American Sound AS-2000 Installations- Far East (Anthony)

I mention it often but the biggest pleasure I receive from producing AS2000 is the new friends I make and the chance to revisit old friends. Because of the AS2000 we take a timeout from our busy lives and have some fun and this trip was exactly that, Great Fun !

This was my first time back to Hong Kong since mid 2000’s and I was looking forward to the visit and it didn’t disappoint. I met Anthony at the airport and we headed straight out to his beautiful home, he’d been waiting too long for this moment to waste time with hotel check-in. When we got there the AS2000 was already assembled on the beautiful Stacore rack, Anthony had sent his cartridges in advance of the trip to set them up in my system so with parameters already figured out the final setup went pretty quick and we could sit back, listen to music and consider the steps for system and room set up.

Anthony’s AS2000 with three SME 3012-Rs, vdH Master Signature, MSL Platinum and SPU Century.



The rest of the system is CH Precision electronics, L1/M1.1/P1 with 4 chassis, that sound great! Speakers are Rockport Cygnus.



By the end if the 2nd day we worked through balancing the room taking out unnecessary acoustic panels and detweaking the equipment in the rack, can you spot the tweaks we added?



Overall the install went like a charm and sonically a great success, if I’m allowed to toot my own horn a bit one my best work and in a relatively tight space that looks impossible on paper. I don’t always get to leave the system where I want it to be. Great working with Anthony! I’ll let him fill in the blanks if he wants to.

david

 

Great system Anthony. Now when are we all going to hear it? !

 

I might not like the effects of some of them in some situations but I don't consider isolation transformers, regenerators, dedicated lines, isolated ground rods, etc. tweaks, they're basic fundamentals.

In what do they differ from power cords?

 

In what do they differ from power cords?

They don't, it's not the component and I use all of them including power cords my argument is properly engineered regulated industrial version vs the audiophile variety with hardly any standards and you know as well as I how amateurish some of these products are put together; cost is the other factor.

david

 

They don't, it's not the component and I use all of them including power cords my argument is properly engineered regulated industrial version vs the audiophile variety with hardly any standards and you know as well as I how amateurish some of these products are put together; cost is the other factor.

david

David,

I always try to debate the best of a class of products, not to look at the amateurish or poor quality ones to use them as arguments in debates. I have measured several audiophile power cables and they had better electrical specifications than the CC, although in principle they are not relevant to their operation.

I have some 30 years old van dan Hul power cables and the metal wires are still shiny like mirrors - no one knows how rusty the cheap Amazom or eBay Ching Cheng will be in five years!

IMHO considering power devices and cables we have to believe in our ears, technical arguments will be inconclusive.

 

David,

I always try to debate the best of a class of products, not to look at the amateurish or poor quality ones to use them as arguments in debates. I have measured several audiophile power cables and they had better electrical specifications than the CC, although in principle they are not relevant to their operation.

I have some 30 years old van dan Hul power cables and the metal wires are still shiny like mirrors - no one knows how rusty the cheap Amazom or eBay Ching Cheng will be in five years!

IMHO considering power devices and cables we have to believe in our ears, technical arguments will be inconclusive.

I agree, have you ever seen me post any measurements? Or comment on anything but qualities of sound in this forum? I can't speak for everything on the market but like yours the CC's I have are from 2002 and spent a lot of time in various storages cut them up and see. Plenty of other industrial cables lying around the house from decades ago, nothing wrong with any of them either.

We've communicated off line extensively Francisco you know my reasoning for recommending and using CC or RS level cables, even discussed amp stands and you're aware everything else I recommended for you came from industrial supply houses, any of it fall apart or rust on you? How many thousand of dollars of useless cables and equipment do you have lying around and you're worried about a hamburger priced power cord oxidizing years in the future? I guarantee that you & I will rust long before any of your power cords !

All this excitement and back & forth over what? The status quo! Let me repeat again, personally I don't care if people like or dislike CC and to be honest CC themselves care even less about this market and doubt they're even aware of our existence! With CC and other contrary things I'm supplying information that I know has helped many people. You only know me from this forum I've been around the industry for decades with a pretty good reputation around the world. If I can sell $100k+ electronics, turntables, etc. blind without even a website how much difficulty do you think I have walking in people's homes and load them up with whatever wire or tweak or acoustic crap I want? I earned this trust because I don't bullshit and try to help people where I can, otherwise I like money as much as the next guy. How many crap sounding systems with thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars of audiophile power cords are out there, how many with CC? With CC and the time I spend answer inane questions I'm giving you a gift, and saving YOU lots of money at my own expense, do with it as you please.

david

 

I agree, have you ever seen me post any measurements? Or comment on anything but qualities of sound in this forum? I can't speak for everything on the market but like yours the CC's I have are from 2002 and spent a lot of time in various storages cut them up and see. Plenty of other industrial cables lying around the house from decades ago, nothing wrong with any of them either.

We've communicated off line extensively Francisco you know my reasoning for recommending and using CC or RS level cables, even discussed amp stands and you're aware everything else I recommended for you came from industrial supply houses, any of it fall apart or rust on you? How many thousand of dollars of useless cables and equipment do you have lying around and you're worried about a hamburger priced power cord oxidizing years in the future? I guarantee that you & I will rust long before any of your power cords !

