Forums - What's next?

beowulf

Seasoned Member

Posts: 1449

What's next?
08/21/14 at 07:34:19

It seems like in the pursuit of great sound we just can't stop tinkering, although we may be satisfied to the point of not adding a component, we still roll tubes, play with cables, etc.

What (if any) is your next step towards audio nirvana? Do you have short, intermediate and long term goals and if so what are they?

Here are mine.

Short Term Goals (within the current time frame and next 6 months to 8 months):

My short term goals lie within tweaks. Since I don't have a dedicated listening space and lease the townhome I'm living in, I want to try other methods that will help with resonance and coulomb friction type issues. I also want to experiment with things such as power cables and filtration (which I am already in the process with).

My second short term goal is a new DAC and I am waiting for two specific models before I make up my mind ~ (1) the new Chord DAC based on the Hugo, and (2) the new Tranquility DAC that can do hi-res and DSD.

Intermediate Goals (within a year or a little over):

I am sold on the Omega Single Driver type speakers, so I want to move up within the Omega line with one of Louis' Outlaw Designs. Specifically I want to try his best drivers which are 6" Hemp Cones with Alnico magnets in an XRS tower speaker that will also house active Omega Speed 12 helper subs or his deepOmeg 8" subwoofers (1 single driver and 1 sub per cabinet). Essentially a pair of single drivers housed with a pair of subs ... I think he would call it a 1.1 and since I don't really have the floor space for 2 subs I think this will cover both music and movies to a good extent for me.

Long Term Goals (within 2 years):

The Omega Alnico drivers are lower sensitivity compared to the ferrite drivers I have now. And I have to almost turn up the volume on my preamp to about 90% when watching movies (music no problems at about only 50%), so I believe this will require different amplification compared to the Taboo.

I keep going back over this in my mind and I can't quite decide if I want to setup a pair of Super Zens as mono blocks (which Steve said would be about 30% louder than the Taboo) and I'm thinking the increased volume of the Super Zens would compensate for the decreased efficiency of the Alnico drivers? Undecided

My second thought is to get a Torii and have plenty of headroom, but perhaps lose some of that SET magic that is so revered with the little 2 watt'r (although I really want a ZMA, I doubt I would ever be able to afford a new one, so that's not realistically within the picture).

Lastly I would like to move up to a VPI Classic 1 TT, the Rega RP6 is incredible value for the money though and I'm quite satisfied with it at the present time so this is a no rush sort of thing.

Anyways, instead of counting sheep, I drift off to bed at night thinking of these things LOL Grin

. Anybody else do this too? If not, I think I may have a problem. Wink

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Syd

Seasoned Member

Posts: 1534

Re: What's next?
Reply #1 - 08/21/14 at 10:46:39

I havent rolled a tube for a month now, have my speakers in optimum position, have the amps on a solid hard wood ply platform which is kept solid with 15 1/4in coach bolts. Now I can close the door on an evenings session knowing that I`m now hearing the amps seasoning and have my `reference point` of stability ie no more teaking. Just climb into the cockpit and almost conduct the records, and wonder at the `escapees` from the soundstage... the sublties of charged air that carry a drummers swoosh or the after-burn of a dbl bass. The vocab eludes me but stuff happens. I`ts a good place.
This is my Base one I could stick on it.
The short term shopping list, if I can stop looking at the record ads, is mainly maintainance. -
New silver plated wall plugs all round, non-amp pwr cables, craigs de-oxit, stylus putty, a good TT oil, digital stylus gauge.
Untill you mentioned TT`s Beo. :) Yes you`ve entered my secret world where I trawl the net looking at eye candy decks.

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Decware: Rachaels x 2 bridged, C. SP2+, ZP3, ZMC1, DHC-1 pw/cbl`s Michell Orbe + SME V + M.Benz LP s, Arcam CD33, Nakamichi LX5, Lowther acoustas DX2`s, WE 16g sp/cbl`s, Isotek mains substation, M & K subwoofer, Belden 8402 interconnects.

