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zanash
15-05-2011, 09:08
Over the weekend I've been down to Bristol to drop off a cdpand and amp ..then up to Worcester to drop of a tuner ....

I took the opertunity to laod up my case with various foo devices ...to give the un lucky new owners an ear bashing ...

Anyway Bristol first ...to see SYMON

He'd just bought a pair of mission mx [?] floor standers that morning ....so we spent an hour getting them set up . My rational was to change one thing at a time sowe started off with his original kit ...pioneer 70 stable platter cdp into a quad 33 405 combo and sony [?] speakers ...that only played one channel ! so swapped out the speakers and added the new ones ....rather nice straight out the box [for the price point] very good imaging ..

SYMON was going to then fit the spikes ..but I said ...try this , two padded envolopes of about the same footprint size s he speakers ...

well..lets just say the one note bass dissappeared and if anything the rather land locked central image gained hieght width and depth ...I think he will try the spikes to se how that helps or hinders ...but it was clear that further experimenting with complinate footing might reap huge rewards.

While this was going on we'd swapped in the rotel 931...and it was clear that thought the quad was superior it was also very sick and in dire need of a service.

once the new system was up and running I droped in a dollup of foo ...the room animator did its stuff dispite the open plan nature of the lounge the effects were increasingly obvious ...switching it in and out. The main effects for me ...greater space around the instraments and sense that the musician were no longer just going through the motions. I hope alex uk will be along to give his impressions ...

As I'd said he could have one of the cables ...I brought a bag of quenect 1's of various ages ....we listened to two and then I realised that the third was an ixos something ....having originally set the system up with a simple twisted pair of o.5mm silver in ptfe ..the qed offering were ........[fill in dergotory comment] Neither remained in the system for more than a few minutes. the ixos way superior in all aspects in this system to the qed's.

We then tried to get a better sound by using various cable from my foo box ....and yes it its possible to do better but at a cost or I should say cost is the limiting factor.

I cleaned on of his cd's ..fortunately a duplicate ....with cd flux this achieve puzzeled looks ...it was as if we were playing a different cd ..so much had changed, the track was hardly recognisable. Prior to this I'd played my two disc of the cowboy junkies trinity sssions ..first the un modded disc and then the lathed version ...within a few bars of the second disc being played on track one alex uk said the ambiance of hall and the expanding heating pipes were way more obvious ....so I hink that was another tick for the foo ...

All too soon it time for me wend my weary way .......and oh yes I've left my sorbthane feet so if you can let me have them back please ...you can keep the concrete domes !

So saturday morning I turn up at hamish's place ......oops just a bit early ...but after moving the van closer ..he was up and dressed ...it was passesd 10am !

first things first ...we fitted the tuner hamish seemed very pleased so thats a good start ..

I can't remember what hamish's system is ..but the linn streamer was haveing a mardy ....following a number of reboots it seemed to settle down ...

At this point it became clear that though the system had tremendous detail good imaging ...something was missing certainly for me .....it was just too polite ...bits of music that should rattle your cage ..just failed to do it for me ...hamish said that thats how he likes it ...so who am I to say otherwise.

we played track on the run dsom ...the taxing turboprop aircraft did not cross the sound stage as I'm used too. it sort of got stuck mid way heading from right to left and then sort of too off from the middle of the image to upper right .....what caused this I do not know room ? equipment ? the original rip of the cd ? could be any or all

We stuck the room animator in ...and to be honest I was undewhelmed at the effect ...I was sat off to one side hamish in the hot seat ... he was certain ? that the image was more spaceous but in a narrowly defined plane .. This was not a great showing ....but you win some etc..

We then had a play with a few cables ..but it was clear in his system the mark grants were doing a fine job ..big rich smooth laid back ..no obvious nasties ...I tried a could of mine ....silver gold .....was first yes extra bite and more dynamics ...but if the system owners preffers laid back ...this was a retrograd step for him. The we dropped in a set of copper twisted pairs ...hamish thought it sounded a bit gritty ....I thought there was more dynamics ...and sharper imaging ...but again it was not to his taste..

the one interesting thing was looking back it was clear that all the changes and foo were heard to a lesser or greater extent....it was not as if there was no effect.

Don't get me wrong Hamish has a mighty fine sounding system .just not to my tastes ....I like the alarm clocks on time [dsom] to make me jump even when I know whats coming !....in fact its one of the things I use to judge a system ....

By this time we'd spent two hours messing about ...and it was time I was on my way home ...

I hope both SYMON and hamish will add there comments ...good bad or ugly

I thoughly enjoyed both vists and nice to put faces to names .....

The Grand Wazoo
15-05-2011, 09:24
..........something's not right there Pete, or has Alex_UK moved house from East Anglia to Bristol without telling us?
You sure you got the right Alex there, chum?

