compliment the footprint of the PMCs!

When are you sending your DAC to Duncan for fettling? :)

Marco.

[Steve Toy]

Ali, the chosen stands are a sonic upgrade as Hamish is about to find out...

[Ali Tait]

Aye,but I was thinking about allowing the speakers a bit more breathing room.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

It's a tricky one, Hamish. I think the best plan is to bring down the Mana and 'suck it and see'. Only when I see the layout for myself will I know if it's going to work or not.

It's a pity Steve sold the 'minature' Mana soundbases he once used under his Rega Naos, as they'd have been ideal to compliment the footprint of the PMCs!

When are you sending your DAC to Duncan for fettling? :)

Marco.

I sent it today mate, should be with him tomorrow, but what with the weather it could well be friday... I have let him know it's on the way

as for the mana, yea, that sounds good.. I have measured up, there should be space, I'm just not sure how practicle it will be... It also might limit the abilty to put the speakers in the positions it so far apears they need to be in.
Ali does sem to right, "breathing space" does seem to be important, especially in relation to the bay!

[Marco]

I sent it today mate, should be with him tomorrow, but what with the weather it could well be friday... I have let him know it's on the way


Nice one, dude :)

You're in for a nice improvement there, as having the correct gain structure makes a huge difference to how correctly music is reproduced. When you've got too much gain, the sound saturates, and this often leads to treble emphasis and a 'peaky' midrange presentation.

All that will be gone, dynamic range will improve and the sound will open up, gain body and texture and become bigger and more expansive at the same time.

Marco.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Marco, I hope your right... As that is pretty much the problems I have been having with mr copper dac involved.. It does seem logical in my untrainded mind that the high level coming out of the dac might cause the issues I have had ...

[Marco]

Trust me, Hamish - I *know* it is! So worry not - all problems will be satisfactorily resolved ;)

Marco.

[Ian Walker]

Trust me, Hamish - I *know* it is! So worry not - all problems will be satisfactorily resolved ;)

Marco.

Me too Hamish,Dunc did the mod on my brass version and then on his own,all with the results Marco described.

Ian.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

It's not really Duncan's dac, or ability to make it even better that is at question for me... I'm not sure how much sence this does make in reality, but, it's the dac in my room that seemed to be the problem... Like I said, it sounded great in the last house ... So my only asumption could be that it just didn't like the room.... .... Or when I had it in the new house I was so enamourd with it I didn't notice... Honeymoon period? ... Either way, I am going to not worry about it for now, you both seem highly confident that Duncan will make the problem go away, so for now I shall be happy in taking your word :)

[Psion770]

I had a similar problem in a previous flat and used a similar device to tame some
SD1's using garden stepping stones - but then used some steel profiles cut to the plan size on the speaker tops an 1" thick with sorbothane feet to add further mass and damp the cabinets....

Ps whats the lovely grey cat called?

[The Vinyl Adventure]

The cat is called 'grubby' - despite his beautifulness... :)

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Whilst I was out today my slightly interfering missis moved my speakers back ferther into the bay, unfortunately I didn't notice until after I had built this

http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww282/hamish_gill/7a249b33.jpg

cheers steve(inspain)

I'm not really sure what to say at the moment, I had tried the speakers where hannah has put them and I swear it didint sound as good as it does now. Maybe she has inadvertantly found there perfect location?? Anyway since before I built the stand and the speakers were moved, the bass seems to have tightened a bit and the sound stage is significantly better... I will investigate ferther tomorrow by moving the speakers back to their previos positions to try and asertain exactly the improvments this stand has made...
One thing for certain it looks a shit load better!!!

[Themis]

I use SpeakerWorx to position my speakers. I tried manually, but didn't find a better location than the one calculated. ;)

http://www.higherfi.com/software.htm

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Sweet!! Nice one dimitri, that looks like a whole afternoon of tinkering fun...

[The Vinyl Adventure]

A bit more of a development today- I spotted a second hand silver and acrylic quadraspire q4 ref stand in a shop in town. We struck a deal on it that meant that with the 3 acrylic shelves I had off steveinspain I had a total of 8. I also had ordered some longer columns to acomodate the copper dac when that get back along with a second set of feet.
This has meant that I have been able to build this:

http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww282/hamish_gill/c37e3c20.jpg

very much nicer than the black/black stand in my books, also the missis likes it more.. happy days!

