Hello All,
What's up with "pending moderator approval" that just started? Have I been singled out or is this for everyone's posts? Even paranoids have can real enemies.
John |
Hi John, No wonder your post is 'pending moderator approval'. Besides in our forum are languge lessons not done. I hope your knowledge is not restricted to what one can find in a dictionary? |
Dear Comrade,
Three battles on eBay! You live a very full (if not precarious), life. Hope all ends well. I wish we could edit this forum. In my post to you I listed the wrong serial # for the Ruby 3 (yours). I have several numbers scribbled on note pads scattered around my desk. The serial # I posted was actually a hotel reservation confirmation #. My mistake but I could not correct. Looks like approximately 7500 cartridges were produced between our two F/G-S's Regards, Don |
Dear Lawrence, You wrote, "I'm going to play the devils advocate here and say Lewm really was saying he preferred the sound of his hifi to having better sound then live!"
That is a complete misinterpretation of what I wrote AND what I meant. I meant that the electronics inside the club, through which I was perceiving the star performer, were set up so badly that her particular contribution to the music did NOT sound "live". I inferred by my little aside that if my home audio system were to portray her voice the way I was hearing it inside the club, I would wonder whether something was amiss with the system, i.e., she sounds better (more like "live") on my system than she did for the first part of her performance in the club. (As noted, they evidently tweaked some controls, and things did get better toward the end.) I can say this, because I am quite familiar with Roberta Gambarini's real live "sound", having seen and heard her perform several times previously. I also know well how she sounds on my audio system.
This problem in the club occurred because, even though we were sitting close enough to have heard her without any electronic amplification, what you get in a club when it is full of people is mostly coming from their speakers, which are not typically "high-end", to say the least. I am now wondering why instrumentalists faired much better, because the sax player, who was standing right next to her, sounded very "live". But also he was using a different microphone, so it could be true that that infernal mixer box was sucking the life out of her voice or adding distortion of some unflattering kind. If the issue is still unclear to you, let me know. My post was written in agreement with Pryso's one, wherein he decried the use of electronics in live performance in instances where it might not be necessary, like in a small jazz club. I don't know why you find this even controversial, so I feel that I must not be making myself clear. |
Dear Don, You are lucky with your confusion between the Ruby 3 sr. nr. and your hotel reservation. You could also write 'qua' in a totally unaccetable way and make fool of yourself. My euphoria from a week ago with: LP S + Shiraz+ Kiseki changed in a nightmere of three battles. Deed the German fight on two or three fronts btw? |
Nandric,
I have seen the Ruby 2 go for $1500. I've had the Ruby 2 and it is differently a step down from the (your) FG-S Ruby 3. You are running quite a bargain with your asking price! Someone needs to snatch that bargain up! Regards, Don |
Jbethree, same thing with happens to me with most posts. I really think it's strangling the forum. There can be no meaningful debate if there's an 8-10 hour delay before posts go up.
Lewm, I've had similar experiences at many live gigs .. on some occasions the vocals are almost totally lost. Several years ago I saw Cassandra Wilson here in Sydney and the sound guy must have thought he was mixing The Who live at Wembley. It was SO loud that one of the PA drivers blew and for the rest of the show she sounded like Joe Cocker. With the saxophone at the gig you attended, perhaps it was loud enough and you were close enough that you were hearing some of the direct, unamplified sound at your seat. |
Here is the Soundsmith Ruby OCL stylus:
http://cgim.audiogon.com/i/vs/i/f/1352189501.jpg
I sweated Ben Day dots detaching it from the silicone blob that fastens it to the acrylic box. It is an undocumented alien, save for recommended minimum VTF of 1.5gm. Its professional-looking engraved, anodized alum stylus holder fits snuggly into the cartridge body, mandating firm but gentle handling while mounting or dismounting to avoid a blunder with the hair-thin ruby cantilever. I was too eager to get this going to dally with the microscope. However, under a simple magnifier the OCL stylus looks perpendicular. At 1.5 gms it rides reasonably high. On the Trans-Fi linear arm the stylus deflects markedly until the air manifold is set dead level-- indicative of a relatively high compliance suspension.
This one replaces M320III STR with Axel's refreshed suspension. The initial impression is that the Ruby is in that league.
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Dear comrade (Don), There is no 'asking price' by my Ruby well the 'reserve' as is usual by auctions. But you can see the technical data in my listing and compare them with your Ruby 3 and tell us what differences there are if there are any. We will then know what the difference is between Ruby 3 and Ruby 3S.
