Ron's Speaker, Turntable, Power and Room Treatment Upgrades
- Thread starter Ron Resnick
- Start date
Bill, well it's quite a chameleon is the Straingauge. It is indeed very full when the recording calls for it. Can just be jarring when LPs that were more palpable in the past now sound a bit leaner. A few reasons for this, including previous homogeneity now stripped out w my recent system changes, and my analog being much more revealing of what's best, and what's indeed quite moderate.
And I still have some way to go on finding optimal level of damping/isolating my new motor.
I edited my own post which you quoted, so I made the same edits in your copied quote.
Ron is “never disliked” your standard for a purchase decision?
No, never alone. But it is an interesting triangulating data point. It can be useful as a part of a process of elimination.
If I don't care for the sound of a system with a recording I know well and like, then some component, to my ears, is doing something wrong, at least in that particular system.
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Taking these photos I am standing at the front wall looking towards the back of the room. You see the opening to the equipment room on the left, and then two large fixed glass windows (covered in orange paper), and then the glass breakfast nook (the exterior wall of which is covered in yellow paper) which extends five feet behind the windows on the left, and then the glass wall panels to the kitchen on the right.
I have been planning to put a drop down shade in the opening between the listening room and the equipment room; shades over the two large glass panels; a movable curtain to block the glass breakfast nook and a movable curtain covering most of the glass wall panels to the kitchen.
After speaking with David I think I am going to drop the idea of a shade in the opening between the listening room in the equipment room, and the idea of a movable curtain covering most of the glass wall of the kitchen. The glass wall of the kitchen will be retracted and open when I'm listening to music.
I think it makes sense to start out simpler. David recommends natural wood shutters or blinds. He believes that most fabrics have uneven frequency absorption characteristics. I would prefer vertical slats for decor reasons.
I think I am going to leave the top window uncovered; specify vertical wood slats in a color similar to natural walnut in the large lower window, and extend those slats to the right between the wall and the track of the kitchen glass wall panels.
In the first photo you can see the swing-out wall-mounted lights. Six lights are spaced every two feet and are located above where the equipment racks will be placed. Floor-standing MikeL lamps will be added later. I want that turntable lit up like an alien landing pad.
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Can there be beauty without truth?
This is where a reference to live music helps ground us.
I agree. This may turn your implication around, but my ears have no trouble relaxing at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
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Sure - and that's great you have that relaxing experience.
I was not trying to imply anything. And although I maybe should have written more, I figured not to take your room thread too far off topic. Now I will ;-)
I was responding to the notion of listening to music as an emotional exercise versus listening to music as an intellectual exercise per the distinction you made in #2,215. This is not to argue with your experience or try to encourage you favorably to the vdH cartridges, but simply to discuss. But I'm skeptical of introducing a bright distinction between emotional and intellectual listening that is mutually exclusive.
The dichotomy can happen on several levels. I may find a piece of music not to my taste, both boring intellectualy and emotionally uninvolving. Or intellectualy satisfying without much emotive response on my part. Some of Stravinsky's smaller works are that way for me. Yet, positive emotive response doesn't always mean relaxing as I also enjoy music that excites me, I would say stimulates me. Several of Stravinsky's larger pieces do that for me. It's a notion of music appreciation - both of a fine performance and for what the composer has written - that doesn't require a total limbic level experience to enjoy.
Perhaps as Justin Hayward wrote, it's a question of balance. I suppose we each discover our own tipping point(s).
Tipping points into the music... reminds me of the words of Guillaume Apollinaire...
Come to the edge," he said.
They said, "We are afraid."
Come to the edge," he said.
They came.
He pushed them...and they flew.
I, too, am skeptical of introducing a bright line distinction between emotional intellectual listening. I certainly do not think they are mutually exclusive.
With my "ears have no trouble relaxing" comment, I was referring merely to a reflexive reaction of my ears to edgy sounds (like screeching bus brakes in Manhattan), not to an emotional or intellectual reaction in my brain.
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I think this is correct. I think one discovers his/her own tipping point, and then one comes back in one or two steps to be perfectly balanced.
For me, personally, the vdH is just one step too far.
Revised Cartridge/Tonearm Plan:
ZYX UNIverse Premium on SME 3012R
Opus 1 on Bergmann Odin
Epoch3 on Reed 5A or Reed 5T (to be determined based on on-going dark research)
ZYX UNIverse Premium on SME 3012R
Opus 1 on Bergmann Odin
Epoch3 on Reed 5A or Reed 5T (to be determined based on on-going dark research)
gotcha.
Point being there may be other contenders available when you’re ready to set up the system.
I bought a Taiko Tana/Herzan TS-140 a couple of years ago, thinking I would put the Aesthetix Io phono stage amplification unit on top of it. It turns out that the Io on top of the Tana is too tall to fit inside the box compartment -- within the inside dimension -- of my turntable stand. For a variety of reasons I don't want to place the components in a different configuration so the Io could be on the top of the stand.
So I've been trying, unsuccessfully, to sell my Tana.
Separately, I will need amp stands for the VTL Siegfried IIs. I will have all of the other components in the adjacent equipment room. But the amplifiers inevitably will be bathing in a sea of vibration. So I have been researching CMS and HRS and Adona and Symposium Acoustics amp stands.
Then I stumbled upon this idea: instead of selling the Tana because I can't use it under the Io maybe I should get a second Taiko Tana/Herzan TS-140 (for approximately the same cost as a pair of CMS or HRS reference amp stands) and use them as amp stands for the VTLs?
MikeL is very happy with his darTZeel 468 solid-state amplifiers on his Tanas. Tube amplifiers, a fortiori, should be even happier sitting on active isolation platforms.
So I've been trying, unsuccessfully, to sell my Tana.
Separately, I will need amp stands for the VTL Siegfried IIs. I will have all of the other components in the adjacent equipment room. But the amplifiers inevitably will be bathing in a sea of vibration. So I have been researching CMS and HRS and Adona and Symposium Acoustics amp stands.
Then I stumbled upon this idea: instead of selling the Tana because I can't use it under the Io maybe I should get a second Taiko Tana/Herzan TS-140 (for approximately the same cost as a pair of CMS or HRS reference amp stands) and use them as amp stands for the VTLs?
MikeL is very happy with his darTZeel 468 solid-state amplifiers on his Tanas. Tube amplifiers, a fortiori, should be even happier sitting on active isolation platforms.
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