Steve's hi-fi adventures.

[Steever]

Really pushing my luck tonight. 
 

 

I moved the speakers further into the room by about 25cm tonight. With a room width of about 420cm, this may be as far as I can go with the tweeters sitting at 86cm from the front wall. I’ll see if anything is said…

 

Even at this far out though imaging is razor sharp and very accurately focused across the stage which has also increased in depth. I thought I’d lose some of the width but things remain well outside the speakers on occasion. I suspect the ATT tweeter helps quite a lot here also. 

 

I may play around with placement as recommended by Audio Physic (dividing the room into odds and evens, etc) to see how that goes but as it stands, the music seems to have nothing to do with the heavy silver enclosures flanking the TV. 

Edited March 20, 2023 by Steever

[Neo]

13 minutes ago, Steever said:

Really pushing my luck tonight. 
 

 

I moved the speakers further into the room by about 25cm tonight. With a room width of about 420cm, this may be as far as I can go with the tweeters sitting at 86cm from the front wall. I’ll see if anything is said…

 

Even at this far out though imaging is razor sharp and very accurately focused across the stage which has also increased in depth. I thought I’d lose some of the width but things remain well outside the speakers on occasion. I suspect the ATT tweeter helps quite a lot here also. 

 

I may play around with placement as recommended by Audio Physic (dividing the room into odds and evens, etc) to see how that goes but as it stands, the music seems to have nothing to do with the heavy silver enclosures flanking the TV. 

https://www.cardas.com/system-setup

[Neo]

I’m roughly 25cm away from ideal speaker placement, just can’t happen in my place unfortunately. Cardas method I found is ideal and made a profound difference with my speaker setup. 
Neo

[Steever]

14 minutes ago, Neo said:

I’m roughly 25cm away from ideal speaker placement, just can’t happen in my place unfortunately. Cardas method I found is ideal and made a profound difference with my speaker setup. 
Neo

How excellent!

Thanks Neo. 

[anth0110]

On 18/2/2023 at 8:00 PM, Steever said:

Those following so far may have noticed the odd pic and post about my car. I do indeed like a nice car system too. I run a 3-way, fully active wide band system in my Macan. Drivers in the front of the car for the last few years have been from Audible Physics in Indonesia. These have been a 6.5” for 40Hz to 280Hz and 3” for 360Hz to 20kHz with 1st or 2nd order crossovers. I have subs too but they’re from Infinity. 
 

Anyway, today I cut down the mounting flange on a set of Mark Audio Alpair 5.3 and fitted them into the pods I fabricated to the A-pillars. 
 

 

 

These are a fraction of the price of the Audible Physics drivers they replace but I am very impressed with the results. No big crossover or equalization changes yet. I’ll let them run in first. 

Hey Steve

wondering how the Mark compared to NZ3 ? If you could explain 

[Steever]

2 hours ago, anth0110 said:

Hey Steve

wondering how the Mark compared to NZ3 ? If you could explain 

 

Since installing the Alpairs, I've had a bit of a renewed passion for car audio. Fuelling this, I think, is the ease with which the Alpairs can be tuned to work really well. They don't require much EQ correction and play high very cleanly. It's fair to say I've also learnt a few more things about how to tune lately and I am keen to apply these to the NZ3 when they go back in.

 

Which one is better?

I couldn't really comment until I apply these learnings to the NZ3's to be honest.

Making some pretty broad judgements though, the NZ3, I think, it still probably the "better" driver and has, perhaps a more solid sound to it. The Alpair is more delicate in sound. The NZ is certainly made to a higher standard without any doubt but they're $799 compared to the Alpair at $150 or so.

 

Value winner is Alpair.

Everything else is NZ3.

 

But I'm in no hurry to switch back for now...

[anth0110]

2 hours ago, Steever said:

 

Since installing the Alpairs, I've had a bit of a renewed passion for car audio. Fuelling this, I think, is the ease with which the Alpairs can be tuned to work really well. They don't require much EQ correction and play high very cleanly. It's fair to say I've also learnt a few more things about how to tune lately and I am keen to apply these to the NZ3 when they go back in.

 

Which one is better?

