My system went from caterpillar to butterfly (Or: I've Obtained Audio Nirvana Too)

Early B.

billbillw wrote:

Dude, I'm just down the road. You'd be surprised how many ATL metro polkies there are.

They're all a bunch of ****.:p

george daniel

Early B. wrote:

They're all a bunch of ****.:p

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Systems

butt....we smell good....LOL

tonyb

Whats the story here on the JC-1's ? No review??Did you get them yet or what?? Speak up,Waiting to hear about it....damn.:)

mulveling

tonyb wrote:

Whats the story here on the JC-1's ? No review??Did you get them yet or what?? Speak up,Waiting to hear about it....damn.:)

One of the monblocks is still in California getting serviced by Parasound for a stupid dim LED I wouldn't send them in for that, but the previous owner had sent it in before we reached a deal (he had been planning to audiogon them, and you know how picky some of those buyers are).

Not sure the TacT digital room correction processor is gonna work out for me. It tightens things up a bit, sure, but the naturalness and flow of the music seems a bit diminished.

Below is how the system measured (using the TacT microphone & software), in room, before processing. Ignore the green curve. The white and light yellow curves are the L/R measurements. Tihs is a pretty standard representation of what happens in a rectangular room; actually it can get much much worse if positioning is not optimal or you have a square room. For the most part things fall within +/-5 db range, which is good. That one speaker has an extra nasty peak at 101Hz, which is bizzare - I'll see if I can alleviate it with further positioning.

mulveling

Also, check out what kind of effect listening position has on the acoustics...here's a couple time & frequency-domain measurement of the bass frequencies via REW (free software) and a RadioShack SPL meter (admittedly not the best).

With my couch (listening position) smack in middle of the room:


Now here's the exact same steup with the listening position moved back a mere 3 feet (25' long room). See how that HUGE nasty ramp just before 120Hz is gone....that ramp is actually ringing in the time domain...meaning notes that contain that frequency prominently will "stick", ala "one note bass":


The subjective listening evaluation matched up perfectly with the measurements in this case. Note that I later moved the speakers forward 3' to maintain the same speaker-to-couch distance as before. When that distance is too great, the dynamics are dulled...the nearfield position allows a greater proportion of direct sound and perhaps too much reflected sound mucks up the dynamics. Also note that the 120Hz ringing did not come back; that was purely a phenomenon of having the couch in the middle of the room. This acoustics stuff is hard

tonyb

Hey pal,you have a great set-up.......don't dig too deep into all the micro
dynamics of things.Trust your ears in your listening position and be done with it.When those JC-1's show up,you better post your thoughts our we will hunt you down:D Happy listening!!

starchaser

Wow! Very clean, very nice indeed.

Sweet color on those speaks and that amp is bad a**!

mulveling

tonyb wrote: »

Hey pal,you have a great set-up.......don't dig too deep into all the micro
dynamics of things.Trust your ears in your listening position and be done with it.When those JC-1's show up,you better post your thoughts our we will hunt you down:D Happy listening!!

You are right - so far I've found that measurements have only been useful for pointing out the most egregious of problems (ie: resonance from listening placement in the middle of the room), which can clearly be determined by subjective listening tests anyways...the measurements have not been useful for tracking differences in things like amps, 1st reflection point treatments, etc, that have clearly made a large difference in listening tests. The graphs are cool, but not of much use.

Anyways, finally some good news - The JC1's back from Cali and I can pick them up very soon

Also, as a birthday present to myself - I put down the plastic for a consignment turntable at the local audio shop...not just any table, this thing is gorgeous! It's a mint vintage 80's SOTA Sapphire Star in reddish Koa wood, vintage Fidelity Research FR64fx arm, and I'm going to pair it up with a Benz Ace cart. My buddy Tom is going to start hooking me up with some vinyl

I'll post pics in the next week or so when this all starts coming together....of course the TacT and some other items are going to have to go up for sale...

billbillw

Oh no! He's getting into Vinyl!

Dude, your upgraditis is just starting! Next thing you know, your going to be dropping mucho buckos on MSLF UHQR albums, half speed masters, swapping phono preamps, cartridges, tonearms, etc. Then you will view your table as the weak link and you will be dropping major coin on a VPI TNT or something along that lines!

Have fun with it!

