2008 RMAF – – – all things analog.

No remote on my Triplanar chez Galibier either, Doug, but know that Ralph's electronics will also be in our suite (1130) this year.

* Galibier Gavia (Stelvio Platter) / Triplanar / XV-1s
* Atma-sphere MP-3 preamp
* Atma-sphere MP-60 amps
* Classic Audio T-3 speakers

I'll have Yip's MintLP protractor on display for those of you who are curious about it.

We're planning something a bit different from the stodgy old type of room, as my buddy Al Helo (Lee Island Audio) and I will be co-exhibiting. Our number 1 goal is to have fun, because if we can't have any, we don't know how we can expect anyone else to do so.

Sure, we run the risk of offending some with music that is other than pristinely recorded and typical of shows, but you know what? If I hear Patricia Barber one more time I'll ...

The theme will be that of a radio station. We'll be blocking time on Saturday for different types of music, so you can plan on bringing your tunes in at the appropriate hour (e.g. Saturday morning bluegrass, aftenoon Baroque, etc.). As soon as we hash out the schedule, I'll publish it on the website.

As you can guess from above, there will **NOT** be an audiophile hour. The last time I checked, audiophile is not a genre of music.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

Agreed, Steve, and furthermore, the best gear is at a disadvantage as the "look at me" exhibits across and down the hall from most rooms blast at mega-levels which can't help but leak into your exhibit room.

It's unfortunate that for the most part, systems with low noise floors don't get to strut their stuff at shows because of this. Subtlety, to a large extent is lost.

It's one reason they'll have to pry the end suite I've been occupying since the first year of the show from my cold, dead hands. In addition to being one of the largest rooms at the show (apart from the 5 ballrooms, that is), we can position the listening seats far from the door. This coupled with having only one neighbor, means there's minimal (but still some) sonic polution from other rooms.

The worst of it as you'd guess is that the rooms with the worst systems are the worst offenders in the loudness department. A system has to be pretty mediocre to sound bad in the hallway walking by, and you can tell in a heartbeat the rooms you absolutely don't want to set foot in. In this sense (and only this sense), they're doing you a favor.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

All ...

Definitely write in your A'gon handles on your name tags. You'll meet the nicest folks ... even ones you've been disagreeing strongly with on this and other forums ;-)

A note about show strategy: sheep-like behavior manifests itself, as a large majority of attendees wander around the show aimlessly without a plan - especially in the early hours as they struggle to orient themselves. You'll find most end up working their way from the ground floor to the upper floors.

Reverse the flow and start at the top!

In the Marriott, there are 3 main exhibit areas:

1. The Tower where we are located (1128 & 1130)
2. A central, shorter tower (5 floors?)
3. The the main floor and mezzanine ballrooms - with both exhibits and vendor booths (records, accessories, etc.).

This is the first year that a second, adjacent hotel (The Hyatt) is in play, so I don't know the logistics there.

Invariably, Saturday is the big day, and we find that the top floor of the main tower where we are located gets most crowded in the middle toward the end of the day.

The general trend on the rest of the 11th floor is the same. So (the secret is out), start at the top floors and work your way down. Use the stairways as comfort and physical condition permit.

Oh yes ... as far as the Scissor Sisters is concerned, there's an appropriate volume level for every type of music. You wouldn't listen to The Who at the same level as you would Corelli. So, Jazzdoc ... bring it on, and I'll have a very special Jefferson Airplane live cut to play you from "Bless It's Pointed Head".

Having said that, once we pass our 20's, our tolerance for things loud diminishes with each passing decade. At the last Little Feat concert I attended this Spring (wow!), I was more than happy to have my 25dB attenuators in my musician's earplugs (highly recommended).

Back to show prep now ...

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

Good analysis Doug, and I know you are aware that quite a few temporal disturbances can come from electronics - different sorts of disturbances than can (in general) be attributed from mechanical sources (tape drives and turntables). I'm emphasizing this point mainly for those who might be glossing over your prose.

There is a type of timing disturbance that many do not perceive as speed stability, but rather as IM distortion. I'm sure you and Paul have heard this as you worked up the belt stiffness hierarchy. I once posted a link to a review of the Rockport Sirius turntable by the ever verbose Peter Moncrieff on the topic of IM distortion. Here's the link along with some introductory comments by me: http://www.galibierdesign.com/rants_06.html.

IM distortion can occur in a circuit as well. It's the usual place we think of it (as opposed to a drive system). These distortions can mask themselves as mechanical timing errors as well.

I'm coming over to yours and Raul's side of the fence with respect to iron. The Atma-Sphere OTL gear I had the privilege to live with at the show was a second such exposure that demonstrated how difficult it is to work a musical signal through some wire wrapped around a hunk iron. It can be done artfully (and you have every right to like it), but the effect is still there.

Phase (timing) relationships are very difficult to maintain throughout an audio system and power supply tuning is another area that can really destroy these subtle timing cues if the designer is not skilled. I've yet to be able to fully get a handle on distinguishing this causality reliably, but rather by comparison, component swapping, and extrapolation.

One of the more brilliant power supply designers is Dennis Fraker of Serious Stereo. Say what you will about the source components they have to lug to the show from the "wilds" of Livingston, MT, but his power supply design is nothing short of revelatory.

I've heard Dennis' 2A3 amp (sub 1 watt output) in the room of a customer, and have never heard such dynamic breadth and shadings in an amp with less than ca. 20W output when driving Azzolina bass cabinets (he uses the extraordinary Ales compression drivers up top). Of course, the overall efficiency is set by the bass modules, and I'm well familiar with these bass modules.

