A lonely bookcase helped me see the light
Posted by: Sproggle on 18 June 2001
My Linn LP12 and its Audiotech table were close enough to the bookcase to make me decide to move them first in order to avoid the risk of expensive mishaps. Then I dragged the bookcase on its side to the stairs, and took it up - one step at a time - pausing every other step to catch my breath! The only suitable spot in my study was already occupied by a shorter bookcase, which I had to drag almost all the way around my desk so I could put it under the window. But first, I had to clear the junk off my desk to stack the books, and then drag my computer's stand a little way to make space for the shorter bookcase. My arms and legs are still aching from this...
By curious coincidence, removing the bookcase from my listening room freed up enough space for me to unstack my two Tripod stands, and place them as they had been before the arrival of the bookcase [when I had decided that practicality had to take precedence over hi-fi]. The 3-point Tripod stands are normally easy to level, but the pitch floor of my room complicates things. The only way to make sure that a first levelling is good is to exert pressure on the stand, then check that the stand is still level. I had to do this once or twice for both Tripods [because the stand that was alreay in place had gone off level]. I expect to have to re-level them in a couple of weeks...
I also took the opportunity to replace the mounting pads for the Tripods' boards. Only four of the originals were still present, and they were in poor condition. For a few years I had been using B&Q hi-fi pads but these were also in poor condition, and didn't sound as good as the originals anyway.
It was time for another trip to B&Q - marred only by my not knowing where B&Q had moved to. Luckily, it only took me three wrong turnings and five minutes delay before I found it. I wandered gormlessly through the store until I found some ridged anti-vibration pads, which looked better than anything else I'd tried. The only minor annoyance was that I had to cut a single large pad into suitably sized strips.
Unfortunately, I couldn't put my turntable's quadruped Audiotech table back in its original place, and it took me about two hours to get it reasonably level in its new location. By Sunday evening it needed levelling again, and I've had to level it again today...
I know from experience that it's going to take a week or two for the table to settle well enough for my LP12 to approach its best performance. At the moment it sounds bandlimited and lacking in tonal colour - which always happens when I move its table. Nevertheless, it already has a much better sense of rhythm, and the superiority in this respect of my recently acquired Ekos to my previous Ittok is even more evident than ever before.
What really surprised me was how much better my 9 year old Rotel RCD965 BX sounded - from the moment I switched my system back on. I knew its timing was potentially better than most players of its generation, but it hadn't performed anywhere near its best in this respect for a long time. Consequently, I wasn't surprised by the improved timing, but I was surprised by the way in which instruments seemed to be played more articulately, with more tonal colour. Also, previously inaudible instruments became audible, and notes could more often be heard decaying to silence in the same way that they do with my LP12/Ekos/K9 - a very encouraging sign!
Both turntable and CD player now have the kind of magic that, even after two recent major upgrades, has been largely missing from my system [except on those elusive "good mains evenings"].
It was an awful lot of effort just to improve my hi-fi set-up, but it was well worth it. I have seen the light: never again (if I can possibly help it) will practicality take precedence over musicality. I can't wait to find out what my system sounds like when it has warmed up and the Audiotech table has settled in... 
Now that I've started tweaking, I'm going to deal with the one remaining curable set-up compromise. My speaker cables currently run around the side of my room, in contact with heavy furniture, the walls and each other. I'm going to suspend the cables [probably with glue-on hooks and rubber bands] so that they are well apart and not in contact with the walls or the furniture. All I have to do is move all my CDs and cassettes, half my records, two small chests of drawers and three plastic drawer units, and then make my inevitable trip to B&Q or one of its rivals...
I'm sure it will be worth the effort, but writing it out like this makes the whole process sound utterly absurd! 
--Jeremy
[This message was edited by Sproggle on MONDAY 18 June 2001 at 20:46.]
Just in case you got your Tripods without instructions I thought I'd mention that to get the best performance from them when stacked you are supposed to make sure that there is a minuscule gap between the circular rim of one leg and the bottom of the leg above - ideally a fraction of a millimetre. A very thin plastic card is useful for this. If you tap the Tripods, you should hear a difference between full contact, no contact and a tiny air gap. I'm not sure how much practical benefit this has because I stacked my Tripods as instructed, and never tried them a different way. 
Rico:
quote:
The adhesive pad has a tab which stretches kinda like a frogs tounge... anyway, you'll know what I mean when you see them.
Thanks, Rico, I'll look out for them - all my base are belong to you.
Jonathan:
quote:
As I read the phrase "A lonely bookcase helped me see the light" the music to "Last night a DJ saved my life" were twisted in my mind to match the "lyric." Probably time to put my analyst on danger money. Now can't get the dam thing out of my head - and that is the only line I can remember!"
Did I do that? Ouch - sorry - feel so guilty! Luckily, I'm immune to this because if I've ever heard "Last night a DJ saved my life" I have no recollection of it. However, the very fact that I recognise the song title is somewhat worrying.
Luckily, I have been able to assuage my guilt by concocting a cure for "Last night a DJ saved my life":
Sing the following, once and only once, to the tune of Kraftwerk's The Model:
A lone-ly bookcase helped me see the light
I took it upstairs, and now it's out of sight
It may seem quite surprising but it is a fact:
My Tripods sound much better coz they are unstacked
Next I need to buy some hooks from B and Q
The ones that Rico mentioned - they will sure-ly do...
Let me know if it helps 
--Jeremy
[This message was edited by Sproggle on TUESDAY 19 June 2001 at 14:17.]
quote:
Thanks. Kraftwork now implanted. Thank Zeus for that!
You're welcome.
I can see that my work here is now done [as I seem to think comic book cartoon heroes say on occasion] so I'm off to perform a delicate and extremely risky procedure - a complete "I lost my heart to a starship trooper" extraction.
Wish me luck - I'll need it...
--Jeremy
Unfortunately, I found that hanging the cables from rubber bands secured to the hooks by cable ties didn't work very well. I ended up using extra hooks underneath the existing hooks, and securing the cable at that point by one rubber band from the top hook and one from the bottom hook. Unfortunately, I ran out of hooks and enthusiasm, so I've left the job incomplete - but my system is already sounding better.
The CD player's Tripod has gone off-level but it still sounds better than before (although it sounded truly horrible one day last week).
The turntable's Audiotech stand has settled in a little - surface noise is more or less down to normal - but there's a distinct lack of tonal colour compared with before, and the bass is bloated and indistinct. I'm a little worried that this is going to be permanent because I've moved my LP12 into a corner of the room. Before it was in a spot that I chose specifically because it had a lot of bass cancellation.
Only time will tell. I'll describe the sound in a week or two after the stands are better settled - assuming anyone's interested, that is. I'm quite bored with writing about this because unstacking stands and suspending cables isn't exactly the most exciting upgrade on the forum, so unless someone says they actually want to read about the result I'll assume nobody's interested, and won't bother.
--Jeremy
[This message was edited by Sproggle on MONDAY 25 June 2001 at 19:34.]