Schiit Happened: The Story of the World's Most Improbable Start-Up
May 22, 2024 at 8:45 AM Post #152,626 of 154,975
Can’t resist (I blame @sixergixer and his devilish bourbon), but…

Classe’ w/o David Reich is…

Class B…

Jes’ sayin.

I would KILL for a pair of DR3’s for my Duetta’s…
True to an extent, but w/ planars - the wattage makes them mightier. Same with planar headphones - they like the Class A, but the excess behind them on my Rag 1 sets them over lower watt non sliding bias amps. That was also the trick with Art's CLS IIz's and the Pass X-150 over the Aleph 5.
 
May 22, 2024 at 8:53 AM Post #152,627 of 154,975
I am constantly telling my wife things that Cowen and Jonathan and Ripper say and she loves it. I am constantly impressed by the number of people with engineering, software, and recording backgrounds who share knowledge. As far as gear, specific music, and SQ, my wife will listen but she rarely pays attention. She also never cares what gear I buy since I can pay for it with multiple projects. Oh and I enjoy knowledge about bourbons, literature, new music as well. I was taught at an early age to never stop learning so I continue to this day.😁
Ditto sir, ditto. We old, worldly, sophisticated, catholic (lower-case c) curmudgeons of the world have a key civilizational role to play, after all!

So many tunes to listen to and share, so much bourbon and whiskey to taste and compare, so much wood to work and enjoy, so much Schiit to use, so many tubes to glow and snuggle down with, so much cardboard…

Wait, WUT? Cardboard??? Ok, that’s it, we’re officially nuts. Oh, right, we’re all (in some cases, ex-) engineer types; comes with the territory.

Wifey thought JATPS was a tad “bright/shrill” on a couple of the high and very loudest notes. She may (or may not) be right. I just turned down the volume 2 notches (Graunches?) and all was good. She really doesn’t like me playing much beyond 75-78dB unfortunately. I didn’t hear it, but she’s very sensitive to “loud”

My headshell weights and other bits to finalize installation/tuning of my new Hana SL arrive today; then on to getting it fully dialed in. I got it close initially, 2 point Baerwald, and initial balance/anti-skate; the thing is so light… can’t get to ideal compliance, or anti-skate until get more weight on the headshell end of things. Currently tizzy, quite certain VTA needs adjusting (rear down a tad I think).

Then can do a proper analog versus digital and see if Yggy is indeed… “The one”. There is just a certain something that makes the music come alive and transports me to the event (like with good LPs) as never before in my system. Apogees are incredible in the life-likeness of their treble: air, body, extension, “bloom” (the good kind), and it was this entire region that always - before and IMH - sucked with digital. If there’s “bad treble” in the music or chain anywhere before them, it’ll be obvious.

Last hearing test (4 years ago), I was good to 14.5kHz in both ears, which while not great, is better than I could have expected at my age.
 
May 22, 2024 at 9:02 AM Post #152,628 of 154,975
Wait. Hackberry has value? I’ve spent a seeming lifetime yanking them out of our yard and burning them in the fire pit when it’s stacked and seasoned.
Look at spalted hackberry on sites like Woodcraft, it can be very pretty!
 
May 22, 2024 at 9:12 AM Post #152,629 of 154,975
....
Wifey thought JATPS was a tad “bright/shrill” on a couple of the high and very loudest notes. She may (or may not) be right. I just turned down the volume 2 notches (Graunches?) and all was good. She really doesn’t like me playing much beyond 75-78dB unfortunately. I didn’t hear it, but she’s very sensitive to “loud”
...
The above feeds into my hypotheses that what is perceived as "bright" is actually noise from clipping somewhere in the chain. Turn the volume down, and the clipping is less and everything sounds a bit better. There are "bright" pieces of equipment, too, but most things described as bright I think is that sort of clipping.

In terms of loudness, when I had my Janszen Valentina P8 those would get loud without one noticing and that was cool and a bit dangerous. There was even a warning in both the manual and the Stereophile review about that. It sounded so good so loud :ksc75smile:

The inventor of the tube trap had a blog post about how the "echos" from a stereo playing could "fill a room with noise" and make loud music unpleasant. Putting in sound dampening walls (probably floor and ceiling, too) would let people play music louder and still enjoy it more.
 
May 22, 2024 at 9:27 AM Post #152,630 of 154,975
Ditto sir, ditto. We old, worldly, sophisticated, catholic (lower-case c) curmudgeons of the world have a key civilizational role to play, after all!

So many tunes to listen to and share, so much bourbon and whiskey to taste and compare, so much wood to work and enjoy, so much Schiit to use, so many tubes to glow and snuggle down with, so much cardboard…

Wait, WUT? Cardboard??? Ok, that’s it, we’re officially nuts. Oh, right, we’re all (in some cases, ex-) engineer types; comes with the territory.

Wifey thought JATPS was a tad “bright/shrill” on a couple of the high and very loudest notes. She may (or may not) be right. I just turned down the volume 2 notches (Graunches?) and all was good. She really doesn’t like me playing much beyond 75-78dB unfortunately. I didn’t hear it, but she’s very sensitive to “loud”

My headshell weights and other bits to finalize installation/tuning of my new Hana SL arrive today; then on to getting it fully dialed in. I got it close initially, 2 point Baerwald, and initial balance/anti-skate; the thing is so light… can’t get to ideal compliance, or anti-skate until get more weight on the headshell end of things. Currently tizzy, quite certain VTA needs adjusting (rear down a tad I think).

