The Audio System and High-End Philosophy of Mike Lavigne

[Rodney Gold]

No waterfalls
The rt60 time of the room is 0.4 .. a little on the deader side , but it suits me cos I play loud..immersively loud and beyond..I dont have graphs
Ambient noise floor round 18 db with my cell and ratshack meter
If you cant do a room , get a trinnov and panel beat wot u got into shape.....you will be astounded

 

[Pb Blimp]

These are just graphs of speaker optimization - and they lack frequency resolution in bass frequencies. Do you have waterfall and distributed RT60 measurements of your room? I would appreciate seeing them.

I new that was coming.....

 

[Pb Blimp]

No waterfalls
The rt60 time of the room is 0.4 .. a little on the deader side , but it suits me cos I play loud..immersively loud and beyond..I dont have graphs
Ambient noise floor round 18 db with my cell and ratshack meter
If you cant do a room , get a trinnov and panel beat wot u got into shape.....you will be astounded

Rodney, Can you do your best to verbalize the primary differences you find in the sound between "before" and "after" Trinnov correction. I can guess to some degree but your input would be most welcome.

 

[andromedaaudio]

Rodney
I ve got a Response like that without dsp, lol
Not below 400 Hz Though.

 

[Rodney Gold]

I have set up 3 inputs into my devialets , uncorrected, DIRAC and Trinnov and can instantly flip between them.
Uncorrected is not acceptable at all..end of story..those bass nodes are ridiculous.
anyway to get to the nub of the matter , the correction via dirac enhances imaging and is really great in the bass , albeit the correction can fall down a bit if you do full freq.

When you first hear what the trinnov does you realise you need to change your view on recorded music presentation..the change is jaw dropping , what stands out is the rock solid holographic imagery .. its so seductive .. it enables you to follow every thread in the music and imagine you are there..you can place instruments in 3d space ..clarity and bass improve amazingly especially the bass in depth and pitch definition.
Im not good with descriptions barring to say that I get a more immersive effect and it really not hard to believe that the performers are in front of me....
The correction is configurable so that you can lets say , just correct bass and phase..sounds quite different depending what you do and how you set it up..you can really make your system sound like you want

My pal was over a few days ago and he was playing reggae at crack your ceiling levels and he made a remark that the system doesnt do dub well and with a few tweaks I had him grooving and reaching for his stash

 

[andromedaaudio]

I get your point in bassfreq correction, but its not the last word there are other things that make for good bass too
Ron and ked didnt complain about my bass although its far from a dsp corrected flat line

 

[Rodney Gold]

There is a corollary to all this..you can get caught up in endless tweaking and one is never really sure what the "right" sound is...so if it sounds good to you , it is

 

[andromedaaudio]

I have never heard what your room sounds like neither have i heard mikes , so its hard to compare things lol

 

[Rodney Gold]

I get your point in bassfreq correction, but its not the last word there are other things that make for good bass too
Ron and ked didnt complain about my bass although its far from a dsp corrected flat line

If you take a look at the graphs you will see a pic of my target curve thats overlayed on the flat correction ..my bass rises and isnt flat..flat bass sounds anemic

 

[andromedaaudio]

I see yes, as i have said long time a ago , a slight sloping down curve around 3 db sounds best not a flat line.
That s why its in a way kind of pointless using anechoic measurements in speakerdesign unless you design them with a downsloping curve otherwise they sound basslight, like a lot of Avalons and magicos

 

[Ron Resnick]

Ron,

Now that the "dryness" was settled, can we go go back to this much enigmatic sentence? Can you elaborate on this "smoothing of detail"?

I think Kedar articulated well the linguistic difficulty in his post above. I do not know how else to describe in words what I think I was hearing.

I’m not even sure this is correct but give this a try.

Smoothing of detail with a visual analogy: imagine an oscilloscope display which is showing not rounded-peak sine waves but a series of inverted “V” shaped lines meeting cleanly at the top of the display. Smoothing of detail means a slight rounding of each inverted V peak rather than the preservation of a V which comes to a clean, perfectly straight, angled point at the apex of the inverted V.

 

[spiritofmusic]

I think we’re all in trouble if the debate is not just “dry” v “wet”, but reconfigured as “dry meaning less wet” and “wet meaning less dry”.

I mean, what next? “floats my boat” interpreted as “my boat less prone to sinking”?

 

[microstrip]

I new that was coming.....

 

[bonzo75]

I think we’re all in trouble if the debate is not just “dry” v “wet”, but reconfigured as “dry meaning less wet” and “wet meaning less dry”.

I mean, what next? “floats my boat” interpreted as “my boat less prone to sinking”?

You should have bought a place where it was easier to transport bigger speakers into your room. Now the ship has sailed

 

[spiritofmusic]

What Ked, more chance to spend, quite probably incorrectly?

I thought you were the champion of not buying spkrs too big for your space.

As Ron commented on his visit here, I’ve hit upon an interesting take on system synergy:

Big volume/high efficiency speakers/high power Class A SETs/high power Class D subs.

It didn’t strike me as noteworthy to begin, but actually he’s encapsulated why my system is so right for my room.

And now I’ve fully got how the room is now so right for my system.

So to be able to energise the whole space at moderately loud volume levels, and have no thinning out of sound even at low volumes is an absolute blessing.

That’s both a function of absolutely right balance of power/easy load on room, and the room truly providing less barrier and break up/distortion to the sound from the speakers.

 

[microstrip]

(...) I realize my 'tube' comment will be controversial, but I do believe that finding ultimate truth is much easier with a neutral signal path, yet the tubes will thank you for that truth once you have found it through neutrality. and further, it's easier to find truth with using digital references than analog references. not only is it easier to hear differences, it's quicker and you can repeatedly cover more ground. a better tool to use.

that is my story. YMMV.

I do not think that the tube comment will be controversial. What I find controversial is the inverse endorsement that DartZeel's are absolutely neutral. Do you have the same feeling about tubes when they are used in preamplfiers, or just in power amplifiers?

We fully agree on the use of digital for system evaluation and setup - I have written it several times. Some people build their system around a turntable and then get astonished that their digital sounds miserable.

 

[bonzo75]

Marc, that ship was a pun on boat, but looks like I got your goat

 

[spiritofmusic]

Hey Ked, make the most of me agreeing with you online (re size of speakers for the room).

I’m about to have a stiff drink to get over the shock .

 

[bonzo75]

Hey Ked, make the most of me agreeing with you online (re size of speakers for the room).

I’m about to have a stiff drink to get over the shock .

And I am sitting in the plane en route to an interesting hifi demo tomorrow.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Can you fill us in?