astrostar59

Ooh this is getting more complex as does so many things in thus hobby Ha Ha. I am wondering guys, if a composite of say rubber sandwich with cork inner would work best as the link provided by a post earlier. It is used in machine shops to remove as much vibration (vertical) and lateral movements as possible. If we have say rubber on it's own it will have a peak resonance of lets say 11hz, but the cork being harder will have a higher resonance of say 80hz. If bass energy tries to communicate with the floor under the speaker it will get killed at 2 different frequencies, 11hz say -50db in the rubber, then 80hz -50db in the cork. Voila! A simple cheap and effective vibration decoupling device. To me, any fancy crazy money single material support will fail as it will HAVE to have a peak resonance at some frequency. Only the ones with multiple material types will negate those peaks IMO. I have no scientific data to back this up, only what I figured from various reading on this subject. I am talking concrete / tiled solid floors for this type of support. I can see a wood floor may need max (ganite plates) and more to overcome the resonance of wood, and the void below that floor. My previous house had a suspended wooden floor and it was a boom box of the highest order. I could prove that as when the volume was turned up the worse it got. In that case is was not just vibration transmitted through the speaker cabinet, but also vibration in the air from the music, technically the whole floor became a live element.

Yes, a spike reduces the contact area but will still transmit some vibration through the spike, like a drill effect. I would say it raises the frequency of the vibration transmitted so might be good on speakers, and less so on turntables? I am thinking I need some form of point or pad isolation, as at the moment the entire base is sat of 1 mm foam sheet, so too much contact. I will try rubber mats and cork pads and see what happens. Anyone tried Herbies Feet? http://herbiesaudiolab.net/spkrfeet.htm

Big subject. I also think spikes transmit vibration throughout the end of the spike. It makes sense, wide feet, sharp feet, it will still transmit the vibration as it is a solid object. I have sorbethane tape under the marble feet, 5mm x 5mm around the full perimeter. I will try some more under the speaker bases, but not full perimeter. I think it I add too much it will increase the resistance to movements. Maybe 50% of the edge will work. I can't use blue-tac as it will compress under the weight (50 kilos). Cork squares may work. I think the objective here is to 'decouple' the speaker vibrations to the supporting device and thus the floor. A concrete floor is good, but will I guess have a certain resonance albeit at a low frequency and low level. A wood floor is the absolute worst I would say.

I do have spikes for the speakers. But there is a whole debate about about whether spikes (being metal and hard) are the same as any other coupled method. I have no idea or a view on it. I may try the spikes to see what happens.

Thanks. Fortunately they sound better than the bricks. No way of knowing before if they would! Speakers might seem easier to use / set up than HPs but I think they are more complicated, as they interact with the room and furniture, the floor and the walls, standing wave. It is a bit of a hit and miss in a domestic situation. Lets face it, who wants egg boxes all over the walls? Well the miss's doesn't... Playing loud today, reggae, trance material, the bass definitely is going deeper and is more tuneful. The bricks boosted the mid bass but drowned out the sub bass.

Hi Guys I got some horn speakers about 8 months back. They are floor standers, and naturally I sat them on the floor. But found they were slightly too low for my desk system. I thus raised them on ceramic house bricks to 20 cm off the floor, which worked ok but looked awful. Anyway, I finally got around to replacing the bricks with custom black marble plinths. They look better but interestingly the bass now is less bloated and goes lower and jus more tuneful. Odly I think the imaging and treble are cleaner as well, I think I am not imagining that. Maybe the whole speaker being sat on a wobbly mount of fowl and bricks was not so hot? It think the ceramic bricks were vibrating to some extent or / or the holes in them were interacting with the energy from the down firing 12 inch bass unit. I filled the leg cavities with expanding foam to remove and resonances, and fitted adhesive backed neoprene tape to the base of the legs, and epoxy glued the legs to the top plate. On top of the plate I used thin foam packing film, about 2 mm think. It has resulted in a super solid and movement / resonance free mount from speaker case to floor. Each plinth is about 50 kilos.

Hi guys Not sure of there is a thread here for this. Anyway, I was wanting to let folks know who maybe haven't tried this connection method that it rocks! Those that have are already ahead of the game. I had a demo of the C1 CH precision 6 weeks back, and using USB connection is was just too bright and forward, making many tracks sound harsh. I talked to the dealers and they said it works best with the D1 or using Ehternet. That got me thinking. I didn't want to spend anything like the money on a C1 for that level of sound quality, and TBH it was not as good as my existing DAC. USB Out AOIP In I have had various USB chains, Offramp 5, M2Tech EVO stack, used various inbuilt boards with and without USB power, and heard many others and was never totally convinced that a DAC connected via USB was so great. I just sounded a bit course in the treble, too digital and lost something IMO. 4 weeks back I bought a RedNet 3 and this all changed for the better. Totally amazing the difference. So liquid, real and just better in every sense. I would say give it a try and see what you find. Long thread here: http://www.head-fi.org/t/806827/audio-over-ip-rednet-3-16-review-aes67-sets-a-new-standard-for-computer-audio and another on www.computeraudiophile.com It is not plug n play, but is not difficult to set up and TBH cost me less than my USB chain and sounds much better. RedNet comes from the studio recording sector, hence why it is not plug n play, but uses Audinate (Dante) software that is optimised for audio, not a standard DHCP. I am convinced a good server / PC and USB can beat most CDPs, but AOIP IMO has gone above that now.

