Welcome

I have gone far beyond merely upgrading with this project so I wanted to start a new blog for everything I work on and discover along the way.

In "Random Acts of Upgrades" I discussed modifying my Focal Profile 918's.  So far I've had quite  a bit of success but I decided to take the plunge and purchase real tools, as well as stop spending so much money on a pair of old speakers.

So far for this blog I have lots to talk about.  The Dayton Audio Ominmic and DATS V2 combination, the Focal's and how they measure, as well as a completely new speaker design I'm calling "No Es Nada" for now.  There's a famous kit offered by Madisound called NADA which got me on my way to my very custom speaker design. In Spanish "Nada" means "Nothing."  So, this design is not Nada and not nothing, so "No Es Nada" (NeN for short) means "Not Nothing."

First, for my skill level and experience I am spending way too much money.  I'm sorry.  I know this.  I wanted something compact and great sounding, but wanted to go my own way.  I disliked the idea of building a kit everyone else built.  Also, I didn't like the ragedness in the SS Beryllium's response.  So I went looking for alternatives and ended up at the NeN design, which uses a Mundorf AMT and SS Revelator.

So this blog will absorb my further Focal tweaks as well as the NeN build, and Dayton tools review.

I hope others come join me on my journey.

If this fails, I'm going to work on home brewed cruise missiles.  Maybe I'll offer cruise missile targeting as a web service.  You only get 60% accuracy per missile, but at a great discount.  Hah.  That's a joke, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone offers that within my lifetime.  Some one call me when it happens.

Most Overrated Speakers in the World

Yes, this is a troll to get traffic, but yes, I'm going to be sincere nonetheless. 

Bowers & Wilkins

There's nothing wrong with the sound, but also nothing right.  Just some of the most boring to listen to speakers ever.  And by this I don't mean transparent and neutral.  It's like they suck the flavor out of music.  On the other hand, they aren't particularly objectionable so I wouldn't get up to shut them off, but I also wouldn't pay for a pair.

Wilson Audio

I actually really like the sound of Wilson speakers, but not the prices.  For 1/10th of the price a mid-line Focal or high-end Monitor Audio would sound as good and take up less floor space.  The one area where they can excel is in dynamic range and bass extension.  Still, good subs from Hsu run a lot less.  Also, from the perspective of overall tonal balance, to me, they sound very close to Focals, so if you like the Wilson's, check out a variety of Focals with a subwoofer.

Golden Ear

Really painful treble.  It's a banshee in the shape of a speaker.   The current positive reviews astound me.  

Triangle

Same as Golden Ear, only it's not a screech so much as a sneaky ear needle.  I know it may be psychosomatic to think of them as ear drills based on the shape of the tweeter but to me the Triangle sounds very clean and distortion free compared to the Golden Ear, but still painful to listen to.  Like eating something very spicy, but you can't tell for the first two or three bites how spicy it is. 

Thiel

The third speaker in the "bad treble" group. 

Focal Sopra

Focal just introduced the Sopra speaker line.

I find it very interesting, and in some ways it's a marriage of the Profile and Electra lines, with a dash of Utopia thrown in.  The color finishes are pretty too, but I'm not really completely enamored of the shape.  At least I find them less ugly than the current Utopia line.  What I'm most interested in however is how "tweakable" it is.  Focal makes excellent drivers in many ways, especially low distortion and low storage of energy.  Flat, smooth frequency response however is not their forte. Also, their cabinets and crossover components below the Utopia line kind of suck by comparison.   There is some, but not extensive, internal bracing allowing unusually large amounts of vibration to come off the sides.   I can already tell by the pictures they have shown they are not particularly proud of the crossovers in this unit.  Not that they were ill designed, but probably did not have the highest quality components.

I'm sure we'll be reading about the performance of the Sopra's in gushing details from "unbiased" reviewers soon, and by that I mean to exclude all of TAS, but what I would really want to know is if the Sopra's are a few hundred dollars away in mods from being small Utopia's? 

The HSU VTF-15H MKII Subwoofer sucks

I could tell this as soon as I unpacked it.  Just look at this picture here:

Do you see that?  The lettering on the lower left side?  It is a font- ographical travesty.  How many different fonts do you need to label a product?  Dear Goddess Minerva have mercy.

