Main System
Turntable: Heavily-modified Technics SL-1210MK5G [Mike New bearing/ETP platter/Paul Hynes SR7 PSU & reg mods]. Funk Firm APM Achromat/Nagaoka GL-601 Crystal Record Weight/Isonoe feet & boots/Ortofon RS-212D/Denon DL-103GL in Denon PCL-300 headshell with Funk Firm Houdini/Kondo SL-115 pure-silver cartridge leads.
Paul Hynes MC head amp/SR5 PSU. Also modded Lentek head amp/Denon AU-310 SUT.
Other Cartridges: Nippon Columbia (NOS 1987) Denon DL-103. USA-made Shure SC35C with NOS stylus. Goldring G820 with NOS stylus. Shure M55E with NOS stylus.
CD Player: Audiocom-modified Sony X-777ES/DAS-R1 DAC.
Tape Deck: Tandberg TCD 310, fully restored and recalibrated as new, by RDE, plus upgraded with heads from the TCD-420a. Also with matching TM4 Norway microphones.
Preamps: Heavily-modified Croft Charisma-X. LDR Stereo Coffee. Power Amps: Tube Distinctions Copper Amp fitted with Tungsol KT-150s. Quad 306.
Cables & Sundries: Mark Grant HDX1 interconnects and digital coaxial cable, plus Mark Grant 6mm UP-LCOFC Van Damme speaker cable. MCRU 'Ultimate' mains leads. Lehmann clone headphone amp with vintage Koss PRO-4AAA headphones.
Tube Distinctions digital noise filter. VPI HW16.5 record cleaning machine.
Speakers: Tannoy 15MGs in Lockwood cabinets with modified crossovers. 1967 Celestion Ditton 15.
Protect your HUMAN RIGHTS and REFUSE ANY *MANDATORY* VACCINE FOR COVID-19!
Also **SAY NO** to unjust 'vaccine passports' or certificates, which are totally incompatible with a FREE society!!!
Location: Seaford UK
Posts: 1,861
I'm Dennis.
The first point about choice was 'If I had to'.
I can reply on the ears of manufacturers like KEF, ATC, and Revel, because, especially with the latter they have gone to great lengths to use groups of people with trained and untrained ears to validate designs with the ear.
Revel has found a very good correlation between a good measured forward and power response to subjective preference.
Why? That's the fastest way to madness!! Would you like the key to your padded cell now?
You question things to an EXTENT, then simply trust the God-given senses and level of judgement that you were born with, whilst accepting that they (and you) are part of an imperfect world. At least that's what normal people do.
Unfortunately, 'cravers of certainly' are destined to a life, not only of great discomfort, but gross disappointment!
Marco.
Main System
Turntable: Heavily-modified Technics SL-1210MK5G [Mike New bearing/ETP platter/Paul Hynes SR7 PSU & reg mods]. Funk Firm APM Achromat/Nagaoka GL-601 Crystal Record Weight/Isonoe feet & boots/Ortofon RS-212D/Denon DL-103GL in Denon PCL-300 headshell with Funk Firm Houdini/Kondo SL-115 pure-silver cartridge leads.
Paul Hynes MC head amp/SR5 PSU. Also modded Lentek head amp/Denon AU-310 SUT.
Other Cartridges: Nippon Columbia (NOS 1987) Denon DL-103. USA-made Shure SC35C with NOS stylus. Goldring G820 with NOS stylus. Shure M55E with NOS stylus.
CD Player: Audiocom-modified Sony X-777ES/DAS-R1 DAC.
Tape Deck: Tandberg TCD 310, fully restored and recalibrated as new, by RDE, plus upgraded with heads from the TCD-420a. Also with matching TM4 Norway microphones.
Preamps: Heavily-modified Croft Charisma-X. LDR Stereo Coffee. Power Amps: Tube Distinctions Copper Amp fitted with Tungsol KT-150s. Quad 306.
Cables & Sundries: Mark Grant HDX1 interconnects and digital coaxial cable, plus Mark Grant 6mm UP-LCOFC Van Damme speaker cable. MCRU 'Ultimate' mains leads. Lehmann clone headphone amp with vintage Koss PRO-4AAA headphones.
Tube Distinctions digital noise filter. VPI HW16.5 record cleaning machine.
Speakers: Tannoy 15MGs in Lockwood cabinets with modified crossovers. 1967 Celestion Ditton 15.
Protect your HUMAN RIGHTS and REFUSE ANY *MANDATORY* VACCINE FOR COVID-19!
Also **SAY NO** to unjust 'vaccine passports' or certificates, which are totally incompatible with a FREE society!!!
Main System
Turntable: Heavily-modified Technics SL-1210MK5G [Mike New bearing/ETP platter/Paul Hynes SR7 PSU & reg mods]. Funk Firm APM Achromat/Nagaoka GL-601 Crystal Record Weight/Isonoe feet & boots/Ortofon RS-212D/Denon DL-103GL in Denon PCL-300 headshell with Funk Firm Houdini/Kondo SL-115 pure-silver cartridge leads.
Paul Hynes MC head amp/SR5 PSU. Also modded Lentek head amp/Denon AU-310 SUT.
Other Cartridges: Nippon Columbia (NOS 1987) Denon DL-103. USA-made Shure SC35C with NOS stylus. Goldring G820 with NOS stylus. Shure M55E with NOS stylus.
CD Player: Audiocom-modified Sony X-777ES/DAS-R1 DAC.
Tape Deck: Tandberg TCD 310, fully restored and recalibrated as new, by RDE, plus upgraded with heads from the TCD-420a. Also with matching TM4 Norway microphones.
Preamps: Heavily-modified Croft Charisma-X. LDR Stereo Coffee. Power Amps: Tube Distinctions Copper Amp fitted with Tungsol KT-150s. Quad 306.
Cables & Sundries: Mark Grant HDX1 interconnects and digital coaxial cable, plus Mark Grant 6mm UP-LCOFC Van Damme speaker cable. MCRU 'Ultimate' mains leads. Lehmann clone headphone amp with vintage Koss PRO-4AAA headphones.
Tube Distinctions digital noise filter. VPI HW16.5 record cleaning machine.
Speakers: Tannoy 15MGs in Lockwood cabinets with modified crossovers. 1967 Celestion Ditton 15.
Protect your HUMAN RIGHTS and REFUSE ANY *MANDATORY* VACCINE FOR COVID-19!
Also **SAY NO** to unjust 'vaccine passports' or certificates, which are totally incompatible with a FREE society!!!
Main System
Turntable: Heavily-modified Technics SL-1210MK5G [Mike New bearing/ETP platter/Paul Hynes SR7 PSU & reg mods]. Funk Firm APM Achromat/Nagaoka GL-601 Crystal Record Weight/Isonoe feet & boots/Ortofon RS-212D/Denon DL-103GL in Denon PCL-300 headshell with Funk Firm Houdini/Kondo SL-115 pure-silver cartridge leads.
Paul Hynes MC head amp/SR5 PSU. Also modded Lentek head amp/Denon AU-310 SUT.
Other Cartridges: Nippon Columbia (NOS 1987) Denon DL-103. USA-made Shure SC35C with NOS stylus. Goldring G820 with NOS stylus. Shure M55E with NOS stylus.
CD Player: Audiocom-modified Sony X-777ES/DAS-R1 DAC.
Tape Deck: Tandberg TCD 310, fully restored and recalibrated as new, by RDE, plus upgraded with heads from the TCD-420a. Also with matching TM4 Norway microphones.
Preamps: Heavily-modified Croft Charisma-X. LDR Stereo Coffee. Power Amps: Tube Distinctions Copper Amp fitted with Tungsol KT-150s. Quad 306.
Cables & Sundries: Mark Grant HDX1 interconnects and digital coaxial cable, plus Mark Grant 6mm UP-LCOFC Van Damme speaker cable. MCRU 'Ultimate' mains leads. Lehmann clone headphone amp with vintage Koss PRO-4AAA headphones.
Tube Distinctions digital noise filter. VPI HW16.5 record cleaning machine.
Speakers: Tannoy 15MGs in Lockwood cabinets with modified crossovers. 1967 Celestion Ditton 15.
Protect your HUMAN RIGHTS and REFUSE ANY *MANDATORY* VACCINE FOR COVID-19!
Also **SAY NO** to unjust 'vaccine passports' or certificates, which are totally incompatible with a FREE society!!!
Seriously though, see that review I posted of the 'designed by ears' speakers. They have all the issues you'd expect a speaker that was designed by ear to have. Listening is important, of course it is, but rely too much on it to design equipment and you're in for a disappointment. Or at best a very inconsistent experience.
Current Lash Up:
TEAC VRDS 701T > Sony TAE1000ESD > Krell KSA50S > JM Labs Focal Electra 926.
Yes, I completely agree. As ever, neither life, nor hi-fi is best served by absolutes!
Marco.
Main System
Turntable: Heavily-modified Technics SL-1210MK5G [Mike New bearing/ETP platter/Paul Hynes SR7 PSU & reg mods]. Funk Firm APM Achromat/Nagaoka GL-601 Crystal Record Weight/Isonoe feet & boots/Ortofon RS-212D/Denon DL-103GL in Denon PCL-300 headshell with Funk Firm Houdini/Kondo SL-115 pure-silver cartridge leads.
Paul Hynes MC head amp/SR5 PSU. Also modded Lentek head amp/Denon AU-310 SUT.
Other Cartridges: Nippon Columbia (NOS 1987) Denon DL-103. USA-made Shure SC35C with NOS stylus. Goldring G820 with NOS stylus. Shure M55E with NOS stylus.
CD Player: Audiocom-modified Sony X-777ES/DAS-R1 DAC.
Tape Deck: Tandberg TCD 310, fully restored and recalibrated as new, by RDE, plus upgraded with heads from the TCD-420a. Also with matching TM4 Norway microphones.
Preamps: Heavily-modified Croft Charisma-X. LDR Stereo Coffee. Power Amps: Tube Distinctions Copper Amp fitted with Tungsol KT-150s. Quad 306.
Cables & Sundries: Mark Grant HDX1 interconnects and digital coaxial cable, plus Mark Grant 6mm UP-LCOFC Van Damme speaker cable. MCRU 'Ultimate' mains leads. Lehmann clone headphone amp with vintage Koss PRO-4AAA headphones.
Tube Distinctions digital noise filter. VPI HW16.5 record cleaning machine.
Speakers: Tannoy 15MGs in Lockwood cabinets with modified crossovers. 1967 Celestion Ditton 15.
Protect your HUMAN RIGHTS and REFUSE ANY *MANDATORY* VACCINE FOR COVID-19!
Also **SAY NO** to unjust 'vaccine passports' or certificates, which are totally incompatible with a FREE society!!!
I would agree in principle here Dennis, however a guideline for making progressive measurements thought the design process helps though you, though you could end up with products like Devialet, the Hypex modules (which ever amplifier make their are in and what ever op amp you wish to put in front of the Ncore module), most class 'a' solid state from the 90's onwards their are few exceptions but not many and pretty much 85% of ALL speakers on the market could also fall into the vanilla category including many expensive brands as well.
A lot of really well measuring equipment is just soulless, emotionless and 'nice' sounding staple that emanates from many so called high end manufacturers as well as the run of the mill brands.
Looking at just the usual 20hz-20Khz band is all very well, however you really need to further up the frequency ranges as these high Fq's can influence a lot of the surrounding i/c's counters/clocks/regulators/functions controllers with FPGA arrays really throwing out boat loads of RF all over and inside the case work.
Easy to measure and put in place temporary counter measures, the rerun a tight spectrum analysis plot to check you are achieving the desired results, then retest on a AP 555 or R&S UPV.
For example the current ASR gushing best measuring latest dac's the SMSL and Topping D90 et al, while they do sound good, so much more actually been suppressed in side and its true potential no where near released.
Just because careful use of EMC control, circuit board layout, and filtration etc was negated for banging it out there, CE anyone?
Perhaps that is something that Hifi magazines should really state at the beginning of the review that the product(s) is fully certified to the correct EU directives if we leave with no deal there is a UK equivalent in place.
Back when Tannoy designed the distortion induced, phase incoherent fugly boxes of world class inner ear wax removal this side of Chord 1400E power amps and Wilson Benesch speakers. Pretty sure having all of the boxes ticked in relation to the modelling of the x/overs was possibly not top of their list of priorities. If it was then.................F__K a duck sideways with a can of Swarfega orange
These days we can actually measure the full impedance pathway from the amplifier through the cabling, the x/cover and back the amplifier via TDR.
De-embedding the cable, x/over and amplifier are all integral to finalising the true end result. This is also possible up to 40m in total length, also remember the circuit board also acts as an interconnect, this is also measured and removed form the equation for individual study.
Ok TDR is not everyday ASR staple due the constraints of the owners front room and the equipment his does not own yet unless he receives a wonderful acquisition price from the producers of said equipment The rest of us manufacturers had to purchase our test gear
Measurements enable you to see which way not to proceed if you like, they help a lot, but the end result is a mixture of first principles, measurements and experience of the designer and what type/style of sound they are wishing to produce.
Though they are one of two pieces of exceptional audio that never saw anything other than a multi meter during their construction yet sound blissfully musical and engaging.
Last edited by Mr. C; 06-06-2020 at 16:51.
Coherent Systems
Real high end sound with musicality not hifi
Location: Seaford UK
Posts: 1,861
I'm Dennis.
Firstly I welcome any criticism of my thinking processes, scrutiny is very useful for growth.
I think we decide what is erroneous by constant self scrutiny, that is if we are prepared to take responsibility for the work involved in doing so. We can find inconsistencies in our thought processes, and ignore them, rationalise them, (by this I refer to the psychological meaning of rationalise - a lie to oneself which is an attempt at 'justification').
You infer that we live in different worlds, and I assume you mean that we view the world very differently, at least in regard to perception of reality.
I have a friend of some 45 years who when I met him had Berkleys with HPDs, I had Lancs with Golds, both were 15".
Over the years he and I have gone through numerous iterations of equipment, particularly speakers.
He went through loads of BBC originations, Rogers, Spendor, Harbeth Kans, ATC 100s and 20s, JBLs, eventually having a high end JBL costing about £30k.
I have ahd Lowther, Tannoys, ESSs, four sets of ATCs, the last, 100ASLs I spent a month rebuilding, and then submitted a write-up to Bill Woodman. I then back To ESSs with my own design work, and finally on to my ADAM Tensor betas.
In discussion with him I asked whether he thought we had moved on from the hazy days of the 70s with Tannoys, and his response was that I would be shocked at the massive improvement in sound quality over that time.
I was young then, enjoying hedonism and loud music, (10+10 amp) and the music was great and refreshingly informative during an exciting period. Now my life is much more forensic, and less hedonistic
Last edited by Pharos; 06-06-2020 at 16:52.