Strabo

Like you, I got rid of my unwanted version of DSOTM. There is a limit to how many you can justify owning. I'll have to borrow a mofi copy for another listen. My room has changed considerably (for the better) since my last comparison so you might be right about the bass. Shees, I'll have to try cleaning the Madeleine Peyroux disc too. Reading the current Stereofool last night I noticed Michael Fremer has the mofi listed second in his heavy rotation suggestions. Am I having bad luck with this pressing? Anyone else have issues with it?

That's funny. Is their site working yet? Took me 15 minutes to post matrix numbers this morning on the LZ IV pre-master CD with the correct channels. I only have a few Mofi vinyls and can tell you to avoid the new Madeleine Peyroux. I was going to post a poll on SH.tv to see what other's experiences were with it. I've heard of a few proplems of noisy vinyl besides mine. My first copy came out of the sealed jacket with many scuffs on both sides. Sent it back unplayed and waiting for a refund. Bought a second copy from Acoustic Sounds. That one looks ok but plays like popcorn. I haven't tried cleaning it yet, gave up and bought the regular CD which is spinning now. I'd like to know what about the Mofi DOTM blows away the 30th Anniv edition. My comparisons gave the nod to the 30th Anniv. It's more dynamic and plays great. Some have reported tracking problems because of the dynamics. It takes a good cart set up properly to play it. Kevin Gray via SH warned people that there is no top end limiting on the 30th. His warning was to those with ribbon tweeters that the vinyl has info over 30khz at the beginning of Time, so watch the volume when the chimes go off or risk burning up a tweeter. Then again, I was using a well played VG+ mofi for comparison. IMO, don't waste your time or money searching for a NM+ mofi hoping it's better. Just get the sealed 30th and be done with it.

I'm in about the same boat. Sold my Klipsch a while ago in search of sweeter midrange. Turns out I probably would have been better off keeping klipsch and adding SET. I may be slow but I think I'm starting to understand. Klipsch makes systems simple. Klipsch will reflect what you feed them. You want boom, add some high power SS. You want midrange bloom, lower your power. I don't regret it yet but, I didn't have to trade speakers for better midrange a different amp probably would have made me just as happy.

More than you wanted to know about KOB from SH.TV Sounds like the hiss is on the original two track tapes. Copies without the hiss has been either no-noised or eq'd to death.

An example of accurate but boring IMO, In a good room, Vienna Acoustic Mahler's, dCS Purcell, and a VTL S-400. Approximate value $35k (list). It threw out an amazing image. The midrange was silky smooth, the bass was deep and fast, the high end was clean. Each piece of the music sounded better than my system, but the sum of the musical pieces was underwelming (to me and I'd bet to most on this forum). Others may love it, that is why it is subjective.

Me thinks Rega is trying to cover their arse for not including VTA adjustments in their arms. I can see not worring about making adjustments for each record, but change mats or carts and you just changed the angle a couple degrees. Why not let the user adjust for this? IMO, they are trying to keep the buyer stuck with their equipment. I asked my local Rega dealer (btw, the P3 was probably the cheapest piece of equipment in his store) about this and his response, "I've gone round and round with them about it."

I think Musical v Accurate is too broad. I think there is a third category, "Detailed". To me, Musical - warm, slower sound, like the difference between a MC30 and a Bryston. Either rolled off highs or a midbass hump so that the music oozes into the room. Accurate - flat response Detailed - brighter, an emphasis in the treble that adds extra air to the music. I (currently [])fall into the musical to accurate category. I cringe when I read reviews that say, "I heard things that I never noticed before" because that usually means a brighter system. I don't care fore purely accurate either. Some of the most accurate (and expensive) systems I've heard were also the driest, most boring.

Possibly. Most likely it always was there but your attention was being drawn to the tweeters so you didn't notice it. I don't know how loud you listen but it may be fixed by simply reducing the volume so the room isn't loaded with as much bass.

Congratulations meagain! Now take that last bit of Shawn's advice and stop tweaking. I don't think a day is enough. Let the changes sink in, even if you don't think you like it now. Give it a least a couple of days. I'd say give it a week or two. Enjoy your system and listen to music for a while. Get a good feel for the way it sounds now. Listen to your favorite music, your most familiar music, then listen to regular and new stuff. Spend some time with your system. Take some time off. Don't even turn the system on for a couple of days. Then play something you are familiar with and decide what you would like to be different and work from there. The key is to give yourself time to adjust and understand what you like and don't like before any more changes can be made. The last time I changed my system I thought I went too far. It took me six months to fully accept that I didn't go to far. A year later and now I don't think I went far enough. Yeah, I'm a slow learner. [:$] The point is, give it some time.

It looks to me like a nice little bass bump around 50hz, maybe a little lower, with harmonics at 100hz and 200hz. In my untrained eye the bass doesn't look that bad, maybe a bit smiley faced eq'd on the whole. I'd bet that if you eq'd a DB or two off of 48hz that the peaks at 100 and 200 would come down too. The best fix of course would be to find where in the room the bass is building up and trap it there. IMO, the problem is that treble peak at 6khz. It would really be interesting to know if that is from the speaker or the room. As a side note, I wouldn't be surprised if the flat sound you experienced has more to do with the EQ as a unit being in the signal path rather than the EQ choices that it makes.

Yikes! I can hear the high frequencies breathing in and out from here.

Say it ain't so Dean![] Don't fear that "dark" side. It is your destiny.[6]

That is what I was thiking but I wasn't certain. I have the PVA series (lower powered Anthem) and it isn't bridgeable. Hopefully his is either: A.) Only using one channel from each amp, or B.) Biamping, using each channel for each set of (unstrapped) inputs. If B I can understand the bad sound because of the lack of crossover. If neither A or B, well let's just hope not.

