A Splendid Package from Trey!

Moose68Bash

Five weeks ago, I received a package from Vr3 Mods. I had been anxiously awaiting it for a couple of months.



The styrofoam did its job of protecting the innards, but it was a bit nasty to deal with:



It sure was worth the effort and the wait. Here's what was packed safely inside in all that styrofoam:



The real prizes:



And the "fixins" to turn my SRS 1.2s into top-notch 1.2tls:







Last weekend, I finally had time to do the installation of new RD0-198s and all the new components.

Started with the binding post cups:



Then positioned the wiring harnesses:



Installed the new tweeters and the top three stereo and SDA drivers:



I had to leave installing the bottom drivers till after the crossover shelves were installed because Trey advised me to anchor the SDA inductor on the back of the shelves to the cabinet brace above them.

More to come.

I have to take some time out to listen.

Right now, it's Joshua Bell's "Voice of the Violin."

Magnificent, even without 200 hours of break in for the Clarity Cap MRs!

Nightfall

That looks awesome, I'm sure all the waiting was worth it.

GlennDog

Congrats! Looks awesome !

Mike Reeter

Very, very nice work. If those SDA's aren't a Reference Pair of speakers, I don't know what is. Enjoy!

MrBuhl

Beautiful stuff there!

vmaxer

Beautiful

polkfarmboy

Alarm bells ring in my head when I see all those wires and things to hook up lol. Wonder if the vr3 guy could fix my gallo 3.0,shipping would nightmarish on that

drumminman

Looks great Moose. Keep posting those pics, love to see the reassembly. Looking forward to your review once everything is connected.

Polkie2009

drumminman wrote: »

Looks great Moose. Keep posting those pics, love to see the reassembly. Looking forward to your review once everything is connected.

+1000! Great thread Moose, love the pics, Trey does gorgeous work. This makes me want to have Trey do the crossovers on my SDA/SRS2's.

oldrocker

Looking good!!!

motorstereo

Looking good there Phil. Yes we need a review once everything is in place.

aprazer402

WOW! Outstanding work! Enjoy them and let us know how they sound as they break-in. Are they Trey's "Monastery" level or "The Abbott" modification? I need to do mine someday. Thank you for sharing with us.

Moose68Bash

Thanks, guys. It's been a fun project, and I'll post more pictures soon and, of course, observations about the emerging sound quality. I can say that even without adequate break-in time, the sound is impressive -- highs are clearer with more distinctive timbre, mid-range is clean and balanced, lots of "air" between instruments and vocalists. The soundstage is about the same as it was before these mods, but I expect it to open up as time progresses.

I have the speakers connected, but I do not have them located in their permanent positions. I want to give them a bit of "trial" time before maneuvering them into place, which requires a bit of effort. If any adjustments need to be made, I want to do them before all that effort. Nevertheless, the sound is still quite good, although I expect improvement in the bass when the speakers are properly located vis a vis the wall.

aprazer402, I neglected to post the picture below, which would have preempted your question:



You have to love that Jantzen C Coil SDA inductor!!!

The crossovers are Trey's "The Abbot" line. The wiring is all Supra Rondo with gold disconnects (which fit very tightly and require some dexterity to attach to the tweeters and drivers, but will definitely be secure, solid contacts).

When I removed the drivers about 3/4ths of the gaskets were destroyed, so I replaced all of them with Armaflex/Armacell.

Thank you all again for your kind remarks, and many thanks to Trey for another phenomenal job!

Right now, I'm listening to the Emerson String Quartet playing Dvorak: "American" Quartet; Thiakovsky: Quartet No. 1, and Borodin: Quartet No. 2. It's a Deutsche Grammophon "Masters" CD from 1996. It has never sounded so good in my system!



More to come.

[Deleted User]

Nice example of excellent craftsmanship, very impressive!

