Strand count

[CLIFF]

Roberto ,anything to do with tube amps ,is an art form, you are very lucky to have such a good grounding. Myself i grew up with a brother 10 years older than me .that also had a passion for any thing electronic,
so we had many different bits and pieces, large free standing valve radios, a hmv wind up 78 record player, numerous crystal radios and miles of copper wire running from tree to tree outside the house {grew up on a wheat and sheep farm}.
Ron went on to become a radar tech in the airforce,
myself ,i became a graphic designer, for a while ,then ended up as a parts manager for a semi trailer builder.
I havent had much exposure to quality tube amps, but would love to hear more, the few i have heard were nice and warm ,but not enough air!! I know they are out there, i just havent had the chance to listen. P
erhaps i need to joint a hifi club .anyway roberto , check out redgum audios site, have a good read, i am interested in your thoughts cheers cliff.

 

[CLIFF]

Roberto ,hope you are nowhere near the volcano,thats popped its cork!!!

 

[roberto]

Yup, and it looks that the volcano is going to be as this, throwing ashes and rocks for some years ahead too. http://www.ovsicori.una.ac.cr/?option=com_content&view=article&id=43 Here, when it is not so cloudy, you can see it. Every 30 seconds there is a new picture.

We are getting the ashes every day. I just bought a new special broom for my speakers, and of course a vacuum cleaner. This is now an everyday task. Thanks for your concern...by the way, did you see my system? Its number 460. Right now, I am playing with a different DAC. Its a Benchmark HCR, and the sound is great. The M-DAC with the new firmware is great too. Digital is changing so fast, that I do not want to put too much money on it, because every 3 months, your digital goods are obsolete.

Regards my friend...thanks for your concern regarding the volcano! Happy listening!'

 

[CLIFF]

What a pain in the but,roberto, dusting every day .how far away are you from it?? The only thing that can kill us here ,is snakes some spiders, and crocs up north,we sure as hell dont have anything dropping rocks and ash on us!!
Havent ventured down the dac path as yet , as stated in earlier posts, going to mod the oppo next .the hype over here is it sounds like a 10 grand unit . Look up joe rasmussens page on oppo mods australia.
My best mate with some large polks has done his, it sound great,double clocked,etc. Rasmussen is also doing something very different with the dac chip , that you cannot do with others. You have to read the web site, roberto ,you would have a better idea than me as to the technical side of the mods. Keep your head down my friend!! Stay safe.

 

[roberto]

Our capital city is in a valley, surrounded by mountains. There are three volcanos, and all three are active, but just with gas and vapor. The only one that is throwing ashes is the Turrialba, and its about 50 miles from my house. My house is located at the west side of the city, and the volcano its at the east side. But the ashes clouds are so big that we had reports of 150 miles away. Sometimes the International Airport is closed because of the quantity of the ashes. The regular dust is bigger than this dust. You could see the cars...a good business on this time, is a car wash.

I am an Oppo user too. I have the 103. I use it for DVDs only via HDMI. Its an incredible machine. I do like it a lot. On the other hand, the AudioLab M-DAC has 7 different digital filters and you can swap these filters while your are playing the music. It has a remote control, with volume too. You can use it as a preamp, but only accept digital inputs. For what you pay, is a very nice sounding DAC.Happy listening!

 

[CLIFF]

Well , roberto you should be safe at that distance ,except for the dust cloud,
up untill now. I have every thing on rca cables, i can switch with the remote between rca and digital'.the rca always sounds slightly better,so i have stuck with it.
The filters sound like a lot of fun, no doubt you have your favorites for different music ?? My missus tells me i have remote itis , can channel surf with the best!! So no doubt i would be the same with the filter remote!
My mates oppo has darby,which has some sort of programing that darkens shaded areas,talking about it doesnt sound like much,but boy,does it make a big difference to the picture!! Almost 3d, would love to see it on a 4k setup.. I have been told you may be able to buy darby as a stand alone unit,quite cheap ?? Havent seen one for sale though.

 

[CLIFF]

Hi roberto , checked the length of my speaker cables, 1500mm-- 5 feet,so so dont seem to run fowl of your theory at 1.3m ..
Your speaker cable t14?? Have you tried or heard the one above it q10 ??

 

[User211]

Cliff - I tried Mission solid core on my Ascents after using Naim multi-strand bi-wired.

