Steve's hi-fi adventures.

[Steever]

Just finished redoing my wall treatments and putting my tv onto the wall. 
 

 

 

Edited January 26, 2022 by Steever

[Steever]

I couldn’t sleep at 11PM last night. By 1.30AM this morning, my turntable looked like this:

 

 

 

I’ve moved the power supply speed controller to under the stand and thinned the motor isolation base/plinth sandwich down by swapping all the Isoacoustics footers around. 
 

It looks better/cleaner IMO and I will give things a listen tomorrow night to see if the music sounds better. 

[Steever]

What does one do when flood affected and without power for a week?

 

Why, listen in the car of course
 

Source: iPhone (not shown as it’s the camera for this shot) or iPad playing Qobuz

Pre/processor: Alpine H800 fed with Musical Fidelity digital audio bridge and iFI audio filter

Amps: Soundstream VGA500.4 x 2 (8 channels active)

Speakers: Audible Physics wideband NZ3 and matching NZ6

Sub: Infinity Perfect 12 VQ x 2

Cables: Nordost Blue Heaven USBs, Red Dawn LS RCAs and Purple Flare speaker, Wireworld Nova optical. 
 

 

I’m not left wanting. It rivals many expensive domestic systems I’ve heard. 
 

 

 

Edited March 4, 2022 by Steever

[realysm42]

Your car has a frightening array of buttons.

[Steever]

I agree @realysm42.

A common comment for the Macan. 

[Steever]

It is definitely possible to over treat a room. Treatments above the TV now removed. More open and transparent in mid and treble now and balances out the bass for better spectral balance. And definitely more dynamic for sure. 
 

 

and the stators are now vertical

 

 

They would normally be tilted backwards a touch. 
 

Lights out and listening to something medieval tonight for a tingling experience on the Martin Logans. 
 

 

simple voices and wonderful harmonies filled the whole wall space in front of me. It’s hard to imagine ever going back to a box speaker system. 

[vinilink]

Lovely setup you have with much admiration. Enjoy the music @Steever especially late at night! 

[Steever]

11 hours ago, vinilink said:

Lovely setup you have with much admiration. Enjoy the music @Steever especially late at night! 

Thank you kindly

[Steever]

So I have a beautiful set of Mission 782 speakers in my wardrobe. I would like to use them even though space is tight in our current lounge space. They will make it out even if only temporarily. 
 

Realistically though, they may not see serious use until we’re in our next place. That could be later this year, it could be end of next year. I don’t know. It depends on what the owner decides to do and if we decide to buy again. 
 

In the meantime and because I just can’t help myself, I’ve started collecting bits to put in front of these fine, rebuilt little floor standers. 
 

In keeping with the “last of the made in UK stuff” Mission did so well at, this was delivered today;
 

 

Its a Mission dAD7 CD player. It may have issues according to the seller but Tim at Tuned In Audio in Hornsby, Sydney is an absolute legend with fixing and improving this stuff. In fact, several of my quartz Cyrus bits in my main system have had him work magic on them (cap upgrades, etc)

 

These use the glass lens Philips CDM9 laser.
 

This one still works but I wouldn’t mind grabbing a spare. Anyone got one to sell?

 

Coming in a day or so is the matching integrated amp which Tim had his soldering iron in and he’s reported back is very happy with his improvements. 
 

Both these items will be PSX-R’d but the Cyrus count in this system will be kept to four boxes (maybe 5 if I add an FM7) only as I wanted to cover all sources but keep it simple at the same time. 
 

I’ll also be shopping for a Denon DP-45F turntable as I had one when I was 19 and it’s a great table. I’m going to grace it with a Dynavector 10X5 high output MC cart which my incoming amp will manage very nicely. 
 

Cables will be Nordost of course. I have a tri-wired set of speakers cables and some Red Dawn analogue interconnects. 
 

Streaming may be via something small from Auralic. 
 

 

Edited May 17, 2022 by Steever

[Steever]

782s dusted off and oiled ready for the amp arriving this week. 
 

 

Part of me wishes these were natural walnut but there’s no hope in restoring them back to that colour. Part of me wants to have them redone in black. 

But, a big part of me absolutely loves the richness  and sumptuous look of the red stain on these despite their violent clashing with house decor. 
 

I know where to grab a turntable that’ll match them perfectly too. 

Edited May 22, 2022 by Steever

[Steever]

My “new” Cyrus III integrated amp arrived today. 
 

 

 

All caps and all transistors are brand new and some extra tweaks done. The 3mm speaker cable sockets were also switched out for standard 4mm ones. 
 