Then can do a proper analog versus digital and see if Yggy is indeed… “The one”. There is just a certain something that makes the music come alive and transports me to the event (like with good LPs) as never before in my system. Apogees are incredible in the life-likeness of their treble: air, body, extension, “bloom” (the good kind), and it was this entire region that always - before and IMH - sucked with digital. If there’s “bad treble” in the music or chain anywhere before them, it’ll be obvious.

Last hearing test (4 years ago), I was good to 14.5kHz in both ears, which while not great, is better than I could have expected at my age.
As best I recall we generally lose an octave after age 50 but it is not enough to affect most music we hear. I also believe in something called trained hearing. Some might not hear a difference in tube sound when first exposed. I started with tube gear at age 14, I was later exposed to Dynaco tube amps and even built some of their solid state devices. After many years with solid state I longed for Class A tube sound like I heard early on with Klipschhorns. When I could not find a tube headphone amp I liked very well, I designed my own.😁 Now as far as DAC’s there are few higher end units I have not heard, I will listen to the opinion of any one person and make up my own mind but I am often interested in the opinions of large groups in blind studies. Will they agree or disagree with my personal findings? Oh and we take time to train people how to listen to various examples. Sometimes it is not enough to approximate 20-20,000 hearing.😜 Oh and I do rotate a Yggy inro my system on occasion, it is in my top five.
 
Last edited:
May 22, 2024 at 9:35 AM Post #152,631 of 154,975
The inventor of the tube trap had a blog post about how the "echos" from a stereo playing could "fill a room with noise" and make loud music unpleasant. Putting in sound dampening walls (probably floor and ceiling, too) would let people play music louder and still enjoy it more.

+1 for this. I've been playing with room treatment for a few months now and can confirm that reducing the 'room noise' does indeed reduce distortion and allows increased volume levels. Little things like window coverings make a large difference.

:beerchug:
JC
 
May 22, 2024 at 9:51 AM Post #152,632 of 154,975
True, those pieces of cardboard are not cognoscenti approved - should be at least teak if not some ZMF tropical wood - hand rubbed with Tung oil - then dried with raw linen ! :sunglasses:
Surely slivers of quartz crystal in 1:4:9 size ratio - now c'mon - Dipped in oak aged selected vintage plankton naturally to sub insulate the quantum tunnels of course !!
 
Last edited:
May 22, 2024 at 9:56 AM Post #152,633 of 154,975
+1 for this. I've been playing with room treatment for a few months now and can confirm that reducing the 'room noise' does indeed reduce distortion and allows increased volume levels. Little things like window coverings make a large difference.

:beerchug:
JC
Yup - pretty much the methodology my Dad used to tame recording studios and smaller music venues , cut out chaotic frequency reverberations or at least stop them from canceling or adding to what your trying to listen to .
 
May 22, 2024 at 10:03 AM Post #152,635 of 154,975
A big Billy Cobham fan too. Also, Billy turned 80 on May 16th...! 🥳😃
Hard to believe .... was only 24 when he 'propelled' for Mahavishnu Orchestra ....
 
May 22, 2024 at 10:14 AM Post #152,636 of 154,975
Surely slivers of quartz crystal in 1:4:9 size ratio - now c'mon - Dipped in oak aged selected vintage plankton naturally to sub insulate the quantum tunnels of course !!
I meant to comment on the cardboard insulation earlier. I would be concerned that a piece or two might vibrate out of place. Everything in the universe vibrates at a specific frequency or frequencies, even cardboard.😁 Resonate frequency of most woods is 30-50 hertz but harder woods should require higher power. Personally I might use lignum vitae for this application and dampen its movement as well. Softer woods vibrate more at lower power as does cardboard.
 
May 22, 2024 at 10:21 AM Post #152,637 of 154,975
I meant to comment on the cardboard insulation earlier. I would be concerned that a piece or two might vibrate out of place. Everything in the universe vibrates at a specific frequency or frequencies, even cardboard.😁 Resonate frequency of most woods is 30-50 hertz but harder woods should require higher power. Personally I might use lignum vitae for this application and dampen its movement as well. Softer woods vibrate more at lower power as does cardboard.
what about damp cardboard ? - its a good point actually , I would be looking at some kind of rubber boot or similar
 
May 22, 2024 at 10:35 AM Post #152,638 of 154,975
what about damp cardboard ? - its a good point actually , I would be looking at some kind of rubber boot or similar
Well pure water is an excellent insulator but it has to be pure lol, combining it with cardboard would not help. 😁 A rubber boot would be fine if you could find one that fit in this application. It would need to work at 90 degrees. I could mention sorbothane but then Cowen would say it sucks music right out of a room.😁 He also says maple sounds the best so you can use that to judge his veracity.😜
 
May 22, 2024 at 10:50 AM Post #152,639 of 154,975
Jason (and Lisa) might be interested to know that, according to my calendar, tomorrow May 23 is World Turtle Day. (worldturtleday.org)
That's what I get for buying my calendar at the United Nations gift shoppe.

Even better, Saturday is Towel Day.
Not sure what that is?
Well, Don't Panic.
052224HitchHikersGuideBlackSS-1266021163.jpg
 
May 22, 2024 at 11:22 AM Post #152,640 of 154,975
Jason (and Lisa) might be interested to know that, according to my calendar, tomorrow May 23 is World Turtle Day. (worldturtleday.org)
That's what I get for buying my calendar at the United Nations gift shoppe.

Even better, Saturday is Towel Day.
Not sure what that is?
Well, Don't Panic.
052224HitchHikersGuideBlackSS-1266021163.jpg
Perhaps you have your Pratchetts and your Adams's confused?
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top