Topic: Oldboyracer's Audio set up

[dimfer]

congrats OBR, looks like you will be a very busy man for a while, with your audio stuff and landscaping..

enjoy in good health

[Oldboyracer]

congrats OBR, looks like you will be a very busy man for a while, with your audio stuff and landscaping..

enjoy in good health

Thanks dimfer, I'm enjoying very good health at the moment so trying to cram everything in while I'm still able. Thankfully the landscaping is mainly supervising but very busy on the audio side, sorting out the pics at the moment so I can post them.

[Oldboyracer]

Time to post my TT modifying efforts.
The main bearing was replaced 1st, while I had the top open also replaced the power supply regulator to a more modern low noise type & fitted a strobe light disable. The strobe is only needed as an initial speed check & removing it's 100ma current pulses will lower the noise floor.

Platter removed.



Inner cover removed.



Stator cover removed which frees up the bearing.

/D5MFF6c.jpg[/img]

Motor control board released to enable bearing removal.



OEM bearing.



The stator coil leads were then trimmed to prevent shorting out on the new bearing.



New bearing fitted & motor control board replaced.



The stator cover was trimmed to fit as it fouled the vertical sections of the new bearing & refitted. The 3 motor board plugs were refitted prior to replacement of the inner cover & platter.

[Oldboyracer]

Refer to the pics in the previous post for positioning.
OEM regulator disconnected & removed, new upgraded regulator board fitted. I am now using an external power supply so the internal psu was disconnected & a dc feed cable added, the grey cable in the pic.



New regulator board connected.



Strobe disable board was now fitted & wired in series with existing cabling.

[Oldboyracer]

The fitting of the phono sockets took the most time, measure & re measure, I couldn't really afford a mistake.
This is where my DIY jig came into it's own, being able to flip the TT upside down without fear of damage to the tonearm.

Rubber base screws removed, there are quite a few.



Rubber base removed giving access to the resin inner base which was also removed.



Tonearm base cover removed.



OEM phono cables removed & new Cardas cables connected.



Tonearm base cover & cable clamp refitted.



Positioning the phono connector mounting plate.



Positioning the drilling template on the resin inner base.



Positioning drilling template on rubber base.



Resin inner base drilled & tapped 4mm.



Resin inner base refitted.



Rubber base refitted & phono cables sleeved.



Phono cables clipped to phono connector plate spacer.



Phono cables soldered onto the connectors.



Phono connector plate screwed down (3 views).

[Oldboyracer]

While access was available fitting the phono sockets I also replaced the on/off switch, strobe & pitch LED's with blue ones. Standard SL - 1200 mk6 is rather multi coloured, strobe & speed are red, cueing is blue & pitch is green, not really my cup of tea so decided to keep red for speed (33 & 45) & replace the others with blue.

Pitch control was fairly easy, release the board , desolder the green LED & solder in the blue one.



Replacing the strobe LED cluster was probably the most difficult mod of the lot. The strobe housing is clipped in place & it is not easy to get to the release catches & very easy to break them. The strobe & on/off switch are at the bottom right hand side of the TT, the white part is the on/off switchcam.



Removing the circlip allows removal of on/off knob & switch cam. Care must be taken not to lose the small spring & ball bearing under the cam. On/off knob removed in pic below.



Strobe red LED cluster showing in housing & on/off, stop/start board  released, new blue cluster in the background.



Strobe red LED cluster released, strobe housing removed & blue cluster fitted to housing.



Strobe housing & power on/off knob refitted.



Cables to red LED cluster are cut & reconnected to the blue cluster.
The result.






 

[Oldboyracer]

Just arrived, 2 Stanton cartridges.
1) 881s fitted with a D81S mk2 Stereohedron stylus.
2) 890fs fitted with a s3e/mm
+ 2 extra s3e/mm for everyday listening,I will keep the D81 for archiving.

[Oldboyracer]

Just arrived,

Mint Best Tractor & magnifiers.



Stylus pressure gauge.



Spin-Clean.

