New vinylphile ...I'm in awe.

EProvenzano · « **on:** 22 Sep 2004, 03:59 am »

I'd like to thank everyone for the many posts herein that helped me by providing excellent information, as I dove into the world of vinyl.

I am so amazed. I've loved audio and music for the last 10 years, but never knew I could experience such a revelation. I mean, I've bough peices in the past few years that had put a grin on my face for weeks, as I enjoy them, but nothing has compared to this.

Vinyl absolutely trascends all my expectations. For the past 2 years my source consisted of a Sony C555ES SACD player and I thought, and still do think, it is very very good. The vinyl simply puts it to shame.
Instead of closing my eyes and listening to fine equipment I swear I could stand up and walk into the band, it's that good and the improvement is that dramatic.

I'm not implying that I have a world beater system. I'm sure it's far from that. Relative to everything I've ever owned, this IS music and everything else has only been a faint whisper.

To anyone sitting on the fence: do your homework, audition everything on your short list, and don't be afraid to take the plunge. I think you'll be rewarded beyond your expectations. I know I am

Good luck and happy listening.

Brad · « **Reply #1 on:** 22 Sep 2004, 04:32 pm »

So tell us about your vinyl setup.........

EProvenzano · « **Reply #2 on:** 22 Sep 2004, 11:44 pm »

Hi.
My modest rig consists of....

Basis 1400 with modified RB250 and Grado Prestige Silver (thanks to Gene at Take Five Audio)
Monolithic PS1 connected with Bolder M80 phono cable (thanks to Wayne for the cable)
Heavily modified Jolida 801A integrated amp (thanks to Chris Johnson at Parts Connexion)
Ellis 1801 monitors (thanks Dave! I still stroke the heavy burl baffles every day. They are so 'purdy'...I know kinda sick)
All other IC's are DIY silver (Chris VH recipe) and Goertz Python Speaker cables.

Many months ago I had a blessing in disguise when I lost my dedicated listening room and down sized my rig into the bedroom...What a treat that has turned out to be.

The old system consisting of well known separate solid state amps and preamp, with active cross-over and stereo subwoofers....Let's just say I don't miss it a bit

I'm still tweaking my vinyl setup. I'm having some challenges with woofer pumping. I think the subsonic filter of the Monolithic isn't working like I expected it to...I see more reading in my near future.

My wife never touched my system before....how do I get her to keep her hands off my records

She thinks they sound cool too

BR,
EP

Tonto Yoder · « **Reply #3 on:** 23 Sep 2004, 02:15 am »

Quote from: EProvenzano

Hi.
My modest rig consists of....

Basis 1400 with modified RB250 and Grado Prestige Silver (thanks to Gene at Take Five Audio)

Did Take Five sell you that combo as a package??? I was under the impression the Rega arms and Grado carts don't always play nice together.
(The Grado hum issue should be moot since you're not using the Rega arm on a Rega TT.) I thought there was a compliance/resonance mismatch (which COULD cause woofer pumping).

orthobiz · « **Reply #4 on:** 23 Sep 2004, 02:58 am »

Maybe MaxCast will pick up the thread for advice about the wife touching the stereo. I had a thread about how my wife could contact me when I am in listening Nirvana and otherwise unavailable to the rest of the world. His response was a hoot.

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=12262&highlight=

biz

EProvenzano · « **Reply #5 on:** 23 Sep 2004, 03:25 am »

Quote from: Tonto Yoder

Did Take Five sell you that combo as a package??? I was under the impression the Rega arms and Grado carts don't always play nice together.
(The Grado hum issue should be moot since you're not using the Rega arm on a Rega TT.) I thought there was a compliance/resonance mismatch (which COULD cause woofer pumping).

Yep, Gene put that together for me and did an excellent job modding the wiring. I did read a bit about the woofer pumping 'potentially' being common with the Grado carts. At the same time I also read another hundred posts on AA about woofer pumping completely unrelated to Grado cartridges. At this point I'm more concerned with why the PS1 is not filtering the subsonic frequencies. Still plenty of researching to do.

I might try another cartridge as a quick test and hopefully save myself some time.

I seem to remember a post by Jackman about this same problem. Since he also has 1801's I think I'll dig up that old thread and find out what happend.

BR,
EP

Tonto Yoder · « **Reply #6 on:** 23 Sep 2004, 06:12 am »

Quote from: EProvenzano

Yep, Gene put that together for me and did an excellent job modding the wiring.

He's got more TT experience than I have, so the combo should be OK.
The Hi-Fi News & Record Reviews LP has a track that indicates your resonant frequency, but it's unfortunately $25-30. When I had similar problems, just moving the table to a different spot helped; different isolation might work too??

Tonto Yoder · « **Reply #7 on:** 23 Sep 2004, 09:34 pm »

One other thought---could you change the resonance by using an arm wrap?? There are some available commercially but it seems you could experiment with teflon tape or some other tweak. Some have advocated things like C37 lacquer, but that's a pretty permanent "solution"(and, conceivably, could make things worse).

EProvenzano · « **Reply #8 on:** 23 Sep 2004, 11:00 pm »

Quote

The Atma-Sphere tone arm wrap is a very simple and effective means of reducing high-frequency resonance in your tone arm and extracting greater musical detail.

Isn't woofer pump a low frequency resonance usually between 8-15 hz?

Either way, I'll try playing with the arm damping to see if it changes anything.

Thanks for the tip!

BR,
EP

Tonto Yoder · « **Reply #9 on:** 24 Sep 2004, 12:00 am »

Yeah, woofer pump is low frequency: that high frequency idea on the Atma-Sphere site confused me. When I had woofer pump problems, a particular low frequency on certain LP's would "trigger" the tonearm/ cart resonance, the woofers would "play" the resonance and the sound would vibrate the cart at that resonance in a vicious, cumulative circle.

Of course, low frequency flaws in LP's can cause pump ( as was discussed in the earlier thread you mentioned).

LordCloud · « **Reply #10 on:** 15 Oct 2004, 02:03 am »

EProvenzano, I had a woofer pumping issue as well, but it was because the support I had it on wasn't adequate. Once I moved to a better support, the problem was completely gone. As a matter of fact, I can hit my support with a hammer and not disturb the vinyl while it's playing! I would imagine a good support may be the cure.

EProvenzano · « **Reply #11 on:** 15 Oct 2004, 02:30 am »

Thanks, I'll give that a shot.
I'm still noticing the problem.
Right now, the TT is resting atop a Flexy rack. The foundation is concrete with plush carpet. I can easily try spiking the stand to the slab.

I'll soon be experimenting with a new cart because I think the Grado is causing me some excessive surface noise. All things considered, it still sounds very good! ...don't listen to cee dees often

With any luck I'll kill two problems at once.