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seikosha

Seasoned Member

Posts: 124

Re: What's next?
Reply #2 - 08/21/14 at 16:41:54

Hi beowulf,

I've thought about many of the things you wrote about. Specifically upgrading through the range of Omegas. However, after talking to Louis, I'm not sure that one can make a blanket statement of which of his speakers are best. Right now I've got the RS5 driver and was thinking of upgrading to the Alnico or one of the 7's but at Louis says, every speaker is a compromise and he indicated that while I'd gain bass and foundation, I'd lose some of the speed and transparency of the RS5 by going to one of the others. At the end of the day, it all depends on what your priorities are which will determine which of his speakers are best for you.

Like you, I really like some of his new outlaw designs, particularly the ones where he added the sub right into the speaker...but then again, when that speaker is sealed rather than ported so you will lose some efficiency....darn those compromises.

I've also toyed with the idea of adding another Super Zen for more power, but after reading through old posts, there seems to be a theme that you lose some of SE84 magic when you biamp and hum can become more of an issue. I will say that adding a preamp in front of the Zen certainly makes it feel like it's more powerful and could be a simple of enough fix.

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Mini Torii, SE84UFO, Quicksilver Horn Monos, ZStage, CSP3 Omega Super3XRS, Omega SAM, Omega Junior 8xrs, Cambridge CXC, Shiit Bifrost 2, PS Audio P3 Powerplant

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beowulf

Seasoned Member

Posts: 1449

Re: What's next?
Reply #3 - 08/21/14 at 21:00:13

@ marky, looks like you are in a gerat spot and dialed in nicely! I think for the most part, if you're on the Decware forums with a piece of Decware kit somewhere in your system you are on a certain level anyways. What TT are you looking at?

@ seikosha, you said it very eloquently. Yes, I believe saying that was Louis' best driver was a bit of a blanketed statement since we all have different tastes and ideas of what's best for us. The term best came about with me from Canada Rob over on the other forums though as he has said "best" within the same sentence as "Omega 6 Hemp" on a few occasions. Also from Louis' website when he speaks of the Alnicos his discriptions would indicate that out of all his drivers these are the smoothest transitions throughout the sound spectrum.

That being said, the RS5 is revered by many and although I've never heard it I would have to say that it may be a strong contender for best within his lineup the way people talk about it. For me I have the RS7 regular drivers and they are an excellent and fast driver, but they are in the 3s cabinets ... had I waited just a few weeks later I would have opted to get them in the XRS cabinets which Rob claims they have become a different animal altogether, however at the time I don't think Louis had tried them out that way, so I'm always thinking "what if" ... I also may be one of the few that has heard both the RS7 Vintage and RS7 Regular Drivers. IMO the vintage have a really sweet midrange, but too rolled off for me, whereas the regulars have an extended range and better fit for my tastes so it's a sweet spot for me. But I can't help thinking that the Alnico's would be the best of both worlds and since by the time you order a set of 7XRS with RS7A drivers and veneer, you are already at the Alnico XRS price range, so at that point why not go for the big guns? Grin

I also fall into agreement with your thoughts on the compromises as well. That's what makes it so hard to have a "clear-cut" winner for every situation and room. What to do? IMO the weakness of single drivers is the bass. Which of course can be dealt with from midbass modules and subwoofers, but the hard part is that Omegas are so fast even smaller woofers have a hard time keeping up with them, the second hard part is that it gets expensive and you start losing floorspace, etc. Having them all in the same cabinet and tuned by Louis to perform together as a whole makes a lot of sense for price, performance and value.

Amplification is a compromise too ... if you stick with the 2 watt'r, you have that magic SET experience, but on the downside you're almost always borderline on headroom and limited to speaker choices. With something like the Torii you have enough headroom to effortlessly drive any of Louis' speakers in any application including home theater, but you lose some of the SET magic (although the Hazen Grid mod can put a little of that back into the mix as long as you use the EL34 tubes).

