I suspect if anyone doubts tubes have deep, tight bass he hasn't been listening to very good systems. In addition, relative to solid state bass, tube bass has more detail, more "character" and more naturalness. Of course one can always find a mediocre system and try to draw conclusions. |
In the course of breaking something in, over the subsequent several weeks or whatever I might change or add any number of things in the system, clean contacts, that sort of thing. There's no way I can track how the thing I'm breaking in is coming along. There's no way I'm going to listen for a bunch of capacitors to break in. The system sound changes constantly. Am I the only one who can't tell when something's finally broken in? |
Quick interrupt, but doesn't anyone use Herbies tube dampers on their 6SN7 tubes? I am pretty sure there would put be so much bickering about differences in tube types if everyone used Herbies dampers. I am using them on '52 Sylvania 6SN7GTs (Bad Boys) and '42 Tung Sol 5U4G coke bottle rectifier tube. |
Car analogies only get you so much mileage. |
I find the sound without any connection whatsoever to house AC is quite extraordinary. No AC power, no power cords, no transformers. Live and let die. :-) |
I searched for The Ultimate Tweak in archives but didn't find it. Can you provide a link? |
How long will the WireWorld cables take to break in? One supposes there will be a review in about 12 months. ;-) |
And if THAT doesn’t work - the room acoustics and the speaker location things - or if you just want to see just how far you take this stuff, you probably need to get into vibration isolation, aftermarket fuses, wire and cable and power cord directionality, CD treatments, CD bevelers, coloring CDs, demagnetizing CDs and interconnects, silver holographic foil, crystals, Mpingo discs, and whatever else you can think of.
The only constraints are the ones you bring with you. Extracting ALL the information that’s buried there in the recordings is not at all unlike an archaeological dig of massive proportions. ⛏ Time to pull out all the stops.
"When the going gets tough....the tough get going." - Blutarsky
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Viscoelastic materials - Sorbothane is one of the least effective of that type material I’ve worked with -when used in conjunction with a constraining layer form a constrained layer damper, which is not a bad idea for damping the top plate of any isolation stand of the mass on spring variety - the gold standard. There is obviously “residual vibration” on the top plate and the component being isolated due to acoustic wave mechanical interaction, vibration from motor, transformer, etc. in the component and very low frequency seismic vibration transmitted via the isolation system, only partially effective for very low frequencies. Mass on spring. So, to be thorough, two things are needed - effective mass on spring isolation and effective damping of the top plate. Also it’s best to have extremely hard footers like NASA grade ceramics to couple the component to the top plate and to couple the iso stand to the floor or shelf, for extremely fast EXIT of vibration, eschewing rubbery materials altogether.
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Here’s the thing. The Shun Mook Mpingo disc is probably not what you think it is. It’s actually two different woods, Gabon ebony and Mpingo wood, a variety of rosewood as I recall. Also, inside the cutout, if you remove the small disc of wood embedded in the disc, lo and behold - a crystal! WTH!
The Mpingo disc is very resonant and is very sensitive to direction, top to bottom but also azimuth. Thus the real Mpingo disc is rather tricky to fabricate, tricky to knock off and tricky to use. Used incorrectly it can easily hurt the sound.
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I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the Shun Mook Diamond Resonators are even more complicated than the Mpingo disc. Maybe there should be a course on how to knock off Shun Mook resonators. Like the Shun Mook Spatial Kit, that has three Mpingo discs on a wood bracket, the Diamond Resonators have to be all like tricked out when they’re assembled so the separate discs won’t interfere with each other. You know, since they’re directional. Been there done that. I would however, very much like to have a set of Giant Diamond Resonators.
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Unless I’m missing something the $3K Dalby feet do not employ ebony or even wood of any kind. Better check it out. 🙄 - your friend and humble scribe (onwards and upwards!)
The D7-CBF isolation feet preserves all of the delicate nuances within the recording whilst spreading the widest holographic soundstage. We recommend using 3 D7-CBF isolation feet with 2 positioned at the rear and one central at the front. You may need to experiment on absolute placement depending on where the weight load is within each component.
D7-CBF60 Feet DNA
• 3mm wall thickness carbon fibre suspending solid brass parts
• 3 point ceramic bearing decoupling system
• 9 carat gold finish over solid brass
• Compound reservoir to eliminate vertical vibration
• Precision brass supporting the carbon fibre at both ends
• Optional anodised black finish on request
• Available in sets of 3 and 4
Working parameters: Turntables, Power amplifiers and power supplies.
Conservative rating of up to: 75kg (165.3Ibs) per isolation foot
Price: $3000
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I just ran across what you’re referring to. Looks like a really really good copy of a Shun Mook Giant Diamond Resonator. Very nice!
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Whoa! What? Hey, I swear that looks like carbon fiber sleeves on those cables. Not too crazy about the big shiny square do dads.
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In the event you decide you don’t like the Shun Mook jobbers I’m an instant buyer. 😎 Oh, by the way, you guys can keep all that other stuff, just gimme a Minus K and the Shun Mooks to put under it. 🤡
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toetapaudio
@geoffkait, I know somebody in the U.K. who recently had both the Minus K and Stacore side by side in his system for evaluation. The long and short is that he thought the Stacore worked better in his system and he now has four. Active vs passive systems, he preferred the passive solution.
>>>>The Minus K is not an active device. Maybe you’re thinking of a different device. Besides Stacore’s claim that 6 degree of freedom isolation is finally achieved with the their addition of roller bearings is not true.I introducted the first audiophile 6 degree of freedom isolation stand 21 years ago, a passive pneumatic device. Besides, anyone can add a stage of roller bearings to his spring-based system for better performance. That’s actually what audio recording guru Barry Diament recommends, as does your humble scribe.
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Perfect example of Stove Piping. 🏭 Oft times times things get developed like stove pipes for better or worse. Over here we use our own Isolation stands. Townsend seems to be the big exception. Whereas you guys use your own isolation stands. Oblivious to the other guys’. How many isolation devices are there now, worldwide? 20? 30? More?
You’re a Stove Piper, Stove Piper, Stove Piper,
Stove Piper, Stove Piper, Stove Piper, Stove
Yes you are! |
toetapaudio
I don’t know who more weird out of you two...😂
Uh, are you looking in the mirror? 👀
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