I couldn't really comment until I apply these learnings to the NZ3's to be honest.

Making some pretty broad judgements though, the NZ3, I think, it still probably the "better" driver and has, perhaps a more solid sound to it. The Alpair is more delicate in sound. The NZ is certainly made to a higher standard without any doubt but they're $799 compared to the Alpair at $150 or so.

 

Value winner is Alpair.

Everything else is NZ3.

 

But I'm in no hurry to switch back for now...

Thanks for that. I thought that may be the case , solid sounding NZ3, as the Mark is made primarily for a home environment. Keep us posted 

[Steever]

I wasn’t going to do this because exact replacement tweeter dome assemblies for my speakers are not available any more. But, I have some time this afternoon and this is the result;

 

 

 

And sure enough, even though the factory grills are fairly minimal, sound improved. The Mordaunt Short ATT tweeters are pretty incredible as is. In fact, this is probably the nicest tweeter I’ve heard in speakers mortals can afford. These now sound smoother (not that they’re harsh by any stretch of the imagination) and more detailed with central performers now having a more immediate and “before me” placement. 
 

They’ll stay this way now. The grills are easy to refit and should the unthinkable happen, I can graft in new foils to the assembly having done it on the matching centre speaker previously. 
 

 

Edited April 25, 2023 by Steever

[Steever]

The Rega is gooorn!

 

 

I kept my Ania Pro cartridge though and I’m now on the hunt for a mid-school Yamaha PF-800. 

[Steever]

Yammy found and purchased. It’s currently on a truck somewhere between Tasmania and Queensland. 
 

In the meantime, I’ve been shopping and putting together some bits for it. 
 

 

The protractor manufacturer claims this protractor is made specifically for my table and arm but I cannot find Yamaha instructions for null points anywhere. 
 

 

The nulls stated on this device don’t seem to match any of the commonly used alignments, falling close but between one and another. I’ll give it a go anyway. I have another one on the way also with slightly different null measurements to experiment. If these don’t give me a good result, I might just have to budget in one of the more widely regarded protractors.

 

I’ve also got a rear RCA socket plate coming, some 100% silver Litz wire for the tonearm and a record weight/level.
 

On the Rega, I used an Incognito wire kit which employed a single wire run from clips to RCA plugs connected to the phono stage.
 

This time, I’ll be installing a continuous run of wire from headshell clips to the back of the RCA sockets and using Nordost cables between the sockets on the table and the phono stage. There’s some debate about continuous vs RCA cables. I like the idea of better quality cables and swap-ability beating out any small losses through joins. 
 

My plans will require modification to the headshell and I’m even thinking of bonding the removable headshell to the arm permanently. 
 

 

 

Edited May 30, 2023 by Steever

[Steever]

Benchmarking tonight with a selection of live music genres. 
 

 

 

No imaging to speak of, but tonnes of dynamics and good vibes. 
 

This venue had a pretty sweet desk rig and associated equipment. 
 

 

 

 

Edited June 4, 2023 by Steever

[Steever]

My 40cm silver Litz wiring arrived but after threading one of the four through the arm structure, it turns out it's too short to even reach where the new RCA sockets would sit on the rear of the TT.

Rats!

So, a 1.5m length is on its way and I've decided to stay one continuous length now to the phono stage. This sits more comfortably with me given my thoughts re minimising connections, especially in wiring carrying signals needing 70dB of gain before making it to the preamp. The Frey RCA's will now be moved back to connecting phono stage to pre.

[Steever]

The new silver Litz wiring arrived not long ago and I took the opportunity today to run it through the arm on the Yamaha turntable. 
 

 

I decided to bypass the several joins in the signal wiring the turntable used from factory. Instead, it’s a single length from cartridge clips right through to the RCA plugs. 
 

 

This required some modification of the arm/head shell junction and connections involving their removal. Not a reversible mod but if this works as well as I think it will, why would I want to go back. 
 

Unfortunately, I got this far only to find I’d overlooked the lengths of the mounting bolts I’d need for the cart. The ones I have are too short and too long. 
 

 

I’ve waited several weeks now so another few days waiting for new bolts won’t hurt. 