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Syd

Seasoned Member

Posts: 1534

Re: What's next?
Reply #4 - 08/21/14 at 23:18:00

Well theres the VPI range beo, the one you mention has caught my eye, it looks like it`s got pedigree and it costs a bit. I`d like a big heavy platter and a 12" arm. My own Roksan Radius/Nima is a looker and performs just fine. What makes me look at other decks is I`ve got this momentum thing going on for a future choice. Heavier the platter, maybe with brass weights on it as well, the easier it`ll be to plough through. I`m listening now and cant imagine how it`ll be better but it doesn`t stop us checking out the opposition so to speak....amps aside...
Coulombs omg what was that a unit for, energy or something...latent energy maybe.
Vibrations..well good luck in your endevours, I havent taken them seriously yet apart from decoupling my speakers from the floor boards with concrete slabs.
Sand boxes allways seemed feasible...the vibration runs out of steam as one grain of sand bumps into another until the energy fizzles out.
If you could remove the sand and fill it with gear box oil, float some thing like ping pong balls on it and the lay the amp on top of that...

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Decware: Rachaels x 2 bridged, C. SP2+, ZP3, ZMC1, DHC-1 pw/cbl`s Michell Orbe + SME V + M.Benz LP s, Arcam CD33, Nakamichi LX5, Lowther acoustas DX2`s, WE 16g sp/cbl`s, Isotek mains substation, M & K subwoofer, Belden 8402 interconnects.

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Dave1210

Seasoned Member

Posts: 959

Re: What's next?
Reply #5 - 08/22/14 at 02:34:53

@beowulf. I was checking out the Omega website this morning because of your 10 ft. speaker cable post and noticed the New Outlaw speakers. It's almost as if these speakers were made for the SuperZen. The SuperZen is relatively unique for an SET in that it loves a 4 ohm load (2 watts into 4ohm, 1 watt into 8ohm with the standard transformer), and with 98 dB efficiency, the Outlaw speakers should play nice and loud with the little Zen. It seems a lot of folks use Omega speakers on this forum and love them. 4 ohm, 98 db efficiency speakers should sweeten the pot for those who love the Decware SET and also want a little headroom or like to crank the volume every now and then.

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beowulf

Seasoned Member

Posts: 1449

Re: What's next?
Reply #6 - 08/22/14 at 09:44:49

@ Marky, that Roksan looks like a sweet deck, I can see why you're not in a hurry. Yes the Coulomb Friction is a law of physics that this company called Sound Star is using to promote their resonating/oscillating devices.

There seem to be 2 rules of thought, dampening and/or isolation and letting something vibrate ASAP to earth's ground. The latter says that if something vibrates, it's natural just let it because it preserves more dynamics whereas dampening kills dynamics. Sound Star uses a metallurgy combo of brass and other metals that oscillate thousands of times faster than the actual airborne resonance that is derived from a sound system (with speakers being a big part of that resonance) and by doing that it attracts this resonance and sends it to earth's ground faster than it would by itself. IMO vibrating to ground seems more natural, but since I've never tried either I'm up for some experimentation. I'm thinking a Herbies and Sound Star Shoot Out after the new year.

@ Dave ~ glad you made it over there, Louis (Omega Owner and Designer) has been on a creative roll lately and all kinds of cool designs have come about. You are right, the 1.5 Outlaw Tower and 1.5 Outlaw Open Back use one of Louis' most revered drivers (the RS5), they are super efficient and a 4 ohm load so the "first watt" theory applies here in spades and would be a perfect match for the Super Zen. If I had the floor space I would get the Open Backs, but they really need to be out in the room ... from people reporting back on these I would say at least 4-5 feet from the back wall and 3-4 feet from the side walls to really open up though.

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mark58 Seasoned Member Posts: 5647	Re: What's next? Reply #7 - 08/23/14 at 20:03:35 Beowulf, I remembered reading you were eventually going to get a VPI Classic 1. This landed in my email. It looks massive. Mark. http://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649141856-vpi-industries-classic-1-turntable-...
Back to top	"The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved with the concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, deceptions, and spoils; The motions of his spirit are dull as night and his affections dark as Hell. Let no such man be trusted." William Shakespeare IP Logged

beowulf Seasoned Member Posts: 1449	Re: What's next? Reply #8 - 08/23/14 at 22:28:28 @ Mark ~ oh man and it's in Walnut ... my absolute favorite!!! It's a great price too, I wish I didn't have the other things in the fire though as I would definitely pick this up!
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