GD,

if there is one thing Seattle is famous for it's the rain; which in the mountains i live in means lots of snow and snow-melt; which allows for very clean water. i live next to a wilderness area which includes a protected watershed area. we get the storms off the north Pacific which roar in after 6000+ miles of ocean so our air is clean. the millions of acres of temperate forrest do a great job of doing their air cleaning job too. the combination is hard to beat for healthy air and water on the planet. plus it's green 365 days a year!!!

remember; i've been to Dallas. not exactly the same in my book.

OTOH the people in Dallas are first rate all the way!

so there, smarty pants!

;^)

mikelavigne July 30, 2010 04:33

Mike:

Drinking water quality will affect health which in turn will affect listening :-)

gallant_diva July 30, 2010 03:58

Hi Mike,

Congrats on the Equi=Tech 10WQ. Please let me know your impressions after a bit of burn in time.

When I did my room build 3 yrs. ago I installed the 10Q as well. I would have to say after trying many different power conditioners.. it was the best investment I or one could make to their system. Grunge.. gone, noise floor lowered, I could not be happier with the results. My system sounds the same both during the day as well as late into the night.

I would also suggest paying attention to the star grounding.

Gary

grr6001 July 29, 2010 20:25

what makees you say we have crap power? ;-)

GD, that's what you told me when i visited 'in so many words' about your power grid...at least as i recall....and i was just giving you a bad time. :^)

as far as 'clean water'; unfortunately it does not make our systems sound any better. personally, my development is on an artesian well here in the mountains of Western Washington and the water is excellent.

as far as cheap and environmentally friendly electric power the State of Washington with it's huge hydo-power is the leader. we sell power to other states and Canada.

mikelavigne July 29, 2010 16:27

MIke:

Thanks for the information but I think it is expensive (may be worth the price though). By the way what makees you say we have crap power? ;-)

Did you know we have the cleanest water in the country?
According to the latest reuslt of the Envoronmental Working Group, the following are the top cities for drinking water:

Cities with the best water:

1.Arlington, TX
2.Providence, RI
3.Fort Worth, TX
4.Charleston, SC
5.Boston, MA
6.Honolulu, HI
7.Austin, TX
8.Fairfax County, VA
9.St. Louis, MO
10.Minneapolis, MN

Can someone do the electricity analysis please :-)

gallant_diva July 29, 2010 15:38

GD,

the 10WQ panel lists for $12,500 plus $180 for each filtered circuit and $720 for oxygen free copper....so a list of $13,760 plus shipping as i've got it spec'd. btw; this aint no sissy panel here; it weighs 327 pounds.

and yes; this is the 'transformer' that i mentioned to you. in my case i have pretty good, low noise, power to begin with. but in your case this it would be the 'hot tip' for your South Dallas crap power and i would suppose you would get a larger degree of improvement than i get.

the big advantage with this approach is that you don't have to have a bunch of different power conditioners sitting all over your room. you fix the power up-stream.....and the whole signal path gains.

over the last 6 or 7 years i've done lots of investigation of isolation transformers and optimized wall panels. i knew eventually i would pull this trigger. a couple of years ago i seriously considered a separate transformer and the Isoclean panel.

but my exposure to Bruce Brown's studio here locally has tipped me over to the Equi=tech. Bruce now has my same speakers and uses the same Playback Design digital player. our rooms and systems are different but i can 'hear' what this panel does in his system and i want it. to really hear what my room and system can do i feel this is necessary.

mikelavigne July 29, 2010 06:19

Mike:

It sounds very exciting (I am salivating). Is the same "separate transformer" that you mentioned to me you were thinking of installing? Do you mind telling (may be through PM) the total cost of this.

Is is interesting that you mentioned the "mid-night magic".
I have the same observation in my system. When I mention to my visitors the difference in the sound of my system between the day time and night time, some of them suspect I may be exaggerating but after listening they do conclude the difference is actually "day-and-night".

gallant_diva July 29, 2010 00:14

i've finally pulled the trigger on something i planned on doing when i first built my room back in 2004; i've ordered an Equi=tech 10WQ Wall Cabinet System and it could arrive as soon as the end of next week. it will have 3 of 10 circuits with the EMI/RFI filter option and the OFC (oxygen free copper) option.

it will replace my existing wall panel which is a high quality generic panel. my room is wired with #10 gauge Romex with Oyaide R-1 outlets and WPC-Z covers. there is a 'home run' from near my electrical meter to my panel and a double-ground rod already installed. the 10WQ should be the final piece to that chain.

this should lower my already very low noise floor and significantly improve microdynamics. it should bring that 'late night magic' 24 hours a day.