[klm]

53 minutes ago, Steever said:

The new silver Litz wiring arrived not long ago and I took the opportunity today to run it through the arm on the Yamaha turntable. 
 

 

I decided to bypass the several joins in the signal wiring the turntable used from factory. Instead, it’s a single length from cartridge clips right through to the RCA plugs. 
 

 

This required some modification of the arm/head shell junction and connections involving their removal. Not a reversible mod but if this works as well as I think it will, why would I want to go back. 
 

Unfortunately, I got this far only to find I’d overlooked the lengths of the mounting bolts I’d need for the cart. The ones I have are too short and too long. 
 

 

I’ve waited several weeks now so another few days waiting for new bolts won’t hurt. 

That wiring looks quite a large gauge to wire a tone arm with particularly as it looks solid core. The outcome could be some severe mistracking.

[Steever]

6 minutes ago, klm said:

That wiring looks quite a large gauge to wire a tone arm with particularly as it looks solid core. The outcome could be some severe mistracking.

It’s multi strand Litz and it’s tone arm wire. Done this before.

Edited July 22, 2023 by Steever

[klm]

25 minutes ago, Steever said:

It’s multi strand Litz and it’s tone arm wire. Done this before.

No worries, looks can be deceiving. I’ve done many arm rewires over the years hence the observation.

[Steever]

A little jaunt to Maroochydore saw me at Complete Audio where I grabbed a couple of cartridge mounting bolts. 
Small world. 
Got to talking to the owner about my industry experience and found out he knows my father and his business partner from when they were distributing a bunch of quality Hifi brands back in the 80’s and 90’s. 

Nice guy and awesome shop hidden away from one of the main roads there in a residential area. Will definitely have to revisit. 
 

Anyway, new bolts allowed me to finally set up my Rega Ania Pro cartridge on the Yamaha turntable. 
 

And here it is;

 

 

 

When I first got this, the rubber feet had collapsed and cracked, the cuing lacked any damping and it was just pretty filthy. 

 

It was stripped down and cleaned thoroughly. The aluminium parts had all started pitting but this was removed with a soft scourer to have all looking new. The main bearing was cleaned out and lubed with new oil and the queuing mechanism was stripped, cleaned and new 50k viscosity transmission silicon used to refill. While the arm assembly was off the table, I ran some new, pure silver Litz cable from silver tags all the way to some silver contact RCA plugs.
The table was leveled on three Isoacoustics Gaia III feet and then the floating sub chassis level was carefully set up.

 

 

Lastly, the 33 and 45RPM speeds and the end of side auto lift/stop were calibrated. 
The lid is pretty clouded but I’ll grab an automotive paint machine finisher and sort that out later. 

 

Will give it a listen shortly. 

[Steever]

I loved my experience getting back into collecting and listening to music on vinyl with my Rega RP40. It was a very good table and responded very well to modifications and tweaks. 
In the end, I decided to move it on though for the fully automatic convenience and nostalgia of a Denon DP47F or similar. 
 

In my searches I also considered options from JVC, Pioneer and Kenwood. 
 

I then stumbled upon the Yamaha PF-800 I now have here. I kept my Rega cartridge and fitted that and decided London Grammar’s Californian Soil would be the first album I’d play. 
 

As good as the Rega was, I wasn’t prepared for what I’d hear using the Yamaha. Truthfully, I had no idea what to expect, especially given the unconventional arm on it. 
 

The first thing I noticed compared to the Rega is a much more organic and lush sound. On the Rega, the Ania Pro cartridge could be quite analytical and very detailed. It’s like that still but there’s a more “etherialness” and fleshed out sound on the Yamaha. 
 

The stage is also much more enveloping and the improvements in 3D relief are quite uncanny. On the Rega, I got a very good copy of performances. On the Yamaha, it just sounds more, real. 
 

A couple of things though, while bass is now more prominent, it’s perhaps not as detailed. And I might have to play with various cartridge alignments. I never once got groove distortion with the full Rega and the whole 3 bolt set up. I may have some now. 
 

First album. 

 

The Ania Pro cartridge is more enjoyable on the new table. 

