My Audio Journey

Post your system set-up here.

Moderator: JackD201

My Audio Journey

Postby dimfer » Sun Dec 31, 2006 10:15 am

My Journey

First of all, I am not very good with words ( I usually use my hands with great result) but since I promised Tito to do this, so, here it is.

I grew up a music lover. During my high school years, my father bought this Akai Seville system that started it all for me. It was a very good sounding system, me and my friends spent countless hours listening to AC/DC, Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, Nazareth, etc while consuming our beverage of choice (Ginebra San Miguel, 3 pesos pa per bottle noon). My first lp was a birthday gift from my 2 older sisters (The Rolling Stones - Time Wait for No One). I got hooked into music so bad, I spent most of my allowance buying lps. By the time I reached 4th year high school, the owner of one of the music stores in Balayan, Batangas was letting me take records on gives (piso piso). When I went to Manila to continue my college education, my mother gifted me with a Sanyo cassette player and the illness continued. I remember me and my cousin customizing a speaker box mounted on my bed at the boarding house. It was a hit, naging tambayan ang kwarto namin. The first major purchase after we got married was a Sony mini component. When we migrated to Canada in 1990, I bought a Fisher boombox on my first paycheck. While the boombox helped me cope with homesickness, our attention was focused more on the practical stuff as we were trying to get settled in our new environment. A couple of years later, I advanced (??) to a JVC/Bose AM7 combo. Being a non-audiophile, I proudly owned and enjoyed this system until my basement got flooded in 2005. I got hooked on fitness since 1997, then golf, and while I continued to collect tapes, cds, vhs and dvd movies, my audio illness somewhat took the backseat and did not advance. I also started aqua hobby in 2003 and here I spent most of my spare time and money ( I still do). I participated in Pinoy arowana forum at palhs.com , and this is where I learned about Wiredstate. ... the rest is history.

The woofer box of the Bose AM7 got soaked during the flood and cracked when it dried. It’s time for the Bose to go, I sold it really cheap to one of my staff who is a big Bose fan. The search for replacement speakers began. Being a non-audiophile, I auditioned several mass market sets, Infinity, Bose (again), Energy, Paradigm, Boston Accoustics, KEF, Wharfedale, Paradigm, Sonus Faber and many others. In one of my trips to an audio/video store in Chinatown to rent Pinoy karaoke discs for my wife, my attention was caught by the sound coming from their home theater demo system. It sounded sweet, detailed and just right for my taste. I searched the net for more reviews about this Uniko brand and cannot find anything. I even asked here at WS (with no reply). In one of my other threads, Noel14 pointed out that these speakers are rebadged Aurum Cantus. Search continued and I settled for Uniko Mercury 2 (AC Music Goddess).

As soon as I took the new speakers home, I found out that the 100 watts per channel JVC RX-809V did not have enough power to drive the Mercury 2, it sounded boomy and uncontrolled in the highs.. consequently it had go too (now relegated to my daughter’s bedroom setup).

I searched the local stores and decided to replace my JVC processor with an Arcam AVR 300. Before committing to the AVR300, I demoed similarly priced units ($3K range) like Rotel, Denon, Pioneer, Harman Kardon, Onkyo and some Chinese brands, I think a rebadged Korsun. This sales staff Andrew at Audio Ark that did the Arcam demo is by far the best salesman I have ever dealt with in audio related products. Being so aware that Audio Ark sell the luxury brands and mainly caters to the advanced audiophiles throughout the world, I told Andrew off the bat that I am a newbie and have this much to spend. He was very patient and well informed, and kept on telling me that the AVR300 is the most musical processor in that price range and would have to spend a lot more to better it. To prove his point, he allowed me listen to their luxury systems (ARC, Linn, Meridian). And he was right. Comparison to other brands in other stores yielded the same result. This product is also well reviewed here .


2005/2006

This Arcam AVR 300, Mercury 2 , Pioneer DVD630, and 50" Sony lcd setup provided me with great satisfaction. One feature of the AVR300 that I like the most is it’s ability to assign channels 6 & 7 to bi-amp the front l/r. It can also be setup to disable all digital processing, and with play decent analog performance. Using some cheap $300/pair Chinese brand speaker cables and interconnect, my system sounded really good (for me anyway). Running bi-amped, I think it sounded better than the Rotel - B&W 6 series combo that I have listened to. After 300 hours together, they sounded better and better. I am a bass guy, but the 10" drivers of Mercury 2 made my Yamaha powered sub disposable. Watching dvds in normal to relatively high volume never made me wanting more.

I thought I was set for life.


Backtrack..

My best friend and business associate was diagnosed with lung cancer in May 2004. Prior to his illness, we were together at work and after work, all the time. In the summer, we golf together 3-5 rounds a week, camping, fishing, etc.,during winter, we workout together. During our lunch and coffee breaks work, we usually discuss our experiences, exchange golf tips, plan our next workout routine, and bs with the guys. When he started his treatment, I was left alone in my office most of the time during coffee breaks. This void kind of lured me to participate a little bit more in aquahobby forums like palhs.com, monsterfishkeepers.com and arofanatics.com. But you can only talk so much about fish and aquariums. At this stage also, I have reached the stage that I think I have learned most of what is there to learn, owned some of the most coveted freshwater fish (tigrinus catfish and stingrays) and had accomplished many fish fanatics only dream about - flowerhorn & asian arowana community.

my former flowerhorn community..fighting all day & all night, but somehow managed to breed like crazy
Image

the exotic tigrinus catfish - no recorded captive breeding yet
Image

chilli red asian arowana/motoro stingray/tigrinus setup (taken 2 years ago)
Image

same tank, today
Image

golden crossback/chilli red asian arowana community.
Image

Image

I have also befriended some hardcore Pinoy fishlovers like Johnny Filart & Ernest Ramos. I still love my pets, but now I find myself surfing WS more and more.

Were you ever warned by your mother about relapse? This is exactly what happened to me.. Audio illness is back with a vengeance.

Surfing WS, I always view the awesome setups and was always impressed by the immense knowledge of the regular forumers here about audio hobby. Reading the analog section reminded me of my high school days ... (btw, I left my record and cassette collection with my sister we migrated to Canada in 1990, and most of them were gone when I visited Phils. for the first time in 1997). My friend died last March (2006) and I was really saddened. To console myself and bring myself up again, I resorted to music. Last April was my first step into better audio, I purchased this Oracle Delphi turntable, Sumiko tonearm and Audio Technica cart, a collection of 550 lps and Innersound ESL300 amp. The Oracle was in original form but in good shape when it came in.
Image
Image
The lp collection comprised of artists I usually listen to, from light pop/rock, jazz and classical. The Innersound, although not as popular as ML, Classe & Krell, is very well reviewed and could easily outperform similarly priced products, and few others much more expensive. The very limited space in my current family room makes it quite difficult for me to try new equipments in my system.

Image
Image


Hence, after testing the Oracle for a short time, it (together with the lps) was stored in my office for future use. Since the Arcam AVR 300 allowed me to use external amps, I had a chance to compare the sound of 600 wpc Innersound to biamped AVR300 (100 wpc x 2). While the ESL300 clearly has more power, my system lost some details. After 2 months in my system, I decided to take it out and just live with my AVR300.

Wanting to improve my system, I traded my Mercury 2 speakers & the Innersound ESL300 to Accentus A101.

The Accentus A101SE coated with AVM
Image

Accentus speakers are manufactured by an outfit in Taiwan who recently joined venture with Aurum Cantus (China). While Aurum Cantus are more popular (like the Toyotas), the Accentus (like the Lexus) are geared towards the luxury market, with the top model weighing more than 900 lbs each and costing over US $120k. The lower Accentus models share the same drivers with higher model Aurum Cantus, the crossovers and the cabinets are different. I’d been told by the Canadian importer of Accentus that it takes more than 6 months to build these speakers. There are 23 layers of varnish, each layer has to be applied one week apart. Prior to trading up to these $17k list A101s, I spent countless hours (again) doing demos of similarly priced units including some more than twice it’s price. According to what I had seen, I could say that the fit and finish of Accentus is top notch. Wilson Wattpuppy8 to Maxx, B&W topline, Revels, JM Labs Grand Utopias, Genesis, Meridians, Maggies, Dynaudio McIntosh, and many more - I looked at them, touched them, smelled them and listened to them. Beyond the look, is the sound I like the most, well maybe next to the $34k Grand Accentus. I am not an audiophile and I am not saying that this is the best speakers in the world, but music lovers who have experienced the Accentus magic won’t settle for anything else. While it is still relatively unknown (only 600 pairs in Canada), I have personally listened how Rick Schultz of Virtual Dynamics rave about Grand Accentus, which he owns two pairs and uses them to showcase his multi thousand cables in his showroom. These speakers has unseated some Wilsons & Grand Utopias in some rigs here in our city.

I listened to Domino Cantate in this room
Image

and in this room
Image

While Wadia Krell Maxx Transparent rig sounded great and provably faultless to the many audiophiles in the room (when I took the picture), I still prefer the emotion being brought by the Accentus & ASL combo. Also in the room that night is an audiophile who owns Accentus & Wilsons and other expensive stuff, and he commented that the Accentus has the “nakakakilabot” effect not found in many high end products.

Listening to Norah Jones in this rig, made me realized how good my system is
Image

I felt really good going home after listening to this system
Image

Other than the reviews posted at Accentus website, there is not much feedback to find other than this poorly translated French review by Michael Beerard of Quebec.

Reading through the WS forums, I got really curious about tube amps. Audiogeeks and Boombastigs posts regarding the Trodt products got me interested into buying a pair. Talking to Mang Rod a couple of times, he suggested an 18 wpc integrated amp (845). Consultation to more knowledgeable authorities here made me realize the potential resale problem should I outgrow it.

A pm here a pm there, then here comes ttommy. Being one of the idols here at WS, I was expecting to be snobbed because mga newbie questions talaga. I was pleasantly surprised by how accommodating Tito was. He explained in great lengths and details where I should start, what I should look for and even recommended a couple of products (Viva Sintesi yata, and a Hyperion model). With Tito’s info, I read and read and read.. Then I came across this New Audio Frontiers Integrated 845SE...

Image

at retail of $16k, said to perform 90% like the Kondo Ongaku and a real bargain according to this review. With superlatives like - will make your speakers sing like canaries, veilless, you are there on third row - I am sold. I made a couple of calls to their US importer (Jim Ricketts of tmh Audio) who suggested NAF 25 wpc over the 50 wpc Wavac MD-805M. Although relatively still unknown in the US, Jim assured me that the NAF is well built and will outperform any similarly priced product in the market. Tito said go, so I did.

Expecting to move to our new house in September, I made the purchase in August. Looking at NAF, it looked as pretty as all pictures I’d seen, and it is one heavy (120 lbs) little piece. Since I wanted to make a direct comparison to the ASL Hurricane Flora/Hurricane DT combo, I brought the NAF to Accentus showroom instead of bringing it home. Singing like canaries, check...veilless, check.... you are there, check..but, suddenly the Accentus lost the punch... the drums that sounded like 18" with the ASLs suddenly sounded like 6" tin cans. Did I mention that I am a bass guy? I love weighty, bottom dynamics rich sound. Jim explained to me that 75% of audiophiles are critical of mids and highs and this amp is designed to excel in that, and unfortunately for me, the NAF is designed for that. Oh, I forgot to mention to Jim, I am not an audiophile. Within 2 hours, I decided to pack it and put it up for sale. A lesson learned, charge to experience, ouch!!.

Talking about ttommy

Back to the hunt, I continued exchanging pms with Tito. I think Tito is trying to convert me to an audiophile, you know, the techie one. I am more of a practical guy, you know.. The guy who uses hands and fingers, better than pens and gadgets. But Tito explained to me that at the level I want to play the game, I have to learn the other stuff to eliminate costly errors and so that there is a better direction. Dami pa nyang mga audiophile quality advise, I think I learned more from him in 3 months than my 5 years in college (got a degree in a 4 year course, spent 1 year at the movies). Tito reminded me of my best buddy who was never tired of giving me golf tips (he’s a sandbagged 7, I am 20) in 8 years we golfed together. I sometimes feel guilty because I kept on asking Tito questions, and he kept on sending lengthy responses even during the time he is concentrating on his Cda review. We all know Tito has great writing skills, but when he said “In fact, I know the thought had crossed your mind, I spend a good deal of time communicating with you that could've been used writing the review. BUT I choose to continue our conversation because your learning is equally important to me”.. As my Christmas present, Tito gifted me with Robert Harley’s book , to be my reference. He touched my heart, and gave me no choice but to learn...classy guy eh? I know without Tito, I would have made more mistakes, kaya full trust ako sa kanya ( mahilig din akong magdunung-dunungan sa ibang bagay, but not this time). He is the #1 person in my want to meet list, sana one day, mapasyal sya dito sa bayan namin para ma-critique nya ang rig ko.

This is my temporary setup today. I was content keeping this journey through pms, but he suggested to post it here.

Image

Image

Thanks also to Jeanne for her feedback about the MBLs, and to Abe for his guidance on other techy stuff.. And to Jack & the rest of WS for the inspiration. Suggestions are welcome.

Preamp - MBL 5011 with cd direct option and mc phono option. I chose this preamp because it would allow me to integrate my 2 channel rig with my home theater when we move to the new house. The phonostage is the same as the one installed with their reference 6010 series. It also accommodates bi-amping. Since there is no MBL dealer in our city, I relied from infos provided by Tito and this excellent review by Tito's good friend, Marshall Nack.

Image
Image

Image

Amp - Innersound ESL 300. At 600 wpc 4 ohms, it sounded good but not driving the A101 to exciting level, sounding underpowered and uncontrolled at the bottom, hence I traded it. I did not miss it at all when I parted with it for 2 months. But after it was modified by Ban Hoang, I have to buy it back. Now it sounds much more powerful with firm grip on the two 10" drivers of A101. Not as emotional as the Hurricanes, but very close. While it was away, it was favorably compared by 2 ML owners (336 & 432) in their own system.. The owner of the 336 actually sold his unit after listening to the ESL. This is the best sounding $2k amp in my book right now, and would probably be relegated to bass bi-amping duties should I decide to buy another amp for the mids/highs. I am wishing to try Lamm or Dartezeel, iyon ay kung hindi ako papatayin ng asawa ko ‘pag nalaman ang presyo.

Image

TT - Oracle Delphi, Sumiko tonearm and Audio Technica cart. Old and in original form, but pwede na rin.I will buy something better when I am more comfortable with my system. I will leave this for last.
Image

Cd Player - Currently using a $50 Electrohome, pero bilib na ang mga nakakarining. I bought a used MBL 1511 DAC & 1431 CDP before Christmas, hindi pa dumadating. Prior to this purchase, I was considering Burmester001 because it’s dac can be used with external input, but, with the advise of my sulsultants, I decided to go with MBL. Other products I also considered were the Reimyo CDP 777, a modified Esoteric DV50s, Linn Unidisc, pero lahat sila, walang slot for external input. I am also planning to add a music server like the Transporter, Sonos or the Olive Opus in the future (dahil tamad akong mag-balik ng cds & lps). At least the dac could take several sources.

Image

Cables - wala pa rin, I’ll leave it for later too. Currently using Xindak & Jungson powercables, Quixiang (yata) speaker cables & Uniko & Monstercable Ics. Open for suggestion

Rack - wala pa rin, paglipat na. Open for suggestion. As previously mentioned, I want to integrate my 2 ch & my HT, malamang 3 wide 3 shelf high rack like this Salamander SL Triple 20 ang kunin ko. Nakakatulong din ba ang rack in improving sound quality?

For HT, I am planning to start with this unit from Lumenlab .. Cheap but a killer..

Tito advised to to take my time, so I will. I am also building this aquarium for my arowana community (there goes my budget for Lamm Reference 1.2)

Image

I am also worried doing so many things at the same time might result in too many half assed jobs.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed the journey to this point so far. Feedbacks and recommendations are welcome and appreciated. I will post a review of my system 'pag pina-graduate na ako ni Tito.


shameless plug - sabi ni Tito, mukha na raw audiofool
Image

Image

posted March 30, 2007

time flies... only now I realized it's been three months since I posted the first part of this journey.

btw, thanks to everybody who took the time to read and comment about this crazy journey.

before going any further, I would like to mention that there is much more to the journey that I chose not to post, so that I don't bore everybody with too much details. I have punished ttommy with enough queries, which to my amazement, he willingly and exceptionally answered, the way only ttommy could. At one point, we wondered how much is the limit for text on private messages because our pms were quite long. (I wish everybody in the industry & the hobby are like him because some of my pms here at WS have been ignored, by some of the highly regarded masters) .

Tito suggested that I should consider becoming a dealer of some product lines currently not represented in our market. The entrepreneural part of me suddenly jumped in front of being an audio hobbyist, or more appropriately in my case, a music lover. I sent an e-mail here, an e-mail there, and as Tito suggested, they were quite willing to talk. After my 5011 purchase, I considered getting other MBL products. This led me to Peter Alexander, then to his son David of MBL USA. I've read that there are not too many MBL dealers, the closest being in Vancouver. With the intent of getting a really good deal in a pair of the new 8011 monoblocks, I introduced myself as a newbie but willing to learn, and hinted about selling MBL part time. What surprised me was David's willingness to talk to me. He invited me to come to their main showroom in Arizona, then join them in CES 2007 and promised to come to our city to help set me up in February. After careful consideration, I informed David that I'll be putting the idea off for now. While David's offer is quite exciting, I realized that MBL is too big for me right now. As Tito puts it, MBL customers won't settle for anything else, but they all have been there, done that. Being a newbie on my part, could hurt the product line as well. The other factor that influenced me to scrap the idea was timing - I decided to go deeper into this audio thing too late. With the intent of doing it as home based part time business, dapat may dedicated audio room di ba? Well, in my new home (bought in 2005 with the intent of living on it 'till we retire), I have a fishroom but no audio room.

