My visit with vintagebob

vintagebob · « **Reply #80 on:** 7 Mar 2010, 01:43 am »

More Pics

K Shep · « **Reply #81 on:** 7 Mar 2010, 01:47 am »

We had a great turn out. I just returned home, here are photos as requested.

vintagebob man's the grill.

vintagebob, low.pfile and K Shep

ttsakai · « **Reply #82 on:** 7 Mar 2010, 02:02 am »

All-

I would also like to throw in my thanks to Bob and Kirk for setting up the get together and especially to Bob for hosting!

Great to see so many music lovers in one place and it's always so interesting to hear about how different each persons music system setup is. Sooooo many choices and results ....

Take care everyone and it was great meeting all of you!

Tracy

DMurphy · « **Reply #83 on:** 7 Mar 2010, 02:05 am »

The pics are looking good. But I don't want you to think you were the only Salk gathering today. I just flew back from Detroit for the HT4 shootout to choose the final design. I won't spill the beans, but there was complete agreement, and I was very happy with what I heard. Jim had a pair of red (very red) HT2 TL's sitting in the corner that I would have loved to have heard alongside the HT4's, but I had to dash back to the airport.

oneinthepipe · « **Reply #84 on:** 7 Mar 2010, 04:18 am »

Looks like you had a great time. Thanks for sharing the photos.

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #85 on:** 7 Mar 2010, 04:28 am »

Nice !!! Thanks...

taoggniklat · « **Reply #86 on:** 7 Mar 2010, 04:30 am »

I love seeing the CJ there.

vintagebob · « **Reply #87 on:** 7 Mar 2010, 06:24 pm »

San Jose GTG Report

We started out with the CJ/Ayre combo and stayed with that for a good part of the day. It sounded good. The modified Blue Circle preamp was then thrown in the mix and did very well. We ended with the AVA gear and I think most people were impressed. The shotgun speaker cables at least made the sound louder? A difference was noted with the Schumann Resonator as well. To be fair, I never had a chance to sit in the sweet spot the entire event. The burdens of the host. It was fun listening to the wide variety of music though and meeting so many great people!

As for the Salks? I'm a "fanboy" so my comments don't count. ; )

Hopefully some others will chime in with their comments...

K Shep · « **Reply #88 on:** 7 Mar 2010, 07:20 pm »

I got to Bob's early to set up. I had a chance to sit in the sweet spot and listen to his system. This is my second visit to his home and Bob has made positive noticable changes to his room. The soundstage alone has grown leaps and bounds. Regarding his HT2-TL's...these speakers dig deep! The low end extension is wonderful and caught my attention a couple of times yesterday. I love Salk speakers and having listened to Tracy's (ttsakai) HT3's and Bob's speakers again I miss my Songtowers.

Bob brought his iMac downstairs and set it up on a partition wall (see photos earlier in thread). I brought an external hard drive (firewire) and plugged it through his computer utilizing Bob's iTunes. I set up his iMac to play files through Ayre USB DAC and away we went. It was easier than I had hoped for.

PM me if you want to chat about the MIT speaker cables

.

The best part of the event, for me, was the people. What a great time. This was my first event like this and I truly had a great time. I made a few friends and I intend to continue putting these events together in the future. My problem is my attic isn't the best spot for an event like we had yesterday. Not enough room. But I will definitely have a GTG at my place this year.

I want to thank vintagebob for nodding yes as I asked him if we could have the event at his place. He grilled more than enough food, put out a great spread, his gal Nikki is a real sweetheart. Bob brought in chairs and rearranged his home to put on this event. So for our first Salk Nor Cal event it went off very well.

Thanks Bob!

Stylus · « **Reply #89 on:** 7 Mar 2010, 09:30 pm »

Just got home after a great weekend!

Many thanks to Bob for hosting this event, both my wife and I had a great time! I really enjoyed meeting everyone, hope we can do it again!

taoggniklat · « **Reply #90 on:** 7 Mar 2010, 11:26 pm »

I will be back in the bay area over labor day weekend, maybe we can arrange something then

Nuance · « **Reply #91 on:** 7 Mar 2010, 11:46 pm »

Glad you guys had fine; I'm jealous.

I look forward to more North Cal events.

stew · « **Reply #92 on:** 8 Mar 2010, 09:37 pm »

Hi Bob and fellow NoCal'ers -

I had a great time over the weekend! Thanks to Bob for hosting us - he shared food and wine, and truly was a perfect, magnanimous host. His girlfriend was great too, and I enjoyed talking to her a bit about wine. Thanks Kirk for DJ'ing most of the day, and bringing some great equipment to listen to (and look at!). It was a lot of fun being around fellow audiophiles - talking, debating, listening, swapping stories and experiences. To me, the day truly epitomized what being an audiophile is about. And I feel I made a few friends too!