Regards, |
Hi John, moderator approval happened to me also. maybe we are too creative individuals? BTW when I asked for my post I got the answer the post was deleted. But they are very friendly... |
Lespier, My thought too; the sax sounds "louder" (bad word for what I am thinking) than the human voice, in the sense that the human voice (I am speculating) is a more complex entity, comprised of more frequencies above and below the fundamental, compared to that of a sax. Thus the total energy in the voice may be similar to that of a sax, but the latter sounds louder due to more of the energy being devoted to the fundamental. (Why human voices sound more different from one another than do the "voices" of different saxophones and saxophone players????) Thus the sax may be better able to overcome the house sound system. (I realize this could be total bullish*t, just thinking out loud. Two minutes from now, I may disagree with myself.) Anyway, the fact remains that's the way I heard it. And further evidence for your hypothesis and mine is that the drummer, who was furthest from my listening position, was obviously the most "live"; there was no sense of the drums being artificially augmented.
Most of my unhappy experiences with live performance have had more to do with the acoustics of the venue than with the nature of the amplification being used.
Dave, keep us posted on your re-tipped Ruby; as you know, I am in the market for a re-tip of my broken one. Also, until now I had not realized that your M320 was "refreshed" by Axel. Do you (and Raul) mean to say that the wonderfulness of the M320 is dependent upon an Axel refresh? I would be very disappointed to know that, as I paid "a lot" for my NOS M320 and would not want to spend yet more money on it. |
Dear Lew, As long as we have no idea what 'refreshment' means or entails we can speculate about till we pass away. What I know in connection to Axel's work on my carts is this. He can exchange and tune the suspension (rubber) in MM carts but not in the MC carts. When one look at the construction of both one can easilly (?) see why. By MC carts the suspension is 'pressed' after the coils so to remove the suspension will probable damage the coils. How then a new suspension can be put there is even more criptic. Otherwise my Shiraz would be repaired already and on its way from Germany to Holland.
Regards, |
Lew, you should be fine with your NOS M320III STR. My used example came with suspension damage that necessitated replacement of rubber that had been pinched by bent induction tabs that extend from the cantilever into the cartridge body. I suspect the damage was caused by careless insertion of the stylus assembly. |
Nandric, To me as an English-only speaker, the term "refresh" conjures up an ice cold glass of lemonade or the beverage of your choice, on a hot day. Or a cold shower on that same day. So perhaps Axel must dip the cartridge in some ice cold lemonade?
Thanks for your response, Dave. I feel better now. |
Lewm Maybe Axel soaks the cartridge in chilled Jagermeister. Though I can't imagine a cartridge would track all that well afterwards. Not to mention making all vocalists sound like Dean Martin ..... forget about PRAT! :) |
Dear Moderator(s);
On 11-1-12 my posts were not subject to moderator approval.
On 11-2-12 my posts became subject to moderator approval.
Could you please explain why?
Thanks,
John |
Dear Lew, For a native English speaker the expression 'fatique' ( in metal) is also available. This expression is translated in Europe as 'tired'or'weary''. Well those old carts should be 'tired' because of age and will consequently need some 'refreshment'. But not those that you associate, as an English-only speaker, with 'refresh'.
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Dear Nandric, what about the term "revision". Germanized we call building up a cartridge "revidieren". maybe in your case we might apply "resurrection" :-) |
Lewm, You make the presumption that Americans speak English. I do hope that you dont throw an ice cold glass of lemonade over your expensive computer when the screen needs refreshing. |
Dear Thuchan, At my age I am more warried about some other kind of 'resurrection' than of my carts. Besides I expected more empathy from you for my poor Shiraz. But if his 'resurrection' was accomplished by Axel I would inform you about the total costs so you would be able to compare those with the price of your own EMT 15 LZI.
Dear Dover, That is exactly what I thought but deed not dare to say as a foreigner.
Regards, |
Dear Lespier, Jegermeister is actually an aperitif and the solution easy: chilled Schnaps. The cartridges will than track as never before and nobody would even dream to complain about the vocalist. BTW what is PRAT?
Regards, |
Hi Thuchan,
How did you contact the mighty and mysterious moderators to get a question answered?
