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Re: Audio Catalogs & Memorabilia

PostPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:02 am
by jadis
audiostar wrote:I can sum up your discourse into a single word: transfiguration :-)


:rock:

Re: Audio Catalogs & Memorabilia

PostPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 3:27 pm
by JAA
jadis wrote:
JAA wrote:Hi Philip,

Test records are primarily tools made from vinyl format. It's cheaper, less tedious, and more practical than going into electronic measuring gadgets. No matter how accurate the display from these devise are, our ears would still have the final say. :)


I'm glad to hear that you feel that way too, John. And just to add, also, no matter how perfectly, or synergistically our component chain is matched, if the weak link is a less than optimum tracking cartridge, the distortion is going to travel all the way down to the loudspeakers and worse, into our ears.


I agree Philip! Source signal should always come out correct :)
audiostar wrote:I can sum up your discourse into a single word: transfiguration :-)


:rock: :rock: :rock:

Aluminum Accessories

PostPosted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 5:31 pm
by jadis
While doing some general cleaning in the listening room, I found a box that contained something that truly brought back memories during my first few years of the hobby.

My first D.I.Y. record clamp:

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Being involved in those times with aluminum, I asked my lathe operator to machine this LP clamp from a solid chunk of aluminum billet and designed it to have a locking screw (also made from aluminum) to secure the hold on the spindle. It was made for my Ariston RD110 Superior table which did not have a screw down clamp. The Audio Technica clamp was to heavy it would lower the suspension of the table on which the platter also rested. Those were the good old days when making audio curios were just a few steps away behind my office.

And below, discovered from the 'pandora box', a trio of 'tiptoes' that I designed with round 'tips' to prevent accidental or even intentional 'penetration' of the floor, among other things. :lol:

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Re: Audio Catalogs & Memorabilia

PostPosted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 5:44 pm
by mullard88
Hi Jadis,

I recall you also made a lot of tip toes for me. Do you still have your lathe machines?

Re: Audio Catalogs & Memorabilia

PostPosted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 6:35 pm
by jadis
mullard88 wrote:Hi Jadis,

I recall you also made a lot of tip toes for me. Do you still have your lathe machines?


Hi Mullard,

I sold my lathe and milling machines a few years ago as they were idle. Yes, I recall that you had some custom made 'huge' tiptoes for your very heavy amps made by my guys in the factory.

Shun Mook

PostPosted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 9:12 pm
by jadis
SHUN MOOK MPINGO DISC

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No, these are not hockey puck memorabilia from the last Stanley Cup win by the Boston Bruins. :lol: They are my one and only 'snake oil' audio tweak which I got sometime in the 90s when a dealer visited the HK Hi Fi show and brought some of these here for sale. These small things were not cheap. And it would normally raise eyebrows (and blood pressure) when the cash is sucked out from your pockets.

From their own website, the Shun Mook people describe what this disc is supposed to do:

"The Mpingo Disc is invented by the Shun Mook team. It is made from a combination of Gaboon and Mpingo Ebony, treated with a proprietary process that gives the disc a unique property to regulate the resonance of any sonic component and its transmission. Yet this is a very simple item to use. Just place one to three disc on top of your preamp, CD transport, DA converter, turntable etc, and listen for the wonderful change in your Hi fi system. When this disc is excited by any external acoustic energy, it will resonate throughout the entire audible spectrum, thus overriding unwanted harmonic distortions and at the same enriching the musical reproduction."

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The Chinese characters literally means 'Spirit' and 'Wood'. Or magical wood. When I was starting out in audio and a friend would lend me some tweak products to try, I ask him if he heard any improvements in his own system and he would say: 'Basta lagyan mo lang yan at isipin mo na gumanda na ang tunog mo.' :D Audio, after all, is a crazy hobby, and such pronouncements can't be all that wrong, I thought. Little did I know later on that some crazy 'snake oil' tweak products do actually make an improvement in sound. Or in another case, a difference with or without it. Worst case scenario is if it sounds worse than before, then just don't use it and make it an audio memorabilia. :lol:

In my case, this piece of audio memorabilia actually makes my sound better. It's hard to believe at first but upon putting it on and off audio equipments in my room, I do hear changes in the sound. And fortunately for me, it is for the better. As in below, if I place it beside the tonearm base of my ET2 and on top of the arm board, the vocals sound rounder and mellower. Removing it makes the vocals harsh and thinner by comparison. For experimentation purposes, I placed one each on the left and right feet of the Maggies and on instrumental cuts, the overall clarity and bass punch is improved. It's subtle, but noticeable.