As fir the sound, well there seems to be improvements but I'm now comeing down with a cold and my ears are doing that clicky thing when I move my head, So I am a little unsure.
I shall have to come back to this When I am feeling better.... ...

[steveinspain]

Good to know it has all arrived in one piece, or rather 100 pieces..!
I'm not missing any of my gear at all y'know.
Not one bit.
2 cubic metres of my stereo has disappeared from my life and so far nothing in its place...

[Steve Toy]

One more upgrade before Monday: the top shelf with extra decoupling sounds better. Place your source component and/or pre on a top shelf.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Good to know it has all arrived in one piece, or rather 100 pieces..!
I'm not missing any of my gear at all y'know.
Not one bit.
2 cubic metres of my stereo has disappeared from my life and so far nothing in its place...

Yeah all good! Did you not get my email?
Are you getting a new system? Did youselk the Avondale stuff?

[The Vinyl Adventure]

One more upgrade before Monday: the top shelf with extra decoupling sounds better. Place your source component and/or pre on a top shelf.

We will do all that on monday steve, I haven't atempted to level it or anything yet either ... I'm just hoping my ears arn so blocked by then, it's gonna make the day a little more frustrating if they are!
Don't forget I got the turntable to put on a top shelf too yet... I'm gonna gig out the thorens to keep me going as soon as I can find a cheapish pre...

[steveinspain]

Hamish - Nope - didn't get an email, but knowing it has arrived safely is good !
Avondale stuff pretty much all gone, and yes, I am getting another albeit smaller system soon.............................................. ...........................
As I think I told you, money problems have forced the sale of what had been a lifetime project, but maybe a simple system will restore some of the less-serious side of listening to music - might mean the kids will listen to more as well, rather than being told to sit quietly while this or that track was played..

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Any idea what you might get?

I guess you got home safe then? Any major weather delays?

[The Vinyl Adventure]

My ears have cleared up quite nicely today, all the goo seems to have transfered into my nose .. Always nice
anyway
I would definatly say that these stands have made an improvement!
Mainly in the overall balance to the sound, tge bass sounds more solid!
A chap in one audio t gave me a litle bit of a dubious look when I told him that on the mdf shelves the soundstage seemed to snap into focus (something that seems to have happend ferther with the acrylic). He then wen on the tell me that it was a psyco-acoustic induced improvment...
Well I that's the case, I have a bloody good brain, because I'm really pleased with the improvments these stands have made!!

[Jonboy]

Looking good now hamish, i'm glad yours is "snapping into focus", cause mine ain't:(

I think i'm going to have to invest in some sort of rack, perhaps a trip to Ikea will help;)

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Well, I do have a lot of quadraspire bits left over if your interested... :)

[Jonboy]

Thanks for the offer i'll chew it over Hamish, i'm not sure about Acrylic at the moment, i prefer wood myself

[The Vinyl Adventure]

The bits I have left are silver legs and black mdf shelves ... Enough to build a 4 tier shelf with the extra isolating one at the bottom...

[Themis]

Looking good now hamish, i'm glad yours is "snapping into focus", cause mine ain't:(

I think i'm going to have to invest in some sort of rack, perhaps a trip to Ikea will help;)
What's the trouble, mate ? :scratch:

[Jonboy]

Now you've put me on the spot, PM sent

[The Vinyl Adventure]

So, few tweaks today whilst Steve and Marco were here
the biggest difference was definatly the reintroduction of the copper dac with suitably lower gain!
After we put the dac back in and had a bit of a listen to a few key tracks, steve set upon rearanging the set up from it's previous layout to this:

He also included some "music works" acrylic spikes for helping isolate the top shelf.

http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww282/hamish_gill/69d38f07.jpg

http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww282/hamish_gill/3742300b.jpg

http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww282/hamish_gill/e9058576.jpg

He suggested putting the dac on the isolated right hand top shelf, an the pre (until the tt comes back) on the isolated left hand shelf

when it came to the cabling marco and steve advised about keeping speaker wire away from the wall and mains, keeping interconnects not touching each other as well as keeping the mains cables away from the interconnects. All stuff I have been well aware of in the past, but never bothered with (just through lazyness really). Steve also paid a lot of attention to keeping the stands level.