When a power supply starts to peter out, you experience a vague motion sickness type of effect as the presentation begins to congeal and waver in both time and space.

Don't underestimate cartridge matching (I know you don't) when you're talking about phase relationships and tempo. It's about a whole lot more than determining the resonant frequency. With each passing year, I'm coming to understand the relative strengths of the Triplanar and the Schroeder. I don't mean to leave out other fine arms in this discussion, but it is these two with which I have had the most experience.

Like Ralph, the evolution of my taste has taken my preference to the Triplanar (and by inference the great Micro Seiki and other arms of the past). I'm coming to see a philosophical junction between OTL's and what the Triplanar does so well, equally as I see an affinity between the best transformers and Schroeders. No one can tell you what to like ;-)

Still, it starts with the drive system, and I wish I had the opportunity to hear the Oswald Mill room. The nature of these shows is such that we are tightly bound to our rooms as exhibitors and must use our friends' ears as proxies. For this, I am most appreciative of your comments, and we seem to be hearing the same things.

This Summer, we began a drive system project as well, and we have been working with the same circuit designer with whom the boys from the Mill have been working. This controller has made it to our short list of candidates. I see real promise in these drive systems, but there's quite a bit of evaluation to be done and I'm not ready to toss out the legacy controller for perhaps 18-24 months ... if at all. Time will tell.

There's quite a bit of work to be done here, but I digress. These are great times for analog.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

There's a lot to catch up on in this thread, and I'll do my best to be brief and yet thorough ... well ... maybe not brief ...

Speed Errors.

There are various types which correlate to the magnitude and distribution of the error. Chris alluded to this in the stylus drag discussion. At the lowest level is IM distortion discussed in my post above, and loosely equivalent to digital jitter in the sense that we don't hear this as pitch change or wavering but rather as a combination of harshness, a paradoxically rolled off top end, and bleached out harmonics in the mid-bass. As we work our way to longer time domains, we begin to hear timing errors - like the band isn't completely on the beat. Increasing the time domain further, we begin to hear shifts in imaging and pitch until we reach a point where nausea sets in for some of us. It's important to make these distinctions when we talk about speed.

Selection of Music.

I agree in general that acoustic music is critical to understanding what's going on, but this focus on period instruments is more a point of familiarity and reference for our friends on this list than anything else. It provides one (and I emphasize one) means of triangulating on the truth.

For an alternate, equally valid reality, listen to Bill Monroe, Doc Watson, Mark Knopfler, Neil Young, acoustic Jorma Kaukonen, John Fahey, Cal Tjader, Charles Mingus, Kathleen Battle, Talking Heads, Scissor Sisters, etc. and they'll all tell you something equally important about what's going on with your rig.

One of my favorite torture tests is to play a capable soprano going full tilt. Dense music has its place as well, and in this category, you can learn as much from Heavy Metal (even though I don't like it) as you can from full scale romantic pieces.

Rock 'n roll and other electronic music presents a challenge to understanding what's going on, but well recorded rock can also tell you things that you can't hear with acoustic music. You have to be watchful however. Listen to Neil Young playing his beat up Fender Tweed Deluxe, and if you know the sound of those amps and their harmonic overtones, it's unmistakable when a system gets this right.

Period music (Academy of Ancient Music) will tell you about subtlety, nuance and such. Other genres will tell you something different. When we had our Saturday night after hours session at the Audiofest, Palasr brought an AC controller which we listened to (designed by the same fellow who's working with Win on the Saskia controller as well as with us). Well, we're still hunting down a 3-phase motor, and the 2-phase we were driving was relatively crude sounding compared with our legacy controller.

If you listened only to pop and rock, this crudeness would have been lost on you, as bass lines had nice punch to them. A shift to acoustic music told the rest of the story however. Drej and Palasr will agree, I'm sure. One of the main dangers of trying to reach a conclusion when listening to electric music is that the distortions in the recording process can be masked by electronic distortions in your system.

In my humble opinion, a system needs to do it all, and if you limit yourself while you're evaluating, you may well be limiting your ultimate outcome. So, if you listen only to period instruments, should you also invite Jazzdoc over with his Scissors Sisters records. The reverse would be true as well - don't listen only to electric.

Ultimately, you're making choices, but listening to all different sorts of music at a minimum will expose you to different worlds, and the fellow who tells me that Woody Guthrie doesn't have a story to tell me and that all of the valid music was composed by white guys who died a hundred years ago is equally self-limiting as is the reverse. Ultimately, even if you listen to music written by dead white guys, you can still learn a lot that's relevant to you by listening to modern music occasionally.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

Hi Dre,

This morning, I received permission from the designer to showcase his AC motor controller. I learned this after you and I spoke yesterday.

This will be in the after hours session on Saturday night. During normal show hours, our tried & true legacy (DC) controller will be in use.

The controller is by no means ready for prime time, and motor selection will take quite a bit of time, as will shaking out the final design. At the end of the day, we may stick with DC, but there's only one way to find out.

These Saturday night (after show hours) sessions are intended for us to let our hair down ... get out of "show mode" and actually have some fun.

Same room as always (top floor in the Marriott - Suite 1130, along with being next door in the Lowther room - 1128).

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

What hour is reserved for the "Scissor Sisters" at ear drum piercing levels?

I figure on being tired and needing to clear the room around 4 in the afternoon ;-)

Seriously however, I need to get with the "program manager" to figure this out and publish.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier