hi Mike (Rugyboogie),

first; thanks very much for taking the time to share your wonderfully detailed thoughts. you were sitting in the sweet spot all night so your perspective is the best viewpoint to start with (particularly compared to me sitting all the way over to the right side).

second; thanks to your wife for the excellent muffins and banana bread and muffins....they were excellent.

third; yesterday my son and i split one of those Hacker Pschorr Hefe Weisse beers you brought.....you were right....it makes pretty much any other beer taste like horse piss. too bad you can't find it anywhere around here.

i'm glad you enjoyed the meeting and that you went to the trouble to drive down from B.C.

i know you are planning on jumping into tape big time and i know you will enjoy it.

mikelavigne April 14, 2009 03:49

Teck,

see ya in May.

Mike

mikelavigne April 14, 2009 02:33

Hi Mike

Thanks, first of all, for having all of us at your home to enjoy listening to music, and for a very entertaining evening ,,,,,,, and for allowing me to crash in your "Barn". Also, thank St. Pam for putting up with all of us.

For those that missed the event , you missed a BIG ONE !!

The evening was a huge eye/ear opener for me and I am quite sure for several others as well.
To be in a room, meeting with so many music lovers and aficionados, was a great
experience. This is something that we do not do in Vancouver..... Hello Vancouver BC.

I arrived early at Mike's place, the border line up being ONLY one hour at that early hour.

For those of us that were there early, music was played on a request basis and if you brought your own it was also played.

The first album that Steve Dobbins cued was Roger Waters "Amused to Death" on LP.
This album on Mike's system made it sound like there were speakers all around the room.
Never have I heard it played back with such resolution, energy, and ambiance. J. Tinn did work his magic on the placement of the EMM 3.

Once all of the members showed up at the meeting the business part of the meeting was conducted, concluded, and then onto the music.

The evening unfolded with music listening, first through Mike's Rockport and Garrard 301 as sources played through the Allnic phono stage. First time that I saw this phono stage in person......... stunning sound quality, versatile and build Q is first rate.
"
We got into playing "Jazz at the Pawn Shop" on vinyl. Gary, one of the members, had first and second pressings of this album. To listen to these two pressings was very enlightening. The differences were so profound that you could tell the second pressing was missing dynamics.
One person asked to hear this on SACD, which Mike had of course.........lasted all of 20 seconds.

Now for the highlight of the evening...
One of the other members brought a R to R tape of "Jazz at the Pawn Shop". We then played the the first pressing of "Jazz at the Pawnshop" on the Rockport again and then switched to the tape copy on Mike's Studer 820 R to R. Holy sh!!. Nothing but oohh's and aahhh's!

It became so obvious that the tape just "had it all over the vinyl".

It makes me wonder, why did reel to reel disappear as a source - convenience ?

We did this comparison with a number of different artists for many hours. The R to R won every time except for one cut, cannot remember which one it was.

The evening played on with music and laughter that was brought on by the clear superiority that the tape demo's had.

Steve Dobbins needs to be thanked as well for the excellent turntable set-ups and
for being the DJ on a very entertaining evening. Mike kept him hopping all night long.
The Garrard 301 that Steve builds is shockingly good, remember the other table is the Rockport that we were doing the comparisons.

IMHO some of us came away discovering how superior R to R is a source.
The evening ended for with us listening to more of Roger Waters until the time hit 1:30 am and it was time for me to hit the sack upstairs in the Barn.

Until next time.
Thanks again Mike & Pam!

Mike R

rugyboogie April 13, 2009 18:00

I will be back in late May. It will be great to come by...

Well have rest....will send you a PM later.

best regards
teck

teck5 April 13, 2009 00:26

hi Teck,

yes, a good time was had by all.....maybe too good a time. 3 '2am' nights in 5 days for me has taken it's toll...that's usually about a decade's worth.

when do you return? i will be very interested in your feedback on my speaker adjustments.

best regards,

mikelavigne April 12, 2009 15:19

Hey Mike,

Sounds like everyone had way too much fun... too bad i missed it and hope to hear your new set up in may when i am back in town.

have fun *recuperating*...

teck5 April 12, 2009 14:21

Hi Mike,

"my initial impressions are that the Allnic H3000 is the best tubed phono stage i have heard. period. and maybe the best phono stage i have heard."

