Seattle report: Mike's System, Bruce B, Jazdoc, EA MM7, NVS, Darts, etc

bonzo75

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Hi all,

Apologies for the delay in posting the review – I owed it earlier to both Mike and the forumites. What we were doing in the background was setting up a blog - in typical audiophile fashion, what started out to be a small piece of work turned out to be a more involved project.

People have been asking me to start blogging my visits since last year, and it had never been an idea, until 3 of us recently got together and decided to take a stab at blogging.

A few quick things about the blog before I move to the post
1. We are releasing just the Seattle post today – since Bruce and Jazdoc were both covered in one afternoon/evening, their visits have been embedded in it.
2. All other posts are thumbnails, we will release the other posts soon, and put more up – I am just cut pasting my old posts for now.
3. Please treat the blog as exactly what it is meant to be – listening notes and observations. One of us will audition some equipment in house, I will be the one traveling around, and another is a vinyl veteran who will focus on the software aspect - LPs and classical music. Will introduce the other two with the appropriate posts.
4. Setting it up was a pain – getting the thumbnails, fonts, etc right – which is why it took time. This will be an ongoing activity and we will sharpen the design after a few months – so feedback appreciated.

Some of you already have had a two line summary of Mike’s system. Here is the long version. Take your time. It was 5 pages in word doc without the pics. I wrote it on the way back from Seattle as I spent a lot of time waiting at airports and on the plane. I have kept 95% of the content as is to preserve emotion and recall. For the analog lovers, there is an LP by LP comparison of GFS and Anna.

I will pick up your comments when I wake up my morning time.

http://zero-distortion.org/mike-lavignepuget-studiosjazdoc-evolution-acoustic-mm7/
 

Hi-FiGuy

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It was a fun night and if it were not for an impending migraine rapidly approaching, I would have closed the bar down with yall!

I have been listening to Mikes kit for almost two years now and I can say without question, this last arsenal of adjustments has been truly magical. Hate using that word but it is what it is.

Anyhow, Mikes system is one of the best kits on this orb that we live on. The kit sounds fantastic no matter where you are in the room, but when you hit that chair the magic happens and you almost have to close your eyes because there is confusion as your eyes want to see what your ears are hearing.
You want to see Dean leaning on the piano with a cigarette and a bourbon in his hand, you want to see the string section, you want to see Bonham beating the hell out of those toms, but they are not there.

Mike you should be, and I think you are, very proud of what you have created and the hospitality that you extend. Your kit is without question a final destination of What's Best in music reproduction.

dean.jpg Strings276.jpg bonham.jpg
 
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jtinn

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Apr 20, 2010
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Wow, what a terrific write-up. Great testimonial!

Just as a quick correction, I believe the Led Zeppelin tape you listened to was not by Bruce Brown, but by Leslie Brooks. We played it this year at THE Show Newport Beach. Once Mike heard it he grabbed it and it was never to be seen again :) It is fantastic!
 

LL21

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Dec 26, 2010
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Hi all,

Apologies for the delay in posting the review – I owed it earlier to both Mike and the forumites. What we were doing in the background was setting up a blog - in typical audiophile fashion, what started out to be a small piece of work turned out to be a more involved project.

People have been asking me to start blogging my visits since last year, and it had never been an idea, until 3 of us recently got together and decided to take a stab at blogging..."

http://zero-distortion.org/mike-lavignepuget-studiosjazdoc-evolution-acoustic-mm7/

Great website! Very promising!
 

Jazzhead

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Super ! ..... Bonzo enjoyed that very much , detailed and indepth . Am sure Zero Distortion will keep giving us the unvarnished view ... All the best to you .

Mike , kudos to you for your passion and commitment and congrats for having achieved the "Gold Sandard " !!! There is mention of your room improving 50-70% , that's staggering given that it was already a well sorted room . One would think that improvements would be incrementall at best . Could you perhaps touch upon how you pushed matters along, it would be informative . Cheers .
 

bonzo75

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Thanks guys...jazzhead, that 70% is, according to Mike it was 70% of this when Marty visited, so improvement would be roughly 40%. Part of it could be explained directly by GFS, and some part by speaker positioning
 

Jazzhead

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So, a believer in cones now ?
 

bonzo75

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Haha, in one of them, yes. At least Mike has the right audiophile co(jo)nes
 

BruceD

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Wow Bonz! Great writing and evaluation of the wondrous sounds of the Northwest guys--especially Mikes State of the Art system

Good luck with your blog and more exciting reading plus looking forward to your further travels and listening experiences with Gusto!!:)

Kudos:D

BruceD
 

Mike Lavigne

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Super ! ..... Bonzo enjoyed that very much , detailed and indepth . Am sure Zero Distortion will keep giving us the unvarnished view ... All the best to you .

