tommytweaks

Visiting South Beach Miami and stop for dinner on Ocean Drive. $7.00 for a Ginger Ale!

What if Audiophiles had to make decisions on what to buy only on listening and not being able to see what they were listening to. I wonder if their choices would be different.

I have installed in my system 3 iFi LAN isolators. They were purchased and installed at different times. I was curious as to the total improvement brought about by these isolators so I took all three out and listened, for about 2 minutes because I couldn't listen without them.

I ordered a third iFi LAN isolator for the umbilical ethernet cable going from the right KEF LS60 to the left LS60. I doesn't work. Bummer. What am I going to do with the third LAN isolator? I added it to my Modem. I have one isolator coming out of the Modem going into a PWB splitter. Another one coming out of the PWB splitter and the last one on the input of the KEF LS60 speaker. I didn't plan to keep it there, just wanted to break it in so I could bring it to other friends system to listen to. Played the system for a week and just listened to the system. My first 3 test tracks I really couldn't hear much of a difference until I got to the Box Scaggs track. BIG difference! Several of the other tracks also had big differences. So I am keeping it in the system. Overkill? Absolutely not. My total MSRP investment in my system is around $14,000. The three iFi LAN isolators with shipping and tax set me back $288. That's 2% of the total system price. Couldn't imagine listening to my system without them in it. I'm sure results would be different in other systems but highly recommended that you give it a try. If one works try another!

I added the second iFi LAN isolator and placed it on the output of my network switch. Made an nice improvement which I didn't expect. After weeks of listening I moved it to the input of the network switch. I don't understand why it is so much better in this location but it is truly remarkable. For $178 I made a change in the system that would cost a lot more. This is not a tweak or accessory, it is a component. Ordering the third one today. If you are reading this and you stream music or movies this is a must have. Buy it on Amazon so if you don't like it you can return it. Must must have product.

My KEF LS60 speakers have a streamer and DAC built in. I use a Pangea ethernet cable to connect my network switch to the speaker. I installed a iFi LAN isolator to the ethernet input of the speaker. This was the biggest improvement in sound of any accessory or tweak I have tried. It only cost $89. Highly recommended. Buy it from Amazon and you can return it if you don’t like it. I plan on adding another one to the system to see if the system improves further.

Some more songs for you.
Ray Brown-Super Bass II-First track. This song in short and only has all three bass players playing at the same time. Ray Brown is center and then bass on left and right. Can you clearly hear all of Ray Browns notes? Do all three bass's sound different? Remember these are acoustic bass's not electric.
Yello-Toy-Kiss the Cloud. Big sound. Wall to wall. Fun.
LP-Lost on You-Muddy Waters. Big sound. Wall to wall. Fun
Huey Lewis-Greatest Hits-It's All Right. Accapella that has them singing in you room. Fun

Something strange has happened with this new system. I have discovered the importance of the balance control. I don't know if it's because of the design of the speaker but I find myself using the balance control to lock in the soundstage. It's not subtle! So now on my list of 100 favorite songs I not only have the volume control numbers but also the balance control numbers. I am now really enjoying my system!

I had to chance to spend a lot of time listening to my new system today. I changed the ethernet cable from the main right speaker going to the left speaker. In theory this should only change the sound of the left speaker but I heard an improvement in the whole system. What I don't understand at this time is why my reference songs, which I have a list with listening levels written down, the volume changed, some up and some down. Don't understand why. The system continues to improve as I make small changes. The KEF LS60 soundstage is directly related to the recordings. I have some recordings that have a massive side to side and front to back soundstage and others that are just OK. I think I'm going to give you a list of the songs I use for evaluating and what they do well so you can listen on your own system. Give me some time to whittle it down. There are 100 songs on the list.
Happy New Year to everyone!

I can’t emphasize the flexibility of the KEF app in fine tuning the speakers. Without it I would not be a happy camper. Small adjustments made big difference in sound. Very impressed with the high frequencies. Tremendous imaging. Big dynamics. Very good bass but still fine tuning the bass. Ordered 2 KC62 subs.

