3 hours ago, oldrose said:

Certainly industrial looking arm but if you like the way it sounds then that's all that matters

So true. 

I've been using a Terminator arm for quite a number of years and really enjoy it.

 

I'm intrigued by the way you've constructed the wire dressing holder. What did you use to make the white "eye" that the cable passes through?

55 minutes ago, davm said:

I've been using a Terminator arm for quite a number of years and really enjoy it.

 

I'm intrigued by the way you've constructed the wire dressing holder. What did you use to make the white "eye" that the cable passes through?

Cheers. Another user lives right around the corner from me too. I got mine from a fellow SNA’er in Toowoomba after having no luck sourcing one new from the new bloke in Russia. 
 

That white donut is a small rubber grommet which came with my arm. Its press fit into a ring I fashioned into the end of the gantry wire. I’d imagine it could be easy enough to find here. 

More wire dressing. 
This time, the messy wiring behind the cartridge was coiled and moved to sit under the wand rather than beside it (because they were too long previously). 
 

 

 

London Grammar and John Martin got a spin each to round out the weekend. 

Several years ago in preparation for my move home to Australia from New Zealand, I booked all my CDs to save space. 
 

It worked at the time but made casual viewing of my collection less spontaneous. Mostly because nothing was alphabetized and I had to go grab a book off the shelf. 
 

To make things more accessible, I’ve decided to recase them all. I have several hundred CDs so this is going to take a while. 
 

Today I started by repurposing a large stack of op-shop and gifted CD cases and hand writing the spines. 
 

 

It’s slow going but I have Macy Gray and Pete Murray and friends on the CD player to keep me company. 
 

Edited May 26, 20241 yr by Steever

As previously shown, the whole wall behind my speakers was treated for aesthetic and acoustic reasons as we moved into our place in Yeronga in the new year. 
 

This consists of oak veneer batons on a soft felt backing. We were quite particular with the product as many baton products like this use a poorly finished baton and the backing is quite firm. The ones eventually used are veneered on three sides and the felt really is quite soft and does a superb job of slowing things down acoustically. 
 

To the left of the lounge we have a large sliding glass door which we hung heavy rubber backed curtains over. Like our place in Kenmore where we had a similar glass vs speaker placement scenario, the left speaker ends up sitting in a location with issues. Kenmore saw us with a null. Yeronga now sees us with a node which pulls the stage slightly to the left. 
 

I tend to be very obsessive-compulsive about the stage in my systems and cannot relax if it’s not perfect. 
 

Anyway, the curtain does wonders when closed. It’s better than having the door open as the first reflection point is just onto the glass which cannot move. 
 

Over the years, I’ve also come to like not having a wall directly behind my head when listening. The system at Kenmore saw me with either about 1m or about 5m (depending on orientation in the room). I liked not having the influence of a rear wall. 
 

Yeronga cannot be helped. 

 

My wife wanted some artwork in the wall there and we both liked several pieces fronted with glass. I made a request though; preference was for something large-ish, canvas, and open backed on a frame.

 

She finally found something ticking those boxes that was pretty acoustically transparent due to the backing and the medium used. 

 

 

Once it arrived, I duly set to cutting and trimming my broadband acoustic foam squabs to fit discretely in behind the frame. 
 

 

 

 

Im well pleased with the result. While it’s obviously not going to be as effective as no wall, the results are still impressive. 

 

Edited June 8, 20241 yr by Steever

A little while ago now, I came across a folk/rock band with some catchy songs. 
My wife liked them too when they got weekend playtime via Qobuz. 
 

She liked them so much she bought tickets to their show last night at The Tivoli in Brisbane. 
 

The band is The Paper Kites and it was about the best damn $75/ticket we’ve ever spent. I’ve paid way more than this for other groups and not enjoyed the show anywhere near as much. 
 

The benchmark will always be Genesis for me. The Oils, Icehouse and INXS in the 80’s were good too. But these guys and the smaller venue have a magic that’s hard to rival. 
 

And I must say, the sound was top notch too. Probably a significant part of why I had so much fun. 
 

 

 

A mandolin, a banjo, a guitar, and superb harmonies is a recipe for success. 

 

 

 

 

 

My wife and I are in there somewhere. 
 

 

I even picked up their latest album on 180gr double disc. 
 

 

Missy Higgins is next in a few weeks. 

Edited June 16, 20241 yr by Steever

I work in an office and some of the stuff I do allows me to listen to music while I work away. 
 

I stream Qobuz from my work laptop and listen via a Dragonfly Red and Dita The Answer IEMs. 
 

This has been quite enjoyable and apart from a short stint with a set of B&W P7 wired headphones a few years ago, I’ve had no desire for anything better. 
 

Until now…

 

I decided recently to grab a set of Sennheiser Momentum on-ear phones and a little DAC/pre. I started looking at the Topping amps but ended up with a Musical Fidelity V90-HPA. 

 

 

 

And I like it. it’s a nice improvement over my DF and Ditas. 
 

The V90 comes with a matchbox size 12VDC SMPS. Adding a better power supply like the R-core LPS shown below allowed a lot more texture and detail and dynamics to come through. 
 

 

Over the weekend, I stripped the audio system out of my car before advertising the car for sale. This freed up a whole lot of Nordost cable, including a couple of Blue Heaven USB cables. 
 

 

Come Monday, I switched out the bog-standard USB cable in my headfi system for a Blue Heaven. And my golly!

The sound is now much more natural.  The improvement was like adding the LPS. Very noticeable improvement indeed. 
 

I might be hooked now. I’m on the hunt for a Wadia 121 DAC and some better phones. 

 

 

 

A change today.

The Hark and trimarang stands were pulled from the system. 
 

 

Not too sure what to do with them yet. I like the Hark but I lack the space for a turntable off to the side. 

 

Today I moved back to a more traditional stand. 
 

 

I’m not very keen on glass but it’ll do for now until I find some nice Oak. 

I’m really liking the humble head-fi system at work. The Momentums out of the V90 DAC sound great and are super value. 
 

But, it started something. 
 

A set of B&W P7 phones arrived today. I’ve owned a set before and liked them quite a bit. I can’t remember why I parted with them. Maybe it was to use the $ on something valued in my main system more at the time. But I really don’t know. 

 

And through my DF Red from my iPad, they’re refined and punchy and a lot of fun. Just how I remember them. 

But, I have plans for these. I have Canare cable and silver solder at the ready. And last night I ordered a 6.3mm Furutech phono jack from Krispy for a rewire to replace the factory controller cable and its 4-6 joins for more SQs. 
 

Plus, the V90 is up for sale now too in the classifieds as I found something new with a big knob on it. 
 

More to show soon…

 

A quiet Saturday evening in sees some Haydn guitar on the turntable. 
 

This week sees my ART9XA cart approaching 50 hrs of play time. In that time, it’s gone from sounding a little hard and edgy to being gloriously detailed and musical. 
Violins, for example, would sometimes sound a little shrill. Now I’m happy to wind it up and let it sing with no fear. 
 

 

This cartridge is also an imaging and staging monster, easily rivaling that from CDs. 

Edited July 14, 20241 yr by Steever

Supplies for my next project. 
Materials are lightweight PVC foam board, EVA sheets, sorbothane and contact adhesive. 
 

 

Since moving back to a traditional stand for all the gear, it’s all been sitting on glass. I prefer wood and that will happen but I’ll be fabbing up some CLD platforms to benefit both shelf materials. 

Edited July 14, 20241 yr by Steever

On 14/7/2024 at 3:54 PM, Steever said:

fabbing up some CLD platforms to benefit both shelf materials. 

Have you got a recipe to follow or are you making up the CLD model from first principles?

23 hours ago, ICUToo said:

Have you got a recipe to follow or are you making up the CLD model from first principles?

 

I'm going from first principles but there are many examples online of people using a timber and visco-elastic sandwich to good effect. 

I'm going the lightweight board route (PVC foam board) with closed cell foam in the middle on my first attempt.

I can tell already it's quite a bit more inert compared to a single, untreated board. 

 

I have some spare boards also and will also try a denser rubber filling to compare.

2 hours ago, Steever said:

lightweight board route (PVC foam board) with closed cell foam in the middle on my first attempt.

I can tell already it's quite a bit more inert compared to a single, untreated board. 

 

I have some spare boards also and will also try a denser rubber filling to compare.

Cool- keep us updated. 

Some have used extremely heavy boards as part of the sandwich- like 12mm steel plate, the idea being not only differential impedances for minimising parasitic vibration, but with the addition of extreme mass to lower the resonant frequency and to decrease amplitude of any vibration that does occur.

More head-fi changes.

The Musical Fidelity V90-HPA is nice. In fact, it's better than I thought it would be and made for significant improvements through my Senn M1 on-ears when compared to my Audioquest Dragonfly Red.

It's back in its box now and listed in the classifieds.

The LPS was brought home and now powering my Apple TV where its surpassing the performance previously (picture and sound) with the iFi Power X (now sold).

This arrived this week;

 

 

It's the boosted version of the JDS Labs Element III (not that I'll need the boosted power in the foreseeable future).

 

 

 

 

I took it into work and slotted it in place of the V90.

The system is now my work laptop (of no real performance repute TBH) > AQ Jitterbug > Nordost Blue Heaven USB > iFi USB Power > Nordost Blue Heaven > JDS Labs Element III > Sennheiser Momentum One on-ears. Source music is Qobuz direct from the Qobuz website.

 

 

Even cold, this thing is pretty incredible. The sound doesn't appear closed in like it can often do with closed back phones and like it did with the DF Red and V90.

And things are incredibly dynamic and extended, especially in the bass.

I'm well impressed!

 

Now I really want the Furutech 6.3mm jack I ordered to arrive so I can finish the rewire of my B&W P7 phones...

 

On the work (kitchen) bench tonight:

My recabled P7 phones. 
 

 

 

It’s a step up from standard for sure when listening on the V90. Am keen to hear them on Monday through the Element III in the office. 
 

Not too sure how long I’ll keep these as the P9s are looking fine too. 

Re-racked. 
 

 

 

If anything, it looks better. 

I’m very happy now with the work place music system. 
 

The phones are very comfortable, and sound punchy and refined at the same time. The new cables have improved things quite a bit although, they do transmit more noise from rubbing compared to the originals. 
While not giving the big, open sound of a quality open phone, they still render things well outside the space in my head. 
 

 

 

I didn’t work today. I popped in to a couple of audio stores here in Brisbane and came away with some inspiration for a new equipment stand and room treatments. 
 

I’m awaiting news on the stand as it’ll need to be made for me if it’s to happen. The Gecko is good and all but I want to get back to something with wood. 
 

On the way home, I picked up some carpet underlay and some absorption panels for the ceiling. 

 

 

The stage is now more focused and pushed back behind the speakers a bit more. Height is more realistic and perhaps a little lower now. Width remains excellent. 
 

 

About this time of year, I end up with a small collection of JB Hifi vouchers. Nobody can say I’m hard to buy for!

So I went and got me some reckids. 
 

 

2 and 3 are thanks to inspiration from my father. 4 was also thanks to him but also, my year 9 music teacher, Mr Green, who was a fan of PF and ELP and other progressive rock groups from the 70’s & 80’s. 

 

1 is thanks to Sony and their TV adverts from a few years back. 

Edited August 15, 20241 yr by Steever

I embarked recently on some travel involving 9 hour flights.

My faithful Dita The Answer IEMs (RIP) did a marvellous job of passively blocking noise and faithfully delivering lovely sound as I was outbound on the first flight. On the connecting flight, the right side connection where the cable meets the enclosure finally gave out after 5 years of use. 

Searches of every shop that could have anything vaguely to do with hifi on the island destination I arrived at was fruitless when trying to find something even half decent for my return flight. 

I passed through Singapore but the layover was too short to exit Changi and visit some nearby head-fi stores. 

 

Anyway, once home I considered something new. Dita make a fine range of products but as I have B&W P7 for work, I feel the need to invest heavily in something only for travel is not wise. I looked at Sennheiser IE600 and the like for sale here in the classifieds but ended up going for Dita again, albeit, a hybrid driver model which is new for them.

 

 

Delivery imminent.

And I'm also considering the new Navigator dongle DAC from Dita to, to replace my Dragonfly Red.

 

 

 

They’re here and they’re magnificent. 
 

 

I would not have believed these are Dita’s entry model unless I read it on the Dita website. The sound quality from these is quite extraordinary. 

7 hours ago, Steever said:

They’re here and they’re magnificent. 
 

 

I would not have believed these are Dita’s entry model unless I read it on the Dita website. The sound quality from these is quite extraordinary. 

 

I'm not really a fan of high end IEM's as I find them too fiddly compared to Apple ear pods. But they look like nice kit for an entry level IEM. Will check them out.

Edited September 12, 20241 yr by David A

13 hours ago, David A said:

 

I'm not really a fan of high end IEM's as I find them too fiddly compared to Apple ear pods. But they look like nice kit for an entry level IEM. Will check them out.

 

I agree with respect to being fiddly. But use fosters familiarity with the shape and which is left and right. Once in, they're very comfortable for a "universal fit" IEM.