Steve's hi-fi adventures.

[muzzagruzz]

Oh, well done. That does look good and clever idea. 

[Steever]

More progress today. 
I might call it my tri-merang table. 
 

 

 

 

 

It weighs about 5kg and with the Gaia III footers fitted into each leg, the top surface sits 44cm from the floor. Quite low but then, it’s higher than my current arrangement with my lowline entertainment unit and I manage easily using that. 
 

My custom cover fits as well and small pins on the stand prevent the cover from being nudged off if bumped. 
 

I may play with mass loading at some stage too once the house move happens. I’m considering something slung from the centre of the platform and hanging low to the floor. I’ll need to be mindful of the effective mass range of the three Gaia footers when doing this. They’re designed to work best in the middle to upper range of their 24kg limit. The table and stand currently weigh in at about 11-13kg combined. So, I have some range to play with. 
 

Just an idea…

Edited November 18, 2023 by Steever

[Steever]

A change in apartment is looming so this happened today:

 

 

The bare essentials are still connected for music and TV. 

I’ll also be listing some fine Nordost cables in the classifieds tomorrow as the new system will be reverting back to electronics off to one side requiring new cables. 

[Hi-Fi Whipped]

12 hours ago, Steever said:

A change in apartment is looming so this happened today:

 

 

The bare essentials are still connected for music and TV. 

I’ll also be listing some fine Nordost cables in the classifieds tomorrow as the new system will be reverting back to electronics off to one side requiring new cables. 

Did I read you have new speakers for the new place Steve?

[Steever]

5 hours ago, Hi-Fi Whipped said:

Did I read you have new speakers for the new place Steve?

I don’t know

I don’t though. My love affair with my Mordaunt Shorts is still on for the foreseeable future. Combined with the matching sub, I can’t really fault them for my current apartment living situation. 
 

I ordered Nordost cables for a re-wire project I’ll embark on once settled into the new place. I’ll also be replacing selected capacitors in the crossover network. That’s as close as I’ll get to new speakers for now. 
 

I fear new speakers capable of bettering these will cost a rather substantial amount I’d rather not spend in the lead up to purchasing an apartment of our own in the new year. 

[Steever]

Look Mum, no plugs!

 

So, I did a thing. 
Part of me said not to before hand. That was the part which paid a fair amount of $ for my speaker cables. And part of me said you know it’ll work. That was the part who’s done this before, on much cheaper cables. 
You can tell who won

 

 

I removed the Heimdall cables from the tweeters.

I then cut and stripped my lovely Nordost Frey speaker cables. 
I now have shorter, 50cm runs of Frey to both sets of connected terminals, 4 less plugs, 8 fewer connections in the audio chain, and a solid gain in sound quality. And not just in the treble where Frey replaced Heimdall. 
Improvements were across the board. I’d have removed the plugs from the other ends as well but for Cyrus’ insistence on using 4mm sockets only. 
 

In other news: the pendulum weight I’ve been considering for my turntable stand is coming along. The bar and fixtures are ordered. I just need an attractive 10-12kg mass. The Concept TT, Trans-Fi arm, stand and weight sneak in under the recommended mass limit for the 3 x Gaia III footers (24kg) mounted to the base of the stand. Any more mass and I’m up for Gaia II footers at greater cost. 
 

Once fitted, it’ll pretty much take care of the stand’s leveling. The system’s centre of gravity and, I’d imagine, resonance will also be lowered in frequency and amplitude. 
 

I don’t know if it’ll actually provide improvements to performance but, it is fun. 
 

Edited December 1, 2023 by Steever

[Steever]

This heavy little box has to have the prettiest brushing and anodizing I’ve seen in a long time. 
I know looks and mass aren’t everything but my expectations for performance are now significantly higher. 
 

 

 

It’s a 12V DC LPS for my Clearaudio Concept turntable. I considered the Clearaudio one and also buying another from Gieseler. The parts list (R-core tranny, Pana caps, quality casework) and pricing was too good to not at least give it a try. 
 

I also had my USB scope arrive today. 
 

Edited December 7, 2023 by Steever

[Steever]

The equipment may be packed away between house moves but progress on the next set up is happening. 
 

The Mono X amps are away at Tuned In Audio getting a check over before a possible sale. 
 

I’ve ordered and awaiting delivery of new interconnects and speaker cables. 
 

