Visit to Marc C.'s (SpiritOfMusic's) House in England

[spiritofmusic]

Francisco, haven't you heard? I'm not to spend a single dime more on tweaks. Network boxes are OUT!

 

[bonzo75]

Things will never get boring as various wagers are taken as to whether Ked gets a system, and what goes in it.

Personally I think the next Ice Age is more likely to happen first.

I'm almost tempted to get Apogees so that I have them ahead of someone who's been bigging them up as far back as I can remember.

Ked will have inspired the first purchase to be made on the criterion of "Oh heck, it had better be me!".

Marc, I am motivating myself to get a system by advising you

https://qz.com/work/1363911/two-psychologists-have-a-surprising-theory-on-how-to-get-motivated/

 

[spiritofmusic]

Hey Ked, you let me spend the cash so you don't have to.

 

[KeithR]

For me SOTA spkrs can only mean some kind of outperforming set of horns I can use my Nats with.
Perhaps AG Trios w BassHorns if I can chance across some at a good price.

Your room screams for Trios w/ Basshorns. You can even keep the rest of your entire system. Done.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Keith, don't you know it's audiophiles who do the screaming.

 

[microstrip]

Francisco, haven't you heard? I'm not to spend a single dime more on tweaks. Network boxes are OUT!

I know. It is why I said Rockports are not convenient to you - their designer uses and recommends network cables!

 

[spiritofmusic]

Francisco, they were never a practical possibility. And even less so now.

 

[LL21]

I know. It is why I said Rockports are not convenient to you - their designer uses and recommends network cables!

If a designer as well respected as Andy Payor (and David Wilson) are happy with network cables (in both cases, Transparent Audio), works for me. I think both actually use TA in their speakers as well.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Rockport speakers are a bit OT.
I'm not buying a pair, and I've always said if I go back to SS, which I'd have to do to run Rockports in my 800 sq ft space, my choice would be Apogees.

And if it's true Transparent cables are the natural fit here, then definitely no.

Hey, I always used to spend Mike Lavigne's hard earned LOL.

 

[infinitely baffled]

My apologies if this has been covered elsewhere....

May i ask what you don't like about Transparent cables?

I haven't got an angle, just curious

 

[spiritofmusic]

Oh Gavin, more that I've found the cables I'm not moving beyond.

I did try a Transparent i/c once some years back, but didn't feel it sufficiently beat my Audience Au24 at the time.

And now I'm past Audience to Sablon.

If Rockport really demands Transparent, well...

 

[Zero000]

Rockport speakers are a bit OT.
I'm not buying a pair, and I've always said if I go back to SS, which I'd have to do to run Rockports in my 800 sq ft space, my choice would be Apogees.

And if it's true Transparent cables are the natural fit here, then definitely no.

Hey, I always used to spend Mike Lavigne's hard earned LOL.

I can just see you trying to optimise a pair of high performance Apogees. It would border on unparalleled obsession since the level of information you suddenly would find yourself exposed to would mean a 10 year search and massive spend on various ideas of how to get the best out of them.

Utlimately I almost guarantee you will end up using high powered valve amplification, not solid state. You being you. You just won't like solid state on them.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Justin, the weird thing about SS v tubes dichotomies is that there are times when I truly just prefer SS.

What's the chances that I would prefer 15W Class AB SS Bakoon on 109dB eff Cessaro Liszts horns over 40W Class A Tron 211 tubes?

That makes no sense at all.

Gavin makes a persuasive case for Boulder SS having a very fluid, tube-like sensibility.

And remember, my Zus on 70W 211s are rounded out by 300W Class D SS subs. Even 101dB Zus in my size of room needs that SS "oomph" to truly energise that space.

Re top Apogees, since 5-5.5' is the very maximum ht of spkrs I can accommodate, only Duettas and Scintillas will fit in here.

And if I go the Scintillas route, then tubes will absolutely not cut it.

Alas this is the issue on going down the rabbit hole like Alice - I could end up in highly dynamic hugely transparent Wonderland as per your Duettas setup.

Or in purgatory re the Divas/Spectral setup I heard a year ago, that is a purely audio by numbers exercise.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Last area for me to try and do a reasonably stringent comparison is on speaker isolation.

I'm currently a-b.ing these Lead footers from Jeff's Sound Answers versus my stock Zu steel spikes, both on Symposium Svelte Shelves.

I'm looking at getting in Arya Audio RevOPods to try, and similar concept IsoAcoustics Gaias, these won't utilise the Symposiums under.

And finally Z-Axis Audio Mirage spkr platforms, that I'll use instead of the Symposiums, but reusing the stock spikes v Jeff's footers.

In effect I'm isolating the spkrs, but also the subs and sub amps, so the correct final choice of footers here could be significant.

I may well find I prefer plain 'ol stock spikes in the end.

 

[bonzo75]

What about Townsend speaker platforms

 

[spiritofmusic]

Ked, I tried them in the London room ahead of settling on Symposium Rollerblocks isolation. Good, interesting, but Symposium won out.

Then a chance conversation in the new room w Audiophile Bill got me to reinstall my spikes, and out went the Rollerblocks too.

Rollerblocks under spkrs, along w Mooks under gear, have been the only two tweaks that worked in London, but deleterious here.

 

[spiritofmusic]

For me, getting as optimal as possible Zu full range drivers integration w the inbuilt subs is in some ways the last frontier for my system, maybe or maybe not in conjunction w room treatments.

My full range drivers cross over to the subs at 40Hz.

I'd always struggled and basically failed to get this right in my London flat, holding back fuller Zu performance.

This is a whole different kettle of fish then spkrs that cross from mids horns to woofers at 170Hz.

Here, the room acoustics plus recent tweaks have finally got me a whole lot closer to what I want/need,
the ability of the main drivers to shine, subs only truly augmenting deep bass info, yet my room fully energised and finally much less slur into lower mids/upper bass.
And in conjunction w my 50'x30' total span suspended timber floor, and the subs being downfiring, if specialist footers like the RevOPods or Gaias can make things on the subs integration/spkrs isolation front more effective, it could be really worthwhile.

Beyond this the only place I have to go is some Rollerblocks isolation of my Entreq boxes, and the aforementioned room treatments.

I'm truly hoping that the spkrs isolation reduces the need to go crazy on room treatments.

Acustica Applicata thruout is the best part of £15-25k if I deck out the room, multiple PSI AVAAs and GIK Gotham Quadratic diffusers close to £15k too.

I'll take steps to measure my room re expensive treatments, let's see if c£1200 on the spkr pods helps first.

 

[bonzo75]

Have you thought of adding phenolic resin to the cabinet to reduce vibration

 

[spiritofmusic]

Er, no.

But Sean the Zu designer has.

The new line of spkrs have resin/wood composite cabinets, in effect to boost stiffness but reduce weight.

The full range drivers are also Nano coated, in effect impregnated to again increase stiffness/weight ratio.

These have already been put into the new Druid VI that Ron gave a big thumbs up to, Sean is next working on how to incorporate these in my model to produce the next generation.

 

[KeithR]

For me, getting as optimal as possible Zu full range drivers integration w the inbuilt subs is in some ways the last frontier for my system, maybe or maybe not in conjunction w room treatments.

My full range drivers cross over to the subs at 40Hz.

I'm sorry Marc, but setting the active woofers shouldn't be that hard. You can always hire an acoustician to come out and do the setup as well with room measurement gear if you're that anal.