Ron's Speaker, Turntable, Power and Room Treatment Upgrades

[rando]

I received my dedicated Qobuz-only iPad today. Using the DAC in the iPad by connecting it directly to the line stage reduced the brightness/edginess from the $99 Sony CD disc player, but this arrangement also slayed the dynamics. Overall I’d rather listen to music this way than with the Sony player.

No doubt, cellular devices have seen a largesse of investment in technology and development in the last two decades.

I'm beginning to feel awful over engaging with comments on $10 Sony BDP in response to equivalent analog device. An earnest approach would've lead towards the more credible ability a Mac Mini or MBP and their competent set up would more fully allow. If not for pleasure, for acoustic testing and general system setup at a high enough SQ level to judge correctness.

To be perfectly honest I didn't think you were sincere about using a $50 TT or BDP!

 

[Ron Resnick]

Thank you, defride, for that suggestion. In that line of thinking I ordered on eBay a NOS Pioneer Elite DV-47Ai. I will see how it sounds as a CD/SACD player, and maybe keep it as a transport for a back-up use.

In addition, Russ, the great friend who is loaning me the Magnepans also is going to loan me an Oppo BDP-105.

 

[Ron Resnick]

No doubt, cellular devices have seen a largesse of investment in technology and development in the last two decades.

I'm beginning to feel awful over engaging with comments on $10 Sony BDP in response to equivalent analog device. An earnest approach would've lead towards the more credible ability a Mac Mini or MBP and their competent set up would more fully allow. If not for pleasure, for acoustic testing and general system setup at a high enough SQ level to judge correctness.

To be perfectly honest I didn't think you were sincere about using a $50 TT or BDP!

I never expected out-of-the blue to have planar loudspeakers in the room. I would not have bothered with this interim listening project if they were only small box speakers. So I simply started listening with what I had in inventory.

I don’t want to spend a lot of money on components which I am highly unlikely to keep (the Lampizator Baltic 3 is on order). So I pressed into service suddenly whichever soldiers I happened to find in the barracks.

As I am dissatisfied with the Salvation Army-level soldier I found in the barracks, I am moving up the food chain incrementally to get to a sound I can vaguely enjoy for the next couple of months.

Knowing my tube preferences I don’t think any standalone vintage CD player is going to do the trick. So I am working on another very inexpensive, interim idea — with some tubes in it.

I was not sincere about playing with a $50 turntable.

PS: I did not want to store them all these years, but, in retrospect, perhaps I should’ve kept in inventory my spare pair of Martin-Logan Ascent loudspeakers and my Musical Fidelity kW SACD tube CD player.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Thanks to Russ’ Oppo BDP-105 and subwoofers we now have high-end sound in the room. Russ did a fantastic job setting this up!

Thank you, Russ!!!

 

[sbnx]

Nice! What’s up with the caution stick in front of the vtl?

 

[Ron Resnick]

= Don’t bang into my amplifier!

 

[Mike Lavigne]

...............we now have high-end sound in the room...................

and????

ok Ron. here we are. tell us about what you are hearing from the room? don't expect chapter and verse, but a little bit to chew on would be nice.

first impressions.

we will be gentle.

 

[godofwealth]

Thank you, defride, for that suggestion. In that line of thinking I ordered on eBay a NOS Pioneer Elite DV-47Ai. I will see how it sounds as a CD/SACD player, and maybe keep it as a transport for a back-up use.

In addition, Russ, the great friend who is loaning me the Magnepans also is going to loan me an Oppo BDP-105.

Pioneer makes bulletproof transports. I think Ayre’s universal players have always used Pioneer transports.

 

[Ron Resnick]

and????

ok Ron. here we are. tell us about what you are hearing from the room? don't expect chapter and verse, but a little bit to chew on would be nice.

first impressions.

we will be gentle.

Sure! But I don’t mean anything other than it is sound that I consider to be the beginning of high-end sound. Unlike with the $99 Sony CD player and unlike with using the iPad as a streamer + DAC I can genuinely begin to enjoy listening to music in the room.

The sound reminds me that Magnepans probably are the best loudspeaker value in high-end audio.

I am encouraged by the resolution I am hearing from the pre-amp and amps. I am encouraged by the apparent quietness of the system (maybe those crazy chemical grounds are worth something; or it could be because I’m using balanced interconnects for the first time ever; or maybe both). I am encouraged that most of that horrible initial brightness and edginess has gone away.

I will add the Pioneer CD player, which I ordered before I knew I could borrow Russ’ Oppo. And the little tube DAC will arrive late next week.

