Beyond the Ariel

[TerryO]

Originally Posted by BudP

I spoke with Lynn a month ago. He called to tell me how happy he was with the Litz wire cables I had provided a few years earlier and that he was finally getting enough of a system back together to listen to. His accident while shoveling snow took a heavy toll, just as a shattered leg will, even to a young man.

Bud

Hi Bud,

I'm glad Lynn's doing better.

I'd also like to thank you for reminding those of us that are still young, that accidents can happen, even to us.


Best Regards,
TerryO

[SunRa]

Thanks Bud for reply! Good to know he is doing well.

[dumptruck]

I apologize if it's pointless to post here, but if any [more] of you knowledgeable folks that helped analyze the TD15 measurements 50 pages back in this thread are still around, I'm trying to measure the TD15M-4. I could use some help isolating the same issues that came up here from other problems. Once there's nowhere left to go with measurement, I could also use some advice on which portion of the measurements I should call the "real" response for use in crossover design. Has anyone here measured a TD15M? (I have them)

I am generally able to try anything suggested and post any data requested the same day.

[lanecalde]

Hi..,

Hope this link will serve you the purpose..
Acoustic Elegance • View topic - TD15M measurements


irrelevant links removed

[dumptruck]

Seems perhaps you read the title of the thread but not the actual post... thanks anyway though.

[Lynn Olson]

Originally Posted by TerryO

Hi Bud,

I'm glad Lynn's doing better.

I'd also like to thank you for reminding those of us that are still young, that accidents can happen, even to us.


Best Regards,
TerryO

Yes, I'm all better these days, thanks to a superb personal trainer at the Erie Recreation Center. I can even run and jog again, and have lost about 20~25 lbs thanks to my workouts. The accident did take a huge chunk of time - a year or two, and I didn't really get back into hifi until last year's RMAF show, when I finally got my big Ariel/Karna system up and running in time for the show.

The other news is I'm finally getting back into vinyl again - after a 25-year hiatus - with the purchase of one of the very last Technics SL1210 Mk5's. (B&H Photovideo still has a few of new-in-box Technics turntables, and rather than take my chances on Craigslist or Audiogon, I went for the new product, complete with factory warranty.)

The three SL1200 models are very similar: the SL1200 MkII is the basic model (silver or black), the SL1210 Mk5 (silver or black) is the same except it has a dedicated switch to select between quartz-lock or the pitch slider, and the SL1210 Mk5G has a fancy metalflake gloss finish, "digital" pitch slider with extended range, and somewhat better tonearm wiring. (The stock arm wire on the other two models is basically Radio Shack grade, with captive RCA leads.) Since I planned to replace the tonearm wiring with Cardas, or just get another arm altogether (possibly a Jelco 750D), I didn't see any point to the SL1210 Mk5G. But a pitch slider on/off switch made sense; one less thing to go wrong with the pitch slider.

Yes, there was the temptation of the legendary Technics SP10, but replacement parts for this long-discontinued turntable bothered me; direct-drive TT's all use specialized LSI chips that are specific to that model turntable, and when those chips are no longer available, designing a new motor controller is a major project. With a 30-year production history and 3 million SL1200's out there, getting replacement parts should not be a problem. Getting replacement parts for some of the modern boutique high-end turntables, though, ought to be interesting.

The Brit website The Art of Sound has plenty of information on upgrading the SL1200, so I'll be looking into better mats, main bearings, tonearms, etc. No interest in commercial preamps, of course - I'll be building my own this time around.

[Lynn Olson]

As for current projects, I'll be at the Lone Star Audio Festival in Dallas, Texas on May 4, 5, and 6, and of course, the Rocky Mountain Audio Festival in Denver this October. See you there!

Here's a photo of the system right after the last RMAF in 2011. The Ariels have been moved away from their usual locations to show the Karna PP300B amplifiers and their isolated B+ supplies, the silver Monarchy DAC above them, and the Denon DV2900 transport/DVD player to the right of the Monarchy DAC. A Behringer ASRC sits on top of the transport/DVD player, upsampling from 44.1 to 88.2, and adding dither at the 24-bit level (the Monarchy accepts 44.1, 48, 88.2, and 96 kHz inputs).

The tape deck is a Technics RS1520 I bought from the Tektronix Calibration Lab about 15 years ago, so it is very lightly used. For now, it is sitting on top of the REL Strata II subwoofer, but I'll be getting a new stand for the TT and the tape deck.

The video side of the system is the Panasonic P58VT25 display, Comcast HDMI DVR, Marantz AV8003 and MM8003 pre/pro and amplifier, MacMini with HDMI output, and an Xbox360 with Kinect (for entertaining guests not into hifi).

The MacMini may have a USB-to-S/PDIF converter in the future, so it can be used as a music server for the "real" hifi system. Right now, it's a convenient way to watch the Web on television, since Comcast doesn't see fit to carry non-US television stations in their 600+ channel lineup.

There is no electrical interconnection between the TV and 2-channel systems; if I use the MacMini as a music server, I'll be sure to maintain use a USB-to-S/PDIF converter with transformer isolation between USB and S/PDIF.

[David Gatti]

Lynn, I'm also using a macmini as a music server. Are you aware that it already has an optical SPDIF output?

[Lynn Olson]

Yes, and the optical-out from the MacMini has lots and lots of jitter, thanks to the switching power supply and all the other digital noise sources inside the computer. The better-quality asynchronous USB-to-S/PDIF converters effectively become the "master clock" for the entire digital system, sending commands to the computer when to speed up or slow down the data flow. Although S/PDIF is hardly perfect - far from it - at least the S/PDIF source no longer has to contend with jitter from motor noise and laser servo-correction circuits.

Unfortunately, every DAC I've heard in my system is sensitive to jitter - including the Berkeley Alpha DAC, which probably has the most advanced jitter-reduction circuits out there. Yet you can still hear what the transport and cable are doing to the DAC.

The more exotic tweaks for the MacMini include replacing the spinning disc drive with SSD, which probably quiets down the jitter quite a lot, although optical S/PDIF is the lowest-quality transmission protocol thanks to optical scatter in the fiber.

I'm currently looking at the Audiophilleo and Halide Designs converters, which both claim impressively low jitter specs, as well as garnering good reviews on sites like Computer Audiophile and elsewhere.

Part of the reason I'm kind of a bug about jitter is the Monarchy DAC was dramatically improved - to the point of sounding like a completely different DAC - when I switched from my cheapo Pioneer DVD player/transport to the heavily tweaked and SuperClock II modified Denon 2900. The system went from being thin and bass-light to subterranean bass, along with a much sweeter overall presentation. All from changing transports, which is quite a comment on jitter.

There's still lots of controversy out there on the relative merits of old-school CD/DVD transports versus music servers, and I admit I have been pretty underwhelmed by the music servers I've heard at hifi shows. Since most folks on the Net have different musical tastes than I do - and are listening on transistor amps, which have a completely different presentation than direct-heated-triode amplifiers, I am moving kind of slowly.

The attraction of "convenience" is not a big draw, but if the MacMini can actually outperform the modified Denon, well, that's a good reason to move forward. Then again, the Panasonic plasma TV is not entirely silent when operating - high-illumination images make it buzz just a little - so using it as a primary display when using the Mac Mini as a server may not prove ideal for serious, music-only listening. I have almost no MP3 or AAC compressed music, since it sounds like caca even on the iPod Touch with Sennheiser HD580 phones, much less the big system. High-rez downloads? Well, maybe, but the audiophile releases aren't usually the kind of music I listen to.

It's entirely possible I'll get the phonograph going before I decide on the music server. I've got 300 records from the Sixties and Seventies that haven't been played in a long, long time, and I'd really like to listen to them again. They sounded great on my college-days TD-125 and Dual 1229 turntables, and I expect good things from the tweaked SL1200.

[john dozier]

Lynn. you might want to take a look at the new Anedio D2 Dac. The designer James Kang, has paid special attention to jitter reduction. I just receieved mine after owning his D1 for a year. His website has a white paper on jitter reduction that makes for interesting reading. I have corrresponed with him. He really knows his stuff. BTW they offer a free 30 day evaluation so you can see for yourself. I have no relationship to the company, just an extremely satisfied customer. Regards Dr. John Dozier BTW I tore up my back last year and your comments about a trainer are spot on. Glad you are better