Ron’s New System

[Ron Resnick]

For 18 years I kept my VTL MB-750s in triode mode. I believe Marty kept his Siegfried IIs in tetrode mode.

Completely independently Don and Phil (213 Cobra) heard little or no SET-type purity or smoothness or liquidity improvement from triode mode, but both reported hearing a deeper and wider soundstage, and overall a bigger sound, from tetrode mode.

Phil attributes this to the different circuit in tetrode mode more than he does the doubling of power.

It will be interesting to see if one or more of vinyl playback or tape playback or the Pendragons reveal greater sonic differences between triode mode and tetrode mode.

 

[PeterA]

For 18 years I kept my VTL MB-750s in triode mode. I believe Marty kept his Siegfried IIs in tetrode mode.

Completely independently Don and Phil (213 Cobra) heard little or no SET-type purity or smoothness or liquidity improvement from triode mode, but both reported hearing a deeper and wider soundstage, and overall a bigger sound, from tetrode mode.

Phil attributes this to the different circuit in tetrode mode more than he does the doubling of power.

It will be interesting to see if one or more of vinyl playback or tape playback or the Pendragons reveal greater sonic differences between triode mode and tetrode mode.

Ron, Was this comparison done recently in your temporary system or somewhere else? Did you personally hear a difference or what Don and Phil heard? Did you ever experiment to hear a difference in your old system during those 18 years?

Bigger sound is usually good as long as the images do not get larger than life unless the recording forces it. Was the deeper and wider soundstage always bigger or just on certain recordings? In other words, did the Tetrode mode present greater variety to the soundstage size with different recordings than did the triode mode?

I agree that it will be interesting to see if the vinyl/tape reveals more about the music, the recordings, and the gear than does your streaming.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Was this comparison done recently in your temporary system or somewhere else? In my temporary system

Did you personally hear a difference or what Don and Phil heard? No I was not in the main listening chair. When friends come over I actually just enjoy listening to music. I’m trying to save my serious “work” for when the Pendragons arrive, and I’m just trying to enjoy some music casually until then.

Did you ever experiment to hear a difference in your old system during those 18 years? I did, when I first got the VTLs around 2000. I think I remember feeling that triode mode sounded smoother, but that might have been expectation bias.

Was the deeper and wider soundstage always bigger or just on certain recordings? Each of Don and Phil came to his respective conclusion on the basis of one track.

I agree that it will be interesting to see if the vinyl/tape reveals more about the music, the recordings, and the gear than does your streaming. Actually, I am pretty down on the sound of iPad as streamer. I have not been doing much streaming. These listening sessions with friends use CDs.

 

[Ron Resnick]

OMG! OMG!! OMG!!!

Vinyl in the house!!!




For the first time in about nine years!

 

[Lagonda]

OMG! OMG!! OMG!!!

Vinyl in the house!!!

View attachment 103206


For the first time in about nine years!

How does it sound ? Be careful what you say, David will visit you soon, and people have drowned in the LA river before ! DD is acceptable for implants only !

 

[PeterA]

OMG! OMG!! OMG!!!

Vinyl in the house!!!

View attachment 103206


For the first time in about nine years!

Nice. Is that Thelma Houston “I’ve got the music in me“ direct to disc LP on there?

Ron, after nine years, you have to tell us more. Are you dancing in your underwear?

 

[Pokey77]

Ron, after nine years, you have to tell us more. Are you dancing in your underwear?

OR, perhaps you don’t!

 

[Ron Resnick]

Nice. Is that Thelma Houston “I’ve got the music in me“ direct to disc LP on there?

Ron, after nine years, you have to tell us more. Are you dancing in your underwear?

Yes, Thelma inaugurated the return of vinyl!

No, not underwear, but jumping up and down definitely!

It sounds good. The Hana SL sounds like a Benz Ruby 2, I think.

Overall I think this is a very similar sound and presentation to the prior ML Prodigy system. This seems a bit more resolving, possibly.

I feel like the room sounds a little bit better than I remember, but that’s a very, very distant memory.

No hum or grounding issues at all, so far. Maybe the chemical ground is doing something. (I used to have to lift the grounds on the MB-750s.) I hope the Io also has no hum issues.

I have missed analog!!!

 

[tony22]

Congrats Ron!

 

[Ron Resnick]

I just listened for about eight hours, minus 45 minutes for dinner and minus 30 minutes to discover that my KL Audio machine doesn’t work.

That’s a whole lot of listening for me, but I have seven years to make up for.

I think the room “sounds” good. I definitely wish it were 5 feet wider and 10 feet longer. The system definitely is going to be what I call “room limited.”

The room seems quiet. With a Reed R8050 I measured 32.8dB A Weighting and 40.5dB C Weighting. And I think that’s with the refrigerator in the kitchen next door humming and me trying to stay quiet next to the meter.

I know people will think such stale recollection is totally useless, but I have a sense that the Magnepan/Hsu system is a warmer/richer sound than was the Martin-Logan/REL system.

I hope the Pendragons are closer to the warmer/richer sound.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Len Kinsey, who used to have an audio salon in San Francisco, and then, later, a store named Blue Moon Audio in San Diego, is now a traveling turntable set-up and cartridge alignment specialist.

I bought the Denon DP-62L from Len. It was one of Len’s personal turntables, and it is in amazing condition.

Len did a great job setting up the tonearm and aligning the cartridge today. I think it is great that we in California now know of another traveling set-up expert!

If you would like me to introduce you to Len, I would be delighted to. Otherwise, feel free to contact him directly.

