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Will this FIM 880 open up & let some detail in?

Pulled my stock Acme Silver last night for the FIM 880. At same time I pulled a stock 20 cent house outlet near the rig for an Acme Silver w/ Cryo and the stock Acme silver went to the "B" system. I just had to hear the difference myself b/w the FIM and Acme.

I know this is only Day one, so things will change. However, I instantly missed the detail of the Acme Silver? Playing Sara K "Hobo" & Patricia Barber "Companion" I first noticed a smoother vocal presentation that was kind of cool This particularly struck me on the Pretenders Live Acoustic CD. Then I started noticing little things that were not so cool. Bells, Triangles, Shakers and such in the backgroound were much more less distinct. That dynamic snap to the vocals when they go from soft to loud were glossed over some. Now, I know the FIM isn't broke in yet, but also I am thinking that replacing that crappy 20 cent outlet near the rig w/ the Acme Cryo HAS to be giving me LOTs more detail than before so one could extrapolate from this that the FIM is even MORE rolled off on top?

Gear: AES Superamp w/ Amperex EL-34 tubes w/ Double-D getters, Siemens CCa drivers and RCA Cleartop inputs connected w/ David Elrod EPS PC. Theta Data Basic II transport plugged in w/ Shunyata Cobra PC. EVS M2 DAC plugged in w/ Black Mamba PC. Melos Maestro pre using Omega Mikro PC w/ Active Shield. Harmonic tech Magic One digital cable and Pure Silver COnnection R-30 large silver ribbon ICs and speaker cables to Silverline Sonatina speakers. Amp & Theta plugged into dedicated FIM line via PS Audio Ultimate Outlet and BMI Whale PC.

I will check back in here from time to time w/ results. As for now though I would be interested to hear the burn in results of other FIM owners as they process went on. Does the top end open up after a while? In my experience most new cables and such sound sort of bright at first then settle in and the midrange blooms last. Hate to think this FIM will lose anymore top end detail?

For now will pull my CCa driver tubes for a more extended, but harder sounding Siemens E88CC tube to try and gain back some lost sound.

Due to having tube gear it is not really feasable for me to leave stuff on 24/7 to help this, but I may go get a large fan or something and plug in while I am not using the stereo to help speed this up.

Outlets, who wouldda thunk it! ;~)
blazter

Showing 1 response by tom_munro

tom_munro
162 posts
 
I have 8 dedicated 20 amp lines in my room, and installed ACME 20 amp non-cryo outlets in each one last October. Three days ago I replaced two of the ACMEs with FIM 880s, one for my cdp, and one for my preamp.

I can identify with many of your observations. In the first few hours of use the FIMs sounded slow and muddled, and the highs rolled off. It is day 3, and there is improvement. The top end is starting to open up, although not to pre FIM status, transients have more snap, and familiar details are starting to emerge. The FIMs seem to be breaking in more from the bottom up. This is the area that is improving most in terms of speed, transparency, and extension.

Overall I like the FIM's tonal qualities better then the ACME's. There is less chalkiness/whitening (not sure how else to describe it) of the mid/upper registers, more of a natural tonal color and weight across the range. They are darker sounding, so this additional weight and richness may not suit a well balanced tube system that already has these qualities.

Meridian 508.24 > FMS Zero XLR > SF Line 3 w/Amperex 7308 > MIT Proline Reference > Classe Omega Omicron > MIT Oracle V3 > Thiel CS7.2
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