Mike , kudos to you for your passion and commitment and congrats for having achieved the "Gold Sandard " !!! There is mention of your room improving 50-70% , that's staggering given that it was already a well sorted room . One would think that improvements would be incrementall at best . Could you perhaps touch upon how you pushed matters along, it would be informative . Cheers .

thanks to Bonzo for all his kind words. it was a great pleasure to meet him and spend the time listening and exchanging viewpoints. having read about his previous audio/music wanderings and clear passion, preferences and focus I was excited to have such an unrestricted 'not politically correct' visitor. and that is what I experienced and now read. Bonzo has strong preferences but an open mind and ears. and no agenda either. sure; he brought his Apogee love and preference with him but it was simply the reference he had up to that point. he objectively attacked his listening looking for his own version/vision of musical truth. and his reactions seemed rooted in the music and not in any hifi sort of check list. he expects everything from a reproduction system.

which all seemed to match my own view of a system and room getting out of the way of the music. I've avoided gear (and a room) that had a signature of some sort, feeling strongly that would eventually become a restriction to musical flow. I wanted gear that had naturalness and unlimited headroom for low noise, extension and dynamics. over the years there have been times where it was tempting to add this or that flavor to get more magic.....but it seems the hard way has got me there finally. of course, that is just my view.......and possibly Bonzo's too.....maybe.

it is humbling to read such positive comments on one's own system, and I am cautious not to take them (or myself) too seriously and understand they are one person's momentary viewpoint and no higher truth. I will enjoy them none-the-less and after all my years of work and investment it is a hoot to read that someone gets what I'm doing.

as far as the 50% or 70% compared to where things are now; that sort of attempt at shortcuts in defining subjective progression of performance is hard to define and defend. but I will try to define how I see that.

looking back......I think a few years ago I had all the pieces of the whole puzzle. but they were not synergizing. I had not yet seen exactly where I needed to go. sure; the pieces were good enough that i had times where i thought i was there. but i was not there. all this stuff has been chronicled in much greater detail in posts here on WBF.

i had a few visions of what could be by visiting some other systems which hit me hard as doing things mine did not. which then inspired the pursuit as i had the aural reference to go by. one of those visits was 2 years ago when i heard a room with my same speakers, and electronics and i heard imaging i was not getting. this set me off on treating my room surfaces which took 9 months to complete. it was 2 months into that 9 month effort that Steve visited (my 50% comment). and after Steve's visit i fixed a 12db suckout at 30hz that made a huge difference in my bass performance. then this past winter i added all the Furutech NFC outlets and plugs. then Marty visited (the 70%) later in the spring and things were sounding very good. but late summer i visited a local friend (Jazdoc) and heard his new tube amplifiers (Found Music) and was very impressed with the lifelike music i heard. again; i was hearing things i had not heard in my own system. my first reaction was to find a tube amplifier that would work for me. a month later i calmed down and thought about what i could change with the pieces i had. without getting too long winded i did three things that really brought me to the point i am at; (1) moved the speakers 6 inches closer together (115" to 109"), (2) moved the listening spot much closer inside the equilateral triangle. my ears are now 93" from the tweeters. and (3) added an innocuous little grounding cable (from the Entreq Poseidon) to my plate amps on my bass towers of the MM7's. and boom goes the dynamite!!!!.....everything clicked into full lock.

my perspective is that these final steps did make huge differences in the degree of musical involvement and the degree of the suspension of disbelief the system has. it 'seems' there is nothing the room or system is doing to call attention to itself. all those pieces simply get out of the way because they 'can'. the pieces do not limit anything.

let me repeat that.....the pieces do not restrict anything!

i do very much appreciate the special feedback and help i received from others in my quest. Jazdoc really helped me to execute my vision on the speaker positioning, and over the years has been a wonderful source of reality at those times i needed it. then Joel Durand's special level of touch with musical truth found that listening position where it all clicked in. and there are others who have helped in various ways beyond those 2. but this is a long, long process with lots of moving parts.
 

Kingsrule

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Great site and read....

What I'd give to have a dedicated room at this house.....
 

ddk

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Nice write up Ked, looks like you had a great time in Seattle!

david
 

Al M.

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Al M.

