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Maya200

Maya sound upgrade

At the beginning of this year, we moved to a new house - and my music system got a new room. The system was stored for around eight months (we lived in a temporary house for six months while in-between houses), and I only got it up and running a few months back.

No changes were made to the system when setting it up again (except DSP settings to fit the new room), but sound is a whole lot better than in my old room.

The four Mayas in my system still sing like angels, but everything sounds better :D

There is improved clarity, soundstage, and 'thereness', even at low volume. What happened?

Well, first of all, the new room has materials with better acoustical properties. For example, even though the walls are concrete, the concrete is of a 'soft' type that will not create a boom effect when hit by sound waves, the ceiling has fairly thick planks sitting sturdily up there (no flexing or bouncing), and the wooden floor is laid out directly on the concrete underfloor (floor is heated) with just a very thin foam membrane underneath (again no flexing or bouncing).

Secondly, I have been able to set up the listening position with no rear wall behind it (well, there is a rear wall, of course, but it's over 4 meters away and therefore psychoacoustically non-existent).

Obviously, I am very pleased with this sound upgrade - and with reaping even more benefits from the Mayas 😊

But I also have to say that it's the most expensive upgrade I've ever made to my system! 🤣

Cheers,

Jens
 
Hi Jens,
Thank you for your Maya experience - you greatly highlight the importance of a listening environment.
At the Melbourne Audio Club, we have a large auditorium which holds 120 people and has hard, stone walls and quite a bit of curtain damping behind the front dais. Significantly, with a full complement of members, the room is somewhat 'dead', all those bodies!
The number of systems I have heard over about thirty years in the Willis Room which sounded very, very good are probably counted on a hand of amputated fingers...... why an audio club likes to commit sonic suicide over almost 50 years is not understandale - but it is central, convenient, and the right price. So when we change our home, like or not, our listening system could be better or even worse........
You are lucky, perhaps much luckier than my system at 55 Grove Road!! Could it be that you have good damping with timber top and bottom with a very thin foam membrane? That sounds pretty good compared to my usual fare.
Recently I heard a marvellous speaker, the Audiovector Arrete R3, made in your fair country!! Absolutely phenomenal, so clear, wonderful imaging, realistic bass, incredible.......
Thanks for the post,

Hugh
 
Hi Jens,
Thank you for your Maya experience - you greatly highlight the importance of a listening environment.
At the Melbourne Audio Club, we have a large auditorium which holds 120 people and has hard, stone walls and quite a bit of curtain damping behind the front dais. Significantly, with a full complement of members, the room is somewhat 'dead', all those bodies!
The number of systems I have heard over about thirty years in the Willis Room which sounded very, very good are probably counted on a hand of amputated fingers...... why an audio club likes to commit sonic suicide over almost 50 years is not understandale - but it is central, convenient, and the right price. So when we change our home, like or not, our listening system could be better or even worse........
You are lucky, perhaps much luckier than my system at 55 Grove Road!! Could it be that you have good damping with timber top and bottom with a very thin foam membrane? That sounds pretty good compared to my usual fare.
Recently I heard a marvellous speaker, the Audiovector Arrete R3, made in your fair country!! Absolutely phenomenal, so clear, wonderful imaging, realistic bass, incredible.......
Thanks for the post,

Hugh
Hi Hugh,

No system will ever sound really good in a bad acoustical environment, but your listening space is actually not half bad, as the room is fairly well-dampened (although perhaps a bit bass shy). Differences between amps were very easy to make out last time I was there :)

In my room, there is no timber bottom as such. The floor is cast concrete (with floor heating pipes inside) on top of which there is a thin foam membrane with a fairly thin wooden floor laid out on top of the foam membrane. This type of floor will not be able to flex and act as a bass absorbent - which plank floors laid out on wooden beams can do.

The ceiling in my room is very sturdy, as it carries everything on the 1st floor! It is clad with 15 mm groove-and-tongue boards that render a profiled look, and the whole thing is very well made - no 'give' at all.

I know the Audiovector Arrete R3, which is indeed made here in Denmark. It is a very good speaker, but too much hi-fi and too little music for my taste. Perhaps if you paired it with a Maya it would sound really nice :D

Cheers,

Jens
 
Finally finished my Mayas(version 3?) and have been using them everyday for the last 5 weeks, very happy with the amps and Hughe's amazing service.

I built them as mirror image monoblocks, they are laid out to keep signal input away from the transformer. I already had the cases from a previous project , they are built like tanks and made out of aluminium aircraft grade alloy, I already had the 400va transformers which supply 47v to the amp boards.

I tried increasing the bias slightly from the recommended (which seemed good with the Sorayas), but after hearing the result quickly went back to 50mv across resistors TP1 and TP2.

I also tried biamping them with the Sorayas used for bass, complete overkill, have now reverted to just the Mayas.

Thanks Hugh for your great sounding amps, I think the Mayas will probably outlast me, in my setup they hardly get warm, even after cranking them to extreme levels.
 

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I have enjoyed my Maya200 for two years now - still sound wonderful- I will try to share a few photos 😊
 

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