Back in the saddle again - kind of

kach22i

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Apr 21, 2010
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After almost 5 years of not playing my stereo regularly I hooked my stereo back up yesterday - it was like kissing an old girlfriend.

Long story, but I decided to get into physical shape about 10 years ago.

4 years of mostly watching what I eat and increasing activity including experimenting with some manual labor for 1-1/2 years.

3-1/2 years of working out 6 days a week (at very serious levels), 1/2 year of every other day workouts.

Then came moving out of our house of 27 years, 6 months of prep, 6 months of moving in (similar to dead lifts).

Two days ago I decided to unpack my stereo despite having made plans/design for building some wall and laying out lots of Mass Loaded Vinyl soundproofing.

Well, later in the afternoon yesterday I was able to play music once again.

About 20 minutes of FM radio, mostly fuddling with my quickly crafted split wire antenna and positioning it (FM 107.1 WQKL).

About 25 minutes of a Nil Lara CD rescued from my truck because the Eco-friendly cardboard was looking tired.

And the last track on ELP's Lucky Man LP, "Lucky Man" the song. I looked for my Gnarls Barkley (Crazy) LP but my wife had come home, time for dinner.

Overall the acoustics were more friendly than I ever had reason to expect.

I did tweak the location of my DIY center-stage absorber, and did toe back out the left channel near a wall, but other than that it was a room with good bones.

Now I know what the room sounds like without any room treatment or isolation (or purpose built walls).

One good thing is the open stairwell allows almost all of the frequencies into the upper living level (walk out listening basement room).

What this means is, unlike our old house you hear more than bass booming upstairs, you hear music.

This is important because I could not play my stereo in my old place with my wife upstairs and me downstairs, it really was unbearable upstairs.

My home office is now in the lower level stereo room, so I have tunes while I work if I want them. I've had a difficult time putting in hours with just a portable radio that poorly gets in one or two radio stations, been starving for some real music.

One curious thing, my old Martin Logan - Aerius speakers look smaller than I remembered them despite the new space have a slightly less than 7-foor high ceiling. I guess that without sandbox platforms or concrete patio platforms under them (I have a concrete floor slab + carpet now) they are a few inches shorter.

So imagine not consuming one of your favorite foods (or drink) for five years, then getting a taste of it - that's what it was like.

Kind of like getting your old sports car back on the road again come spring time, nothing like it.

Back in the saddle again.

EDIT:

Because it is easier to stay in shape than to get into shape I hope to do more stereo listening from now on. It really is hard to have more than one hobby at a time, but will manage like everyone else does.
 
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kach22i

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Apr 21, 2010
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Ann Arbor, Michigan
www.kachadoorian.com
Uncoiled my long runs of Nordost that are being used in a much shorter run now.

Huge improvement across the board, especially in the bass.

Could be combination of lowering inductance by uncoiling, and system warmed up with stats plugged in for 24 hours.

Really cooking now.
 
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spiritofmusic

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Kach, I spent 12 months w my system in cold storage as we had our new place renovated and audio room built. A very long 12 months.
 

kach22i

WBF Founding Member
Apr 21, 2010
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Ann Arbor, Michigan
www.kachadoorian.com
Kach, I spent 12 months w my system in cold storage as we had our new place renovated and audio room built. A very long 12 months.
I know that storing a system or just moving it has it's quirks.

For instance, all the connections newly tightened, there can be an improvement, especially if you bother to clean them.

Amps on standby verses unplugged and cold are going to sound different.

An in my case the Martin Logans (hybrid stats) were thoroughly vacuumed and cleaned before plugging in.

There was a significant difference between 24 minutes of being plugged in verses 24 hours, and I expect further improvements on day 3 (today).

So why this improvement?

I think I know the answer, but looking for differing perspectives.
 

spiritofmusic

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Jun 13, 2013
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Ked is convinced people need to have periods where they stop listening to their systems, or deliberately mix it up.

I can kinda get the perspective/familiarity breeds (unconcious) contempt. However I'm not zen enough, let alone wealthy enough, to just discard a whole system or major components for this philosophy.

However, putting my system away for an extended period, installing in a whole new room, and getting a good regular live classical concerts input, certainly has got me valuing what my system did well at, and what needed to improve.

I never would have learnt these invaluable lessons in a month of Sundays, had my move here to the chapel never transpired.
 
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kach22i

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Apr 21, 2010
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www.kachadoorian.com
Now I am getting pickier.

Redid the tonearm balance and anti-skating, an improvement. I think this should have been done before anything else, oh well live and learn.

Now I have an FM reception issue.

Tried a single core wire 75 ohm, and 300 ohm loop hung in the window.

Both are about the same so so performance in my rural area, roof top antenna this spring is planned.

However, odd thing is when I place my hand near tuner, amp or preamp a hard to reach station goes out.

The pieces are stacked above and below each other on dedicated shelves.

I suspect the Furman power rack that everything is plugged into is to blame.

Tried moving the Furman above preamp and below tuner with same issue waving my hand in front of the pieces.

Ideas?

EDIT:

Sound-stage is a bit lopsided, but like a good pair of boobs it's still fun to play with.

