(Vinyl) Walls all now in place now yeah. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by struth
The Ortofon Quinetet Blue carts sounding pretty great with some time on it now,
No real itch to upgrade, at least for the foreseeable.
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(Vinyl) Walls all now in place now yeah. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by struth
The Ortofon Quinetet Blue carts sounding pretty great with some time on it now,
No real itch to upgrade, at least for the foreseeable.
need to get fit enough to visit myself... looks great system anyway..well doneQuote:
Originally Posted by Gazjam
Some minor turntable upgrades/mods coming up, see if I can eek out more from the vinyl setup.
Quite a good forum community for Project stuff, cool.
See how it goes, put some pics up soon.
Sounds a bit Scratchy...?
https://youtube.com/shorts/ubiK9WJrF...QBA5TDcZ8rtqAF
The secret is to always be well lubed up for smooth operation:eek:
itchy and scratchy??Quote:
Originally Posted by Gazjam
https://i.imgur.com/yVraKlA.jpgQuote:
Originally Posted by Puffin
Used this stuff to lubricate the counterweight
Call it an oil, but its very high viscosity stuff (100k), really thick n gloopy.
Used for radio control car differentials (apparently), just wanted something to damp the rattly counterweight and stop any micro vibrations possibly getting to the arm.
Every little helps, right?
Weight feels solid and smooth, with no play between it and the arm stub.
Job jobbed.
https://i.imgur.com/F6jX80j.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/tEl0hju.jpg
Metal counterweight is damped with a ring of sorbothane, the metal tracking force dial is stuck on to a central plastic shaft.
https://i.imgur.com/1r0CevN.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/1UWd9gg.jpg
Positioned to the front the metal actually contacted the tonearm tube, so I removed it and rebalanced the arm.
Use a digital tracking force gauge anyway, these dials are never the most accurate.
Nice improvement, top end more solid, and soundstaging better.
A more Direct Drive type sound if that makes sense.
Nice wee upgrade for about £15 and a half hour of time.
:thumbsup:
Next up,
Platter mat.
With my Rega deck, I ran with the stock white felt P10 mat, until my Dealer suggested I tried the red Collaro mat, as they preferred it to Rega's own.
Sure enough, it was better and I fitted that and didn't think about a new mat, job done.
New turntable though, heavy mass deck the opposite to the P10, so wondered if the thin Collaro mat on the heavy damped Aluminium platter was still the best option.
Sounded good - better than the stock Pro-Ject for sure, but not the best for a metal platter.
Did a bit of reading, and the Funk Firm (ex Pink triangle) Acromat kept coming up.
Michael Fremer, American turntable reviewer, recommended the Mat in his review of my exact turntable.
Good enough for me I thought,
good reviews all around and supposed to work great with metal platters so picked one up.
I bought the 5mm version, apparently more effective than the 3mm one, which was for decks with no VTA adjustment.
Sits fairly thick on the platter, so need to adjust the VTA of my arm.
Easily done, loosen two hex bolts on base of arm, adjust to suit then retighten.
Interesting "blurb" sheet that came with it?https://i.imgur.com/ZSEzK3v.jpg
Construction is interesting?
Bottom layer which sits on platter looks like acrylic, and its topped off with a layer of what looks like vinyl, but feels different as under its surface skin it looks like hard vinyl foam.
the idea I think is that air bubbles there dissapted vibration as heat.
Its from the Pink Triangle guy, figure he knows a bit about turntable platters and the like.
Two layer 5mm construction
https://i.imgur.com/bS5s6PD.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/iWGC9Sj.jpg
Top Surface with indent for the label, so the LP sits as flush as possible to the mat. Good idea that!
https://i.imgur.com/m4sALfS.jpg
Underside, showing acrylic surface. All the shineys...
https://i.imgur.com/k1UTnZu.jpg
To stop the LP spinning on the similar material platter mat, very thin double sided stickers come with it, and the instructions advise on placement.
Not perfect but close enough, not overthinking this one. If its stuck down its stuck down.
https://i.imgur.com/g5yrDQF.jpg
Decided to leave tweaking VTA and setting the deck all up again till tommorow, hit it early with a fresher head and better light.
Been playing around with tweaking Roon and my digital setup, so will enjoy the digital stuff tonight.
Like how the Mat makes the turntable look more "serious", tapping my knuckle on the platter its a lot more damped than with the red felt mat, hopefully this should translate to improved sound quality.
https://i.imgur.com/nwqkpiI.jpg
I really like this Pro-Ject deck,
with the balanced connections and linear PSU its really something, if the matt eeks out more performance I'll be a happy man.
Good to know too that the deck can take serious cartridge upgrades, but thats for the far flung future if I ever get there! :eek:
I tried a lot of different mats, Achromat was the one I ended up using. Seemed to give the right balance of everything,
i had a yellow one on my thorens... 3mm tho due to spindle height
You guys should give the Funk Houdini a go. Bloody amazing little thing.
It's probably the best upgrade for a turntable I've ever done. And together with the Achromat, it's quite something.
https://www.tannoyista.com/2020/11/t...-achromat.html
Seriously, it's really quite remarkable.
Let me know if you guys have any other questions, happy to help.
Sent from my moto g13 using Tapatalk
Good read that, thanks.
Alan Sircom really likes the Houdini as well,
A reviewer I have respect for since the old Hifi World mag days.
Got me interested,
Having a rummage around, reading a long thread over on the Wam about it, mostly the usual moans from folk that haven't tried it.
Only thing is I'd not want to go back to the Rega sound, still need that vinyl magic.
Cart/tonearm interaction can BE the sound of a deck, but with a money back guarantee no harm in taking a Punt, see what happens.
If I can get more out the deck again, then great.
OK,
Fitted Achromat and reset VTA.
Took the chance to check turntable was Bob-on level too, checked tracking force too.
Not going down the rabbit hole with VTA, parallel to record surface is good enough for now.
https://i.imgur.com/VHmsXUY.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/6u6g6nV.jpeg
Love what this mat has done, decks sounding noticably better.
The felt mat obviously wasn't the best for a heavy aluminium platter, even though its heavily damped.
Cool, good stuff.
Will do some homework on the Houdini, thanks Josie for the heads up.
No probs.
Glad to be of help. As I said, any questions, just ask.
Many thanks
Jo
Sent from my moto g13 using Tapatalk
Gary, great read so far. I remember being just as analytical when sorting out my 1210 system. I used the Achromat 5mm for ages but it was bettered by the Crystal mat that I've been using for the last 8-10 years on the 1210. I appreciate that your deck is different to the 1210. Please keep the updates coming!
I faffed around with mats: cork; felt; silicone rubber loaded with metal dust; plain rubber, and glass.
In the end I reverted back to using the rubber mat supplied with the deck, and use a record clamp.
I did a similar thing with the Garrard 301 mat. I tried loads of things until I eventually settled on the Tenuto 5mm which has graced the deck for many years now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Barry
I really like the Hexmat I got a while back. Better to my ears than anything else I’ve tried so far, including an Achromat.
New headphones day...
Have Sony XM4 Bluetooth cans, sound amazing over Bluetooth, terrible over a wired connection.
Enjoy watching movies late at night, stuck with streaming apps, sound over Bluetooth into the Sonys.
For CDs and bluerays was stuck,
Had Beyer Dymamic.Amirons, but they broke after a few months so been on the hunt for a replacement.
Picked up these today, from Loud n Clear Glasgow.
https://i.imgur.com/jTeEMWr.jpeg
Still in cellophane, time to get these unboxed.
I had some of those Gary, very nice and comfortable.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gazjam
Yeah James,
They are really comfortable, very light and the self adjusting headband 'just works'.
No faffing around with click positions for best fit or that stuff.
Sound wise,
Out the box I prefer them to my Beyer Amirons, which at half the price of the Beyers makes them great value.
Rich, very clear with good 'tone' and wide soundstage, and that's out the box.
A wee bit harsh sometimes at the very top end, but that should smooth out with some hours on them.
I wanted to be able to slap on a set of good sounding headphones to watch movies and listen to CDs at night, and these things tick that box 100%.
Build quality is solid, feels a premium product.
Everything is bolted together, feels right.
Good looking things too,
Really like the real walnut cups, with the gold accents.
The AKG style headband design works well.
Will find a spot on my main wall for these I think, too nice to be tucked away out of sight. :D
https://i.imgur.com/lkNRMEw.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/cK94ICL.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/mahvd9S.jpeg
Beautiful and stylish looking cans there Gary. You ought to find a dummy head to store and display them.
Those look nice mate. Have a set of XM3's, great cans for the money. Had a set of Dan Clark Ether's, and while they were better than the Sony, there wasn't a lot in it, which makes the Sonys great value imo, at around a tenth of the price. Sonys had more bass which was what I was looking for, tweakable with the app too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gazjam
No, they're a bit creepy I think.Quote:
Originally Posted by Barry
If you have space, perhaps get a complete dummy that could be dressed up. Then cut out the eyes and replace with LEDs so the whole thing can double as a standard lamp. That wouldn't look at all creepy.Quote:
Originally Posted by Macca
LOL
Thanks all.
Seen it done elsewhere with the dummy head, a glass skull as well.
Looks cool, but not for me I think!
Found a spot, like them up there on the wall.
https://i.imgur.com/kNSGbcv.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/TNKLBlf.jpeg
And no creepy standing in the corner :D
With the shadow cast by the right hand speaker, your new headphones look a bit like the ghost of an alien. ;)
Good spot!Quote:
Originally Posted by Barry
Can't unsee that now :D
Room’s looking great
This review has just been put out by IIWI -I agree with everything he says about the Meze headphones as I had a pair myself.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gazjam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzKx_jufxqo
Thanks for the link James,
interesting watch.
These are great headphones, I like them a fair bit better than the Beyer Amiron Home's I had a while back.
Im going to enjoy these.
Glad you're enjoying the headphones mate. Lighter nights coming so I'll be over for a visit soon to hear them. With Grant's passing I've realised that it's important to visit friends more often :(
Too true Amigo, too true.
miss the days of the Scottish Mafia, glad Grant made it to a few of the meets.
Yeah me too. We should arrange something mate.
100% Ali.
Time to get the band back together, life’s too short.
Sounds good.
Latest round of tweaks to the system, tweaking the vinyl and digital playback setups.
VINYL TWEAKS - TURNTABLE ISOLATION
Really enjoying going fully balanced with vinyl, a step in the right direction noise limiting wise, and the new Proj-ect Deck is a nice upgrade on my previous Rega P10.
Plenty of room for improvment though, particularly with upgrading the Ortofon Quintet Blue MC, sounds great as is, but the X8 turntables capable of handling a much better cartridge.
Thats further down the line though, so looked at getting the 'Infrastructure' sorted first before I go looking at cart upgrades.
My Hifi rack is a Stands Unique glass shelf jobbie, which isn't the best surface to plonk a turntable on, So - Turntable Isolation.
I really like the piano black finish of my deck's plinth, so didnt want to take away from that?
Turns out Pro-Ject do their own matching turntable platforms - cool.
The thicker and heavier ones only come in gloss grey, but there is one thats matching piano black.
Its still a 1" thick heavy slab of MDF with damped cone feet, so good enough for me, especially considering I'm throwing more than just the platform into the Isolation mix.
Piano black, matches the turntable
https://i0.wp.com/www.project-audio....6%2C1026&ssl=1
Couple of extra things I did to better isolation of the deck:
Had some SoundDampedSteel isolation plates kicking around unused https://sounddampedsteel.com/hifi/ so used these between the turntable feet and the platform
(I designed the laser engraved aluminium Logo plate in work and added that on. Matches the platter :))
https://i.imgur.com/0peT7QW.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ypc8m2S.jpg
So thats the Turntable/platform interface taken care of, still the platform/ glass surface to do.
Ordered some isolation pucks for between the Platform's conical isolation feet and the glass surface.
Had a lot of success with products from Herbies Audio Labs in the States for speaker and hifi rack isolation, so looked to them for this too.
https://i.imgur.com/OUKoSOn.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/soCp76V.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/V9lAdvx.jpg
I'm taking the deck into Jonny at Audio Origami glasgow to rewire the arm with Cardas silver cable next, then calling it done until I get a Cart upgrade.
Thinking Hana ML or Ortofon Cadenza black.
See how it plays out. :thumbsup:
I like that support plinth. Classy!
See if he still does the Ikemi silver wire mate, had that done on my Mission arm and was well worth it to my ears.
IMPROVING CD PLAYBACK ON MY OPPO 203
The Oppo is an awesome thing, as good as you've heard, and even better after modding.
Already done extensive upgrades on it over stock, see here: https://theartofsound.net/forum/show...ajor-Oppo-mods
Its my Roon endpoint, endgame level movie player and my current CD spinner.
Sounds really great, trounced my modded Audiolab 600CDT, but there was that last bit of 'digital' and slight fatigue about it to these fussy ears.
I even considered another CD Transport (Still might) but wanted to make sure I had eeked out the last bit of performance from it.
I like modding my gear. :)
Back in the day i didnt really suscribe to the CD tweaks that were doing the rounds, green pens on the edge of CDs, CD demagnetisers and the like...
But one thing that DID make me sit up and take notice was a clear damping film that you put over the CD to dampen vibrations and improved the sound.
Still have the CD I put it on, and remember how it improved the sound. Things were more focussed and the image was more stable.
So... player vibration could affect CD playback?
Not a daft concept if you think of the nM level a Redbook laser works on (never mind a Bluray) - any deviations got to affect something - right?
Remembering my experience with the CD damping film I wondered if there was any tweaks I could apply to the Oppo to help with that last bit of Digital-ness I was hearing.
Turns out there was - big time.
Did my usual reading about online, and a couple of potential ideas came up.