Thanks,
John |
Jbethree, Don't feel persecuted. I think posts are selected at random to be subjected to moderator approval. It's happened to me, too. (But you might say I deserve it.) If your posts are deleted for no good reason, then you do have a beef. |
Jbethree, This is like complaining by the pope about some naughty priest or by Stalin about some injust persecution. Do you really think that they read our post? 'At random', as Lew put it, is only the nth time of proof that Lew is a polite person. |
Nandric, in my experience with American-English usage when a home or automobile is rebuilt to bring it back to original condition it is considered to be "restored". This process may be done by either a replacement or refurbishment of component parts. So in my perspective when a cartridge has its cantilever realigned, stylus re-polished, or stylus replaced I would consider it restored.
I think Raul does quite well in expressing himself considering that English is not his native language. Thus I can understand him (I hope) when he sometimes uses words or phrases which I would not, such as refreshed.
However it seems the point of all this is what Axel considers to be refreshed or restored, and to be clear with him what that entails before he begins any work. |
Help! I am prisoner in a Gulag. Do not ask the Moderator a question. It could go badly for you as it has for me. Please send refreshments. |
Dear Lew, I understand that someone in the Gulag can't be to demanding but you should be more specific about the refreshment(s) you want. The options are: Jegermeister, Schnaps ( or Serbian Slivovitz),soft drink or ice cream. I would recommend Slivovitz if the could is unbearable. With this stuff in a right amount you may be even able to shout: 'long live comrade Troski'. |
Trotsky went to Mexico where no doubt he encountered Raul, became a devotee' of phono cartridges, and was subsequently assassinated by Stalin who preferred digital, with a hatchet that was only intended to refresh Trotsky's latest MM cartridge. (I know this vividly, because one of my sons played Trotsky in a one-act play, during which he had a stage prop hatchet seemingly imbedded in his cranium. It was disconcerting to watch.)
Make mine a very good French cognac, preferably an aged one. And a piece of Belgian dark chocolate. |
There was a time when sound systems were not used in small clubs or even larger dance halls at all. Partly out of necessity (no mics), singers developed voices that could project in a way that eluded later generations of singers. The use of microphones was a "catch-22". It allowed a more intimate singing style (Crosby, Sinatra), but at the same time made the need to project almost irrelevant. In the instrumental music field, as Pryso points out, bands put a lot of emphasis on balance and blend, so that louder instruments did not overwhelm the softer ones. This allowed a subtlety and clarity of musical line that became more and more rare as bands started to use amplification more and more. Listen to Freddie Green playing rhythm on a hollow body acoustic guitar in the middle of Basie's thirteen horns, drums, bass and piano. His contribution be heard clearly and provides an essential rhythmic impetus to the arrangements. First they amplified the bass, and guitar, then the piano had to be amplified to be able to keep up volume-wise with the bass and guitar. Then the horns had to find ways to play louder and the players chose equipment that allowed it.
I have no way of knowing what exactly was going on at the jazz club that Lew went to, but based on experience, I would guess that what happened was that the vocals were amplified with less than stellar equipment. The saxophone being capable of overpowering most contemporary jazz singers was probably amplified less than the vocals were. Consequently, more of it's natural, acoustic sound could be heard in relation to the acoustic sound of the instrument, compared to the more heavily amplified voice. That is probably what made the saxophone sound more "live". The live sound, everything else being equal, will always have more presence than the amplified sound. BTW, the saxophone is an instrument that is very rich in harmonics and considered to be closest to the sound of the human voice. In fact, the very first use of the instrument was to play along with a choir in order to help the singers maintain the correct intonation; it could blend very well with the voices. |
I thought Trotsky was assassinated by the Moderators.
????, John |
Dear Nandric,
Thanks for being a good sport about my other post, I was trying to write qua humorist rather than qua asshole; just poking a little fun at the propensity you have to pepper your posts with bits of Latin and legalese. Hope no offense was taken.