 

 

Low mass silver contact RCA plugs terminate silver Litz wires in the snake pit. I get less noise/hum with this compared to the Rega despite the Cyrus pre providing 70dB of gain. I just cannot hear it sitting 2-3m away from the speakers. 

 

 

 

[Steever]

Over the last few days, I’ve had a few records on the Yammy. It’s sounding very nice and music just flows out of the speakers. 
But, something that bugs me on any system is poor channel balance. Even if everything else is good, if the channel balance is off, I get annoyed. 
 

I’ve had this with the new turntable with a stage bias to the left. Switching left and right plugs around on the phono stage fixed things somewhat but then everything was around the wrong way. 
 

Coming in around 25 years old now, give or take a year or so, things are probably due for a bit of a pull apart. One thing I didn’t do the other day was service the anti-skate. Tonight was the night. It’s a pretty simple cantilever spring arrangement it turns out and mine was not working because the captive end of the spring at the dial had come out of its little hole. 
 

I fixed this and put it all back together and now, in combination with a little more alignment adjustment, it’s dialed in nicely and I’m not getting all bothered. 
 

One of my benchmark albums, which I’ve had since the early 90’s, is a Windham Hill Electronic Sampler. It’s last on the table tonight and I’m a happy camper now with how it’s all performing. 
 

[Steever]

My father is aging and his complex and quite un-ergonomic system involving a combined music and home theatre systems, multiple preamps, power amps, multi-tower ceiling height ribbon hybrid speakers, etc is proving unreliable and so not being used. 
 

He misses his music. 
 

So, in readiness to my next trip to Bendigo, we’ve agreed to simplify things so he and his wife can start enjoying his large music collection again. 
 

The system will be simplified back to CDP, tuner and TV for sources, a valve pre, Redgum monoblocks, maybe a sub, and one pair of significantly smaller speakers. 
 

Everything else will be sold or given away. 
 

Speaker wise, we were both kind of open to ideas. They did have to be smaller than his 7ft ribbons, have timber enclosures and, of course, sound good. 
 

Buying used can be a bit hit and miss but something did come up which ticked all boxes. 
 

 

We know we both like these as Dad used to sell these to his dealer network in Victoria in the 80’s. He owned a set for a while, moved to Argonauts (the floor standing version with twin woofers) but came back to the Freedoms because they had a balance he preferred over almost anything else. 
 

This pair came home with me today. I think their proportions and the colour way is perfect. And there’s certainly a high degree of nostalgia attached too. 
 

This afternoon, they had their crossovers traced prior to purchasing new caps, inductors, resistors and cables. 
Will probably go Mundorf bits and Nordost cable again. 
 

The stands were soaked in warm water to remove the partical board inserts in the bases in prep for something which will deaden and mass load the hollow injection molded plastic. 
 

The enclosures will also be lightly sanded back, reglued and wax filled in spots here and there and then waxed to finish. Internally, they’ll stay as they are as Mission factored in the thin wall cabinet colouration when designing the dividing network. They’re a chip board with timber veneer outside and selective multi layer damping inside. 
 

I’ll also inspect the tweeters for the condition of the ferro fluid and clean out and refresh if required. 
 

Of course, I’ll document everything and then they’ll be trucked down to Victoria. 

Edited August 17, 2023 by Steever

[Guest RobbC]

another project

 

you never stop mate.  I think you really need a garage

 

[Steever]

1 hour ago, RobbC said:

another project

 

you never stop mate.  I think you really need a garage

 

Yes, correct, I agree. 
 

The messiest part of this project will be mixing the sand/silicone goop for inside the stands and cutting the ply inserts to size for their bottoms. Oh, maybe the sanding of the enclosures too. 
 

I ordered all the crossover bits today and well as the bearing footers I’ll be putting in place of spikes. I’d considered Gaia III footers but that’s probably going to push the budget a bit. 

Edited August 18, 2023 by Steever

[Hi-Fi Whipped]

1 hour ago, Steever said:

Yes, correct, I agree. 
 

The messiest part of this project will be mixing the sand/silicone goop for inside the stands and cutting the ply inserts to size for their bottoms. Oh, maybe the sanding of the enclosures too. 
 

I ordered all the crossover bits today and well as the bearing footers I’ll be putting in place of spikes. I’d considered Gaia III footers but that’s probably going to push the budget a bit. 

