Two steps forward...

[admin_exported]

Two things have happened lately, on which I'd be grateful for views from all sides.

Firstly and probably more controversially, equipment mounting (oer). Last week, I was quite disenchanted by the hifi. With all the kafuffle I've put the wife and the bank balance through lately with hifi shopping, I thought I'd better keep schtumm.

It was the wife who first mentioned it was sounding a bit crap. I 'fessed up and we realised we moved the hifi off its previous home (wood and glass console table, cd and amp next to each other) onto a narrow, tall wooden thing, with amp on top of hifi. We put it back as it was and it's was nice and sharp and crispy again.

I've since chopped up an oak sleeper (not one full of tar) to make a trendy oak bench and I'm quite happy with it.

So questions are:

1) Did we imagine the whole thing or does what we (think we) heard sound plausible?

2) What further improvements can I make? Those isolation platforms/feet? Any DIY stuff to try (foam etc?)

Bloney

 

[Anonymous]

Mmmm, they do look reassuringly expensive...!

A quote form the website:

"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..."

I read as:

"Just place one to three disc on top of your Oldphrt, and listen for the wonderful change in your cynic. When this disc is excited by any external post, it will resonate throughout the entire forum, thus overriding unwanted opinions"

Only joshing Oldphrt, but it has brought a smile to my face. I must get out more.

Oldphrt, honestly, what are your thoughts on what I (think) I heard? Do you consider it totally out the question?

 

[Thaiman]

[quote user="bloney"]
So questions are:

1) Did we imagine the whole thing or does what we (think we) heard sound plausible?

2) What further improvements can I make? Those isolation platforms/feet? Any DIY stuff to try (foam etc?)

Bloney

[/quote]

1) Why would you like to know?? If it sound good to your ears it must be money well spent.

2) The best upgrade I ever come acrossed is a big 3 (source, amp and speakers) anything else is a little tweak at your own (ears) risk.

 

[Clare Newsome]

At the great risk of incurring Oldphrt's ire (surely you can't deny vibrations can effect sound quality??) these are a useful isolating addition for £15.

 

[Anonymous]

1) I'm just intrigued by it all. I'm not satisfied just with if it makes a difference, but why it makes a difference and what other peoples experiences have been. I'm an Engineer, so I'm used to having to understand why things work and it's tricky to turn this off I guess. Not that I'd necessarily understand the reason, or even if it's understood at all. Also, I'm amazed at the difference at all! We both heard it and at the time it really was a very obvious difference (and we were both unhappy with it quietly before admitting it!), so being a bit cynical and disbelieving I'd like to know more! I'm full of self doubt too!

2) Whats the Big 3? Do you mean sorting all three components together will make the biggest difference? If so, thats what you'd expect 🙂 Or have I completely missed the point?

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Clare Newsome"]

At the great risk of incurring Oldphrt's ire (surely you can't deny vibrations can effect sound quality??) these are a useful isolating addition for £15.

[/quote]

Thanks Claire, they certainly look like they're worth a punt for the money. I take the CD will be the one to use them with - I presume the SS amp won't benefit in any way?

 

[Clare Newsome]

It might squash the life out of the little fellas! Once you've got them, before you stick them on (they come with self-adhesive backing - nothing that'll damage/be permanent, but enough to keep them in place), try them under a range of stuff to see what you think. As always, the latter is the most important factor of all.

 

[Thaiman]

1) My best friend is an engineer (I was one once but I wasn't very good at it!) he also have a hifi hobby and messing about with his gears all the time, most of the time I can hear different, now I mean different which doesn't mean better! Incidently he bought me a Isolated balls (similar to Clare's link) and I couldn't hear any different at all but he can! That is why I said "Why you want to know?" I don't think anyone in the world will be able to answer you that question!

2) A few years back I was really in to Hifi in a big way, I was upgrading very often and wasted a lot of money on cables and such like!
I didn't enjoy myself as much as when I was starting the hoppy! because I was listening to HiFi and not music!

Now I don't care if you are swapping my interconnects from Cardas to a freebies red and white pair or took a spike out of my speakers....I still be able to enjoy the music because I got my, imo, very good big 3.

 

[Anonymous]

1) Yeah, I can't help but mess with it! I wish I could just be content, but I can't - I think it's one of my flaws! Was reading about a DIY isolation platform (on a link from Clares link above) involving a slab and some tennis balls. If I wasn't lining myself to much mocking from anyone who finds out what I'm up to, I'd love to have a go at this!

2) aah - I see what you mean - get the source amp and speakers right and the wire is more or less irrelevent (within reason!). Yeah - I can see that. My tweaking started (apart form my character, as mentioned above) after not being happy with my setup and wanted to squeeze the very best out of it and get it set-up just so.

To be honest, I am very happy with my gear now but have been amazed at the things I've found have made a difference. I had another revelation too, but thats for another thread!

 

[Anonymous]

I always used to think that vibration control was balony for anything apart from record decks, and maybe CD players (although nobody worries about it with computers and if you get the bits off the disc all must be well surely!). (see another thread or nine about digital interconnects that I refuse to post to until somebody puts dolby digital over rs232).

Then I thought - what is a capacitor? It's a couple of films of conductor seperated by a dialectric and the capacitance depends upon the distance between the two conductors.

And what does a vibration do I ask you? It varies the distance between the conductors.

Of course I don't think that my system is exactly going to sound rubbish because it's not properly isolated, but maybe it isn't going to sound as good as it could either. These effects are no doubt small, but that doesn't mean they're not audible.

Life is not simple. Scientists and engineers are not simple either . But they don't necessarily have the whole picture the whole of the time. (well okay I'm an engineer but as they say - the exception proves the rule).

To prove I really am a sad git the final thought that wondered through my alcohol addled remant of a brain...

It might be interesting to try to prove whether or not the capacitance of a standard capacitor varies under a vibration - it's not obvious that it should or shouldn't - after all the dialectric is probalby incompressible albeit in a non-rigid bit of packaging - it might average out under the vibration to be "the same overall" since the seperation will vary across the whole package - possible it's even frequency dependent?

Now if somebody really is really really sad out there they might want to think about it... Nah, far too late, much better to drink one last beer and hit the sack.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Clare Newsome"]
It might squash the life out of the little fellas! Once you've got them, before you stick them on (they come with self-adhesive backing - nothing that'll damage/be permanent, but enough to keep them in place), try them under a range of stuff to see what you think. As always, the latter is the most important factor of all.

[/quote]

Cool! I can see a week of obsessed fiddling and self doubt coming up trying them out! Should keep me quiet and out of trouble though!

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="jimwall"]
I always used to think that vibration control was balony for anything apart from record decks, and maybe CD players (although nobody worries about it with computers and if you get the bits off the disc all must be well surely!). (see another thread or nine about digital interconnects that I refuse to post to until somebody puts dolby digital over rs232).

Then I thought - what is a capacitor? It's a couple of films of conductor seperated by a dialectric and the capacitance depends upon the distance between the two conductors.

And what does a vibration do I ask you? It varies the distance between the conductors.

[snip]

Now if somebody really is really really sad out there they might want to think about it... Nah, far too late, much better to drink one last beer and hit the sack.

[/quote]

Good points Jimwall,

I guess inductors would be prone to being affected by vibration to an extent - if the windings wibble about with respect to the core. Maybe. Perhaps a spectrum analyser on a bandpass filter and a phone vibrating motor (avoided the term vibrator quite neatly there) being switched on and off might show something graphically without too much effort. Nah, praps it is a bit too much effort...

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="oldphrt"][quote user="Clare Newsome"]

At the great risk of incurring Oldphrt's ire (surely you can't deny vibrations can effect sound quality??) these are a useful isolating addition for £15.

[/quote] Far too cheap.[/quote]

Yes, they do look quite a bargain, don't they.

Oldphrt - did you read my post about you above. Made me chuckle and thought you might like it! Are you really cynical about vibration control, Oldphrt (genuine question!)?

 

[Anonymous]

I find that hard to believe!

 

[Thaiman]

Am I right to think my old friend and most of other member's enemy has been baned from this forum!???

 

[Anonymous]

I hope not - I think he was just coming round to my way of thinking..!

oldphrt - you there?

 

[Anonymous]

Well they haven't banned me and I'm surely just as argumentative, offensive, and even more dangerously obsessive!

 

[Anonymous]

This happens in every single forum on earth. Sadly.

Free speach is all very well, but usually it is a balance between receiving something for free; ie. a great forum in which to share knowledge and information and ideas Vs. a responsibility and the requirement to respect each other and the organisation that set it up for our benefit.

So I'm not surprised. Sure I'll miss the fellow. He had some really interesting things to say and I learned from him. But if he won't stop being aggressive and rude to people then I have no problem with him being banned if he has been. That's my view. We will never know what e-mail correspondance has gone on behind the scenes to attempt to mitigate a banning. There are always two sides to any story.

And besides, does anyone really know for sure that that's what's happened. He may just be out for the afternoon.

 

[Anonymous]

Look, you were supposed to butt in and say "no, no, not at all Jimmy me lad"...

 

[Anonymous]

I thought that was implied!!

 

[Anonymous]

Isn't it plain amazing that Hi-Fi gear works at all. I find it remarkable. We spend all our time worrying about the impact of simple interconnects when what's in the box makes the mind boggle.

When i was reading Mechanical Engineering at Imperial many years ago, electronics was the one thing that were totally unpredictable. You just couldn't tell if, when you turned it on, anything at all would happen.

I think we owe the geniuses behind the electronics a round of applause all over.

 

[Anonymous]

I think I just experienced a time slip...

 

[Anonymous]

Post deleted. User banned for persistent use of defamatory remarks, despite repeated warnings.

(House rules, No 1: "Members must not post libellous, racist, aggressive or otherwise
insulting or abusive remarks about any individual, company or
organisation.")

 

[Anonymous]

Well you've upset me, repeatedly! But I don't hold it against you. I'm sure the feeling is entirely mutual. All part of a lively debate I think. Or is it blood-sport? Not entirely sure.

 

[Anonymous]

Are you kidding?

You're the rudest bloke in this forum. Don't ask for explanations as to how. Crickey. You really have no idea how many people's backs you get up. It's not the facts you use it's the way you treat other people and their views. Come on, you can't honestly say you haven't a clue what I mean.