So, while the Chicagoland Decware Appreciation Society (CDApS) completely failed their first 2020 meet (they are lost without me I guess), I managed to pull together an impromptu Colorado Decware Appreciation Society (CDApS) meet since this character messaged me saying he was jonesing for some Decware listening.

Enter Lightfoot Dan


He brought some....questionable libations, but being a fine host, I didn't give him too much grief.  :)



My house is still under some renovation, so I really haven't had time to setup anything...but since I had just put new flooring in the future Living Room/Home Theater/ Listening room, I figured I'd slap something together for Dan. With only 90 minutes before his arrival, I literally ran a 100' network cable across the house, grabbed one of my custom built mini-PCs out of a yet-to-be-unpacked box, grabbed two DACs, two pair of Speakers, and my Modified Zen Amp and original Mystery Amp and got to work!

The Roon, Networking setup took the longest, but I finally got it going only minutes before Dan was dropped off by his brother. I had the mini-PC connected to the TEAC NT-503 via USB directly, then over wired network back to my Direct Stream DAC into it's Bridge II. In Roon I could play both rooms simultaneously, or independently through software.

Setup #1
I really hate having a TV between the speakers, but as I said, this was thrown together, and I had setup the girlfriends TV to keep her happy, just the night before.



System sounded good...till I tried to push the Zen amp. It just ran out of steam way too early and distorted on dynamic passages. I really think I need to retube already.  Not the best showing for Dan, but he was pleased. I've since ordered some new output tubes, and I have a plethora of input tubes to swap in. Granted, the room is 26' long and 11.5' wide, with an 8' to 14' vaulted ceiling and no room treatment...so it's probably not enough amp for the space. I'll know more once I get some new tubes in from the Ukraine.

Second system was sorta setup already. With the rest of the house being torn apart and slowly fixed up, I've pretty much been living out of the Dining Room. I cobbled a surround sound system, painted a wall white, setup the projector and a couple chairs. Add in the PS Audio Direct Stream, Mystery Amp, and El Camino speakers and we're set!



This system sounded unbelievable. Keep in mind, this a small dining room with ceramic tile over concrete slab, opens up to the kitchen in back. I wasn't expecting much...but something about this space just sings!



The El Camino speakers coupled with the corners so well, the bass was HUGE and deep. I played some tracks off Sneaker Pimps Becoming X, and it just filled the room with tight, punchy bass. Then I went on to my usual tracks with Alt-J's  An Awesome Wave, and I just said WOW. The reverb in the room matched the reverb in the recording so well, that the reverb on the album seemed to wrap around us organically...much like I'd expect with many, many diffusers. Normally in a room with this many hard reflective surfaces it would turn into an echoy incoherent mess of slapback reverb and comb filtering...but somehow in this little room it worked! And this was like zero setup...no toe in, measurements, nothing. Just plug and play. Dan made lots of happy sounds and we enjoyed several tracks this way.



Overall it was a great night! I'm glad I got to spend time with my friend Dan, talking sound theory, Decware, and even making some tentative plans for Decfest 2020.

A very successful first CDApS meet, and great start to the new year! All had for 90 minutes of work, and a few PBRs.  

If we happen to have any other Decware fans in the Denver area, please hit me up! I'm happy to to go to, or host any listening sessions!

That is one spiffy looking hunk of maple under system one's electronics!
It kinda looks like a tree that used to be next to my Mom's shed.

LR

You seem to either not mention or, worse yet, not benefited from Lightfoot's other talent.  When he visited us, not only was the music great but the food was spectacular.  And, he enjoys teaching the tricks of the trade to others (I.E. wives, girlfriends, etc).  By careful planning of compliments ("well, its really good, but not quite as good as ...") I've been able to enjoy numerous versions of the great meal he prepared for us.

He was still drinking that PBR stuff... maybe there's something to it?

While the January CDApS meeting was a complete fail, February 9th will be a huge meet for us.  

Your replacement, ProggRob will be back in the fold and we'll have a couple of Amps to listen to, a couple DACs and my latest attempts at open baffles.  

I dare say our beverages will be a step up from PBR, but Dan certainly makes them look tasty in those pictures!

P.S. did you ever try my headrest for your IKEA chair that I made you??

For years I have toiled under your harsh rule. As a result, there has been a coupe d'etat and I have assumed complete control.

All hail El Presadente Dos!
Burrito supreme pork favor.
My spanish is as weak as my understanding of animal husbandry.

Aaron, Mary and I had our February CDApS meeting.  Did we have Dan?  No.  PBR?  No.  El Presidente? No.  Despite the odds being stacked against us, we still had a successful meet.

Basically, our unstated goals were to evaluate my latest OBs and hear Aaron's multibit Gungnir.

We started out with a baseline of the Big Betsy's with my Chord Dac.  I have been listening to that DAC over my TEAC as of late.  More of a change of pace but its also a little more musical.

Then we switched over to the Gungnir.  the path was Mac mini --> Gungnir ---> zibit --> 25th.  It was pretty easy to hear the additional dimensionality, detail and excellent cymbal reproduction with the Gungnir.  A nice dac for sure.  I had recently mearsured and positioned the Big Betsy's so they sounded and imaged very well.  