Still toying with the idea of selling MBLs from my basement one day, I decided to put my MBL stuff (pre, dac, cdp) up for sale at A'gon last month, just to have an idea how the market reacts to the brand. I also tried to sell it to local audiophiles. One lesson I learned, hindi lang pala Pinoy ang barat. I was reminded of one of Tito's warnings "in audio, if you want to end up a millionaire, start with a billion".

I purchased a used MBL 1511 DAC and MBL CDP1 combo from an MBL dealer in Toronto. It came in just days after I started this thread, but as you can see here, I'd been too busy to write an update
Image

the seller described the units as four years old, but when they came in, I realized they were much older than that. I was ready to raise hell but decided to hook them up first. Man, did it ever sound much better than the $50 cdp it replaced :roll: (dapat lang). While the DAC is missing a cosmetic part in the front panel, I cannot complain much about it's performance. Even my wife who is the exact opposite of an audiophile (is there a term for it?) notices some details that we never heard before.
Image

partially shown in the picture above is Slim Devices Squeezebox, also hooked to the 1511 DAC.

Back in January, I had an opporunity to buy a pair of modified ASL Hurricanes. Since we have not moved to our new house yet, the ASL is still sitting somewhere in the back of my office, patiently waiting for his turn to sing with the rest of my system. Although I have always been impressed with the synergy between the Hurricane & my A101 speakers, my ESL300 is doing well enough job to keep me happy (to a certain degree) and not have the urgency to change anything. I got this pair at a really good deal when a local audiophile ran out of room in his audio room. This guy is also a big ASL fan, but decided to go all out with Halcro pre & amp, EMM Labs front end, JM Labs Grand Utopia speakers, and all Valhalla cables. When I asked his opinion about the performance of Chinese made electronics/speakers - he replied "call me whatever you like, with all the money I spent on upgrade, my system improved not by much". He's also a big fan of Accentus speakers, owned 3 pairs. He explained to me in audiophile terms how Accentus benefited from sending an engineer to Canada during the design process of the crossover, (pinag-aralan pa raw ang air density etc) well of course, hindi ko na naintindihan yung iba pa, techie na yun eh. He told me "the problem with many audiophiles, me included, is looking past brand names & tag price when making a truthful evaluation of the products". This comment, coming from a guy who had seen it all, heard it all and (maybe) can buy it all, should make the peddlers of Chinese made products very proud.

He also recommended the Monster Power HTPS 7000 Signature Series power conditioner. Well, knowing that he owns 3 of them and the fact that he had previously owned other big names such as Hydra 8, RGPC & the best PS Audio products available, I got myself a brand spanking new one last February. John said he had recommended this product to many of his audiophile friends, and none of them had blamed him for making a wrong purchase so far.

Image

I think the power conditioner made a big improvement in the performance of my system without any noticeable sacrifice. I have lot's of power source pollutants at home (aquarium pump and aerators). The other improvement that I like in having the HTPS7000 is convenience, now I only have to press one button to turn on/off my entire system, with sequential delay pa :wink: . The outlet for the main amps are programmed to keep it on all the time. The other feature I also like is having balanced power on some outlets, which I used for the main amp. Tito teased me "pag naglalaro na daw sa power supply, dapat inaalis na ang newbie sa nickname"..

Not too long ago, I decided to take the turntable apart and replaced the belt. It is working fine now and playing beautiful music the way it should.
Image

Not much has changed with my cables, the last addition is this secret brand balanced interconnect used in between the pre & the amp. How good is it - before I picked it up, it was directly compared to a pair of $1k Purist cables , beat the Purist in every aspect, according to the Purist owner himself.

Image


If this is about my arowana journey, mas marami pang twists and turns. My 1200 gallon setup is proving to be a very ambitious one. The glass installers kept on cancelling on me, fearing liability claims..haah sakit sa ulo. Well at least, somebody is fully committed to do it for me now (provided I sign a waiver). The past 2 weeks, I had been busy with something I am more comfortable with, I decided to do the construction of the fishroom myself, with the help of some friends and my wife. While we encountered a number of snags due to luck of experience, I think we did very well. My wife did an awesome job painting the room and installing the vinyl tiles.

taken during the early stage of construction - drywall stage
Image
Image
reverse angle
Image

audio setup would be here
Image

tank move last Friday
Image
tsibugan after the buhatan
Image

17 guys helped me move the 10 ft aquarium & stand. The almost waist deep snow in the backyard provided a stiff challenge. Thanks God, everything went well. Just waiting for the glass to be installed now.


In case you guys are wondering kung ano ang nakain ko at bigla na lang akong nagpost ulit under this thread - I am now confined at home, after numerous bouts with kidney stone blockage in the past few days (won't wish this to my worst enemy), and undergoing lithoripsy yesterday. In short, this post is being typed under the influence of heavy sedation :twisted:

after a long, cold and miserable winter, spring has sprung.. have a good day fellas.
Image

posted August 6, 2007

I finally finished my aquarium cabinet and was able to arrange my stuff.

My wife had suggested many times to hire a finishing carpenter to do this part, but the d-i-yer in me prevailed (with the undertanding that we will have it professionally done if she didn't like the appearance of my work). She did not say much about this, but she didn't ask me to take it apart either, so, I guess pasang awa :oops:

I am very proud of how my big tank project came out.

I had also been busy curing some nasty bacterial infections in my arowanas the past 3 weeks. Now, everybody seems to be doing fine, and the water is slowly clearing up again. (ok, enough fish talk)
Image

a close look
Image
my temporary setup. still waiting for the stand. amps will change soon. cables will change. furnitures will also change, naghihintay pa na lumipat sa kanilang apartment ang pagbibigyan (newly arrived sister-in-law & her family) kasi nanghihinayang kaming ipamigay sa iba.

nakatambak pa rin sa sahig :oops:

Image


Image

Image

Image

with so much going on, I must admit, hindi pa rin tapos basahin ang book on the left side :evil: sorry Tito... I'll get to it bago matapos ang taon

Image

well, actually, I think I'll be reading the book right away because the room is introducing some distortions, I think it is from astray reflections. room treatments maybe, or something like Copland digital room corrector or maybe a change in speakers, something that would adapt to the environment more easily :twisted: :twisted: (btw, does this thing come in red?)

view from behind the speaker. irregular room shape
Image

view from the hallway, away from the setup
Image

ahhh, I think the turntable will go too... I've read that Oracles are quite hard to fine tune - my MBL fronts are performing much better than it right now...syempre, gusto ko ring maka-experience ng full bloom analog glory gaya ng karamihan dito :wink: .

A highly modified ASL Hurricane was inserted late August 2007
Image

posted September 24, 2007

The Crazy Journey Continues 8)

The thread Ten Biggest Lies In Audio came at the best timing for me. The thread started right after I paid a downpayment for my cable upgrade - Virtual Dynamics Nite series where I am getting 5 power cables, 1 XLR interconnects, 2 RCA interconnects, 1 digital interconnect, 1 pair of bi-wire speaker cables. Needless to say, it is a substantial investment (for me anyway). And most of all - I don't want to be the gullible, uninformed and idiot who fell for the tricks and salestalk in the end. Part of my job was spending money, friendly suppliers don't call me "Fernando the Filipino Jew" for nothing. Component selection in my system was always influenced by value and performance for the $$$.

The discussion was very informative, and I spent most of my short vacation searching previous discussions on related matters, and verifying stuff. Being a newbie and uninformed for the most part, my biggest disadvantage is - I don't have actual audio big brothers here, mga actual na tanungan at mga kaladkarin sa audition. Pero meron namang mga trusted WS sulsultants na nagtatyagang sumagot sa mga tanong ko.

I went ahead with my order because VD has a 45 day auditory bliss guarrantee - the most I could lose is the $30 freight sending the cables back to the manufacturer. That is, kung talaga ngang waste of money lang ang expensive cables, as Tony said.

Before I placed the order, I thought I did my homework, read reviews & stuff, only to find out mga itim pala ang sombrero nila :twisted: . I had an opportunity to audition a system fully cabled with the top of the line model - the VD Genesis on a system with similar components to mine. I compared the performance of this rig, with a much more expensive and professionally setup rig (over $250k) and actually liked the performance of the rig with the VD cables better. I thought cables were a big factor, hence I proceeded with the brand. Even with my limited exposure with the hi-fi stuff, I had listened to systems cabled with Transparent, NBS, Cardas, MIT, PS Audio, Analysis Plus, Xindak, Actinote, Choseal atbp.

Before I placed my order, I also spent at least 2 hours on the phone with Rick Schultz, asking all sorts of stuff. I made a trip to VD plant to ask more questions, and hoped that somebody there could show me the full potential of their product. Too bad Rick had to leave for a holiday in Hawaii (mukhang hindi naghihirap ang cable maker na ito ah) the day na available ako to make the roadtrip. The guy who entertained us did not know much, but nevertheless, their system (Wadia front, all Nite cables, Green Mountain Audio Calypso speakers and a pair of no name European amps, North something something) really impressed me and my companion. Their demo system was in a 5000 square feet wide open office, but it played loud and the instruments were still well separated in their own space in the soundstage from the listening position. According to my friend (not into audio) he could imagine the pianist moving his body and fingers because he could actually hear the shifting of the sound in the soundstage. In the end, sabi pa nya, "I think I'll buy the VD cheapest line too for my system (Harman Kardon/JBL)".

Abderrahim toured us in their production department and showed us how their stuff were done. I was actually expecting to see sophisticated stuff/equipments, and was a little bit disappointed to see very basic equipments that would only equal stuff of most of hobbyists here. But what impressed me was the amount of work that goes into making the cables. I said to myself, even if I only paid myself $30 per hour, baka mas mahal pa ang aabutin ng cable ko kung ako ang gagawa. I took some pictures, but unfortunately, I didn't know until a few days ago that my daughter erased them all from the camera, so sorry na lang tayo.

When Rick returned from Hawaii, he invited me back to his shop. That Friday, Allan, a good golf buddy of mine suddenly showed up in my office. It was his day off and he was asking me if I could sneak out to golf with him. Instead, I asked him to come with me to Barrhead. We had a hearty lunch at a nearby Filipino restaurant and started the 1.5 hour drive right after. This is one of the guys whom I used to golf 80 rounds a summer with (in addition to our trips to Phoenix and other warmer spots in the winter), and we could literally bullshit all day. The 3 hour total driving time is not much, but we'll make the stories fit.

Rick started the meeting with the explanation of the philosophies he follows in designing his products, and what he wants to achieve in having good cables in the system. Marami, mahaba ang usapang ito. I think I mentioned before that I am not a techie guy, information overload kaagad ako. Basta, ang natatandaan ko lang :

he uses single strand wire because he believes that each strand in multi-strand cables have different resistance, therefore, they will never be as linear/fast as single strand

Cuolomb's friction is not present at the beginning of the cable run, but is there at the end.

the faster the better (disagree dito ang asawa natin) kaya believer din sya dun sa super fast na dac ng Wadia

the speakers are designed to process certain amount of info per microsecond, and it cannot tell if it's actually music or noise, so, it is really important to remove the noise

no two cables sound the same, and not all changes equates to improvement


In short, clean and fast ang goal nya. Well, alam ko alam nyo na lahat 'yan, so I won't waste your time with more techie stuff.

Rick also shared his ups and downs in life (with matching iyakan pa) and how his passion for audio gave him direction in life. He is a devout Catholic now ( Tito warned me about this) and he told us in detail why and how he became one.

After we got past the techie and personal stuff, Rick tried to convert me into an audiophile. He gave me some tips on what to listen for when evaluating equipments. He then introduced us to his demo rig

Wadia 581i cd player
Wadia Series 9 Decoding Computer
Luminance KST150
Green Mountain Audio Calypso speakers
some Nite cables
some other cables I don't recognize/remember
and this grandmother of all ICs :twisted:

Image

Image

He calls this IC the "Judge Series" but will likely not be included in his product offering because it costs more money to make that what he sells Genesis Series ICs for. Rick said he made it only to prove to his friends at Wadia that he could improve on what Wadia designers called "the perfect interconnect for Wadia components". And of course, Rick claims that Wadia had admitted that the Judge is way better than their IC.

He then introduced us to Luminance KST150, an amp he co-designed with Steve Keiser (the K in the former BK) and Mike Tseng. The demo unit is a highly modified one, with no fuse and using a magnet instead, input of 4 v (I don't know what and why it matters) and selling for well over $15k. After a brief introduction in the design philosophies of the KST150 (why slew rate of 250v per microsecond is better). He played some vocal music (which I don't recognize), some guitar music, hindi ko rin kilala, and another piece of instrumental recording with upright bass - and here he claimed that I might never see/hear another system combination regardless of pricerange that could play this music with such accuracy. It sounds good, but I am not audiophile enough to verify his claim. The system played loud, really loud that you can almost not hear the telephone ringing. Rick said it should read well over 100 db - and told us to expect the amp to literally go on fire anytime. It didn't, but my ears are ringing now.

Rick then invited us to his house to listen to his reference system. It was past 6 pm, my stomach was churning and Rick's wife's cooking smelled really good, I found it hard to concentrate on what Rick was talking about. I was surprised how big the CAT JL2 Signatures are. Of course, it was fully cabled with the Genesis Series.

mainit na ba?

Image

Image

intimidating looking cables

Image

Image

and the big brother of my speakers, the Grand Accentus. Note how big the aluminum tweeters are, plus the super tweeter on top of it.

Image

Image

and the source

Teres table, sorry, I was so hungry already and was thinking of the other table (the one in the dining room) kaya hindi ko n nakunan ng picture yung carts/tonearm. I know CAT din amp pre-amp nya

Image

Image

When Rick took out an LP, biglang napatawa yung kasama ko, nahalata tuloy ignorante sa audio. And he blurted to Rick " you guys are still using that, that's so long ago". Sarap batukan, but since we've been with Rick for 4 hours na, medyo buddy buddy na ang dating. When the first track from Ray Charles' album started playing, Allan was stymied. It sounded big and I swear, Ray Charles is in the room. Recalling the sound of my system while sitting in the sweet spot, parang lumiit yung sa akin.

We then drifted to the basement and were able to see some busted equipments, one of them is this pair of Ascendo, the woofer was totally shut by the prototype big brother of KST150 (might be in production soon competing in the $40k pair price range).

Image

I asked Rick why he chose an Asian made Accentus for his own reference system, when according to him, he is friends with a lot of importers and manufacturers in the hi-fi industry. He explained that while it is easy to find the faults and shortcomings of the product, it has one of the best finish he had ever seen, and when he first heard them while demoing his Revelation cable (top of the line at the time) at the shop of the Accentus dealer, he sat there for two hours in disbelief how this combination of Chinese/Taiwanese products (Cayin CDT17A, Ali tube integrated amp & Grand Accentus) costing only a fraction of his $250k system at home is so much more musical. Right then and there, bought an exact same set.

So there you go, Accentus is musical, but not accurate.

I also asked him why I don't see any bass traps/deflector in both setups that he showed me. He told me that he has nothing against traps and so, but for him, the resonators are good enough to make the walls disappear. The resonators are those tiny tweaks that VD sells at their website. It also surprised me how small they are, maybe 1 cm diameter and the base is only 1.5" x 1.5" at the most. He warned me not to use it until I really know what I am doing.

Rick is also a big fan of the Quicksilver contact enhancer, he gifted me a package. I have not used it in my system yet, again, I cannot report on the improvements.

By around 8 pm, Rick and his wife were insisting that we have dinner with them, but my friends' wife had called him at least 5 times already, the weather was turning sour and I didn't want to be caught driving the next 1.5 hours with rain and gusting wind, so, we begged off and left.

A couple of nights ago, the friend who was with me on my first trip to VD came by to our house with his wife. When they saw my audio setup, the wife kept on making comments about how big my cables are, para na daw sa Meralco. My wife who was watching us made this "irap gesture" and said "mahal yan, libo ang isa at may papunta-punta pa sa pagawaan yang mga yan, tapos sasabihin mura lang ang kuha ko dyan, hmmp" nagkatinginan lang kami nung kaibigan ko, sabay kamot sa ulo..ooops, bistado pala.

As of this writing, I have received and installed 5 powercables and 1 rca IC into my system (MBL/MBL/MBL/ASL Hurricane/ Accentus A101).

And no, they're not going to get returned :wink:

posted January 01, 2008

As we were driving home from the mall last night, my wife complained that she thinks the earth is travelling faster than it used to. She said that 2007 seems to have blasted past us. The best way I could respond to such banter was "because we were enjoying life, you know how time seems to fly when you're having fun". But really, 2007 is such a fun year. I had been terribly busy lately because our company is in the heating industry, and the colder months (ber months) are our busiest, peaking just before the Christmas break. It also didn't help that we are also involved in retail, and hosting visitors from Vancouver & Manila. But hey I am not complaining. Somehow, I still managed to peak to WS and some fish forums (I guess I was not that busy :roll: ). Today, December 31, 2007 - I realized that I started this thread exactly and year ago.

As mentioned in the beginning of this thread, I am into aquahobby. I think I have accomplished most of my goals as an aquahobbyist. Right now, I have no urge to buy any more fish, I am enjoying the hobby with what I already have (I am hoping to reach this stage in audio hobby sooner than later). My ultimate goal is to successfully breed asian arowanas, a feat that still not claimed by any Filipino in the hobby. I can go on and on about fish, but I will not punish WS readers with that, hence I documented my Aqua Hobby Journey at Monsterfishkeepers.com. You can also read about it in Oct, Nov & Dec issues of Manila Bulletin's Animal Scene.

