It has now been almost three months since my last post when I blew up my Spectral amp when I shorted speaker terminals under my new Vivid G3’s. During the time that I was down or could not do serious listening or because I was breaking in some new component, much has changed. I did what many long-standing audiophiles do when they can't listen to their system at its best. I bought new equipment and made a number of upgrades.
During the six weeks it took to get the Spectral fixed I purchased new speaker wire that of course I could not break in because I had no amp. I knew I needed bi-wire banana terminations because of the configuration and space limitations of the G3's. I knew the brand had to be MIT because I have a Spectral amp. But what I did not know was what model and quite honestly didn't even really know the aural signature of the Vivids.
I had very much liked the sound of the MIT Matrix HD 60’s, but thought that since I had to make a change and had substantially improved the quality of my speakers that it was a good time for me to perhaps upgrade my speaker wire. Unbeknownst to me, MIT had just released a new series of speaker wires, the SL Matrix series, that represented their latest work with speaker wire, but has a somewhat different sonic signature. I purchased the SL Matrix 90’s bi-wired with bananas at the advice of Scott Warren who has proven himself to be knowledgeable about the MIT line and honest, not to mention shares taste preferences with me.
He warned me that the new series is not quite as sweet in the midrange, but has a more extended and airy high-end and better bass. Not surprisingly my initial impression was not favorable. Scott, being the good human that he is, offered to give me my money back but suggested I experiment was subtle position changes with the Vivid's since I was not sufficiently familiar with them and they are somewhat difficult to set up. After three weeks of break-in, minor positioning and angle changes rapidly showed me that I actually preferred the new wires to the old ones largely because the Vivid's are a tiny bit sweet in the midrange and, in my opinion benefited from the tightness of the SL Matrix.
As I felt I was finally starting to learn what the G3's and the SL Matrix sounded like, my Meitner DAC’s power supply gave out, shutting me down once again. Although a simple repair, it was still almost 3 weeks before I got the Meitner back from Calgary. During that time my choice was to listen to vinyl, something I hadn't done for a decade. Even though I have a Vibraplane, I was getting unusual standing waves that greatly limited my playback volumes because they actually caused the Vibraplane to visibly oscillate.
Not knowing if this had to do with the suspension of my Ariston turntable, the suspension of my Spectral Reference cartridge or the interplay with my SME tonearm, I became obsessed with finding a remedy and scouring Audiogon 3 to 4 times a day for new cartridges, new tonearms, new turntables without tonearms and finally new turntables with a tonearm. That exploration led to a wonderful purchase of the Benz Micro LPS cartridge, truly one of the sweetest sounding cartridges I have ever heard, and a VPI Prime turntable with a 10 inch 3-D modeled JMW tonearm. Since Prime’s are in great demand and thus hard-to-find, my obsession put me in contact with a wonderful company and individual, Soundstage Direct and its founder Seth Frank. Since they are about 90 minutes away from me I drove to their store after they mounted my cartridge to personally pick up my new turntable. However, I was on an obsessive roll and ended up buying a VPI SDS for better speed control.
Of course my new cartridge, turntable tonearm, SDS meant that the phono section in my tube preamp was probably not sufficiently good for the signals that I was feeding it. So I bought a Pass Labs SP 15 phono section and two more sets of cables to run from the tonearm to the Pass and the Pass to my preamp.
While the sound of the VPI Prime and Benz Micro and Pass Labs was wonderful, I still had the problems with low-frequency oscillations of the Vibraplane and thus turntable. This now meant I had to spend even more money and buy a $4000 isolation stand with no guarantee that it would solve my problem. It was around this point that reality came back into my head and my Meitner returned and I decided to hold off on the isolation stand and see if I could figure out what was causing this feedback oscillation.
So now, three months later than I thought, I was back to setting up the Vivid G3’s and trying to figure out how to make them mate with a pair of JL F113 sub woofers. While I typically find the JL's easy to mate with speakers that have forward facing woofers, the task is considerably different and more difficult when one has side-firing woofers as is the case with the G3's. In order to not cause a reflection of the base waves from the G3 I positioned the JL F113’s inboard but posterior to the speakers so that the front of the JL's is in the same plane with the back of the speakers keeping it away from the side of the JL's and the inboard ports of the G3's.
The sound was quite good but the bass was a bit tubby, thus producing the illusion of some fatness of the midrange of the G3's. Turning the output of the JL's down helped the situation considerably and reduced the feedback oscillation for the VPI but something was still wrong. It was at that point that the obvious finally presented itself to me and that due to the perpendicular propagations of the bass waves, I needed to experiment extensively with the phase alignment between the woofers and speakers. Repeated experimentation produced major benefit, but I still do not have it right. The JL's volume is turned way down which is fine because the G3's have remarkable base output. The crossover point has now been reduced to 32 cycles and I have adjusted the phase to produce the sweetest sounding midrange from the G3's rather than the typical phase adjustment to get the most cohesive bass.
While I am still very early in this process and will write about updates as I learn them I am already quite pleased, have eliminated my turntable oscillation, which I suspect had something to do with the phase interactions between JL's the the G3’s, I am already thrilled and find myself regularly dancing around my listening room as I listen to music.
Before I sign off I want to make a fast comment on one of my purchases that greatly exceeded any expectations I might've had. The VPI SDS is nothing short of remarkable with regard to influencing the purity, the musicality and the image focus of any type of record that I play. If you have an AC motor on your turntable in your system does not have a reasonable equivalent, it seems to me it is a must.
I welcome any opinions or theories about how to best meet the JL's and the G3's as well as any ideas about the VPI 3-D printed tonearm which to me sounds wonderful.
During the six weeks it took to get the Spectral fixed I purchased new speaker wire that of course I could not break in because I had no amp. I knew I needed bi-wire banana terminations because of the configuration and space limitations of the G3's. I knew the brand had to be MIT because I have a Spectral amp. But what I did not know was what model and quite honestly didn't even really know the aural signature of the Vivids.
I had very much liked the sound of the MIT Matrix HD 60’s, but thought that since I had to make a change and had substantially improved the quality of my speakers that it was a good time for me to perhaps upgrade my speaker wire. Unbeknownst to me, MIT had just released a new series of speaker wires, the SL Matrix series, that represented their latest work with speaker wire, but has a somewhat different sonic signature. I purchased the SL Matrix 90’s bi-wired with bananas at the advice of Scott Warren who has proven himself to be knowledgeable about the MIT line and honest, not to mention shares taste preferences with me.
He warned me that the new series is not quite as sweet in the midrange, but has a more extended and airy high-end and better bass. Not surprisingly my initial impression was not favorable. Scott, being the good human that he is, offered to give me my money back but suggested I experiment was subtle position changes with the Vivid's since I was not sufficiently familiar with them and they are somewhat difficult to set up. After three weeks of break-in, minor positioning and angle changes rapidly showed me that I actually preferred the new wires to the old ones largely because the Vivid's are a tiny bit sweet in the midrange and, in my opinion benefited from the tightness of the SL Matrix.
As I felt I was finally starting to learn what the G3's and the SL Matrix sounded like, my Meitner DAC’s power supply gave out, shutting me down once again. Although a simple repair, it was still almost 3 weeks before I got the Meitner back from Calgary. During that time my choice was to listen to vinyl, something I hadn't done for a decade. Even though I have a Vibraplane, I was getting unusual standing waves that greatly limited my playback volumes because they actually caused the Vibraplane to visibly oscillate.
Not knowing if this had to do with the suspension of my Ariston turntable, the suspension of my Spectral Reference cartridge or the interplay with my SME tonearm, I became obsessed with finding a remedy and scouring Audiogon 3 to 4 times a day for new cartridges, new tonearms, new turntables without tonearms and finally new turntables with a tonearm. That exploration led to a wonderful purchase of the Benz Micro LPS cartridge, truly one of the sweetest sounding cartridges I have ever heard, and a VPI Prime turntable with a 10 inch 3-D modeled JMW tonearm. Since Prime’s are in great demand and thus hard-to-find, my obsession put me in contact with a wonderful company and individual, Soundstage Direct and its founder Seth Frank. Since they are about 90 minutes away from me I drove to their store after they mounted my cartridge to personally pick up my new turntable. However, I was on an obsessive roll and ended up buying a VPI SDS for better speed control.
Of course my new cartridge, turntable tonearm, SDS meant that the phono section in my tube preamp was probably not sufficiently good for the signals that I was feeding it. So I bought a Pass Labs SP 15 phono section and two more sets of cables to run from the tonearm to the Pass and the Pass to my preamp.
While the sound of the VPI Prime and Benz Micro and Pass Labs was wonderful, I still had the problems with low-frequency oscillations of the Vibraplane and thus turntable. This now meant I had to spend even more money and buy a $4000 isolation stand with no guarantee that it would solve my problem. It was around this point that reality came back into my head and my Meitner returned and I decided to hold off on the isolation stand and see if I could figure out what was causing this feedback oscillation.
So now, three months later than I thought, I was back to setting up the Vivid G3’s and trying to figure out how to make them mate with a pair of JL F113 sub woofers. While I typically find the JL's easy to mate with speakers that have forward facing woofers, the task is considerably different and more difficult when one has side-firing woofers as is the case with the G3's. In order to not cause a reflection of the base waves from the G3 I positioned the JL F113’s inboard but posterior to the speakers so that the front of the JL's is in the same plane with the back of the speakers keeping it away from the side of the JL's and the inboard ports of the G3's.
The sound was quite good but the bass was a bit tubby, thus producing the illusion of some fatness of the midrange of the G3's. Turning the output of the JL's down helped the situation considerably and reduced the feedback oscillation for the VPI but something was still wrong. It was at that point that the obvious finally presented itself to me and that due to the perpendicular propagations of the bass waves, I needed to experiment extensively with the phase alignment between the woofers and speakers. Repeated experimentation produced major benefit, but I still do not have it right. The JL's volume is turned way down which is fine because the G3's have remarkable base output. The crossover point has now been reduced to 32 cycles and I have adjusted the phase to produce the sweetest sounding midrange from the G3's rather than the typical phase adjustment to get the most cohesive bass.
While I am still very early in this process and will write about updates as I learn them I am already quite pleased, have eliminated my turntable oscillation, which I suspect had something to do with the phase interactions between JL's the the G3’s, I am already thrilled and find myself regularly dancing around my listening room as I listen to music.
Before I sign off I want to make a fast comment on one of my purchases that greatly exceeded any expectations I might've had. The VPI SDS is nothing short of remarkable with regard to influencing the purity, the musicality and the image focus of any type of record that I play. If you have an AC motor on your turntable in your system does not have a reasonable equivalent, it seems to me it is a must.
I welcome any opinions or theories about how to best meet the JL's and the G3's as well as any ideas about the VPI 3-D printed tonearm which to me sounds wonderful.