I have 120 hours of playing music loudly so time to listen. Wow, they are unlistenable! Midrange glare which makes them hard to listen to, poor bass quality and poor centre image. Moved the speakers around and no improvement. Not happy. Speakers are in default mode. Got out my speaker measurement program and made adjustments. Made them sound worse. Not happy. Went back into program and adjusted them according to instructions. Much better but still no focused centre image. Moved the speakers some more. No improvement. NOT HAPPY! Went back to program adjustments and used the balanced control. Bingo. Things are starting to look good. Then plugged power cords into my Black Lion Audio power conditioner and that cleaned things up. Then used Richard Gray Power Company power cords (because they are the only ones I have long enough) and continued to improve. Put Mad Scientist contact conditioner on power cord plugs and music is sounding much better. Enough so that I'm no longer panicking. Lastly I installed the IsoAcoustic Gaia II feet. Soundstage improved in all directions and a slight improvement on the bass. This is what I suggest to all my clients. Install electrical and mechanical isolation so you can fully hear any other changes you make to your System. This system has a wider and deeper soundstage than my other system and I am hearing low level information that I didn't hear with the other system. And I haven't done any other tweaks so I'm excited about the speakers. More to come after I get use to the sound.

Picked up my KEF LS60 speakers yesterday and quickly set them up. Great packaging and easy to get music playing through music streaming services. Played 24 hours straight and today when listening I was tapping my feet. Good sign. No tweaks at this time. Hope to do the EQ setup later in the week. I'm very happy so far!

I ordered a pair of KEF LS60 speakers. The bad news is December delivery.

As I get older I find it difficult to get behind the equipment cabinet to make changes. I'm always trying new ideas and tweaks. I want to simplify my system and have been looking at several systems and keep coming back to the KEF LS60. I have sold and installed many of the KEF R line speakers as well as a Reference model. After proper setup and matching of equipment I am always struck by the amazing imaging and soundstage. The LS60 is a all in one solution. Speaker, amp and streaming service. A little room for tweaking with Isoacoustic feet and aftermarket power cords but that's about it. Set it up and forget about it. Problem is finding a store that has them on display. They may or may not be the solution I'm looking for but I look forward to hearing them.

A friends 26 year old NHT Sub Two finally broke and he replaced it with a Rhythmic Audio 18" sub in his rather large room. It's not the bass that impressed me, it was outstanding, but what it did to the midrange and treble. I am very familiar with the recording Flight of the Cosmic Hippo by Bela Fleck. While Wootens bass lines were impressive I had never heard the reverb and transit decay time of Bela Flecks banjo like this before. There were many other details that I was hearing but that banjo reverb and decay just blew me away. The sub has a lot more breaking in to do and I look forward to visiting again in a few weeks. And it just laying on the carpet with no isolation. Will be trying some Isoacoustic Gais 1 in the future.

I have been researching some full range speaker drivers. When looking at the frequency response that never show what kind of smoothing was applied. You can take a speaker that is really bad + or - 10db, apply 1 octave smoothing and it looks ruler flat. Be careful when you look at frequency response graphs. Little white lies.

In order to sell a Bedini amp and preamp I borrowed a 3 and 1/2 inch full range driver speaker. Did not expect much but it has me curious. It does so many things right and it's a cheap piece of #%&@. Makes me wonder about better quality full range drivers. Interested in listening to Cube Audio speakers. If I can find some I will let you know of my experience with them.

I recently had the opportunity to demonstrate the unique products from Peter Belt to Dennis Had from Inspire. I just treated the turntable in various steps. Each application to the turntable resulted in a change to the sound. Dennis and our friend easily could hear changes made in the system. The week before, two audiophiles couldn’t recognize the difference between the turntable and CD player. I doubt they would have recognized the changes made by the Peter Belt products and would certainly call it snake oil.

There is a new category in high end audio. It is the ridiculous priced components now marketed by dozens of companies. Obviously they must be selling these products or why would they continue to design and build them. There is a company in Italy that sells a complete system for $1,000,000. I wish I knew how many they sell. My question is how much better is it then there $100.000 system. 100%, 50%, 10%, 1%. I would assume that your ego would be boosted but I would consider you an idiot! During the past several years I have had the opportunity to listen to systems in the $100,00 to 150,000 range. I and my friend were extremely disappointed in the sound. If I was blindfolded and asked how much I thought these system’s cost i would guess less then $10,000. I have heard systems costing around $5,000 that sound better. They can’t play as loud and have a limited low frequency response but transport you to a musical event. In my younger years while attending trade shows I made a lot of manufactures mad at me for calling out their bu****it and lies about their products. Have you ever seen a bad audio review in the last 15 to 20 years? Enough for today. Will continue some more later.

Just had a interesting email exchange with a speaker designer. We agreed and disagreed on many things. But the one thing that we both really believed in was driver cone material. I have always been a fan of paper cone drivers. I remember when selling Monitor Audio speakers and they came out with aluminum cone woofer drivers. The selling point was greatly reduced distortion. But what I heard was a bad sounding driver. May have measured well but it sure didn't sound good. What I don't understand is how it made it to market. Didn't anyone listen to it? But "technology" seem to be he driving force behind marketing back then. Today there are many speakers still using paper cone woofers and midranges. Not all of them sound good but most sound musical. I am using a Rhythmic Audio powered subwoofer using a 12" paper cone driver from GR Research. Also my 8" Tang Band midrange drivers in my custom Marshall Kay dipole speakers are paper coned. Maybe they measure higher in distortion but they sure sound musical to me.

Didn't realize how long it has been since I last posted. While I have plenty of opinions regarding all things audio I sometimes forget to express them. Still on the subject of crossover parts, specifically inductors, I just want you to think about this. You have spent some money on good value speaker cables and rewired the internal wire in you speakers. Now I want you to research all the big name inductor manufacturers. Notice that they do not specify the quality of the wire. It's bad enough that the gauge size, specifically the woofer circuit is under sized but what could we expect if we used some really high quality wire. If I was building inductors I would use Cardas Grade One copper. Of course this would be terribly expensive because I would upgrade to a 12 gauge wire. Would it make a difference. I'm sure it would but would it be worth it. Don't know because I have never tried it. A good 12 gauge inductor from Erse, Jantzen or Solen always made a difference but I just can't find out about the wire they use. That is why I now have an all active system. In fact it is a digital active system. It is a cheap digital active system with DSP and it sounds superior to the really really expensive passive crossover system I have used in the past. It took me 3 years to accept the concept of a active digital system. Why did I wait so long!

I have spent considerable time and effort understanding the importance of parts quality in all aspects of audio. The most disappointing parts quality is in loudspeakers. Until you get into speakers costing upwards of $50K, speaker crossover parts are really bad. I am presently working with clients that have purchased from me a particular brand of speakers with great drivers and cabinets. These speakers range in price from $3K to $10K. The crossover parts and the binding posts are a joke. I will be upgrading some of the crossover parts and particularly the binding posts. I have recently replaced one pair of speakers with AECO silver binding posts, also bypassing the pathetic jumpers. The difference in sound quality is not something that you need time to evaluate. It is immediate! Every single parameter that we use to discribe sound is improved. Engineers spend countless money and time to engineer drivers, cabinets and crossover designs and then put in crap crossover parts. Before purchasing your next pair of speakers consider purchasing a lesser model and upgrading the crossover parts. You will end up with a better sounding speaker for the same amount of money.

It's been awhile since I last posted anything. Sometimes life gets in the way of my hobbies but I have been enjoying watching and reading audiophile articles on loudspeakers. I have a problem with the status quo on loudspeaker bu****it. Lets take a look at what a loudspeaker should do. Be full bandwidth from 20 Hz to 20K Hz and beyond in your room. Be extremely low distortion. Be easy to drive meaning high sensitivity and a benign impedance curve. I was involved with Audio Artistry and know what it takes to make a quality product. I would like to start be stating the 3 parameters of a speaker. First is the cabinet. Second is the crossover design and parts. Third is the drivers. The cabinet is the most expensive component of the speaker and has a much larger impact on the sound then you realise. What started off as a simple box made of MDF has evolved into extremely costly construction and finish. But is it always worth it. They keep making boxes for speakers more and more expensive but few think outside the parameters of loudspeaker design. When I look at the most expensive speakers like from Wilson Audio and compare them to more affordable models that have the same frequency response and low distortion specs I have to ask myself, what are you getting for a couple extra hundred thosand dollars. In my very biased opinion, nothing but bu****it and bragging rights. While I have only heard big Wilson speakers twice, both at dealer showrooms reportedly set up by Dave Wilson himself, I walked away asking myself who the hell would buy these speakers. And many do. Now they are beautifully finished using high quality parts but what is the result in sound quantity and quality. They were extremely disappointing and not to pick on Wilson Audio alone, most of the expensive speakers that I have listened to over the years are just as bad. Cabinet talk is one of the most damaging problems and these companies make herculean efforts to minimize this but at a tremedous cost. The solution, dipole speakers. Particulary dynamic dipole speakers now being offered from several manufacturers. No cabinet talk and low production costs. No bragging rights to your audiophile buddies but you save a lot of money and have a better chance of getting good sound because of less room interaction. Next post will be about what you don't see. The crossover. Till next time, good listening.

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As I try different interconnects in my system and hear the differences they make I wonder why some people don't hear these differences. Is it their belief systems. Most are engineers.
Is it their systems that can't reveal the differences or is it they are expecting something spectacular. In one case the interconnect was the same except for the brand of RCA connector. The only difference was I wasn't enjoying the music. Couldn't identify why but differently not enjoying the sound. Switched back and immediately enjoyed the sound. I am not saying you need to spend thousands of dollars on wire. Certainly there are many bad value products out there.

I am really enjoying my new speakers! Turns out they are a great tool for testing new changes in the system. I have a custom interconnect between my Marantz ND8006 and the miniDSP crossovers. I am using Dueland 20 solid core gauge wire with Neutrik RCA connectors. A friend loaned me a pair of Eichman pure silver RCAs that I attached to the source end of my interconnects. I was shocked at the improvement in sound. Heard the difference in 5 seconds. Now that is just one pair of 8 pairs of RCA connectors in the system. What to do?

It has been a long time coming but I finally have my new speakers up and running, kind of. The tops with the AMT driver and Tang Band 8" are working with the miniDSP crossovers but still waiting for the cabinets for the 12" woofers. I am using the Rhythmic Audio subwoofer to take its place.for now. I decided to go forward with this project without ever hearing a finished speaker. I had trust in the designer (Marshall Kay, owner of Audio Artistry) and wanted to have DSP capabilities for everything from time alignment to eq. Well I am not disappointed. In fact, they have exceeded my expectations. They perform the best disappearing act I have ever heard and they have no adjustments what so ever. Need a new laptop, old operating system too old to work with the miniDSP software. While I would consider this system at the moment to be a small 2 way with a sub it produces the largest soundstage in my room I have ever experienced. My attitude is it can only get better. I am waiting for parts for several upgrades and will keep you posted on the results. Having fun and listening to lots of music! Please listen to Harry Connick Jr., Chanson Du Vieux Carre, Track 1 Someday You'll be sorry. Tremendous dynamics!

I just finished watching a youtube video where the reviewer was comparing the Buchardt S400 to the KEF R3 bookshelf speakers. Both excellent speakers with a different tonal balance. Buchardt described as being warm sounding and the KEF more detailed. I thought about why and it's probably where the peaks and valleys of the measured frequency response lies. Typically called voicing a speaker. I remember when working for Audio Artistry they made a change in the frequency response around 3500 Hz only 1 db and it totally changed the sound of the speaker. For me the better. I love watching the youtube videos from Danny Ritchie from GR Research on measuring other manufacturers speakers. Some of the frequency responses are absolutely horrific and my interpretation of that speaker coincides with the measured response. There is no denying the Klipsch sound, BRIGHT and it measures that way. I still have no idea why that brand sells as well as it does. I hope to be sending to GR Research a brand new pair of R3 for them to measure. Should be interesting. Will let you all know if it happens.