Like everybody else here it WS, my system went through a lot of changes this year, which I certainly hope is for the better. My ultimate goal is to have a system that will allow me to enjoy music the best way I could, without getting divorced by my wife because I spent all my earnings on it. I am not rich by any stretch of imagination, and I have to work hard and do a lot of sacrifices to be where I am today.

I started with this system, which stayed with me until the middle of the year.

Image

MBL5011 pre-amp, Innersound ESL300 amps, Oracle Delphi TT Mk2 w/ AT OC9 & Sumiko FT3, mixed bag of cables, cheap cheap cdp & Accentus A101 speakers.

I added the MBL 1511 DAC, MBL CD-1 (used as transport), then we moved to another house, the Nite Series 3.0 cables were added. When I installed the Nite cables, I replaced the Innersound with the ASL Hurricanes which had been sitting in my office since January. I sold the Oracle Delphi Mk2 because I was disappointed with it's performance. All the fascination about Garrards here got me intrigued, so I picked up the best Garrard I could find locally (wish it was a 301), a relatively good condition Lab 80 Mk2 which came with Shure MM44-7 cart. Because my MBL has an MC phono, I replaced it with a Dynavector 10x5.

Image

Image



I also enjoy doing a little bit of carpentry work (not very good with it, but I always try, pwede namang itapon kung pangit ang resulta). My goal was to build a stand that will not degrade the performance of my system, and one that's not hard to look at. My design considerations - mass, non resonant and cheap. Rick Schultz (VD) discussed in lengths the benefit of using brass in draining mechanical and electrical vibrations, he replaced the screws, nuts and bolts in his entire system with brass ones. Pretending that I learned from him, I included brass in designing my stand. I originally wanted to do a wooden bottom with acrylic top shelf (1.5" thick retaso from my aquarium project), but the guy who would glue all the acrylic pieces together lost one big piece in his shop, so, I had to change my plan. Since I had already finished the bottom (base) part, my wife suggested to just go with all wood. I remembered reading Ken Shindo's finding that gluing several plywood to arrive at desired thickness yields better result than going with one heavy/thick of solid wood, I bought a sheet of 1" plywood, cut the sheet up and glued them together with the help of my wife. 2.5" woods screws were also used to make sure there is consistent pressure throughout the piece. To finish it off, I added a layer of Brazilian Cherry (Jatoba) hardwood on top, and cedar wood trim all around. Seven layers of acrylic diamond coat were done on all cedar components, applying in the morning before I go to work and in the evening before I go to bed.

the base - made of 4x4 solid cedar. I love the color.

Image


the feet - I used a lathe machine for the first time to make these pieces. Four hours and a lot of swear words later, I got the six bottom feet done.
Image

the top

Image

I complained to a few trusted sulsultants here about the voice sibilants in the system, most obvious in Diana Krall and other female vocal cds. I was convinced that the room was screwing the sound. I got the perfect recipe for disaster - uneven room, lot's of glass, setup in the long wall etc. I was seriously considering bass traps and other room treatments, but my wife was not really excited about the idea. One thing came to mind - the Copland DRC 205. The dealer of my speakers speaks very highly of this product, in fact almost all of the local Grand Accentus owners have it in their system. A lengthy conversation with the Canadian Copland importer Tash Goka got me convinced. I was ready to make the order with Tash, but I remembered that a local friend installed it in his system about a month ago. A month ago, hmm, it must be for sale now. Alas, I phoned this guy and asked for his opinion on the DRC 205. He was ecstatic about it, and asked "are you considering to buy one?" He offered his unit to me at a deep discount because he just replaced his ASL Flora with the VTL 7.5 Ver 2 preamp and the DRC 205 doesn't work very well with the VTL. I ended up buying the DCR 205, the ASL Flora and a Monster Power unit (that everybody here has probably read about).

The ASL Flora is a preamp that has impressed me since I first listened to it. It was a collaboration between Tash Goka and the designers at ASL, based on the design of the very expensive Wavac PR-T1. Right after I recieved my MBL 5011, we did an A/B comparison with the Flora at the Accentus sound room . At that time, I liked the Flora better, but I was too proud to admit that a $3k Chinese gear outperformed a well known $12k German product. I made Tito aware of this observation, I assumed that I am not audiophile enough yet to make the right assessment. After that, it has been reported that some European audiophiles did an A/B between the Wavac and the ASL at the Wavac dealer's room and the consensus was the Flora sounded better. Although not much information can be found about this product on the net, Wayne Donnelly raved about it on this review, Teajay of audiogon also gave it an excellent review.

The previous owner took the DRC 205 and the Flora out of this system. In 2007, this system had seen at least 7 preamps , and at least 3 digital sources, and a full cable makeover. Now it consists of Grand Utopia with diamond tweeters, VTL 7.5 Ver 2, Halcro DM58, Nordost Valhalla & Shunyata cables, Burmester power center, Esoteric P01,Esoteric G-ORb Master Clock Generator and Esoteric D-01. It has actually seen the Flora twice, first the stock unit which was replaced by a Halcro, within weeks, he found the Halcro too sterile, replaced the Halcro with the EMMlabs, then repurchased a Flora & upgraded with Mundorf capacitors and 1950's Telefunken NOS tubes. He was decided to live with the Flora for a long time, but like a true audiopool, he decided to switch to the VTL after listening to it at the RMAF. He said the upgraded Flora is at least 97% as good as the VTL. Why do I mention it? Because I think it say's something about the performance of the cheap Chinese products.

My current system now consist of:

Accentus A101
ASL Hurricane with Valve Art KT88s & Raytheon black base 6SN7
ASL Flora EX DT with Mundorf capacitors and 1950s Telefunken 6SN7
Virtual Dynamics 3.0 power cables
Virtual Dynamics 3.0 RCA ICs
Virtual Dynamics 3.0 XLR IC
Virtual Dynamics 3.0 bi-wire speaker cables
Xindak power cord (because I ran out of VD)
Monster Power HTPS 7000 Signature Series
MBL 1511 DAC
MBL CD-1
Slim Devices Squeezebox (hooked to the 1511 via Uniko digital IC)
Dedicated 15amp line

We did our annual family photoshoot in our house yesterday and our entire house was in total disarray, but I somehow managed to ask my "bilas" Sherwin to take some pictures.

So here they are:

from listening position. The speakers favor aggressive toe-in.

Image

180 lbs speaker & 220 lbs tube newbie :oops:

Image

behind the sweet spot

Image

cables

Image

back

Image

pogi 8)

Image

the stand

Image

analog section currently out of commission

Image

recent software acquisitions

Image

the thinker

Image

the photographer. you can find his other works here (winter ,spring, fireworks)

Image

left front - pwede na ba ang finish ng stand?

Image

ASL Flora DT EX & ASL Hurricane DT. I think Abe is right on when he suggested to me that matching between same brand components is important.

Image

A year has passed but not added to the popularity of Accentus speakers in the international audiophile community. It has been proven that these speakers favor tube electronics, with ASL Hurricane and Cadenza driving them better than the highly respected JRDG 301 monos. Except for a
review here and there, this products remains unknown. The Canadian dealer said the makers of Tenor amps really liked it at the previous Hi Fi Show in Montreal and suggested to have them bi-amped with the new Tenor 350 in next year's show. Maybe things will change. Tito warned me about the possible challenge in selling when I outgrow it, and I think he has a valid point.

Image


The Canadian importer and North American distributor has put the brand in the back burner as he is making more money selling the AVM, another product relatively unpopular but liked a lot by those who believed in them. While a respected DIYer here at WS suggested to me that AVM is more appropriate to be applied to Voca products, successful businessmen in the industry like Rick Schultz (Virtual Dynamics), Tash Goka (Divergent) and Winston Ma (FIM Music) are big believers.

The addition of the DRC 205 has solved much of my problems and has elevated the performance of my system quite a bit, especially in bass dynamics. It has a defeat setting to let you compare the performance of your system with and without it with a push of a button.

In as much as I am nervous about posting a system review, I promise to do that after I return home from CES 2008.

Hopefully I could make a decision there if I should pursue digital or analog happiness. The MBL 1511 and CD-1 sounded better than the Garrard Lab 80/DV10x5 hooked to MBL MC phono, but hey, it's no 301/103.

The Nova Physics Memory Player is one piece of equipment I am most interested with, I have corresponded with Mark Porzilli and will probably check out the Laufer Teknik booth.

Image
also taken last night

posted July 13, 2008

My audio vocabulary has not improved during the past couple of years or so, but I am doing this obligatory observation of my system's performance to make a note to myself of what I liked and disliked about my system. I still struggle in finding the correct terms to describe the sound, how I wish it is like aquahobby, where I could just grab my camera and take pictures to share my observations. How wish I am JackD or Ttommy, who could precisely describe something intangible to it's smallest grain. Well, I guess I am paying back for all the hours I spent at the movie houses in CM Recto, instead of listening to english teacher Mr. Agustin (UST circa 80's) lecture about elliptical sentences and so on. I am not much of a book reader, while I have revisited Robert Harley's book a number of times to read on specific topics, I still cannot claim that I've read it cover to cover. Nevertheless, my teacher handed me my diploma not too long ago.

Tito once gave me a tip - if you want an audiophile to be honest - ask him about the weaknesses of his system. This is where I'll start. Since the speakers were the first components I purchased in this system, we will assume that I built my system around the speakers. My biggest gripe about my A101 is it's lack of the ultimate punch with most amps that I hooked into it. Designed and rated at 28 hz continious, it gives ample bass. Rated at 92 db, they should be relatively easy to drive, right. I have previously discussed how the 25 watt New Audio Frontier 845 SET struggled with these speakers. The Innersound ESL 300 is rated at 600 wpc @ 4 ohms, it was designed to drive electrostats and if you would read it's whitepaper, it should have no problem with the A101. While it's damping factor of 1000@4 ohms did a wonderful job of controlling the two 10" drivers, sometimes I felt it sounded lean. With the ASL Hurricane (with the Raytheon driver tube upgrade for better bass daw), it does ok for the most part, especially when running at pentode (200 wpc) - but since I prefer to run it at triode (100 wpc) - kung minsan bitin pa rin. Ban, the Accentus importer, said it sounded really good when he listened to my system. With the top of the line Jeff Rowland 301, it sounded really good and very detailed, with Mark Levinson 432, medyo ok din. The only amp that I heard where I thought it made a bass impact that I really liked is when I heard it driven by the 250 watt class A Dussun V8i. While it sounded a litlle bit grainy and less musical with the Dussun, this integrated amp grabbed the speaker drivers by the neck and wiggled it around like a rag doll. Listening to the bass drums kicking in in the live version of Hotel California (Hell Freezes Over), it gave an extended, impactful sound that you can feel in the leather listening chair in a rather large listening room. It demonstrated how solidly the 180 pounds towers were built, no hint of coloration and distortion whatsoever. It made me wonder how these speakers would behave if driven by a MF Tri-Vista KW monobloc, or bi-amped Hurricane. Both ideas I never pursued.

The only excuse Ban could give me why these speakers require so much power is maybe because this model has too many drivers, 2 - 10" woofers, 2 - large aluminum tweeter and two mid-drivers. Or maybe it was just me. The main difference between Accentus and the more popular sister product Aurum Cantus is the extensive use of AVM in Accentus. It is claimed that Ban and the designers at Tsan's Audio spent a considerable amount of time comparing the AVM coated Accentus with other products and the main advantage of Accentus is coherence and layering, brought about by the elimination of unwanted resonances and distortions introduced by vibration. They covered all the back parts of the tweeters, mid & bass drivers, crossover, internal wiring and solder points and the entire interior wall of the speaker cabinet. I suspect that the ultimate sacrifice is somewhat over-damping of the bass - this I never verified scientifically. Made as statement product of a company that designs and manufacture speakers for well known companies, the higher models of this brand are hard to come by. I gave up hoping that this particular brand will be popular one day. They are manufactured in small quantities, the most recent batch of Grand Accentus were scooped by a small group of Taiwanese and Chinese audiophiles in Vancouver even before they reached the Canadian shore. It is also becoming an end of the road product, as they are very hard to sell used, mainly due to lack of review and promotional coverage.

The mids produce a very neutral sound in my opinion. Rick Schultz (another Accentus fan) described it as better than most. I cannot find any fault or shortcoming in this speaker's ability in this department. The aluminum tweeters used in the A101 can also be found in very few much more expensive speakers, like the VR-9 & VR-11, or the the Evolution Acoustics MMthree. Like the VS speakers, the A101 has two per side. Tito once explained to me that the rear facing tweeters helps to make the speaker sound more cohesive and more three dimensional. Not as resolving and detailed as the Acuton drivers, but you won't notice anything misssing unless you listen to one after the other. It seems that the designers realized that it would be harder for their products to please customers if so much power is required to make their speakers sing with it's true potential, they redesigned the new higher models. The new Grand Accentus has one 12" bass driver, two 8.5" mid drivers and one three layer aluminum super tweeter (currently used only in Accentus speakers), the rear tweeter was eliminated and uses a new crossover. They are now 8 ohms, much easier to drive. It is also claimed that the designers sought the help of the lead conductor of the Taiwanese Symphony Orchestra during the final stage of the speaker design to have the sound quality verified and tuned to actual live performances and real individual instruments.

When I was still using the MBL 5011 pre-amp and the Innersound ESL 300, it sounded really good for the most part, but there were some recordings where the highs would sound aggressive and steely, with sibilants on some vocals (Diana Krall & Russel Watson). When the ESL was replaced by the ASL Hurricane, the system sounded warmer and more detailed and the bass became more prominent. Even my father-in-law noticed the difference. When I replaced the MBL 5011 with the ASL Flora EX DT, the system started to sing - much better than it ever did before. The 5011 is more detailed than the Flora, but the Flora brought more naturalness with the rendering of the musical event. Here's a part of Wayne Donnelly's review - and I fully agree

"I caught a brief glimpse of even more impressive performance by trying a pair of NOS Mullard ECC-32s. Those are getting rare, as reflected in their $450/each price. They are oversized compared to the standard 6SN7, and the top plate of the enclosure must be left off when using them. That's not much of a problem with the Flora, as the dangerous-to-touch elements are well isolated from where fingers can reach. As those tubes burned in, I was stunned by the Flora's reproduction of harmonics, and most especially with the vibrancy and immediacy of vocals. I had never before heard quite such a degree of "you are there"-ness, not even with my five-times-more-expensive VTL preamp. Unfortunately, only a few days after the Mullards burned in completely, one of them died. I went back to the Sylvanias for the rest of the review process — which, as I suggested above, was no great hardship. Still, I keep remembering the sound with those big Mullards..."

My Flora has the same Mullard tubes plus the Mundorf capacitor upgrade. I spoke with the previous owner of this pre-amp last week, he confessed that he regret letting go of the Flora in favor of the VTL 7.5 Ver 2 because after living with the VTL (now partnered with the Zigfried) for six months, he realized he did not gain much.

Regarding the Hurricane, HP wrote
"If you will consider the ambience retrieval and the embodiment of the voice as basic building blocks, then perhaps you’ll divine the sonic implications. The retrieval of elusive ambient cues is part of this amplifier’s ability to reach well down into the softest part of the recorded range and extract information I didn’t know was there. And the reason I didn’t, I think, is because the Hurricane, maybe alone among amps, can reproduce low-level cues with full fidelity. Meaning? Most basic amplifiers don’t reproduce low-level information with the harmonic structure of that information intact. Maybe the basic “tone” gets through, but the full overtone structure generally does not."

While it did not exactly produce the best low level performance that I thought I ever heard, it is a good, pardon me, excellent performer -considering it's price. I did not find the Hurricane tubey and euphonic at all.

I am 100% positive that the addition of the VD Nite 3.0 cables did not hurt the performance of this system, but I must confess that I cannot pinpoint an improvement brought about by this upgrade. Rick Schultz said well built cables will allow your system to play louder without hurting your ears because you only hear the music, without the noise. I will also confess that I noticed a more significant improvement after I inserted my DIY stand - my first reaction was "wow, bakit biglang nag-iba ang focus ng soundstage". I also had similar improvements after I applied AVM to the 6SN7's of the Hurricane and the internal parts of the cd player and the DAC. The midbass became tighter, more dynamic and detailed.

I consider myself very lucky finding the MBL 1511 DAC and MBL CD1 (used as transport) as they are true performers. It may not be at par with the best turntable in terms of detail and being delicate, but it does not make me want more. Well, a better transport maybe. In all honesty, this combo outperformed my former TT, the Oracle Delphi by a wide margin. I feel very fortunate to listen to the best and respected names in analog audio out there (Statement, Acutus, Raven AC, Continuum Caliburn, 301,401, TD124 and others) but has decided to stay not fully committed to analog. Maybe, when I grow up... in the meantime, I am still keeping my 600 or so lps para kunwari audiophile.

My cd collection has not grown by much either. The past year has brought and the months to come will bring challenges to our company, whose result will determine our future. I lived happily with what I have - in hardware and software. There were months that I did not spend any penny audio and music related.I will be making a sweeping change in my system, hoping that it will reflect my growth as a student of audio hobby and eventually be able to grow as a music lover as well. As I go deeper into the hobby, I notice that my musical taste changed. Not exactly a young pup at 44, I find myself listening to AC/DC and the likes less and less, and while I still tolerate top 40 music, I find myself more drawn into jazz and the like - now Tony Bennett and Ray Charles are significant artists. I grew up thinking that jazz is for sissies, call me a sissy now if you may.

I made the decision to replace the MBL 5011 with the ASL Flora while listening to the The Best of Diana Krall cd.

