Addressing the issue of microphony

[Steve Toy]

Snoopdog,

Is that a Music Works ReJig I see in the third picture down?

What is that sitting on top of it?

Also, that's some serious hi-fi rack you've got going on there. It looks like it has been designed to do the job!

[Steve Toy]

Everything Matters (or nothing makes a difference)

Last year, back in March I went to Coherent Systems to audition the Bel Canto CD2, the Puresound A30 valve amplifier, different Focal speakers and a range of Coherent cables. For comparison purposes I brought my own cables - Music Works Recoil leads, Siltech SQ 28 interconnects and Chord Epic Twin speaker cable. For the same reason I also brought the Linn Majik CD player and Spectral DMC-15 preamplifier I had at the time.

The kit was placed on Townshend racks.

Tony tried to demonstrate his range of cables to me including mains leads, interconnects and speaker cables but the sound continued to be 2-dimensional and rather harsh at the top end. None of the cable swaps seemed to any difference at all.

At this point it would have been easy to conclude that cables make no difference because in this instance they clearly did not.

I was already a cable believer by this time and I was not prepared just to sweep away all previous experience in light of no differences now being heard. Instead I was rather puzzled but thought that the system wasn't exactly sounding right to begin with. The harshness at the top end was clearly masking a lot of information both in the music and in the system setup. What was effectively distortion masked harmonics and natural decay of notes as well as denying the listener the requisite high frequency info to perceive imaging and space between instruments.

It was a case of finding the bottleneck which, it turns out, was the Spectral preamp not liking to be placed on the glass shelves of the Townsend rack. A few sets of Black Ravioli pads were placed under the pre and immediately the top end harshness disappeared and all the info masked behind this distortion just opened up.

Now every cable swap was clearly audible as was the benefit of placing Black Ravioli under each and every component in the system and the Bel Canto CD player was now demonstrably superior to the Linn player in every respect.

So, those of you not detecting differences at all in your experiments should perhaps investigate any potential bottlenecks before reaching any (hasty) conclusions. This applies to isolation methods as well as to the use of different cables.

The Black Ravioi themselves seem to work exceptionally well in conjunction with Townshend racks They also work under the Bel Canto on the acrylic QS Ref stand but the difference is less marked. Some may even feel that the more subtle change isn't even an improvement. I personally feel that it is for the perceived loss of dynamics to my perception is just a loss of stridency and a gain in refinement. Dynamic contrasts remain intact or are even slightly enhanced in my opinion.

[Snoopdog]

Snoopdog,

Is that a Music Works ReJig I see in the third picture down?

What is that sitting on top of it?

Also, that's some serious hi-fi rack you've got going on there. It looks like it has been designed to do the job!

Hi Steve,

I bought those cheap plastic shop display stands from Clarkes shoe shop for £10. They told me they had supplied a load to a guy called Larry up Cheshire way somewhere and he sells them for hi fi use but adds a zero to the price

They support the network boxes for the MIT Magnum MA speaker cables I use.

The very fine equipment rack is the Stillpoints ESS 405, but not the uber-expensive latest incarnation which has Stillpoints built into each individual shelf.

I have recently reduced my box count by having the upgrade MC/MM phono stage fitted to my Karan KA-L Reference MK II preamp and the top shelf of the stand now awaits the arrival of a new turntable/arm/cartridge

Steve

[Marco]

I bought those cheap plastic shop display stands from Clarkes shoe shop for £10. They told me they had supplied a load to a guy called Larry up Cheshire way somewhere and he sells them for hi fi use but adds a zero to the price

Brilliant!!

Marco.

[Marco]

So, those of you not detecting differences at all in your experiments should perhaps investigate any potential bottlenecks before reaching any (hasty) conclusions. This applies to isolation methods as well as to the use of different cables.

Exactly, Steve. The problem is that some people just aren't willing to be thorough and 'go the extra mile' with these things - they arrive at definitive conclusions all too quickly and then seem to set their opinions in stone for life. You'll never learn anything new that way (or perhaps anything at all) which could be beneficial, but then perhaps some folk just aren't interested in that? We're back to comfort zones again, or maybe some people are just more easily pleased than others...

Marco.

[Peter Stockwell]

It all makes a difference, even the abscence or presence of net curtains in front of windows! (Don't know if the same applies for a mac )

[niklasthedolphin]

I'm confused.

Why are there two threads adressing the same issue??

Anyway, cabledressing is a lot more, and for sure more importantly, dealing with other issues than microphony.

"dolph"

[Marco]

Hi Dolph,

This thread is simply an extension of the other one running in The Artist's Palette. Steve wanted to gauge people's opinion on the matter by starting a poll in the most frequently read area of the forum, that's all

Marco.

[Mr. C]

Microphony plays a very large part in how systems can sound.
External air pressure vibrations also do the same, as does ground bourne interference.
Remove as much of this as possible, and you are well on the way to a far more enjoyable and realistic sound (imho)