Thanks Bruce. I have read a little about the Zerodust cleaner and it sounds like a wise investment. I do have a record clamp, but it simple "wedges" on the spindle and has a silly little level bubble in the middle of it, I can't recal the manufacture but it serves the purpose for now.

jimbojrjb December 30, 2009 14:26

Yep, my TT is completely stock so I have the Music Hall Tracker. A cartridge upgrade of substantially higher quality might help but I'm not sure a slightly better cartridge would yield a hands down improvement. By all means experiment but I wouldn't expect a HUGE improvement - although you could end up with a different sound that synergizes better with your preamp. If you don't already own the $70 Onzow Zerodust stylus cleaner then you need to get it! You just drop the needle into the gel and it safely, quickly & PERFECTLY cleans your stylus. When the Zerodust starts to look dirty you pull it out of the container and throw it into the dishwasher. Also, do you have a record clamp? The record clamp I use is the super high quality Michell Engineering design ($70) for tt's with short spindles like our's. It comes with a felt washer but you're supposed to get a 1/16" - 1/8" thick metal washer (available at any home improvement center) to go underneath the felt one so it doesn't scratch up your labels but helps to increase the cone-shaping effect.

Good to hear from you,

bruce30 December 30, 2009 06:16

Hey buddy, I have a question for you. Do you still have the original Music Hall/Goldring cart on your TT? I was thinking of a cheap upgrade like the Grado Gold, etc? Your thoughts?

jimbojrjb December 27, 2009 13:51

Chazzbo,

You're quite right about the Rotel being unnecessarily high on the wattage; I used to have Magnepans before I discovered the art of speaker-to-room interfacing as well as the joys of tube sound. I also own a diy 8 watts x2 tubed integrated kit as well as an ASL AQ1003 integrated (30 watts x2 with EL34's.) My ASL LH-01 preamp (shown above) has an output on the fritz and I've since swapped out my ASL integrated that I was lending to my brother'n'law (who has just discovered the joys of tube sound - he's saving up for a pair of Manley Snappers, btw) for my Rotel 1080 that he's using to run a pair of Gallo Nucleus Ref 3.1's. At the time I put together the above pictured system I was sort of using the Rotel more as a tone control to tame the harsh midrange in this space - not so much for it's high power. The Rotel doesn't seem to favor midrange over treble or bass and my room is really light on bass energy & über-heavy on midrange which isn't ideal for the ASL AQ1003. Plus, I had it just lying around collecting dust, so...

The Duevel Planets are targeted more at the mass market than towards staunch audiophiles; they have plenty of flaws but are a blast to play around with. My dealer recommends the Leben CS300X as an ideal counterpart to the Planets or the more appropriately priced Manley Stingray. I was about an inch from buying the more accurate/sweet sounding Quad 21L2 but they are more serious conventional speakers and I've never owned omni's before so I settled on these little Duevels. If cost weren't such a huge consideration at the time (as well as now) I think I would've gone for a pair of the ridiculously great imaging ProAc Response D15's or the extremely neutral Wilson Benesch Curve's.

The Bellari is a great little inexpensive phono amp perfect for someone looking to get more out of their deck than their receiver can provide. It's a pretty smooth, if not incredibly detailed piece that helps mitigate the harshness typical of inexpensive high output cartridges. I'm not so sure that it will amplify the Denon cartridge sufficiently since it's designed primarily for mm's with only 30dB of gain and an input impedance of 50k.

bruce30 August 26, 2009 05:31

Burce
For high mass stands those look like good deal for money.I think there is a lot of snake oil out there (cables especially).If you can swing them one day gold (or rather iron) standard are Sound Anchors on wood floors.Looks like you have balanced entry system but I wonder why so much amp (I sold Adcom,Rotel,NAD as well as Krell and McIntosh for 6 years with B&W and other speakers and ran jazz section) for horn speakers?I run a pair of Odeon horns (German poor mans Avantegarde-no coloration like Klipsch).Only need 40 tube watts.With that power and medium room a pair of Totem or Ushers may not have mid purity of horns.I mention because I have some classic rock,classical (large scale),funk,and thievery corporation synthetic music that my 42" $6500 horns don't do justice to.For my 7K Jazz Lp's and CD's,small scale classical,folks,voice horns be they big or small low end $500 or $20K you get more flexibility from a moving coil speaker.And you have amp for an Usher 718 monitor,Gallo Ref (I hate Anthony Gallo so don't buy them),Totem Staff's.If into high sensitivity Zu Druids,Sliverline 17.5 (or any Silverline) or Hyperion are all wicked bang for buck speakers.But I am going to look yours up since though not top dollar this is sensible system that costs less than crap people not into good sound end up with.Wonder if that Bellari would run budget champ Denon DL-103?Good job but with that ASL and Rotel you have the current beyond horns.But maybe you got it right.I'll look into them (I am downsizing a bit and build systems for friends in spare time).
Cheers
Chazz

chazzbo August 19, 2009 02:28

Bruce, The Vandersteen's go surprisingly low, so it would be a shame to cut them off at 60hz. I now have the velodyne crossed over at 40 and the V's full range. Very sweet! My next upgrade may be a new cartridge.

jimbojrjb August 07, 2009 22:37

Bruce, I should have the vandersteen's hooked up with new pics posted by this weekend.

FYI. The book you recommended has improved my ears 100%! Thanks!

jimbojrjb July 22, 2009 20:08

Bruce,

No apology necessary, as I have gained loads of knowledge from your advise! I am doing tons of research and taking my time (as I rused into this hobby recently out of pure joy of music) to make any further changes. Better stands will be first, then I am going to seriously look at my interconnects and speaker cables.

You are a wealth of knowledge and am learning tons! Thanks!!

jimbojrjb June 25, 2009 08:35

Jimbojrjb,

I think, after re-reading my little rant, that I came across like a bit of a jerk - so for the tone I used I apologize. You'll notice that audiophiles are very "passionate" about sound & music - you'll have to take that into consideration when you ask for advice, but also with "a grain of salt." At the risk of just sounding like a complete windbag, I'll endeavor to explain the hype surrounding good speaker stands.

There are several stands out there worth buying, but you should decide 1st whether you want to put more money into stand-mounted monitors. Having said that, there are different approaches to stands. Without going into great detail the height of the stand is crucial the quality of the midrange and the relationship of the height of the stand to the height of your ears affects the speaker's ability to "sonically disappear."

The other factor is the bass which I'll get to in a little bit. Just about any appropriately tall stand (i.e. one that puts the tweeters roughly the same height as your ears; measured from the floor) will GREATLY improve the midrange clarity by virtue of getting the speakers away from the floor boundary - just like the undoubtedly SUBSTANTIAL increase in clarity you heard when you pulled your speakers out into the room...away from the front wall & side walls. To get great sound out of your room & your speakers you must strike a balance between the direct sound as it's coming out of the speakers in real time @ 768 mph (1,125 ft/s) and the reflected sound (reverberation) that's still in the room but decaying @ particular rate measured in loudness (deciBels.)

The other factor is bass energy from the speaker that gets absorbed by the stand before it has a chance to be transmitted into the room. This is unavoidable to some degree because everything in our universe resonates (or "rings") with vibration at certain frequencies. The point of "high mass" stands is to resist ringing (vibration) by altering the (usually metal) stand's resonant frequency by filling it with less resonant & very dense, heavy material like lead shot or sand (or both.) This has the effect of drastically raising or lowering the natural resonant frequency of the stand.

Analogy: It's kind of like if you tap a glass cup with a spoon the glass makes a loud "tink" sound coupled with a lingering ringing sound but then sounds different & much quieter with a much shorter ringing time if you do the same thing while tightly gripping the glass with your other hand...such is the effect of adding lead shot to a speaker stand.

However, if you get a stand that's too big & massive, it can make your monitor sound just like a small floorstander in that it can delay or impede some of the off-axis sound from the midrange driver from going underneath the speaker directly to the room boundaries (because soundwaves leave the speaker baffle in every direction to a degree - more so at lower frequencies.) If that doesn't explanation doesn't quite make sense; what I'm basically trying to say that if your monitor sitting atop a huge, thick, massive stand starts to visually resemble a floorstanding speaker; it's most likely it will sound like it too. This more than any other reason (in my opinion) is why 1.) So many people who start out loving monitors eventually end up deciding to go back to floorstanders & 2.) Why you shouldn't just go for the biggest most massive stands you can find to get the most from your monitor. There's always a balancing act with good sound.

If you don't know what I mean by big high mass stands that make your monitors visually resemble a floorstander then follow this link:
http://www.studiotech.com/products/speaker_stands/sc-24/index.html

I, personally, like & recommend these if the top of the stand has compatible dimensions to the bottom of your speakers:
http://www.musicdirect.com/product/74403

The inherent benefit of these (besides their impeccable build quality) is in their tri-point (pyramid) base, & the pyramid is widely regarded as the strongest most stable geometric shape (next to a hemisphere laying on it's flat side.)

Finally, For reasons no one fully understands yet but pretty much all audiophiles have noticed & accept is the mysterious relationship bass & treble have with each other and our perceptions. Bass extension helps high frequency airiness & sharp/accurate/detailed high frequency sound improves bass definition...both of which affect the believability of the recorded performance. Great stands positively affect bass & treble.

bruce30 June 24, 2009 19:17

Thanks guys! I am going to do some shopping around. Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction. What are your thoughts on weights on top of your equipment for further isolation control? Is it worth the hassle and expense?

jimbojrjb June 24, 2009 13:20

Wow! I have to say, I do appreciate the advise and will take it into consideration. The good news is that I have yet to purchase the Mapleshade stands due to the cost, and thank you for opening my mind to further changes. I will try a taller stand to further my ears and hopefully increase my enjoyment. Any suggestions on the height of the stands? Makes or models that are best? I really appreciate the advise guys as I am a newbie here.

jimbojrjb June 23, 2009 21:25

Thanks for your comments.
===========================================================
Jrod_215: The SP9 is a great preamp and you should definitely get one when you can afford it, imho.
===========================================================
Tobaccoleafpie: I totally love the Airport, though the fidelity could be a bit higher it's just so convenient for get togethers & such. Yes, the tv is intentionally (& stupidly) high because I wanted to minimize it's impact on the soundstage...however, that was before I had my current speakers which would probably benefit from being on-axis from the tv. I'll probably just bridge the gap between the rack & tv with a bookshelf (which I could stick cd & dvd cases while I'm using the discs.) Good eye & excellent observations, btw!

bruce30 May 27, 2009 02:40

The Airport is great. Its mind boggling (sp?) to imagine I'm streaming music out of the very device I'm typing on. Is the TV screen integral to your system? Constructively spoken, it appears to be on the high side. I placed mine to be in seated, straight on viewing height. My brother's screen is on the high side and I sit on his bar stools.

tobaccoleafpie May 26, 2009 01:48

Thanks for the comments. The ASL Pre looks like a nice little tube amp. I've never heard a completely tube Pre, only a hybrid SS/Tube pre (Audio Research SP9). I think that thing only has like one tube in it, but it sounded good. Looks like you have a pretty cool setup - those speakers look wild! I know what you mean about the poor room acoustics, they are really annoying to deal with. Happy listening

jrod_215 May 24, 2009 21:32

System edited: Out with the old, in with the new.

bruce30 May 07, 2009 04:25

Bruce, after checking out your system, I am really considering a pair of Duevel Planets as they would be ideal keeping our little boy from damage due to their driver placement. Any issues that I need to be aware of?

jimbojrjb May 05, 2009 10:36

Thanks for the Blue Tack idea Bruce. I would love to get my speakers off the shelf and have been looking at Mapleshade's solid maple stands. I have experimented with simply setting them on concrete blocks and you are right, the sound is totally transformed. I do however, have to figure out how to actually teach my one year old how to not try to climb everything in sight. he is a wild one!! Takes after his father! Thanks again Bruce!

jimbojrjb May 05, 2009 10:12

Hi Razzz, I'm sorry I didn't get back to you sooner - I thought I'd set this up to get an email if someone posted on my thread. I can very highly recommend these speakers. They have outstanding staging (as you might imagine) they throw rock solid images WAY left & WAY right. If you've read the reviews they mention that these are quite bassy (they're voiced to be further away from the walls than most floorstanders @ this price) almost as if they were horn-loaded. My room has bass asymmetry which gives me about 1/2 the output of a similarly sized room without entryways in the corners but these Duevels sound quite full in here. The image quality seems quite good but where they really excel is in rhythm; they kinda make you want to dance (or @ least tap your feet) very musical & not sensitive to placement. They should be on TAS's & Stereophile's short list!

bruce30 December 20, 2008 23:33

I'm looking into buying the Duevel Planets. How do you like them?

razzz December 04, 2008 15:35