Her voice became more seductive and emotional without being syruppy sweet. The thwack of drumsticks became more etched and deliberate. 'S Wonderful, she sounded more wonderful. Somehow, the ess with the MBL disappeared, allowing me to fully appreciate the very seductive voice of this fellow Canadian singer. Listening to You Go To My Head, the experience became more personal, parang ang pogi-pogi ko tuloy. This ASL/Accentus/MBL/VD system play piano music very well, right size, height, deliberate and well separated. The decay floats a little bit longer than with the MBL still in the system. I remember listening to a Norah Jones cd in another system - I felt na parang sinakluban ng kumot yung speaker dun sa other system. The aluminum ribbon tweeters are great, I hope I won't miss it that much in my new speaker. Going back to Diana Krall, the piano intro in The Look of Love romantices you, and puts you in perfect mood while awaiting the controlled singing of the wonderful vocal arrangement. The bass guitar intro for All or Nothing at All was well handled, defined and dynamic. By the time the session reached the last track (#16) Narrow Daylight, tapos na talaga ang boksing, wala nang balikan sa 5011. The texture of her voice is clear and very natural, she was there, she sang for me.

This journey took me to Vegas, as reported here. I also played around with the idea of having a Garrard 301 which I sold without seeing a gig with my system.

Image

I also added a pair of SVS 20-39 PC Plus as temporarily remedy to perceived lack of bass. I still find the addition of the powered sub as an improvement. The main speakers disappeared from the listening position even more.

Hay, hirap magsulat.

ok, di na makatiis, here it is, taken this morning.
Image

The new speakers are also in, but giving the Accentus a chance to play with the newcomers. Very very good out of the box. I want invite Ban to my place to listen to his speakers before I replace it, he'll be proud.



Also, talked to Tito for the first time last night. Bro, next time ulit ha.

Jack and Tito, salamat sa pagti-tiyaga ninyo sa mga kakulitan ko..''di pa tayo tapos :twisted:

posted September 28, 2008

I got rid of the powered subs, the ASL Flora and Hurricane are on standby. I find it very hard to let them go because they are real good performers, and reasonably priced. Guys, if you want a world class preamp in the $3k range - I unhesitatingly recommend the Flora EX DT - it's volume control my not work smoothly via remote control, but it is negligible because it performs way beyond it's pricetag.

ASL Hurricane with Core Furniture ampstands
Image

this is my current setup - with grills on
Image

naked :lol:
Image

from the left side - facing my aquarium
Image

reverse angle - the massage chair is getting used a lot these days. The ber months are quite busy at work, the chair helps a lot to loosen the tight back muscle (due to stress).
Image

taken from the stairs
Image

behind the setup. my diy cable management system. the Virtual Dynamics cables are big and stiff :muscle: and can be a challenge to work with. I converted parts of my previous stand to this - to lift most of the cables from the ground.
Image

Image

the top two sections are diffusers from Core Audio - made of solid hardwood and damn heavy. I was not confident in suspending it on the wall via screws - so I built a diy base for it. Pasado daw kay Tito, kaya hindi ko na tinanggal.
Image

close up shots

the VR5's new drivers. According to Albert, the mid & bass drivers for VR7 & up will be color coordinated with the finish of the speakers. I am still missing the lambing and decay of my old speakers - but these VS speakers clearly benefit from the big mid drivers used (almost same size as the bass drivers)
Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

as of September 2008
Lamm LL2 deluxe
Lamm Ref 1.2
Von Schweikert VR5 Anniversary Edition in piano gloss black
Critical Mass System PXK amp stands
Core Audio Furniture audio rack and diffusers
Virtual Dynamics 3.0 bi-wire speaker cables, power cables and interconnects
Copland DRC 205 digital room correction (set at 20 hz)
Slimdevices Squeezebox, Nova Physics Memory Player & MBL CD1 hooked to MBL 1511 DAC (with AVM treatment)
Monster Power HTPS 7000 Signature Series
Allnic H1200 phono pre
Garrard Lab80 Mk2 - Dynavector 10x5

heaven...
Image

Hopefully the end - September 19, 2009

2008 has been a year of change for my system, gone are the highly modified ASL Hurricane and ASL Flora EX DT. In my opinion, these two items are both very good performers, way beyond their market price. I also briefly added a pair of SVS powered subs to my system.

I started the year with the trip to CES as reported here - it was a very educational experience for me. Sure, the equipments were not performing to their best potential due to room constraints, but still, it gave me a better idea what they are about. It's cool to actually listen to stuff that you read about. The rooms that impressed me were the VS rooms, the Lamm rooms, the Burmester room, also worth mentioning were the Tidal Contriva, the AAD Monitor speakers, the Cary/Proclaim room. Being an MBL user at the time, I was hoping that the all out MBL Xtreme rig would blow me away - I was mightily impressed, but my admiration for it suddenly disappeared the moment I entered Perfect8 room.

Yes, the room that impressed me the most was the Perfect8/BAlabo/Accustic Arts room. The music that was playing on this room transported me to the musical event like no other system ever had, before and after CES. I must also mention that I declared this the best room before I learned about the ticket price for each and every component in the room. If ever I will decide to blow my kids' inheritance on something beyond practical and reasonable - this would be it.

My short time spent with Jack and BonD were memorable that would itself be worth the trip. I would really love to hangout with Jack much longer, but I was aware that he came to the show for a reason and didn't want to take too much of his time. It also gave me more time to explore the show at my own phase and concentrate on the things that interests me. I know I'll be hanging out with Jack again sometime in the future.

I think I mentioned earlier in this journey that I once considered to be an MBL dealer. That was when I was just starting into the serious audio, about two years ago. My inquiry was timed perfectly - when MBL America was trying to expand their market north of the border and nobody carried their product in our city or anywhere within 1000 kms. To my surprise, the distributor was very willing to take me in, even though I had full disclosure of where I stand in the hobby. I had to beg off at one point because I knew I was not ready yet. MBL is a high performance product and a well respected name, they are now being represented by one of the biggest brick and mortar store in our city.

"Ambisyoso mo naman - gusto mo kaagad maging audio dealer" you might say. Why not. I realized early on that I will be spending a lot of my hard earned dollars into audio. I have quite a bit invested in aquahobby - I know there is more than one way to go wayyy beyond that in audio hobby, so going into the industry will somehow minimize the bleeding and hopefully, I could earn a few coins to support the illness. At the same time, this will add a new dimension to the hobby. Canadians are among the highest taxed people on earth, it pains me to find out at the end of every year that me and my wife are sending enough money to Ottawa to buy a decent mid-luxury car. One thing that we found out years ago is having a personal (not incorporated) business will somehow give you legal avenues to soften the blow.We previously invested in coffee vending machines (because my wife loves coffee), golf ball logo machine (during my golfing days) and now audio stuff naman. I don't mind paying additional tax if this turns out to be a fruitful adventure for me - kung hindi makabenta - I will view it as a mean to enjoy the hobby at dealer's cost and a tax writeoff. I am aware that being an audio dealer comes with a lot of responsibilities, I have the full intention to be an asset to the brands that have entrusted me their products.

Since I am doing this at home, I have decided to pursue only a few but premium brands, to keep the traffic low and somehow keep the privacy of our home. I personally liked what I heard from the Von Schweikert, Lamm & Critical Mass rooms in Vegas, and thanks to the guidance of Jack, I was in. Again, full disclosure with the manufacturers from the very beginning - so that they don't expect me to be another Puresound Trading - small time lang po si Ding. My other sulsultant pointed me to the other products and again gave me valuable insight about the audio industry as a whole.

Ok, by mid summer, the plan was laidout and the stuff started to come in. First, the VR5's were delivered to my office, but I didn't want to bring them home right away because I have not told my wife about them yet, and they are too big to sneak in without being noticed. Later that week, the Lamms also came. I let them sit in my office for a while. Finally, I decided to start by bringing home the Lamms. I was so excited, I got into an accident on my last errand before I went home that afternoon. Tito said because I was so full of positive energy, a negative energy has to come in to balance it out a little bit.

Tha Lamms brought the performance of my Accentus A101 speakers to a level that I never heard before. The Hurricanes were excellent performers, but the Ref 1.2 exposed what the Hurricanes were not doing. When I came home from Vegas, I was certain that my system (with the Hurricanes) was at par or better than many. The Ref 1.2 added more detail, dynamics and layering to the musical reproduction in my room. I was so happy I could stop upgrading at this point. A few days after, I brought home the VR5 and the rest of the stuff accumulating in my office.

The Von Schwekert VR5 Anniversary was highly recommended to me by Albert. He said on this model, I could have a glimpse of what the top models can do as they are designed with the same drivers/parts as the higher models, with reasonable investment. Since I won't be stocking products other than my demo units - it would be more difficult for me to sell the lower models (which are normally the volume movers) if my demo units are way up in the lineup. At saka wala na akong pera :sweat: . Comparing the finish - the A101 takes the cake - I haven't seen any speaker built with better finish than Accentus. As for the sound - they are both excellent performers in their own way. Most of you have listened to Lamm/VSA combinations, you have an idea how it sounds like. The bass of the VR5 is more accurate and tuneful, the mids are more transparent and realistic in size and highs are more extended, but the Accentus I think is more coherent even with more drivers. The bass of the Accentus is more extended, verified with the live version of Hotel California from Hell Freezes Over, driven by either Lamm or Trodt 6c33c-b amps. I still shake my head everytime I listen to how solid the A101 sounds on the bass notes of this track, and if I have to judge which is better between the two using this track alone - the A101 wins it. The cabinet of Accentus was built more solidly and the finish is still one of the best I've seen. We all know that VS speakers are implementing popular and high quality drivers and capacitors.

One of my biggest gamble in audio is the Nova Physics Memory Player. I haven't heard, none of my sulsultants heard it before I committed to it. I was very happy with the performance of my MBL DAC & Cd player, the main reason why I was really hesitant to abandon the format. Nothing against the vinyl format here, and like I mentioned before, I have not listened to analog based system that made me feel that it blew my system away. The Perfect8 system that I really liked was using Acustic Arts DAC & transport. One of my audio gurus here is an analog diehard, Tito echoes this guys sentiment that the digital format has it's limitation. I was never really away from vinyl,I have a Garrard Lab 80Mk2/DV10x5/Allnic H1200 hooked into my system. I bought a grey grease 301 in early 2008, which I sold before getting it to work in my system

Image

I bought a mint condition Garrard 401 in mid 2008 because I still want to try building my own plinth.

Going back to digital, I pursued the MP because it offers the convenience of not having to deal with the actual cds anymore. While I loved the convenience of Squeezebox, I still felt that it was not up to par with my MBL transport. I ripped my favorite cds into my laptop usic Nero, EAC & Windows media player, I was convinced that it lacked the weight and dynamics of the MBL. I listened closely similar products, the stock and modified Transporter, Bladelius system, PS Audio, Wadia and on, I didn't want to do a digital merry go round anymore. The MP piqued my interest as early as 2007 and had been exchanging emails with Mark Porzilli (Californian and Canadian wannabe for a while) for over a year. Unfortunately, Mark sold the marketing rights Laufer Tekniks already - so I had to go through LT. I had numerous phonecalls to Sam and was introduced by Tito to his friend Al Rohde. Before the purchase, Sam reiterated to me that the MP is a software driven high performance audio playback system.

The NPMP has an entirely different approach and drew the ire of many people who think they know everything about audio, unfortunately many of them have never done any serious listening on this product. A year after owning it, I still consider it as a strongpoint of my system. Please follow this link if you want to read more about the product.

I sold my highly modified ASL Hurricane & Flora back to the guy who sold them to me, for the same money I paid him. The Innersound ESL300 was sold to a guy in Toronto. The buyer of the ESL300 sold his much more expensive Krells after comparing the two, and eventually became an AVM fan.

It was late 2008 when I received my Trodt 6c33c-b. I had always been curious about MR's creation and when Tito emailed me after he listened to them himself, I have no other choice but to bring them in. The unit that I got was the same unit that had been auditioned by some curious audiophiles in Manila. Unfortunately, the shipment was severely mishandled by the freight company. They probably dropped the heavy package somewhere because the box had some indentions when it was delivered into my office. I was not in when it was delivered, and unfortunately, my staff who received the package did not make a note on the waybill. When I opened the box, the heavy side of the amp (transformer side) was buried into the styro padding. I think no other product/brand will survive the same situation unharmed. When I took the amp out of the box, I was disheartened to see the chasis of one monobloc warped, probably due to the weight of the transformers when it was dropped. When I tilted it on one side, I could hear something moving inside. I phoned MR, who advised me to hook it up anyway. When I pressed the power switch, nothing happened, no light on the pilot, no movement on the bias meter. When I told MR about the issue, I could imagine in MR's voice the frustration. He advised me to send the amps back to Manila, at his expense. I consulted Patrick and Tito. Me and Tito decided that I will open it (with my cousin who knows a little about electronics) to do an initial assessment and then send it back to Manila if it is something beyond us. Fortunately, the power did not turn on because one wire hooked to the fuse lost contact due to the warp/deformed chasis. We were able to straighten the chasis a little bit and was able to use the amp after that. To say the least, I was mightily impressed with the synergy of the VR5 and Trodt 6c33c-b. Man, this little golden thing can make the VR5 sound full-range.

Image

not long after that, I received my tube regulated Musika with separate power supply. One of my local friends was also very impressed by the sound quality of MR's creations. It bettered the Hurricane on the Accentus A101, but really strutted it's ability to make good music with the easier to drive VR5. I think I exclaimed once that I find it more detailed than the Ref 1.2. I was impressed by how quiet the amps were, that's why it seems to dig so much information from the recording. The small and quiet passages were presented in full detail. The presentation is not as clear with the power hungry A101 (2 ten inch woofers, two aluminum ribbon tweeters and two 6" mid drivers rated for 350w), but still revealed how rolled off the top end of the Hurricanes were.

Wanting to take the performance of Trodt 6c33c-b amp to higher level, I coated it with AVM.

Image

Image

I waited for two weeks before I plugged it in. After the curing period, I plugged it in, powered it up, a loud hum can be heard and white heavy smoke started to come out. Tulo ang pawis sa noo ni Ding. I turned it off and had breakfast. It was early Saturday morning and I didn't want to ruin my weekend. I just let it sit there. I emailed Tito and Patrick, but did not do anything else. I contacted a local tube gear repair guy who agreed to fix it the following Monday. Mang Rod wanted me to send it back to him again. Considering the freight cost involved, I made the executive decision to just have it fixed locally. But the guy was so busy with his regular customers, it sat on his shop for months. When the tech finally got around to fixing it, he found out that rectifier bridge (yata - the one that turns ac to dc) was burnt. He was able to fix it the day before I left for Manila last April.

My audio journey came with me when I visited Philippines. I met Patrick for the first time at the airport. I gave him the V caps MR will use for my Compactron. I also got to meet MR and Kabubi in Batangas. I visited the highly regarded MandyM in his lovely place in San Pablo. While in Manila, Me, Patrick, MR and BenC met with Jon Agner & Val for a session at Val's awesome system in Sta. Rosa. I was really excited when I learned that we could be meeting with the BB boys later that afternoon, but was saddened that the meeting did not go through. Well, the boys have better things to do. We were also able to hang out with Jack at the Lair. It was such a fun roadtrip.

Back in Edmonton, I tried my 6c33c-b amp again after recovering from the long trip. And you know what, umusok na naman. Gusto na namang ipa-uwi ni MR. It sat at the tech's shop again for months. In the meantime, I decided to finally finish my DIY plinth and the rest of the analog section. My friend Don helped me with the laborious parts of the plinth project and tonearm pod. My other friend Craig helped me with some milling work on the brass parts. I did some work too, but let them do the finishing touches. The plinth was made of 2" solid rubber glued to 3" layer of acrylic then covered with 1/8" black acrylic sheet - weighs over 50 lbs without the table. We struggled and spent awful amount of time finishing the cocobolo part of the arm pod. Cocobolo is such an oily wood which interacts with the high gloss finish lacquer - it stays tacky for days after application. We finally solved the issue by rubbing acetone into the wood and letting it dry a little bit before applying the lacquer coating. I acquired a Fidelity Research FR-64FS, AudioCraft AC4000-MC and Ortofon MC20 Mk2 from my friend David Beetles to complete the setup. The tube regulated V Capped Compactron replaced the Allnic H1200 in my system. The guy who bought the Allnic sent me a few emails in the weeks to follow to thank me for the good deal that he got and was wondering what replaced the Allnic in my system - he loved the Allnic and said it was so much better than the more expensive EAR phonostage he previously owned. Intending to learn the ropes leading to analog happiness, I equipped myself with the basic tools required - illuminated magnifying lens, Feikert protractor kit, digital stylus gauge and a few more little gadgets.
Image

Image

Image

I will seek the help of a local audiophile to optimize this setup, eventually.

On the digital side - I decided to pursue the Modwright Transporter. Being a longtime Squeezebox user, I became aware of the potential of this product/technology. I listened to the stock Transporter and decided it was not good enough for me.

After the show, I continued communicating with Dan Wright and followed what's going on with his mods at AudioCircle. Finally, sometime in the spring, I decided to pull the trigger. In my opinion, after a year or so - Dan has optimized the mod, which evolved to what he calls Modwright Platinum Truth Transporter. According to Dan and other modders, the Transporter is a very well designed product and a good candidate for modification to arrive at a product that will compete with others several times more expensive. If you will dig deep into the online fora, many users favor MWTP over their EMMLabs, MPS-5, Zanden, etc. The heart of it is the AKM 4396 DAC chip, which can be brutally revealing, but Dan at MWI incorporated his tube rectified power supply and output stage into the design very well. Unfortunately, Dan designed the circuit board with a nine pin tube in mind, and when the idea of substituting the driver tubes with the popular 6sn7's, it was too late and would cost MWI thousands of dollar to re-design. This led to Wayne of Bolder Cable to come up with an adaptor.

