Hello! Here's my intro post. Back in the late 80s and early 90s I was deep into audiofoolery. I had much less money then but plenty of connections in the Calgary, Canada area with the people who were involved with Meitner Audio, Highwood Audio and, peripherally, SUMO audio. That gave me access to a few truly talented audio design types who were very generous with their time in teaching me about audio. Then, I got married, had kids, built a house and went to grad school, and all that enthusiasm and knowledge slipped into the past. For a few years I worked as a stage theatre sound tech, and for few years I was an environmental noise consultant who worked all over North America. Now retired, I've revived my interest in music and music reproduction, but most of what I'd learned is gone, or well buried. Along with reviving my interest, I'm also reviving my equipment from that time, which I still regard as very worthy. I also used to build the odd bit of simple equipment. Maybe that will get revived too. We'll see.
My system currently consists of:
A Sony DVD transport that I'd have to go downstairs to get the model number for. Doesn't matter. It's a run-of-the-mill Sony DVD player.
A Museatex PA6i preamp with their upper end phono stage
2 Museatex MTR-101 monoblock amps
I've also got a couple Meitner STR-50s that I might restore, or raid for output devices, but they're not part of my system
A newly made (by me) pair of Troels Gravesen Discovery-4 speakers, that are better than anything I've had before
I just bought a SMSL Su-1 DAC that I'll run the Sony into, as well as music from my MacBook Pro
A dedicated listening room that until recently was an unfinished storage room in my basement. Way back when we built the house (last century) I dimensioned this room to minimize nodal degeneracies. I'm about to try to use REW to guide me towards sensible treatment.
While I still love the music I did back then, (Talking Heads, Davis Bowie, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel) I don't often like to listen to it much on this kind of equipment. It shows up the production flaws too much, or at least that's the way I feel about it. Now, if I'm listening on this level of equipment I enjoy, jazz, orchestral, chamber and bluegrass. I enjoyed all those genres back then too.
I tend to be what I call an 80% guy, when it comes to audio (as opposed to music). I feel you get further ahead getting 80% to perfection and taking care of everything that needs addressing, while spending 20% of the money, rather than getting all the way to perfection on only some elements by spending a sh%$^-ton of money, but not having enough $ left over to address the other critical factors that also need to be dealt with. Maybe I was a little bit too much the latter when I last tried my hand at this stuff?
I tend strongly towards science, and like everyone else, feel that there are too many snake oil claims to wade through on my way to the best sound and music I can sensibly achieve.
Cheers,
Caerbannog
One of the Troels Gravesen Discovery-4 speakers I just completed
My system currently consists of:
A Sony DVD transport that I'd have to go downstairs to get the model number for. Doesn't matter. It's a run-of-the-mill Sony DVD player.
A Museatex PA6i preamp with their upper end phono stage
2 Museatex MTR-101 monoblock amps
I've also got a couple Meitner STR-50s that I might restore, or raid for output devices, but they're not part of my system
A newly made (by me) pair of Troels Gravesen Discovery-4 speakers, that are better than anything I've had before
I just bought a SMSL Su-1 DAC that I'll run the Sony into, as well as music from my MacBook Pro
A dedicated listening room that until recently was an unfinished storage room in my basement. Way back when we built the house (last century) I dimensioned this room to minimize nodal degeneracies. I'm about to try to use REW to guide me towards sensible treatment.
While I still love the music I did back then, (Talking Heads, Davis Bowie, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel) I don't often like to listen to it much on this kind of equipment. It shows up the production flaws too much, or at least that's the way I feel about it. Now, if I'm listening on this level of equipment I enjoy, jazz, orchestral, chamber and bluegrass. I enjoyed all those genres back then too.
I tend to be what I call an 80% guy, when it comes to audio (as opposed to music). I feel you get further ahead getting 80% to perfection and taking care of everything that needs addressing, while spending 20% of the money, rather than getting all the way to perfection on only some elements by spending a sh%$^-ton of money, but not having enough $ left over to address the other critical factors that also need to be dealt with. Maybe I was a little bit too much the latter when I last tried my hand at this stuff?
I tend strongly towards science, and like everyone else, feel that there are too many snake oil claims to wade through on my way to the best sound and music I can sensibly achieve.
Cheers,
Caerbannog
One of the Troels Gravesen Discovery-4 speakers I just completed
Welcome to the group. That is one impressive looking speaker! I've never heard of the Troels Gravesen Discovery-4.
Last edited:
Welcome to the Forum, your speakers look great, better than most I've seen in stores.
It's true that higher quality speakers can show up flaws in recordings, but I find that my brain usually filters out the less desirable parts of the music such as tape hiss, poor mixing or recording etc if the music is good enough. I have some Naxos CD recordings of Rachmaninov playing his Piano Concertos in the 30s and 40s which are so good the recording doesn't matter.
Sometimes, as with my pet hate the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, the sound is so harsh I can't listen to them at all.