And this 10kg telescope counterweight arrived today. 

 

The weight is going it significantly lower the centre of gravity for my turntable stand and because of the IsoAcoustics footers, will  give a small degree of self leveling to the system. I’m just awaiting delivery of some M20 stainless rod before finishing the assembly. 

 

Edited December 20, 2023 by Steever

[Steever]

It’ll still be some weeks until the house move and even then, I’ll be having some renovation work done on the main living space. Nothing major, mainly new wall sockets for power for the audio system, some new curtains and wall treatment of the wall behind the speakers. 
 

In the meantime, I’ve had confirmation my new cables are on their way and due tomorrow. 
 

Last week, the last shelf for my Cyrus Hark stand arrived. This will be needed as I hope to add a CD transport to the top shelf soon. 

 

I also purchased a silver main spar to match my speakers and quartz silver Cyrus equipment. The black spar will remain in storage. 
 

The final piece of my turntable stand arrived y’day and was duly fitted last night. 
 

 

 

It’s a length of M20 stainless threaded rod secured tightly to the trimarang top plate and the 10kg telescope counterweight at the bottom. 
 

The centre of gravity is now ridiculously low and I’m hoping, apart from added stability, it will also provide a small degree of self leveling with the compliant Isoacoustics Gaia III footers. 
 

 

[Steever]

Those following know I used and continue to like Nordost cables. 
 

I got as high up the ladder as the Frey models. These required some significant investment and this was only the middle model of those offered by the company. 
 

I wanted to have even better performance than the already superb Frey but, the need for long interconnects in my new system plans and the exorbitant cost of Tyr and Valhalla kinda stopped that progression dead. 
 

So I did some reading, as you do, and I came across Mike Lenehan’s Foilflex product. I also remember hearing a system with his cables in it a few years back and noted how I liked that system’s sound. Reviews also compared these favourably to Valhalla at substantially less $.
 

Appealing for me also was Mike’s and Andrew’s willingness to accommodate custom orders in terms of lengths and plug selection. For example, I needed my main interconnects to consist of asymmetric lengths with the longest being 5m long. I also wanted bare ends on the speaker end of my speaker cables as removal of them on all other cables I've owned over the years resulted in solid improvements to the sound. 
All of this was never a problem.

So I placed an order and today, it was Christmas again. 
 

 

 

To purchase a 5m and a 3m length RCA cable pair alone, in Frey, was going to cost double that of the bi-wire speaker cables, asymmetric length pre to monos cables and 50cm phono stage to pre cables shown above.

 

It’ll be about another 7 weeks before I can connect everything up though. Can’t wait!

 

Edited January 10, 2024 by Steever

[russell66]

On 09/01/2024 at 8:28 PM, Steever said:

Those following know I used and continue to like Nordost cables. 
 

I got as high up the ladder as the Frey models. These required some significant investment and this was only the middle model of those offered by the company. 
 

I wanted to have even better performance than the already superb Frey but, the need for long interconnects in my new system plans and the exorbitant cost of Tyr and Valhalla kinda stopped that progression dead. 
 

So I did some reading, as you do, and I came across Mike Lenehan’s Foilflex product. I also remember hearing a system with his cables in it a few years back and noted how I liked that system’s sound. Reviews also compared these favourably to Valhalla at substantially less $.
 

Appealing for me also was Mike’s and Andrew’s willingness to accommodate custom orders in terms of lengths and plug selection. For example, I needed my main interconnects to consist of asymmetric lengths with the longest being 5m long. I also wanted bare ends on the speaker end of my speaker cables as removal of them on all other cables I've owned over the years resulted in solid improvements to the sound. 
All of this was never a problem.

So I placed an order and today, it was Christmas again. 
 

 

 

To purchase a 5m and a 3m length RCA cable pair alone, in Frey, was going to cost double that of the bi-wire speaker cables, asymmetric length pre to monos cables and 50cm phono stage to pre cables shown above.

 

It’ll be about another 7 weeks before I can connect everything up though. Can’t wait!

 

I'll eagerly wait for the results.

Looks like the Cyrus rack is making a comeback.

A friend here use to work for Cyrus years ago, he has a the rack filled with top Cyrus gear, that is where I got my stuff from. Spare bits he had laying around, and he still has more.

Whats really impressive and you may know about, is that he has a pair of Mission Pilastro speakers, that I had never heard of.