Interesting points, thanks. I gotta hear these HPs then!

Fair enough. I was curious how he seemed to change his wording on the 009s for example, from best HP ever to 'fuzzy up top' Clearly he has changed his mind about Stats.

Tyll found another set off ears? From thinking the Stax 009 is the best headphone he ever heard, he now says (all) electrostatics are too 'fuzzy up top'. Anyone have an idea on this? I hope he hasn't become a sponsor's bitch. http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/worlds-best-headphone-focal-utopia-page-2#FWZovWFpm27dV06V.97

Leve does your pot have a 100K resistor load on it? I replaced my pot resistor on my Passive pre-amplifier for a 10K load, which redialed the gain to the pot.

I wonder if NOS tubes that have already been used (albeit many years ago) have already had their drifting? If there is a measurable change then I guess that must translate into a sonic change? Maybe it depends on the circuit in question as to how much that is apparent. The tubes in the BHSE are the final stage, the previous stages are SS. In a full tubed amp like a SET for example, maybe that would show tube drift / burn in more. Only asking, no idea if this is true.

Ehh? I can get stuff like this behind the bike shed, don't want it here....

I tend to agree re no cable burn in. I have heard DAC / Amp burn in, in fact many manufacturers say allow 200 hours for example to 'realise full potential'. I am guessing this is a combination of events in the unit including capacitor burn in? Anyway, whatever the reason, I have heard it. Cable burn in though, never heard that. I would say though it is good practice to periodically clean the connectors on the cable ends and the inputs. Perfect contact is good.

Please somebody back me up... http://www.head-fi.org/t/677809/the-stax-thread-iii/9945#post_12880123

Hmm, this forum seems to be heading behind the bike sheds .... for example http://www.head-case.org/forums/search/?type=all&q=wanker Not that that is a bad thing, it is quite amusing, except when personal attacks happen and words such as retard are used. I have a friend who cares for mentally ill patients so my tolerance for that kind of behaviour is zero.,

Being really dumb, and ready to put on my hard hat. Do we need the screw connectors? Can't we simply solder the wires directly to the PCB? If you need to remove a board just clip the wires or de-solder. Only asking.

Hi Guys Sorry for the alarming title. I have spent months reading magazine reviews on DACs before I bought my last DAC in June. I want to make my money convert to musical bliss as we all do. I also read many many posts on the various forums from owners and spoke to some owners direct via PMs or by telephone. I am coming to the 'obvious' realisation that 90% of magazine reviews are just bull, total horse shit. Totally slanted to advertising revenue and / or the next free piece of gear at discount or free to the reviewer. The classic 'i liked it so much I bought it' or 'no way I was letting this one go' They must think we are totally dumb? Have you also noticed almost never is there a total 'this product is crap' review. It is all too rose tinted and suspicious to me. The other even more sinister reviews on gear are the forum hoverers who seem to be 'audiophiles' but are actually setting up a dealership or high end home demo business. I have bumped into 3 on Head-Fi and What's Best forum in the last 6 weeks. I won't say the names but I bet you know them already. To underline my point, and the reason I have finally 'blown up' over this subject is on HiFi Critic Martin Colloms has a long time 'quality rating' ranking that generally goes around 5-30 depending how good a DAC or amp may be in his opinion. Fine, and prices and models range from 1K up to 20K. BUT then we have the Metrum Octave DAC at £800 that suddenly gets 180!!!! What the fuck? I had this DAC until last year, and yeah, it is ok, it cost me 800 quid, it sound nice enough, NOS, clean, not too rough treble. BUT no way is it near many many of the other DACs he rates at 30 or less. I was thinking he was either smoking weed at the time, or the ratings are based on cost v performance. Na, it is the sound quality rating he has given. There are other howlers as well. He got some thing right, rating the MSB, Audio Note and Naim, but the numbers on many are way out to be unbelievable. Is the Musical Fidelity £135 DAC really better than a 20K Naim? I know price v performance doesn't always work as we know. But I have heard the Metrum DAC and the Musical Fidelity and that Naim CD555. The Naim is on the moon, the Musical Fidelity in my back yard. SO I am now forgetting all this magazine con trickster stuff and staying on here or other forums and then talking to folk direct. Best possible way to know and to align with ones tastes I guess, is get to hear this stuff. But this hobby has got very niche and not is not always possible. Rant over...... I enjoy listening to music though!

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I am glad to have read all these very useful and informative posts about the DAVE. I can now make an informed decision as to whether I get a demo on it. Thank you.

Anyone hear seen the post at HF about the MSB Electrostatic amp? I think it was in the MSB Select DAC thread. Sounds like the guy who heard it compared to the BHSE found it wanting...

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Fascinating, but I wouldn't personally pay for it as how long would it last before melt down? However I can appreciate the milestone in tech this amp was back then for sure.

I like it, the all black look and the horizontal heat sink style. I just picked up my own Carbon yesterday, and having seen the other version with black heat sinks and top and realised black can look as good as all silver. Will come back with listening impressions later, don't want to swamp this forum.