Doctor's Orders-Part Two-The New Listening Room Of Steve Williams
- Thread starter Steve Williams
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Steve, I thought you have the Universe II Supreme cartridge. Ian has the Premium as I recall. Is there a difference?
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Hi Peter
I have the same cartridge as Ian. I have the UNIverse Premium with copper coils and the SB2
I don't know what I was thinking when I posted that
Well it's now been approximately 5 months since I began adding Master Built Ultra cable to my system. This week with the addition of a lengthy IC from my preamp to my amp, the loom became complete. These cables to my ears in my system have been nothing short of extraordinary
This is a very wide cable yet picking it up is always a revelation to me as it is so light. Nonetheless the cable requires geography due to its size. I include the pictures below to not only highlight that point but also in reply to a current thread here by Ron Resnick who is considering cutting into his slab to hide the cable as well as other options. These pictures serve to show that it would not be such an easy task to run them around and over the doorway let alone the astronomical cost such a plan would result in.
This is a very wide cable yet picking it up is always a revelation to me as it is so light. Nonetheless the cable requires geography due to its size. I include the pictures below to not only highlight that point but also in reply to a current thread here by Ron Resnick who is considering cutting into his slab to hide the cable as well as other options. These pictures serve to show that it would not be such an easy task to run them around and over the doorway let alone the astronomical cost such a plan would result in.
Nice job Steve. Hopefully your last cable change ?
Indeed
as Jack says , these are lifers
Thanks for doing that Bruce. I tried yesterday to rotate the photos and every time I did they remained 90 degrees rotated
hi Steve
those moonwhite snakes with a twinkle in them look stunning and good to see a complete loom of ultras in your system.....the party piece for me was the introduction of the all ultra powercords
It's last secret is to "just plug and play and play and play and play ! "....and in a few months those snakes will spill out all it's magic
They do have positional attitude ( something to do with geometry of the cables ) and sensitive to its layabout.....ie never to be moved and I am sure you will be in the promised land
congrats and happy listening
those moonwhite snakes with a twinkle in them look stunning and good to see a complete loom of ultras in your system.....the party piece for me was the introduction of the all ultra powercords
It's last secret is to "just plug and play and play and play and play ! "....and in a few months those snakes will spill out all it's magic
They do have positional attitude ( something to do with geometry of the cables ) and sensitive to its layabout.....ie never to be moved and I am sure you will be in the promised land
congrats and happy listening
It's been many years since I heard this record. Listened again yesterday. I could only smile and shake my head with the feeling that the world lost a great songwriter in John Lennon. The record rekindled memories as to where I was in space and time when the album was released
It's been a week since my return from my LA trip, but came back sick, so hadn't had the chance to follow up on my visit to Steve's.
We spent a good two hours listening that day, starting with tape and then mostly LPs - with a brief CD review from his "pedestrian" Playback Designs player, as he calls it. Front and center was the ZYX and TechDas, with a quick switch to the Anna as mentioned earlier. The most critical aspect of the audition was using LPs that I also have, which made judgement easier to put together.
Scottish Fantasia on tape to kick it off: Dead quiet, great violin power, great imaging, great body
A variety of LPs followed, from Reference Recordings, Sheffield, and various reissues: I loved the Drum Record though I felt it was a little too "fat"; the RR Berlioz Fantastique had all the power I would expect; the Scheherazade... now that was really something... the power of the orchestra came all through, and the feeling was just incredible. This is the recording we used to A/B with the Anna, and again, no contest, the Anna was so polite and boring - we are done, let's go back to the ZYX. Amanda Mc Broom sounded REALLY wonderful, but I also thought perhaps a tad euphonic, not sure. For Duke was very real!
All of us being accustomed to our own system's sounds, we tend to immediately react to certain things we hear in someone else's system: in Steve's system case, it was a few things: the body of the sound, the incredible bass control and extension, coherence, quietness of the tape and especially the LPs, but at the same time, a little softening of the leading edge - common and consistent to both media. Frankly, I was expecting a little overblown and uncontrolled bass, but what I heard was extremely tight and extended - an incredible feat by those 30-watt Lamm amps. Dynamics were really good, but I think there is room for higher headroom - really curious to see what Steve's friend Marty achieves with these same speakers and the Spectral amps. I was also expecting tweeter issues - having heard them elsewhere - but not here; in fact, there was a lot of treble energy as I am used to at home, but at the same time, non-fatiguing or unnatural.
If I were to compare these Wilsons to, say, the Alexias I heard a few years ago driven by the Spectral 360s, I would say the differences were literally night and day. Whereas I simply hated the Alexia sound with its uncontrolled sound, full of seemingly fake reverb, and left the room after 20 (40?) minutes into the demo, I could spend a whole day listening to Steve's system. By contrast here, I loved the immediacy, something I am used to at home. And again, I loved the treble performance.
Orchestral body is something I've been fighting at home for the longest time; the room does not help, and the speakers just don't have the same size woofers. But after coming back, I increased my sub's cutover frequency with better results - but still not to Steve's system level.
This brings me to cut #2 we played: the Mahler #2 with Solti and the LSO. I am very familiar with it, but I still prefer my favorite BSO with Ozawa, and by a mile. Nonetheless, I am not aware of a recording that exactly does justice to the prescribed instrumentation, especially the 6 on-stage timpani. The recording we played solidified my initial impression (from the Scottish Fantasia tape) of the elevated orchestral body, the depth of the soundstage, and especially the presence of the wind section - beautiful stuff. This LP reissue, for some reason, is "missing" an important aspect of the opening Allegro Maestoso, specifically the roughly 5 second span around the middle where the bass drum is played eeeeeeever to slightly solo. It's all there in the BSO/Philips recording but entirely missing in the LSO - either every system I've heard it on cannot resolve this very-low-level playing, or it's really missing... don't know. Nonetheless, overall, low level resolution was incredible - digital silence from the TechDas; I love this turntable. I tapped just about everywhere on it at the end, and the platter is dead quiet like the large piece of marble I have in my living room; what an incredible engineering feat this 'table is. Impressive, and lucky are those who can afford it.
Regarding the MB cables, Steve did have that long interconnect shown up above in place by the time I arrived, so I heard the latest. I can't tell what individual role they play in the system because I had not heard the system before, but they are obviously part of the excellent sound rendered. At the same time, none of us skeptics ever said anything about the sonics, we are only looking for real technical information. I did notice that the cables are squeezable, as if to absorb vibrations, which is good. The other thing I noticed with the Nordost (Valhalla???) interconnects from the Studer to the Doshi is how microphonic they are (just tapping them together or with my finger generated a sound); I had the same problem when I evaluated them in the phono section, and I would advise getting rid of them - they are apparently built to do that, as if feedback is welcome into the cable. Although I personally use the Valhalla tonearm wire, I would personally stop right there wrt Nordost.
Beautiful stuff, Steve, and thanks again for hosting us. The 2011 Barolo was equally stunning, and you probably know by now how much I love red wine!!!! Cheers to Cathy, and we hope to see you both back East!
We spent a good two hours listening that day, starting with tape and then mostly LPs - with a brief CD review from his "pedestrian" Playback Designs player, as he calls it. Front and center was the ZYX and TechDas, with a quick switch to the Anna as mentioned earlier. The most critical aspect of the audition was using LPs that I also have, which made judgement easier to put together.
Scottish Fantasia on tape to kick it off: Dead quiet, great violin power, great imaging, great body
A variety of LPs followed, from Reference Recordings, Sheffield, and various reissues: I loved the Drum Record though I felt it was a little too "fat"; the RR Berlioz Fantastique had all the power I would expect; the Scheherazade... now that was really something... the power of the orchestra came all through, and the feeling was just incredible. This is the recording we used to A/B with the Anna, and again, no contest, the Anna was so polite and boring - we are done, let's go back to the ZYX. Amanda Mc Broom sounded REALLY wonderful, but I also thought perhaps a tad euphonic, not sure. For Duke was very real!
All of us being accustomed to our own system's sounds, we tend to immediately react to certain things we hear in someone else's system: in Steve's system case, it was a few things: the body of the sound, the incredible bass control and extension, coherence, quietness of the tape and especially the LPs, but at the same time, a little softening of the leading edge - common and consistent to both media. Frankly, I was expecting a little overblown and uncontrolled bass, but what I heard was extremely tight and extended - an incredible feat by those 30-watt Lamm amps. Dynamics were really good, but I think there is room for higher headroom - really curious to see what Steve's friend Marty achieves with these same speakers and the Spectral amps. I was also expecting tweeter issues - having heard them elsewhere - but not here; in fact, there was a lot of treble energy as I am used to at home, but at the same time, non-fatiguing or unnatural.
If I were to compare these Wilsons to, say, the Alexias I heard a few years ago driven by the Spectral 360s, I would say the differences were literally night and day. Whereas I simply hated the Alexia sound with its uncontrolled sound, full of seemingly fake reverb, and left the room after 20 (40?) minutes into the demo, I could spend a whole day listening to Steve's system. By contrast here, I loved the immediacy, something I am used to at home. And again, I loved the treble performance.
Orchestral body is something I've been fighting at home for the longest time; the room does not help, and the speakers just don't have the same size woofers. But after coming back, I increased my sub's cutover frequency with better results - but still not to Steve's system level.
This brings me to cut #2 we played: the Mahler #2 with Solti and the LSO. I am very familiar with it, but I still prefer my favorite BSO with Ozawa, and by a mile. Nonetheless, I am not aware of a recording that exactly does justice to the prescribed instrumentation, especially the 6 on-stage timpani. The recording we played solidified my initial impression (from the Scottish Fantasia tape) of the elevated orchestral body, the depth of the soundstage, and especially the presence of the wind section - beautiful stuff. This LP reissue, for some reason, is "missing" an important aspect of the opening Allegro Maestoso, specifically the roughly 5 second span around the middle where the bass drum is played eeeeeeever to slightly solo. It's all there in the BSO/Philips recording but entirely missing in the LSO - either every system I've heard it on cannot resolve this very-low-level playing, or it's really missing... don't know. Nonetheless, overall, low level resolution was incredible - digital silence from the TechDas; I love this turntable. I tapped just about everywhere on it at the end, and the platter is dead quiet like the large piece of marble I have in my living room; what an incredible engineering feat this 'table is. Impressive, and lucky are those who can afford it.
Regarding the MB cables, Steve did have that long interconnect shown up above in place by the time I arrived, so I heard the latest. I can't tell what individual role they play in the system because I had not heard the system before, but they are obviously part of the excellent sound rendered. At the same time, none of us skeptics ever said anything about the sonics, we are only looking for real technical information. I did notice that the cables are squeezable, as if to absorb vibrations, which is good. The other thing I noticed with the Nordost (Valhalla???) interconnects from the Studer to the Doshi is how microphonic they are (just tapping them together or with my finger generated a sound); I had the same problem when I evaluated them in the phono section, and I would advise getting rid of them - they are apparently built to do that, as if feedback is welcome into the cable. Although I personally use the Valhalla tonearm wire, I would personally stop right there wrt Nordost.
Beautiful stuff, Steve, and thanks again for hosting us. The 2011 Barolo was equally stunning, and you probably know by now how much I love red wine!!!! Cheers to Cathy, and we hope to see you both back East!
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Hi Ack
Thank you for your kind words.Cathy and I immensely enjoyed the company of your family. It was fun getting to know all of you and the apparent bond between you and your son was was wonderful to watch. Great tight knit family
I went back after you left and had a look at that Nordost cable and one side wasn't secured firmly.
One day when you get us all tickets for Mahler at the BSO we will make that trip to Boston
Thanks for sharing your experiences at my house
Thank you for your kind words.Cathy and I immensely enjoyed the company of your family. It was fun getting to know all of you and the apparent bond between you and your son was was wonderful to watch. Great tight knit family
I went back after you left and had a look at that Nordost cable and one side wasn't secured firmly.
One day when you get us all tickets for Mahler at the BSO we will make that trip to Boston
Thanks for sharing your experiences at my house
Steve do you have your collection cataloged?
If you don't have this album, I highly suggest it. One of those rare instances where the performance is just as good as the sound quality and the album is cheap and most original pressings I have heard are pressed on quality, quiet vinyl.
Only go for the original pressing that has "Masterdisk HW" in the dead wax. Even the ORG 45 rpm music reissue is much inferior to it.
If you don't have this album, I highly suggest it. One of those rare instances where the performance is just as good as the sound quality and the album is cheap and most original pressings I have heard are pressed on quality, quiet vinyl.
Only go for the original pressing that has "Masterdisk HW" in the dead wax. Even the ORG 45 rpm music reissue is much inferior to it.
Not only do I have it but it is one of my favorites. I'm sure mine is the ORG 45. I have several versions on silver disk as well.
Speaking of original pressing, I found this recently in a collection. It sounds terrific but then again I am a huge PF fan
I am glad to see comments like that since the less prejudice there is against digitally-sourced vinyl, the better the prospects of it continuing to be released to the audiophile public in the future. Whilst all other things being equal I would prefer all analogue releases, an increasing portion of my own collection is cut from digital sources. Some actually sound better because of course once in the digital domain, there are certain remastering flexibilities that are denied in an all-analogue environment.
I hope it is okay to pass along a Critical Mass Systems review just published on Positive-Feedback.com. The rack and amp stand combination David evaluated is the same combination Steve has in his room but, on a smaller scale. Like Steve, the front end and amps are on a Black Diamond MK III. The balance of the signal processing components are on Black Platinum MK III and the power conditioner on a Black Sapphire MK III. I wonder if Steve feels David’s results bear similarity to his although the components are quite different…………
http://positive-feedback.com/audio-...iii-rack-system-and-black-diamond-amp-stands/
http://positive-feedback.com/audio-...iii-rack-system-and-black-diamond-amp-stands/
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