[Jim W.]

All,

I made an important discovery yesterday with a lot of help and assistance from Dave and Randy at Earthshaking Music (ESM).  I thought I was having problems with my MiniMax power amplifier mating with the F120A drivers   .  However, Dave's listening room helped me diagnose my troubles.  I'm just getting back into this hobby, so the music I listen to now is new as well, since my tastes have changed.  That being said, I don't know every instrument and note to any single piece of music.  As a result, I didn't know what I was NOT hearing until I dragged all of my equipment, including some chip amplifiers I was evaluating, down to ESM.

Long story short, the room, speaker placement, and listener placement make all of the difference in the world.  I totally underestimated just how much so.  The room allowed the MiniMax to strut its stuff, and strut it did.  The music just bloomed and provided that, "you are there" performance.  Dave's rooms keep getting better and better, and Randy is a real find.  Dave and Randy then proceeded to show off some SET gear, but that's a story for another day.  The chip amplifiers are going back.  Yes, more power, but...

Lesson learned.  You CANNOT set up a room properly (i.e., speakers, sound treatment, listening position, etc.) unless you know EXACTLY what to listen for.  I came home and tweaked my room accoordingly.  HUGE difference.

Just wanted to set the record straight.  Most of you probably already know this basic stuff.

Jim

[zybar]

Kudos to Dave and Randy for providing good advice and service.  

Too many dealers either don't do that or even worse, aren't qualified enough to provide such help.

As such, I have found myself buying from dealers less and less over the years.

BTW, can you further elaborate on what you were shown and what you changed?  This will make it into an even better testimonial.

George

[nature boy]

It's also important to remember the Eastern Electric Minimas preamp INVERTS phase.  As a result, I cross my + and - speaker wire connections at the speaker terminals.  There are other ways to correct phase as well, this is just easiest in my system.

When phase is inverterd soundstage depth collapses and is not nearly as wide, vocals sound more forward too.  It just does not sound quite right.

Several excellent preamps invert, so keep this in mind and make adjustments accordingly.

NB

[Jim W.]

Nature Boy,

So are you listening "in phase" or "out of phase?"  My assumption is you're listening "in phase" if you've got positive wire to the negative tap and negative wire to the positive tap at the speaker terminals.  I'm wondering why Eastern Electric (EE) would invert phase if what you say is true, forward vocals, soundstage collapse, etc.

I've recently been listening "in phase" with wires crossed at the speaker terminals.  I'll switch back again to see what EE had in mind.

Jim

[Louis O]

Hi Jim,

This is fantastic news. Great to hear Dave and Randy really helping you out with your room and set up.

Both Dave and Randy have a passion for music and I'm very lucky to have them representing the speakers.

Thanks again,
Louis