Image

One thing leads to another. Tubes. Dan recommended the EML 5U4G and Tung Sol Round plate combination as this was regarded as the best sounding combination by the MWTP owners at AudioCircle. So, I got myself an EML, and some of the regarded best sounding 6sn7's like Tung-Sol round plates, Sylvania, Ken-Rad VT231 etc. With the guidance of our very own Pigdog. So far, my favorite combination is EML 5U4G with Mullard ECC33. I chased the proven best candidates instead of the ok not too bad good enough cheap alternatives because I believe it is useless to tuberoll if you are not chasing the best possible candidate. Believe me, this review by Srajan is not exaggerated at all. The modified Transporter is an excellent outboard DAC, and gives you the benefit of internet radio & services.

Image

yes, one thing leads to another. While at it, I also upgraded the tubes in the Lamms - from Siemens Halske E88CC goldpins to EAT ECC88, from Mullard CV4003 to Mullard CV491 and EAT ECC88. I was pleasantly surprised how well the Lamm products responds to tube rolling.

Image
Lamm Ref 1.2 with EAT ECC88

Image
Lamm LL2 deluxe with Mullard CV491 and EAT ECC88

Image
Mullard CV491 big compared to Mullard CV4003?

Image
to further enhance the performance of MWTP, I am using Blak Hole footers, designed by the designer of Redpoint turntables.

Image
my wife was complaining that my stuff were slowly overflowing from the original shelves, I tried to organize a little bit by buying this bookshelf, which integrated perfectly.

Image
sabi ng asawa ko, kung ano-anong mga lumang junk ang iniipon ko

Image
nagsisimulang lumamig na naman, we will spend more and more time indoors, audio season.



Image
full view of the room

Image
we moved the listening chair about three feet back, it sounds so much better here. The speakers were more aggressively toed in. It actually sounds good on the stationary bike too, which hopefully gets more use when we stop walking outdoors for excercise.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image
this serves as karaoke system/tertiary system. JVC processor with Mordaunt Short monitors

I am very happy with what I have right now, hopefully no more upgrade itch. The other MWTP owners have no idea how good the product actually sounds - when fed by the Nova Physics Memory Player (AES/EBU) or streaming from laptop using wav files ripped through the NPMP. I am keeping this finding low profile because there are lot's of NPMP haters out there, I am enjoying this so much and I don't really care if the word spreads. I did numerous comparisons myself and the difference is noticeable. Bits are bits - I don't think so. So why are these people who were insisting bits are bits before are messing with Amarra now?

I've had some challenges with the Trodt 6c33c-b, but now I think me secondary system will rival many main systems out there. They are singing beautifully with the A101 now. We think the mishandling caused some shorting problem which was not initially isolated by the tech.. it is trouble free for a while now.

Image

Image

My current main setup:
Lamm LL2 deluxe (with Mullard CV491 and Siemens Halske goldpins tubes)
Lamm Ref 1.2 monoblock (with EAT ECC88 tubes)
Von Schweikert VR5 in Steinway Black
Nova Physics Memory Player
Modwright Transporter with Platinum Truth Mods (EML 5U4G rectifier and Mullard ECC33 drivers)
MBL CD player used as transport
Critical Mass PXK Isolation Systems
Core Audiophile Furniture equipment rack and diffusors
Copland DRC 205 room correction system
Virtual Dynamics Nite 3.0 bi-wire speaker cables
Virtual Dynamics Nite 3.0 inter connects
Virtual Dynamics Nite 3.0 power cables
Monster Power HTPC 7000 Signature Series power conditioner
Garrard 401 with bearing upgrade
DIY rubber/acrylic plinth (50 lbs)
DIY tonearm pod - cocobolo wood with solid brass posts
Fidelity Research FR-64FS silver wired tonearm with Dynavector 10x5 cart
Audiocraft AC4000MC with Ortofon MC20 Mk2 cart
Trodt Compactron MM/MC phonostage with separate tube regulated power supply - V capped
Trodt TVC



we were enjoying a lovely late summer and probably one of the warmest Septembers, with temps reaching 32C, but deym, I use my car heater on the way to work and the air-con on the trip home. Only in Edmonton.

Image
did I see leaves turning yellow already...

Hope you enjoyed reading about this journey as much as I enjoyed sharing it. Thanks to WS community.

To Tito, Patrick, Kabubi, MR and others - thanks for your friendship. Jack - salamat at pasensya sa abala.

Update - February 20, 2010

winter is almost over, for some reason it feel short and I didn't mind being confined indoors most of the time - because of audio, maybe? We had a "real winter" this year, lot's of snow and temps dipping to and staying at -30c or colder for days. not much has been added to my system lately, I am saving up for a vehicle. My software section grew by 100 plus lps and 200 cd files the past year or so. I am having fun discovering new artists, not deeply into classical yet although you will see more Mozart, Vivaldi, Chopin etc...

I am also starting to appreciate tube rolling more and more.

Image
here, I got the Tung Sol Round Plates on the MWTP

Image
with the Treasure Series CV181Z

I recently purchased a pair Shuguang Treasure Series CV 181Z, I was pleasantly surprised by the superb quality of this tube, down to the packaging.
Image

Image
black beauties

it looks big compared to the TSRP... I have less than 100 hours on it and it is sounding not bad, things are supposed to get much better at 250 hours.

on the analog side, MR's V Capped Compactron is sounding better, but very far from being fully burned in

Image

Image
I am happy with the final outcome of the 401 plinth project, very heavy - I'm estimating 50 plus lbs


Image
another diy project is the recort clamp, made of solid brass, my friend Craig helped me with the more intricate part, I coated it three layers of clear paint. had some bubbles, but I'm too lazy to strip and repaint. maybe in the future.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image
another late addition is a 2TB Hitachi SimpleDrive where I have my wav files backup and additional storage. It is also here where I keep my upsampled dvd-a files (24bit/96khz).

current setup
analog - Garrard 401 ---> DV10x5 or MC20Mk2 -----> FR64FS or AC40000MC ----->Trodt Compactron ---> Trodt TVC ----> pre
digital - Nova Physics Memory Player & MBL transport ----> Modwright Platinum Truth Transporter ----> Copland DRC 205 ----> pre


Image
a rare instance - the boss sitting beside me

posted April 22, 2011

I'd been happily enjoying my system and it did not change much for 2010. So, on this installment of my journey, please allow me to share my other journeys for 2010, and share with you other things, which I will limit to what members normally discuss in this forum - like cars, travel, food and friends ....

After delaying for quite a while, we finally decided to get our toy vehicle in 2010. If I was shopping for a car, it would have been a red Cadillac CTS-V, a muscle car in tuxedo, a sophisticated looking 556 hp 551 lb-ft beast that will look good on you up to your octagenarian days.

this is what I am talking about
Image

Unfortunately, being both on the heavy side, low slung sports cars are not the best candidates for me and my wife. Believe me, I've tried going in and out of this vehicle a number of times, and some of them were a painful experience (low back pain). So, when decision time came, we seriously looked at SUV's - with the emphasis on sportiness. We looked at CTS's cousins, the SRX and the Escalade, also the GLK, GL and the ML from Mercedes, the Range Rover Sport, BMW's X5 & X3, the RX from Lexus and the MDX from Acura.

Have you heard of the saying "kahit na anong kulay basta pula", this is commonly heard in our household since my wife is makapula. When Porsche came out with the Cayenne GTS about two years ago, we looked at this picture of the GTS in GTS red and my wife said back then - "yan ang gusto ko". She even printed the picture, framed it and hang it in her office. We both liked the look of the vehicle and I know for a while that it's my number one candidate, but I test drove it last so that I can have a more honest opinion of the other candidates. When I took a Cayenne for a spin, tapos na ang boxing. It handles much like a sports car. Yeah yeah yeah, some critics (some of them never drove one yet have enough guts to render an opinion) said it's not a real Porsche, some say ugly ( I'd say beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder) pointless urban assault SAV, but hey we both like it (it's all that matters)it so we got it. I got ours from luxury car dealer in Texas, a slightly used 2009 that was traded in by the original owner for the Panamera Turbo when Panamera came out. When I first saw the vehicle, I had to think hard why would somebody let go of a vehicle in this flawless condition, but hey lucky for me, I am in North America and some car nuts here flip cars just like changing a suit. I found it at ebay but pursued the vehicle outside ebay. I had dragged negotiations on the other units that we chased earlier for weeks, but did a quickie on this one because it had all the options I was looking for. Funny thing, after I paid for it, the seller called me and gave me a number of another person who was also chasing the vehicle, saying I could easily make a couple of grands if I'm willing to look for another one. I begged off and had the vehicle delivered from Dallas, Texas to our house in an enclosed van. We were actually vacationing in Hawaii when the deal was completed, and begged my wife to reroute our trip home to land in Dallas and drive it back to Edmonton (would be an awesome 3,500 km roadtrip) and spend the $3,500 I am paying the transport company in gas, food and nice hotel along the way - but she was trying to catch a meeting at work upon return, so her vacation schedule became non-negotiable.

So, here I am in Kaui, trying to enjoy the beauty of the beach, but actually excited to go home na
Image

Talking about Kauai, we had a wonderful time at the small island. So many wild chicken everywhere, including the beach. Sabi ko nga sa asawa ko, akala ng ibang manok dito, hindi sila manok kasi gustong makihalo sa mga tao kahit saan. We rented a Jeep and explored the island (almost) tip to tip, I said almost because we were not able to reach the very end of the island because they were still shooting the Pirates of Carribean. The island is small and laid back (which we preferred) and imparted a feeling of our province in Batangas during my much younger days, before things became busy and commercialized. We had a great time, away from the usual routine and just hanging out with our grown up kids, who are becoming more and more independent at home. As usual, we kept our schedules light, and go out of our suite only whenever we please.

When we got back to Edmonton, the Cayenne was already resting in my usual spot in the garage. Beautiful machine, and a dream come true.
Image

The GTS is lower than the other Cayenne models, but I wanted it to go a bit lower, so I had a Techart lowering module installed by the local Porsche dealership. I must say that the handling improved significantly after the module was installed, and when driving in low setting, you will feel that you are riding in a car, not an SUV. The adjustable air suspension helped this vehicle fit my shopping list perfectly, a low riding vehicle with upright sitting configuration which is easier to get in and out.

Here it is in the lowest setting, sitting almost lower than our daughter's Acura.
Image
Image

No matter what vehicle we use, I always enjoyed driving, epecially the long ones. Most guys enjoy the thrill of sprints, pero kung sa runner, pang marathon tayo :lol: . I remember during my golfing days, I sometimes enjoy the long drives into and from the course than playing golf itself. And I did most of that driving in my lowly 1996 Windstar. Well, I shouldn't say lowly because the Windstar is 200 hp, can go really fast (driven it to almost 200 kph at sitting capacity) and really a pleasure to drive. Now with the GTS at our disposal, we made plans to travel around the province for the rest of the summer. When you live in Edmonton, one of the most natural driving destinations is Calgary, a 300 plus kms southbound drive on a paved divided highway, with slight bends and scenic rolling hills. Most of the highways here are patrolled by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for speeders, if you want to indulge yourself speedwise, you'll need to get a radar detector (which is legal here by the way). I got myself one of the best, the Escort 9500ix and this thing paid for itself within the first few trips. It alerts the driver when it picks up radar signals when the officers are checking for speeders, and it picks up signals from 3 - 5 kms away, giving the driver enough time to slow down to posted limits.

One of the stores we target when we go to Calgary is the Bass Pro Shop, I think this is a must see store for any guy who loves outdoors or any guy period. A unique shopping experience indeed, with the widest selection of fishing, hunting and camping gear I'd seen. If you are into these, you'd think you died and been into heaven once you step inside their huge location, with thousands of stuffed animals, deer racks and trophies decorating the entire store - they really went the extra mile in decorating the store area, all the way up to the ceiling. I can go through the Alberta Museum within an hour, but here, I can spend an entire day. You should see my father-in-law's facial expression when we took him to Bass Pro for the first time, parang batang nawala sa candy store. Since he cannot convince my wife to let him buy a gun, he bought the next best thing - a tirador :lol:

Image
that's a real airplane, see the animals in the background?

Another excellent driving destination is Vancouver, British Columbia, a scenic 1200 km drive westbound on hi-way 16/Yellowhead Trail. My in-laws had to renew their Philippine passports - a perfect alibi not to work and just drive, me, my wife and my in-laws in the Cayenne. It was early August and days were still long. We left at 4:30 am, thinking of doing it in 12 hours, this route is normally a 15 hour drive including the washroom stops. We tried to limit our travel to two hours of driving, stop for a bite or a washroom or take pictures or just simply stretching. The traffic was light and an invitation to speed. I had fun playing with a couple travelling on BMW Z4 for about an hour and a half and 200 kms. I caught up with him, nodded our hellos and exchanged leads without leaving the other guy too far behind. After we lost them on our first pit stop, it was not that difficult to find another playmate, another vehicle travelling faster than the usual speed. When we got up in the Rockies, the view was just beautiful, I can never get tired of looking at the mountains with snow and ice caps in the middle of the summer. I drove the Cayenne in sport mode for the most part, with more aggressive shift mapping and growling sports exhaust - I can drive for hours without ever feeling sleepy.

Image

We left my in-laws at my sister-in laws' place in Burnaby and travelled to Vancouver Island, a perfect getaway for the photography buffs. If you ever make it to Vancouver, try your best to escape to Victoria, a short 2 hour ferry ride. Victoria is one of the most beautiful place I'd been to and I am hoping to be able to afford to retire here one day. Beach front properties in the island are over the million dollar mark now and will continue to rise.

The main attraction in Victoria is The Butchart Gardens, a parklike setting with a wide variety of colorful flowers from all over the world. Flowers, flowers, flowers and more flowers. Take your mom/girlfriend/wife here and she will love you forever.

Image
Sunken Garden

Image
ang mga fotograpo

Image
my wife took this picture while we were resting under a tree, kayo na po ang bahalang mag-isip

Outside Butchart, Victoria is also very beautiful. Most of he people you'll see are tourists yet the ambience is still very laidback. The marina area is a very popular hangout for the tourists.

Image
One of the ritziest hotel in the island, the Empress Hotel

Image
I was told that this tree only grow in Victoria

No whale watching for us this time, but it was an enjoyable stay nevertheless. My two sister-in-laws and my bilas Sherwin drove back to Edmonton with us, so may kahabulan na naman si Ding. But we kept our speed at slower phase as recorded here. We left Vancouver at 7:30 am and reached Edmonton at 1:00 o'clock the following morning, driving the last 400 km leg in darkness because we had a good time in Banff and did not realize it was already way past 9:00 (and 400 kms to go).

Image
the dimfer in Jasper National Park, another tourist destination.

Another highlight of year 2010 was our trip to Waterton Lakes National Park, another popular Canadian destination. My wife organized this trip because she wanted to take along her newly arrived relatives on this vacation. Waterton is a very popular destination, where hotels and camping stalls sell out within the first few days they are offered to the public, so she booked our hotel for this August trip in early January. There were 20 of us, in four vehicles. A 600 km trip south past Calgary and right up to the US border (Montana), we left our house with me on the Cayenne as the lead car, followed by my wife on the Windstar, then by my father-in-law on his Escape and my sister-in-law in the Pathfinder (that travelled from Vancouver). I had to be creative here because my wife won't catch up to me when I go beyond speed limit trying to protect her dad. So 150 km mark, I radioed my sister-in-law in the Pathfinder to take the lead, knowing that she loves to drive fast. Not too long after Pathfinder took the lead, we were travelling in excess of 150 kph, aba, ayaw pala paiwan sa kapatid ang asawa ko :D When we got to Waterton, my father-in-law was all smiles - noon lang daw sya nakapag-drive ng ganuun kabilis.

Waterton has numerous fishing and picnic spots around the lake. The center of the park is a small town with numerous hotels.

Image
here is my wife clowning around

Image
family bonding moment, the land across the lake is US territory already

Image
me and my mom

Image
strolling around town, where you will see lot's of deer resting on the lawn

Image
I don't know what they were trying to do here, parang mga aliens waiting for the mothership

Image
my

A couple of weeks after Waterton, we drove 400 kms north to Cold Lake to watch Race The Base, a fundraising camapaign targeting the owners of the exotic cars who wanted to know how fast they can go. The concept of the event was car owners pay $1,500 to get in (will get $1,200 tax deductable donation receipt), 2 night hotel accomodation included, a one day one on one driving lesson with professional high speed instructor (in your car) and then on the final day - entrants were given unlimited turns (within set schedule) to speed in the longest (military) runway in Canada to see how fast the car and the driver can go. It was funny because before every run, the announcer will describe on the PA the car setup (like how many hps) and the expected top speed, some cars/drivers max out way below the announced limit, so alam mo nang driver ang sumuko (talking about peer pressure). The fastest speed recorded for the day was 365 kph on Edo Competition modified Ferrari Enzo. Ford GTO's did very well on this event, most of them broke the 300 kph barrier, also all three female participants broke the 300 kph mark. It was a windy day, I don't think the Hayabusa was able to break 300. It was a well attended event ($12 per person to watch), but very cold and wet. After the speed runs, the 78 participants gathered at a parking lot for a meet and greet and photo op event. It was a surreal experience, being surrounded by some of the most expensive cars in the world and different levels of sonority tantalizing your ears. Sabi nga ng sister-in-law ko (not into cars) - "parang panaginip talaga ang mapalibutang ka ng cars na usually makikita mo lang sa calendars".

Image
bagay ba?

