Time for a change??

ChrisSU posted:

Polarbear posted:

Well that was a surprise:  someone suggested that the CD555 would benefit from being lifted from the power supplies. 

I therefore took an empty rack and put it below the CD555 and between the power supplies. Did it improve the sound, no!  Not by a long way, the sound was considerably worse, bass became slow and lumpy and the top end lost all its space and detail.  I was expecting it to be the other way round, I was expecting more space and air in the top end and a tighter bass line.

Opinions??

This is outside my personal experience, but I'm sure I remember a comment on here about completely empty Fraim shelves not giving good results. The thinking was, I think, that the unused shelf should have some mass on it, so should not be empty. So if you happen to have a spare black box and a glass shelf, you could perhaps test this idea. OK, an unused black box might be an extravagance, and bricks might look a little odd!

I think TonyM has some spare 500s that could act as shelf dampers. 

A lovely room and system PB, and a very enjoyable thread. I do love a happy ending!

Having always listened in smalller rooms and near field arrangements (see photo), how would you describe the difference with respect to your more distant arrangement?

Stu

Polarbear posted:

 

And here is the whole room, well two thirds of it anyway 

Fantastic PB!! Those Kudoss(?)  look absolutely fab! wish had as much room as that for my system to breath a little...

there has been quite a bit of mud-slinging in the 'System pictures' thread lately.  perhaps out of 'boredom' or whatever...

such a beautiful photo may help  "clear the air" there...

enjoy

ken

Don't want to get no mud on that lovely clean carpet!

Michael_B. posted:

Don't want to get no mud on that lovely clean carpet!

Karen won’t be happy if someone throws mud on our carpet or anywhere else in the house 

stuart.ashen posted:

A lovely room and system PB, and a very enjoyable thread. I do love a happy ending!

Having always listened in smalller rooms and near field arrangements (see photo), how would you describe the difference with respect to your more distant arrangement?

Stu

Size and scale Stuart, more space means a bigger soundstage, the music has more room to breathe and move around. Hence why I like my speakers well into the room. More space to fill means you can play music louder, my amp really sings at 9.00 on the pre amp.

Polarbear posted:

Michael_B. posted:

Don't want to get no mud on that lovely clean carpet!

Karen won’t be happy if someone throws mud on our carpet or anywhere else in the house 

...

perhaps not such a good idea then...

enjoy

ken

Polarbear posted:

I am thinking five levels was too high for the CD555 so its all back to normal again 

First, congrats on your new speaker. Look lovely!

What if you shifted the tall shelf to the middle rack and put the cdp below the pre? Have you tried that?

Chord are used inside Kudos speakers. I remember and actually asked Derek to make me a pair of 808 with Sarum inside. That never happened, maybe for a good reason. 

It literally took me months going front Naca5 to Sarum speaker cable but once there, when going back later a year or so, just to check, I couldn’t stand Naca5 for more then a couple of minutes. 

Chord Music add quality on top of that. 

//Jonas

Interesting, Nigel. 'The gap' works (sonically) very well with my CD555.

As others have suggested, your CDP probably became too high/unstable and up in the wind!

Glad you got her singing again. It shines where it shines.

You have much more to come from those lovely 808's. I reckon my 88's and 707's (now 11 months old) took the best part of nine months (with normal/average use) to fully open up, clean up and blossom. A visiting friend here on Monday detected quite a difference from his last visit about six months ago.

With apologies to Ken ............. Enjoy.

John.

An optical illusion Alba. It's a corner bass-trap behind the Fraim stack. There's one in t'other 'back' corner. They seem to help.

John.

Jonas Olofsson posted:

Chord are used inside Kudos speakers. I remember and actually asked Derek to make me a pair of 808 with Sarum inside. That never happened, maybe for a good reason. 

It literally took me months going front Naca5 to Sarum speaker cable but once there, when going back later a year or so, just to check, I couldn’t stand Naca5 for more then a couple of minutes. 

Chord Music add quality on top of that. 