Moose68Bash

Here are the components Trey used in the mods:

Tweeter Circuit:
Clarity Cap MR Capacitors

Duelund Resistors

Jantzen Inductors

Supra Rondo Internal Wiring
Gold Disconnects

Midbass Circuit:
Clarity Cap MR Capacitors

Jantzen Inductors

Supra Rondo Internal Wiring
Gold Disconnects

SDA Circuit:
Jantzen C Coil SDA Inductor (Lowest possible DCR)
Interconnect: 9 AWG Supra Rondo (13 awg double run)
Neutrik Speak-on NL4 Connectors
Bananas on Dreadnought Ends

Additional Features:
Custom Aluminum Shelf, USA Made, Powder Coated
*Point-to-point” Supra Rondo Wiring

0.25" Lexan Substrate
Custom Aluminum Binding-Post Plates
WBT Binding Posts

ken brydson

And to think the fun we had with him as a young lad growing up.

VR3

Thank you Phil for the kind words. I truly owe more thanks to individuals such as Phil. They have granted me the opportunity to to think outside the box. Phil is a gentleman through and through!

I was beyond excited when you mentioned the immediate improvements over the GIMPOD standard build we did previously that was fully broken in. Will be on stand by awaiting word on the review!

Thank you again Phil!

Moose68Bash

Trey,

You are welcome.

It is a pleasure to work with you.

Phil

steveinaz

Excellent workmanship.

nspindel

Outstanding work. Enjoy and be proud!

Moose68Bash

My wife and I just maneuvered the big boys into position.

Here's another installment on the epic saga:

First a couple of close-ups of the crossovers that show some of the great work of Trey:





Next, a closer view of one Supra Rondo wiring harness 9the other one is pictured above):



Left channel cabinet, RD0-198 tweeters installed, wiring harness positioned, ready for installation of drivers, crossover, and PR:



Left channel cabinet ready for crossover installation and anchoring of SDA inductor:



Inserting crossover shelf in left channel:



Right channel ready to be "permanently" located:



Right channel wiring behind (through floor to basement) rack:



Right channel in position and ready to go:



Left channel -- same drill as right channel:







The set up complete:



Perreaux SM6P MKII preamp, PS Audio DirectStream DAC and Perfectwave Transport, Cambridge Audio iPod dock in cabinet:



The rack in the basement -- Dreadnought, Perreaux Prisma 750 monoblocks, Silver Circle Audio Pure Power one 5.0 power conditioner plus miscellaneous excess equipment:



Update on sound quality:

My wife and I have been listening to various CDs since about 10:00am, and in music ranging from Solti conducting Beethoven's third symphony to "Yo-yo Ma and Friends: Songs of Joy and Peace" to Yo-yo Ma's "Appassionato" compilation we are noticing enhanced clarity and timbre in instruments and voices, better location of sound sources on the sound stage, and since moving the speakers back into position, much better bass.

Rendition of symphonic music is definitely more realistic with better location and separation of the sections of the orchestra on the soundstage and better imaging of parts as they move from orchestral section to section during the performance.

[My apologies for the "sidewise" shots: All were properly oriented on my hard drive, but the rotation apparently did not "stick" on some when uploaded to the Forum.]

Still more to come as the crossover, etc., burn in.

Moose68Bash

DSkip wrote: »

Great installment of that system man. I'm impressed with the WAF factor and the hidden rack. Very, very nice.

Thank you.

Much appreciated!

voltz

Nice one Moose! Looking great there.

Moose68Bash

Thank you, Votz!

oldrocker

Sweet, sweet super sweet. And those Perreaux Prisma 750 monoblocks, lurking in the shadows, all the better.

BTW, the wife here, likes the (Vr3 Mods) label saying "built for"..

VR3

Phil the system rack down below is awesome. I love it, excellent!

Moose68Bash

Listening to Pavarotti's "Gala Concert: Royal Albert Hall" was a great experience this morning.

This CD provides a good critical listening experience for several reasons: It is a DDD recording of a live concert in April of 1992. It includes Pavarotti singing in front of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra along with some "interludes" in his performance of famous arias that are purely orchestral music -- e.g., Berlioz's "Chasseroyale et orage" from "Les Troyens.

Before recent upgrades to my system I always enjoyed this CD, but found it "flat" as compared to live performances by Pavarotti that I have attended over the years -- well, decades past. This morning, the rendition of the music was much closer to the sound of live performances.

Pavarotti's vocals were livelier, richer, warmer and clearer than I had ever heard them before. I could more easily follow the articulation of the Italian lyrics then ever before; well, to be honest, this was the first time I could actually distinguish 70+% of the Italian words.