My sister in Phoenix visited us in early September, roadtrip na naman. My eight year old nephew wanted to visit Royal Tyrrell Museum, kung merong mahilig sa dinosaur sa pamilya ninyo, this is the place to visit as they have the most diverse and complete dinosaur display in the world. Paleontologists from all over the world come here. The place in in the middle of nowhere, in what they call Badlands of Drumheller, Alberta, a town about 300 kms south east of Edmonton. The landscape of place is somewhat different, and it is quite easy to imagine dinosaurs walking all over the place when you drive into town. Why do I love to come here - stretches of unmonitored secondary roads, this is where I recorded my top speeds 8)

Image
my favorite picture (taken by me)

Image
Cayenne GTS versus the biggest T Rex in the world

After Drumheller, we drove to 580 kms east Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to attend a wedding. Divided highway most of the way, flat and boring. But you can go really fast as well. No picture to share, boring kasi. If you love driving, you'll like it here. Our province Alberta has a land area that can easily cover the entire Philippines. Most of the major arteries and secondary roads are well paved and well maintained (that's what you get for an oil rich province). I logged in more than 9,000 kms of pure lakwatsa :$ on the Cayenne.


When winter came, I decided to park the Cayenne, the city put too much salt on the street during winter - not good for a toy vehicle that you intend to keep for a while. Plus, we don't really drive much during the winter, too many careless drivers driving on icy streets.

Image
on hibernation mode

We had the snowiest, coldest and meanest winter in the 20 plus years that we've been living in Edmonton. There was a stretch that we were shovelling snow everyday for over a week, being the smart guy that I am :geek: , I bought a snow blower after Christmas, nakakasawang magpala ng snow.

Image
our winter blah was aggravated by the windrows after the city graded the residential streets. Most people cannot drive out of their driveways because of too much snow at some point. My wife fired a few emails to the mayor (which he surprisingly responded to) complaining about our cars (including the SUVs) getting stuck everytime we try to leave the house.

Back to travel - it was around Christmas when my wife asked me if I want to attend the International Toy Fair in New York in February. New York, are you kidding me? Of course, and who else comes to mind - my idol and good friend Ttommy. We booked at New Yorker Hotel in Manhattan, and since the hotel is in close proximity to the Madison Square Garden where the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is happening, we were able to see many of the participants in the lobby of our hotel. It was cool to see the attention the owners are giving to their pets, easy to think that they are mere servants of their pets. One of the dogs that catches attention is this big boy.
Image

What room does $200+ per night get you in Manhattan, small, very small. We were not expecting much, but were still surprised - how small is it? We had to struggle to get the chair out of the bedside table because it was so tight. Well, we are the type of travellers who never overspend on hotel rooms anyway, so we're not complaining. Thinking that it was just gonna be used as a base camp and a place to crush into sleep, it served it's purpose. We liked it because it is in the middle of everything, the convention center where the toy show is happening, Times Square, Fifth Avenue etc are just within walking distance. Living in a small city of less than a million people (Edmonton), I had to get some tips from Tito how to survive one of the busiest place on earth. Tito's best tip - let the energy of the city charge you up.

I booked Tito for a day 8) and as per arrangement, he picked us up from the lobby of our hotel. I have spoken with Tito on the phone numerous times to I had a good feel of his personality already. One thing that surprised me was his height - he is taller than I thought, and looking back at his pictures, now I know why - his body is very well proportioned. Same thing happened when I first saw Kareem Abdul Jabbar in person. Tito said best way to explore New York is via public transport and that's what we did. The NY light rail transit system is amazingly huge and complex and goes to four different levels (I think) underground, I've read somewhere that there could be up to 5,000,000 people underground on the peak hour, and while LA transit authority sells 1.2M rides a day, NY sells 7,000,000 ride tickets a day. Amazing!
Image
Me and Tito just before we boarded the train for the first time (for me)

First destination we hit was the huge NY Chinatown district, walking through the heart of Mott Street and other historical spots in the area.
Image

First food destination for the day was Joe's Shanghai. The place looked ordinary (a typical oriental resto with an aquarium full of goldfish) but was evidently busy. We got seated almost right away, but Tito warned me that there will be a long lineup at the door soon. I had been to many restaurants in different cities, but this is the first time I had to share a table with different parties in a restaurant, which is a cool 8) experience. I think there were 3 or four different groups sharing our round table. Tito ordered the xiao lung bao/soup dumplings and crispy prawns in chili sauce. A unique food experience, ngayon lang ako nakakain ng dumpling na ang sabaw ay nasa loob. And it taste good. Tito had to show us the ritual and we caught along nicely, pagkain yata yan :lol: My wife even made her own system before the meal was over.
Image

After the meal, we walked around Chinatown some more and boarded the train to Coney Island.

Image
Coney Island is at the very end of the route, it gave us some time to talk about different stuff, barely touching audio

Image
Image
we hang around the boardwalk for a little bit. it was sunny and pleasantly warm enough to stay outside for extended time

Tito's place is around 15 minutes walk from here, but we decided to take to the train.

Image
taken by Tito while waiting for our ride

at their place, we met Yelena, a very warm meeting and introduction indeed. While preparing for this trip, Tito gave me a long list of tourist attractions and food destinations, but told him I would prefer to keep our itenerary light so that we will have more time to talk (connect). This is our first meeting and we both have a busy week ahead of us, so this will be the only time we will spend together. I know me and Tito havea good connection already, but I was a little bit worried because my wife is with me, pagdating sa chikaan, pang sprint lang talaga ito, never na pang full marathon. I was pleasantly surprised how we all clicked together and time flew just so fast, talking just about everything under the sun.

At one point, my wife sat on Tito's listening chair and Tito played a cd from his server. My wife did not recognize right away but commented that the songs playing sounded familiar. Well of course she is familiar with the songs, because it is from a cd I gave Tito last December, by Umoja Choral Association where one of our daughters sings. A cool experience to listen to somebody close to you in a system and environment like Tito's.

Image
the bruscetta... a sure way to wake up your appetite, with just enough tanginess. so fresh some of the ingredients harvested from a pot in the kitchen.

Image
an hour or so later, this meal was served. the wild duck cooked on it's own oil (Tito can explain this better) is crispy and very tasty
Yelena prepared the pasta herself. Tito was saying it will have more "bite" than usual, basta ako bite na lang ng bite.

Image
the master at work... if you will notice, relaks na relaks

Image
showing me how it's done...

Image
ooopps, I burned the stick of the first one

Image
cooked to perfection

I can't remember now who washed the dishes :tmi:

Image
We spent the next few days at the New York International Toy Fair, buying toys and meeting suppliers.

Image
my meal on Valentines Day, at Bubba Gumps at Times Square

Image
we spent the evening of Valentines Day hanging around Times Square, dami ng lovers, pero outnumbered ng pulis. NYPD is 32,000 strong, I think I'd seen most of them that night, there is at least a cop car every block, with more wailing around on the streets. I had seen more police officers in one week in NY than maybe what I had seen in Edmonton during the last 20 years.

Image
walking around downton, you will see lot's of this, cool to see Lexus, MB's and other luxury car parked on those type of parking. I would say they (vehicles) are living a rough life in NY because I see lot's of them on positions I have never done on my vehicles, dami rin ng potholes. Note to self - do not buy vehicle from NY. I was counting, only saw one Cayenne in a week.

we were hitting destinations at night, after working at the convention. We bought a Grey Line city pass that covered all the buroughs. My wife liked the ambience at uptown NY the most.

Image
hirap maging model

Image

Image

Image
Manny Pacquaio made it to the White House but was not allowed to take pictures, we were :rock:

I guess after subjecting the readers to my long stories, I owe an audio update.

I always wanted a home theater, but ended up with an aquarium room without a dedicated audio/HT room. I think we will not be moving to another house just for that, so my only choice is to make do with what we have. Aside from not having the room dedicated to my hobbies and the occasional requests to turn down the volume, I am happy with my basement setup. The room can be quiet and not too bad acoustically. I have my main audio setup here for almost three years already, and always had a mental picture of a big screen on the wall behind my setup. Did my research, measurements and decided I could get away with a 120" screen. Just before the Christmas break, I took delivery of an Epson 8700 UB and a 120" Grandview Series motorized screen. I bought the package from Quebec Acoustic. According to the guy who helped me with my purchase, the 200,000:1 contrast ratio of the 8700 and the 1.0 gain of the Grandview offers an excellent bang for the buck. Since my room had been fully finished, I was a bit challenged by the wiring, wanting to do it as neat as possible and as direct as possible. Research warned me that running the power line and the hdmi cable side by side could possibly result to picture distortion introduced by interference. I measured the lengths required and ran the hdmi cable and the power extension cord on the raceway before fixing it to the wall. The hdmi cable that I bought from Costco resulted with hazy picture, but the double insulated Rocelco cable gave me a very clear picture. With the help of my cousin and my visiting brother-in-law we were able to get the system running in time for the holiday break.

Image

my initial plan was to use a PS as the player and route the audio to my Transporter/main rig. It worked, but I soon found out that my daughters will be using it more. They were compaining that it was too complicated to operate. One thing leads to another, right? So on boxing day, I bought an LG HT in a box and squeezed in into my system. Five channel, 1,000 watts, decent picture quality with blu-ray and dvd, two hdmi inputs and very simple to use (for my kids), fits the bill perfectly.

Image

the PS3 is hooked into the LG and into the Transporter as well, giving me an option to watch concerts and hear it in my main rig. At the same time, the same PS3 can be played through the LG, and the LG can be used without bothering with my main rig.

Image

Sony advertised PS3 as it only does everything, and they're right. So cool to play Move games (like Wii but better) in 120" screen and full surround and conveniently watch movies from Netflix ($8 per month).

Image
Move game accesories - want to go hunting with me? or play tennis, of golf? or race the Nurburgring?

Image
my game and movie/concert collection will grow steadily

Image
to improve the LG a little bit, I replaced the center channel with a better speaker (Energy) and added a Yamaha powered sub from my previous ht setup

Image
I was and still am totally blown away by the experience of this HT, the experience can be very immersive.

Very happy with it.

thanks for reading :angel:

posted July 23, 2011

My wife complained that we only had three nice weekends this summer so far... we dealt with excessive snow last winter, and now dealing with the wettest summer, and possibly the highest population of mosquitoes... what's going on? If I could negotiate with the Guy up there, I'd happily settle with rain on Monday to Thursday and sunshine Friday to Sunday. I only drive my toycar on the weekends, and sometimes spend almost day cleaning and buffing the vehicle only to get dirty and wet as soon as drive out of the driveway. I decided to add car detailing to my hobbies last spring and bought a kit similar to this, and now fully comprehend what my cousin (who more into cars/detailing) is complaining about the Edmonton weather, that it seems to rain almost everytime after you wash your vehicle.

ok, enough for the rant. When I thought I was nearing my finish line, changes started to happen. It started with my speaker cables. I thought the Virtual Dynamics Nite 3.0 bi-wire offered a good value in the line up and was happily living with it, but when I shoehorned my HT in my basement setup, things got crowded in a hurry. The VD cables are bulky and stiff, and can be a PITA to work with. And because I had to bend them to make them fit (and VD used spades too small for the Von Schweikert's WBT's), I had come home with a wire unhooked from the speaker terminal more than once and the thought of shorting the Lamms can be scary.

I had been curious to DIY a cable for a while and I thought speaker cable could be a good starting point, and had bought some UPOCC wires, rhobidium Furutech connectors etc. sometime ago. So, using what I thought I had learned about audio, I made my own cable. Spade at the amp side and banana on the speaker side, fully treated with AVM, kept it as short as possible, twisted with care, insulated with teflon, etc. When I hooked it up, no smoke came out of my amps, it sounded decent, and it stayed on. I've put away the VD, but not quite disposing it yet.

Image
It looks like this

The Lamm Ref 1.2 performed exceptionally well with the VSA VR-5 Anniversary, but for some reason I had been wanting more out of my system, wanting more punch. I am fully aware that bringing home a pair of VR-9 will cause domestic violence :$ , I was mulling of adding a pair of powered subs for a while (had a pair of SVS before), but the back of my rack is crowded as it is already, adding two more boxes, more power cords and more wires can make my situation worse. Unloaded the Ref 1.2 and now using the more powerful Lamm M2.2, which is not as refined in the vocals as the Ref 1.2 (but not bad at all) but gave the system more umph, the itch has been cured.

On the digital front end, I had the Nova physics Memory Player feeding the Modwright Platinum Transporter. This combination sounded great and could compete with almost anything I've heard, but when I decided to upgrade my second rig (Accentus speaker & Trodt 6c33c-b), I started considering other candidates. The idea is to move the Transporter/NPMP to the second rig, and get something else for the main rig. Playback Design MPS-5 came to mind, so did Eera Tentation. I started reading and researching again, and it became clear to me that server based system is the direction that I will stick with. Started getting more information about Amarra and the likes but decided I should stick with what I have already - the Nova Physics Memory Player. So, I started communicating with Mark Porzilli again, and gathered more feedback from the users of the current NPMP iteration. Clement Perry, whom I still communicate with, might have not written anything about this product for a while, but still continues to be a believer and highly recommended the upgrade/update. Mark suggested that I proceed with the upgrade before CES because he usually gets dumped with work after, so, I sent my unit on the first week on November and was promised to have it back in three weeks. The timing was perfect, since I'm so busy this time of the year anyway and not listening much, and then I could have more playtime with the upgraded unit on the Christmas break. November ended, so did December and January and February and March - no NPMP. Mark never stopped communicating and kept apologizing and promising... Clement, who is checking with me hoping to get my feedback on the latest software turned out to have much shorter patience than me, sent a strongly worded email to Mark in my behalf. Soon after, I got an email an a call from Sam Laufer explaining the situation. I said it would be great to have my unit alreeady, but I'm cool with it, since Mark is communicating with me anyway. Mark said he became busier than anticipated, and was nearing the completion of a software and hardware design that will be implemented on the next iteration of NPMP (coming out Oct 2011) and want my unit to have it already so that I don't have to send it back for it. Mark promised first week of April, and will make up for it. It came as promised. I say it's worth the wait.

If you had been on audio forum long enough, you are probably familiar with how the analog snubs look down at anything digital. Even here at WS, it is common for cd players to be referred as "pampainit ng system", it gives me a chuckle. I had been exposed to what many would say best of both, and decided that I can live with digital (I mean digital is good enough for me). Still have the Garrard setup and some lps... but I mainly listen to digital these days. If you keep an open mind (that digital can be good sounding too), you will appreciate that digital has come a long way since 1982, especially with the proliferation of server based systems and high def downloads. The gap has become rediculously close and only the properly setup top tier analog rig will enjoy an advantage over the best of digital. It has been claimed that in some blind tests, even some trusted ears cannot tell the difference anymore. Not being used to any particular flavor associated with any cartridge/analog setup made it easier for me to pass an unbiased judgement.

I had been publicly criticized here at WS for picking and sticking my nose with the Nova Physics product. If the critics had listened to the product and found it to be unsatisfactory, then their criticisms will bear more weight to me. NPMP is entirely a different approach, but I did not embrace the product purely on marketing hype. Before he took my money, Sam Laufer emphasized in great detail that the product is a software based system, it is a computer specifically built for high quality audio reproduction, most of the technology will be on the software or how the software is handled. While most audiophiles will fret, I was comfortable with the decision and went ahead. I am after the result, I don't mind paying for a software based system as long as it gets me to where I want to be. Yeah I know, dbpoweramp,exactaudiocopy etc. make bit perfect copies and can be dowloaded for free (have them too).

NPMP is Mark Porzilli's pet project, and judging from his other products you can tell he knows a little bit about hi-fi. I was able to listen to the highly tauted Scaena Speakers and was impressed by it as well. He designed various amps, pre-amp and speakers, but said he want to be remembered because of this player.

Here is his quick bio
Mark Porzilli, a former child prodigy, was able to wire simple circuits and draw schematics at age 5. He completed a masters level education in Physics, Quantum Mechanics and Chemistry at age 14, after winning a national competition to miniaturize electronic
circuitry for Bausch & Lomb at age 12. That same year, he designed biofeedback electronics for several New Jersey hospitals, and
entered two state science fairs, winning first place in both


Here's a rundown of Mark's design concept of the current iteration of the Memory Player:

DIGITAL:
I.D.E.A.S. was designed to replace atomic clocking hardware with complex software as software can be adapted and rewritten (firmware) for higher performances but hardware must be replaced entirely. I.D.E.A.S. reduces jitter to the femtosecond level, about 1/10th that of the atomic clocking devices like dCS. It is the lowest digital audio jitter player in the world. In short, it creates a virtual, perfect CD on memory and reads the physical CD up to 750X until it 'forces' the CD to place the bits in perfected 'slots'. The virtual CD on the memory is thousands of times more accurate than a physical CD can be and can be refined further still by the user (by manually running an alignment tool) until no improvement can be heard. The primary reaction to I.D.E.A.S.-based digital audio is a liquid, stunningly lifelike tone and unheard of ambient retrieval for digital audio. The real surprise is not the tone but the ambiance.

ANALOG:
The development of Direct 2 DAC technology was to have DACs made with access to the first Moment Of Analog or MOA. ALL DACs currently have internal chips or transistors creating buffering, filtering, and/or amplification AFTER the analog is present. For example, Burr Brown DACs have literally hundreds of components in the signal path between the first moment analog is present to the DAC's output. D2D removes 100% of the components in the signal path and brings the first instance of analog directly to the output pins. We add a single polypropylene or Teflon capacitor to this to protect subsequent circuitry (and the DAC itself) from damage so the result is a zero component DAC path + 1 audio cap. A single cap is not very significant so we suggest using a top grade polypropylene as comes with the D2D but Teflon is an upgrade offered. D2D has a startling lack of sound. The timbre is just stunning. Like LPs but tighter. Needless to say, the removal of hundreds of components from the signal path releases literally unheard of definition, air and dynamics and micro-dynamics, and articulation. The purity of this DAC path is as short a path as is possible and the information lost in current DAC configurations will become obvious to you when you hear D2D. The design change to resolve the inherent problem of the DAC, the inherent circuitry that cannot be bypassed. Even if you had a tube DAC, these parts were in the signal path as they could not be bypassed. Now they are gone. 100%. The result is lack of color, enormous detail and clarity.