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i had a few visions of what could be by visiting some other systems which hit me hard as doing things mine did not. which then inspired the pursuit as i had the aural reference to go by. one of those visits was 2 years ago when i heard a room with my same speakers, and electronics and i heard imaging i was not getting. this set me off on treating my room surfaces which took 9 months to complete. it was 2 months into that 9 month effort that Steve visited (my 50% comment). and after Steve's visit i fixed a 12db suckout at 30hz that made a huge difference in my bass performance. then this past winter i added all the Furutech NFC outlets and plugs. then Marty visited (the 70%) later in the spring and things were sounding very good. but late summer i visited a local friend (Jazdoc) and heard his new tube amplifiers (Found Music) and was very impressed with the lifelike music i heard. again; i was hearing things i had not heard in my own system. my first reaction was to find a tube amplifier that would work for me. a month later i calmed down and thought about what i could change with the pieces i had. without getting too long winded i did three things that really brought me to the point i am at; (1) moved the speakers 6 inches closer together (115" to 109"), (2) moved the listening spot much closer inside the equilateral triangle. my ears are now 93" from the tweeters. and (3) added an innocuous little grounding cable (from the Entreq Poseidon) to my plate amps on my bass towers of the MM7's. and boom goes the dynamite!!!!.....everything clicked into full lock.

Very interesting, Mike, and congratulations on your system/set-up! Just these last few days I also experimented with sitting closer to my speakers, and the results are great (I reported on my system thread, link in signature). I thought I am now sitting close to the speakers (8.5 feet, speaker to ear), but you are even closer! Playing with distance of speakers from each other, as you did, also helped in my case.

Your experiences confirm what I had thought for a while, that taking care of set-up can pay rich dividends. In many instances it does so as much as, or more than, upgrades of system components.
 

Jazzhead

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Very interesting, Mike, and congratulations on your system/set-up! Just these last few days I also experimented with sitting closer to my speakers, and the results are great (I reported on my system thread, link in signature). I thought I am now sitting close to the speakers (8.5 feet, speaker to ear), but you are even closer! Playing with distance of speakers from each other, as you did, also helped in my case.

Your experiences confirm what I had thought for a while, that taking care of set-up can pay rich dividends. In many instances it does so as much as, or more than, upgrades of system components.

Agreed , at this point though I need to make a plug for" quasi" Grounding . Works wonders to free up the sound and detach completely, and I mean on the complex stuff , not girl with guitar .Nicely layered thoughts Mike , just like your soundstage !
 

Jazzhead

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Did you guys have a chance to compare/discuss PCM v DSD on the the GG . or was the fare restricted to only DSD ? I assume Mike has the new R2R board plus super clock upgrade ?

Mike ... You say that you tend to veer away from gear that imparts a flavor , I would have to disagree with you there . The GG is flavored , not in the neutral camp for sure. Just an observation without having having heard how it plays in your room ,
 

bonzo75

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I heard both, and vinyl and tape rips, they were all excellent. Mike does not have the upgrades, has my least liked valves, and samples everything up to DSD using Jriver which is not ideal. Still, it sounded great.
 

Mike Lavigne

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Did you guys have a chance to compare/discuss PCM v DSD on the the GG . or was the fare restricted to only DSD ? I assume Mike has the new R2R board plus super clock upgrade ?

Mike ... You say that you tend to veer away from gear that imparts a flavor , I would have to disagree with you there . The GG is flavored , not in the neutral camp for sure. Just an observation without having having heard how it plays in your room ,

well.....I agree with your view of the GG but would counter that over the last 18 months my whole digital approach has been 'in-play' and the GG is more of a 'place-holder' and not 'end-game' as things sit right now. and the GG does certainly make digital very listenable and never in the way. and it synergizes with my vinyl presentation....while in it's current configuration with the Elrogs and Tak makes beautiful music (if not the last word in resolution). during Bonzo's visit I used JRiver to up-sample all PCM to Quad dsd (now the SGM server is being used with HQ Player).

I'm sending my GG back to Lukasz next week for some upgrades to 'baddest' GG level. switching the dsd from 256 to 512, adding the superclocks, adding the RTR PCM and new firmware, and getting a set of the special 45 mesh tubes. and right now I have the SGM server in room which I did not have when Bonzo visited. so my whole digital is on another level right now beyond where I was (even as the GG sits not yet upgraded---the SGM made a large positive difference).

will the new version of the GG be my 'end game'? it's a question yet to be answered. 18 months ago I started down the digital upgrade path by selling my 9 year digital reference Playback Designs, and jumping in with the Trinity dac and GG to learn what can be done. I also added the CAPSv4 server.

so who knows where I will end up with digital but plan on finding my own version of a long term reference.
 
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