//Jonas

Thanks Jonas, I will bear that in mind when I look at speaker cable, any other tips for the Titans once they have run in?

J.N. posted:

Interesting, Nigel. 'The gap' works (sonically) very well with my CD555.

As others have suggested, your CDP probably became too high/unstable and up in the wind!

Glad you got her singing again. It shines where it shines.

You have much more to come from those lovely 808's. I reckon my 88's and 707's (now 11 months old) took the best part of nine months (with normal/average use) to fully open up, clean up and blossom. A visiting friend here on Monday detected quite a difference from his last visit about six months ago.

With apologies to Ken ............. Enjoy.

John.

Very interesting John, however if you look at your system, your CD555 is only three tiers high, mine was five. I was quite surprised at how poor the experiment was. I can’t believe a single level had such a negative result.

The itans sound pretty good,I know they need plenty of running in and don’t worry the6 are getting plenty of use ????

J.N. posted:

An optical illusion Alba. It's a corner bass-trap behind the Fraim stack. There's one in t'other 'back' corner. They seem to help.

John.

That’s for another discussion John, I wonder whether my room would benefit with some subtle treatment.

Polarbear posted:

J.N. posted:

An optical illusion Alba. It's a corner bass-trap behind the Fraim stack. There's one in t'other 'back' corner. They seem to help.

John.

That’s for another discussion John, I wonder whether my room would benefit with some subtle treatment.

I suspect so Nigel. I have found huge benefits from targeted treatment. GIK now have some very nice decorative panels, so you don’t need to make your room look like a recording studio. Bass traps tend to be BIG, if effective, so more of a challenge. I’ll post a pic of my room when I get a chance.

DaveBk posted:

Polarbear posted:

J.N. posted:

An optical illusion Alba. It's a corner bass-trap behind the Fraim stack. There's one in t'other 'back' corner. They seem to help.

John.

That’s for another discussion John, I wonder whether my room would benefit with some subtle treatment.

I suspect so Nigel. I have found huge benefits from targeted treatment. GIK now have some very nice decorative panels, so you don’t need to make your room look like a recording studio. Bass traps tend to be BIG, if effective, so more of a challenge. I’ll post a pic of my room when I get a chance.

And I can confirm that such treatments certainly work in Stony Stratford

Polarbear posted:

I am thinking five levels was too high for the CD555 so its all back to normal again 

 

Great looking and,I am sure, sounding set-up.

As a TMS 3 owner myself, why two Roksan boxes? I have one with both the turnatable power supply and a phono stage.

Also, have you got rid of  the Superline? I have found that the Superline is much better than the Roksan phono stage.

Best regards 

Hans

Nigel, I and a couple of friends (J.N. and Dark Bear) have found it beneficial to place the NAP500 one single level up from the base level rather than having it sitting on the base level. Is this something you have tried at all?

I’ve been considering this one too. I don’t have a spare shelf so if the 500 goes up something else will have to go down and that is either the superline or the impending ND555. It doesn’t seem right to put either of them down there but whenever I’ve had a 500 series box, be it head unit or ps it’s never been right on the bottom shelf if I’ve heard the system with it higher. This would imply the SL is the only candidate but it’s a hard one to credit and a right PITA to try.

The Strat (Fender) posted:

DaveBk posted:

Polarbear posted:

J.N. posted:

An optical illusion Alba. It's a corner bass-trap behind the Fraim stack. There's one in t'other 'back' corner. They seem to help.

John.

That’s for another discussion John, I wonder whether my room would benefit with some subtle treatment.

I suspect so Nigel. I have found huge benefits from targeted treatment. GIK now have some very nice decorative panels, so you don’t need to make your room look like a recording studio. Bass traps tend to be BIG, if effective, so more of a challenge. I’ll post a pic of my room when I get a chance.

And I can confirm that such treatments certainly work in Stony Stratford

In what way Lindsay, can you be more specific?

HansW posted:

Polarbear posted:

I am thinking five levels was too high for the CD555 so its all back to normal again 

 

Great looking and,I am sure, sounding set-up.