Result? Clearer mids/highs, no bass.

Put the multi-strand on the bass, the solid core on the panel. It is win-win - you will get the bass and clearer mid/highs i.e. less muddle in the mids.

At least that is what happened with my kit. But this is hi-fi, so anything is possible...

I'd be really surprised if you don't find the same thing, however.

 

[CLIFF]

Hi 211,yep ,i am running mine the same way as you do,took out the multi strand on the high end two days ago waiting for it to settle in.
It really stuffs up the theory on guage size. Ie somewhere between 10awg and 14awg is the so called place to be.
On first listen {take into account i had both types of wire hooked up to run in} i thought the solid wasnt matching in well ,and also may be lacking detail,so i will give it a few days to bed itself in,and then see.
It just goes to show, listen for yourself ,and take every :experts opinion: With a large pinch of salt!!
I am about to buy some 1600 strand wire and give it a listen, so i can put to bed the carry on about skin effect!! Hear for myself. Will post the result when done.
The multi strand i am using is 8awg 400 strand car audio power cable, i have had cryoed, this has bested quite a few other types including a very good ?? Transparent speaker cable.

 

[roberto]

Hi roberto , checked the length of my speaker cables, 1500mm-- 5 feet,so so dont seem to run fowl of your theory at 1.3m ..
Your speaker cable t14?? Have you tried or heard the one above it q10 ??

Yes, of course. And thinking loud, DHLabs is a bargain product. The Q10 is far better than the T-14. What I said regarding the T-14 is that its a great cable value. What you get for what you did pay, is a jaw droping. Now, regarding the sound, its a matter of taste and liking. When I do some comparisons between cables, I do not listen the quantity of anything, (bass, mids, highs, lower mid range etc) I listen quality of the musical instrument. The harmonic texture, the air between the instruments at the stage, and questions like...are the musician(s) having fun? Also, I like to get their soul, their feeling playing along...and of course another thing: ear fatigue. I do like crystal and transparent sound. I like coherence, in other words, another question arise: am I understanding the left hand vs the right hand at the piano player? How is the size of the instruments. Am I getting the place where the recording was made? How are the cymbals? Is the drummer using nylon tips sticks? or are wood only? Is it a warm sound coming from the strings? Are the voices natural and well defined? Is there any sored throat? Am I getting a truly 3D sound? Are all the musicians at the stage, or the bass player next to me, playing some notes? The parameters are a lot...and some cables are better resolving these presentations, that some might think they are not important. So, again, everything its a matter of liking. I do trust in my ears! Happy listening

 

[CLIFF]

Just out of interest? What guage is the mission,and how many solid cores does it have ????

 

[CLIFF]

Hi roberto, judging from your thumb nail?,you are a musician ? I was taught piano for a few years, but my heart was with the acoustic guitar,self taught. I too listen for the fluffed strike on a string ,the buzz against the fret,depth and width ,the rasp in the singers voice.
But above all, i chase air!!!!

 

[User211]

Just out of interest? What guage is the mission,and how many solid cores does it have ????

It was years ago Cliff but the Mission was probably 3mm in diameter I would guess - just one 3mm copper strand. The Naim was NAC A4 you can probably Google that.

I ended up using Nordost Red Dawn on the Ascents for both bass and panel which was better than the multi-starnd/solid core combo. Expensive though.

I no longer run MLs. Still like them though

 

[roberto]

Hi roberto, judging from your thumb nail?,you are a musician ? I was taught piano for a few years, but my heart was with the acoustic guitar,self taught. I too listen for the fluffed strike on a string ,the buzz against the fret,depth and width ,the rasp in the singers voice.
But above all, i chase air!!!!

Hola Cliff. Yes, I do play some Spanish guitar, when I was young, I got a teacher who was a direct pupil of Agustin Barrios Mangore and his technique is very different. I do have some guitars in my room, and I had tuned them in different musical notes, so all the musical notes are between them, and they resonates when the musical notes are reproduced by the speakers. These notes are very quiet, but provides a natural decay needed for digital music. Right now, I am playing only digital music in my system, still have my LPs and my turntables, but I am not using them very often. The digital storage and the access to the ITunes library, is faster and I have all kinds of music, and recordings. Also I do have high resolution recordings, and the sound is fantastic! Happy listening!

