An evening with Mike Lavigne

[gian60]

I think is better don’t come,for him,and go on to listen your system in video

 

[Gregadd]

Beautiful home in a gorgeous environment...in and out.

Agreed, ut I don/t think that is the primary residence.

 

[NorthStar]

There is also the garage and above it where Mike has his home theater room I believe.

 

[Legolas]

Do you like listening to music with headphones Al, Mike, everyone?

"I don't play in the dark."

Do you know dark games?

YES!!

 

[NorthStar]

Me too, occasionally and safely.

Or do you mean that you know some dark games?
_____

MikeL, I don't recall seeing a pair of headphones in your listening room?

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Me too, occasionally and safely.

Or do you mean that you know some dark games?
_____

MikeL, I don't recall seeing a pair of headphones in your listening room?

back in 2010 and 2011 i dived deep into headphone and headphone amplifiers, to investigate for myself whether they could tell me things my speakers could not.

in this thread from back then i talk about my headphone forays.

https://www.whatsbestforum.com/thre...ng-headphone-amp-designers.16239/#post-294569

turns out headphones don't tell me as much as my speakers, however the best of them do get close to my previous speakers. but not close to my current ones.

i sold my headphone gear to help fund my amp and speaker upgrade back then. i truly enjoyed my time with top level headphones and really enjoyed the headphone lovers. it's an intense group. want to know where future 2 channel audiophiles might come from, it might be these guys.

 

[Audiophile Bill]

Hi Mike/All,

I have been trying a Daiza in my system and today received 3 more for my preamp, preamp power supply, and power amp. My goodness, my system improved dramatically. These are the biggest no brainer out there imho. I will Daiza the whole system.

My piccies are too large a file it seems.

 

[Audiophile Bill]

 

[Audiophile Bill]

 

[Audiophile Bill]

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Bill, nice pictures!

those are the new Dazia footers. i have 2 sets of those coming (to replace my gen 1 footers) for my Tana LPS's sitting on a hardwood floor, and another 2 Dazia's coming so i'll have a total of 10 Dazia's.

 

[NorthStar]

View attachment 50568

What is it?

Mike, why the design, why the three "pucks"?

 

[Tango]

View attachment 50568

Hi Bill,

Is this the whole set with wooden board? Under what component did you initially try under?

Kind regards,
Tang

 

[Mike Lavigne]

What is it?

Mike, why the design, why the three "pucks"?

I’ve asked Emile or Ed from Taiko to answer you. I could give you an intuitive answer....educated guess.

They know

 

[stehno]

John,

postulated shootouts between different systems on an on-line forum are really not productive. i don't want to pooh pooh the value or lack thereof of videos, but i've not paid enough interest to them to really attach particular weight to them. you will notice i never comment on them from anyone, because i don't listen to them. maybe i should.

instead; since you live only a few hours south of me on I-5 maybe you could venture up here to my place sometime, we can play your recordings, and you can listen for yourself. then let'r rip once you've actually heard your recordings in my system. and maybe i have versions of your recordings you may find interesting. it would be fun.

i have a great deal of interest in the things you seem to focus on too. likely we have more in common in our views than not.

hope you can do it.

best regards,

Mike

Hi, Mike. I agree about the postulated shootout thing not being very productive. But I do think utilizing in-room recordings more in the forums can be a huge benefit because until now, we could only take others at their word.

Anyway, thanks for the invite and honestly I think it would be fun. Perhaps later this spring or summer I'll take you up on your invitation.

 

[Taiko Audio]

Hi Bill,

Is this the whole set with wooden board? Under what component did you initially try under?

Kind regards,
Tang

Hi Tang,

Yes it's the whole set. Wooden board + footers. Initially a NVO Spa II SE phonostage, posted in a different thread:

Hello All,

I received my demonstration Daiza from Emile first thing this morning.

The packaging and finish of the product are absolutely first class. My goodness, Tankwood (Panzerholz) isn’t bulletproof for nothing - the weight feels similar to granite of similar dimensions lol.

I inserted this under the NVO Spa II SE phonostage. Incredible results achieved immediately with an overall gain in solidity across all frequencies with deeper insight and deeper textured bass. Amazingly things to be bedding in with some changes over time - seem to be gaining resolution and decay. No idea how such changes occur but can only surmise that as vibrational energy within a product drains out slowly, it reaches a steady state? Maybe Emile can weigh in.

Anyway - I put my money where my mouth is and ordered for all my Mayer amps. I am looking to commission a monster for the Vyger too lol.

Emile - feel free to share this post somewhere else - I don’t want to contaminate your SGM Extreme thread but wasn’t sure where else to post.

 

[Taiko Audio]

What is it?

Mike, why the design, why the three "pucks"?

Hi NorthStar,

This design has underwent several iterations. Initially we were looking for a material to extend the Tana (modified tablestable/herzan active platform) attenuation up to high frequencies, we then "discovered" panzerholz, or tankwood to have some very unique damping characteristics. This material is mainly used for bullet proofing armoured vehicles and for reducing vibration in large transformer cores (powerplant sized).

As with all objects with defined physical characteristics we discovered it had some dominant modal nodes dictated by material properties and physical dimensions. We then went through a lot of trial and error trying to eliminate those to get an even frequency response from the board and we came up with the cnc machined spiral pattern visible on the photo's above.

Next we wanted to be able to use them as standalone boards and we came up with the footers which have a strong deliberate "impedance mismatch" between board and surface it's placed on, floor, rack, other shelf, it does not matter much.

This is the version we've been selling up till a few months ago, we have now revised the footers (this is actually version 25 or so), which surprisingly at least doubles the entire platform's performance.

The whole setup converts a significant amount of vibration induced energy to heat, mainly by friction and is about as devoid of self colouration as it gets. We have not come across other products doing the exact same thing so far, so I feel it's safe to say it's a somewhat unique product.

It very significantly reduces vibration induced distortion in components removing annoyances like smear, harshness and imaging instability. It improves dynamic range and reveals previously covered up micro detail, texture and recording venue cues.

One word of warning, especially for digital systems, it is advisable to take note of your volume control setting before using them as when you remove this much distortion from your system you will be inclined to increase your volume to get the same "loudness" feel, combined with the increased dynamic response this can increase strain on your loudspeakers. I generally advice to adjust yourself to the new sound for a few days after which you will not feel the need to increase volume anymore. Especially the removal of distortion induced sibilance and upper mid and high frequency harshness, a common problem in aluminium housings, will make the system volume appear to be set lower.

3 pucks are better then 4 or more, but with increased weight loading the differences between them become very small.

 

[NorthStar]

Thank you mister Taiko.

 

[Taiko Audio]

Fun fact: You may notice some additional holes in the copper discs, grounding these discs give you a ballpark same difference as grounding equipment cases. Food for thought

 

[NorthStar]

I like the spiral; does sound (vibes) enter it?