All this excitement and back & forth over what? The status quo! Let me repeat again, personally I don't care if people like or dislike CC and to be honest CC themselves care even less about this market and doubt they're even aware of our existence! With CC and other contrary things I'm supplying information that I know has helped many people. You only know me from this forum I've been around the industry for decades with a pretty good reputation around the world. If I can sell $100k+ electronics, turntables, etc. blind without even a website how much difficulty do you think I have walking in people's homes and load them up with whatever wire or tweak or acoustic crap I want? I earned this trust because I don't bullshit and try to help people where I can, otherwise I like money as much as the next guy. How many crap sounding systems with thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars of audiophile power cords are out there, how many with CC? I'm giving you a gift, do with it as you please.

david

Please read my post more carefully David - I was addressing the non DDK cables being sold at ebay or amazon as DDK CC replacements, not the cables you carefully selected and ordered directly from good sources. My reaction is just against any generalization from the cables you supplied to the jungle being sold at non audio sites - it is why I objected to the links being posted.

People such as me that got cables from you are very fortunate to profit from your experience, but it is an isolated happy case. Unless you or someone else are able to supply quality, tested CC type cables the probabilities of success are very low.

I am not worried about the price of the suspicious cables, just about the time to evaluate them and spreading misinformation on forums. Keeping an open mind also implies being realistic.

Anyway fortunately the excess gear and cables I have at home are not useless - I only still keep them because I have not yet taken any final decision. In due time I will try to sell the non-wanted, at that time I will discover what sells easily and what is hard to sell at low discounted prices.

BTW, I really know about the good electrical quality of your CC's - I had to change the plug just in one of them for a Schuko Euro connector and carefully analyzed the reminders.

 

Please read my post more carefully David - I was addressing the non DDK cables being sold at ebay or amazon as DDK CC replacements, not the cables you carefully selected and ordered directly from good sources. My reaction is just against any generalization from the cables you supplied to the jungle being sold at non audio sites - it is why I objected to the links being posted.

People such as me that got cables from you are very fortunate to profit from your experience, but it is an isolated happy case. Unless you or someone else are able to supply quality, tested CC type cables the probabilities of success are very low.

I am not worried about the price of the suspicious cables, just about the time to evaluate them and spreading misinformation on forums. Keeping an open mind also implies being realistic.

Anyway fortunately the excess gear and cables I have at home are not useless - I only still keep them because I have not yet taken any final decision. In due time I will try to sell the non-wanted, at that time I will discover what sells easily and what is hard to sell at low discounted prices.

BTW, I really know about the good electrical quality of your CC's - I had to change the plug just in one of them for a Schuko Euro connector and carefully analyzed the reminders.

Sorry if I misunderstood which cables you meat but between the two threads it's enough. The links are wrong and some of those cables aren't sonically any good.

david

 

Wonderful set up Anthony, congratulations! We are proud to be a part of your room!

Thank you,

Thank you Jarek. Your rack is stunning.

 

I spent the whole day yesterday listening to AS2000. I found vdH Master is so much better than MSL Platinum and SPU that these two cartridges sound broken. They are all on the same arms and TT. So the difference is sound should be due to cartridges themselves.

In my system, I do not hear sibilance with vdH Master. I can only hear glorious high, dynamics. Can anyone share their findings on vdH Master comparing with other cartridges?

 

I spent the whole day yesterday listening to AS2000. I found vdH Master is so much better than MSL Platinum and SPU that these two cartridges sound broken. They are all on the same arms and TT. So the difference is sound should be due to cartridges themselves.

In my system, I do not hear sibilance with vdH Master. I can only hear glorious high, dynamics. Can anyone share their findings on vdH Master comparing with other cartridges?

Anthony, have you use the calibration vinyl disc in CH P1 to setup the cartridge?

 

Anthony, have you use the calibration vinyl disc in CH P1 to setup the cartridge?

MSL and SPU are both on current mode. There is no need to calibrate. vdH is on voltage mode. I do use CH calibration LP to calibrate.

 

Anthony,
All 3 cartridges are on your 3012R arms and using the same P1x4.
Your comment looks fair but is stirring up the cartridge field!
Haha.

 

MSL and SPU are both on current mode. There is no need to calibrate. vdH is on voltage mode. I do use CH calibration LP to calibrate.

Have you swapped the MSL and SPU to voltage and visa versa for the VDH?

 

I spent the whole day yesterday listening to AS2000. I found vdH Master is so much better than MSL Platinum and SPU that these two cartridges sound broken. They are all on the same arms and TT. So the difference is sound should be due to cartridges themselves.

Another way to look at it could be that the VDH is more suited to the SME 3012R and/or AS2000 than the MSL and SPU. I have also heard that the MSL works beautifully with its own SPU. We also have to bear in mind personal preferences and genres of music played. Luckily for us there are a multitude of ways to interpret each combo. Perhaps you need to get another Master and lend me your MSL!