thanks guys, dagdagan natin
2014I played around with better/tweaked SATA cable for my MP64 but it did not make any discernible improvement. Mark Porzilli said he also experimented but did not find any merit. Having said that, I remain very pleased and still impressed with MP64's performance. I still think it is one of the better (if not the best) players out there. I understand why a lot of people did not like it - because it lacks the colouration/distortion that most audiophiles (especially analog lovers) are used to. A local audiophile with a full top of the line Esoteric stack heard it and was very impressed by it, but he said it's lacked some of the qualities he is used to. When he described it, it became clear to me that he is describing colouration. I have also owned the very well reviewed PS Audio Direct Stream DAC since July and has compared the two very closely, and while the PS Audio is a very very good DAC, it is not as neutral and as dynamic as the MP64.
I had been experimenting the merits of eliminating vibration for a long time, that's why it is one of my favourite tweaks. Now I have a better understanding why speaker and audio builders are putting a lot of effort and expense in eliminating it. I own a pair of Mordaunt Short monitor speakers that we have been using in our karaoke setup. When I merged our karaoke system with our HT, the MS became idle. Since the vinyl finish was showing some signs of overuse and abuse already, I decided to strip it and experiment with it. Just to get a better sense of the change/improvement, I did one speaker first, then listened to it vs the untreated one for a while. Boy, even at this pedestrian level, the improvement was significant. I had the speakers setup in one of the vacant bedrooms in the basement, driven by the usual old JVC a/v receiver. The treated speaker seemed to disappear from the room better, I switched their positions just to confirm my observation and my finding was consistent. After both speakers were fully treated with damping material, they seem to have better clarity and focus.
I know the finish is not the greatest, but here is the box after 3 coats of damping material inside and outside, lot's of manual sanding and two coats of black paint on the outer wall. For some reason it looks really ugly in the picture, but it's actually not that bad
inside the box
crossover parts and all internal wires were also damped
back of the drivers
finished and sounding better
it was a fun and cheap experiment for me.
As part of this journey, me and my wife travelled to Europe to attend the Munich Highend Show. We deliberated for a while because we cannot decide if we should leave my 86 year old mother under the care of our two young(ish) adult daughters for a long time. Also, my wife's current job only allow her to be away on certain dates of the month, when we decided to go ahead with the trip, we squeezed everything in the 12 day window that she can travel. This is going to be a trip to the audio show and a mini vacation at the same time. Sabi ng karamihan, if you go to Europe, kailangan isali ang Paris and of course, dahil Katoliko tayo :angel: ang Vatican. So after online research - I booked mostly through Expedia.ca.
The Highend Show was held at the MOC Center, unlike the CES & Newport Beach show I attended which were held a hotels. The MOC is designed to hold tradeshows and conventions, the rooms are generally bigger than most hotel rooms used in other shows. Since we have a trade pass, we were allowed to go on the very first day of the show. I was not expecting much people, but traffic was heavier than the busiest day at Newport, not as busy as CES though. What impressed me the most about this show is the fact that manufacturers go all out, they bring the best product in their lineup.. they don't just want to be there, most of them are there to make a statement. Of course, I targeted 2 rooms right away, para kung ano man ang mangyari, nairaos na
. The first room was the Magico Ultimate 3/Q sub room. One word to describe it - awesome. This is one of, no it is the most realistic stereo reproduction I have ever heard so far. Reading through the various comments about this room, a lot of people were underwhelmed. Probably because of expectation bias, and very much like the MP64, due of absence of any form of colouration. But if you will really digest what the system brings - it has scale, dynamics, presence etc etc. It is a horn system without the traditional horn baggage. I was lucky to occupy the best spot in the room for the entire presentation session - approximately 45 minutes. Man, those Ale drivers Alon used are huge. I've heard most of the Magico products and liked all of them, and while the Q7 driven by topline VAC at Newport Beach show was awesome, the U3 is a different league.
another target room is the Vox Olympian room. This one is very easy to live with, romantic & seductive
now, if you will twist my arm and make me choose between the two awesome systems - I'd take the Vox Olympian system. I can live with whatever colouration it brings. But this system can be dynamic as well. When the room next door went a little too loud, the room host played a dynamic track and cranked the volume a little bit. Not long after that, their volume level adjusted accordingly. There were other awesome rooms, Rockport, Wilson, TAD. Germany is a horn country, so there were horn systems that I have never even heard about. Here's a link to more
pictures.
you know this guy?
We also walked to the other audio show, but there was not too many people there when we got there
with the higher resolution digital audio now, I experimented removing the Copland DRC 205 which works by shaving some offending bits to smoothen the audio response of a given room. After living with it for so long, I almost cannot listen to my system without it. There is an obvious bump 300 - 3500 hz range. I tried to remedy this by implementing some DIY room treatment.
finished
there is no denying that this helped.
