Any HiFi (as in proper high fidelity) freaks?

steveledzep

viz said:

That’s very nice! Go on, get a koetsu! You’ll fall in love with it!

(I didn’t pay 5k for mine btw - I started with a broken koetsu black for £200 and had it repaired and have upgraded since then. Now I’m on the rosewood signature through buying, selling and retipping. All good clean fun)

Haha !  Some(?) years ago now I had the opportunity to "acquire" a broken posh cartridge.  Can't exactly remember, I think it was a Van den Hul Grasshopper, not sure?  Anyway, I investigated repair with Dominic at North West Analogue but didn't proceed in the end.  I bought a low mileage Ortofon Rondo Bronze from a known source.
Can't see me getting a Koetsu viz.  Where do you get yours retipped ?

viz

steveledzep said:

viz said:

That’s very nice! Go on, get a koetsu! You’ll fall in love with it!

(I didn’t pay 5k for mine btw - I started with a broken koetsu black for £200 and had it repaired and have upgraded since then. Now I’m on the rosewood signature through buying, selling and retipping. All good clean fun)

Haha !  Some(?) years ago now I had the opportunity to "acquire" a broken posh cartridge.  Can't exactly remember, I think it was a Van den Hul Grasshopper, not sure?  Anyway, I investigated repair with Dominic at North West Analogue but didn't proceed in the end.  I bought a low mileage Ortofon Rondo Bronze from a known source.
Can't see me getting a Koetsu viz.  Where do you get yours retipped ?

Expert Stylus, they’re really good. I’ve had about 8 done by them over the years. He’s really knowledgeable, he worked for the beeb for many years doing stylus installations and repairs and now exclusively uses “paratrace” diamonds, which have really good contact with the groove so they don’t rattle in there and also don’t wear the groove down due to their unique profile. They breathe new life into any cart. In fact I believe he also upgrades the (excellent) denon DL103 cartridges, which are normally like 200 quid, and he’ll do a paratrace one for a few hundred more; I think that’s probably the best value for money MC cartridge you could get. 

60cycles

@viz you've got any pics? Before and after? Am curious.

(being my job and all, sorry!)

viz

60cycles said:

@viz you've got any pics? Before and after? Am curious.

(being my job and all, sorry!)

Nope sorry. There are probably pics on the internet

Freebird

60cycles said:

Edit: was that "better it" as in the 'sound' altogether? May have misunderstood you.

Much better for hearing things I never knew existed due to improved separation, better low end, with the sound quality being at least equal with DSP applied to correct the frequency response and tame the highs.

steveledzep

60cycles said:

steveledzep said:

Sorry if this falls into the TL/DR category

Nothing to be sorry about man, we're here to talk about them!

While i fully respect your approach, i would assure you, 101%, that a good choice of cables and feet/bases would surprise you. And i do really mean surprise you.
If you think you're hearing your equipment right now? Truth is you're not.
What you're hearing is your equipment after a lot of noise, a lot of it, plus vibrations resulting in damping of certain frequencies.
Not a cheap upgrade, but again, if done wisely, you'll be surprised.
(to each their own and everything, just mentioning this in case you find such upgrades meaningless or superfluous. They can be, lots of snake oil around, but that's on the individual brand/"boutique" scammer, not the physics behind the actual principles)

I have a different approach and belief.

I mostly play records from the 70s and the analogue vinyl industry was turning out some excellent pressings.  The retrieval of the information from the record is a physical thing, not electronics.  The turntable has to revolve at a constant speed with zero vibration ideally.  My Michell Gyrodec is what my budget allows.  The TT shelf is securely screwed to a concrete block wall and rigidly mounted.  A 10mm sheet of toughened glass sits on the four spikes of the shelf.  The Gyrodec itself stands on three point contact feet and is totally level.  In my opinion, this allows the cartridge to extract the maximum amount of information from the record surface which is clamped to the platter.  Physical isolation is the best I can achieve.
The Piega speakers are from Switzerland and not well known in the UK.  Their achilles heel is their base which is just a flat aluminium square, it rocks (moves) when on carpet.  First thing I did was drill and tap each corner of the bases to take M8 floor spikes.  This allowed me to level the speakers while connected to the concrete floor beneath the carpet.  The sound literally tightened and focused.  Incidentally, the ribbon tweeter on the Piegas is very sweet while the front facing port allows positioning close to a rear wall.
The unit that houses my electronics I converted from an Ikea vertical shelving unit.  It used to have 4 sections and was longer overall.  I reduced it in length and had only 3 sections just a little longer to accommodate the amp and cd width.  I fitted the stumpy legs and here it is.  The unit is very light being of typical Ikea hollow egg-box construction so will not transfer any resonances to the equipment, the amp weighs over 20kgs so the cabinet isn't going to interfere with it.
All my interconnects are quality copper with gold plated plugs, just not boutique names.  I don't have directional copper either....don't understand that one ?  I once tried QED Silver Anniversary 79 strand speaker cables, with metal dome tweeters my ears bled, far too bright.

In conclusion, I'm very happy with my lot with the budget available.  No room (or money) for snake oil.

60cycles

My number one joy ever since i did well enough to stop needing to sell?
That i could finally be frank. Often to my detriment, but Jeesus, just frank and to the point.
So, lol.. and with my apologies, but it's really a three liner here.

steveledzep said:

The retrieval of the information from the record is a physical thing, not electronics.

I don't have directional copper either....don't understand that one ?

In conclusion, I'm very happy.  No room (or money) for snake oil.

- You wish.

- And yet here you are, having a priori decided what's what and why.
Incidentally, all cables are directional, yours included. Even fuses are. Physics. Well for most folk, for you electronics aren't a part of it. Am guessing your turntable is powered through fusion.

- Telling me you should make up your mind. Is it snake oil, is it not, or are you telling yourself it's not?

It's nice to be happy and we can always call it a break when we're happy. Or "happy". Let us simply not go past that boundary of reason/awareness by conjuring up or rejecting principles/facts; to our knowledge or otherwise
And again, it's great that you're happy, honestly and either way. With or without the quotes. The point is for us to enjoy ourselves.

steveledzep

How fucking rude are you !!!  Not a clue.

I'm with @Chuffola on this one.

Goodbye.

PolarityMan

60cycles said:

My number one joy ever since i did well enough to stop needing to sell?
That i could finally be frank. Often to my detriment, but Jeesus, just frank and to the point.
So, lol.. and with my apologies, but it's really a three liner here.

steveledzep said:

The retrieval of the information from the record is a physical thing, not electronics.

I don't have directional copper either....don't understand that one ?

In conclusion, I'm very happy.  No room (or money) for snake oil.

- You wish.

- And yet here you are, having a priori decided what's what and why.
Incidentally, all cables are directional, yours included. Even fuses are. Physics. Well for most folk, for you electronics aren't a part of it. Am guessing your turntable is powered through fusion.

- Telling me you should make up your mind. Is it snake oil, is it not, or are you telling yourself it's not?

It's nice to be happy and we can always call it a break when we're happy. Or "happy". Let us simply not go past that boundary of reason/awareness by conjuring up or rejecting principles/facts; to our knowledge or otherwise
And again, it's great that you're happy, honestly and either way. With or without the quotes. The point is for us to enjoy ourselves.

I think that you're kinda feeling the brunt of a fairly long standing grumble against hifi aficionados on here as there have in the past been big threads that have got pretty heated even going so far as to members conducting double blind testing etc with certain hi fi purists denying the results and even science etc. 

That's what all the references to snake oil are about. 

I've not seen you advocating any of that kinda stuff to be fair though.