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Below, the other side of the puck, showing a smaller round 'implant' on the main puck. This probably is the second kind of wood inserted into the main wood material to regulate the resonance of a component, as the makers state. I'm sure the guys did their homework in making and testing these products. After all these years, they are still very much alive and producing various forms of 'resonators'. Call it 'snake oil', but, AFAIK, it works. (The words 'basta isipin mo na lang na gumanda ang tunog mo' has stopped ringing in my head). :lol:

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Re: Audio Catalogs & Memorabilia

PostPosted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 4:57 am
by polaris
i remember this mpingo very fondly jadis. i had too many competing priorities when it came out, so didn't have the chance to investigate. i remember ka-batch nito yung mga cd pens to run around your cds supposedly to improve sound.

Re: Audio Catalogs & Memorabilia

PostPosted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 7:16 am
by jadis
polaris wrote:i remember this mpingo very fondly jadis. i had too many competing priorities when it came out, so didn't have the chance to investigate. i remember ka-batch nito yung mga cd pens to run around your cds supposedly to improve sound.


Yes, Polaris. I remember, and in fact, USED the CD pens. Green, water based markers for CD edges. It literally takes out the 'edge' in CD sound, if you ask me. Almost all of my CD have this green paint around them. Yet another 'snake oil' type of tweak was the Combak Tuning Dots. A few friends of mine swear by it. I found the cost at that time too much. They're like 25 centavo coins that you stick in your loudspeakers or components to make it more musical, as they claim.

Re: Audio Catalogs & Memorabilia

PostPosted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 7:51 am
by mullard88
Hi Jadis,

Are the dots that Coltrane stuck on his Sonus Faber Stradivarius combak tuning dots?

Re: Audio Catalogs & Memorabilia

PostPosted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 8:58 am
by jadis
mullard88 wrote:Hi Jadis,

Are the dots that Coltrane stuck on his Sonus Faber Stradivarius combak tuning dots?


That's correct, Mullard. Even when he sold it, those dots went to the new owner as the adhesive is so tight it was hard to remove without damaging the wood of the speakers.

Re: Audio Catalogs, Accessories & Memorabilia

PostPosted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 7:42 am
by jadis
ACRYLIC 'FEET'

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Long time ago I heard good things about acrylic when used for audio purposes. In fact, the evidence is all over, in the form of the acrylic turntable. Many brands utilize this material for its inherent 'non ringing' properties. Realizing this, I bought a few feet of 2" acrylic rod from Gan's in Binondo and had my guy in the shop cut it to small pieces of 2" high cylinders. I actually made 16 pieces then, 4 each of my Jadis JA200 4-piece mono blocks. Only 1 set of the remains today and it's used on my ARC power amp. For the longest time I had been curious of the sonic effects ofthe acrylic feet as I never had done an A/B test in my Jadis amps. It was too much hassle then, I thought, as I needed another guy to lift each block 4 times to put and remove the feet for a total of 8 'lifts'. I would have to pay the man a daily wage. :lol:

But now I have only 1 chassis and I have a teen son who is eager to build up some muscles, or so he says. :lol: So I snatched the perfect opportunity by telling him lifting my amp up while I put on and off the feet could help him develop some muscular activities in his arms in the here and now. He just had to believe it. :lol: At any rate, the experiment went on and I was quite astounded by the sonic difference the acrylic feet provided. There is no need to split hairs and nitpick here. The difference is HUGE. The sound without the feet is a total wreck, inasmuch as I'm describing my own sound, I would call my sound without the feet 'tunog lata', with all due respect to myself. :D That is, when compared to having the feet under the amp - the music is just so right and in an instant, by removing them, the sound becomes very reed thin, and the entire soundstage collapsed. Had I not used the acrylic feet, I would have thought my amp is not well matched to my pre amp, or that my cables did not match my amp, etc. until I actually get rid of one of more components thinking that it's the culprit. My purpose was to simplify my set-up by clearing up the cobwebs and unwanted tweaks and I actually planned to sell those feet had there been no sonic improvement in my system. (The 3 other sets were sold long time ago as quick as 12 o'clock, in the vernacular). :lol: But as it turned out, the benefits are real and definitely desirable, at least in my system. I had been wondering how those after-market massive platforms and vibration-controlling balls would affect the sound of audio systems before. Now I have an idea that these things do have an effect after all. The question becomes if one will like it or not, and of course, if these accessories fit the budget. These acrylic feet are good value for the money. And hearing is believing.

Re: Aluminum Accessories

PostPosted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 9:24 pm
by m_shoe_maker
jadis wrote:
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These things look so darn horny! :devil: Reminds me of Aphrodite A. :D

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Re: Aluminum Accessories

PostPosted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 9:44 pm
by jadis
m_shoe_maker wrote:
jadis wrote:
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These things look so darn horny! :devil: Reminds me of Aphrodite A. :D

Image


haha. you have a very 'fertile' imagination, herr doktor. :lol:

but the round points are supposed to be pointing 'down' and not 'in your face'. :lol:

Re: Shun Mook

PostPosted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 10:04 pm
by Jon Agner
jadis wrote:SHUN MOOK MPINGO DISC

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As I recall, we were discussing this puck years ago, and that time, we still couldn't understand how it worked :?: :?: :?: :?:

... now try using this as a record clamp and hear what happens ;)

Re: Shun Mook

PostPosted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 10:08 pm
by spare_2_win
Jon Agner wrote:
jadis wrote:SHUN MOOK MPINGO DISC

Image



As I recall, we were discussing this puck years ago, and that time, we still couldn't understand how it worked :?: :?: :?: :?:

... now try using this as a record clamp and hear what happens ;)


sir how much does a piece of this cost before?

Re: Audio Catalogs, Accessories & Memorabilia

PostPosted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 10:21 pm
by Jon Agner
Caloy,

bibili ka?

Re: Audio Catalogs, Accessories & Memorabilia

PostPosted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 10:35 pm
by spare_2_win
Jon Agner wrote:Caloy,

bibili ka?


Im interested to place it beside the tonearm and hear what happens. Baka mura lang eh. :D

Re: Audio Catalogs, Accessories & Memorabilia

PostPosted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 11:50 pm
by Jon Agner
spare_2_win wrote:
Jon Agner wrote:Caloy,

bibili ka?


Im interested to place it beside the tonearm and hear what happens. Baka mura lang eh. :D


ngek, remind me to make you one ;)

Re: Shun Mook

PostPosted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 7:54 am
by jadis
spare_2_win wrote:
Jon Agner wrote:
jadis wrote:SHUN MOOK MPINGO DISC

Image



As I recall, we were discussing this puck years ago, and that time, we still couldn't understand how it worked :?: :?: :?: :?:

... now try using this as a record clamp and hear what happens ;)


sir how much does a piece of this cost before?


Loy,

I recall in the mid 90s it was p2000 each. It was not cheap but since we had an audio buddy code named 'Critic Number 2' swear by it and actually bought it after doing an A/B test; I, among others, decided to get 2 pcs. :D

Re: Shun Mook

PostPosted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 7:58 am
by jadis
Jon Agner wrote:
jadis wrote:SHUN MOOK MPINGO DISC





As I recall, we were discussing this puck years ago, and that time, we still couldn't understand how it worked :?: :?: :?: :?:

... now try using this as a record clamp and hear what happens ;)


Yes Jon. Below, I'll post the original 'catalog' from them on their principles. And they actually do have a record clamp. And if I remember correctly the price can weaken the legs. :lol: I do believe it will make a difference after testing their resonators.