Simple As Possible But No Simpler - well sort of...

stehno

Well-Known Member
Jul 5, 2014
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Salem, OR
My Listening Room - 2019.jpg

Here we are well into the 21st century with most everybody owning a smart phone and high-end audio is doing the still-picture-only thing to demonstrate how musical our playback systems are. Not much fun in that. It’s all too easy to make a playback system look good but it’s quite another to make a playback system sound good, er, um, musical. Especially via a smart phone.

It seems everybody's got a story. So what’s my story?

For the past 17 years, I’ve been dabbling with extreme forms of electrical management and especially extreme forms of vibration management. The very two energies required for a playback system to even function. Yet, when undermanaged these same two energies will absolutely cripple our sensitive component so that they can only perform at their base performance levels. A universal performance-limiting governor (think hi-fi sound). But when properly managed will cause their performance levels to soar far beyond even what their original designers ever intended.

For some years now I’ve realized that electrical and mechanical energy mgmt, whether inferior or superior, are truly the foundation for which every last system is built. Bar none. And it is the foundation that determines the performance of everything installed on it. So committed to this strategy and method that roughly 65% of my playback system’s total costs are dedicated to electrical and mechanical energy management. A ratio simply unheard of in high-end audio but performance-wise makes all the difference.

Of course talk is cheap so I’ve included below links to some recent in-room recordings captured via my iPhone XR along with a Shure MV88 microphone. Even without the MV88, the iPhone really does a reasonably well job though I’m quite the novice at using it for these purposes.

Though not necessary, I highly recommend listening with a good quality set of headphones to capture the most of these in-room recordings. Whether torturous, complex, dynamic, pristine, or even delicate the iPhone does a pretty good job of preserving at least some of the playback system’s characteristics and seemingly without any apparent break up, flattening out, or other variables inducing ear fatigue. Not even with recordings that until now may have been deemed inferior. But even these in-room recordings pale in comparison to listening in the listening room itself. I also think the iPhone does a reasonable or better job of preserving some of the detail, timbral accuracy, the absence of any negative sibilance, and the abundance of ambient info embedded in most every recording.

Feel free to comment. But at least with in-room recordings we’re no longer shooting in the dark about each other’s playback system. And perhaps we’re better able to discern others’ perspectives toward building a musical playback system.

BTW, if per chance you have an appreciation for the dynamics, note that I'm only using the source's passive volume attenuator - IOW, no active gainstage but with high-powered amps all the dynamics remain but are now up on the soundstage with the rest of music where they belong and well behind the speakers. Also, I think it worth noting I've applied no room acoustic treatments as there is no need.

Anyway, here is what I consider my humble but well-thought-out 2-channel, 2-component playback system. It doesn't get any simpler. Well, sort of....

Come Together
Stravinsky – Firebird
Pink Panther
Black Delilah
60's Montage
 
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RogerD

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Very nice Stenho and your system is everything you say it is...beautiful too, congrats.
 

stehno

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Jul 5, 2014
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Very nice Stenho and your system is everything you say it is...beautiful too, congrats.

Thanks, Roger. Much appreciated.
 

Folsom

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Hm, I was hoping for a back and forth with/without vibration management.
 

stehno

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Jul 5, 2014
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Salem, OR
Hm, I was hoping for a back and forth with/without vibration management.

Since it is unlikely that you've dabbled with this stuff to the extent I have, could you not use your system as the before image?
 

Folsom

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That makes no sense. We have very different stereos, and I'm not going to truck mine to you so we can put it in your room and make a video.
 

stehno

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Jul 5, 2014
1,588
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Salem, OR
Don't be silly. I presumed you own a smart phone so you could easily make your own recordings so you could A/B compare. I'm quite certain we have very different stereos. That's a given. So? So I've applied several technologies that IMO make not a small difference but a huge difference in levels of musicality.

So if I attended the next audio show where maybe 250 very different playback systems are exhibiting and I had the freedom to select a "before" system, I'd venture perhaps 95% or more of them would easily qualify as before systems. Why should I assume otherwise with yours?
 

Folsom

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Oct 25, 2015
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I have no idea what you're getting at. Like always, myself (and others) are interested in your anti-vibration tech. Everything else you're going on about is just pointless.
 

stehno

Well-Known Member
Jul 5, 2014
1,588
456
405
Salem, OR
I have no idea what you're getting at. Like always, myself (and others) are interested in your anti-vibration tech. Everything else you're going on about is just pointless.

Anti-vibration? Perhaps you have me confused with somebody else as I would never label my vibration mgmt methods anti-vibration as that would imply I adhere to the vibration isolation methodology for which I don’t even consider a valid methodology.

Maybe I can be a bit more clear. You expressed an interest in hearing a before image to compare to the after image. If I had any interest in accommodating such a request I’d have to dismantle 17 years of my efforts to get to a before image. Since my amplifiers took nearly 5 months and my line conditioners a full 18-months to mechanically settle-in to my racking system, that’s a sacrifice I’m unwilling to make.

But for you there’s very little sacrifice. Since you (nor anybody else) have not applied to your playback system what I’ve applied to mine, that should easily qualify your system or anybody’s system as a sufficient before image. I can assure you, without my extreme electrical and extreme vibration mgmt methods our systems, though still potentially vastly different, would sound far more alike than different.

So my point was, if you indeed have interest in hearing a before image, it should be easy enough. Just get your smart phone out and start recording. If your intent is to compare to any of my above or below in-room after image recordings, let me know and I’ll provide you the title and track info.

BTW, below might be a rather fun recording to try on your own system just for a comparison.
 
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