As a TMS 3 owner myself, why two Roksan boxes? I have one with both the turnatable power supply and a phono stage.

Also, have you got rid of  the Superline? I have found that the Superline is much better than the Roksan phono stage.

 

Best regards 

Hans

Hello Hans,

I have one box for the power supply and the phono is in a separate box for sound quality purposes.

I never had a Superline, I have always had a Roksan Phono, however it isn't a standard Roksan Phono, it has been breathed upon by TM himself,

Kind regards

Nigel

Michael posted:

Nigel, I and a couple of friends (J.N. and Dark Bear) have found it beneficial to place the NAP500 one single level up from the base level rather than having it sitting on the base level. Is this something you have tried at all?

Hi Michael, the honest answer is no I haven't tried lifting the 500 head unit. Can I ask what you have below your 500?  Is it a spare tier or do you have a black box there?

It is something I could consider, the question is going to be the cable dressing issue, the boxes are where they are now to get the best cable dressing.

Polarbear posted:

HansW posted:

Polarbear posted:

I am thinking five levels was too high for the CD555 so its all back to normal again 

 

Great looking and,I am sure, sounding set-up.

As a TMS 3 owner myself, why two Roksan boxes? I have one with both the turnatable power supply and a phono stage.

Also, have you got rid of  the Superline? I have found that the Superline is much better than the Roksan phono stage.

 

Best regards 

Hans

Hello Hans,

 

I have one box for the power supply and the phono is in a separate box for sound quality purposes.

 

I never had a Superline, I have always had a Roksan Phono, however it isn't a standard Roksan Phono, it has been breathed upon by TM himself,

 

Kind regards

 

Nigel

Hi Nigel,

Thanks for your quick reply. I have been enjoying your posts for several years but have obviously miss-remembered your phono stage set-up.

Best regards

Hans

Polarbear posted:

The Strat (Fender) posted:

DaveBk posted:

Polarbear posted:

J.N. posted:

An optical illusion Alba. It's a corner bass-trap behind the Fraim stack. There's one in t'other 'back' corner. They seem to help.

John.

That’s for another discussion John, I wonder whether my room would benefit with some subtle treatment.

I suspect so Nigel. I have found huge benefits from targeted treatment. GIK now have some very nice decorative panels, so you don’t need to make your room look like a recording studio. Bass traps tend to be BIG, if effective, so more of a challenge. I’ll post a pic of my room when I get a chance.

And I can confirm that such treatments certainly work in Stony Stratford

In what way Lindsay, can you be more specific?

When Lindsay visited a few weeks ago, we spent some time discussing room interactions. I’ve taken great care over acoustic room treatments and we concluded that this is a big factor in the success I have with the Focal Utopias.

DaveBk posted:

Polarbear posted:

The Strat (Fender) posted:

DaveBk posted:

Polarbear posted:

J.N. posted:

An optical illusion Alba. It's a corner bass-trap behind the Fraim stack. There's one in t'other 'back' corner. They seem to help.

John.

That’s for another discussion John, I wonder whether my room would benefit with some subtle treatment.

I suspect so Nigel. I have found huge benefits from targeted treatment. GIK now have some very nice decorative panels, so you don’t need to make your room look like a recording studio. Bass traps tend to be BIG, if effective, so more of a challenge. I’ll post a pic of my room when I get a chance.

And I can confirm that such treatments certainly work in Stony Stratford

In what way Lindsay, can you be more specific?

When Lindsay visited a few weeks ago, we spent some time discussing room interactions. I’ve taken great care over acoustic room treatments and we concluded that this is a big factor in the success I have with the Focal Utopias.

I’ll try. I thought David’s system vibrant and natural. Although tending towards bright rather than dark - I would still on the personal level choose my Kudos over Focal - there was no harshness in the treble, the mids had clarity but most the bass was beautifully defined.  How much of this was down to the room treatments I can’t say but clearly much thought and care had gone into configuration and set-up.  The proof as ever was in the music - a really enjoyable listening session.