Little Vinyl Rant

Pure_Brew said:
Ah that would be crazy cool!

Lee, you had 901's... Did they mess with your TT? Could I be getting some sort of feedback/isolation issue!?!?

@Nando- the other thing I noticed when I swapped over to my Techincs/AT440mla, the overall balance was about the same, but the AT was much more prestine in the high frequency area. That actually helped a little. Even my wife who could care less about any of this noticed the difference. I suppose having 18 drivers vs 2-4 driver playing garbage is going to be rougher.
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901's didn't mess with my Denon DP1500. Those little Magnavox kick ass 2 ways with the 15"" woofs and 12"
horns DID. Once the then girlfriend at the time built a macrame ceiling hanger, that was abated....
 
Wow Nando that's supposed to be a pretty fine pre. Yeah I still have this massive PS Audio 200c sitting in my closet. Last time I had it running, I was testing some 901's with it and it was incredible on bass especially. But where it used to crackle at turn off, it now will start crackling randomly while it's on. =(
There are also ZERO replacement boards (repaired trace on a hot spot), and the available schematic looks like something drawn on a paper napkin lol. So I'm not sure what I'm going to do but I'll defineatly keep that pre in mind- thank you so much for that thought! Hmmm, and I'm thinking...

What I really think I should do, is not buy anything, this year. I've been thinking about it, I could change my mind, but my heart longs to get this SX-1280 gone through once and for all. Yeah. That to me would be so sweet, and a decent matchup for the 901's. Thoughts? There's just no one around here to work on it, and then I just keep buying more shit lol.

Oh, and you know this 901 EQ... I have to say some of that "zing" on the top end was pretty exciting at first. I did end up sliding the "mid-treble" control down a bit to take the edge off. But after some even further experimentation this AM and tonight, it's apparent that it is just way to much. I ended up playing some digital selections from "Gaucho", which I've always found to be pretty tight, recording wise. It was just too bright. So I played with the level until I felt I had a reasonable balance. Since then I've played a bunch of music, including some vinyl... MUCH Better..

With the treble down, and the volume up a bit, it's defineatly balanced better. There are always going to be recordings that drive me nuts on any media type, that's for sure. And, also, if you give me about 5 more minutes, I'll find something else to bitch about lol.
 
Joe: Do you have Fleetwood Mac's "The Dance" on CD? Try that out and tell me what you think of the bass coming out of your 901s.

Nando.
 
Input diff pairs drifting in value over time.......IMHO, YMMV...
 
Elite-ist said:
Joe: Do you have Fleetwood Mac's "The Dance" on CD? Try that out and tell me what you think of the bass coming out of your 901s.

Nando.
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Just did a quick sample from iTunes of the album(live). Very solid low end spanning that album ay? I think I might have to get that now lol. I can tell when I want to start cranking these that I just want to keep going, but this low gain pre and small amp stop that. I've noticed these can do nicely with acoustic and electronic bass. But if I want to crank to "live" levels I need more power. The 1280, as I've noticed, will play loud enough and the bass performance is even more solid. So far I've been pretty please with the bass on these overall.
 
Pure_Brew said:
...Oh, and you know this 901 EQ... I have to say some of that "zing" on the top end was pretty exciting at first. I did end up sliding the "mid-treble" control down a bit to take the edge off. But after some even further experimentation this AM and tonight, it's apparent that it is just way to much. I ended up playing some digital selections from "Gaucho", which I've always found to be pretty tight, recording wise. It was just too bright. So I played with the level until I felt I had a reasonable balance. Since then I've played a bunch of music, including some vinyl... MUCH Better...
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Bingo! This is what I was talking about. I think lots of stuff gets blamed on the wrong gear. It sounds overly simplistic, but you have to get the room-speaker* right, and then you can worry about the other stuff.

*The "room-speaker" really are ONE thing. It's just that you already bought the "room" part, so you can only vary the "speaker" part assuming that you don't want to go crazy with acoustic treatments. Not to say that I think acoustic treatments are bad, or overkill by any means, just that lots of (most?) folks can't get by with them in a typical domestic environment regardless of the WAF. I'm no longer allowed to use my acoustic panels- just too obtrusive, though they were VERY helpful in cleaning up the sound in room.

So, in addition to flat on axis frequency response of the speaker itself, you can use location (X,Y,&Z), different directivities, different bass alignments, etc to help mitigate problems with the "room" part, whether used with or without acoustic treatments.

The 901's do everything possible to maximize the room's contribution to the overall sound. This may or may not be a good thing, but typically, it's not good- depends on the room. From a speaker building perspective, they don't really make a lot of sense to my way of thinking. If you're wondering, the answer is yes, I have heard them, and the gentleman who had them was quite happy with them.

While inner groove distortion can be clearly blamed on the turntable, how can you worry about things like cart loading, etc. if you don't have a good baseline of what is "right" in the system? Your ears alone are very unlikely up to the task of getting this right w/o some measurements of the room-speaker to use as a reference. (I only know one person- not me- who can reliably hear that there is a problem at X frequency.) This is not to say that I think measurements are the end all, be all, but you need to know what you are changing, and this serves as a reference and sanity check. We all have different preferences, but it is very well established that overall flat FR is critical.

It's impossible to overstate the importance of the room-speaker.

Zach

p.s. Sorry to be so long winded- and perhaps bombastic, but I've been awake since 2:00 a.m, and I'm bored. Can't do much else since the the little lady is sleeping. :-) Think I'll go solder something.
 
Pure_Brew said:
I thought the poem was funny really, and for some reason the sound of "rock lobster" stuck in my head along with it lol.

Your plight doesn't sound good. I remember a time, scrounging for change so I could get something to eat. But all this material stuff... I'd dump it all for some real happiness. Did someone say something about hookers?
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I need two female hands around here but not those kind. I don't think it was Rock Lobster but it is 5:30 am Mountain.
 
Zach C. said:
Bingo! This is what I was talking about. I think lots of stuff gets blamed on the wrong gear. It sounds overly simplistic, but you have to get the room-speaker* right, and then you can worry about the other stuff.

*The "room-speaker" really are ONE thing. It's just that you already bought the "room" part, so you can only vary the "speaker" part assuming that you don't want to go crazy with acoustic treatments. Not to say that I think acoustic treatments are bad, or overkill by any means, just that lots of (most?) folks can't get by with them in a typical domestic environment regardless of the WAF. I'm no longer allowed to use my acoustic panels- just too obtrusive, though they were VERY helpful in cleaning up the sound in room.

So, in addition to flat on axis frequency response of the speaker itself, you can use location (X,Y,&Z), different directivities, different bass alignments, etc to help mitigate problems with the "room" part, whether used with or without acoustic treatments.

The 901's do everything possible to maximize the room's contribution to the overall sound. This may or may not be a good thing, but typically, it's not good- depends on the room. From a speaker building perspective, they don't really make a lot of sense to my way of thinking. If you're wondering, the answer is yes, I have heard them, and the gentleman who had them was quite happy with them.

While inner groove distortion can be clearly blamed on the turntable, how can you worry about things like cart loading, etc. if you don't have a good baseline of what is "right" in the system? Your ears alone are very unlikely up to the task of getting this right w/o some measurements of the room-speaker to use as a reference. (I only know one person- not me- who can reliably hear that there is a problem at X frequency.) This is not to say that I think measurements are the end all, be all, but you need to know what you are changing, and this serves as a reference and sanity check. We all have different preferences, but it is very well established that overall flat FR is critical.

It's impossible to overstate the importance of the room-speaker.

Zach

p.s. Sorry to be so long winded- and perhaps bombastic, but I've been awake since 2:00 a.m, and I'm bored. Can't do much else since the the little lady is sleeping. :-) Think I'll go solder something.
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Zach I appreciate the comments. Sometimes I do miss something fundamental, which is why it's nice to have this community to share with. The 901 is a very different animal.
 
It was to the tune of Little Deuce Coupe-Beach Boys.
 
Pure_Brew said:
Zach I appreciate the comments. Sometimes I do miss something fundamental, which is why it's nice to have this community to share with. The 901 is a very different animal.
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Thanks for the feedback. I never know how much to say, especially in a setting like this where I don't really know the personalities or backgrounds. I don't want to came off as a know it all, but I want to be as helpful as I can without being insulting.

I've really only been on here to talk Phase Linear repair with the experts, so I don't really know who is who or their perspectives on here.

Even my brick and mortar friends think I'm a bit...overbearing, no...smarmy, no...most just don't know how to take me. Fortunately, my wife is charismatic, otherwise nobody would stick around long enough to get to know me. :-)

I'm a bit shy, and snarky in person, but I don't mean to be. Bad combo for making friends.

Zach
 
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Zach, bless your heart, we were short on "snarky" here. How did you know?? Bud, we at Phoenix like to think we encoiurage a lot of leeway. :Life's a bitch and the varied personalities here co-exist fairly well. we all can have a bad day, and if ya do and it leaks over in here, hey a lot of us are pretty damn good at handling stuff like that. An audio forum a lot of people think that's all that should be discussed.....GET REAL....the forums involve PEOPLE...with all that encompassess. We're not gonna roast someone's ass for being human. No way can ypou separate the human rom the appreciation of music and the state of the art reproduction of it(whatever that means to you). We love each and everyone of the members here. Each represents a unique perspective on music, gear and the world in general, god bless you all.....
 
I have noticed the K's are very prone to standing waves....and you guys just thought I was a slob!! It's standing wave breakup treatment!!
 
I thought THIS was a standing wave

tumblr_m93gqgsZMO1rdutw3o1_500.gif
 
laatsch55 said:
Zach, bless your heart, we were short on "snarky" here. How did you know?? Bud, we at Phoenix like to think we encoiurage a lot of leeway. :Life's a bitch and the varied personalities here co-exist fairly well. we all can have a bad day, and if ya do and it leaks over in here, hey a lot of us are pretty damn good at handling stuff like that. An audio forum a lot of people think that's all that should be discussed.....GET REAL....the forums involve PEOPLE...with all that encompassess. We're not gonna roast someone's ass for being human. No way can ypou separate the human rom the appreciation of music and the state of the art reproduction of it(whatever that means to you). We love each and everyone of the members here. Each represents a unique perspective on music, gear and the world in general, god bless you all.....
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Group hug?

Jokes aside, I like this perspective. People are too sensitive to perceived slights anyway. Intentional slights on the other hand... It can be hard to tell in text.
 
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