I had a pair of Paul Carmody's "Classix II", which were excellent speakers, but particularly good in giving detail while somewhat covering up the flaws in some older recordings. However, the Peppers still sounded awful.
Happy listening
Geoff
It's true that higher quality speakers can show up flaws in recordings, but I find that my brain usually filters out the less desirable parts of the music such as tape hiss, poor mixing or recording etc if the music is good enough. I have some Naxos CD recordings of Rachmaninov playing his Piano Concertos in the 30s and 40s which are so good the recording doesn't matter.
Sometimes, as with my pet hate the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, the sound is so harsh I can't listen to them at all.
I had a pair of Paul Carmody's "Classix II", which were excellent speakers, but particularly good in giving detail while somewhat covering up the flaws in some older recordings. However, the Peppers still sounded awful.
Happy listening
Geoff
Welcome to diyAudio :^)
Moray James, Bill Perkins?
Nice job. Wonder why Troels spaced the tweeter and mid so far apart.
dave
Moray James, Bill Perkins?
Nice job. Wonder why Troels spaced the tweeter and mid so far apart.
dave
I've been known to play some pretty 'heavy music', but the RHCP. Blood Sugar Sex Magic album IS totally harsh as you say.
Besides the simple mixing of it, I have wondered if it and some other albums actually suffer from poor early PCM recording equipment (?)
Maybe to get around some limitations of his passive crossovers and getting some rough time alignment?
Likely, but he seemstobe forgetting the quarter-wave criteria.
Thesev will require a minimum listening distance and limited listening window for that to work.
dave
Thesev will require a minimum listening distance and limited listening window for that to work.
dave
YES, but don't forget that most all serious listeners do have a preferred 'listening seat' and that at a fixed distance 🙂
Welcome Caerbannog, Great work on your Discovery 4 speakers.
Like you I spent too much money chasing the last 5% of audio perfection.
Then a few years ago I decided to completely rebuild my old system.
It was an Sx780 HPM900 Speakers and a lab500 turntable.
I reconed the 900 woofers at that old retro store and changed the crossover.
The 780 is almost new , changes in the tuner , new mosfet amplifier, new phono preamp and the big one, a twin triode preamplifier all stuffed into that chassis.
This thing is about the best stereo I've heard and I have a weight bearing post in front of one speaker downstairs.
Putting in some work always yields a better system.
Like you I spent too much money chasing the last 5% of audio perfection.
Then a few years ago I decided to completely rebuild my old system.
It was an Sx780 HPM900 Speakers and a lab500 turntable.
I reconed the 900 woofers at that old retro store and changed the crossover.
The 780 is almost new , changes in the tuner , new mosfet amplifier, new phono preamp and the big one, a twin triode preamplifier all stuffed into that chassis.
This thing is about the best stereo I've heard and I have a weight bearing post in front of one speaker downstairs.
Putting in some work always yields a better system.
@stocktrader200
Just going by your name/logo, have you ever considered starting a Thread in "The Lounge" regarding stock trading?
When I first heard the news of "A Global Pandemic", and the markets 'crashed', I immediately invested some money into a
S&P 500 ETF. I am now up 54% . Being a 'micro investor', I have gained a whopping $1280 😉
Just going by your name/logo, have you ever considered starting a Thread in "The Lounge" regarding stock trading?
When I first heard the news of "A Global Pandemic", and the markets 'crashed', I immediately invested some money into a
S&P 500 ETF. I am now up 54% . Being a 'micro investor', I have gained a whopping $1280 😉
Last edited:
The driver distance CTC is 13.6cm. The crossover point is 2500Hz. My listening distance is 2.3m. Am I likely to get stretching or other negative effects that I don't yet know about? I will note, guessing that it might be relevant, that the tweeter cabinet is separate and can be moved back and forth (TG specifies baffle setback of 19-22mm) and tilted down 3-4º. Do either of these capabilities factor into addressing this concern?
I liked all your late seventies pop favorites
Red Hot Chili Peppers, ho hum. Now Billie Eilish had some great stories to tell. Adrian Quesada, Arcade Fire, Los Lobos, Tedeschi/Trucks, Trombone Shorty, Jon Batiste, Lucius, Duran Duran, Pat Benetar rang the bell on ACL. Little Steven's Underground Garage found some great new acts but the LP's I bought were stolen so I don't remember the names. His record company had the most silent LP's (intertracks, entry & end grooves) I have ever heard. I listen to classical WUOL-FM up to 12 hours a day. Peavey SP2(2004) after Peavey M-2600 amp. Lot of 18th century Musak (Telemann, Bocarini) but some gems in the greatest hits of the last 400 years. I play Moussorgsky, Scott Joplin, JS Bach, Elton John, Gershwin, Charles Wesley, and Martin Luther on my Sohmer console piano & Hammond H182 organ. Talk about accurate reproduction.
Last edited:
Did well on stocks but lost on crypto so I found time to rebuild my stereo as my training is electronics engineering.
Should've done it sooner as it's worked very well.
Should've done it sooner as it's worked very well.