It sounded very average and flat when first switched on. 30 minutes or so later though and this changed significantly to full, sweet, dynamic and transparent. 
 

If anyone needs quality work done on their gear for a service or improvements, Tim at Tuned in Audio in Sydney is your guy. I’m in Brisbane but have sent him much of my gear.

 

Edited May 26, 2022 by Steever

[Steever]

Well, this is a little embarrassing to admit, especially after enjoying my new electronics so much y’day. 
 

Last night’s listening highlighted a dullness to the presentation. It bugged me all day today too. As soon as I logged off work, I whipped the outriggers and base plinths off and removed the woofers and tweeter network boards. 
 

I realized what I’d done; I’d wired the two resistors in series instead of parallel resulting in just over 12 Ohms of resistance before the tweeter. Yep, that’s sure as heck going to kill things a little. 
 

Some shuffling around saw this dropped right back to 4.7 Ohms which really brought things to life - funny that. I’m tempted to drop it further, say, 3.9 Ohms, with some juicy Mundorf resistors but I’ll let it simmer for a bit first. 
 

With this done and the electronics warmed up properly, I’m certainly a happy camper now. 

Edited May 27, 2022 by Steever

[Steever]

FM-7 ordered. 
I reckon Cyrus boxes are like Pokémon; you gotta collect them all. 
 

I normally don’t listen to FM too much but I did tonight and last night through the FM-X in the main system. I find it very enjoyable when I do. Pricing on the older Mission Cyrus items also makes the decision easy. 

[ICUToo]

19 hours ago, Steever said:

Last night’s listening highlighted a dullness to the presentation...

I realized what I’d done; I’d wired the two resistors in series instead of parallel resulting in just over 12 Ohms of resistance before the tweeter.

Well spotted.

Really satisfying when you think you hear something wrong, and it turns out you were exactly right

[Steever]

The unit we’re in now is quite a bit smaller than the last one we were in. But we still kept our lounge furniture and tried to make it work. 
 

Anyway, she’s out with a friend this morning so I got rid of one of the lounges and moved things around a little. With my wife, it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission (in most cases).

I got to here;

 

 

I now have full line of sight of my speakers meaning I can now move them out from the wall more and back off the bass attenuation from -4dB to 0dB. 
 

She loves it so it’s staying this way. I couldn’t believe my fortune but I’ll take this as a win. 
 

And yes, things definitely sound better. 

Edited May 30, 2022 by Steever

[Steever]

I’m pretty pleased with my compact space right now after trading a large couch for a single occasional chair. 
 

 

Today I also retired the Mac Mini from streaming duties. It’s now homed in the buffet in the dining space for those rare times we do need desktop access to something on the net. 
 

I was going to sell the Gieseler LPS powering it but decided to move this over to the router instead. I’ll see if it offers any improvement for audio and video for the Apple TV, etc. If it doesn’t, then I’ll list it to sell. 
 

And even though my Nordost coaxial cable is still in the post, I did download the Lightning DS app and set up my new-to-me Auralic Aries Femto under the pre.
 

 

The matching LPS sits under there too next to my Isotech board. Sadly, the display on this one is very faint and patchy but it’s no biggie as the app is way better anyway. I may get it fixed as it’s a fairly close match to the Cyrus but, no hurry. 

 

These are indeed pretty lightweight and plasticky but I understand performance is outstanding. We’ll see in a few days. 

[Steever]

My Nordost Moonglo digital coax arrived today and it was promptly installed between streamer transport and pre. 
 

Let me say, as good as my Mac Mini got once the SSD was fitted and I’d done the 12VDC mod and added the Gieseler LPS, the Femto is a whole new level of goodness. 
 

The Femto brings it all into the room and expands the scape across the whole front wall. Bass has gained tremendous slam and is so defined and deep and accurate. My downstairs neighbours will hate me right now. There is just so much more information in the render and it’s much more 3D. 
 

Driving it all with the Lightning DS app on my iPad is a cinch too and is much easier that the Audirvāna Studio and Qobuz apps. 
 

Just giving some CID Rim a stream right now. This one’s a great track to show things off too. 
 

Now I’ve got to go make the turntable better to keep up…

Edited June 7, 2022 by Steever

[Steever]

So, having to up the vinyl game in light of recent improvements in my streaming arena saw a new platter arrive today. 
 