[Oldboyracer]

A little bad news, my 851C CD player has a blown component in the power supply so have been listening to music via USB. Have to make a decision on whether to get it repaired or invest in an up scaling media player, archive my CD collection  & down load HiDef audio. Something else to think about apart from the HT.

[Nelson de Leon]

A little bad news, my 851C CD player has a blown component in the power supply so have been listening to music via USB. Have to make a decision on whether to get it repaired or invest in an up scaling media player, archive my CD collection  & down load HiDef audio. Something else to think about apart from the HT.

How about a PC or laptop?

[Oldboyracer]

Hi Nelson, just initial thoughts, I will have a go at repairing it myself but thinking about it I'm not likely to be buying any more CD's so will probably go down either the PC route or for convenience upgrade my media player. I will be archiving my CD collection anyway & have been dabbling in HD audio so now's the time to complete my house network & get my server up & running.

[Superman]

Welcome back!

[Oldboyracer]

Thanks bro Jen.

[Oldboyracer]

Hi guys,
5 years since my last post, wow ! Well a lot has happened besides all the family things which are not for this post.
Basically all my cambridge Audio gear has failed, except for the media player, so I had a complete re think.
The story :- September 2019 one of my 851W amps would not power up due to the protection tripping. Had it repaired in Manila at a cost of P35K but when it was returned it failed with a different protection fault. I returned it & the repairers say a connector to the amp module they replaced had been shaken loose in transit. I've heard some stories in my time but this was laughable also the repair was more of a bodge.
I tried to use an 840W as a replacement as Xmas was upon us but that failed to power up. I tried the 840E but same problem, these 2 had been in storage for 2 years, perfectly OK when in the home theatre. After much communication with Cambridge Audio they told the Asian service manager in Hong Kong to sort out the problems. 851W, 840W & 840E were sent to Hong Kong, the 851W to check the work of their repairers. All were returned eventually, I won't elaborate as it is another story in itself. Then the 851E failed followed shortly after by the 2nd 851W to which the Asian service manager denied all responsibility. His answer was the gear is 5 years old so you need to buy the Edge series which is 3 times the price. That was the final straw for me, I told them to stick Cambridge Audio where the sun doesn't shine.
I asked for environmental specifications which they couldn't give me, so I can only assume that CA's gear doesn't like the humidity, heat & sea air we have here. Their gear maybe OK in an air conditioned room but I made a few calculations & the cost of running aircon would allow me to replace my kit every 5 to 7 years, no brainer.
(840E & 851E are preamps, 840W & 851W are amps).
So what did I do :- I decided to re locate my audio system into my games room. As the room is on the large side it's now my man cavern, far too big for a cave.
Next was to replace all the gear except for the subwoofer & speakers, this has taken around 9 months due to availability.
1st in was an emotiva XSP-1 preamp
2nd in was a Crosbon CR-365 power filter (which replaced the Weiduka 8. & Choseal XLR & RCA cables.
3rd in a Marantz ND8006 CD/network player.
4th in an SMSL VMV D1 DAC.
Last but not least an Emotiva XPA-DR2 amp.
The sound is a whole lot better than the CA system, I will cover that in another post as I added the items 1 by 1 to give me an idea of any improvement or not.
I will continue the saga when I've sorted the photo's.
Hoping everyone is keeping safe at this time.
         
     

[Oldboyracer]

This is a bit of a saga which has taken over a year to complete so will take it in sections. Having decided that I would relocate the audio system after the 1st 851W amp failed, the new room needed preparing. As the room was originally designated as a games room a pool table would have been where the audio system is now so no power or internet at that end of the room. We also had a problem, the wind was blowing rain through the vertical slatted widows forming small swimming pools on the floor.
The work in order was :-
1) Turn the top half into horizontal slats & the bottom half made into an openable window on all 7 windows.
2) Make & hang 9 acoustic panels.
3) Install power & internet to the area where the audio system would be situated.
4) Put up curtains poles & hang blackout curtains to all 7 windows.
5) Fit a board to the back of the Turntable rack to take the 6 way socket outlet supplying power to everything on the rack.
6) After the system rack was positioned make & fit a cover for the power & ethernet cables running along the floor.
7) Fit cable trunking on the floor to make the speaker cabling tidier.
Added a carpet & sofa bed for obvious reasons.
9) Made my own hi end power cables, I had bought the cable & connectors 7 years ago so thought maybe about time I made them. On that score I can't detect any difference to OEM power cables but at least now I won't be thinking "what if".
That's what I've done so far & when I've finished uploading all the pics I will post in picture form.

