Somehow I feel this thread has gotten off track for you.
The older I get, the better I was.
Most upscale cartridges are MC. Most MC cartridges have a more fine line stylus than MM cartridges. Fine line styluses are harder to set up properly, but they ride lower in the groove and therefore seem to have lower levels of surface noise and less pops and clicks. In all, very worthwhile taking the time to set them up properly.
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A gentleman is defined as someone who knows how to play the accordion, and doesn't.
And I have similar results with my high output Dynavector MC (on my shit Rega TT).
Think of a book as a vase, and a movie as the stained-glass window that the filmmaker has made out of the pieces after he’s smashed it with a hammer.
-- Russell Banks (paraphrased)
Do any of you guys do headphones? I just got a pair of Sennheiser HD800s. I'm still getting used to the way they sound, although I'm liking them more and more. Very revealing although a bass boost wouldn't hurt. I don't find them as bright as others have reported. Very, very different from my Sennheiser HD650s and it's almost critical to use a tube amp to sweeten them a bit...I'd still like to get a pair of Stax or one of the high end Audeze phones around my head. I imagine Laser Ken has a pair of Stax SR-009s...
I'm just in the process of breaking in a new pair of Beyerdynamic DT880s. So far they are ear-bleeding bright, but I expect they will fill out with time. I had a pair of Beyers years ago and they were the best I ever heard. I will be heartbroken if these don't match them.
Think of a book as a vase, and a movie as the stained-glass window that the filmmaker has made out of the pieces after he’s smashed it with a hammer.
-- Russell Banks (paraphrased)
I'm not anti-headphone. I just don't have a need for them.
Not even when the in-laws are over?
I used to be anti-headphone. Mostly in terms of comfort and the fact that I felt ridiculous wearing them around my head. But I somehow got into them within the last year or so. They can be great for detail retrieval although I've yet to hear something with the slam and dynamics of loudspeakers. Recently, when I come home from work, I like to unwind by putting the cans on and listening for an hour or so.
Remember I listen to music all day long. I have a dedicated room. Don't need phones.
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Mike |
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I use a pair of Koss SportaPro's for my commute - awesome litle devils that fold up nicely and fit in my briefcase. And with Koss's lifetime guarantee I have replaced these twice when they broke for shipping charges only.
For home use I have a pair of Senn HD600's and a Millet Mini-Max tubed head amp. I don;t use them much, just for early morning when nobody else is up and I've already finished the bills. I won a pair of KEF M500 phones at the last NY Audio show. They sound OK but donl't stack up to the Senn's at all. Don't use these at all.
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A gentleman is defined as someone who knows how to play the accordion, and doesn't.
Lets see if we can move on to another topic ...
Has anyone played with different footer materials under their components? I've found, quite surprisingly at first, that footers can make a rather large difference in the type of sound you get out of your stereo. And what works well under one component doesn't work at all on another, or has a very detrimental effect. Here's what I found in very general terms:
- As you might expect, squishy things make the sound, well squishy - maybe somewhat tube like. Rounded mids, less sharp tops, less hard sounding, looser bass.
- Pointy things make the sound sharper, better definition and detail, tighter bass, etc.
- Roller balls are a good compromise in some areas, having the definition of pointy things but keeping out any hardness that can creep in.
- Wood blocks tend to sound more organic while still bringing out some additional detail.
Mixing and matching throughout the system seems to work best to my ears. That means a whole lot of trial and error to tune things the way I like. I've wound up as follows:
- wood blocks under the CD player (Ayre makes myrtle wood blocks that I use under my Ayre CD player)
- squash balls under the turntable, sandwiched between maple butcher blocks that it rests on
- half round foam "tennis balls" under my tubed preamp (tubes seem to like this more than solid state)
- rollerblocks under the power supplies and power conditioner feeding the rest of the system
- pointy spikes under the speakers
The industry has a whole slew of things that can cost a fortune, or be quite a bargain. And there are tons of DIY recipes to replicate what the expensive ones look like. But it is definitely a series of experiments to find what works best for you.
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A gentleman is defined as someone who knows how to play the accordion, and doesn't.
My dealer gave me four rubber footers when I was having some low frequency hum issues from my turntable. The feedback was eventually tracked down to be something from the cable TV box. But I did like the way the turntable sounded with the feet on it.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
I'm an advocate for Stillpoints SS. I use them on everything except my amp.
TT came with it's own spikes. Seems to work well as they are adjustable.
The older I get, the better I was.
I asked this in a joke Hi-Res thread but I'll bring it up here. Reading up on high resolution audio and I can't seem to get around a couple things. How can you take an existing recording and make it into a higher resolution? Isn't that like converting an MP3 into a wav file? If it's coming from an analog source, how is it better than vinyl based on the same source?
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
I get that you can't up-convert but it seems that at least some of the supposedly hi-res music out there might be doing just that. If they are taking it from the original analogue source as the vinyl, is that digital recording better than vinyl?
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
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