in my room development path this is pretty close to the final touch. i'm excited to have made this move.

mikelavigne July 28, 2010 03:36

Some guys just know how to live!

triode July 14, 2010 20:19

hello Henry,

i have listened to the Soundsmith Strain Gauge cartridge 4 or 5 times at shows. in theory it has technical advantages over other conventional cartridges. but so far i have not heard it sound completely natural and relaxed. it reminded me of my vdH Colbri's when they were not behaving. lots of information but not settled down. a bit of edge. maybe the system context that Peter has at the shows contribute to my perception.

i would expect that when fully dialed in and in a the proper system it could be wonderful. if i get a chance to try one in my system i will do it.

i did notice that the group of cartridges compared to the Strain Gauge did not include the Lyra Olympos SL; which up to this point is my personal reference.

mikelavigne July 09, 2010 16:48

Hi Mike, have you ever listened to a Soundsmith strain gauge cartridge system. I have heard that it has unheard of performance due to its unique technology, giving it unrivaled neutrality (I mean no sound of its own), and you can have different needles/tips that you can easily exchange yourself.

A group of audiophile's in The Netherlands compared it to the XV1s, A90, Colibri, Lyra Titan and unanimously concluded that it was the best cartridge system they ever heard by a long shot. I'm thinking about trying it myself soon.

mtkhl567 July 08, 2010 05:20

Mike: You said it so well and succinctly summarized the entire characteristics of the A90. I would just add tiny bit to what you said: The A90 covers the entire frequency spectrum and yet sings. And it has all the resolution and details and yet remains musical.

gallant_diva June 25, 2010 07:26

hello Andromedaaudio,

thanks for the kind comments.

regarding what is so special about the A90's (since i own 2); initially i purchased an A90 before anyone else had one (serial number 8). i have owned a number of high end cartridges (7 vdH Colibri's, Koetsu RSP, Clearaudio Gold, Dyna XV-1s, and others) and felt the A90 did more things right and had less shortcomings than almost every other cartridge i had heard. to expand on that thought; the A90 is essentially neutral, yet is has 'body' 'warmth' and 'ease'. it is very dynamic and delicate; yet never edgy. it does space and has bloom; yet is under control and does not get bloaty.

in the words of another A90 owner here on AudiogoN, Downunder, the A90 takes on the best character of your system instead of forcing it's viewpoint on your system. it just seems to synergize in many different types of systems and vinyl front ends.

the A90 is not cheap at $4200 USD list price, but it's on the low end of the price range of the very best cartridges.

why i own 2 A90's is that i have 3 tt's and 4 arms currently; my actual favorite cartridge is my Lyra Olympos SL. but the A90's allow my tt's and arms to bring out the best in them and i can hear what each arm and tt can do. the A90 makes beautiful involving music everywhere i try it.

i'm not one who uses the term 'best', i would rather use 'prefer' or 'preference' or 'favorite'. is the A90 the best cartridge? it must be considered in the group of cartridges that aspire to that position.

mikelavigne June 21, 2010 20:22

I read in another post on audio asylum that you have 2 ortofon A 90 s .
Whats so special on the A 90 ?

andromedaaudio June 20, 2010 10:40

Very nice system /room , i think its a winner soundwise as well , just from the looks .

andromedaaudio June 19, 2010 20:53

Mike,
Thanks for replying.
Someday, I hope the 'correlations' between measurements and subjective 'perceived' sound will show us what it is that 'makes music' and not hi-fi (hope that made sense). I think some other measurements might have to be discovered or blended to achieve this. I've read all the info about various correlations between coherence, time arrival/coincident, phase arrival, on I've read your friends info on this topic and find it interesting.
I know that measurements can't tell everything, for now, but it is interesting, nonetheless.
I'll be waiting to read your responses as your system evolves.
Chris

peanutbutter June 10, 2010 18:45

Chris,

regarding my further thoughts on my room changes; if anything, i keep getting 'gotcha'd' by things i hear now from familiar recordings, particularly from the bass performance and the overall sense of foundation and ease of the music. also; the sound just seems so much more complete tonally. it's now so musical. not so much hifi any more. it's about the event, not the sounds. since i completed my room changes i have not had a moment where i felt the system/room synergy was not 'right'. my perspective is that if the room and system are working effectively they should get out of the way of the music. i think that is happening. this is not to say that everything measures perfectly. more like there is nothing working against the musical message.

regarding measurements; i do have a local friend coming over next week to do some measurements. i may or may not post about them.

i will say that waterfall plots measured by this same friend about a year ago were likely the final straw in my decision to change my room; as i really respect this friend's knowledge. he does happen to own a long time prominent speaker company.

