Steve's hi-fi adventures.

[Steever]

Someone said once that change is a good thing. 
 

I certainly hope so with the impending changes to hifi gear in this household over the next few days. 
 

Today I fitted a brand new Rega Ania Pro MC cartridge to my Turntable.

 

From the first few seconds of music I could easily tell it a very solid improvement of the Elys 40 MM cart which came factory fitted on the RP40. 
 

I set the jumpers in my Dynavector phono stage for PE mode and played with with the coil resistance settings. The lowest is more transparent and the middle seems to give a little more oomph to things. I’ll leave it on the lowest for now as the delicacy I hear in that setting is partly why I went MC in the first place. 
 

in other news, my e83 speakers sold and will be replaced by something I’ve wanted to try my hand at again. 
 

more details to follow...

[Steever]

I never thought this would happen (I should have known better) but my e83 are going off to a new home. 

 

 

Time to pull out my recently rebuilt 782s. Off the end of my recapped Cyrus Mono X amps, they’re definitely no slouches. Their performance belies their size and they just disappear and let the music play. 
 

 

[Ray H]

782’s look fantastic. Do they sound better than the E83 in the mid/top end after your upgrades ?

 

How much is the Moon side table ? Couldn’t find a price online.

[BuzzzFuzzz]

G'day Winno.

 

Lovely room and set up mate...  I hope you end up with another nice room after your move.

 

I noticed the Mission 782's...  and, that they've been re-built.  I recently picked up a pair myself, in pretty good nic, but, they do need a little work.  I haven't actually looked inside yet, as the member I bought them from had cleaned up some corrosion on the drivers...  which I believe is common.

 

Yours look great with the woodgrain.  I'm curious if you did the work yourself?  What you have ( had ) done?

 

Regards.

Ant.

 

Edit - I am very impressed with the large sound from such a small floorstander.

Edited March 25, 2021 by BuzzzFuzzz

[Steever]

6 hours ago, Ray H said:

782’s look fantastic. Do they sound better than the E83 in the mid/top end after your upgrades ?

 

How much is the Moon side table ? Couldn’t find a price online.

 

Thanks Ray.

These are Mission before the move to IAG and although they have the same designer as the e83 (Peter Comeau), they're voiced differently. They're not as extended and airy up top as the e83, more of a softer, darker sound perhaps. They are still very transparent and while sitting here, look like they have nothing to do with the sound coming from between them. Stage depth and layering is fantastic on these. Having a ported woofer certainly helps in the bass department. I've actually turned my subwoofer off today as it was too much. The e83 are sealed and while the bass isn't as prominent as in the 782, their bass is more tuneful. 

 

4 hours ago, BuzzzFuzzz said:

G'day Winno.

 

Lovely room and set up mate...  I hope you end up with another nice room after your move.

 

I noticed the Mission 782's...  and, that they've been re-built.  I recently picked up a pair myself, in pretty good nic, but, they do need a little work.  I haven't actually looked inside yet, as the member I bought them from had cleaned up some corrosion on the drivers...  which I believe is common.

 

Yours look great with the woodgrain.  I'm curious if you did the work yourself?  What you have ( had ) done?

 

Regards.

Ant.

 

Edit - I am very impressed with the large sound from such a small floorstander.

 

Thanks Ant.

Yes, I'm lucky to have such a great room. Although it does have a very prominent null in the left hand corner which the wall panels have largely tamed. My stage no longer pulls to the right like it used to.

 

I got these 782s from a guy in northern NSW for a song. They're almost perfect outside but the midrange drivers were toast and the speakers didn't work - the cones were weeping their acidic fluid, the surrounds were hardened and cracked and their lead wires to the voice coils were crusty with green crystals and oxidation (from the weeping cones). This issue affects pretty much every 78 series speaker using the Farad Azima designed black stain tinted ceramic composite Audax Kerapro drivers. Mission warrantied them all and replaced them with a new Aerogel driver, also made by Audax in France. 

 

I stripped the speakers and traced out the crossover circuit. I replaced all the caps with same value metalised polypropelene Mundorfs and MOX resistors all hard wired on new boards with silver/gold Mundorf solder. I threw out the wiring and put in Nordost Flatline Gold. I ordered two new Audax Aerogel mids which needed their flanges cut down to fit behind the plastic baffle trim. I also fitted outrigger footers because these speakers are very narrow. One thing of note I also did was split the mid and tweeter at the cross over and fitted a third pair of binding posts on the rear for tri-wiring. I did all this myself and the results are really quite striking. Although these will be relegated to storage shortly, I'm definitely not selling them. They compete easily with speakers of equal size but costing up near $4-5k. Not bad for a total investment of about $1500 on my part.

 

They're a real walnut veneer with a rosewood stain. Shame really as I prefer the 70's walnut brown like that on PMC speakers. Rosewood was popular in the late 90's and in the 00's. I wish it wasn't. I'm toying with the idea of having these professionally sprayed black but I do like the look of the grain, if not the colour so much.

 

So I've had them playing all day and am extremely impressed at how they've come out post mods. Something specialer is coming this Saturday though... 

Edited March 25, 2021 by Winno

[BuzzzFuzzz]

Thanks @Winno, for such a detailed run down.  Although I'm working with speakers now, I still have a way to go, and much to learn, before I have the confidence for such work...  but, my goal is to get there.

 

I'll definitely be referring to your work in the previous post.

 

Cheers.

Ant.

 

Edit - yeah, I picked mine up for $150 from another member, and true gentleman.

Edited March 25, 2021 by BuzzzFuzzz

[russell66]

Something specialer is coming this Saturday though..

 

Excited for the reveal!!!

[Steever]

51 minutes ago, BuzzzFuzzz said:

Thanks @Winno, for such a detailed run down.  Although I'm working with speakers now, I still have a way to go, and much to learn, before I have the confidence for such work...  but, my goal is to get there.

 

I'll definitely be referring to your work in the previous post.

 

Cheers.

Ant.

 

Edit - yeah, I picked mine up for $150 from another member, and true gentleman.

happy to answer any questions about the 782 if you want to go down that road. 

[Steever]

Couple of things were ordered y’day & today. 
I ended up ordering an Incognito Silver arm rewire kit from Decibel Hifi afterall after some thought and posting a thread in the TT section of SNA. Feedback on rewiring is generally very positive. The Silver cable kit seems less popular but I like what silver does (generalization, I know) so that’s what was put in the cart. 
 

I was going to order a Michell Tecnoweight but, RB303 stubbs are apparently notoriously hard to remove and even then, some accounts state it’s not completely compatible with the RB303. It’s also pricey. 
 

so despite the brass coloured weight (I’m into silver and black only - I even swapped out the gold spikes on my e83 speakers for black ones at one stage), I ordered the XTC version from eBay instead which doesn’t require mods to ft and leaves me enough in the budget for more LPs. 
 

 

Edited March 26, 2021 by Winno

[Steever]

 

 

that is all. 

[JB82]

Nice

 

How do you find the sound with the Cyrus gear?

[kiwimeat]

Looks great Steve.

 

Can I please have the 782s?

 

After all they don't match the rest of your gear 

[Steever]

19 hours ago, JB82 said:

Nice

 

How do you find the sound with the Cyrus gear?

 

Very nice actually - balanced and musical. I was a bit worried they'd not do well on the ESL panels given the low impedance the panels can present at high frequencies. I needn't have though. They run cool and are very enjoyable to listen to.

 

48 minutes ago, kiwimeat said:

Looks great Steve.

 

Can I please have the 782s?

 

After all they don't match the rest of your gear 

 

The 782s are keepers but you know what they say: everything is for sale for the right price...

[russell66]

Wow thats very nice.  And looks great.

[Steever]

More deliveries today. Three old favourites and something new. And also something to make it all sound just a little bit better. 
 

[Pops110]

How are the new speakers settling in? 
Room looks a treat.

[Steever]

On 06/04/2021 at 7:57 PM, Pops110 said:

How are the new speakers settling in? 
Room looks a treat.

thanks mate. 
The MLs are certainly different to the Missions. They’re warmer sounding and have a much more expansive stage waaay out past the speakers. The stage is also taller. Bass on these is quite prodigious and I’m currently running the gain knob on the rear at -2. 
 

I’m awaiting delivery of a set of SoundoCity outrigger bars which I’ll mount my Gaia III footers to and I’ll then play around more with positioning. 
 

I am lucky to have this space. If we don’t end up moving later this year the Cyrus Hark stand will be brought back out and set up outside the speakers. I’ve already ordered longer Nordost XLR and Wireworld HDMI and optical cables this week. The Furniture in the middle will go. 

[Steever]

 

night sesh checking out new TT tweaks - a rewire with Incognito Silver kit and Isoacoustics Gaia III footers (I know, I know - they’re still an improvement on the RP40 footers though and they were spare)..

 

 

 

 

[Steever]

So I disappeared down to the garage last night for about an hour. I planned on changing out the quite nice Rega RP40 feet for some IsoAcoustics footers. 
 

I know the Gaia III aren’t a calibrated match for the 8kg mass of my turntable but they were spare and they are quite pretty. On they went anyway. They’re still “better” than Rega’s rigid feet and do have a little compliance. 

 

 

I also disassembled the tonearm to fit my new Silver wire kit from Incognito. Was actually very easy to do except for the part where I needed to remove the end stub to install the earth/ground wire. 
 

it just wouldn’t unscrew and I didn’t want to wreck anything. So using some original wire I extended the earth and ground off a little paint inside the arm at the head shell end for the earth to contact when the rubber bung was inserted. 
 

I got earth continuity and everything went back together easily. 
 

 

All back together again and spinning saw tremendous gains in air, stage depth and improved 3D rendering which are strong points with the Ethos ESLs anyway. The bass also leaned up and gained more tone variation.
 

i like all this very much but might have a play with VTF to bring back a bit more weight to the bottom end. 
 

More to come soon...

Edited April 13, 2021 by Winno

[Steever]

New stand for the Rega

 

 

and new vinyl for the Rega. 

 

And yes, the stand is very sturdy and much harder to tip than it looks. 

Edited April 14, 2021 by Winno

[Steever]

On 14/04/2021 at 5:02 PM, Winno said:

 

just broke the seal and played this for the first time. 
Im somewhat weary of reissues but this certainly exceeded expectations as it was dead silent and beautifully mastered. 
 

we flicked back to digital afterwards and my wife mentioned vinyl has something about it digital seems to lack. She’s a Doors fan and had never heard of John Martyn. She’s quite possibly a convert now. 

[Steever]

Some supplies for when I get the Hark stand out again and install the gear off to one side of the speakers. 

 

 

I’m going balanced this time. Shown is 5m Blue Heaven. I would have preferred to stay with Red Dawn LS but those in balanced in the length I need will be around $2k. This was a little cheaper and I’m hoping balanced gives the BH an advantage over RD SE. 
 

I’ll be listing my 1.5m RD LS single endeds soon.  

[Steever]

Me and the pup chillin to some beats. 
 

 

 

Deez MLz sure got bass

[Steever]

Y'day I signed up for a 1 month free trial of Qobuz. I paid 4.5E to have Soundiiz move all my favourites over from Tidal and I'm now enjoying what might be slightly better sound (maybe/possibly/perhaps).

I'm concerned with the whole lossy MQA thing currently being "exposed" through a number of forums online. Something doesn't smell right and I really don't like it when big business does that.

I'm now deriving a degree of comfort and peace of mind knowing my music is full FLAC and even HR in many cases.

Whether I stay with Qobuz and cancel Tidal though remains to be seen.

[Steever]

Also today, postman was kind to me. 
 

I’m going to outrigger my speakers 

 

 

I'm just waiting on 3/8-16 thread adaptors for my Gaia III footers from Selby. 
 

I was going to order a Tecnoweight from Michell but thought I’d try the XTC version at half the price.

 

 

 

Same principle as the Michell but doesn’t require me to remove the Rega arm stub (which I couldn’t remove when I was rewiring anyway). 
 

After this last pic was taken, I removed the CW and drilled out 6g of brass from under the weight so I could set the VTF via counterweight only and without added mass at the head shell. This allows up to 2.02g VTF with any cart the same mass as my Ania Pro (I’m running 1.9g as set up). 

Edited April 21, 2021 by Winno