That is a big call and one that makes me very happy since I have long had a "feeling" about the Allnic gear. Now I should do something about getting an H-3000 into my system to try with my Miyajima Labs Shilabe and Premium Mono cartridges (more giant killers). Looking forward to your detailed thoughts once you have spent some more alone time with your system and the Allnic phono stage.

Best Regards,
Aaron

drajreynolds April 12, 2009 01:32

Mike,

Thanks. While I am no expert on carpets as well, it is hard to beat the beauty of a hand knotted Tibetan carpet.

Jim

joneill April 11, 2009 17:22

the Audio Club meeting on Thursday night was great fun......but before i get to that i must explain about some 'pre-func' activities.

first; last weekend jtinn traveled up to my room and we worked on tweaking the Evolution speakers to perfection. after messing around Saturday night it was sounding quite good.....we listened till 2 am. But Jonathan thought he could do better. so early Sunday morning we measured each speaker with the Phonic PAA3. turns out with all adjustments set to flat the left speaker is pretty much flat; but the right one has a big dip at 30hz and a significant bump at 130hz. the room is perfectly symetrical, but for whatever reason (maybe it's the fact that the left wall is an outside wall?....i don't know) they measure different. so Jonathan lowered the crossover on the right speaker to 65hz (we tried many different crossover points) and lowered the bass volume by 2.5 notches (not sure what that means in db) and all was much better. now the right speaker was nearly flat too. how would it sound?

in a word; wonderful. bass performance improved by a large factor, which then allowed more neutral settings everywhere else and the balance was greatly improved. best bass i've ever had. a speaker without the adjustability of the Evolution Acoustics MM3's would have been very challenging to get to sound correct.

then, Monday morning i was off to Las Vegas for a business meeting......returned Wednesday late afternoon.

Wednesday night i picked Steve Dobbins and his friend Kari up at the airport. besides his considerable vinyl expertise and good humor, Steve brought some goodies.....the Allnic H3000 phono stage, a brand new Allnic Verity Z cartridge, and Steve's Lyra Olympos cartridge. Steve is still working on my Technics SP-10 Mk3 so that will arrive 'soon' on another trip.

immediately on arrival at the barn; we moved things around to accomodate the Allnic phono stage (it's on the bottom shelf of the Grand Prix Audio Monaco SE-Formula shelf with the proper compliance discs) and Steve installed the Allnic cartridge on the Rockport and the Olympos on the Garrard. we were up till 2am listening and tweaking.

Thursday morning i had to work but i was back home by 1pm when we resumed our (me watching Steve) tt set-up efforts.

we listened to the Allnic Verity Z (on the Rockport) thru the darTZeel and then thru the Allnic H3000. then later Steve moved the Verity Z onto the Garrard/Triplaner. my favorite spot for the Verity Z was on the Garrard thru the Allnic....wonderful synergy happening. one piece. the Verity Z is a really wonderful cartridge.....smooth, full bodied, detailed, big full bass. and this was brand new out of the box. you would hear some tiny little 'nasties' any new cartridge would have.....but this might be a keeper.

the Lyra Olympos (the Lyra website spells it both 'Olympos' and 'Olympus') is lengendary, expensive and scarce. i recently aquired an original Lyra Parnassus in anticipation of using it as a donor for an Olympos. Steve was kind enough to bring his so i could hear it. It did sound excellent on the Garrard but i thought the Rockport would allow it to really show how much information it could dig out of the grooves. Also; the Olympos is closer to my reference vdH Colibri sound than the Allnic. so Steve moved the Olympos to the Rockport. we tried it thru both the darTZeel and the Allnic and we ended up preferring the Allnic. i have not heard every cartridge out there; specifically i have not heard the Air Tight Supreme or the Koetsu Coral Stone. But the Lyra Olympos is really something very special. i'm not sure i can do it justice by a description; but it seems to posses the best attributes of any cartridge i have heard. it loves the Rockport.

my initial impressions are that the Allnic H3000 is the best tubed phono stage i have heard. period. and maybe the best phono stage i have heard.