32 BITS:
Jitter is THE defining unnatural component in digital audio. It is what is different about digital audio as compared to analog. Jitter is a bit read out of time. It has no natural parallel event to compare it to and this is why the brain finds digital audio so unnatural. Lower the jitter, raise the life-like presentation of digitized audio. This was why I.D.E.A.S. was chosen for raising the MP to world class status again as the only other approach was atomic clocking which costs on the order of $75,000. And as explained above, I.D.E.A.S. can "grow" (scalable) with the data resolution, types or requirements to outperform Rubidium clocking audio by a factor of 10 and we expect that to grow.

The reason the jitter drops for 32bit files is that it offers thousands of more opportunities for the reading device to scan the bits for mis-ordering and jitter and to correct it. With 16bits, every bit must be perfect as there is no "room" to relocate a jittered bit to it's proper vicinity. With 32bits, there are thousands of vacancies to relocate the bits and preserve the original ordering. When you play 16bit or 24bit audio, the losses from the system and volume controls take place in the 16th bit downward or the 24th bit down. By placing the files at 32bits, the music plays from 32 to 16 (for 16bit music) so the losses occur below the music. It's a bit weird conceptually, it's mathematical but it does work and is immediately noticeable, especially in dynamics.

In short the jittering of bits are the bits being played at the slightly late. The digital audio system is not powerful enough to analyze aspects of the bits, only that the bits are there or not. It's described in Reed-Solomon code theory and in Probability of Vicinity or POV but in essence, the system requires more space, about 30% more to have the resolution code-wise, to "know" not only that the bits are accounted for but also that the bits are in the correct order and the correct place in TIME. This is one (of many) more advantage of using 32bit files, it gives us the physical 'room' to relocate the bits to their original spaces in time.

Most of the high res files are downloaded in flac, when used in this system - the file is converted to wav and upsampled to 32/44 or 32/48. The system can be set to automatically rip regular cd's to 32 bits and whatever sample rate you prefer, up to 192. The current version of the ripped software can be programmed to read the data up to 750 times and force it to write without the missing data if it cannot be placed in proper order, the result is a file with missing bits, but with much less jitter than a file wrtitten by another software. BTW, other softwares using ECC will make a perfect copy of your scratched up cd, perfect result from an imperfect source :lol:

After the music is filed, the library is aligned, with is similar to defragmenting, to correct misaligned bit. When the music filed is recalled for playback, the IDEAS software can be recalled to align it once more to make sure the bits are in perfect order (less jitter) during playback. I can tell the difference in playback quality with vs. without alignment, that's why I know it works.

ang haba na pala, ok pictures naman :D

Image

Image
my very capable second rig. the Modwright Transporter feeding the Trodt 6c33c-b amps, been getting a lot of playtime lately, mostly easy listening tunes as requested by my wife. This is a very musical system, and I can listen to this for hours without getting fatigued.

Image
the Lamm M2.2

Image
the Transporter removed and replaced by NPMP

Image
view from the massage chair

Image
from the front. on top on the Monster HTPS is a high definition digital cable receiver with 1TB PVR (not shown) hooked to my HT, very convenient way to order pay per view events, watch cable programs and other on demand video events like movies. Having this option is very convenient, now we don't have to drive to Blockbuster to rent movies.

Image
Mark applied AVM where he thinks there will be microphonics, and used one of the hard drive banks to hold the big V-caps

Image
unplanned trip to the Phils. last May to attend our high school reunion (batch 81)

Image
did some swimming

Image
and tree climbing

Image
had a wonderful time with some audio buddies, thanks Phil for the invite to your awesome music haven.

Image
happy to meet Rene (Hypertriode) at his place in Calatagan

And thanks to Jack for the invite to his beautiful new home, your new music room/system sounds awesome. A pleasure and honor to meet two respected gentlemen, Dante and Sir Francis (VD).

Posted February 3, 2012

we basically stayed in Alberta for the rest of the year after our return from the Phils. in June. obviously, my attention now is divided between audio and auto - and the glorious Alberta summer. The budget was divided as well. I had some tire issues with my Cayenne when one of my rear tires blew (Pirelli Scorpion Zero Assimetrico 335/25/22) when I hit a pothole on my first trip in the spring. I hit a pothole and just like that - the TPMS alerted me that the pressure dropped from 46 to less than 20 psi in seconds. Not wanting to risk my expensive 22 x 11.5 Modulare rims, I parked on the nearest safe spot and called for help.When everything is said and done, dimfer is out by more than $2k :@ , because I decided to change all my tires to a little taller set (Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta 305/35/22). My consolation - they are truly great tires and far exceeded the Pirellis. Not wanting to park my vehicle for a week again while dealing with whatever issue, I decided to buy a used set of OEM 18"

Image
this will also serve as my winter set. I learned a nasty leasson last winter - I used my Modulares and no matter how well I took care of them, some of the chromed part still pitted, and no matter how I polish it, cannot be restored. Some areas also showed signs of flaking. Well, lesson learned. My summer set are now stored dry and wrapped inside my garage. The 18" set looked so small compared to the 22", di ako mapakali, I had to buy a set of 30 mm spacers for the rears so that they don'y look too flushed into the wheel well. Gastos na naman!

One thing I like about the Cayenne GTS is the exhaust note when driven in sport mode. The exhaust has a butterfly damper that opens, giving a louder and more authoritative growl. But this guy is adding a powered sub to his VR5s that goes down to 20 hz already, meaning "hindi mapakali". So, sometime during the summer also, I ordered a set of resonated secondary cat bypas from Leistung Motorsports, and a pair of aftermarket cold air intakes.

One Saturday afternoon, we went to our shop and did the mods. Set the air suspension to the highest level, locked it there, removed the factory 500 cel catalytic converters (Cayenne has 2 sets and still street legal after the removal of the second set) and slapped the aftermarket one. Same with the cold air intake. Pawisan bago natanggal ang factory air box, but happy with the result.

Image

Image
the factory 500 cel catalytic converter.. saved some 20 lbs also


I am not happy with this video, but this will give you an idea. will shoot another one in the summer.

My wife says my SUV now sound like a pump boat, but I like it..There is supposed to be around 15 hp/20tq improvement with my mods, butt dyno says I gained a little :tmi: I am still planning to add a sprint booster and do an ECU tune when my warranty expires... should make it more fun to drive. Even now at just over 430hp/410 tq it is such a fun thing to drive. Palaging bitin kasi gusto mo pang bumirit, pero lampas na kaagad sa speed limit.. still feel heavy from o - 60, but goes 60 - 100 fairly quickly.

we stayed within Alberta, but went out as much as we could in the summer

Image
we enjoy evening walk around the neighbourhood after dinner

Image
here she is in one of our trips

Image
the boss, at 7500 ft above see level

Image
younger daughter Lily, glad to be away from the computer and enjoy nature

Image
one of the highlights of our summer is the Edmonton Heritage Festival, where Philippines is always well represented and proud to have one of the busiest pavilions year after year.

Image
a perfect opportunity to try food from all over the world

Image
Sometime during the late summer, my in-laws moved to their newly built townhome (next to my sister-in-law)

Image
about the same time, our 23 yr daughter decided she want to move out as well and bought her own condo, also walking distance to our house. she was laid off from work the day she signed her mortgage, so mom and dad to the rescue for the downpayment and closing cost. goodbye audio budget. well, at least now she is very happy to have a place of her own, and can now display her shoe collection.

well yeah, we spent a lot of our time visiting show homes, viewing property listings and so on.. dyan din pala naubos ang summer namin. my reward - now I have two vacant rooms... another audio setup? our younger daughter does not complain about loud sound as much as the other one, plus I bought her a noise cancelling headphone - now I have more freedom to play the stereo louder.

When winter came, we started to watch more and more movies at Netflix. Even with the enormous amount of movies we went to see at the movie houses, we were still able to find a lot of gems and truly enjoyable ones. The beauty with Netflix, when we don't really like what we have started, we could stop it and proceed to the next one. Twenty movies per month for $7.00 - I call that a steal. My wife says she cannot tell the advantage of a $50k rig over her alarm clock radio, but admits that the 120" ht is way more enjoyable than the 50" setup. I don't buy much movie discs, but has added more than 30 to my concert video collection in 2011.

One we also enjoy is playing video games in the big screen.


here is my cousin Kit, a rel life car nut. He has owned a few BMW's and tracks his Lancer Evo MR regularly in the summer. In this video, he picked an Evo MR of course and drove it around the Nurburgring. We're still dreaming of doing the real one together :D


patok din ang Gran Turismo sa mga kababaihan... it could be competitive sa mga magkakapatid as well :D :D

Image
we were quite busy during the holiday season. with the mga bagong lipat, may mga gustong dumalaw. My sisters in-law from Vancouver and Florida came, and my sister and her two kids from Phoenix also came. Nephew Dominic's first attempt to build a snowman was not quite successful, due to lack of wet snow. We had such a cold and snowy winter last season, and it is the exact opposite this year. Party dito party doon hangang after New Year!

a couple of videos of my current 2 channel rig, with the new member




at this point, the Trodt GM70 is an excellent performer. Not quite perfect yet, but can sound very realistic. It also offers an opportunity to play with my 6922 stash. quite fun indeed.

Posted Dec 31, 2012

here we go again.. I am typing this year end update for posting at a website whose local time zone is 2013 already 8)

we attended the 5:00 pm mass, had dinner at my in-laws' place and then I volunteered to drive my Mom back home to have time to type this up. My wife was having a grand time with her parents and the rest of the family.. I promised my wife I'll be back right away..

Just me and my mom at home right now, so I am playing Madeleine Peyroux's Half The Perfect World rather loud. Perfect...

I decided to let go of my beloved Accentus A101 last spring to make room for another pair of Von Schweikert speaker. The buyer was from Toronto area, he said he heard the Accentus A101 on his first trip to Salon Son Image Montreal Hi Fi show when he was 14 years old and he was so smitten by it. He said he went to all the shows in the following years, and never heard any other speaker that he liked better, and now that he is professionally employed and building his first audiophile system, he made sure the A101 is his first purchase. I held the transaction for a month so that he can save up for my asking price. I am very glad that the speaker went to somebody who genuinely like the Accentus sound.

I ordered a pair of VR35 and a Shockwave V15 from Albert. The VR35 went to my main level system, partnered with the Trodt 6c33c-b amps, Trodt battery powered pre and fronted by Modwright Platinum Transporter. This is a very capable budget combination. As good as the VR35's can be, I still missed the A101, the VR35 sounded dry compared to the A101.

Image

I had a long discussion with Albert how the addition of a powered subwoofer and a pair of ribbon tweeter module can elevate the VR5 to a level very close to VR9 (all VR5's components can be found in VR9), but I somehow cannot convince myself to fork out the money AVS is asking for the tweeter module ($10k retail). He said the cabinet alone cost $3k because they are made in small batch. Well, I was curious to make my own box, and readi up about high pass filter. With the help of a few WS friends, I marched on. I bought a pair of Aurum Cantus G1 tweeter from ebay, a pair of capacitors, Obbligato and other necessary parts from partsconnexxion and some more abubuts from partsexpress..why cheap obbligatto you ask? I have a friend here who is a capacitor nut, and he has almost all the popular capacitor brands you can name in the values he need for is Sonus Faber speakers (highly modified), and he very much favored Obliggatto for use with tweeters. I heard the difference between Obb & V Caps and thought I could live with the cheaper brand. I spent a Saturday making the box, sanding, painting etc. I made the box out of 3/4 plywood, and made it as small as possible diameter wise, but made it 12" deep. I first crossed it at 2khz as Aurum Cantus suggested, but it changed the sound too much. Jack said AVS crossed the VR9's ribbon tweeter at over 10khz - so that's what I aimed for. Instead of totally eliminating 2khz, I added a toggle switch, so now I can choose 2k or 10k. Vr5 like the 10k setting better, Vr35 seem to sound better at 2k.

Image

I also communicated with Sam Laufer & Mark Porzilli regarding my Memory Player. These guys work very hard to continiously improve their product. This is the beauty of software based system - you get you updates/upgrades online :geek: MP is still not a popular choice among traditional audiophiles, but it does an excellent job for me. There are so many much more expensive servers out there right now, so a $20k server does not make people jump anymore. But there is still resistance to fully embrace computer based hardware, no matter how good it can be.

With the addition of the powered sub (Albert said one should be more than enough for my room) and tweeter, something became more and more obvious to me.. I have to rearrange my system. Since my 2 channel rig is in the middle of our basement family room (not a dedicated room), it required me to do a lot of negotiating with the one who must be obeyed. One day, I placed the foam seats of our backyard swing in the wall behind my speakers. The effect was convincing enough, she finally budged. woohoo. These is also an obvious bass null (suckout) in the spot just behind the VR5 where I originally parked the V15, so I decided to place it center, and forward. My wife said I have to make sure it looks good, otherwise she will rearrange it herself. I thought I will also take the opportunity to move the 2 channel electronics away from the middle. My second daughter entertain her friends in our HT/PS3 setup a lot, and I was worried about my carts when they play rough.

One of the challenges of the GM70 amp based system is it's sensitivity to electrical noise. I had a few amps that passed through my living room, MR's GM70 is the most challenging of all, all the while I thought there was a design error. MR rigged me an isolation transformer, which helped by did not totally cure the problems (low pitch tube noise much like an aquarium pump sound and EMI/RFI noise as well). This contributed to my desire to move the 2 channel stuff away from HT stuff. This also forced me to change most of my cables (DIY) and stick to shielded design/parts. Happy to report - my system now is very quiet.

Image

Funny, one day I was calibrating the powered sub with the sound meter. When I played the low frequency test tones, the basement wall literally started to vibrate, my daughter who was in her bedroom ran out really spooked, thinking there was an earthquake :D I was worried too that my aquarium would burst, so | had to stop and do it another day. The black rack in the middle is also a DIY project :devil: , strong enough to carry a pair of Lamms (or Trodt GM70) on the top shelf :emo:

Image
the 2 channel electronics were moved closer to the aquarium, I moved the wall decor and replaced it with 4 pcs of wooden diffusers. I also decided to be more serious in analog department - picked up a Dynavector DRT XV-1S and now both my Dynavector carts have upgraded Soundsmith stylus/ruby cantiliver. I also picked up over a hundred lps and same amount of digital music this year (2012 pa).

How's the sound - full range. I worked hard so that the additions do not call for attention, but when you take them out you can tell the difference right away.

Update March 2013


fertile mind (or pregnant na ba?) won't rest just yet :D

I think I was hanging out at audio fora too much, kung ano ano tuloy ang pumapasok sa kukote. I thought just for the heck of it, I will build myself a cheapo DIY cable lift and hope that it will elevate my system's performance. While we were preparing for our daughter's debut, I went with my wife to Michaels', a mega craft store. I looked at different materials, and ended with two packages of this rubber thingies, some paint and a bottle of glue.
Image

I don't see myself selling turntables, so adding a turntable line to my product offering is out of the question. It is no secret in this forum that I had been curious about the Lenco L75. Remember my first attempt to buy a Lenco at fleabay? Unfortunately the bidding war ended with somebody taking home probably the most expensive Lenco sold at ebay :D at that time. Hell no, as much as I like the table, I am not spending megabuck on it on it's original form. At about the same time, a guy was selling an Artisan Fidelity restored unit with ruby bearing upgrade ($800) at agon for $3,800 including an Ortofon tonearm, I came very close to buying that unit because it was a good deal considering Chris Thornton sells it for $6.5k. I decided to let things cool off a bit and wait around. I looked at other candidates like the SP10, TD 124 or maybe a 301 again. I am now focusing on vintage tables thinking that if I take good care of it, it's value will only go up in time (the $350/pair 6SN7's I bought a few ago are now regularly offered at $650/pair). And while it may not have the best sound of the megabuck systems like the Techdas Air Force One or Wave KInetics NVS, a properly sorted direct drive is good enough to make me happy. I exchanged emails with Chris a few more times and came really close to ordering one, then a couple opportunities showed up a Canuck Audio Mart. A restored L75 with a nice plinth from a guy in Quebec for $575 and a restored Bogen-Presto (L70 equiv) with a nicer plinth from a guy in British Columbia for $480, as per the recommendation of Mr TAS Lenco - I pursued the L70.

The unit itself is in relatively good shape, the previous owner buy, recondition and re-sell Lencos, and he has already done all the necessary rebuild jobs including the installation of damping materials in the back of the chasis. He sent me pictures of the plinth build process and looking at his wood clamps alone, I was convinced he know what he was doing, built in alternate layers of MDF and baltic birch plywood using the same philosophies popularized by J Nantais. It is cheap enough that I could employ some more of the tweaks I have in mind without too much financial exposure.

I am a firm believer that vibration is one of the biggest enemies in audio, and try to damp everything :D

Image
Image
I coated as much as I could

Image
including the plinth. I did two thick coats and sanded lightly just to make it look nicer.

Around the same time I was working on the Bogen-Presto, an opportunity to buy a classical record collection came. I was told by the seller that it originally belonged to his wife piano teacher - an 80 year old former music professor at the University of Alberta Conservatory of Music, who regularly ordered records from Europe when she cannot buy them in North America (pre e-commerce era). I asked the classical music afficionados at WBF what to look for and went to the seller's house with a list of composers (Britten, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven etc) and only intended to buy maybe a couple of hundred lps. When I saw the lot, I was impressed with the condition of the records/covers because most of them looked like they have only been played once or twice. Most of the composers in my list are still there, the seller has a collection of more than 2,000 classic rock/popular music lps and has no interest in classical music. His wife picked 400 records that she personally liked and they decided to sell. Well, I got brave and offered a price which the guy hesitantly took, and with the agreement he will deliver to my house. Man, transporting 1200 lps from the guy's basement, to the main floor, to the front door, into his truck, from his truck to the entrance of our house proved to be a good workout. Once we brought all the boxes inside our house, I led the guy to my basement and we played a few tracks in my system while enjoying some refreshments. The guy was awestruck with my aquarium and we ended talking about the aquarium for the next hour or so (nothing new here, almost all audiophiles who come to my house forget about audio once they come to my basement). Suddenly the guy realized he has to pickup his wife from work, so I was left alone to haul the 12 heavy boxes to my basement. Boy, my arms were sore for days after that weekend.