I was aware CD damping mats were a thing?
As a fan of Herbies Audio Labs and their philosphy on vibration control with audio gear it was interesting to see their products kept coming up in forumland as a sane practical improvement to CD playback.
Big fan of what they do, have their bits 'n bobs under my speakers, hifi rack and turntable so I know what they are about - their stuff does what it says on the tin.
So got a thing.
https://i.imgur.com/byy9CE4.jpg
Under a mm thick,
the side that sticks to the CD is a semi-tacky sillicone, you press it down onto the CD, the other side which interacts with the transport clamping mechanism is made from carbon fibre.
https://i.imgur.com/yDN8zgm.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/02qcyPS.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ISfbONu.jpg
All Im hearing is improvement from my CDs
Sound is more relaxed, yet more details there.
Biggest takeaway is that the soundstage is more locked in place, everythings more precise and in place, timbres improved too - a cello sounds more wooden and strings sound more like metal being rasped on.
Its great.
The Oppo is my movie player too, so tried it on some blurays.
Wow, improvements are more noticable with movies.
The image is more 'locked in place', more noticable contrast between static elements and any moving stuff in any scene. The picture is more Solid and 'there'.
Bigger improvement with movies over audio CDs.
Dont know how a carbon fibre/sillicone mat can improve with time on it, but not paying attention to that.
From the get-go CD and particularly bluray moves are improved signigicantly with this 2" donut.
No brainer for any physical media folks, just get one.
Seriously.
A 'Final hoorah' for my Oppo was to crack her open one last time and do the internal vibration mods I did to the Audiolab CD transport, so took the Oppo out the rack today and cracked her open.
Turned out I'd already done the power supply and capacitor damping mods... a Senior Moment! ��
Couple of bits I'd missed, so took care of those.
Armed with a sheet of now spare Silent Coat damping material, I set about... Hang on, what can I use this stuff with?
Was on a bit of a mission after the disappointment of the Oppo...
The analogue output stage of my dac is powered from a separate linear power supply, its a tinny metal box (though its very heavy given size of transformer and its Supercapacitors) so cracked the case open on that and a couple of hours later and much tweakery I ended up looking at this...
Cant tell from tbe photo, but the bottom of the case is completely covered too in Silent Coat damping material.
It's where the PCB lives, makes sense to damp that from vibration.
https://i.imgur.com/9CMK8Tv.jpg
Case is a tight fit, so some selective dampening on the inner top lid.
Big change, at first I thought I'd maybe overdamped as Id lost air in the top end and that 'snap of reality', but I'd powered everything down when I was doing the Mods, after a few hours the Air and sparkle came back, but oh boy its sounding better.
Power supply is everything, sorry to keep saying that but happy with this cheap as chips upgrade to my system.
Listening over the last week I felt the top end was a bit more ‘shut in’ than I’d like, bit of sparkle had gone.
Opened the Farad up again and removed most of the damping compound from the Caps, kept the case and transformer damped, along with a few spots here and there on the PCB.
That sounded more like it…I had overdamped it.
lesson learned, should have been more selective like I was damping my Dac and amps.
Found the sweet spot now, so all good.
Have the benefits of tighter bass and better soundstage, but without the duller top end.
Interesting stuff Gary and completely understand the issues involved regarding damping. There is always a sweet spot I feel?Quote:
Originally Posted by Gazjam
I think there is James?
From playing around with this stuff for a while now, reckon it's different for every bit of kit - no-one stop solution.
But hey,
Finding that out is part of the fun of the hobby, right? :)
Considering all gear is built to a BOM price point, there's always room to tweak and get more bang for your buck.
Marco always spoke about SPPV (I think it was?) and I think modding your gear for not a lot of outlay is a way to maximise it.
Good fun and and easy fix if you overdo it.
Some Room correction...
Fancied a change of vibe, plus having smooth stone walls, was curious about putting something behind the speakers and any potential effect on sound.
Couple of tables with big ass plants, changes the vibe of the room, I like it.
https://i.imgur.com/OsLkeAt.jpeg
Turns out sound has changed as well.
Left / Right focus has definitely improved, soundstage a tad deeper.
Ok, Concept in my own room proven, will investigate some 'proper' stuff going forward.
Years ago tried digital room correction software and didn't get on with it.
More potted plants it is!
Mahoosive framed print on wall behind me, figure thats playing a part, though my room doesn't sound particularly echo-ey.
Piqued my curiosity this.
System looking great Gary and like the plants! Think they had reflection rather than absorption?
Looking good Gary, just need some hanging plants from the ceiling strategically placed to do a bit of refraction/reflection, watering might be tricky. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Gazjam
See the Meridian 557 is still pumping.