Ron’s New System

[Ron Resnick]

Sounds good the vid .

Thanks, but in SOTA terms it's actually lacking resolution and "aliveness." Denon DP-62 + Hana SL sitting on a marble accent table with an aluminum frame on the carpeted floor is just not going to provide SOTA vinyl playback resolution, I suspect.




I am happy the video suggests that the system is breaking in, and that all or almost all of the original brightness is gone.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Ron - Are you able to play the same tape jazz piece you played when recording the older Maggie's? That would allow you to have a 'like for like' comparison for those who heard (and like me thoroughly enjoyed) the Maggie jazz tape performance.

I have been meaning to do this very thing myself.

 

[bonzo75]

I will concede that when the same exact recording is played in the same format and the same pressing on two familiar systems there can be value in comparing the videos.

But that is exactly what we are doing. If you go to my channel there are playlists for rock, violin, piano, cello, orchestral, etc. in each playlist you can find some systems playing the same recording. Tang is playing some similar recordings to mine on his channel, as are others.

 

[gds7368]

Beautiful sound, Ron! What's your typical listening volume?

 

[KeithR]

1) The woofer tower level went up from -5.5 to -4.5.

2) The crossover width went up from setting 3 to setting 1. (I had been told by a friend that setting 3 was the softest slope.)

3) Rune and Anthony carefully measured the distances from the woofer towers to their respective side walls, and from the panels to the front wall, and equalized those distances. (I can move easily the panels, but when I try to move the woofer towers, all that happens is that they move me.)

This had the effect of moving the right woofer tower a few inches in towards the middle, which moved the panel a few inches in towards the middle, which moved the panels a few inches closer together.

4) Rune changed the toe-in slightly.

5) Rune moved the listening chair forward towards the speakers a little bit.

Just getting back to this but but I'm less than impressed with this group effort. You deserve a lot more for paying what you did. If I understand it, they didn't play with speaker/panel position within your room to optimize bass and midrange smoothness. Now dipoles have unique challenges on setup, and I fully admit to not knowing the best route (1/3, 2/3 or other dipole methods like Magnepan) but fundamentally it seems like they accepted your initial speaker position and just adjusted settings. Maybe I'm wrong and there was some kind of computer calculated setup using the room dimensions, but this just seems like cutting corners on a SOTA loudspeaker system.

 

[Ron Resnick]

But that is exactly what we are doing. If you go to my channel there are playlists for rock, violin, piano, cello, orchestral, etc. in each playlist you can find some systems playing the same recording. Tang is playing some similar recordings to mine on his channel, as are others.

I hear you, but you're leaving out one of my personal conditions: "familiar systems." This means, for me, that you have been in front of both systems in real life prior to trying to interpret videos about them recorded subsequent to in-person visits.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Beautiful sound, Ron! What's your typical listening volume?

85dB to 90dB

 

[Ron Resnick]

Just getting back to this but but I'm less than impressed with this group effort. You deserve a lot more for paying what you did. If I understand it, they didn't play with speaker/panel position within your room to optimize bass and midrange smoothness. Now dipoles have unique challenges on setup, and I fully admit to not knowing the best route (1/3, 2/3 or other dipole methods like Magnepan) but fundamentally it seems like they accepted your initial speaker position and just adjusted settings. Maybe I'm wrong and there was some kind of computer calculated setup using the room dimensions, but this just seems like cutting corners on a SOTA loudspeaker system.

I am very happy with what they did, and they did everything I expected them to do. We did not perform the final stage tower experimentation and repositioning project of moving the towers a 1/4" here, a 1/2" there to smooth out in-room frequency response.

But, as you have advised me, the system was not at all broken in. In fact, at that point, the system had been uncrated for only a few days, still getting accustomed merely to breathing American air. I think that critical stage of 1/4" here, a 1/2" there tower repositioning and fine-tuning does not even make sense to undergo until the system is fully broken in.

 

[Alrainbow]

How it looks in specs and how it sounds are most times not the same
if the Maggie’s seemed rolled and I’m not a fan of rolled off period. This can give more energy to Mids
making a piano have more impact and dynamics
in NC if I turn off the tweeters it shows me what the Mids and lower really sound like. each driver and Drew’s at varying loudness causes issues.
Many ways it’s why some like certain genres
if your system is under powered you don’t get the scale it really needs , same if drivers are not working in sync or if let’s say the Mids lower freq get sucked out by room size or speaker placement
it why I said move them closer this might help Brightness as well.

 

[cjfrbw]

Might still be a hundred hours or more out from annealing and initial break in of equipment and ribbons. It sounds from vids like it is going well, and a horizon of a couple of months to get it up to good snuff. The room seems to have a nice resonant footprint for ambience starters.

I know it's probably posted already, but a stickie of room dimensions again, distance of speakers from walls and each other, and distance to listening seat from approximate midline?

 

[Tim Link]

Over my headphones that sounds remarkably free from room coloration.

 

[Gregadd]

If i May be presumptuous at this level should not have to settle for rolled -off highs. That is reserved for price-poimt speakers. IMO

 

[Ron Resnick]

If i May be presumptuous at this level should not have to settle for rolled -off highs. That is reserved for price-poimt speakers. IMO

Rolled off highs referred to the Magnepan 1.6s.

 

[Alrainbow]

My 3.6r are not rolled off but dirt cheap

 

[Ron Resnick]

Ron - Are you able to play the same tape jazz piece you played when recording the older Maggie's? That would allow you to have a 'like for like' comparison for those who heard (and like me thoroughly enjoyed) the Maggie jazz tape performance.

I am so not attuned to jazz, I couldn't find the excerpt I recorded on the Magnepans. This might be close.

 

[Gregadd]

if you mean you don't know the name of the cut you can download an app that will tell you.

 

[Alrainbow]

if you mean you don't know the name of the cut you can download an app that will tell you.

Shazam

 

[Alrainbow]

I am so not attuned to jazz, I couldn't find the excerpt I recorded on the Magnepans. This might be close.

Amazing Ron really nice on my phone.source ? Tape ?

 

[Gregadd]

Shazam

That's what I use. I carry it with me to the hi-fi show. That way I don't have to bug the moderator.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Amazing Ron really nice on my phone.source ? Tape ?

Soular Energy on tape