If these effects can be heard by people with exceptional hearing or measured and shown to affect the sound then the end system designers who purvey this expensive (sometimes eye watering) audio gear should design them out. That way we wouldn’t get snake oil salesmen exploiting us with things like audiophile fuses.
These days, optical isolation on the input and reclocking should be easily achieved. Take a look at what allo are doing with Katana https://allo.com/sparky/katana.html as an example, not as high end as some audiophiles would like, but they are showing that reclocking and isolation from input noise can be achieved at very low cost. ($249)
It’s been my experience that, in this space, productive observations about the exorbitant prices of cables, endpoints, DACs, etc. are unnecessary, meaningless, and futile.
It’s that chestnut about teaching a pig to sing.
Ya can’t do it and it just annoys the pig.
Bill_Janssen
(Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)
146
OK, so let’s get on with the two remaining issues on my mind.
Do I need to replace my speakers?
Do I need to replace my receiver?
I’ve already decided to replace the CD player with a Sony UBP-X700, and connect the audio output of that via digital coax to my receiver. I’ve also decided to get an Allo Boss Player, and use that as an alternate to the DAC in my receiver. It can also serve as a Roon connection when my Quadraflex Reference 450R receiver comes back from the shop.
Before I lash out thousands on new equipment, I intend to listen to a lot of systems, and perhaps come to Denver in October. Luckily, a great hi-fi audio shop is almost in my backyard, I just have to engage them.
So, my questions revolve around short-term use of what I’ve already got. The speakers, though, I intend to re-purpose to another room. If they’re still OK.
Just a refresher: back in the 90’s sometime, I spent some time reading audio mags like Stereo Review, and found an interesting well-reviewed system from a boutique speaker start-up, the Cambridge Soundworks Ensemble system. Designed by Henry Kloss, who’d also founded speaker companies KLH and Advent. They had a store in Palo Alto, so I went over and listened for a while, and wound up buying an Ensemble II (one subwoofer cabinet instead of two), for about $650 in today’s dollars. So two satelites mounted on stands, subwoofer on the floor. Still using it, sounds pretty good to me. Towards the beginning of this topic, I posted a link to a 1998 review of them.
I could go out and buy a set of Elac Debut 2.0 B6.2 speakers and an S8 subwoofer, but I’d wind up with pretty much exactly what I already have. So what I’d like to do is figure out whether the Ensemble speakers are still good across the board.
Maybe the speaker rings have worn out. I see some repair kits up on the Web.
Maybe some components in the crossovers have failed.
Maybe speaker design was stagnant for the first 100 years, and has really come to life with radical new ideas or construction techniques over the last 20 years.
I need some test sources. Ideally a tone generator, but a CD with tone patterns on it would also be fine. Is there a standard CD for that? I also need to test each individually; how do I do that? Use the balance control on my receiver? The receiver also has a “monoaural mode”, but I’m not sure how that would help.
Secondly, my receiver. I was happy with my Reference 450R until I realized I’d digitized a lot of music for the iPod, but couldn’t listen to it in the living room very easily. I also saw a review of the Onkyo TX-8050, for which the big feature was the presence of an Ethernet port in the back. So in 2012 I went out and bought one, thinking I’d be able to use it to listen to music again. Not so much. The network card failed after a year, and I had to send it back for repair. But even working, the network stack is abysmal. The only way to play music to it is via the horrible phone app which controls a DLNA feed. I was about to junk it and get something else (probably an Onkyo 8270 with built-in Chromecast) when I noticed Roon.
With Roon feeding it, my receiver has suddenly seemed OK again. I’ve got Onkyo’s famed WRAT technology, though I’m not sure what that means, a hefty transformer, and enough power to drive the somewhat balky Ensemble speakers. There’s a “pure audio” switch to cut out the tone controls and display circuits. I’m even using the receiver’s built-in DAC. But I’ve also been exposed the Roon community, which overall seems to represent the higher end of high-end audio. So, is this receiver really that bad? If so, in what ways?
Power fluctuations?
Poor current recovery for sharp audio spikes?
Flaky components?
Allowing for the QA issues, what else is wrong with mass-produced amplifiers?
Now, as for apportioning the budget – it’s become clear to me (from the “show us your set-up” thread) that the most important feature of a listening room is a comfortable house well separated from the neighbors with a view out over a lake or fjord or mountain peaks. After that, room conditioning. After that, gear selection. So I’m going to proceed in that order, I think. Perhaps this place:
Some of these test tracks consist of very high level signals that can cause damage to system components especially loudspeakers. Most particularly, tweeters are very easily damaged by high level/high frequency signals.
What information are you looking for in relation to your speakers? If you’re after frequency response then you can play the Pink Noise track through Roon and measure the output as you would for room correction - see http://blog.roonlabs.com/digital-room-correction/ and the related forum thread . Obviously this will also take into account other kit in the chain.
Well, I don’t really know enough about speakers to know how the different potential issues would manifest, but I imagine that approach could be a reasonable start. Certainly I’ve found it helpful in identifying (and compensating for) the limitations of some of my speakers.
Bill_Janssen
(Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)
155
That’s exactly what you should be doing. The shop should also give you advice on what you can do to improve your current system. Better advice than any of us objectivists or subjectivists can do in this forum.
So your first step is to spend a lot of time in the shop listening to various systems using your own material. I would advise not to loo at budget at this point. This will let you know what kind of sound you like and what you should you therefore be aiming to get. The shop should then be able to advise on which incremental changes you can bring in your system to get closer to your ideal.
1 Like
Bill_Janssen
(Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)
160
Thank you, Cemil. This may be the wrong forum to ask for practical advice in, but it also has less of a reason to try and sell me things I don’t need.