Best Regards,
John
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Dear Lew, In your place I would be immensly proud to have even a fake Troski in the family. The strange thing is that I was somehow very impressed by this revolutionary despite the fact I hardly can rembemer to have read anything he wrote. But I am more warried about your confusion. Nobody has ever confused Hilton with Gulag to my knowledge before. Besides I feel very insulted with your neglection of the best brandy known in this universe: the plum brandy from Serbia (alias Slivovitz). |
Dear John, The right expression is 'the party liné' and the problem was that nobody had any idea what this phrase means. The correction , removal(as member), execution,etc. was always afterwards. That is to say by the central committee and (general) approval by the congress. However some got rehabilitation 15 years after the execution which may imply a very puzzling atheism. BTW your description is only partialy correct. First there is the grammatical error 'moderators' instead of 'moderator' (uncle Stalin) who 'only' give the instruction. |
Nandric , you asked about PRAT. Pace,rhythm and timing which was once the holy doctrine of the Linn brigade. I remember going to visiting a Linn dealer in the '80's and during the demo the moment the music would start, the dealer's foot would start tapping (in a very animated manner) , shortly followed by 'Can you feel the rhythm?' 'Can you feel the Rhythm?'. Funnily enough I never felt the LP12 was exceptional in that respect ... well not compared to good Garrard 401 anyway. |
Nandric, I agree. Trotsky was a very interesting person, perhaps the most intelligent of the original Bolsheviks. Too bad he lost out to Stalin and the rest. I think he was portrayed also in the movie about the Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Or else there was a separate American movie made about Trotsky. My family came mostly from Russia, about 100 years ago. Obviously they were not Reds. |
Dear Lewm: Yes, Trotsky was very close to Frida/Diego and was unfortunate that the Stalin hand was so " long " that " touched " Trotsky in my country.
Regards and enjoy the music, R. |
Hi Lespier, In the '80s the LP12 got its PRAT by running almost 1% fast. It was rather addictive, making other tables sound dull in comparison. I had one of those but eventually tired of it's changing the pace, and the price of upgrading its electronics. I replaced it with a Goldmund direct drive. It ran 0% fast/slow. Regards, |
****If you say so****
Actually, anyone who knows anything about the instrument and it's history, or the history of singing styles, say so. Thank you, but no need to give me undue credit for bringing some potentially interesting information to the discussion. After all, man does not live by headshells alone.
:-) |
Regards, All: Headshells? Recently realigned the Empire 4000D-111 on a boxwood headshell. Very clean bass, pleasing mids & balanced hfs. So pleased, the OEM 4000D-lll stylus on ebay was considered. IIRC $99.00. Visited my stock portfolio & while wiping the tears from my cheeks someone else picked it up, a bargain for the level of performance the Empire brings to the table.
In case anyone is interested there are also three AT-13ea carts with "working" styli for less than $50.00 (ebay). With a .2 x .7 nude elliptical the hfs are a little forward (to my taste) but strong output, no reluctance in delivering lively bass performance and the fine alu. cantilever contributes to good mids, a cart worth experiencing.
Lew: I've both the EPA-500H and 250, each on their own B500 base. VTA adjustment is fluid in adjustment and responds accurately in adjustment. If yours is recalcitrant in movement it's likely the lube needs refreshing. I've both 100k & 30k weight silicone lube picked up from a hobby shop, the 30k is probably too viscous, the 100k definitely so.
Raul: Still curious about: (1) your "reference" LOMC, (2),the HOMC you picked up with the Sony arm, and perhaps of most interest to many who follow this thread, (3) your impressions of the carts you mentioned that were up for reauditioning.
Will the moderators review this post? 11-08, 6:20 PM Central Time, let's see--- (click)
Peace, |
Hi Tom,
" IIRC $99.00. Visited my stock portfolio & while wiping the tears from my cheeks someone else picked it up,"
That individual was none other than your truly,
Regards, Don |
What I meant was, what you wrote was similar to what I wrote. We used very different words, however. I guess you disagreed with me when I said that the tonal composition of sax is more grouped around the fundamental than is that of the human voice. (I did not use those words, but that's what I meant.) I have no reason to doubt you may be correct. Obviously, the sax is "louder", all other things being equal, which they were not.
But the fact is also that in the particular venue I was describing, the vocalist and the sax player, altho standing side by side, were using different microphones. It stands to reason that those two microphones were feeding two different channels of the multi-channel mixer. Thus at least some of the apparent difference in fidelity and sound pressure between the vocals and the sax could have been due to ill advised trimming being done at the mixer level. Last night I spoke to a pianist who has performed there; it was not news to him that the amplification was subpar.