 

This rather pretty one is from Iceni Audio in the UK. It’s a dual layer acrylic with CLD gel discs holding things together. Perimeter masses are machine aluminium discs. It’s lighter in mass than my TangoSpinner Libertango platter and appears very inert to vibration. I’m currently using a delrin Mitchel clamp but do have a matching weight coming shortly which will save me having to stop the platter for record changes. The Mitchel is screw down vs newbie being a drop and roll. 
 

Some London Grammar and Paganini got a spin on it today. Sounds nice and I was surprised to hear quite the difference between the two platters. 

[Steever]

Just finished about 3 weeks on a mobile 5G broadband connection through Vodafone after switching from Telstra. Thought we’d give it a go and it was cheaper. 
 

We’re back with Telstra now though and everything audio and video is improved. We’d noticed a bit of a drop when getting the mobile service going but tried not to think too much into it. In the end though, we couldn’t deny the quality was noticeably poorer on the mobile network. 
 

We’ve got the new Gen 3 (black) modem on NBN now and the system is sounding bright and dynamic again. 
 

Lesson learned. 

[Steever]

After having such a wonderful experience back in 1999 with some Mordaunt Short Performance 880 speakers, and with living in a small apartment now, I recently decided to hunt down a set of the newer Performance 6 speakers. 
 

And here they are:

 

 

Only a teaser shot of them at this stage as I’m going over them to fix a couple of things before firing them up and comparing them to my Martin Logan Ethos. 
 

They certainly do look pretty and are beautifully made. They’ll match in nicely with all my silver Cyrus gear but, will they pass the music test?

 

We will see…

 

[Steever]

 

Definitely a different flavour to that I’ve been accustomed to for the last couple of years. 
 

I think it’s something I could enjoy quite a bit though so these will be staying. 
 

The Gaia III footers sweetened the upper mid and treble nicely but I have some Gaia II on order as the speakers are right up at the mass limit of the III’s. 
 

When I get back from leave, I’ll be shopping Mundorf capacitors and Nordost cables for a rebuild. To the Brand’s credit, inductors and resistors are quality items already. I may also add subs. Older B&W PV1’s in matching gloss metallic silver could do nicely but I’ll see. 

 

The "filtered dipole" or rear vented tweeter on these really does seem to help with air and spaciousness and for a box speaker, these throw a big stage quite well. Layering and image placement is quite stunning and my brain needs to work very little to "see" a wonderfully developed 3D stage. Overall, the spectral balance is hotter up top and I initially found this annoying as it aggravated an issue which sometimes affects hearing in my right ear post-stroke. The footers definitely helped here though, thank goodness. Bass is lighter than the Martin Logans but I do like what these do with bass. They do show variation very well. They're also heavier than they look I guess but at 30kg, they're not too bad.

They're also quite lovely to look at being all curvy and smooth. Would they justify their quite expensive price when new? I'd say definitely.

 

Edited October 27, 2022 by Steever

[GregWormald]

On 27/10/2022 at 2:27 PM, Steever said:

these will be staying

 

My daugter is still enjoying her tiny M-S speakers that are now around 30 years old!

[Steever]

25 minutes ago, GregWormald said:

 

My daugter is still enjoying her tiny M-S speakers that are now around 30 years old!

my family’s had a few sets over the years too. Easy to see why people like them. 

[Steever]

 

Been listening to the new speakers quite a bit over the last couple of days. They’re certainly quite different to the Martin Logans. 
 

The MLs presented everything in a polite way with several rows of seating between myself and the performers. It seemed to be in contrast to the listening space confines being on the smaller side of things. 
 

The MSs, on the other hand, are very, very big on detail with razor sharp imaging with me right up near the performers. These do layer better than the MLs in my existing room and probably due to the dipole tweeters, cast a very wide and high stage like the MLs did. 
 

To be expected too, the spectral balance is maintained better when off axis. Consistent with my old Performance 880s with their resin enclosure, is an uncanny lack of boxy colouration. The drivers are also mounted on spines forming part of the rear of the enclosure and are sealed to the front baffle with rubber gaskets. The tweeter also sits in its own enclosure and floats in a rubber tube mounted through the enclosure. Quite a lot of treble comes out of the rear of the spike near the top of the enclosure. 
 

While bass is also full of detail and is more tuneful than the DSP version in the MLs, it is lacking a little in weight. I will add two subs to address this and I’m currently searching for B&W PV1s in gloss silver to match the aesthetic and occupy very little space. 
 

So, yes, quite happy indeed with these. 
 

 

Edited October 29, 2022 by Steever

[Steever]

 

Because they work!

And because the IIIs currently there are not really rated long term for the higher mass of the new speakers. 
 

And…all fitted up. 
 

Edited November 1, 2022 by Steever