Friday night listening

[Carlos269]

Carlos, with all the different setups and changes two questions come to mind.

1. Room acoustics and placement, how much attention does it gather?

2. Scratches, dents and connector fatigue, how do you avoid it?

Good questions; I have five or seven areas throughout my house where I have equipment installations. These all have varied room acoustics. My 35 plus years in the high-end audio hobby, which includes a 12 year exploration into the world of high-end mastering studios, combined with my professional career and academic background in physics and electrical engineering have taught me that every listening environment is not only different but most importantly dynamic. Without getting into the technical details, I will just give you a little nibble to ponder upon:

Sound travels at different speeds depending on the density of the surrounding air it is traveling through. Cold air is denser than warm air thus, travels slower than it would if the air was warmer. Temperature can have a major influence. Temperatures might vary wildly between listening environments and as the listening session progresses and the room warms up.

The speed of sound at room temperature is 346 meters per second. At freezing temperatures sound travels at 331 meters per second. In warmer rooms with solid state Class A equipment or tube equipment the temperature of the air is warmer and the speed of sound faster.

V = 331m/s + (0.6m/s/C) * T

Where V is the speed of sound and T is the temperature of the air. This formula finds the average speed of sound for any given temperature (Celsius).

The speed of sound is also affected by other factors such as humidity and air pressure.

As you can see there is much more to room acoustics besides golden ratio dimensions, diffraction, absorption, reflective surfaces, bass traps and ceiling heights.

To get to the punch line, what I’m getting at is that I’m not a subscriber into the need or requirement for purpose built dedicated rooms or extreme acoustical tweaking or make overs. While I do have dedicated areas through my house to install and listen to my systems, including a very large dedicated listening room that houses my reference system and seven other systems, I am less concerned about controlling the number of parameters that I cannot practically control. What matters is the end result, the convolution of the resultant vector of the acoustical conditions, as a step function, and the sound of the playback reproduction system, in other words how it sounds in the room in the listening environment. I think that many in this hobby lack technical acumen and simply follow trends such as these elaborate purpose built rooms that you so often see on this and other forums. There are better ways to achieve better sound if you simply better understand what is technically going on and all the factors involved.

For your second question, how to avoid scratches, dents and connector fatigue: in my world, I avoid this by having all aspects of the equipment handling, set-up, use and maintenance be under my control. While the equipment is under my control, no one else gets to touch it or use it. I have dedicated microfiber fabrics, which I also use on my Porsches and Moto-Guzzi’s, so I never handle the equipment with my bare hands to avoid tarnish. I also have dedicated specialty cleaners and polishers to maintain their good luster and appearance.

As you can gather, I’m not only OCD but an extremist in my exploration and dedication to the music and my musical reproduction playback equipment.

Getting back to your first question, a couple takeaways from the videos that I have posted on this thread, and the ones to follow as there are a number of my systems that I have yet to video, is that 1) I can achieve great sound from a variety of equipment, in different acoustical environments, to achieve quality systems 2) I like to own equipment that no one else has and would hate being a member of the flavor of the month club.

With respect to the videos, while these are not representative of the absolute sound being reproduced and heard in the room, they are sourced from the same music file and captured with the same recording device, which allows for a relative comparison and analysis of the reproduction and playback quality between my systems, in the snapshot of the listening conditions.

 

[kach22i]

You must know your rooms and various system combinations including the audio racks to a degree I cannot imagine.

I've been operating my system in my new environment for over a month now, and hardly a day goes by without some change.

Each change seems more delightful and profound that the one before it, my OCD is in overdrive I think.

I'm in the honeymoon phase of getting to know my room.

I'm trying to assign a similar phrase to your situation, perhaps a king and his harem?

 

[Carlos269]

You must know your rooms and various system combinations including the audio racks to a degree I cannot imagine.

I've been operating my system in my new environment for over a month now, and hardly a day goes by without some change.

Each change seems more delightful and profound that the one before it, my OCD is in overdrive I think.

I'm in the honeymoon phase of getting to know my room.

I'm trying to assign a similar phrase to your situation, perhaps a king and his harem?

You can assign the phrase “Precision Sound Reproduction Systems Curator” to me and my harem.