Pavarotti was solidly placed on the sound stage, and the orchestra was solidly located behind and around him. Moreover, the various sections of the orchestra were also solidly located at their appropriate places on the sound stage -- side-to-side and front-to-back.

When the orchestral "interludes" were playing, the presence of the orchestra was remarkable: Each section was clearly distinguishable in sound and location. Movement between and among the sections was clear. There was no "muddle in the middle" that I could hear, and this problem was what started my dive down the rabbit hole.

At this point I am both an extremely "happy camper" -- thanks to Trey's remarkable work -- and a very excited listener as I can only imagine what my system will sound like after a couple hundred hours of burn-in -- it now has about 30 hours, or so.

I also suspect that my PS Audio DirectStream DAC is "pulling out" of this old CD the best sound that was captured over 30 years ago, but was not revealed by my prior devices that converted the digital signal to analogue sound. Perhaps, there is truth to Paul McGowan's and Ted Smith's claims that this ability to extract more music from old recordings is one of the great virtues of the DirectStream DAC.

This CD is worth having if you don't have it and you have an interest in classic Pavarotti:

Moose68Bash

I followed Pavarotti's "Gala Concert" with a listen to Charles Munch conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra playing Ravel's "Bolero" along with a couple of other Ravel pieces and Debussy's "Images for Orchestra." This is an ADD remastering to an SACD of performances recorded from 1955-1957.

I was most interested in "Bolero," because of the repetition of the central theme, the movement of the lead among the sections of the orchestra, the persistence of the percussion "line," and the gradual increase in volume.

As with the Pavarotti CD, this was one that I have frequently enjoyed, but always felt that I was not really hearing the music that a good orchestra produces when playing this piece. It had always appeared "flat." Because the score is so repetitious, if the subtle nuances of the music are not captured in the recording, my response is "ho hum." I enjoy it, but it does not engage or move me as does a live performance of "Bolero," which I have heard many times (I will not go into the reasons for this ).

This morning I was, again, pleased -- better yet, excited. The combination of upgrades to the speakers and, I suspect, addition of the DirectStream DAC brought out the full beauty as well as the remarkable dynamics of "Bolero."

The gradual increase in volume, the movement of the lead among the sections of the orchestra, the relentless persistence of the percussion section came through extraordinarily well -- far better than I had ever experienced before from this recording. In the past I had always raised the volume early in the piece to hear the nuances, then resorted to lowering it later on as the volume became too loud for pleasurable listening -- especially for my wife.

Not today: I started "Bolero" at a reasonable level and never had to touch the volume control throughout the piece. (The other Ravel pieces and the Debussy were also extraordinary.)

I know I shall now turn to this album again and again:

Moose68Bash

I had another interesting and revealing experience today with my upgraded speakers.

While listening to Chesky Record's CD -- Monty Alexander, "The Good Life" - I noticed that the piano appeared to be at the far right of the sound stage, the bass in the center and back, and the drums to the far right. This arrangement did not seem "logical" to me. I have listened to this CD often, and I have enjoy it.

But I had never noticed the "spread" of the instruments to the degree I heard today. I thought that, perhaps, this was one of Chesky's "Binaural Series" because the stereo image just didn't seem to come together as I expected, even though I was pretty sure it was not a binaural recording.

So, I looked at the album brochure and confirmed that it was an hybrid SACD recording. I then looked inside the brochure, where I found an explanation of the recording technique and the diagram below:



Chesky explains that great care was taken to reproduce the music in a manner that would create an image of the instruments as they were configured for the live recording environment. The diagram was completely consistent with my listening experience, which had puzzled me.

Before the recent upgrades to my speakers, I had neither noticed nor enjoyed this very realistic experience of this particular album.

VR3

Hey Phil,
That is awesome. You are reminding me of how my Super Towers came together after the modifications...

Moose68Bash

Trey,

My experience with the Month Alexander CD was surprising. Today, it occurred to me that the best way to describe the effect I experienced was like sitting in a "theater in the round" production.

When I saw the diagram showing the way Chesky arranged the instruments and the microphone, with the microphone essentially at the center point of a half circle of three instruments, I undertook that I was really hearing the music as it was recorded. I'd never heard that recording that way before.

Interesting!