Steve was kind enough to leave the Allnic H3000 and the Verity Z with me after the show. he also re-mounted the vdH Colibri back on the Rockport. the Colibri sounds wonderful thru the Allnic.

all these opinions are provisional; i am in recovery from this last week of audio exploration, travel, late nights, 25 people meeting and everything. i need to come back to earth and then listen in a more relaxed way to the Allnic H3000 and Verity Z to form solid conclusions. i will be going down the Lyra Olympus road, that's a no brainer.

later today or tomorrow i will post my thoughts about the meeting and all the tape stuff. we started playing music at about 5:45pm and did not stop until approx 1:30am. by midnight it was just one friend from Vancouver B.C. (Rugyboogie who crashed in my barn loft since he had a long drive back) Steve, his friend Kari, and myself.

we did take about 20 minutes for Club Business.

preliminarily; in my opinion, pretty much the tapes kicked ass......even with argueably as good a vinyl set up as one could find tweaked to perfection by an expert. to be fair; i was sitting the whole time on the right side, mid room operating the Studer A-820....so i was not anywhere near the sweet spot.

hopefully others will chime in here and share their take on the evening.

mikelavigne April 11, 2009 17:00

Jim, i can't edit my above post. i forgot to add that on the leather label on the back side of the rug it is called a 'Mahindra' from Black Mountain Looms....made in India.

mikelavigne April 11, 2009 14:31

Jim,

sorry for the delay in my response. i was out of town Monday thru Wednesday for business and then Thursday night i had 25+ people here for my audio club meeting. this morning i am in recovery listening to an exquisite Lp, Brahms Sym. #2, Kerstaz conducting on Super Analog Disc.

anyway; to answer your question; it was not an acoustical motivation which caused me to add the rug but aesthetic and practical ones. my room's finishes are quite neutral. when i first moved into the room my budget was shot. i did want some sort of carpet to add some energy to the look. also; practically; as i spend lots of time listening i wanted something more substaintial than the normal carpet under my listening position that would hold up.

i brought tried a few different carpets before i choose this particular one.

i'm not knowledgable about rugs. here is a link to some info about this carpet;

the rug

we have purchased other carpets from that same store for our home over the years and have always been very happy with the quality.

mikelavigne April 11, 2009 14:25

Mike,

Room and system continue evolve and look great!!

I' curious, did you add the primitive Tibetan rug (looks like a Tufenkian) at the listening position on top of the carpet for its pile height and absorption properties or was it simply an asthetic consideration?

Thanks,

Jim

joneill April 09, 2009 11:36

I hope that you and perhaps some of the attendees will ppost your thoughts after the listening session.

fcrowder April 06, 2009 12:53

On April 9th, this coming Thursday night at 7:30pm, our local Seattle audio club, the Pacific Northwest Audio Society will have the April monthly meeting at my home. The focus will be how reel to reel tape, including some 'Tape Project' tapes, compare to other formats including redbook, SACD and vinyl.

I will be using mostly a stock Studer A-820 master recorder, and possibly a deParavicini modified Technics RS-1700. Turntables will include a Rockport Sirius III, a modified Garrard 301/Triplaner, and possibly a modified Technics SP-10 Mk3. Digital will be played on a Playback Designs MPS-5. Steve Dobbins, who built the plinths and tweaked both the Garrard and Technics tt's, will be here to make sure the tt's are at their very best.

The actual meeting will go from 7:30pm to 9:30pm but we will be playing music and 'such' prior and post. There is plenty of room. Any Audiogon'ers are most welcome to attend.

