Great looking system! I bet it sounds even better.
System #503 (CLX Art)
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3/2022 – Update with more details. As I mentioned in previous posts I have updated my room, upgraded one component, added a new one and have made changes behind the duplex to the power panel. As excited as I am about the new components I got to admit the more mundane changes to the room and incoming power have me even more excited with what they did to enhance my listening pleasure.
First off want to discuss what I did behind the duplex to the power panel and within the power panel itself and panel grounding. WARNING: For those that do believe the final 10’ of wire from the wall to your components make little or no difference I’m going to assume that you will also have the same opinion about the 20-50’ of wire from the power panel to your system duplex(s). Save us all your comments and either skip reading this portion and move on to what I did in my room or please go to another thread.
Since I am a believer in what good power and interconnects can do to enhance the sound of a system it got me to thinking about what about from the power panel to the duplex(s). Long story short I found what I was looking for in Oyaide wire https://www.lotusgroupusa.com/uploads/2/6/4/9/26498389/102ssc_press_release_information_eng.pdf. Like most of you I had a dedicated 20 amp circuit breaker with 12 ga. Romex wire powering my system. Once I started to really understand just how poor this wire is I needed to find a replacement for it. So what is wrong with Romex wire? Actually 3 things with the only thing it does do right is connect your duplex to your power panel. First off Romex is not a shielded wire so basically it’s an antenna collecting all kinds of stray noise that feeds directly into your system. Secondly, the wires run parallel to each other that by their very nature add more noise. Thirdly, is the copper used which is not awful but a long way from ideal. The Oyaide from Japan solves all these issues. It’s fully shielded with a drain wire, the wires are twisted and it has superior copper. Next your ground to your power panel needs to be tested and fixed. In reviewing ground what I found out is normal electrical code for a home is 10 or 15 ohm reading on the ground wire is acceptable. Upon further review I found that for audio you need to be below 5 ohms. The problem is how do you measure your ground wire? I found a clamp around meter that measures the ground reading in ohms similar to how you test for amps with a clamp around meter. I ended up getting mine to .094 ohms. Next you need to finish all this with a good duplex. I chose Furutech but there are others just do not use the $0.59 generic house duplex. I like the look of the Furutech plus the research they did to make it but each one will run you about $500 fully decked out or $200ish for just the duplex. So what will you notice? It’s like you updated a component it’s that dramatic. What you hear is a much more dark background that the music is playing in. Little details can be heard easily, the pluck of a string just keeps going and the dynamic range just got larger. I actually play music a bit less loud and hear more with less fatigue. It’s a game changer! If interest PM me and I can explain more and get you in touch with a distributor to purchase the Oyaide wire not the one in the link.
First off want to discuss what I did behind the duplex to the power panel and within the power panel itself and panel grounding. WARNING: For those that do believe the final 10’ of wire from the wall to your components make little or no difference I’m going to assume that you will also have the same opinion about the 20-50’ of wire from the power panel to your system duplex(s). Save us all your comments and either skip reading this portion and move on to what I did in my room or please go to another thread.
Since I am a believer in what good power and interconnects can do to enhance the sound of a system it got me to thinking about what about from the power panel to the duplex(s). Long story short I found what I was looking for in Oyaide wire https://www.lotusgroupusa.com/uploads/2/6/4/9/26498389/102ssc_press_release_information_eng.pdf. Like most of you I had a dedicated 20 amp circuit breaker with 12 ga. Romex wire powering my system. Once I started to really understand just how poor this wire is I needed to find a replacement for it. So what is wrong with Romex wire? Actually 3 things with the only thing it does do right is connect your duplex to your power panel. First off Romex is not a shielded wire so basically it’s an antenna collecting all kinds of stray noise that feeds directly into your system. Secondly, the wires run parallel to each other that by their very nature add more noise. Thirdly, is the copper used which is not awful but a long way from ideal. The Oyaide from Japan solves all these issues. It’s fully shielded with a drain wire, the wires are twisted and it has superior copper. Next your ground to your power panel needs to be tested and fixed. In reviewing ground what I found out is normal electrical code for a home is 10 or 15 ohm reading on the ground wire is acceptable. Upon further review I found that for audio you need to be below 5 ohms. The problem is how do you measure your ground wire? I found a clamp around meter that measures the ground reading in ohms similar to how you test for amps with a clamp around meter. I ended up getting mine to .094 ohms. Next you need to finish all this with a good duplex. I chose Furutech but there are others just do not use the $0.59 generic house duplex. I like the look of the Furutech plus the research they did to make it but each one will run you about $500 fully decked out or $200ish for just the duplex. So what will you notice? It’s like you updated a component it’s that dramatic. What you hear is a much more dark background that the music is playing in. Little details can be heard easily, the pluck of a string just keeps going and the dynamic range just got larger. I actually play music a bit less loud and hear more with less fatigue. It’s a game changer! If interest PM me and I can explain more and get you in touch with a distributor to purchase the Oyaide wire not the one in the link.
3/2022a – Update to my room. As mentioned previously I replaced my fully carpeted room with a bamboo floor and area carpet. In reviewing and discussing with the people at Acoustic Sciences Corp. they suggested a soft back carpet as opposed to a carpet backed by a plastic coating. They also recommended a ½” felt padding. They actually recommended a Persian carpet but that was just too expensive so the next best thing was a very dense pile carpet. The brand I used had version 1-3 with 3 being the densest. When they came to put in the carpet the two installers complained to themselves just how heavy it was and I just smiled. Actually when I went to the carpet store there were not that many choices of soft back carpets to pick from most had that plastic film sprayed to the back side. The other thing I did was to have the system not on carpet but on the bamboo floor. This produces a better impact when playing music and additionally I can keep this area cleaner. With the carpet it was just about impossible to clean around the system without completely tearing it down. Now I can with a swifter do it in a few minutes to get the majority and if I take a bit longer I can get almost all of it. The other thing being Irish I added a couple of picture acoustic panels. These are just amazing the quality of the printing. The blacks are so black, great contrast and the colors so vibrant. It’s like looking at a OLED panel compared to a LCD panel.
Lastly I removed the fireplace in the front right corner that now allows the system to be centered in the room.
I’m a big believer in treating the room which is so over looked as we all look to buy the next shiny new component to fix something. Think of your room as a component and treat it you will be amazed at what that does and actually is not all that expensive relatively speaking.
Lastly I removed the fireplace in the front right corner that now allows the system to be centered in the room.
I’m a big believer in treating the room which is so over looked as we all look to buy the next shiny new component to fix something. Think of your room as a component and treat it you will be amazed at what that does and actually is not all that expensive relatively speaking.
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Mike, looking really good, and thanks for your time and advice! Brian
Mike, I miss the post about removing the fireplace in your room. Your new orientation must sound dramatically different.
We are going to be in northern Michigan for a wedding late summer, same as last time I was there. I would love to come by for a listen if I can make it happen.
We are going to be in northern Michigan for a wedding late summer, same as last time I was there. I would love to come by for a listen if I can make it happen.
3/2022b - Lastly, I ended up designing and making my own rack. After much consideration I decided to use three dissimilar materials for the construction but working together to dissipate vibration in multiple ways. All this was made from scratch except I did incorporate Nordost Sort Fut within the design. The individual shelves were constructed of a Bamboo base wrapped in Hard Maple, next layer was Sorbothane and then the top was Corian. You can see in the small cross-section picture how these all stacked up. The supports were made from Stainless Steel. Stainless Steel was used instead of Aluminum just to add mass to each shelf. SS like Aluminum non-magnetic however to blacken it was not quite as easy as to anodize Aluminum. The blacken process for SS can be done two ways - C
old or Hot with Hot being the best. I did find a place to send all the machined SS parts to and then had portions of them polished to a high gloss. Sort Fut were incorporated at each shelf level thereby allowing each shelf to be leveled as the stack rose. Also added a bit of Bling with polished SS rounded end rectangles and a clover inlay for all the fronts of the shelves.
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Stirling is flying in Sunday afternoon staying until Wednesday afternoon. He is a expert on setting up speakers. I’ve done so much with my room and components his expertise is needed. Excited to see what he can do.
Also have a Nordost Odin gold power cable that should be here tomorrow. Will place it between the wall duplex and QB8. Nordost was here with a full loom of Gold last week it was glorious but unfortunately totally unaffordable. However this one cable made a huge difference so thought I would add at least this one PC to my system.
Also have a Nordost Odin gold power cable that should be here tomorrow. Will place it between the wall duplex and QB8. Nordost was here with a full loom of Gold last week it was glorious but unfortunately totally unaffordable. However this one cable made a huge difference so thought I would add at least this one PC to my system.
Mike, congratulation, that must be one hell of a PC. How did the sound change replacing the previous Nordost cord
Brad it did soo much. Wider sound stage, music sounded much more natural and at times I heard a bit of edge in the highs before. This is now completely gone. If you stop by we can swap it in and out. I sold my old PC to my son so you can hear it for yourself.
Thats why you hard in your steel business. You can't take money with you when you go.
Mike, in the third photo, what are the small silver devices that sit between your Furutech outlets, and your power cables? Maybe a surge protector of some type? Or... after I looked at that photo again, are those some type of 'brace' to keep your heavy power cords firmly planted into your outlets? Also, is there a reason why you mounted your outlets horizontally, instead of the more common vertical orientation? Inquiring minds want to know!
I don't know about what is "normal" where he lives, but in my area of Northern Illinois, specifically Lake County and Cook County Illinois, horizontal is normal. When I've gone to presentations by electrical supply companies for outlet and switch devices and covers, they will usually mention that they bring mockups specifically for our area, horizontally mounted devices.Also, is there a reason why you mounted your outlets horizontally, instead of the more common vertical orientation? Inquiring minds want to know!
Good point. Likely depends on where you are located, and I suppose, maybe even local codes?
Okay, that makes sense, but I don't recall seeing them before. Do those only work with the Furutech wall plates, or will they work with a standard wall plate and Furutech outlet? I've been using these Cable Support Plates (along with Furutech outlets) which perform a similar function and seem to work very well. They are expensive though when all you are getting is some 3D printed plastic. The Furutech looks much more solidly built (like everything else I've seen from Furutech)...
Brian don’t see why they would not work on any faceplate. It comes with two foam overlays with a plastic pin to place in the two grounds. Then remove the adhesive plastic then position around the foam overlays for perfect alignment then just remove the pins and foam. Some of my plug terminations fit tighter then others but even if not tight it keeps the plug from sagging. Nordost cables are so stiff it helps a lot for cables that are more flexible probably not needed.
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