A good headshell with a glass of fine cognac is very nourishing, however. |
Dear friends/Lewm: WOW!!!!!!, I just received my SR 20 european type fuses ( 5 ) for my Phonolinepreamp and if those SR fuses makes a difference with my ML monoblocks the differences were and are not only higher ones through my PLP but " unbeatable ", why?: I can't say it but the bass management as a whole frequency range is just unexpected because what I already had I was thinking can't be improved and that was not in that way. The main difference is " power precense " and this means not precisely lower bass or deepest bass but " power presence " as we can hear ( near of it ) only through live music. This " power precense " is not a bass coloration but a true power precense. At the other frequency extreme the main difference is " definition " a littlke different but this " definition " is a kind of " power presence " where this " power " seems to me a " delicate " power. Obviously that these frequency extreme improvements improves too the overall remaining frequency ranges and improves too the whole soundstage " precense ".
One additional " characteristic " is that my already low low and black bñack background/floor noise from where surge the music notes gone blaker and lower noise. How can a dead silence audio system background noise level goes " more dead silence " ?, well is something that you can " hear " better yet you can " feel " because you can't realy hear it. This is something dificult to explain because I never had this kind of experiences about: it is an addict characteristic and a welcome one. I think that all of you sooner or latter need to have this experience, it is astonishing!!!!
Lewm: IMHO you don't have any idea of what is your system performance level till you change all the system fuses for these SR 20: maybe the best investment at this moment in audio links. Expensive?, not really: you can invest 10K in whatever you want at your system and you can't be near the SR 20 fuse improvements. Remember that money exist to bring pleasure to the human beings and nothing more.
Of course, I already order the fuses for my subwoofers and the ones that goes inside my ML monoblocks, six additional for the 16 system gran total.
Regards and enjoy the music, R. |
Raul, What is the cost of those fuses? Have you compared them to Acme? Have you compared them to "no fuse" (i.e., a silver wire bypassing the fuse holder)? Do you use a contact enhancer, like the Walker SST? Stock fuse-holders?
If you could perform the following experiment, it would help me/us: Listen to them for a few weeks, then change back to your old fuses for a week or so. Then change back to the SR20s and listen again. This type of ABA comparison can sometimes remove the inevitable bias of an unblinded evaluation of a new and expensive tweak. If you still are ecstatic after an ABA, then maybe I'll buy some.
I find that when a "black" background gets blacker, it means that the apparent lowering of the noise floor is either due to hearing more low level information or less. Like early digital; it sounded dead quiet, but it was really dead in that it dropped out low level musical cues. But the reverse can also be true, I think. When low level signals are revealed without added noise, the subjective impression is of lowering the noise, even when there was no audible "noise" to begin with and maybe no real change in S/N ratio. |
That last sentence was a bit looney, I admit. Digital seemed capable of eliminating low level audio signal while not adding noise. I don't know that this would apply to analog, as I think it had most to do with digital processing. |
Jbethree - I'm pleased to see that it's not just my magnetic personality. I live in the southern hemisphere, just west of the international dateline, on the shaky isles, and since I post outside of regular hours in the states, 80%+ of my posts get moderated & delayed somewhat. |
With your record Dover......I'm surprised it's not a higher percentage :-) |
Having not been one to previously embrace the 'sound' of the Acutex cartridges......the 420 STR has finally developed into an interesting proposition? The secret........more than 50 hours of 'break-in'. Now I'm not a patient listener when it comes to cartridges. Unlike the Professor who I suspect has a masochistic streak to his gentleness (as indeed do most Kentuckians).......if a cartridge does not interest me after 2 days of listening......I usually let it play amongst the traffic outside our house. I've tried with the Acutex 310, 312 and 315 to extract something.....anything...that will entice me to listen through the horror. With the 420STR mounted in my SAEC WE-308N tonearm on the Victor TT-101.......after more hours than any cartridge should warrant......it has finally blossomed. Now the SAEC is a particularly fine performer with MM cartridges and exceeds the abilities of most other arms I have experienced......so if you have the 420STR.......my advice is fit it to the best arm you can find........and then play it, play, play it? |
50 hours + SAEC WE-308N for some 'interesting proposition'? You must be joking! If the 420 STR share the same ranking with the Olympos and FR-7f then 'one' may consider such a hazy proposition. |
Hi John, the moderator sent me an email and asked a question. I could understand from his point of view as he was thinking I am advertising a web-site. But I think we do this very often when we refer to interesting products or sites. I am not on the sales side. But maybe someone of this thread felt I am selling products which I do not. maybe I should? Anyway it was a good exchange. Maybe in your case something got lost. You may also contact them on the main page. |