A truly exemplary system

[sbnx]

Hello @stsxerses,

Sorry I am late to the party. Your room and system look fantastic and undoubtedly produces an oustanding music experience. I have some questions that I am hoping you can help shed some light on.

It is my understanding that you had Stirling setup basically the same system (Stenheim, CH Precision, Grand prix) somewhere around a year ago. Now you had him come back to work on the system again. Could you describe what you changed and why that necessitated Stirling return? Could you describe what all Stirling did to your system during the most recent visit? Most people seem to be focused on the big boxes (Stenheim, CH, Wadax). What all do you have for infrastructure that you feel is driving the musical result? (For example, I see a Chord Power Aray Professional in one of the pictures)

Thanks,
Todd

 

[stsxerses]

Hi Todd
I made a number of component changes subsequent to Stirling’s 2024 visit namely purchase of Supatrac Nighthawk arm, Sean Jacobs PSU, Wadax Studio and full Crystal Cable loom.

On the infrastructure side I added a Chord PhonoARAY, various Reiki network devices, two pairs of Black Hole Noise Traps and I changed the flooring (as detailed in one of my earlier posts).

No surprise then that I invited Stirling to make a return visit to recalibrate my system in light of these various changes.

During his most recent visit Stirling began by stripping down the system cleaning all plugs and sockets with 99% isopropyl alcohol before applying SuperTMD contact enhancer. Once everything was reconnected we fired up the system and I was surprised to hear a significant improvement in terms of transparency, ease and detail retrieval.

Next up Stirling spent a considerable amount of time on the grounding. I have a dedicated grounding arrangement using a Russ Andrews Super Router which acts as an interface between an external copper ground rod and the system. All connections were checked and cleaned and Stirling then experimented with the different options for grounding the components. After that Stirling carefully levelled everything including adjusting the Revopods I use under the Wadax. He then went through all the settings (including gain structure and impedance).

The Supertrac/Opus was checked and optimised. Finally Stirling made some fine adjustments to the U2s which yielded a big improvement in terms of timing and linearity.

At various stages in the process I was invited to listen to familiar recordings and provide feedback.

I am now enjoying my system more than ever. I could not have gotten there without Stirling’s help. But in this last year or so I would say a big contributory factor has been the improvements made to the foundational aspects of the system. Each element has made a positive difference but none more so than the Black Holes. I still don't know how these things work but the improvement was quite unexpected…after connecting them to the U2s the bass became tighter and the whole of the frequency range became clearer.

So in summary although the components I have are not shabby the results I am enjoying are IMO as much down to set up, reducing noise in the system and attending to the mechanical aspects
Steve

 

[bonzo75]

I finally get to see the system that Stirling has set up right after mine. He only hinted me that he was heading to the UK to set up a another pair of Ultime Two. Thanks for the great write up.

He set that up before yours, though he did revisits so might have done a revisit after visiting you.

 

[tima]

I just know we'd be firm friends and I'd be over at his to play LPs on his Monaco...whether he liked it or not.

Next time you are in the upper midwest USA, you are welcome anytime.

 

[tima]

Fremer agreed with you.
Remember the furore over that review.
Amazing it didn't kill the company stone dead, so consequential were reviews back in the day.
All I can say is that not an iota of what you describe remains in the subsequent iterations (having heard the 1.5 and now 3.0).

Fremer ... heh.

The leap came with the changes from the 1.5 to the 2.0. I owned the 1.5 before the 2.0. GPA changed the motor to a slotless/coreless design, upgraded the controller software, adding a 40MIPS processor, along with the encoder disc that gets read. Coming out of mega-bucks F1 racing Alvin brought some serious IT people with him and stretched the limits of what was measureable -- 5th decimal. The real numbers are better than the publicly published numbers -- normal practice for an engineer to be cautious in stating specs to assure no unit will ever fall outside the stated measurement. Alvin/NDA won't let me talk about the real numbers.

Changes made for the 3.0 are in unexpected areas that would surprise you. But really all you need are your ears. Better sound is more detectable than error.

 

[ashandger]

Hi Todd
I made a number of component changes subsequent to Stirling’s 2024 visit namely purchase of Supatrac Nighthawk arm, Sean Jacobs PSU, Wadax Studio and full Crystal Cable loom.

On the infrastructure side I added a Chord PhonoARAY, various Reiki network devices, two pairs of Black Hole Noise Traps and I changed the flooring (as detailed in one of my earlier posts).

No surprise then that I invited Stirling to make a return visit to recalibrate my system in light of these various changes.

During his most recent visit Stirling began by stripping down the system cleaning all plugs and sockets with 99% isopropyl alcohol before applying SuperTMD contact enhancer. Once everything was reconnected we fired up the system and I was surprised to hear a significant improvement in terms of transparency, ease and detail retrieval.

Next up Stirling spent a considerable amount of time on the grounding. I have a dedicated grounding arrangement using a Russ Andrews Super Router which acts as an interface between an external copper ground rod and the system. All connections were checked and cleaned and Stirling then experimented with the different options for grounding the components. After that Stirling carefully levelled everything including adjusting the Revopods I use under the Wadax. He then went through all the settings (including gain structure and impedance).

The Supertrac/Opus was checked and optimised. Finally Stirling made some fine adjustments to the U2s which yielded a big improvement in terms of timing and linearity.

At various stages in the process I was invited to listen to familiar recordings and provide feedback.

I am now enjoying my system more than ever. I could not have gotten there without Stirling’s help. But in this last year or so I would say a big contributory factor has been the improvements made to the foundational aspects of the system. Each element has made a positive difference but none more so than the Black Holes. I still don't know how these things work but the improvement was quite unexpected…after connecting them to the U2s the bass became tighter and the whole of the frequency range became clearer.

So in summary although the components I have are not shabby the results I am enjoying are IMO as much down to set up, reducing noise in the system and attending to the mechanical aspects
Steve

Congrats on your wonderful system. May I ask which Crystal cables are you using? Many thanks

 

[stsxerses]

Thanks for your kind comments. I am using CC Van Gogh (Art Series)

 

[ashandger]

Thanks for your kind comments. I am using CC Van Gogh (Art Series)

Wonderful. Many thanks for the feedback. Happy listening.