interesting tweaks

today I had the pleasure of visiting Zarquon aka Clive (who came to bakeoff) to give him his digital cable back and also to have a listen to his kit:
ATC Pre and Power (£3k apiece)
Densen B400XS
ATC SCM35 speakers
Nordost Red Dawn rev 2 spkr wire
Nordost Valhalla i/c
Blackcurrentâ„¢ mains
Target beta racks

Firstly we tried a/bing the Valhalla against some DIY cable that he'd knocked up- one was a £1/m Studio Spares and the other was a twisted copper coax cable IIRC

The differences, as found at the bakeoff, were hardly night and day, but hardly unnoticeable. Bass lacked definition with the latter and the treble lacked detail, particularly with hi-hats. The bass was a little better with the former - a little tighter.


Next was the subject of supports/isolation
Clive has the B400 on Nordost Pulsar Points, which make it look quite fancy I guess, but they also really help the sound? How? Well, i've forgotten basically- information overload, and my stomach was embarassingly grumbling.
However, he took me step by step through different forms, and the Pulsar Points ended up being the best compromise:
With the PPs it was a really nice, tight, sweet sound with pretty stable imaging.

Next, we tried some squidgy foam isolation sheet sandwiches, with a thin wood sheet between them.
The sound also became soft!! Upper bass lacked definition and vocals sounded messy

His other DIY project had been 'hard' isolation- aluminium dishes, with ballbearings resting in them, then another upturned dish ontop of the ballbearing. This really tightened up the bass and vocals on something like Barb Jungr and IIRC Keb Mo.
However, he pointed out the fatal flaw in the aluminium ballbearing sandwich method- on some music, particularly solo piano, it makes the sound very 'clangy'. So, a nice, sweet sounding Steinway with Pulsar Points sounds almost like a Honky-Tonk Saloon style piano with these aluminium dish/ballbearings!!! Remarkable

With the B400s standard soft feet, it was a cross between the soft, and aluminium dish types of isolation, but lacked the definition of the Pulsar Points.



CDRs
Always a thorny issue, this one.
Clive has a HHB CDR930 recorder- a rebadged Pioneer 609 with disabled SCMS and computer CDR compatibility. So a good machine, basically.
These tests were done with Black CDRs.

HDCD recordings (the name of the artists escapes me atm) were chosen, and by the way, the HDCD flag is also carried over to the CDR.

Whats amazing is that the cdr adds a certain 'breathiness' to the voice, as well as adding some treble to such things as cymbals. He said some people who have listened to the recordings have actually preferred the CDR copy to the original. So, CDR copies aren't identical!!!

Sorry for a bit of vague-ness; there was a lot to take in, but I went in with an open mind, and I was quite shocked by the results!!!

Some links:
http://64.4.8.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_l...l.co.uk/acatalog/CDR_By_Mail_Black_CDR_8.html
for Black CDRs

http://64.4.8.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_l..._action=http://www.audioasylum.com/index.html
Ball bearing feet

http://64.4.8.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_l...action=http://www.finallab.com/new_page_1.htm
Layer shelves

 

Good post.........I've done much of these myself with similar results.

You need to use a steel soup spoon bowl [cut the handle off]...much better than ally.

silver is better than copper and single strand is better than multi core, if you bear these in mind when making cables you can make big gains.

 

good post rory!

I guess with these tweaks and such, it's as much to do with personal taste as the equipment itself is!

I find it funny that metal gives a metalic sound, wood sounds woody, and rubber sounds, well, bouncy

At the MOment all my kit is in a tv rack stacked on top of each other

About the cdrs. What bitrate were they done at? Were they straight wav files or mp3s?

 

MO
the cdrs mentioned in this context are just direct copies, recorded from Clive's B400 to his HHB audio cd recorder

Zanash
Clive has seen your post and appreciates your comments, thanks.


To clarify btw, Nordost Pulsar Points are AFAIK made of titanium (which explains things a bit better re: soft/hard isolation) although I'm sure theres loads of stuff on them if you search.

Rory