My home is in North Bend, about 30 miles east of Seattle. E-mail me for directions.... [email protected]

Hopefully it won't snow.....as we have had lots of the stuff recently. If it does people can park down near the Interstate and i can pick them up. At this point the weather looks to be just fine.

mikelavigne April 04, 2009 15:34

Antono,

i'm no acoustics expert; but my room designer was. his perspective was that the 'Golden Ratio' was not a 'Holy Grail' of acoustics since frequency response does not 'scale'. in other words; as dimentions increase at a given ratio there are changes in how the frequencies behave.....much of the behavior is not constant with the ratio.

so while the 'Golden Ratio' is likely ideal at a certain size accidentally, it's not ideal at all sizes. OTOH the 'Golden Ratio' is typically a good place to start as it is likely in the ballpark. the 'Golden Ratio' does avoid obvious doubling of any dimention.

my acoustic designer felt that other construction issues and surface shapes and solidities must be considered at any dimention to get the whole picture right.

personally; i don't have the knowledge to say one way or another whether changing the dimentions of my room to those you suggest would be better or worse. all i can say is i love the way my room sounds. in every case where i suspected that the room was causing an issue i found gear or setup issues were the problem. the room has not resrticted performance. it has challenged me to push the envelope to what might be possible.

i hope that answers your question.

best regards,

mikelavigne April 03, 2009 23:35

I visited your post in positive feedback , they are very informative and will greatly help me if I build mine someday ( soon hopefully )..
But , I once read regarding room dimensions.. the proportions should be 1 : 1,6 : 2,33 ( H : W : L ) . while yours 11 : 20 : 31..
which is more correct? thanks Mike

antono

antonoyuwono April 02, 2009 00:08

Antono, thanks for the kind words.

mikelavigne April 01, 2009 21:50

Thanks Mike..

BTW..your room is fantastic!!

antono

antonoyuwono April 01, 2009 06:10

Antonoyuwono,

FYI,

both my sets of Valhalla have the same serial number on both cables of the set.

mikelavigne April 01, 2009 04:28

Thanks guys..
I contacted nordost since 3 or 4 days ago.. but no response , actually considering I am such a Nordost fanatic user I am very disappointed by their lack of customer service..
( very different with Pass Labs and Linn -- they are best/top customer service )

BTW the box and manual are like new..

I think I'll have to wait for nordost responses after all--I hope they WILL response..

thanks again

antonoyuwono April 01, 2009 03:07

Both cables of my Valhalla XLR pair, bought from the authorized distributor, have the same number engraved in the left and right cables. You should contact Nordost with the serial numbers before buying.

microstrip April 01, 2009 01:30

Antonoyuwono,

at this point i no longer own any XLR Valhalla, i do own 2 sets of RCA Valhalla. when i get home tonight i will look and see whether the serial number matches.....if i had to guess i would say it does match.

assuming the Valhalla connectors are identical and they are factory attached they should sound identically. there is Valhalla 'out there' which has been 'cut down' from longer runs and attached by the seller; these might perform differently.

mikelavigne March 31, 2009 22:57

Can you tell me : is your Valhalla XLR's serial number the same between left and right cable?

I am going to buy a 2nd hand 2m XLR valhalla analog IC , but problem is the serial number different between left ( 41213 ) and right ( 41401 ) cable.

The listening test does not reveal any problem..

antonoyuwono March 31, 2009 14:38

maybe interesting to note that the NHB18 user manual has an added page (page10 to be downloaded from the website) which shows a photograph of the phonoboard with all settings available. again very clever thinking with the soldered / desoldered pads. (it doesnt stop anywhere with DartZeel isn't it..) these values can be paralleled too.
the standard MC resistor values are 100/510/1k/5k and open (0,47K) good useable values although a broad choice.
to me it looks like these 4 positions can be given any custom value the owner would like. now i have bought a great deal of Riken and Shinkoh resistors at partsconnexion, these Japanese resistors are not longer beeing made and are one of the very best soundwise. do i get banned for this information at Gon?
hope not :-)
my Colibri used to hover around the 450 ohms to feel good, after the Airline revision it flies between the 150/250 ohms.

any experiences on these NHB18 solder pads concerning phono load are greatly appreciated.

tuboo March 30, 2009 18:49

I guess $280k is a lot to shelve out for any ”upgrade” , oh well, don`t mind me joining you in that daydream. Me too I enjoy my combo a lot. My Swmbo laughed when I brought it up! Us boys and our toys...

mtkhl567 March 27, 2009 17:09