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

Of course, my wife is not happy, she said "saan mo na naman ilalagay yang mga junk na 'yan?" But of course, as understanding as she is, she agreed to let me use one of the spare rooms, and helped me buy and put together a couple of bookcases from Ikea. As you can see, may lugar pa :D I originally told her that I will only pick the ones that I like and sell the rest, but I think she has now realized that they are here to stay for a while :emo:
Image

Image
will it harm/warp the records if I leave the box sets stacked flat like this?

Image
classic rock underneath the aquarium, jazz etc on the shelf to the right

Image
dvd collection remained small, there's Netflix. I also have a few stored in 2 tb external drive. Btw, the room where I have the records is quite away from the TT, at the end of this hallway, door to the right.

So with the spring fast approaching, I finally finished my audio related projects. My wife helped me wrap the Bogen in carbon fiber look vinyl one evening. Isn't it handsome?
Image
Image
I DIY'ed cork platter mats for the two tables - I was surprised by the improvement in the sound. The Acos Lustre arm, with Dynavector 10X5 with Soundsmith ruby cantilever and stylus upgrade.

Image
The Cocobolo arm pod looks ugly in this picture, but is very beautiful in person. Arm is still the AC4000MC, with Dynavector XV-1S also with Soundsmith ruby cantilever and stylus upgrade.

Image
mounted in the back is the FR64FS with Ortofon MC20Mk2

Image
Image
Image
also finished the G1 tweeter module, hard to take nice picture

Image
my DIY stand turned alright, I think. Also showing is the 2500 watt Trodt coppershielded Iso Trans, damped with layers of high temp silicone and dampening paint

Image
screen down. sources are HTIB, PS3, Shaw digital cable box with 1tb pvr, and karaoke system (for the wifey)

Image
Trodt GM70 in vacation mode muna :D baka naman magalit na si Vladimir kung si MR pirmi ang kakanta

Image
rest of two channel electronics. I will put the Trodt battery powered pre (on top of Lamm LL2 deluxe) on commission when I put back the GM70 into action.
The 4tb external drive beside the Memory Player has my backup files and will eventually contain a folder of my favourite cds upsampled to 32/192

Image
listening position

Image
view from behind right channel

Image
screen up. notice the front port of VR5?

Image
and lastly, the multi colored foam became black cable lift.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy_Ua94S ... Yel57pHSxg
music pls 8)
Last edited by dimfer on Wed Jun 18, 2014 7:43 pm, edited 38 times in total.
dimfer
Fanatic
Fanatic
 
Posts: 2428
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:33 pm
Location: Bozania

Postby yellowpaper » Sun Dec 31, 2006 10:44 am

Thanks for sharing your "audiofool" journey. And mind you it's a never ending journey just like the rest of your exotic hobbies. Nice one Ding! Keep it up! 8)
User avatar
yellowpaper
Citizen
Citizen
 
Posts: 684
Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2004 10:12 pm
Location: Colorado, Washington, DC, Alaska, Oregon and counting

Postby JackD201 » Sun Dec 31, 2006 10:59 am

Ding,

Thank you for the very sincere telling of your journey. I feel like I know you much better because of this. The most inspiring theme is your unflinching honesty to yourself. This is something we should all strive for in a hobby such as this where the goal is to find our personal "truths". :D

Pag-uwi mo Golf tayo ;)

Jack
User avatar
JackD201
Immortal
 
Posts: 10024
Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2004 12:10 am
Location: Bozania

Postby keith » Sun Dec 31, 2006 1:17 pm

Ding, that's a great and honest review of the things you love in life. It's always nice to get a feel for who people are in this forum through their writing. All the best to you and your journey.
User avatar
keith
walastick
 
Posts: 2463
Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2004 10:43 pm
Location: BGC

Postby vintage_dog » Sun Dec 31, 2006 1:50 pm

what an enjoyable read. thanks for sharing at WS and all the best to you in your journey...
User avatar
vintage_dog
Administrator
Administrator
 
Posts: 7391
Joined: Sun Jan 19, 2003 7:35 pm
Location: south of town

Postby dimfer » Sun Dec 31, 2006 10:10 pm

JackD201 wrote:Ding,

Thank you for the very sincere telling of your journey. I feel like I know you much better because of this. The most inspiring theme is your unflinching honesty to yourself. This is something we should all strive for in a hobby such as this where the goal is to find our personal "truths". :D

Pag-uwi mo Golf tayo ;)

Jack


Thanks to everybody who commented.

Jack, I would love to golf with you. You are a single digit handicapper, you'll have to babysit me 'pag naglaro tayo. I only played 4 rounds in 2005 and probbly less than 10 rounds in 2006. Golf is so out of my system now, I am starting to forget my favorite term (mulligan :oops: )
dimfer
Fanatic
Fanatic
 
Posts: 2428
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:33 pm
Location: Bozania

Postby dimfer » Sun Dec 31, 2006 10:26 pm

keith wrote:Ding, that's a great and honest review of the things you love in life. It's always nice to get a feel for who people are in this forum through their writing. All the best to you and your journey.


Keith, I would love to have lot's of audiobarkada. Unfortunately, kokonti ang mga kabarkada ko dito sa mga present hobbies ko. The Pinoy golf community here is big (over 200 players, with 5 all Pinoy golf tournaments every year) and tight knit kaya makakakita ka ng Pinoy kahit saang public golf course ka magpunta on weekends. Same with fishing. I have converted some of co-workers to aquahobbyist (although I am the only arowana lover)

But sa audio, I can't think of anybody who falls under "audiophile" category. Of course, most people I know have the basic home theater and karaoke setups, but nothing past that. The closest I have to a kabarkada here is Ban Hoang of Accentus, who I think is a nice person, but he is a businessman :roll: .
dimfer
Fanatic
Fanatic
 
Posts: 2428
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:33 pm
Location: Bozania

Postby dimfer » Sun Dec 31, 2006 10:55 pm

btw, I think I got all the review links fixed.

pasensya na rin sa mga gear owners of the brands I compared my system with, I have no intention to put any brand down. Since some of the gears I own (like the A101) are not popular products, I find it really challenging to describe them due to lack of terminology and experience.
dimfer
Fanatic
Fanatic
 
Posts: 2428
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:33 pm
Location: Bozania

Postby rtsyrtsy » Mon Jan 01, 2007 12:05 am

Ding,

LOL on our "sulsultants." :D Ttommy, JackD, you couldn't have picked a sharper bunch. Si ArnoldC masarap kausap kasi practical...sa parts. Kung kailangan kong matutunan yung skills niya, sigurado mahal din yun. :twisted:

Seriously, these WS peeps are true gems.

Kung kapos yung 845, may nag sulsulggest na ba sa iyo nung GM70? Matagal na akong mainit dyan kaya lang walang ma-audition.

The best rack is no rack. I had all my gear on the floor but my safety inspector (the one I married) disapproved since we had a newborn. So I coughed up the dough for a Pagode. It's nice. But the floor was better and significantly cheaper.

And thanks for the link for the Lumenlab. I'll keep an eye out for them especially when they get HD rigs.

Ttommy, may bago nang Oppo...have you pulled the trigger? Sabay tayo kung sakaling hindi pa. :D
User avatar
rtsyrtsy
Moderator
 
Posts: 3908
Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2003 5:25 am

Postby dimfer » Mon Jan 01, 2007 4:33 am

rtsyrtsy wrote:Kung kapos yung 845, may nag sulsulggest na ba sa iyo nung GM70?


actually, Jack did.. I think he also suggested it to Vladimir 8)

did you check out the d-i-y forum at Lumenlab? I think the d-i-yers here will have fun time putting those projectors together.
dimfer
Fanatic
Fanatic
 
Posts: 2428
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:33 pm
Location: Bozania

Postby ttommy » Wed Jan 03, 2007 11:01 am

Thanks for taking the time and effort in sharing, Ding, please keep us updated on your adventures.

Btw, seeing the picture below made me realize how much of a hardcore fish lover you are--
Image
As in, may dedicated couch at exercise machine para sa aquarium!

Oh and you might wanna change your handle from "Tube Newbie" to "Mr MBL" :twisted: Looking forward to your review of the CD/DAC and 101Es, er, 5011 ;)

Russ, please check your PM re: Oppo.
ttommy
Citizen
Citizen
 
Posts: 943
Joined: Sat Aug 30, 2003 8:27 am

Postby mullard88 » Wed Jan 03, 2007 1:13 pm

Tube Newbie,

Your writing stirs a lot of memories. If I may ask, which city in Canada do you reside in? I also kept fishes a long time ago. I had arowanas and pacus. I wish you all the best in the continuation of your audio journey and I hope you keep sharing the experiences on this journey.
Last edited by mullard88 on Wed Jan 03, 2007 1:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
mullard88
Citizen
Citizen
 
Posts: 515
Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2005 8:19 am

Postby AudioAmp » Wed Jan 03, 2007 1:20 pm

Very interesting story :) Very educational too.

Just curious... is that the Aurum Cantus Supreme in one of your pics above (the one with the Cayin CDT-17A)? We carry Aurum Cantus but not Accentus so I do not know if some of their models are labeled Aurum in Asia and Accentus in Canada. Of course the manager of Aurum Cantus will keep confidentialy on the brands and models he makes... until i saw them in person during one of my plant tours in China. Nevertheless, Aurum does make good speakers :) comparable to some of the best in the world. (then again we carry that brand so take my remark with a ton of salt hahaha).

Music and Fish - same hobby as mine. Now i am flirting with getting into marine aquariums SOMEBODY STOP ME PLS. Do visit our showroom just to chitchat whenever you visit Pinas.
User avatar
AudioAmp
Citizen
Citizen
 
Posts: 542
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2006 10:12 pm

Postby dimfer » Thu Jan 04, 2007 2:00 pm

ttommy wrote:Thanks for taking the time and effort in sharing, Ding, please keep us updated on your adventures.

Btw, seeing the picture below made me realize how much of a hardcore fish lover you are--
Image
As in, may dedicated couch at exercise machine para sa aquarium!

Oh and you might wanna change your handle from "Tube Newbie" to "Mr MBL" :twisted: Looking forward to your review of the CD/DAC and 101Es, er, 5011 ;)


you're welcome Tito..thanks din for all the help. I received the book yesterday, laki pala. (I'll read cover to cover, promise) Thanks. Your's is coming... I am waiting for AVM coated cds from FIM..

The massage chair was a birhtday present from my wife :lol: I put away some of my exercise equipments when I repurchased Golds membership last year (2006).. medyo sisikan na.

I think I still want to try tube. While the 5011 is a very good pre-amp, it is not as emotional and sweet as the ASL Flora. Like I mentioned to you before, I like the decay and lower register dynamics of Flora. But then again, the 5011 could be doing it right as opposed to exaggerated Flora...and right now, I don't really know. I hope somebody could render a review of the Flora (can't find anything on the net) .

The dac & cdp are still in my office. will hook it up on the weekend.
dimfer
Fanatic
Fanatic
 
Posts: 2428
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:33 pm
Location: Bozania

Postby dimfer » Thu Jan 04, 2007 2:10 pm

mullard88 wrote:Tube Newbie,

Your writing stirs a lot of memories. If I may ask, which city in Canada do you reside in? I also kept fishes a long time ago. I had arowanas and pacus. I wish you all the best in the continuation of your audio journey and I hope you keep sharing the experiences on this journey.


Hi Mullard88,

I am in Edmonton, Alberta, not too far from the famous West Edmonton Mall. So, you were an aro lover.. I am hoping that the arowanas would someday support this audio illness na napasukan ko. I am also hoping that I could successfully marry the two, sights (aquarium) and sound (audio setup) without sacrificing sound quality (ie..sound reflection on glass).

Will try my best to document the journey here.
dimfer
Fanatic
Fanatic
 
Posts: 2428
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:33 pm
Location: Bozania

Postby dimfer » Thu Jan 04, 2007 2:49 pm

AudioAmp wrote:Very interesting story :) Very educational too.

Just curious... is that the Aurum Cantus Supreme in one of your pics above (the one with the Cayin CDT-17A)? We carry Aurum Cantus but not Accentus so I do not know if some of their models are labeled Aurum in Asia and Accentus in Canada. Of course the manager of Aurum Cantus will keep confidentialy on the brands and models he makes... until i saw them in person during one of my plant tours in China. Nevertheless, Aurum does make good speakers :) comparable to some of the best in the world. (then again we carry that brand so take my remark with a ton of salt hahaha).

Music and Fish - same hobby as mine. Now i am flirting with getting into marine aquariums SOMEBODY STOP ME PLS. Do visit our showroom just to chitchat whenever you visit Pinas.


the speakers with the Cayin cdp are same as mine, Accentus A101. They are somewhat similar to Supreme, although the A101 has a rear facing G3 tweeter. I actually asked the Canadian importer of Accentus the same question. His answer was a big no. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, different crossover & cabinet daw. I don't really know kung sabi nya lang 'yun to justify his much higher selling price than your P500k Supreme. He also send his AVM to the manufacturer for application to his speaker orders, in the case of A101, worth $2K of AVM is applied. The next model up, the Grand Accentus, he claims 2.5 liters of AVM ($3.8K/liter) is applied. I did a lot of comparison with the established brands before I bought mine...

Accentus will appear on the cover of Jan issue of one of China's hi-fi magazines, and I think there would be a review. The Canadian distributor was doing a good job promoting these speakers until 2005, but he got sidetracked with this AVM thing. He said he would push the Accentus harder this year, will bring more lines to the hi-fi show in Montreal. Actually, they are slowly taking customers away from verity in Quebec market. I talked to their former rep who was in Montreal during the last show they brought Accentus there, pinipilahan daw ng mga reviewers/audiophiles there ang Accentus room with their own cds. They were awarded best sounding setup in the show yata

The best sounding setup (for me) that I heard so far is from the Grand Accentus driven by Ali Integrated amp (tube). Iyan din ang pinaka gusto ni Rick Schultz. Hindi ko pa rin makalimutan ang tunog nito. I've been looking for Ali for a while, wala rin akong makita.

But then, hindi ko pa narinig yung Lamm/VR9 combo ni Jack or Dartezeel/VR11 ni Mike Lavigne :oops:

Another fishlover...marine setup, go for it. Marine fish and corals are so much cheaper there. Do you know that the setup of a Pinoy (Jun Uy a.k.a reefkeeper) appeared in the book called "Best Aquariums in the World"? Center spread pa... He's one of my aquahooby idols.
dimfer
Fanatic
Fanatic
 
Posts: 2428
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:33 pm
Location: Bozania

Postby dimfer » Thu Jan 04, 2007 3:05 pm

btw... I hope somebody could post a review or personal impression of
Ali Integrated amp, Audio Space Reference One & EAR Yoshino 890(Tim Paravicini). No dealers in Edmonton.

I was really impressed with the ASL Flora/Hurricane DT combo, but the Canadian distributor of EAR promised me his product will walk over the ASL in all categories...hmmm. Sabi rin ni Mang Rod noon, his 845 will blow the Hurricane away.. sa Bisaya, "libog na si Ding"
dimfer
Fanatic
Fanatic
 
Posts: 2428
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:33 pm
Location: Bozania

Postby AudioAmp » Thu Jan 04, 2007 5:01 pm

I'll give Aurum a call and get more details hehehe. Maybe even a couple of Accentus units in if we can find interested parties. The Supreme are the highest Aurum line we have brought in and so far we have successfully moved a few units yet there is still this resistence against china made speakers so until the market opens up ... hopefully soon hahaha.

I think that reefer is from Canada too right? The problem of reefing here in Pinas is the equipment to maintain the aquarium. Maybe i just do not know the hardcore suppliers but from what i have seen locally, the reefs back in Canada look better. The ones from Big Al's :) Used to live in T.O.
User avatar
AudioAmp
Citizen
Citizen
 
Posts: 542
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2006 10:12 pm

Postby Superman » Thu Jan 04, 2007 5:17 pm

congratulations! by the way, sent you a PM, thanks! :D
User avatar
Superman
Master Showman
 
Posts: 15237
Joined: Mon Jan 27, 2003 1:41 pm
Location: Davao City

Postby dimfer » Thu Jan 04, 2007 10:53 pm

AudioAmp wrote:I'll give Aurum a call and get more details hehehe. Maybe even a couple of Accentus units in if we can find interested parties. The Supreme are the highest Aurum line we have brought in and so far we have successfully moved a few units yet there is still this resistence against china made speakers so until the market opens up ... hopefully soon hahaha.

I think that reefer is from Canada too right? The problem of reefing here in Pinas is the equipment to maintain the aquarium. Maybe i just do not know the hardcore suppliers but from what i have seen locally, the reefs back in Canada look better. The ones from Big Al's :) Used to live in T.O.


unfortunately China is associated with cheap quality..but time will come. :lol:

reefkeeper is in the Phils, he lives in San Lorenzo Village (I think). All of his corals are imported but some of his fish are from the Phils. I tried searching pictures of his 800 gal setup, pero inalis na nya sa palhs site.
dimfer
Fanatic
Fanatic
 
Posts: 2428
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:33 pm
Location: Bozania

Next

Return to Members' Audio Set-up

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests

cron