Testing the System
Last night, I said to myself, "Self." Then I answered myself and said, "Self." At this point, I thought things were getting redundant; so, I just went about testing my system.
For the tests, I pulled out a mint condition (don't laugh) Realistic Laboratory Test Record pressed in 1963 (which guarantees no digital delay lines were involved and perhaps unfortunately no quartz DD lathe, I digress) and a much newer Stereophile Test CD.
After having several new production valves in my phono pre go noisy and microphonic rather quickly, I lost patience and put my valve gear up in the loft (for now) rather than go on a hunt for NOS valves. I digress, again. Even if the valves were good, my valve gear is for audiophile purposes and the task at hand is to make working copies of LP's on CD since I'm having to be on the road again making music with my friends as of late. Road trips without music mean the torture never stops. I have NOS valves in my line stage which sound awesome and are reliable; but, only 3 inputs and no tape out. What I need is connectivity and the ability to select between sources and recorders, easily. As such, I was ready to take a chance again on a black box receiver. So new at chez moi is an Onkyo TX-8050, after months of deliberation. Is it's sound comparable to my valve pre's and SAE power amp.
The problem with valve performance dropping off is noise and channel imbalance, both things I find extremely annoying when trying to archive or make the best possible "road copy". I've actually thought about going with a Graham Slee Reflex M, despite knowing I should just get a good set of NOS valves. There I go, there I go, there I go, there I go off topic again.
So now, yes, I'm ready. But, will I get the ease AND performance I'm looking for? The surprising point of this talk is that my shrunken system is spot on in the vinyl department. The tolerances of the internal phono pre in the Onkyo is within 1db channel balance. I wasn't expecting that. I had actually expected there to be a fault (right channel drop on my 1200 with the Stanton 681EEE due to the cartridge and/or internal wiring being old). Nope. Good as gold. I then switched to the other 1200 with the Trackmaster. Good there, too. In order for things to be dead equal in both channels as metered by the DV-RA1000HD, the Trackmaster needs the input balance to be at "-1" (to the left) and the 681EEE "0" (centered). For poops and giggles, I then checked each of the cassette decks. I set azimuth, speed and output so I have matched playback performance among all three decks. Two out of three decks need the input balance slightly favoring the left channel to produce a balanced output off the tape, using the Stereophile Test CD. The third deck will be for listening only until I can get it properly calibrated, as it is quite out of spec for recording.
Turning to my crap speakers, which I still have yet to replace with Maggie MMG's and a sub, (I'm not sure why I haven't pulled the trigger on this yet. There's absolutely no reason why I shouldn't have. Maybe, I just like having big boxes in my room. I mean, the bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin, right?) I decided to test their in room frequency response at my listening position. I originally got these for their stated 20Hz to 20kHz extension. I was surprised yet again to find that at my seat, freq. response is pretty even through the spectrum. 30Hz was down about 1.5dB plus a little; but, still plainly audible. Below that... ...either I'm deaf, the room isn't cooperating or the speaker/amp combo specs are exaggerated.
The system as it is now, is not the glorious-ness that I've grown accustomed to with valved pre's; but, the performance is rather respectable and certainly ready for me to start spitting out mobile music for the road warrior.
The astute of you will note that there are several song references in this post. Can you guess the song and the artist?
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Macca