They sound awesome. He sadly won't let me take a picture to post. And reckons there were very few made.

 

[Steever]

3 hours ago, russell66 said:

I'll eagerly wait for the results.

Looks like the Cyrus rack is making a comeback.

A friend here use to work for Cyrus years ago, he has a the rack filled with top Cyrus gear, that is where I got my stuff from. Spare bits he had laying around, and he still has more.

Whats really impressive and you may know about, is that he has a pair of Mission Pilastro speakers, that I had never heard of.

They sound awesome. He sadly won't let me take a picture to post. And reckons there were very few made.

 

I’ll be sure to comment once it’s all set up. There will be several variables due to moving house so I’ll need to take that into account. 
 

I know the Pilastro. 50 pairs made. 
Sadly, many haven’t aged well and suffered damage to their enclosures being the material they are and being so heavy. 
I never heard or saw a set in the flesh but imagine they’re the statement intended. 
I thought them quite a design piece and did want a set. The only ones I happened across for sale online were still priced very high and needed work or were missing grills. 

[Steever]

This evening was spent fixing my Auralic Aries streamer. As great as the Femto version is for the money (it punches), it’s become known also for eating wifi cards. 
Mine stopped working wirelessly in my last apartment so I ran it cabled with a view to replacing it outright as the new place will have the router hidden away. 
 

With some help here on the Auralic thread and links elsewhere, I learned the fix was relatively simple and not very expensive meaning I could keep the Aries, which, I’m quite happy with otherwise. 
 

A shopping sesh on Amazon netted me a new wifi card. When it arrived though, it was too short to fit where the old one sat even though the pins were identical.

Old vs new (in bubble pack) 

 

A little more reading had me change my mind about reordering a new board (and waiting another 3 weeks) to whipping out the soldering iron. 

 

I moved the two threaded board inserts from up near the IR sensor (top right of the board below) to the other set of pads half way down towards the molex connector. 

 

 

 

The new board slipped right in and bolted up perfectly. 

 

 

The old board ran three antennas and this one only two. Not a problem though as the router, while hidden away this time (that’s why I had to get the wireless working again), it won’t be far away and signal strength shouldn’t be an issue. 
 

Fired it up with an Ethernet cable to start with and told the Lightning DS app I wanted to use an existing device and a few seconds later, it’s working. No more reliance on an Ethernet connection and slightly better sound as Auralic claim with wifi. 

 

 

In other news, my monoblock amps were sent away for a check over as I was going to sell them. It turns out, some developing issues were noted with one once it was on the test bench. A section copped a new opamp and caps and the other did too to match. 
 

I should have them back later this week with a promise of even better performance as a result of a fairly substantial rebuild on them. As a result, I’ll be keeping them as what I was considering, in the words of my technician, was a lot of money for not much more performance. 
 

And lastly, I started talking to people about front wall sound treatment today for supply and installation in the new place in February. There is also an aesthetic element to the work we’ll be having done and once in, we’ll assess whether further treatments are required. More on that to come…

Edited January 15, 2024 by Steever

[Steever]

A new chapter starts today. 
We settled the purchase of a new apartment not far from the CBD in Yeronga. 
 

We loved West End but, the same spend a couple of km’s further out gave us a much nicer space. 
 

 

 

This living space is 6m long x 4m across. The system will be arranged so the speakers fire across the room. The sliding door configuration means firing down the room is a no-go. 
 

There is some work scheduled to have additional electrical access points added to the front wall which will then be remodeled with acoustic felt backed oak battens. 
 

 

Floor to ceiling curtains along the end wall, a wool rug, and a large acoustic foam backed art piece behind the new lounge will round out room treatments and tame some pretty wild reverb typical for an empty room. 
 

I’ve also got to find a vinyl record and CD storage solution as the nook I’d planned on using is new being converted into a linen cupboard. 
 

My new Cyrus CDXT SE2 transport was also waiting for me at the gate when we arrived today. It’s been a few weeks of BT speaker music only now so I’m pretty keen to get all the work done so I can get the system up and running. A key part of that will also be finalizing the set up of the Trans-Fi arm on my turntable and fitting the new cartridge. 

[Steever]

The new CD transport

 

 

This afternoon the speakers were moved in. There’s only stairs to access our new place and at just over 30kg each speaker, this was a bit of an effort. 
 

