Need help with system improvements.

Welcome, by the way bof....

No petes not a hifi jesus as you put it but his observations are (IMO) very reasonable ones.

 

His observations are in my opinion utterly unreasonable. What he is suggesting that is that the setup is so compromised that Ian would not hear the benefits of scientifically unproven tweaks and other paranormal audio accesories.

Having heard Ian's systems I can assure you he is totally wrong in this instance - the systems are highly revealing of real differences such as different pressings of vintage LP's and the tonal variables of jazz ensembles. The accusation is totally baseless as far as I can see.

 

Drivers bigger than the tv
I like it

 

Hiya david, could you give me a little more direction please not sure what I am looking for, mana brings up a load of varied stuff, not really related to hifi stands.....diesel generator isolators, pop band, head gaskets....
Please

 

Are you talking Ikea...
can't ever find a quick way out, and que for ages in the card que with cash Oh! they got to be good for me to go there shopping's not really my thing anyway.

I guess I attempt a TNT build first

 

What I find interesting is Ian genuinely does not hear a difference. Ian is probably the most avid and knowledgable music lover on this forum (with the possible exception of Dean and Tones in their specialist fields). None of these real music afficionados have any predeliction towards supports and Tones and Ian are vociferous in their belief that them make zero difference. Both have experimented too - Tones with Mana, Ian with QS and others.

Does this suggest that they are listening for a change in the music and others are listening for a change in sound? I certainly wouldn't go near Mana - one of the most danerous audio religions on the market - and run by a really rather obnoxious individual (although I do think his nickname for this place showed a real turn of wit.)

 

So happy but lacking Boogie Factor, well I have to agree that supports and cables MAY not help regain Boogie factor if it was not there to begin with. But then again, it is a lie to say changing your cables and supports will make sod all difference.

I used to use a standard Apollo rack for a Systemdeck a few years back, and always felt the deck was uninvolving and bland. Putting the Systemdeck on a Mana Reference table changed this for me, and it was not night and day, nor imagined. I will also say that trying different speaker cable may help, changing from long lengths of DNM to Chord certainly helped add some sparkle and life to one of my systems.

I recommend trying a couple of things second hand from eBay, experiment and sell what you don't like.

Any pics of how you have it set up and what cables and supports you have tried?

 

Any one able to post a link to these Flexi stand thingies?

 

Ah OK found it, the TNT Flexy that is !

 

With the greatest of pleasure.






I'm just finishing (4x 12hr) nights shifts......last night tonight

I'll get back to you as soon as I can.




:boogie:

 

http://www.mana.co.uk/

http://www.holdthemusic.co.uk/



...a couple to ahve a decco at.... .

 

You ARE funny......no accusation made!!!!

Its just soem people have a slightly different way of doing things!

I'm sure the system IS highly revealing....but I doubt there is an audio sytem out there that is beyond some form of improvement!



Just out of curisoity, what system do YOU use?

 

David, the accusation was of course not made by you but by the other party as I'm sure you can see.

My system is very uninteresting and dull I'm afraid. I'm sure there are many out there with vastly superior systems to mine simply through attention to setup and I doubt in it's current position that mine could show the differences these tweaks apparently make either.

That's an unfortunate viewpoint that IME leads to constant dissatisfaction and terminal upgraditis. I suspect people's views of "some form of improvement" might vary too

 

Fortunately it isn't...

It sounds fantastic, better than anybody else's home I've been into yet, and I've been into quite a few. Better than 90% of the rooms at the heathrow high-end show last year too.

The only thing I've heard that I rated more highly (and in that instance it was in a converted victorian mill, which is rather a sonic advantage) was the ''living voice'' room I've posted about in the hifi forum.

I would say SM's system (which I heard last night) achieves all of this with crocodile clips and maplins cables, but I don't want to inflame!

 

personally i think that some cables can sound different to each other but the effect is totally system dependent. so saying cable 'a' will have such and such an effect in your system will not necessarily be the case. if you really want to play with cables, learn to solder and go DIY. it's what i did however i now have zero interest in messing with cables as the results of numerous drives to maplins and back have convinced me that if you want to change the sound of your system significantly cables are not the answer (unless you do silly stuff which causes eq effects). i've also played with supports, component damping and mass loading with similar results - yes they are there (but was it psycosomatic?) but hardly worth the effort. the last 'support' experiment i did was some granite chopping boards from argos and some mitchell cones - maily to get my hot hybrids off the carpet but the sound didn;t alter at all.
if you want more boogie then your best bet is to bite the bullet and do some home demoing - either from a friendly dealer or by playing the 2nd hand market game. speakers (and placement) probably have the biggest effect on the sound, then the source then the amps. if your looking at spending 2 - 300 quid on new cables then you're much better off selling your speakers or source adding the cable fund and trying something different.
as a suggestion for improved boogie i'd suggest an older pair of sealed box speakers - these usually don;t do low bass but they do generally tend to bounce along at a fair old pace, you may need to up your amp power (can't remember what amp you have but as long as it's over 50 wpc and you're not trying to fill a barn with loud music you'll be ok). as for source well that's up to you but for cd take a look at the marantz cd7, sim audio moon, bel canto dac's, c.a.l. tube dac or my own personal favourite audio synthesis dac's, add a pioneer stable platter or teac vrds transport / player and you're well away. of course this is all imo and you might prefer somethign different, but the fun is in listening to what's available and building a system that suits your tastes and room. once you have a sound you are happy with then play with the cables - or more likely at that point - spend loads on music and enjoy it.

 

But what equipment are you using.......?

I'm sure its not "very dull and uninteresting" BTW......

............ you've tried a number of different makes + types of equipment ...so you've got a sound that pleases YOU (+ others).



Thats the bit that matters.....





David

 

Maybe!

 

In fact i'll ditch.'em.

Perhats not my finest moment.

 

Cheers

Just had a quick flick, wow they do seem to vary a tad, if I'm not mistaken the Phase 4 Mana reminds me of a pic of your diy stand with various bed materials and bearing iso's in another thread

Cool stuff will have a more indepth read,

 

Also what sort of music you play can make a difference. Has your musical tastes changed since you had your old system. Ballads to me have no boogie.