I left Aason and Mary alone so they could run though their Tidal playlist and form a good opinion.  They have a very similar chain at home.

After some time, we switched in the Crystal 10 OBs with the Acoustic Elagance 15" bass drivers.  Initial listening was not that great.  I forgot to set the bias to the appropriate setting.  On the more aggressive setting, they can be bit etched.  

After some more listening, I asked their opinion but I believe they both felt the same.  They appreciated the full range of the Crystal 10s, but found the Big Betsy's to be easier to listen to.  I have to agree, but I still spend most of my time with the Crystal 10 baffles.  I really like having both speakers so I can switch them in and out.

Our respective playlists:

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/5f688d9c-9765-483e-a7f3-14368ec9f94d

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/df55402a-12f4-45b6-b999-9a3db274c160

Thanks Geno.  

Does your 25th have the bias setting?  Do you run it in forward or back position with the C10s?  Also wondering about you speaker output setting - high or low?

Thanks

I run the Big Betsy in the forward position and the C10 in the back position.  i could be imagining it but it seems to help the detail in the Big Betsy and smooth out the edge in the C10.

Pics or it didn't happen!!


Sounds like a good meet. And thanks for the playlists!

I only took a few.

The initial setup.

Hey Pal,

I can't tell from the pictures if that's a dropped ceiling with replaceable panels, or if those are acoustic tiles glued in place. I have always wondered if strategically removing certain panels from a dropped ceiling could break up the sound waves reflecting off the ceiling. Any experience with that?

Randy

I did see that Steve had added a thick rug in front of his listening position, so I'll probably give that a shot at some point.

I've been thinking about ceiling heights, and what can be done with them after watching the Acoustic Fields videos that were posted here. It does seem like that's the weakest point in most peoples' listening rooms, because there's really not much that can be done about it at any reasonable cost. It definitely has been a problem in my rooms in the past, and unless I build something from scratch, I'm guessing that my next place will have the same problem.

Pal,

I noticed in your room picture what looks to be corner bass asorbers. Looks like an implementation right out of the acoustics handbook. What is your opiinion on effectiveness?

Thanks

John

I appreciate you guys coming over BW.  It always helps a ton to have other opinions.  You guys have set me off on a whole new avenue of experimentation.

We need to get ProgRob to come to the next one for even more diversity.

Once I went to open baffle, it became much less of an issue.  

Before that there were modes in the room where bass could be significantly louder.  I don't remember how much but huge differences.  I'd have people move to one of the spots and get a wow out of them every time.

Now its pretty even.  I think maybe a little more bass in the back of the room than at the listening position.

Tom, considering the size of your listening room, I'm surprised you don't have more bass issues. It gives me hope for my small room (dining room).

I'm still super busy working on the house, I'm trying to finish up the flooring so I can get the spare bedroom built and install a new ceiling...*then* maybe I'll have time to get my setup going properly in the new living room with diffusers and all.

I also need a way to sort and stock all my tubes. I'm thinking some of those Ikea drawers like what Steve has. They have nice blue ones that are wide and short, perfect for building a desk on in my computer room.
I may also have a tube sale, as funds are kinda tight right now and I'm sure I have more tubes than I could use in the next decade.

The perimeter of my room has the makings of good dimensions for a listening room but the height skews it all. At varying heights from 76" to 84", Dennis from AF would just pass on any hopes of treating the room satisfactorily. I even had thoughts of cutting concrete and dropping the floor 3'. It is realistic but hardly on my priority list...maybe a fanatasy list!

The problem with bass in the Chariot(that is the name for the room I coined during the project back in 2002) at this point is attack on the bass notes. Since placing the pillows, the boom has subsided and one can hear the bass notes but not attack on strings. This is obvious with bass guitar and lower octaves of piano. The only treatment inside the room is a quality indoor/outdoor carpet with a thin fiber pad on concrete floor and 3 layers of 1/2" boards(drywall fiber sandwich) on walls with same self supporting ceiling. The 3 layer combination for ceiling is drywall, fiber, and plywood. This has served well as an isolated Home Theater/Listening room over the years but I always knew it needed additional treatment for top notch sound.

BTW, the move to a tube amp is paying off! I am finding that a lot of classical rock is sounding so much better with the SA-2. Styx, Foreigner, Foghat, The Black Crows, Wisbone Ash...on and on!

Here you go LR.
https://www.decware.com/cgi-bin/yabb22/YaBB.pl?num=1581779674/0#10

I’d agree with you.  I include in my annual Decfest ritual a testing of my new/favorite tubes on Steve’s tester just to know where I am in the tube lifecycle and for matching purposes.  I keep my eye out for a tester on eBay/Craigslist.  Part of my hesitancy is cost but also ignorance of which model to buy.

As far as modern ones go I think MaxiMatcher is about the only option.

It’s that PBR Dan.  It breeds community.

That MaxiMatcher seems pretty nice. Anybody have any thoughts on Geno’s concerns?

I may be speaking out of turn here, but regardless of where a tube was manufactured, it should be meeting certain specifications. The tube tester measures what parameters are given for given tube number, supposing that the tube is an equivalent to those parameters, correct?