 

[cjfrbw]

You can assign the phrase “Precision Sound Reproduction Systems Curator” to me and my harem.

I think “Grand Vizier Precision Sound Reproduction Systems Curator”. Does anybody else ever get to hear this cornucopia?

 

[Carlos269]

I think “Grand Vizier Precision Sound Reproduction Systems Curator”. Does anybody else ever get to hear this cornucopia?

No, I don’t do this for others.

 

[Carlos269]

Another great listening session tonight. I listened to two of the other systems in my main dedicated listening room. The first one uses a Transrotor turntable into a Audion three chassis head-amp and phono stage and a multi-format universal disc player as a sources into the Gryphon Audio Elektra dual chassis preamplifier, with custom clear tops.

For tonight’s listening session only the digital disc player was used:



The Gryphon Audio Elektra drives a Goldmund Mimesis 29 Millennium edition, which powers a pair of Wilson Audio WITT Series II speakers:









I captured the reference track on the Gryphon, Goldmund, Wilson combo:

On the second half of tonight’s listening session, I listened to one of my most transparent systems. The source for this system is a Classe Audio CDP-502 reference CD player:



Into a Gryphon Audio Prelude preamplifier:



Which drives the 500 Watts per channel Gryphon Audio Encore dual monoblock stereo amplifier:





The Gryphon Encore powers what many consider Dale Pitcher’s finest work, the Intuitive Design Gamma Summit speakers:

 

[Carlos269]

This system excels with a truly disappearing act by the speakers, just the music in 3D space behind the plane of the speakers.









Here is the reference track on the Classe, Gryphon, Intuitive Design system:

I’m enjoying spending this much time at home listening to my systems. Still need to record some of the remaining big systems, for the video comparison analysis; will try to get them on video next week.

 

[Carlos269]

This week I have been listening to my large re-mastering system. This mastering system is capable of manipulating and adjusting every aspect of sound reproduction, in particular spatial information. It can adjust the soundstage, making it wider, narrower, deeper, shallower, taller, shorter. It can re-master all recordings and process them up to DSD256 with hardware and DSD512 and beyond with HQPlayer Pro. Through the use of spatial processors, including elliptical parametric equalizers, all aspects of the musical reproduction can be adjusted real time to align with my preferences.







The system is powered by 8 Class A monoblock amplifiers from Krell and NRG Control. This system can scale to loud concert spl levels, while at the same time providing the nuance of my SET DHT based horn systems.





I have curated the best of the best mastering gear from around the world with one goal in mind, to be able to adjust the musical presentation as is done in the worlds finest mastering studios, to that end some of the equipment was sourced from various studios including Sterling Sound and others.



For the reference track comparison, I removed all inserts processors and the track here is played back “dry” through the backbone of the system without any processing or manipulation, otherwise it would not be a fair comperison as the source would be different:

To many pieces of equipment to name but want to highlight that the reference track was played back through my Digital Audio Denmark AX24 DAC.





Next up I will video my Alon Wolf all out extreme and massive Audio Technology of Denmark pre-Magico speakers based system.

 

[kach22i]

If you ever want to play any of that equipment on the pie rack shelves while still on the shelf I found an acceptable way, at least for me until I build a proper rack.

I had similar racks in my old office, brought them home, put self adhesive 3/4" high X 1" wide dense foam rubber weather stripping on all the main rails front to back, about 6 of them at each shelf level, then sat the painted MDF shelf lon top. This kills the buzzing and dampens the MDF.

On the top shelf where my turntable is I placed strips of dense foam rubber from the edging of 2'x2' floor mats with a raised diamond pattern on top of the MDF, and sat a second shelf on top of that.

All sorts of bronze/brass weights with thin rubber or felt coasters on top of equipment as needed.

I do not think that you will ever need to clean an audio connection with all the swaps. I guess that is an upside to your method.

I cannot seem to be able to place a single reflective piece of art or glass faced picture in frame in my space without hating the resulting sonic compromise.

I guess your stuff is far enough from first and second reflection points.

In my small room nothing goes unnoticed, for better or for worse.

EDIT:

How does that Classe CD player stand up to your other players?

I have not seen one before.

 

[Carlos269]

The pie racks work just fine. I have not noticed any buzzing or have had any issues with them.

