Shows and Workshops
Posted by: Bert Schurink on 20 October 2018
I thought it would be good to create a special post for covering experiences of people during demos, workshops and shows. I had this morning a great workshop and will in two weeks again visit a show, so I assume this could be a great post to exchange thoughts. And I will start below with my experiences from my lunch time workshop.....
I am quite lucky with having some great dealers close to the place I am living. My regular dealer which of course sells Naim and Linn mainly. But I have also another dealer which is amongst other things selling B&W and Audionet. These guys had this morning an 8nteresting workshop with the well known Matthias Bode from Stereo Magazine, who does this on a regular base and of course writes about it. For me a bit odd, but it was a workshop about analogue replay, as I am fully digital, but anyhow very interesting....
The whole workshop was about showing what small changes and bigger changes can be made and how they influence the sound quality. Some changes which of course are expected to make a change, some which also lead to an impact which one wouldn’t have suspected to be so big. First to the equipment. I was not in from the 1st minute, so I don’t know the valve in the middle. The record player was a transrotor mid level and later a more high end type of Transrotor.
First simple change was turning around the electricity plug. Most of us know already the impact, but it was interesting to see that you also can hear the impact just on the record player as the amplification was still correctly plugged. Normally you would assume it only has a significant impact on the amplification....
The next change was one which I wasn’t so prepared for. The weight on top of the record was also exchange with three different elements. And funny enough it had again a significant influence on the sound. I would again say when he put on the right one which by the way was quite acceptable with 120 euros, the sound was miles away from the two other options including the standard of the transrotor. The sound was so much more resolving from the speakers, crazy....
The next implemented change was the use of a platform under the record player. This was for me obvious. But it as still again interesting to hear how big an 8mpact this is making. While you would argue that the rock which was standard under it should potentaially be resonance free. But again, if you would have this setup you would happily pay the 600 euros for the platform under the record player...
Bert Schurink posted:The next change was one which I wasn’t so prepared for. The weight on top of the record was also exchange with three different elements. And funny enough it had again a significant influence on the sound. I would again say when he put on the right one which by the way was quite acceptable with 120 euros, the sound was miles away from the two other options including the standard of the transrotor. The sound was so much more resolving from the speakers, crazy....
Ps he also told us that the weight on top would have a bit less of an impact, but still a bit for players with suspension like the Linn.
Then we moved to the more expensive beast, I belief they talked about overall around or above 15k. Besides hearing the difference between the cheaper and the more expensive version. He now made the changed in the phoncable to the arm. And again one could as expected hear the difference and would clearly go for the expensive one as it was a degree more resolving, 3D sound. Etc... if I wouldn’t have my cats it would have definitely made me again interested in Vinyl .....however the side noises of the Vinyl are in way disturbing and one would need virgin type of records to completely avoid that. Interesting workshop, well spent time....., and I hope for the forum members an interesting read...
Bert Schurink posted:The next implemented change was the use of a platform under the record player. This was for me obvious. But it as still again interesting to hear how big an 8mpact this is making. While you would argue that the rock which was standard under it should potentaially be resonance free. But again, if you would have this setup you would happily pay the 600 euros for the platform under the record player...
Great write up....
just one question, the platform under the deck, for 600 euros, any more information...??
wenger2015 posted:Bert Schurink posted:The next implemented change was the use of a platform under the record player. This was for me obvious. But it as still again interesting to hear how big an 8mpact this is making. While you would argue that the rock which was standard under it should potentaially be resonance free. But again, if you would have this setup you would happily pay the 600 euros for the platform under the record player...
Great write up....
just one question, the platform under the deck, for 600 euros, any more information...??
Sorry don’t remember the Brand.just know it was made of MDF..., but that doesn’t help you.
Bert Schurink posted:wenger2015 posted:Bert Schurink posted:The next implemented change was the use of a platform under the record player. This was for me obvious. But it as still again interesting to hear how big an 8mpact this is making. While you would argue that the rock which was standard under it should potentaially be resonance free. But again, if you would have this setup you would happily pay the 600 euros for the platform under the record player...
Great write up....
just one question, the platform under the deck, for 600 euros, any more information...??
Sorry don’t remember the Brand.just know it was made of MDF..., but that doesn’t help you.
No doubt a combination of MDF ..... and snake oil...
So those are not rocks of some kind? Whatever they are, are they actually placed on top of various boxes of components underneath 
wenger2015 posted:Bert Schurink posted:wenger2015 posted:Bert Schurink posted:The next implemented change was the use of a platform under the record player. This was for me obvious. But it as still again interesting to hear how big an 8mpact this is making. While you would argue that the rock which was standard under it should potentaially be resonance free. But again, if you would have this setup you would happily pay the 600 euros for the platform under the record player...
Great write up....
just one question, the platform under the deck, for 600 euros, any more information...??
Sorry don’t remember the Brand.just know it was made of MDF..., but that doesn’t help you.
No doubt a combination of MDF ..... and snake oil...
I wouldn’t trust any hifi component which doesn’t have snake oil on the spec list. But honestly acoustic decoupling is not snake oil it’s just good common sense....
Nice show today. I will write later an extensive report. The highlight of the day was for me the splendid home video setup, of around 100k, gave me an immediate feeling as if I should create a small theater room myself....
Let’s start the show review with the first interesting element of the show. The venue itself is ideal for audio events. It has the typical big spaces for the boots etc and then it has quite a number of rooms. And for audio the rooms are quite well setup acoustically. So I saw almost no or with most brands no room treatment stuff in the rooms. Looks like the event also has the possibility to grow more in the next years...
