Doctor's Orders-Part Two-The New Listening Room Of Steve Williams

[ALF]

Sweet, Steve...tweaks are like medications, they all have their side-effects; if you run into an internist, they become additive and cumulative .

Cheers!

Okay, I am like-minded with David, the message here was, "less is more." Once starting down this slippery slope, you can keep treating symptoms of the previous actions...a little more to the left, now a little more to the right...it becomes a virus, simply untreatable...as you mentioned earlier, David gave you tempoary relief; as a earlier song about California mentioned something like, "deadhead sticker on a Cadillac , go can't go back..." Since you like the, "raw and unadorned," I would suggest that you simply follow that theme, listen to heart and resist the urge to muddle-it-up...mho.

Btw, do you now feed your lammies directly into the wall?

Really love the new additions!

Happy Listening Steve!
Alan

 

[steve williams]

Okay, I am like-minded with David, the message here was, "less is more." Once starting down this slippery slope, you can keep treating symptoms of the previous actions...a little more to the left, now a little more to the right...it becomes a virus, simply untreatable...as you mentioned earlier, David gave you tempoary relief; as a earlier song about California mentioned something like, "deadhead sticker on a Cadillac , go can't go back..." Since you like the, "raw and unadorned," I would suggest that you simply follow that theme, listen to heart and resist the urge to muddle-it-up...mho.

Btw, do you now feed your lammies directly into the wall?

Really love the new additions!

Happy Listening Steve!
Alan

All good advice Alan. David was perfectly clear about that exact point. Once you go down the hole you are always looking for another fix and/or a shift to one side or the other to balance the previous tweak. The message indeed is "less is more". The only way to find out is to remove one at a time. My ML3s each go directly into their own dedicated 30amp circuit

 

[steve williams]

Alan
Perfect advice when you say "resist your temptation"

 

[ALF]

Thanks Steve...I must say, you treat your ML3s better than me; mine are on a diet, 20amps

Cheers!
Alan

 

[steve williams]

My friend has his amps on 40 amp diet

 

[ALF]

My friend has his amps on 40 amp diet

Chunky!

 

[PeterA]

Steve, I just looked again at your new room photos. That CM rack is gorgeous. The look is very clean without other supports under your new AF1. Did you consider the HRS shelf which is custom made for the AF1? Are users moving away from that additional isolation?

I also noticed a small wooden column in the left rear corner of the room. What is that?

Finally, do you have wood under that wall to wall carpet? I wonder if you discussed with David whether all of that carpet is contributing to a less lively sound on the front wall.

 

[steve williams]

I did consider it Peter but having read some of the science behind the rack, getting a lot of positive feedback from JackD who uses one as well, I felt I could achieve the same or better with a Black Diamond upper shelf. All I can say is if the HRS is better it isn't by much. There is also a Maxxum rack system that would always allow me to switch at a later date but I am happy. Finally I had opportunity to discuss the rack and my measurements necessary to house the TT and the Lamm LP1 with Joe Lavrencik the owner of CMS. I checked the patents and found his science very interesting.

The small wooden tube in the rear of the room was always there but as Hi-Fi Guy noticed there was some movement in my room as I took out the small table in that corner that housed my laser lights as well as that tube which is a tuning tube that Bonnie Schnitta put in each corner. I also have larger tuning tubes in each rear corner behind the drapes. When the table was removed I put that tuning tube on the top of my Triton.

No wood under the carpet but there is an underpaid as well as another OEM product of Bonnie Schnitta called Noise Out

 

[ddk]

Steve, I just looked again at your new room photos. That CM rack is gorgeous. The look is very clean without other supports under your new AF1. Did you consider the HRS shelf which is custom made for the AF1? Are users moving away from that additional isolation?

I also noticed a small wooden column in the left rear corner of the room. What is that?

Finally, do you have wood under that wall to wall carpet? I wonder if you discussed with David whether all of that carpet is contributing to a less lively sound on the front wall.

There are a lot of things going on in Steve's room and we only had a couple of days which included setting up his turntable. Everything is interdependent, hard to say if the carpet is a problem prior to working out a few other things first. Wood flooring isn't always the right solution specially in a smaller room.

david

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

No wood under the carpet but there is an underpaid as well as another OEM product of Bonnie Schnitta called Noise Out

Unless I missed it, there is clearly wood underneath the carpet in the build pictures you posted, yes! Typo?

 

[steve williams]

well there is indeed a subfloor. I thought the question referred to a wood plank floor with carpet over top

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

Ah! Oh ok!

 

[rockitman]

Nice choice for your first hi end TT Steve. Welcome back to the club. I suggest you remove the motor cover when you play records...as you can tell, it is not solidly affixed and will introduce un-needed resonant vibration frequencies, little as they may be to the sound...remember, everything matters with LP playback. Again, congrats and happy spinning.

 

[david.m]

Congratulations on the AF1, will be interesting to see in 6 months time what % of your listening is still digital. It's about 2.5 yrs since I returned to vinyl & I regularly go a week or 2 where the MPS-5 sits untouched. What I didn't quite foresee was what I would spend on n/mint UK/US 1st presses to replace my inferior Australian LPs I've had since the 70's (& the frustration with the at times almost fraudulent ebay gradings!). No turning back now

 

[garylkoh]

Once you've gone black, there's no turning back.

Steve, you now have 48 pages of Hot Pressings to go through

I would advise patience. Don't let the eBay sellers get you at the top prices. LP 1st press prices are far more volatile than the stock market. You also get the occasional gem at rock bottom prices even on eBay. It is a pity that GEMM just shut down. Discogs has far more stable prices but can be higher compared to eBay. In general, I find that Amazon used vinyl is always too expensive.

 

[bonzo75]

This is awesome Steve, and congrats. Now all you have to do is follow stehno's method to handle the vibrations

 

[steve williams]

Congratulations on the AF1, will be interesting to see in 6 months time what % of your listening is still digital. It's about 2.5 yrs since I returned to vinyl & I regularly go a week or 2 where the MPS-5 sits untouched. What I didn't quite foresee was what I would spend on n/mint UK/US 1st presses to replace my inferior Australian LPs I've had since the 70's (& the frustration with the at times almost fraudulent ebay gradings!). No turning back now

Once you've gone black, there's no turning back.

Steve, you now have 48 pages of Hot Pressings to go through

I would advise patience. Don't let the eBay sellers get you at the top prices. LP 1st press prices are far more volatile than the stock market. You also get the occasional gem at rock bottom prices even on eBay. It is a pity that GEMM just shut down. Discogs has far more stable prices but can be higher compared to eBay. In general, I find that Amazon used vinyl is always too expensive.

I must admit that I haven't listening to digital in a week. The sound between the two is so different. Best word to describe what I hear is how clean and open the sound is

 

[steve williams]

Nice choice for your first hi end TT Steve. Welcome back to the club. I suggest you remove the motor cover when you play records...as you can tell, it is not solidly affixed and will introduce un-needed resonant vibration frequencies, little as they may be to the sound...remember, everything matters with LP playback. Again, congrats and happy spinning.

Thanks for the advice Christian

 

[rockitman]

Thanks for the advice Christian

Of course I don't have objective measurements to support my theory...just common sense and experience. Cheers !

 

[steve williams]

Of course I don't have objective measurements to support my theory...just common sense and experience. Cheers !

Indeed it is.