The Vinyl Adventure
15-05-2011, 10:03
Firstly ... Passed 10 am! ... You fibber it was like 9.45 or something! ;)

Of cours I don't find my hifi laid back at all really, but them I do find a lot of other peoples hifi's forward and harsh ... An escaping that sort of sound has pretty much been my goal since I fell out with my naim cd5 so I think Pete's judgement of my system is probably fairly acurate ... I call it easy to listen to, and that is indeed what I like so much about it!

Cables ... Petes snazzy green ones in place, at first I felt made a positive effect, but switching back to marks I felt any difference was negligible and as Pete says not for me...
Petes less snazzy but still nice blue cables in place seemed to add somthing but also take away some smoothness ... Not for me!
I had explained to Pete prior to his visit that I am very happy with my set up ... Maybe I'm a bit stuck in my ways with it ... But that's fine for me I think ... I stopped worrying about it long ago and just enjoy it ... It's a mentality that has meant that every time I switch it on I'm happy with it ... And in this hobby, that's the box of gold at the end of the rainbow if you ask me!!

An interesting observation on CDs with pen around their filed edges ... They rip as inacurate in dbpoweramp ... But on playing, are fine ... I'd like to know an explanation for that one!!

So to the box of tricks ... Silver puck shaped thing with blue led on top that sounds like a salt shaker ...

Yes, I'm fairly certain it had some effect ... Can I confirm that this was not purly effect on my mind ... No! I was a positive effect though, it seemed to focus the hifi, gave it a more solid centre to the sound stage! But it was a subtle effect ...
As I explained to Pete, flirting with unmetionables at a much younger and more carefree age has left me very open to hearing, or at least believing I can hear things in my hifi, but with little trust in my judgement ... Marco, Steve Toy, and possibly Mark will also have seen my non comital attitude when it comes to trying new cables and the like in my system ... I like to play with things for an extended period of time in my system before making any real solid judgements ... I am by no means the type that can make decisions in the first 10 seconds of hearing a product, I can hear differences... I just don't trust them! This of course makes me not the best candidate for this sort of quick testing ... But as I said, a difference was heard ... And I felt a positive one!

Unfortunatly, a slight issue with my judgement on it has sprung to mind since... I moved my speakers out into the room a bit the night before which does effect the sound stage in a similar manor, and I wasn't acclimatised to it in that position ...
But, we did have a good few tracks of listening before the switch on of the magic puck, and it did seem to focus further with the puck on! ... I dunno, to summarise I'm going with "not convinced, less sceptical and more intrigued" ...
Would I buy one ... If it was £100 I would ... Just to play with for a bit longer ... And I would certainly encourage people to be open minded to it ... But I would have said that before!

How's that for a typical Hamish not committal pov! ;)

The Vinyl Adventure
15-05-2011, 10:18
Actually .. It's pointless being entirely non committal ... The effect it seemed to have was to create a pillar of focus above it's self giving a more solid position for the vocal to sit ... The footsteps in "on the run" also seemed to step more on the floor of the room too ... Those 2 factors are why I remain intrigued, frustratingly without thinking I moved the speakers back into the corners so I can't confirm if that remained after Pete left, which is why I remain to so non committal :)

... Oh and I tried your mains cable Pete ... On the linn, not convinced ... It's still in place ... But I'm not sure it's done anything ... But as I said, that is also the unit that marks 2.5 cables make less effect ... I'll try it on the pre where marks cables work a treat and let you know in due course

On another note, Pete had the first sneaky glimps of the new Mains Cables r us web site ... Looking forward to getting it live now ... It's looking pretty sweet ... Even if info say so my self ;)

Alex_UK
15-05-2011, 12:55
No, I haven't moved - as Shaggy once said "It wasn't me!" ;)

Marco
15-05-2011, 13:24
Lol - which Alex is Pete on about then? :lol:

I think that all this foo has addled his wee nut! ;)

Marco.

zanash
15-05-2011, 13:44
..........something's not right there Pete, or has Alex_UK moved house from East Anglia to Bristol without telling us?
You sure you got the right Alex there, chum?
yep your right ...picked up the wrong name !

zanash
15-05-2011, 13:47
No, I haven't moved - as Shaggy once said "It wasn't me!" ;)

jep ... my fAULT...WRONG NAME !

IT WAS SYMON
hope that clears up tthe confusion

zanash
15-05-2011, 13:52
yes hamish has it about right ...except the time of course ...!!

Pete The Cat
15-05-2011, 18:44
Crikey, with weekends like this you must be hoping for a drop in the petrol / diesel prices !

Pete

Marco
15-05-2011, 20:34
jep ... my fAULT...WRONG NAME !

IT WAS SYMON
hope that clears up tthe confusion

It's understandable as both would've been wearing a dress.... :lol:

Marco.

Alex_UK
15-05-2011, 20:38
It's understandable as both would've been wearing a dress.... :lol:

Marco.

Shhhh - our little secret!