Len Kinsey
(619) 613-1318
audiolhk@gmail.com

 

[PeterA]

You have now heard streaming, CDs and vinyl in you new room. You are on your way for sure. The new table looks great Ron. Glad to read you are enjoying vinyl again.

 

[Ron Resnick]

You have now heard streaming, CDs and vinyl in you new room. You are on your way for sure. The new table looks great Ron. Glad to read you are enjoying vinyl again.

Thank you very much Peter! Yesterday was a pretty exciting day for me!

I played for the first time a Classic Records test pressing of Beethoven Egmont Overture. I normally don’t understand in practice what Kedar means by “flow,” but after the session yesterday, it is clear to me that analog has better “flow” than digital.

I feel like, for me, my deliberately modest, but high sound value per dollar investment in digital, was the right way to go.

PS: In fairness I feel like I have not really heard streaming. iPad as streamer just does not sound very good at all.

 

[bonzo75]

Thank you very much Peter! Yesterday was a pretty exciting day for me!

Did David come to set up the Denon too, or was it Tinka who did it - If she looked up some videos she will be able to do it

 

[PeterA]

Len Kinsey, who used to have an audio salon in San Francisco, and then, later, a store named Blue Moon Audio in San Diego, is now a traveling turntable set-up and cartridge alignment specialist.

I bought the Denon DP-62L from Len. It was one of Len’s personal turntables, and it is in amazing condition.

Len did a great job setting up the tonearm and aligning the cartridge today. I think it is great that we in California now know of another traveling set-up expert!

Len Kinsey
(619) 613-1318
audiolhk@gmail.com

Did David come to set up the Denon too, or was it Tinka who did it - If she looked up some videos she will be able to do it

Come on Ked! You usually ask very insightful questions.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Did David come to set up the Denon too, or was it Tinka who did it - If she looked up some videos she will be able to do it

Len Kinsey, formerly a Rega dealer, and from whom I bought the turntable, installed the Hana SL cartridge when he delivered the turntable yesterday.

 

[bonzo75]

Come on Ked! You usually ask very insightful questions.

I was jesting that he should be able to set this up

 

[Big Dog RJ]

Nice one Ron mate! Keep those LP's spinning!

Whether or not the Pendragon's would sound perfect in this room... I wouldn't worry about it too much. I'm sure you'll find a way to make them fit and work well towards optimal performance. It's very difficult to achieve 100% perfection, both in terms of the room and system gear. Hence, there's no such thing as perfection nor the ultimate! I believe as long as you've set it up towards the best of your ability and you're getting around 95% or above in total performance (maybe even closer to 98%), and you're enjoying the music, that's all that matters. Sky's the limit in tweaking gear and the room, plus upgrades... it never ends! Before you know it, people are so involved in reaching the ultimate or chasing the holy grail, going in circles... they miss out on the most important aspect, and that's the music! I've seen it happen and it ends rather sadly, so I think you get my point. Plus you seem to be really enjoying the "music" being reproduced from the humble Maggie + Denon TT rig, and you've been listening for 8 hrs... isn't that enjoying the music? and it didn't cost a fortune either.

Cheers mate! That deserves a big WOOF!
RJ
*9 yrs without fine tunes... ? bloody hell, I would have ended up in the asylum!

 

[Ron Resnick]

Tonight I did a direct, level-matched (Reed R8050) comparison of three pressings of Michael Jackson Thriller:

garden-variety USA pressing

Japanese pressing

Columbia half-speed Mastersound pressing

The USA pressing (all three of my copies of it) are going in the garbage.

The Japanese pressing was noticeably better as well as the Mastersound pressing. I think the Mastersound might’ve been the richest and least sibilant of the three. I think it had the most dimensionality. It had a slightly more relaxed sound somehow than the Japanese pressing.

 

[213Cobra]

Ron, Was this comparison done recently in your temporary system or somewhere else? Did you personally hear a difference or what Don and Phil heard? Did you ever experiment to hear a difference in your old system during those 18 years?

Bigger sound is usually good as long as the images do not get larger than life unless the recording forces it. Was the deeper and wider soundstage always bigger or just on certain recordings? In other words, did the Tetrode mode present greater variety to the soundstage size with different recordings than did the triode mode?

I agree that it will be interesting to see if the vinyl/tape reveals more about the music, the recordings, and the gear than does your streaming.

For the record, I've never been a fan of massed-tetrode/pentode high power tube amps, and that goes further true for VTL. Plus it's stuffed with today's generic blah Russian mass-produced KT tubes. That said, listening to Ron's temporary system via Magnepans last week showed the objective superiority of Tetrode Mode in his VTLs, with that speaker, in his room. In triode mode, the sound was hooded, oversmooth, with sanded transients, truncated harmonics and spatially limited to the box defined by the speakers' placements, with very little depth projected. In tetrode mode, there was greater and more natural resolution; the soundstage was realistically larger and scaled outside of the width of the dimensions separating the Magnepans, and more depth dimensioning. Filigreed details were also more honestly and articulately rendered. Bass from his subs was also more articulate, firmer, and quicker. Some pentode/tetrode amps don't shine in pseudo-triode mode; others do. The tetrode advantages in this case were consistent across multiple recordings. A given listener could still prefer the old-school rounded sound of triode mode in the VTL. With something like new KR KT88s or NOS Genelecs populating the VTLs, the outcome could be different.

I visited Ron a few days before his Denon turntable showed up, so intend to go back to hear the system fed by analog. Everything will have to be re-evaluated after the Pendragons are installed to replace the stopgap Magnepans but his room is dimensionally favorable, the environment is quiet. It should host an engaging system.

PS: Do people really compare and care about "Thriller" pressings/versions?

Phil