Jimbos Audio ramblings

[Jimbo]

My speakers are just over 27Kg each, so I needed to use 4 as they take about 9Kg each, and it is best not to use them at maximum rating.

Mine are about 30Kg each so I would need four under each.

[CageyH]

Mine are about 30Kg each so I would need four under each.

[Jimbo]

~Something in here is causing a lot of distortion and buzzing ---- occasionally!
0E52429B-D788-4940-B21F-D9EA3795F68E by , on Flickr

The main culprits I believe from the research I have been doing are the caps. They are situated on removable boards but to get too them is tricky and requires a fair strip down.
253CD887-47AA-4268-AC80-8AFFAA33CC13 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/162281319@N03/[/url], on Flickr

Ascertaining values etc and replacement equivalents maybe also tricky.

[
Plenty of Youtube videos on recapping these old beasts so just need plenty of patience and a good soldering iron.

[brian2957]

Take plenty of photos (no, not of yourself ) before you start taking it apart mate

[Jimbo]

Take plenty of photos (no, not of yourself ) before you start taking it apart mate

Now where's my hammer!

[CageyH]

If only you knew a local valve amp specialist….

[struth]

blue one with the corrosion looks your best bet

[Jimbo]

blue one with the corrosion looks your best bet

Thanks Grant this will be first on the hit list!

[CageyH]

just need plenty of patience and a good soldering iron.

I can recommend the Hakko FX-888D. It is a good bit of kit, but beware, there are plenty of fakes on the market.

[Jimbo]

Yesterday I started to Investigate improvements to my listening room acoustics as I have already found significant changes can be affected with increasing the amount of general furnishings in the room. However the next stage will have to include deliberate "audiophile" acoustic solutions. If the listening room was absolutely under my control and I did not have to share it as a living space I could go very extreme and build into it all the significant room acoustic architecture I would need to control the acoustic signature of the room. I have gained an extensive knowledge of how to do this from my friend Steve who has taken this approach to the extreme. But I have to share the living space with family and it has to be seen as an "acceptable" living room although I have been granted it is our listening room.

Last year I removed everything from the room and observed that is was indeed a big echoey space. even though it was carpeted and had decent underlay. At one end of the room I have a large window and at the back of the room behind my head I have two large glass panelled doors exiting into the kitchen diner. These have now been sorted with very thick super insulated and thermally lined curtains at the one end and to get around the door problems at the other I just open them. No reflection there.

Moving three sofas into the room then damped down the acoustics significantly and when the curtains are drawn I get a very good controlled end to that part of the room with the speakers. Further up the room towards the listening chair I start to notice the room reflections and reverberation. Simple hand claps will tell you how reflective the room gets.. I have absolutely no problems with bass issues and probably even lack a bit of bass but midrange is excellent. However the treble/ top end information as is quite common has issues. The amount of furnishing in the room has taken away any grain and harshness to the sound. It certainly does not sound overly bright and cymbals etc ring true and clean without any glare or over emphasis.

So you might think as I did what are the issues with the acoustics regarding the top end. Well in order to understand this I have had to start implementing some first reflection point acoustic absorption. You sometimes don't know how things can sound better or what you are missing until the improvements happen and this its certainly true of room acoustics. When you start implementing acoustic control you influence the sound of you system and what it can achieve significantly. I am keen however to not go to far and take away anything that I have that I feel is good.

So the first issue was to prevent the glass in the bookshelf from reflecting and influencing the treble coming from the right and speakers. So a panel of very thick padded material with sound absorbing properties is being made for this. On the other side of the room I will have to install another panel of probably rock wool covered either in plain material or maybe art work. I know how to construct this but in order to understand the effect it would have I tried a make shift panel. I may need another smaller panel on the left hand side too bit will assess how the book case glass panel works first.

As I mentioned I did roughly install some make shift panels and there results were as follows.

1. The imaging became much more precise and everything in the sound stage could be observed far more clearly.

2. Treble was not rolled of or reduced but greater levels of detail were exposed.

3. Soundstage was not changed in size but way more controlled. Where as before it was a bit fuzzy round the extremes and a bit effusive it snapped into focus. There was again more precision as to what was happening and where in the sound stage and the depth and edges were far easier to ascertain.

4. The combination of a lot better imaging and more detail produced some astonishing effects. These being information in the recordings that were hither to unintelligible or missing snapped into focus and were revealed. Harmonies and layering of information in the recordings were suddenly perceptible. It was as if all the information was there before but mixed together so some parts of the recording obscured others. The effect of sorting the first reflective points untangled all parts of the recording mix and made them much more obvious and clear cut.

I can only liken it to looking through a camera lens and then turning it to focus on the subject.

To be honest it was not a surprise that controlling the first reflection points had a significant outcome but what was a surprise was what it actually did. I have heard acoustically treated rooms but until you do it yourself with a system and room you know well you can't quite get a handle on what the effects were. I found they were profound and once heard cannot be unheard.

I will post up some picture when I have the finished the reflection point acoustics when they are made properly and installed as they are only prototypes currently for me to certain if they were worth doing and what effects they had.

From what I heard they are absolutely worth installing and have made a huge difference to that critical part of my system where you hear most of the information that is going on in the recording. It just goes to show how important it is to pay attention to your system and its interaction with the room acoustics as you can miss out on so much potential you never realised was there.