Can you give us more detail on how you are using these as mono amps? For example, do they have a mono switch, are you biwiring, biamping?

Craig and Dean in the same room and drinks? I'd get them to tell me about the time Craig talked Dean into sticking his mit into an powered up amp.[<)]

I didn't check them all, but the auctions look like later re-releases. In a nutshell. This site lists the original catalog numbers. K XXXXX in the early albums are the UK pressings. Atlantic 75XX is the original US and Canada pressing. Of these, look for RL (Robert Ludwig) in the dead wax. So when you see SD 19XXX numbers you know it was a re-release (like in those auctions).

For that kind of money you can sort through hundreds of used Bob Ludwig mastered originals to find a mint one. Heck, for that money you can probably pick up a bunch of sealed originals. I'm out. That's way too much money to gamble on these. The only LZ Classic I tried was IV and I thought the Ludwig version sounded much better.

You shocked me for a minute when you mentioned jumping from RF7s to Cremonas. That is about a 4X jump in price. I'm hoping to get up to those someday. The hard part about leaving Klipsch is they really are a great bang for the buck speaker so you will need to double the price to move up. If live sound is what you desire then it will be difficult to recommend something else. Sonus Fabers have a different, very laid back sound in comparison to Klipsch. The Grand Piano Domus is closer pricewise at $4k a pair. For efficiency you might want to try Silverline Sonata III's @93db but then you are back in the Cremona price range. The Sonatina might not give a big enough sound for you coming from RF7s but probably worth a listen. Maybe check out some of the more efficient Tannoys.

That corrects absolute or system phase. Hopefully we can ignore that for confusion sake. [] I think the phase we are looking for here is in one driver or one speaker that is out of phase with the rest of the system.

IMO this disc should be in every audiophile's library. Sound Check Disc It is great for checking phase problems. I run tracks 36-40 every time I play with wiring. Those tracks give you frequency specific phase information so you can check woofer, mid, and tweeter phase without disconnecting everything. If you try to find something similar make sure it has phase testing within different frequency bands. I haven't looked for one in a long time but the price on this website seems a bit steep. I paid less and for the MFSL version.

It's baseball season! []

Maybe we need a thread where people could list their test CD's and what they listen for. For instance, Steve Hoffman often states that one of his test cd's is the Analog Production or DCC version of CCR's Cosmo's Factory. Specifically the snare in the opening to Fortunate Son. It should sound drenched with reverb/echo. I couldn't hear it on my Forte's with any of the few amps that I tried or PIO caps so I went to dealers with that disc in hand and listened to high $$$ speakers until I heard it. Another disc I use for male vocals is Robin And The Seven Hoods soundtrack. Sounds corny but try it sometime. You have Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Bing Crosby all singing together. Try to locate and pinpoint each voice while they sing together. For classical, try Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone. Again this might sound corny, but listen to the Sergio Leone Suite. One of the tracks is either very closely mic'd or mixed with lots of weird phasing but it places you in Yo-Yo Ma's chair as he plays. The rest of the disc is mixed with you middle center of the audience but that one track puts his cello all around you.

I think we may finally be getting somewhere. Most of the differences that I hear in equipment is in soundstaging more than tonality. 1. Room stinks... Khorns are in 2 corners facing open room to back. My seating is on the SIDE of the room such that the left channel fires at your face but the right channel passes 3-4 feet in front of you. The sweet spot is occupied by a table that could cause my DEATH if I were to move. I think you numbered this appropriatly. It is probably your number one problem. You can't get to the sweet spot to listen. Without that you will have a very hard time creating the visual picture that stereo is able to create. No piece of equipment will be able to compensate. That said, I have heard one system where the image is so holographic that you could be standing on one side of the room (outside the speakers) and still hear that the sound was coming from a space in front and center of the speakers. That is the image that you are getting with the Promedias, listed later. The reason it works there is because you probably are near field which means you have taken most of the room issues out of the picture by being so close to the speakers. Like wearing headphones. The Khorns use the room as part of the horn. If you can't get that right then you will have a very difficult time ahead of you.

MFSL is really hit or miss depending on the title except for the early stuff. Basically anything through catalog number UDCD 567 will be a winner. After that it gets iffy. For DSOTM, I prefer the 30th Anniversary release on LP or SACD. There are reports that the CD layer isn't as good but I've never listed to it (why bother when you have an SACD player). They did a great job with it and it's easily available. Heck, you can even find the LP at Hot Topic in your local mall. I have both. The (very) early Japanese pressed black triangle version is supposedly better and some even say the non-TO (Toshiba pressing) version is the absolute best. I've heard the non-TO version and didn't think it was worth the hassle of tracking down. I don't have one and never felt the need to search it out after hearing it but I'd grab one if I saw it. If you have one or know where to get one cheap then grab it and your search will be over. The MFSL CD is another good alternative. Sounds great but you will pay a premium over the 30th Anniv. version. Again I prefer the 30th over this, it's slightly more dynamic and easy to find. I had both the UDI and UDII's and couldn't tell a difference so I dumped the UDII. The MFSL LP is hit or miss. If you can find a pristine copy for a good price then try it. If it is even slightly warn then replace it with the 30th. You won't regret it. Had one, sold it. The Harvest UK LP is great for nostagia but again, if it's not pristine why bother. I still have one but it never gets played. I haven't picked up all of the newer MFSL SACDs but the dozen or so that I do have are great, exept one, edit, title removed until I can listen again.