Whoever hosts the next event, count me in! I would also consider hosting in the future, though my place is not nearly as hospitable as Bob's in terms of accommodating people in my listening room (perhaps Kirk and I share similar listening room limitations), and my room acoustics aren't nearly as good as Bob's even though I do have some GIK treatments going on.

Looking forward to next time!

-Stew

writeface · « **Reply #93 on:** 9 Mar 2010, 12:25 am »

Quote from: K Shep on 7 Mar 2010, 07:20 pm

The best part of the event, for me, was the people. What a great time. This was my first event like this and I truly had a great time. I made a few friends and I intend to continue putting these events together in the future.
..

Thanks Bob!

Exactly! My first time too. It was truly a pleasure seeing all. Thank you Bob!

vintagebob · « **Reply #94 on:** 9 Mar 2010, 04:10 pm »

So, after listening to my system, especially with all of the other equipment, what would you recommend for the next "upgrade"?

1) Mount TV on the wall and move equipment to the sides of the room?
2) Tube based preamp? (AVA Avastar or T8)
3) Larger amp? (Maybe AVA Double Ultra 550)
4) More room treatments?

(I actually have more panels on the way...and the ceiling is still bare)

taoggniklat · « **Reply #95 on:** 9 Mar 2010, 04:48 pm »

Quote from: vintagebob on 9 Mar 2010, 04:10 pm

So, after listening to my system, especially with all of the other equipment, what would you recommend for the next "upgrade"?

1) Mount TV on the wall and move equipment to the sides of the room?
2) Tube based preamp? (AVA Avastar or T8)
3) Larger amp? (Maybe AVA Double Ultra 550)
4) More room treatments? (I actually have more panels on the way...and the ceiling is still bare)

I know I was not there for the gtg, but based on my visits...

IMO, the biggest noticeable impact your system will have is the pre-amp. Your room is already pretty well treated, tho I am sure there is some more that can be done.

If it was me I would do it in this order:

1. Pre-amp
2. Amp
3. Room treatments
4. Mount TV

haw1144 · « **Reply #96 on:** 9 Mar 2010, 06:44 pm »

Wow I missed out... looks like everyone had a great time!

vintagebob · « **Reply #97 on:** 9 Mar 2010, 06:53 pm »

Quote from: haw1144 on 9 Mar 2010, 06:44 pm

Wow I missed out... looks like everyone had a great time!

Hey, no worries. You're not far away and you can visit anytime.

K Shep · « **Reply #98 on:** 9 Mar 2010, 07:03 pm »

Quote from: vintagebob on 9 Mar 2010, 04:10 pm

So, after listening to my system, especially with all of the other equipment, what would you recommend for the next "upgrade"?

1) Mount TV on the wall and move equipment to the sides of the room?
2) Tube based preamp? (AVA Avastar or T8)
3) Larger amp? (Maybe AVA Double Ultra 550)
4) More room treatments? (I actually have more panels on the way...and the ceiling is still bare)

Your room changed from my first visit to last Saturday. The sound stage opened up and your system images better. I believe that has everything to do with speaker placement and a little to do with treatments. IMO mounting you TV on the wall and moving your equipment out of the area between the speakers or minimizing the center rack will open the sound up even more.

1- Mount TV
2- Preamp

The other two options won't chagne much IMO.

3- measure your room

stew · « **Reply #99 on:** 9 Mar 2010, 09:33 pm »

Quote from: K Shep on 9 Mar 2010, 07:03 pm

Your room changed from my first visit to last Saturday. The sound stage opened up and your system images better. I believe that has everything to do with speaker placement and a little to do with treatments. IMO mounting you TV on the wall and moving your equipment out of the area between the speakers or minimizing the center rack will open the sound up even more.

1- Mount TV
2- Preamp

The other two options won't chagne much IMO.

3- measure your room

I would generally agree with KShep about the changes that would have the most impact, given what I've heard twice now. But, IMHO the first 2 priorities would be preamp and TV, in that order. Reason is, moving the TV to the wall will probably increase depth of soundstage a little, but not change much else (especially given you have a large amount of room treatment already). Upgrading on the preamp, you will probably notice improvements in many aspects of your system.

-Stew