After that I will simply wait for the Lampizator and the loudspeakers and the turntable. I don’t want to spend too much time optimizing the Magnepans in the room, because they are an interim solution to allow me to enjoy music for the next two or three months.

The other feeling I keep coming back to is that after not hearing planars in a simple system for a long time, and after hearing conventional loudspeakers and horn often, I am reminded of the alluring suspension of disbelief and magic of vocals on planars.

 

[bonzo75]

Sure! But I don’t mean anything other than it is sound that I consider to be the beginning of high-end sound. Unlike with the $99 Sony CD player and unlike with using the iPad as a streamer + DAC I can genuinely begin to enjoy listening to music in the room.

The sound reminds me that Magnepans probably are the best loudspeaker value in high-end audio.

I am encouraged by the resolution I am hearing from the pre-amp and amps. I am encouraged by the apparent quietness of the system (maybe those crazy chemical grounds are worth something; or it could be because I’m using balanced interconnects for the first time ever; or maybe both). I am encouraged that most of that horrible initial brightness and edginess has gone away.

I will add the Pioneer CD player, which I ordered before I knew I could borrow Russ’ Oppo. And the little tube DAC will arrive late next week.

After that I will simply wait for the Lampizator and the loudspeakers and the turntable. I don’t want to spend too much time optimizing the Magnepans in the room, because they are an interim solution to allow me to enjoy music for the next two or three months.

The other feeling I keep coming back to is that after not hearing planars in a simple system for a long time, and after hearing conventional loudspeakers and horn often, I am reminded of the alluring suspension of disbelief and magic of vocals on planars.

Is there still a slap echo effect now that carpet is in

 

[PeterA]

Is there still a slap echo effect now that carpet is in

Ron, Bonzo and I would be thrilled if you made a quick video of Thelma Houston sending the clowns through the gates of Kiev.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Is there still a slap echo effect now that carpet is in

No, that is all gone. On a likely not very reliable iPhone app called ClapReverb, the room RT is measuring as .45 to .50.

Subjectively, I think the room sounds good, and I think Don Saltzman and Russ think the room sounds good by hand clap and talking criteria.

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

Ron, Bonzo and I would be thrilled if you made a quick video of Thelma Houston sending the clowns through the gates of Kiev.

is Thelma Houston the best you can think of

 

[PeterA]

is Thelma Houston the best you can think of

“I’ve got the music in me” is a recording Ron introduced me to. I like it. That’s all. He likes female vocals.

 

[chuck]

In that line of thinking I ordered on eBay a NOS Pioneer Elite DV-47Ai. I will see how it sounds as a CD/SACD player, and maybe keep it as a transport for a back-up use.

FWIW I have a Pioneer Elite DV58 that I use when I just want to play a disc (CD or SACD) quick, I don't want to fuss with vinyl or a tablet, don't want to go through switching the Playback Designs from stream to transport. It is connected direct to the preamp. I also have an Oppo 105 but the Pioneer is easier to use and quicker. The YG Sonja XVi makes it sound good and seems to emphasize what it does well, certainly listenable.

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

“I’ve got the music in me” is a recording Ron introduced me to. I like it. That’s all. He likes female vocals.

try Elly Ameling Schubertiade on Harmonia Mundi

 

[Ron Resnick]

Despite my best efforts to aim for minimalism I am a little bit surprised how quickly boxes proliferate in this hobby (I guess I should not be surprised). I get a CD player; a friend brings over a DAC with a separate power supply; I unbox a vintage Denon FM tuner (cool-looking, just for show) and presto! — I need a third whole equipment stand!

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Despite my best efforts to aim for minimalism I am a little bit surprised how quickly boxes proliferate in this hobby (I guess I should not be surprised). I get a CD player; a friend brings over a DAC with a separate power supply; I unbox a vintage Denon FM tuner (cool-looking, just for show) and presto! — I need a third whole equipment stand!

you are not really living until you get to 4 racks.

just say'n.

 

[Ron Resnick]

I think a used HRS EXR entry-level stand in silver might be a not too incongruous match with the VAS Nothing stands.

 

[Ron Resnick]

I have discovered that with the iPad-as-streamer system I am using presently there is some noise glitchy-ness audible through the speakers when playing with the iPad. No like-y that!

Also, after a week of listening, I think I am hearing — and this is totally speculative — some kind of digital sameness or homogenization across recordings. Perhaps this is because the current iPad set-up is imparting — or importing — some kind of noise?

So . . . I will be ordering an Innuos PULSEmini, and an outboard LPS either from Innuos or from Linear Tube Audio custom designed for the PULSEmini.