[Oldboyracer]

Having sorted out the pics I'll download to this post later.
I didn't take any pics of the window alterations but they are evident in some of the pics that follow. Initially just had a plain glass window as the bottom half but later changed them to openable.

Acoustic panel frame sections cut.



Acoustic panel frames assembled.



Acoustic panel frame backs fitted.



Acoustic panel frames painted.



Acoustic panels frames filled with Rockwool with an organza screen.



Acoustic panels complete & ready for hanging.

[Oldboyracer]

Curtain poles put up.



Dartboard removed & backboard painted black (top right of pic), wifey will use it for hanging pictures at some stage & curtains hung.

Looking at the front.



Looking at the rear.



Acoustic panels up looking front.



Acoustic panels up looking at the rear.

[Oldboyracer]

While waiting for the system rack to arrive we put in the power & internet to the far end of the room. Found out my electrician had made a rather large error when he put in the panel boards. Although there are spare breakers for both AVR's, 7.5KVA for the audio & 10KVA for the HT he has left no access to the spares unless the wall is dug out. I ended up using an outlet fed by the HT AVR & now the 7.5KVA avr only feeds the living room TV so it's basically redundant. I will disconnect it & just use the 10KVA as audio & HT will not be used at the same time.
The 10KVA unit went out of calibration, as I was in quarantine decided to buy a new one from Lazada so I have 2 AVR's 7.5 & 10KVA that work OK but need a service & re calibrated if anyone is interested.
 
The new AVR, it's a Stavol.



The power was run at high level & the ethernet at low level using white PVC mini trucking down the right side of the room. The reason for this was I already had ethernet running to my PC at low level & the only way to keep the power at a non interferring distance away was at high level.

[Oldboyracer]

Sofa bed & audio rack arrived together the carpet was already here so a few pics.

System up & running with all the old CA gear, the 851W had returned from repair.

 

Sofa bed & coffee table.



A view from the rear.

[Oldboyracer]

Then the problems started again with the 851E preamp failing so ordered an Emotiva XSP-1.

XSP-1 with CA gear.



In the mean time all the other gears had arrived & the 2nd 851W failed so ran with 1 amp, then the Emotiva XPA-DR2 arrived.
I found that the DSPeaker Anti-Mode 2.0 Dual Core was producing some hiss, I had never noticed it before & decided to remove it.



The XPA-DR2 in & running from the right.



From the left.

 

[Oldboyracer]

The new gears.

Emotiva XPS-1



Crosbon CR-365 power filter.



Marantz ND8006 CD/Network player.



SMSL VMV D1 DAC.



Emotiva XPA-DR2 amp.



Choseal XLR & RCA cables.

[Oldboyracer]

NAS set up on the TT rack.



View round the back.



Again round the back showing the speaker connections.

[Oldboyracer]

Bought a smaller carpet to enable the sofa bed to be pulled forward around 4 feet so the listener would be in a more optimal listening position.

Behind the speaker from the right.



Again from the left.



You may notice the exercise bike in the background, wifey now has music while she peddles.

[Oldboyracer]

How does it sound you may well be asking, well here we go.
The blackout curtains stay permanently closed at the back as the sun reflecting off the neighbours wall turns the room into an oven. I have to say that they do a very good job of keeping the heat down, I thought the side curtains would make some acoustical difference but I can't detect any at the moment.
1st addition was the XSP-1, this gave more bass & low end detail than the CA which I thought was good anyway so that was a surprise.
Then the Crosbon power filter & Choseal cables were added at the same time which turned out to be a bit of a mistake. The sound now felt as if it had more depth, body or meat, a pleasant surprise so was it the cables or the power filter or both
The Marantz ND8006 was next in, CD section was good enough to replace my failed CA 851C but the network side is very awkward compared to the CA StreamMagic so much so I will keep the ND8006 as a CD player & get another network player.
The SMSL VMV D1 Dac was the unit that made the most difference, I could not believe that it was possible. The sound stage has moved forward as if the band/ artist is in front of the system plus the whole sound seems a lot more alive.
The addition of the XPA-DR2 gave added bass & even more low end detail plus a lot more punch to the music, so much so it makes you want to keep turning the volume up.
Just in case I was imagining things I got wifey to sit with eyes closed & listen at each stage not knowing what I had changed. I was very surprised that she came up with the same thoughts as I did so yes there is a very big improvement, well worth the money, I'm now a very happy boy.     

[Narayan]

How does it sound you may well be asking, well here we go.
The blackout curtains stay permanently closed at the back as the sun reflecting off the neighbours wall turns the room into an oven. I have to say that they do a very good job of keeping the heat down, I thought the side curtains would make some acoustical difference but I can't detect any at the moment.
1st addition was the XSP-1, this gave more base & low end detail than the CA which I thought was good anyway so that was a surprise.
Then the Crosbon power filter & Choseal cables were added at the same time which turned out to be a bit of a mistake. The sound now felt as if it had more depth, body or meat, a pleasant surprise so was it the cables or the power filter or both
The Marantz ND8006 was next in, CD section was good enough to replace my failed CA 851C but the network side is very awkward compared to the CA StreamMagic so much so I will keep the ND8006 as a CD player & get another network player.
The SMSL VMV D1 Dac was the unit that made the most difference, I could not believe that it was possible. The sound stage has moved forward as if the band/ artist is in front of the system plus the whole sound seems a lot brighter.
The addition of the XPA-DR2 gave added base & more low end detail plus a lot more punch to the music, so much so it makes you want to keep turning the volume up.
Just in case I was imagining things I got wifey to sit with eyes closed & listen at each stage not knowing what I had changed. I was very surprised that she came up with the same thoughts as I did so yes there is a very big improvement, well worth the money, I'm now a very happy boy.     

Congrats on your nice new system! Now you have update your gear list. 

BTW, could you PM me where you got the equipment rack and the price? Thanks.

[Oldboyracer]

Congrats on your nice new system! Now you have update your gear list. 

BTW, could you PM me where you got the equipment rack and the price? Thanks.

Hi Narayan thanks for that, I've also got to add the missing pics in the rest of the thread, a busy day I think tomorrow.
I have PM'd you.

[Oldboyracer]

All pics downloaded to the thread, kept me busy for a couple of days.

A view of the back of Turntable rack showing the power distribution for the rack.

[Oldboyracer]

After some serious listening I'm now hearing things that were not apparent before, so much so I have been replaying tracks to make sure I'm not imagining things
One thing that has really stood out is my system now reveals poor mastering, poor music production & substandard CD's, I can live with that for the increased pleasure I'm now getting from my music.
I was thinking of adding a MiniDSP for room correction but not so sure whether any increase in sound quality would justify the expense, decisions, decisions.
I'll give sir Marc at MLY Enterprises a plug for supplying the Marantz & Emotiva gear - thankyou.
 

[Oldboyracer]

Hi guys,
I've been quiet for a while thanks to Odette, 6 weeks without power, now trying to get back to normal.
All we had was minor damage that is easily repairable except for half the tiles on the main roof disappearing, around 1,000. A third of the carport roof tiles (100) were smashed & the audio room roof got away with a dozen cracked tiles. Temporary repairs on the cracked tiles, carport roof re-tiled using spares from the house build & the main roof will be replaced with a steel version.
The audio room turned into a swimming pool, as the windows are on the windward side the rain was blown through them. One of the drains from the gutter was partially blocked which flooded the ceiling void hence the water coming through the light fittings & ceiling board joints. Some of the kit & 1 speaker got very wet but thankfully it's all survived, I suppose you could say I was lucky.
Hope any other Cebu based members survived without too many problems.

[at_sunset_blvd]

Let's hope something like that wont happen again in the near future in Cebu or even a NOT-CEBU place, so frustrating & exhausting.