 

[CLIFF]

Sounds like the missions were about the same size 12awg, the crazy thing is ,i doubled the solids ,and it was still lacking bass!!
Two 12awg work out {i think?} to 9awg. So why no bass?? Everyone is saying skin effect is not applicable at normal listening frequencies,i
is there another something maybe causing this?? I am begining to wonder about skin effect,
looking forward to getting the 1600 strand cable, it may supply some answers. Might also get some cheap solid and keep doubling it, to see at what number of wires the bass comes through . Might give an insight ?

 

[CLIFF]

Gidday mate!! I have an old g50? Yammy spanish guitar ,must be 40 years old ,still like a plunk every now and then,
getting your guitars to resonate to certain notes to improve the sound ,is a great idea. I have a 12 string and a kasuga folk guitar as well,might give it a try! Sounds like fun:}}
havent been able to break away from cd"s yet, i like having a hard copy, which is a bit silly really, having a huge amount of digital storage we use for movies . I do however use spotify to find new selections.
Getting back to playing guitar, one of my best tracks is on a demola album with two spanish guitars chasing each other up and down the scale,wonderfull..
Next time i get some cables cryogened i plan to do my steel guitar strings, it is meant to work for them as well,so will give it a go ,and have a listen, cheers cliff.

 

[roberto]

These are my babies...



On the other hand, is your preamp OK with the signal capacitors? When you have bad capacitors, you do not get good bass. Perhaps you are chasing your tale, Odyssey model, having an eight inch woofer at the front and ten inch woofer at firing at the back, its a clever solution to have the best pristine and precise bass response. Also, you could be listening at your golden seat position, a 180 degrees, and can get a bass cancellation. Walk into the room, while playing heavy bass content, specially at the back wall, and listen there. If the bass energy is deep and well controlled, then I think your seating location is out of phase. Just thinking loud.

 

[User211]

Sounds like the missions were about the same size 12awg, the crazy thing is ,i doubled the solids ,and it was still lacking bass!!
Two 12awg work out {i think?} to 9awg. So why no bass?? Everyone is saying skin effect is not applicable at normal listening frequencies,i
is there another something maybe causing this?? I am begining to wonder about skin effect,
looking forward to getting the 1600 strand cable, it may supply some answers. Might also get some cheap solid and keep doubling it, to see at what number of wires the bass comes through . Might give an insight ?

Get a test mic on it. I use a miniDSP UMIK-1 and HolmImpulse, because it is free. Be really curious to see if you can measure it in practice. I can see definite changes rolling tubes. I've posted great long threads on the subject in the past, with graphs/plots etc. Not on this forum, though. Not many techies here... but there are some.

 

[CLIFF]

Hi guys,,i have very good bass, just not with the anti cables. which is a shame, i pinned hi hopes on them to perform, being occ copper, plus me getting them cryoed and all .But, my ears said otherwise!!
After getting my amp upgraded, it sits midway between the two six channel modals, that Redgum do. Bass is so tight , snare drum rim shots can sometimes take you by surprise with their snap.
I will take all your sugestions on board, and give them a go . i have a techie son, and i am not afraid to use him!!!!! "}}} Roberto ,i am thinking my seating position is ok??, but it is not something i have done, check out bass cancellation ? so i am going to enjoy looking at that, with my young bloke,and some of his test gear.
The guitar, second from the right , roberto , looks like it might have some age to it?? or is it just the light? making the wood look darker,the shape tells me it might be a little special?? pehaps??

 

[roberto]

This was made on 1927...its a Flamenco type guitar, made here in Costa Rica with some imported woods.


This is the proof of when it was made my our Luthier Mr. Manuel Prada. Long time ago, the British Encyclopedia said that this man was the only Luthier in America that was capable to repair a Stradivari Stringed Instrument.


This one was made on1964. My dad was a guitar player too, and this was his guitar, specially made for his requirements.

This is my guitar. I ordered on 1987. The Luthier is Mr. Omar Corrales and a well known name of guitar maker here in America.


This is the one that you thought was the oldest. It was made in China with outstanding woods. Its a copy of a Ramirez Classical Concert Guitar. I bought it in EBAY, and I could not say No...it was a great value deal...got it about five years ago...








The guitar, second from the right , roberto , looks like it might have some age to it?? or is it just the light? making the wood look darker,the shape tells me it might be a little special?? pehaps??[/QUOTE]