Switch it all back on again and happy days, after a few of those key choons it was obvious there is def an improvment above and beyond the copper dac being back... it all sounds more open and had a bit more life to it... Now obviously there are quite a few tweaks going on here in both layout of units on the stand the stand it's self as well as the cable management. But whatever has caused it, there is an improvment so happy days.

We then went on to put a full set of steves mark grant mains cables and one of steves mains blocks into the mix. Frustratingly (as these bits were going back with steve) this also had quite a large effect on the sound, although in this case it was a more-of-what-was-there type improvement.. Not louder as such, just a bit more of what makes the system good ... I'm still shit at describing this stuff int I??

As for the mana... Well it didn't fit... We did have a crack .. But the speakers were a lot ferther forward so direct comparison was quite difficult, they did seem to have a similar effect to my lime stone and platfoam!

Over all, a good day was had! Marco and Steves Analy retentive nature when it comes to hifi setup certainly seems to have a positive effect in my system!!
Cheers for coming down guys, was good to meet you Marco!
(you will be happy to know that the hum that apeared after the rearange was just down to one of us knocking the earth type selector on the copper dac, I switched it back and it's as quiet as anything!)

[The Grand Wazoo]

So you had 'the boys' down to sort you out!
Looks good Hamish, I'm glad it's sounding better too!

(You've got to get something to hide those speaker plinths, though, they look rough as a bear's bot!)

[The Vinyl Adventure]

yeah, I guess being aos branded hifi owner gives "special" benefits :lol: I just gotta repay the favour by lending my posh new stand to them for scalford ... ...

My bits of lime stone... How dare you!! It's rustic Chris... I can't belive you think it looks rough.....
.....
Seriously .... Yeah agreed, it's getting a bit flakey too!
Now I'm keeping this layout etc, I'm going get some chunky and more managable slabs of granite cut to the apropriate shape!

[Spectral Morn]

Looking very interesting Hamish.

Glad it sounds better. I would have been shocked if it wasn't a lot better. Attention to set up detail or lack there of will make or break a system... Yours is well on the way now to being made...in spades.


Regards D S D L

[The Vinyl Adventure]

It is for sure a lot better!! . I was going to temporaryly swop back to the caiman that has been in use for a good few listening sesions whilst the copper majik killer (as I'm now calling it) was away to try and give a better write up on the improvments marco and steve made ... But frankly it all sounded a bit to good for me to be bothered!! I guess that's a good sign eh??

[Spectral Morn]

It is for sure a lot better!! . I was going to temporaryly swop back to the caiman that has been in use for a good few listening sesions whilst the copper majik killer (as I'm now calling it) was away to try and give a better write up on the improvments marco and steve made ... But frankly it all sounded a bit to good for me to be bothered!! I guess that's a good sign eh??


Indeed yes. But if you could try and clarify the improvements that would be very helpful.



Regards D S D L

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Il have a go neil, I'm sure it would be interesting to see ... But what with it sounding better at the mo, It will take a bit of mental effort to go back... I shall give it a go though, I supose it's important to get to grips what has done what for future referance ... ...

[Marco]

Hi Hamish,

'Twas nice meeting you yesterday, dude! I'm glad that you're pleased with the results we achieved. I certainly thought your system was sounding mighty faaahn when we left...... :cool:

That DAC is special, so don't be letting it go anywhere ;)

Enjoy yer choons and may yer server always behave itself! :eyebrows:

Marco.

[Spectral Morn]

Il have a go neil, I'm sure it would be interesting to see ... But what with it sounding better at the mo, It will take a bit of mental effort to go back... I shall give it a go though, I supose it's important to get to grips what has done what for future reference ... ...


Exactly...:)


Regards D S D L

[Steve Toy]

Indeed. Hamish I'm glad that you are pleased with the changes we made with fastidious setup - assembling the racks properly, placing the kit in the right order, cable dressoing etc. It makes quite a difference as you discovered.

Anyway here are a few pics taken with my Blackberry. There's no reason why the camera should be any better than that in the iPhone...

http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/1056/hamishsystem001.jpg (http://img168.imageshack.us/i/hamishsystem001.jpg/)


http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/9360/hamishsystem004.jpg (http://img145.imageshack.us/i/hamishsystem004.jpg/)


http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/1955/hamishsystem005.jpg (http://img237.imageshack.us/i/hamishsystem005.jpg/)

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Shh, there is nothing wrong with my server... I can't belive you would make something like that up ;)
cheers buddy, the dac is staying here for sure, Duncan has obviously done some voodoo on it, it's def much better in my system than it was before ... The little earth switch on the back is really good for controling that humming in the system, it's dead queit now!

[Marco]

Yes, that is handy! :)

Once you get yer Techy in there and sorted, you'll have a bloody good system there, matey :cool:

Keep us posted how you get on with your mains spur.

Marco.

[alfie2902]

Hi Hamish

Systems looking mighty fine on the wibbly wobbly rack mate! :eyebrows:

I was in the room at Scalford when the Beresford was moved & it did makes a nice little improvement! I might have to have a look at one of these acrylic wobbly things in the future!

Try a couple of Wilko's granite chopping boards instead of the Lime stone slabs ;)

Glad its all working out for ya!:) Listen & enjoy now for a while!! :guitar: :gig: :rock: :surf:

Try one of these though or a nice Voyd!:eyebrows:



http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/ss55/alfie2902/IMG_2943.jpg

Cheers, alfie

P.S. the platfoam would've beaten the Mana :eyebrows:;)

[The Vinyl Adventure]

.... fastidious ....

yeah, that's the word I was looking for when I said "analy retentive" :lolsign:



Anyway here are a few pics taken with my Blackberry. There's no reason why the camera should be any better than that in the iPhone...

it looks like it has a flash? Don't remember it on the day though?? Better dynamic range too... The iPhone is fine in broad day light on a cloudy day... But that's about it's limit!!

[Themis]

It's your TT Alfie ? It has a very nice sound if I recall properly. :)

[alfie2902]

It's your TT Alfie ? It has a very nice sound if I recall properly. :)

Yes my old Systemdek the nextel coatings looking a bit rough now but it's still a very nice sounding deck & its got a rubber band :eek:

I've got a SP10 slayer to plinth up in slate later this year it will be nice to compare the two :)

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Alfie- wobbly it certainly is... Seems efective though, I'd recomend it at the sor of money I got it all for .. I'm not sure I would have bought it at it's new price, but I'm well happy atthis price!!

I'm on quite good terms with a lady who works fo a granite machineing place, she has said she would help me if I ever need any bits for the hifi from off cuts etc ... That way i can choose the colour from what they have!

I already have a 1210, it's at Dave Cawley's waiting for me to send some insurance money after the cat buggerd it!

[Jonboy]

I'm glad your sorted Hamish:)

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Yep yep, cheers!!
It's all good to be fair i'm just gonna listen to the bloody thing for a while now I think :)

[Themis]

Yes my old Systemdek the nextel coatings looking a bit rough now but it's still a very nice sounding deck & its got a rubber band :eek:

I've got a SP10 slayer to plinth up in slate later this year it will be nice to compare the two :)
:interesting:
Very interesting, indeed ! I hope you'll feel up to making a (short) write-up of this. ;)

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Right then,
few little updates

Neil: I took out the copper dac and put back in the caiman... Now, I'm not gonna claim to have that good a memory to swear by this but I would say that the caiman sounded more dynamic, more open and I think there wa improvements to the sound stage since marco and steves tinkering .. Also and I'm less sure on this the bass seemed more solid somehow.. But like I say it's a few days since so I couldn't be 100% sure, although I would say I there was def a difference!

Next, copper dac back, I was thinking about what has been said about firing accros the room as aposed to down it.
As that ugly side board was only a temporary measure as a tv stand while the computer is down stairs I figured I would have a bit of a move about and sack it off. I'm now using this beautifully tatty old wooden box, which coincidentaly is rammed with yet un ripped CDs!

http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww282/hamish_gill/6f60264e.jpg

how much nicer does it look in here, compared to when we first moved in -

http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww282/hamish_gill/dbc1d05e.jpg

Anyway, a few minor downfalls, the blu ray is on the lower shelf of the rack and the freesat below it. I have been very carefully with the cables though, making sure to keep them well away from all the hifi cables!

I know this doesn't mean the speakers are firing accros the room, BUT, they are 6 inches ferther apart... What a difference!
That second track on beyond skin I always go back to... The bass is even more controled and the sound stage has gone the most 3d I have ever experienced, there are sounds comeing from places I had no idea 2 speakers in a room could make them!
Unfortunatly there is a slight inbalance due to the proximity of the tv and the wall behind it... But I can live with that for the gains I have got!

Right, now I am going to stop messing and listen to some music... :)

[Marco]

LOL - what are you like! So are you sticking with the Copper DAC now? I have to say that in my opinion, as good as the Caiman is for the money, Dunc's DAC absolutely annihilates it (as it do should considering the components used in its design). There really should be no comparison between the two, dude....

And now you've decided to move your TV unit! :doh: :lol:

If you'd done that when I was there we could've got the Mana in!! :lolsign:

Anyway, glad you're pleased with the results you're getting - and yes, your room does look nicer :)

Marco.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Oh yeah, copper is staying for sure, It was just an experiment to try and ferther grasp the advantages of your and steves tweaks! ...
The copper is definatly better, but fair play the caiman puts up a bloody good fight in the system as it is now!

And no, the mana still wouldn't fit, I even measured it, it's an inch to big on one side and 2 on the other. So even closeing the gap between the stands it wouldn't fit...

[Spectral Morn]

Looking good Hamish and very interesting. Its rare we get to see and read about these sort of changes in a progressive real time way. Keep it up.


Regards D S D L

[The Vinyl Adventure]

... I'm not sure you will get much for a while now neil... I'm pretty much done until mains stuff happens!
I'm not sure it can really be that interesting :)

[Marco]

And no, the mana still wouldn't fit, I even measured it, it's an inch to big on one side and 2 on the other. So even closeing the gap between the stands it wouldn't fit...

Come on, you're just playing at this... If you were really keen you'd say 'feck it' and saw a bit off the end of the sofa!! :lolsign:

Marco.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Ha, yeah, aparently I need a couple of air bricks put in the front wall... Maybe I could just leave a pair of big holes ... "mana bricks" if you will ;)

[Spectral Morn]

... I'm not sure you will get much for a while now neil... I'm pretty much done until mains stuff happens!
I'm not sure it can really be that interesting :)

No problem Hamish...as it happens is fine. You can hardly write about something which is yet to happen :) It will be worth waiting for.


Regards D S D L

[Themis]

May I respectfully advice to try (as much as possible) to level sources' output when comparing ? :)

From personal experience, it's impossible to compare sources when one plays louder than the other...

[Spectral Morn]

May I respectfully advice to try (as much as possible) to level sources' output when comparing ? :)

From personal experience, it's impossible to compare sources when one plays louder than the other...

Indeed, its vital.


Regards D S D L

[Marco]

Too right - how did you handle that one Hamish when comparing the Caiman to the copper DAC? :)

Marco.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Originally, before the mod, with great dificulty! It was still obvious what issues the copper dacs high level output level was having on the amps as there was no point, however much volume (within reason) that I could emulate the ott treble with any of the other dacs
as for more recent comparisons ie between copper and caiman, well I can't say I thought about it enough to notice any drastic difference ... There might well be a difference, but i didn't notice it... And I wouldn't say it had any impact on my impresions... What made you say that dimitri? Out of interest like?

[Themis]

I simply say that it's hard(*) to compare two sources (dacs) without being sure that their respective output levels are the same.
The fact that the copper dac is not as loud as it used to be, doesn't mean that it has the same output level as the Caiman.

I was just reminding you this fact. Nothing more, really. I never listened to the copper dac, anyway. ;)

(*) "hard" is an euphemism : it's actually quite impossible to do it side by side, even for very experienced listeners. "Louder" is always perceived as "more detailed", and if two source are "the same" while one is louder, then the "quieter" is probably veiled.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

I get what your saying... When I compared the 7520 to the majik I had to use the output with the volume control on the 7520 as it was slightly louder. I noticed because I had them both plugged in, and because the majik was the source for the 7520 it was easy to flick between the 2. I guessed using the variable output would be a disadvantage to the 7520, but it didn't mater as it was still better.
Or at very least, me and hannah prefered the sound...

[jandl100]

Hi Hamish

I'd like to try some of that platfoam stuff you mentioned under my speakers. Any idea where the best place is to get a small amount?

ta :)

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Here yar

http://www.studiospares.com/Sound-Insulation/Auralex-Platfoam-X1-Piece/invt/461330

[jandl100]

Thanks Hamish :)

They're out of stock at the moment - but should be available next week.

[Stratmangler]

I liked what I read in the blurb


Ideal for use in supporting a floating floor, eg for a drum riser. Platfoam greatly purifies the sound of whatever is on the riser, and dramatically improves isolation so that the sound transmission to neighbouring spaces is minimised.

Chris:)