OK, yes, that's all tongue in cheek but I wanted to illustrate some bad trends lately in reviewing products people haven't even been near, let alone listened to.   I've seen a lot of trash talking about the Pono player lately based on it's looks, or that (they claim) it can't technically sound better than other players.  Mind you, the looks are an aesthetic thing, and people are free to dislike it, but when people who have never heard it (I have) driving good headphones (again, I have) trash it I feel they are doing everyone a disservice.

The Pono player sounds really really good at any resolution of audio.  Go listen to a set yourself, and if you don't hear the difference, then the price ($399) for you may not be worth it's value, but for those of us who like that warm, rich Ayre sound, it's a bargain. 

The other terrible trend that continues to plague audio and video philes are feature counters.  People who evaluate the number of features to compare products without a care to the quality with which they are delivered.  Consider counting a Honda Civic as a better car than a Ferrari F1 due to the number of dashboard apps.  Mind you, in many cases a Civic may actually be a better car, but probably more to do with the four doors and trunk room a commuter or parent may need on a day to day basis.  To merely count features to determine product value is stupid and leaves us who like quality with fewer and fewer choices we can afford.

So to really get back to the HSU, I bought it for 17 reasons.  15" of woofer diameter, great reviews and really awesome, if sometimes overly enthusiastic, customer service.  Great job guys.  A real review will be coming up after I have re-hydrated myself from moving it into position.  

Go Theta Digital!

Kudos to Theta Digital for releasing the Casablanca III HD and Casablanca IV.   Also, congrats on the review of the beautiful  Prometheus 250W monoblock amps in stereophile.   It seems that the release of the Casablanca IIIHD has uncloged the pipes, so I hope we will see more rapid releases of new products in the coming months.

Since I am among the working poor in San Francisco, I cannot afford any of these, so I was hoping to see news of the replacement of the Casanova, the Supernova soon.  That is where my heart truly lies, but so far no mention of it in over a year.

I'm still stuck with the 16 year old Casanova until someone makes a DAC better than that for less than $2,000.  I'm checking out the NAD M51 soon, will keep you posted.  There's a reason they still sell for $800 on ebay.  They are just that good.

Focal Profile 918 Set up (probably 908 too)

This is a guide to placing Focal Profile's in the optimum location.  If you are intereted in upgrading your Focal Profile 918's to 2016 levels of performance please visit the Focal Profile 918 Ultimate Upgrade Guide page.


So I here are my secrets to getting incredible sound from the 918s that you have today.

In addition to tonal balance the thing most never have right is the imaging.  These are great speakers for imaging, thought it tends to be on a single plane, from left to right and front to back they throw a wide and deep sound stage and disappear.  The 918s are also very room friendly and have a really sweet tweeter.

Tools

Items you will need:

• Soundocity outrigger feet
• Bosch GLL 1P Laser Level or equivalent.  A simple level will not be  enough. 
• Masking tape
• pencil, darker and wider is better. 
• Scissors
• 8 1/2" by 11" sheet of craft felt.  Black or very dark color.

Attach outriggers before proceeding.

Tweeter Taming

One of the best, and least expensive, tweaks for the profiles is to line the grill with felt to either side of the tweeter.  This is huge.  It smooths out the treble while deepening the sound stage.  Take your felt sheet (available from any craft or art supply store for about $0.50)  cut a strip about the width of the top portion of the grill, that acts as wings to the tweeter.   You will need two sections per speaker, one for either side of the tweeter.  Fold in half and make the oval V cut out for the tweeter mounting.  You will probably want to leave about 1/2" of space.  Stuff behind the grill cloth.   You do not need to use felt with adhesive.  In fact it's neigh impossible to stuff that back there.  Done correctly this ends up being invisible.

The Sweet Spot

Your seating position should be in between the speakers but no closer  than to form an equilateral triangle between the seat and speakers.  I find that further away works as well if not better.  If you are closer than that I would suggest moving the speakers closer together or moving the seat further away.

Set up the speakers at least 20" from the sidewalls and rear walls.   They do need some rear wall reinforcement.  Point the speaker's straight ahead, leave the lower grill cloth on, remove tweeter covers.   Focal, Stereophile and my own experience proves this is the way to go.  This is one thing most get wrong.  The grill cloths are essential for imaging.   Starting this exercise otherwise leads to madness.

Bass/Midrange Balance

Adjust distance from rear of speaker to wall until bass/midrange balance at your seat is good.  If bass is boomy move away from wall.  If weak, move towards the wall.  Measure distance from rear of speaker to wall, make sure both speakers are same distance.

Turn all outrigger knobs counter clock-wise to get speakers as low as possible.  Level speakers front/back, side to side and angle straight ahead.   With the outrigger feet this takes 10 minutes.  Hours otherwise.

Toe-in

Toe-in is the amount we will turn the speakers towards the listener.   Proper toe-in affects imaging and treble balance. 

The Goal

The goal is to find the speaker angle which provides you with great imaging.  To me this means the following:  

• Instruments and performers are evenly filled in from left to right.
• The speakers no longer appear to be the source of the sounds
• The imaging in the center is as strong as between the center and either speaker without gaps. 
• Music may appear to be coming from wider than the speaker placement. 

The one place where the 918s suffer in terms of imaging is height.  They tend to image in an area like a strike zone, centered between the midrange and tweeter.  

Preparation

Measure the distance from the side wall to the center of each tweeter housing.  Using a tape measure and level, on the opposite wall place masking tape horizontally from that distance to about a foot and a half in on both sides of the wall.     Mark every two inches inwards for about a foot.

Turn on laser level.   Place on top of speaker so line is vertical.  The line should cut tip of tweeter casing and center of "C" in the word "FOCAL." on top.  Now turn speaker on a rear foot (you did get the outrigger feet, right?) until the laser cuts outermost pencil mark on the masking tape on the oppositve wall.  Repeat both sides.  If you've done everything right, you should be able to put the laser level on one speaker, facing the opposite speaker  so the line is vertical and slice between the grill and speaker on both speakers simultaneously.   Adjust if not true.   Now your speakers are perfectly square to the room.

Setting Expectations

Sit in the expected/desired sweet, then try moving forwards or backwards 2-4" a a time until find a magic distance where it all locks in.  Think of that as the situation we wish to mimic when you have the toe-in correct.  It just may be you found the right place on the first try, but it's unlikely.

Now, put your chair back in your preferred location.

The image may be completely separate or have a left, center and right with holes in between.  

The moments of truth

For the remainder of this exercise, you will use the outriggers to keep the speakers from moving excessively by keeping the outermost, rear foot of each speaker in place.  When turning the speaker you will tilt the top towards that foot until the remaining 3 feet have just lifted, then turn as needed.

Toe in both speakers so that the laser progresses inwards a single mark.   A little after the best angle the image will collapse and speakers will become the main apparent sound sources.

If you have toed in these speakers so the tweeter is pointed at your ears it's too much and you'll get excessive and tiring treble.

Check both speakers again for level, and verify image is still good.   Again, outriggers are the way to go.  Will also reduce chances of speakers falling on floor.

Now, using a similar method as above, tilt speakers up and down to taste and seating position as you feel appropriate, taking care to keep the speaker level from left to right after each adjustment.  Use laser as guide, but this time horizontally to ensure both speakers are tilted equally.  In this case you do want the plane of the tweeter to be around the plane of your ears.  Remember there's about 3-4" between tweeter and laser level, so if you use marks, say on a board on your chair, or tape on your recliner, adjust accordingly.

Personally I like my ears to be a little below the tweeters.   Your mileage may vary.

Recommended Cables

I use Wireworld Equinox speaker cables with bananas on speaker end.  I know this sounds like Voodoo, but I had friends who loved jazz and know nothing about equipment.  Without telling them which was which they could reliably tell the Wireworld was the superior cable for imaging.  However we disagreed on the merits of the tonal balance, and they preferred 12 guage Mogami Sound Runner I had bought 20 years ago.

Quick Pono Review

This past week I had the chance to listen to the Pono music player at dreamforce.  I happened to have a classic iPod with me with ALAC files of a couple of songs that were in the demo units.   I also had Shure in-ear-monitors I bought a few years ago with me.

The quick review:  The music player sounds really solid, BUT... it was clear to me that we are listening to modern remasters.  Doing direct comparisons is really impossible.  That being said, I mostly really liked the remastering and the overall combination of player + new masters I was listening to with the exception of Miles Davis Kind of Blue.  Great noise and clarity but the stereo field seemed exaggerated.

Full disclaimer:  I only listened for a few minutes, and there was this model-gorgeous blonde listening to music across the table from me, so I may have been distracted.