What a great project you have taken on for your folks Steve, very cool looking Mission speakers with an emotional connection to your dads music journey too, perfect!

 

Looking forward to the updates 

[Steever]

There’s no update on the Freedom speakers refurb. I’ve been a little flat since returning from my holiday last week. The caps, resistors, grill cloth and sealing foam are all here and I’ll pop out this weekend to grab a sander, some paper, finishing oil, dried river sand, silicone and a few other bits and bobs and start on them next week. 
 

In other news, I have a buyer for my PF-800 turntable. There’s a bit of work involved as a demo is required before I remove my cart. Going well, I’ll be fitting an Audio Technica OC9 series cart and completing the sale. 
 

I’ve recently picked up a Trans-Fi Terminator Pro arm as part of some work being done to replace the Yamaha. 

 

 

I spied one in a post on a Cyrus Audio forum which, it turns out, belongs to a fellow Brisbanite. We got chatting and I got to reading and contacting a few people and my new, unused arm was hand delivered from Toowoomba this afternoon by another SNA member who’d had a change of plans. 
 

Certainly not as elegantly executed as, say, a Clearaudio TT5 but, rated very highly against some long established industry leaders costing 4-6 times the price of these. 
 

I was planning a dual layer Corian plinth for it. I’d also planned on sourcing a Rega motor kit and 24V power supply. I was also going to grab a platter and bearing system from Tango Spinner in Argentina. I’d used their bits on my previous Rega with great improvements over the factory Rega components. 
 

In the end though, a couple of things bothered me about this the more I thought about it:

1. Personal and anecdotal experience has shown that while Rega turntables deliver great value in their lower and mid offerings, there’s a rumbling of sentiment from some users that quality could/should still be better.
2. For the money I would be spending, I could actually get something made to a much higher standard. 
 

To this end, I’ve committed to the Clearaudio Concept Wood recently advertised in the classifieds here. That table comes with a very good Clearaudio arm on it already but the Terminator will be swapped in relatively easily. 
 

The Clearaudio arm and my Rega cartridge (Ania Pro) will be sold to fund a new cartridge. I’d shortlisted a model from Dynavector and another from Ortofon but neither of these will be purchased initially. I’ve chosen something else but with two spare carbon arm wands for my arm, I may yet also end up with something from Ortofon as well down the track. 

Edited September 19, 2023 by Steever

[Steever]

I started on refurbing the Mission Freedoms this afternoon. 
 

The factory stands (the made in UK ones) are plastic molded and ring like a bell. The Australian ones were 3 MDF sheets and were better sonically but not as pretty. 
 

Luckily, this pair of speakers came with the UK plastic stands. First up was filling them and deadening them. 

 

Oven dried super fine sand (not from the beach so no salts). 
 

Once dried and cooled, into the bases it went. 
 

 

The voids were filled to the very top, plenty of silicone was spread around to stop it coming out and the ply bottoms went on to seal everything up. 
 

 

They now sound like bricks when wrapping them and are about the same weight too. They’ll move the centre of gravity much lower once they’re locked to the speakers. They’ll be drilled for threaded inserts once the footers arrive as I’m uncertain whether they’re M6 or M8 and won’t know until they’re here in a few days. This will give the silicone time to cure fully anyway. 
 

This brings me to the speakers themselves. They were stripped of all drivers, crossovers, hardware and filling. 
 

 

Tomorrow they’ll be lightly sanded to remove the satin lacquer and some scratches. 
 

After discussion with my father, who these are for and who used to restore furniture, they’ll be oiled to bring out the lovely walnut grain. 
 

Interestingly, the enclosures for this model were never  heavily damped at all and the port is only about 20mm long. 
 

 

At least Mission used T-nuts for every single bolt on them. And this pair were made in 1986. 

 

I’ll not be changing any damping as they were tuned and voiced with the enclosure colourations in mind. I’ve decided to not even change the cabling (it’s decent quality OFC with Mission branding on it anyway). 
 

The only improvements will be to generic parts in the cross overs and the external cosmetics. 
 

More to come…

Edited September 23, 2023 by Steever