mikelavigne June 10, 2010 05:45

Audioblazer,

the price of 'The Beat' is $20k USD as far as i know at this point. you would have to check with Steve Dobbins to confirm that. Steve has designed a power supply for The Beat; it's not the Loricraft like my Garrard.

here is a post which includes links to some pictures of The Beat pre-production unit from Steve's visit in March;

post about 'The Beat'

you can read more about The Beat in posts following that one.

mikelavigne June 10, 2010 05:20

i've been auditioning the Cello Phono/Tape repro preamp the last few days from Charles King on my Studer A-820. Charlie purpose built this one for me to work with the 'Zeel' interface of the darTZeel.....so it has Charlie's best effort at the 50ohm BNC interface. i'm told by Rich Brown, who has assisted me with ths various auditions (2 previous besides this time) of the King/Cello, that Charlie actually reduced the capacitor count by 2 in this Cello to accomadate 50 ohm output. when Charlie tested this back on the East Coast he was unsure whether it worked correctly. in any case last Saturday Rich brought it by. we listened for a bit and then i convinced him to leave it with me for a few days.

well......it turns out that Charlie 'likely' nailed the 50 ohm interface....this sounds wonderful. i say 'likely' because there is no way to know how close to ideal it is. OTOH it sounds perfect to my ears. i'm able to use my 'leftover' 8 Meter 'Zeel' interconnect from my Evolution Acoustics upgrade and it works perfectly.

so this unit is not being driven down to Rich Brown in Portland, i'm buying it.

compared directly to the balanced stock output of the Studer, the King/Cello is much much better. the noise floor is quite a bit lower, dynamics are better, more detail, much more refined, the layer of grunge from the stock Studer output is gone......and the bass is simply stupendous!!!!

you hear waaaay into the music, the nuance and delicacy is beyond anything i've heard from any source.

congrats to Charles King for making such a great sounding piece of gear.

i've been wanting better output electronics for my Studer for over 2 years; and now i have it. this King/Cello has the MuMetal case, and an additional MuMetal case inside. it also has adjustable EQ for adapting it to different heads.....i do plan on using it on my Ampex ATR-102. the King/Cello also is a high quality phono stage.....so i can add another tt on the other side of my room now if i like. three tt's is not nearly enough.

mikelavigne June 10, 2010 04:55

Hi Mike,
Have you noticed any further changes (other than the ones posted above) to the sound of the room since the front end change? Any plans on having it measured again?
Chris

peanutbutter June 10, 2010 00:14

Mikel, yes I understand. Initially I planned to sell my Feickert but decided not to because feickert allows easy adjustment of spindle to pivot distance. I wonder how much is the Beat tt? Is it using loricraft ps or its own ps ? What is so unique abt the Beat tt ?if it outperform technics sp 10 mk3 , it is certainly the turntable to beat. Looking forward to the Beat tt photo? thanks

audioblazer June 08, 2010 08:13

Jazzdoc,

thank you for the welcome to the club. the 'production' Talea sounds quite 'the bomb' on the Garrard. you heard the prototype on it, but that was before the Garrard got it's new Dobbins 'copper-top' platter and my A90 was broken in. also, of course, the room is now quite different.

mikelavigne June 07, 2010 14:00

Audioblazer,

thanks for the suggestion; and i agree with you.

the reason i purchased the Feickert is the 'spindle to pivot' tool which is included with the Feickert. it allows for easy measurement of that distance which is critical for arm installation. without that tool it's a crap-shoot to really get this distance exact with a ruler. the Mint Lp does not include this tool.

i purchased a Mint Lp from Yip a couple of years ago for my Triplaner/Garrard and agree it's very precise. i plan on buying one for both my Reeds and Talea. since i'll be trading my Technics in for Steve Dobbins new 'The Beat' tt i'm waiting until that arrives before buying a Mint Lp for the Reeds.

Joel Durand used his Mint Lp for the Talea for set-up in my system. Talea includes an aluminum template for spindle-to-pivot distance which i verified is correct with the Feickert. there was a spindle to pivot template that came with the Triplaner but it was actaully wrong by a few milimeters.

i have 4 arms now and want to buy another so i figured i needed the right tool.

mikelavigne June 07, 2010 13:56

Mikel , strongly suggest to look at mintlp protractor for specific tonearm. Way more accurate compare to Feickert. Just look at the 2 big null points dots compare to the cross line in mintlp which is visible only under magnifying glass. I have both mintlp for my schroeder and reed 2p and feickert

audioblazer June 07, 2010 12:35

Congratulations and welcome to the Talea club. Can't wait to hear it on the Garrard.

jazdoc June 07, 2010 05:16