The Classe CDP-502 is an exceptional disc player. It is so good that I have not wanted to slap one of my DAC’s on its digital output. I have a Goldmund DAC that I intended to use with the Classe, as a transport, but found no need for it as the Classe sounds very nice and I like the touch screen display and HMI. I will use the Goldmund DAC with my Forsell Air Reference transport instead.

 

[dan31]

I dig all of the choices. Some rare equipment. How do you manage AC power through all of that gear? I’m guessing all shielded powercords ands IC’s.

 

[Carlos269]

I dig all of the choices. Some rare equipment. How do you manage AC power through all of that gear? I’m guessing all shielded powercords ands IC’s.

I have over 27 dedicated 120V & 240V 20 Amps circuits throughout my house for use with my equipment and systems. I also use hospital/medical grade power cords and outlets. I have a number of “Audiophile” power conditioners, including a unique beyond reference level Audio Magic Oracle that I use in my reference system, and other power supplies that I use where appropriate. But beyond that I don’t really concern myself too much. In my opinion some of the myriad of endless tweaks that you see on this and other forums are silly. In my view, it’s like fighting for crumbs on the floor, when there is real food on the table!

 

[Carlos269]

Today my wife let me spend so time with my system in the formal living room, as long as I did not move any of her items or bring any new equipment into the room. Since this is a shared space, I put together a minimalist system, although to my wife way too imposing for her taste:



The system is literally anchored by the massive 700 pound per side Alon Wolf custom thee way speakers. Alon designed and built these speakers for himself prior to starting Magico. These speakers were designed as an all out extreme implementation:





The speakers use the famed Focal Audiom TLR inverted titanium dome tweeter and custom Audio Technology of Denmark midrange and bass drivers. The speakers construction is massive and robust all solid billet aircraft grade aluminum.





Because of the large size of the room, the pictures do not relate how physically imposing these speakers are:



The source is a Cary DMS-500 network media streamer player:



The speakers are powered by four massive 240 pounds each Goldmund 9.2 monoblocks:



The speakers are augmented by a pair of SVS 12” 1,000 Watts powered subwoofers on the outside of each speaker:





This system exudes refinement and is elegant in its musical presentation, very relax and smooth sounding. This is evident on the reference track:

 

[Carlos269]

Since I will be changing my recording device and the reference track has served its purpose, I have decided to use the following as my new reference track for video recordings of my systems going forward:

After my listening session, no damage or new equipment introduced into the room:









As they say, happy wife....happy life!

 

[cjfrbw]

Your life is Rocky Mountain Audio Fest all day every day.

Has your wife offered to allow you to keep a mistress if you get rid of all of your audio equipment?

 

[Carlos269]

To give credit where credit is due, since Alon Wolf has laid his hands and eyes on my speakers, the crossovers have been upgraded, to make use of the latest advancements in crossover components technologies. Further to the crossover components updates, the crossovers were completely redesigned by a talented engineer, who does consulting and design work for speaker manufacturers in the industry. In other words, what you hear in the here and now, and on these videos, is well beyond the speakers that Alon Wolf created.

 

[Carlos269]

Not completely satisfied with the quality of the audio in the previous videos, I have been trying out a new recording device to find out if the new microphone can better capture the sound in the room.

Tonight, I re-recorded the original reference track on my reference system:

I also recorded the new reference track for the first time on my reference system:

I like the sound quality better with the new recording device but I’m still assessing the tonal balance with the new microphone. In my attempt to better capture the bass, it now sounds like there is a bass artifact associated with the new microphone; bass artifact is the extra bass captured overloading the iPad and iPhone small speakers. So the new recording set up is achieving better retrieval of the sound in the room.

 

[cjfrbw]

Yes. The new microphone sounds significantly better through the You Tube compression storm, at least through my headphones.

 

[Carlos269]

Yes. The new microphone sounds significantly better through the You Tube compression storm, at least through my headphones.

One of the big drivers for changing my video recording setup was that I wanted to capture more of the bass heard in the room, on the videos. To a large extend, the new microphone achieves this goal:

 

[Carlos269]

A couple more favorites, played back on the reference system, and captured with the new microphone recording set-up: