Step by step surgery

[fas42]

For those who didn't appreciate my interest in the aircraft disaster - it's all about the system ... the number one priority of that industry is to transport people safely from one place to another, and everything has to work as it should, with no unexpected behaviours, for that to happen. I just see the business of extracting optimum SQ as exactly the same type of process - it only takes the most subtle of 'incorrectness' somewhere to disrupt that goal.

 

There will be violent arguments about the underlying causes of the plane crashing - but there will also be a steady investigation of all aspects, until a clear line of causal links emerges. By this process advancement of understanding and knowledge is achieved - and changes made, and procedures put into place to minimise the chances of it happening again.

 

This type of step by step thinking is also key to extracting the best sound possible from a rig that is in front of one - grand flourishes of changing something BIG in the hope that this will magically 'transform' what you experience is stumbling in the dark, and just as likely to succeed.

[Ralf11]

so Frank - what commercial aviation engineering forums do you post on?

[fas42]

Ummm ... none, strange to say ... what's interesting on those which have people posting, who make their living by sitting in that front seat, is that there is almost as much attitude expressed by many, as occurs here. Some dislike Airbus - or Boeing, some are quick to blame pilot training, etc - to be blunt, it's a bit scary at times seeing the views expressed by these individuals about the industry ... too much information!!

 

The particular forum is https://www.pprune.org/

[fas42]

Step by step ... the first litigation in the Lion Air crash, against Boeing, has been launched, and pilots associations are having a barney, with each other, about the matter ... hang on, we're in for a bumpy ride, .

 

Who said systems were straightforward to get, just right ...

[kumakuma]

6 minutes ago, fas42 said:

Step by step ... the first litigation in the Lion Air crash, against Boeing, has been launched, and pilots associations are having a barney, with each other, about the matter ... hang on, we're in for a bumpy ride, .

 

Who said systems were straightforward to get, just right ...

 

 

Your use of this tragedy as just more way to push your ideas is appalling.

 

[sandyk]

2 hours ago, fas42 said:

Who said systems were straightforward to get, just right

 

 Agreed, but it was inappropriate to mention this horrific disaster as an example.

[fas42]

Quote

Your use of this tragedy as just more way to push your ideas is appalling.

 

If you want to go down that route ... I'm appalled that countries like the USA allow essentially unrestricted access to high powered weapons, which leads to regular massacres of innocents at far greater rates than any other country - if there's a buck in it, as in the powerful gun industry which has such influence in that country, then all bets are off.

 

Being precious about using a current news event to discuss ideas doesn't cut it, I'm afraid ...

[fas42]

5 minutes ago, sandyk said:

 

 Agreed, but it was inappropriate to mention this horrific disaster as an example.

 

Alex, I have had enough of the bleeding hearts carry on, when hypocrisy is also rife. If one prefers,  I can go back to the swimming pool with a leak analogy - only the water bill suffers there.

[kumakuma]

11 minutes ago, fas42 said:

 

If you want to go down that route ... I'm appalled that countries like the USA allow essentially unrestricted access to high powered weapons, which leads to regular massacres of innocents at far greater rates than any other country - if there's a buck in it, as in the powerful gun industry which has such influence in that country, then all bets are off.

 

No idea how this relates to my point.

[fas42]

For a start, that different generations, and cultures, and countries, are appalled by different things ...

 

My interest in that air crash is in understanding all the factors that led to the outcome - just like the very well known, and popular  "Mayday" TV series - are the people who watch eposodes of that ghouls? The connection with audio is that learning about precisely what causes failures, or flaws in systems is precisely how one is able to improve the design, "safety", competence of such.

 

[fas42]

Just to note that I have never worried at length about the aspects of clock phase noise, etc, as expressed at the moment in the jitter and DSD DACs thread. At one point I purchased a specially made crystal, with specified low levels of phase noise, intending to experiment in this area - but I never went ahead and made the change ...

 

IOW, getting the performance of the clock just a bit better probably helps, but isn't essential for getting a high standard of sound. As said in that thread, there are other things that are far more important to examine, and optimise, before venturing into this "step".

[fas42]

Went to a local art and music 'happening' yesterday - the artwork was impressive, quite brilliantly so in some cases ... the music, well, not quite so ...

 

The signs were good - a very polished sound reinforcement setup, brand new Turbosound speakers, slick PreSonus desk and other bits, a young, Millenial crew - maybe they could get it right?

 

Ummm, no ... not overloud, quite well balanced - just that awfulness of PA sound building a desire within, to get from the noise, as soon as possible - as Bev said, "Bloody dreadful!!"

 

First act worked quite well - why? because it wasn't complex in sound structure - a taste,

 

 

Second was particularly interesting, and really starting to test the capability to the rig to deliver,

 

 

Did the PA convey the depth and detail in the structure of this sort of music ... yeah, right, pull the other one!! As soon as the harmonics of the music built up in complexity it turned into a shower of shrapnel pummeling the ears - luckily, they kept to their simpler compositions.

 

Finally, the coup de grace: Future State, which was a 5-piece band, "which specializes in creating psychedelic immersive experiences that celebrate the wild of the natural world" ... . This was the last straw, the onslaught of unpleasantness was too much, and we rose and left ... singer, bass guitar, electric piano, lead guitar, drums - as I tend to do, I went behind the PA bits, and got as close to the drums as possible to enjoy the visceral impact of sticks hitting skins, metal, "proper sounds" - a reminder of what music is supposed to be about ...

 

A great pity. The level of musicanship was excellent, but was trampled to death by a sound system straight from the land of

 

 

 

And people wonder why I regularly get back to this little journey of mine ...

[fas42]

Which has finallly kicked me over the edge ... fired up the NAD gear, and straightaway on the first CD, some hefty John Lee Hooker tracks, has got a solid, satisfying groove goin' ...

[fas42]

Okay, first solid step forward. I didn't take the normal care when plugging in the CDP and amp to the power - just used a double plug this time to feed both units from a "dedicated" house circuit - and the limitations soon showed up. In the SQ.

 

Which unit is more sensitive to the other? And general dirty mains? First try nailed it: the CDP now has that circuit devoted to itself; the amp was plugged into a very dirty area of another circuit. SQ much, much better - so, the CDP is the beast that will need greater isolation, here.

[fas42]

Have done absolutely nothing to the setup from the last time it was fired up, many, many months ago, and am pleased with its general demeanour, picking up from where it was back then. Has no trouble conveying all the tonality of, say, aggressive piano; and every recording so far, no matter how "awful" , puts a smile on my face ...

[fas42]

Silly me! Put up a list up music that I trialled, to see how things were going, in the wrong place - will shift it here instead:

 

So,

 

Got the rig fired up again - steadily improving, the album Southern State Sounds is doing nicely - as good as example as any of that driving energy is

 

 

 

 

 

Now,

 

 

 

And, this album

 

 

First track,

 

 

And

 

 

Good depth, space ...

 

I'm playing the original recording,

 

 

 

Okay, a 'harder' one - a cheatin' CD; every track is a needle drop ...

 

 

The piano tone is sometimes marginal, showing the need for some more refinement.

 

Will just mention this last track from that CD,

 

 

Great capture of the kick drum in this!

 

 

 

Veeery nice!

 

 

 

 

And from a compilation of guitar greats,

 

 

[fas42]

The last clip, the White Light/White Heat one showed most strongly that I had to lift the setup's game - it wasn't handling the "busyness" of the track.

 

Next round, restored how I had organised the mains feed to the amp - using a much cleaner run from the circuit, with distance as the key tool for improving things. Yes - much better; "messy" mixes were now under control, and this track came over very nicely,

 

 

[fas42]

Another one I use regularly - a super cheapie compilation, all tracks are needle drops,

 

 

 

 

 

[fas42]

As always, the the key final step is the most important, and often most fiddly to reach - reducing noise originating from static, etc, behaviours - this is the last piece in the puzzle many times, and if not addressed stops that quality of 'live sparkle' being in the room ... this basically meant I had to carefully examine the routing of every cable, especially the power leads, and make sure each was not close to, or touching the 'wrong things'.

 

And now have this combo of NAD CDP, amp and Sharp speakers producing a satisfying standard - as it was before I shut it down some time ago ... what next? Could either bring back volume control; add 'proper' mains filtering to replace the rough and ready method currently used to isolate from interference; or progress the internals to deliver the full monty of SQ - or, as usual, do bits of everything .

[fas42]

And now listening to ol' reliable ... this one is an instant giveaway to general status of the setup,

 

 

I actually have this older issue,

 

 

This is a badly battered copy, pretty scratched surface - most older players struggle a bit at times.

 

This can sound everywhere from an extremely screechy, tiresome sawing away at the material, highly irritating - to a beautifully presented vista, glorious tonality of the violin, with lovely interplay between the members of the group ... what am I getting?  At the moment, pretty reasonable - not brilliant, but acceptable ...

[fas42]

Absolutely nothing to do with audio, but a very impressive example of step by step surgery - if you have an idea, it can be possible ...

 

 

[fas42]

Regarding one of my favourite "steps" - connectors ... while researching something completely differently, chanced across this, https://www.stereophile.com/content/very-interesting-article-audio-xpress-1.

 

Just a bit of activity confirming what to me is obvious ...

[fas42]

Just a thought, in the spirit of Rumsfeld's rap, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_are_known_knowns

- getting audio 'right' is about the known unknowns; so many in audio work in the sphere that one should only concern oneself with the "known knowns" - umm, not the best move ....

 

And, right in the middle of writing this, a phone call from the audio friend down the road - next get together, tomorrow. Latest in his "surgery" efforts, rewiring a tiny Sony portable speaker - should he twist an extremely short run of new cabling inside? Could it possibly matter? ... Guess what ...

[fas42]

A good session - down the road. All his setups showed no obvious issues, from the word go - even the tiny Bluetooth unit did a good job of fooling one, into thinking that the main rig was running ... .

 

Best of the bunch was the secondary rig, in the back shed - using tiny Tannoy bookshelfs. Close to the best I ever have heard with him over the years, presenting a sound that one would easily mistake as that from premium, monster sized recording studio monitors. Big sound, tons of depth and space - couple of things stood out; first time ever I've enjoyed a Diana Krall track - her voice as usual was the least interesting part, but all the instruments had the oomph to make for intense listening; and Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 1, tonality and captured space were excellent, couldn't fault it. Also, Deep Purple, and Joy Division did well.

 

At this level of quality, the tiniest, "silliest" factors matter - the SQ was consistently of a high order, but interesting exploring tweaking ideas.

[fas42]

Just came across the Wireworld mob, while hunting down something. I note that @Cable Gurufrom this show once posted here, and I must say the blurbs on their website cover many of the things I concern myself with - intelligently. As pointed out, the best cable is no cable - so, do your damn best to make their presence 'invisible'.

 

Ensuring the integrity of the end connections is a major part of achieving this - but while people are obsessed about being able to plug and unplug things this will always be a key weakness.