In another thread people were talking about adding weight to speakers, so I added 35 lbs to each speaker, made a huge difference in my case FYI (carpet on concrete).

Filled a window with acoustic foam and closed the blinds - this really brought together the center stage as the window is near middle of the front wall.

Put a rectangular pillow in the front right corner, helped a little.

Feeling like it's a serious listing room despite most of my CD's still in boxes.

Oh, and I put my brass weights back on the turntable plinth, every little bit helps.
 
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kach22i

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Apr 21, 2010
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UPDATE:

Allegedly it takes 3-4 days of Martin Logan's plugged to start sound their best.

I can say that the rumors are true, don't know why, that's just the way it is.

I found a grounded outlet to plug my system into, plus plugged in a half dozen wall wart looking Quiet Lines.

I also moved a few boxes out of the way that were giving me early first reflections, something usually not a M/L issue, but my room is small.

This progression of development and changes have made a huge difference in everything including centering the sound-stage, increasing depth and frequency response.

Now I can get nit picky about the old 60 watt solid state Dynaco amp, I now plan on replacing it with my home theater 100 watt two channel Rotel from about 1990.

The strong point of the Dynaco is it can do the metal strings on Clapton's Unplugged CD so that my fingers wince from the memory of pressing down on steel strings it's that realistic.

However, on my Colorbox LP (also have on CD), the female vocalist is a little too edgy (over time) compared to the warmth I recall my 100 watt tube amp achieving.

I suspect the Rotel will be a compromise of the two extreems, or at least that's the best I feel I can look foreward to.

Again, I never expected this room to sound so good, it may even support my subwoofer that has been HT use only for decades.

The narrow placement of the speakers isn't bugging me so much, as the power sourcing and other changes lets the music leave the speakers.

Once I knock out the closet wing wall (one layer of drywall thick) or at least poke some holes in it I will pick up at least another foot of separation.
 

kach22i

WBF Founding Member
Apr 21, 2010
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Ann Arbor, Michigan
www.kachadoorian.com
I had quite an interesting evening last night.

Took the Dynaco 120A amp out and replaced it with a 1990's vintage Rotel RB-870BX, a 100 watt S.S. amp.

The Rotel didn't have quite the bass slam of similar priced Carver S.S. amps of the era, but easily bested the Carver's detail and fluidity. The Rotel dealership back in the day also sold Adcom, and they were extremely similar in sonic profile with the Rotel having a slight edge in upper frequency detail and nuance.

Here is what was right and wrong with the Dynaco verses the Rotel.

1. The first thing I noticed when putting the Rotel into the system is that waving my hand in front of the top three shelves of components no longer interfered with FM reception, and the signals came in cleaner and clearer.

2. The lopsidedness was gone, the left channel was there in full. Something is definitely going bad in the Dynaco, probably another capacitor like 6-years ago.

3. My tube pre-amp seemed to be running cooler, the Rotel amp never got warm either.

4. The edginess of steel guitar strings, subwoofer-like bass, shrilly female vocals, and angry male vocals of the Dynaco were gone, and replaced with the Rotel's relaxing and nothing missing or emphasized balance.

5. The Rotel is not the last word in deep bass slam, at least not with speakers that can go down to 2-ohms. So I hooked up my M&K MX-80 push-pull subwoofer via the pre-amp's second outputs. As usual the volume sounded best at 1/8th of capacity and crossover at lowest point 37 Hz. I might try switching R&L inputs just to see if there is a difference.

The success I've had with subwoofer and supertweeters in the system when tied into main speaker lines has always come at the price of compromised sound-stage. Martin Logan's just do not tolerate any tomfoolery and do not like sharing - selfish beotches they be.

On a scale of 1-10 with my big tube amps as the 10 (once I get them working again), I say the Dynaco scores a 4.5 (in need of repair), the Rotel 6.5, and the Rotel with subwoofer a 7.5.................

I'm still in boxes six months after moving out of a home of 27 years. Admittedly the room is a mess, but getting the stereo in fair working order is inspiring me to get the rest of my house in order.

EDIT-1:

The buggy drawer on my McIntosh DC player that had a mind of it's own has become a non-issue suddenly.

For years (7-ish), and I had it in the local shop twice for this problem, the fix never lasted more than a week, push the open button and the drawer would open but the second I touched it to put the disc in it would close on me.

Often I would push the open button and it would open and close never giving me a moment to insert a disc.

Well, I tried pushing the open button more than once.

Twice, same problem.

Three times, a charm.

Push the open button 3-times and the drawer would open and stay open until the button was pushed again.

I did this a half dozen times and it worked every time.

Then I forgot and accidentally pushed the "open/close" button once.............and it worked!

In fact pushing the open/close button kept working all evening long, then I switched to LP's.

Maybe a sensor or contact was dirty and just using my CD player more fixed the problem, I don't know.

SEE LAST IMAGE BELOW: So how many of you have similar stacks of equipment awaiting installation, repair or refurbishment?

Some of my stack is Home Theater stuff waiting for me to cut a hole in the drywall under the stairs for a flush mount. Others still work but need TLC, some do not work at all or very well and need an overhaul.

One of my stereo friends is far worse because he's done this with loudspeakers as well, and speakers take up more room.
 

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