Tomorrow, the sub gets moved. At over 40kg, that won’t be fun either. 

[Steever]

Today the builder pulled the “box” out of the wall. I helped and crikey, it was heavy. With a 3m+ wide back panel of 19mm MDF and frame of 36mm thick MDF, that’s hardly surprising. 
 

 

 

It’s being modified slightly to sit out of the wall about 30mm more to account for the batten/acoustic felt cladding yet to be installed on the outside of the Gyprock. 
 

This also gave the electrician better access to install additional power and RF sockets and a pull through so I can run my Wireworld Supernova optical between the display panel and my preamp/DAC. 

 

I’ll also be stuffing the whole wall cavity with acoustic rated fill as there’s a bedroom on the other side of that wall. 

[Steever]

My wife & I traveled to Bendigo to see my father after his brief hospital visit (he’s ok). 
 

He’s not as dexterous as he used to be so I took the time to go over his new, simplified system. 
 

His monoblocks each have a quiet 50Hz mechanical hum which remained despite nipping up the bolts holding them down in the amp chassis. It’s very quiet so he’ll just have to live with knowing they hum very quietly. 
 

 

I also ensured his recently restored OG Mission 770 Freedom speakers were aligned correctly. 
 

 

 

Edited February 16, 2024 by Steever

[Steever]

I did manage to have a short listening session on my father’s system. Quite disappointingly, it sounded terrible. 
He recently had hard flooring put down in place of the well used carpet there when they purchased the place. 
As you can imagine, this changed things dramatically. I’d heard his system in the room previously and it was very enjoyable. This time, there was a hardness to the upper mid which made things almost unbearable. We both agreed to cut the session short given how uncomfortable it was making us both. 
His challenge now is to address this as his equipment is more than up to the task. 
 

I returned home to Brisbane on Friday to find our builder had made some progress on remodeling our wall in the living and music space. The panels are still being cut and trimmed to fit and are only pinned in place.
 

 

Walking into the room while speaking revealed some drastic improvements to room acoustics. 
 

Intelligibility is way up and speaking volume can be dialed right back. Walking between the kitchen end of the room and the leisure end several times highlights improvements easily and we’re not finished yet. 
 

Tomorrow should see the wall cladding finished off. We can then move on to curtains and acoustic blinds (rails sitting ready at far left of the pic) and finally getting the new floor rug unrolled. I’m also going to look into whether a ceiling diffuser will add value. 
 

I’ve also added bias lighting to the rear of the display. I’m still trying to decide how this is helping the viewing of movies, etc. If anything, I’ve noticed is it seems easier on my eyes when viewing things in a dark room. I’ll see how I go though when sitting back at the final listening location once the boxes living there are unpacked. 

 

Edited February 25, 2024 by Steever

[Steever]

The wall finally finished. 


 

And tonight I unpacked the larger boxes. 
 

 

No power to anything yet except router, TV and the Apple TV.

 

On untreated walls previously, including this place, the TV sounded louder and more spread out across the wall. 
Now it’s much more focused and cleaner sounding. I’m looking forward to how the audio system will perform given pleasing results from the low-fi TV sound. 

 

[Hi-Fi Whipped]

Looking awesome Steve, glad to see it’s coming along as planned!

[Steever]

Thanks Dean.

[Steever]

Things are settled somewhat in the new place now. 
Time to start setting up my new turntable. 
 

 

The stand and plinth were leveled and the arm squared. Also very satisfying was turning on the pump and seeing the carrier start floating. 

[Steever]

Maroochydore op-shopping netted a good haul today. 
 

 

42 CDs for me and a book for my father who loves the blues. 
 

Sadly, the vinyl offerings were typical of the dregs found these days. 

[Hi-Fi Whipped]

2 hours ago, Steever said:

Maroochydore op-shopping netted a good haul today. 
 

 

42 CDs for me and a book for my father who loves the blues. 
 

Sadly, the vinyl offerings were typical of the dregs found these days. 

That’s a great haul!

[Steever]

We’re finally here. 
 

 

I eventually finished setting up this table today. 
I’ve plenty of experience setting up tangential arms but this is my first linear tracking arm. 
 

In some ways, this was easier to set up than all the others but my eyes aren’t as sharp as they used to be so I relied on my phone and my new macro camera to make sure everything was lined up. 

I reckon I did ok too.