My 2019 Update Thread - My final system I think.

[Jimbo]

Enjoyed that video James,
informative and entertaining as always.

Saying that,your voice does have an AMSR quality to it
Theres voiceover work in your future I think!

Good for bedtime viewing!

[Gazjam]

[Gazjam]

Gary.....you got me tempted.....I might well be ordering some of these soon!? Damn.

https://apos.audio/products/ray-vacu...8dcb9ac6&_ss=r

Got a bit of a thing about tubes and they intrigue me especially as you have had such great results.

James,
if you DO get the Apos Ray's I'd be very interested in your burn in experience?

The manual says let them get 6 hours under their belt, I heard changes even at 250 Hrs.
Sitting at 337 hours now and these things are STILL opening up.
(Nothing else has changed in my system)

Sat down to listen this morning and the sound just caught my attention as being better.
Best my Pre's ever sounded.

This is my 3rd valve type, all new production.
Was stung on NOS valves when I had the 300B power amp, never again.

Had the stock JJ's that came with it, then Genealex Gold Lions and now the Apos Rays.
Apos is quite a bit more expensive but much better sounding and worth every penny.

Just sounds like a better preamp now, component level I'd say.
Just goes to show everything matters, and everything has a BOM cost.
Thats why I enjoy modding my gear and getting more out of it.

Endgame 12AU7s, and none of the risk you take with uber expensive NOS valves.
Will do wonders for your Croft I reckon.

[Jimbo]

James,
if you DO get the Apos Ray's I'd be very interested in your burn in experience?

The manual says let them get 6 hours under their belt, I heard changes even at 250 Hrs.
Sitting at 337 hours now and these things are STILL opening up.
(Nothing else has changed in my system)

Sat down to listen this morning and the sound just caught my attention as being better.
Best my Pre's ever sounded.

This is my 3rd valve type, all new production.
Was stung on NOS valves when I had the 300B power amp, never again.

Had the stock JJ's that came with it, then Genealex Gold Lions and now the Apos Rays.
Apos is quite a bit more expensive but much better sounding and worth every penny.

Just sounds like a better preamp now, component level I'd say.
Just goes to show everything matters, and everything has a BOM cost.
Thats why I enjoy modding my gear and getting more out of it.

Endgame 12AU7s, and none of the risk you take with uber expensive NOS valves.
Will do wonders for your Croft I reckon.

I will certainly be ordering a pair of the Select 12ax7. in the new year. I am quite excited about these as they do seem to get some good reviews around the net and I haven't tried anything different for a long while. If you managed to stay awake to the end of my video you may have noticed I was intending to do a separate valve rolling session with the Croft and the Apos Rays will certainly be in that mix amongst others. I have a few boxes of assorted stuff here and there with some classics and the Ray Selects will be an interesting addition I am sure.

Now where's my camera!?

[Gazjam]

Another tweak today,
Improving Speaker Isolation.

I’d already had a pass at improving the way my speakers interact with the floor, they are big bass heavy floorstanders so was worth taking a look at.



Rather than sticking the spikes directly into the floor, I’d sat them on a set of Herbies Audio spike decoupling gliders


Which reduced bass boom a bit, and tightened up the focus.
Cool.

I was going to get Isoacoustics Gaia screw in feet at one point, but several folks who’s audio opinions I trust used these over the Gaia’s, and preferred them.
Much cheaper too.

Isoacoustics had a dedicated set of “carpet disks” for their isolation feet, to improve performance on thick pile carpet, given the Herbies work on the same principle I thought I’d give them a go under the Herbie pucks.


Sure enough, a nice improvement again, biggest thing was the top end opened up a bit, timbre seemed better especially with ‘real’ instruments.

So that’s where I was.

I take the view that speakers and Dac are the two biggest areas for bang for buck improvement, the Dacs already done so had a look at improving the speakers again.

In the pic above, you can see the stock aluminium screw in spike feet and silver end caps?
The design idea being the metal spikes screw into the black speaker base, the metal top cap screws into the threaded bar of the spike to close off the foot.

Lot of metal on metal contact there, and despite how much I tightened them they were never truly “tight’ - a source of vibration, as insignificant as it might seem?
That it could be improved!

With speakers removing unwanted vibrations is the ideal, so set about working on that.
The stock aluminium feet could be swapped out, and any metal on metal contact eliminated.

Im a big fan of RDC Cones and use them elsewhere in my system, their vibration damping really works.
May be better out there, Stillpoints and the like, but not at those prices.

There is a version of the RDC cone with an attached threaded bar for screwing in to replace component feet… or in my case Speaker feet.

Also,
The screw in metal speaker foot Top Cap is more of a cosmetic thing, and is a metal on metal contact I don’t want.
So decided to toss ‘em.

Have been on a bit of a mission to dampen vibrations throughout my system, lining casework with Silentcoat damping compound and the like, and that’s what I used here.
Stock speaker spike replaced with RDC isolation cone, top cap removed and the void filled with Silentcoat damping compound.
Doing this wraps the Spike’s threaded bar in damping compound, further damping it and (hopefully) eliminating any vibration.

The Outcome?

A good one.
Soundstage improvement, there’s a depth and width that wasn’t there before.
Can really turn the volume up and there’s NO bass boom, at all.
It goes down LOW and is very tight, no concerns at all.
Rock solid musical image, wide and deep. Instrument separation and placement noticably better than before.

But overall with all the tweaks to the speakers,
including biwiring with the thickest Duelund 10 gauge tinned copper in oiled cotton cable, 2 separate +/- runs (4 in all) to each speaker:

All the Hifi stuff is great, sure.
but the net effect is the speakers just disappear when the music on.
No boom or vibration to get in the way of the music.

Its always worth spending time on small details and tweaks like these, everything matters.

[Macca]

You've stuck with those Wharfies for a long time now?

[Gazjam]

Crackin' speakers Martin.

The AMT tweeter on them is something else.

[Macca]

Crackin' speakers Martin.

The AMT tweeter on them is something else.

Yes I like AMT tweeters too. The Elysian 4 was one of the speakers I was considering before I went with what I did.

[Gazjam]

Yes I like AMT tweeters too. The Elysian 4 was one of the speakers I was considering before I went with what I did.

The Elysian's are big boys!
Too big for my room I suspect, but they do look great.

Been following your Mash Up, the Faitals sound like they are hitting the spot.

[Macca]

The Elysian's are big boys!
Too big for my room I suspect, but they do look great.

Been following your Mash Up, the Faitals sound like they are hitting the spot.

Yes they are lovely - a sound you can bask in.

Your room does look quite large in the pics but I suppose they can be deceiving.