Nate,

Glad to see you back in the thick of things.

What's the controversy about the Exact Power. Zaikesman and I have both been in love with ours for years. If there's a fight out there, I'm ready!

Best...

dougdeacon February 20, 2007 04:43

Nate,

Thanks for calling the other night. Sorry I had to make it so short, we were literally running out the door. I'll send you that file I mentioned, as soon as I find it!

Larry's advice on Rollerblocks beneath the Exact Power is spot on. We found the the improvement audible and worthwhile beneath ours.

FWIW, we've A/B'd Rollerblocks and Stillpoints beneath our Nick Doshi tube amp. The Rollerblocks were clearly the better performer. As in all vibration control YMMV of course, but you definitely should try Rollerblocks. They're beneath our EP, amp and preamp power supply - all to good effect.

I've not tried our EP at sub-zero temps so I don't know if your "cryo" treatment will help it or not. We didn't notice much change with added hours. We did and do notice exactly the improvements you noted. Increased bass and dynamics, nicely lowered noise floor. It's a great product.

Cheers and welcome back to vinyl!
Doug

dougdeacon February 10, 2007 15:24

Nate,

Sorry. I'm a cad. A frustrated cad, but a still a cad.

It took us from November to May to isolate our speed problem. Paul finally decided to make a diagnostic strobe disc. He spent 3-4 hours in a CAD program and came out with a disc that measures not only the normal 33.33 rpm, but also 33.03 and 33.64 rpm (1% slow, 1% fast). We then spent several evenings recording results in various operating modes to give CB some hard data. He then used Paul's disc and reproduced our results, so now it's down to trouble-shooting.

The only non-Nordost wires we've tried were Rives Audio (terrible in our system) and another brand I've forgotten (leant to us by Cello). That one closely matched our Blue Heavens but it sold for 8x the price. That convinced us to stay with the Nordost line. We do have a special problem in that our speaker positions require a flat cable than can be run across a doorway beneath the carpet. Limits our choices, but maybe that's a good thing!

My feet are still in mid-air. They're loping madly in a forward direction, but the shoes aren't making much traction yet. 1 interview per 50 applications seems to be the rule. :-(

dougdeacon June 13, 2006 15:10

Our Reference 2 motor began having speed consistency issues. Nothing huge, but intermittent spells of running 1% slow was not acceptable, to us or to Chris.

CB put a Signature motor (the smaller one normally supplied with 100/200 series tables) into a taller Reference case and added a ton of lead shot. It's operating perfectly while he works on the problem.

I "know" our Reference 2 is quieter than a Signature because I A/B'd them when we upgraded from a 265 to a 320. But we've made so many other upgrades since shipping off our Ref that things sound glorious even with a lesser motor. I haven't heard Purist, but we are mightily impressed by Nordost's micro-filament "air dialectric" technology. The reduction in HF smear and glare is remarkable.

Come on down, and bring Kirk with you! ;-)

dougdeacon June 09, 2006 16:08

Nate,

Are you back yet?

From your comment on my sytem page I gather you're still table-less. Isn't it time for some of your motorcycle buds to bust a few heads in Chicago? ;-)

Ride on over and bring a record or two. We're using a motor that CB leant us while he troubleshoots ours, but at least we're spinning. Sorry to hear you're not. :-(

Doug

dougdeacon June 07, 2006 17:30