I'm on my fifth table in just over a year and now I'm contemplating dropping some major coinage on a local collection of audiophile recordings. Still trying to find the perfect tonearm too. I love it!

tonyb

Vinyl will suck you dry my friend.Glad to hear the amps are ready.Been getting my read on and see that alot of people with Legacy's use the JC's.They seem to match up well.Most useing them on the Whispers.And all are floored by the combo....so here I sit,fingernails tapping,waiting for the only other Legacy owner on this board,to give his thoughts.Hurry up...go grab 'em allready will ya!!!

george daniel

Hey,, that parasound better have my name on it

tonyb

What....just 'cause your a Bulldog fan you get dibs? WTF MAN.:p

george daniel

tonyb wrote: »

What....just 'cause your a Bulldog fan you get dibs? WTF MAN.:p

That, and ,,,once a month I vacume Mike's place,, I get to keep anything on the floor

TN_Polk_Lover

mulveling wrote: »

Also, check out what kind of effect listening position has on the acoustics...here's a couple time & frequency-domain measurement of the bass frequencies via REW (free software) and a RadioShack SPL meter (admittedly not the best).

Do you have a link to the REW software? I might be interested in checking it out. Thanks!

tonyb

george daniel wrote: »

That, and ,,,once a month I vacume Mike's place,, I get to keep anything on the floor

So you have a pocket full of dust bunnies and
used trojans......big deal....:D

beardog03

looks like Nervana has turned into quit a journey !!!!

I myself would love to have the amp that is obviously going up on the block...

Ultimately, the Mono`s are the way to go....
I LOVE Parasound gear...

Hope you re-reach "Nervana" when you get the mono`s in place ..!!!

george daniel

tonyb wrote: »

So you have a pocket full of dust bunnies and
used trojans......big deal....:D

Nah, I use a rainbow:)

tonyb

Hey big guy,an uncle of mine,Jim Phar, from Atlanta area,introduced me to the
world of the Bulldogs.He passed away due to cancer a few years back.Also gave me my first taste of a chick-filet.Ok....rock-paper-scissors for what goes up on the chopping block??:)

engtaz

You guys are tripping.

engtaz

george daniel

tonyb wrote: »

Hey big guy,an uncle of mine,Jim Phar, from Atlanta area,introduced me to the
world of the Bulldogs.He passed away due to cancer a few years back.Also gave me my first taste of a chick-filet.Ok....rock-paper-scissors for what goes up on the chopping block??:)

How old was he? I knew a Jim Phar,, wonder if it was the same person?
Regards--george

tonyb

george daniel wrote: »

How old was he? I knew a Jim Phar,, wonder if it was the same person?
Regards--george

You knew him?? He was maybe mid to late 30's.Two girls,used to be a painter but did odd stuff too like power washing things etc.Had an x wife from hell. Come on...tell me you know him.Went to Georga Tech.His mom and step dad had a condo.......This is too wild if you know him.

mulveling

So I hauled the JC-1's upstairs this weekend. The deal was $3800 for the pair, a bit more than agon standard BUT unlike the agon wares I got 3 years left of warranty (Parasound is real picky about warranties - only from authorized dealers and no transfers). Got a nice FAT pair of speaker cables thrown in too, these are LAT SS-1000 Mk-I's and they'll replace my SS-1000 Mk II biwires because I want a shorter cable (6.5' vs 12'). The older mark I's are much fatter, oddly enough.

I've heard this very same Signature III/JC-1 combo many times before, when it was my friend Tom's reference rig. He sold me the Sig III when he upgraded to Thiel CS7.2's last summer, now he's got a Ayre amp and hence sold me the JC-1. Unfortunately, on Friday his Ayre crapped out - guess it couldn't handle the Thiels in the long run. Now he's gonna kick the Ayre to the curb and get some crazy Krell...supposedly > 5000 Watts stable into 1 ohm :eek: :eek:

So how does it sound? The Legacy and JC-1's were meant to be together. I'm finally hearing the same synergy I heard in Tom's old rig. It's a very similar system anyways - similar overall room sizes, he had a better digital source & preamp, whereas I have a little more acoustic treatment. So far the stuff downstream is what was most crucial for proper synergy, IMO. I wish I could've bought the Legacy/JC-1 combo at the same time, because the Sig III's just weren't there until I got at least the A21. Ok, so I did make some bad, bad choices (synergy-wise) in amps last year. Don't pair a big Legacy with a PS Audio (HCA-2 class D amp) and really don't pair it with a Sunfire (Signature II - heh, at least the names have synergy ). If the Halos are any indication, the Legacy speaks crave as many watts of class A as can be afforded, a very high-bias class AB also works well.

So what the JC-1's give me over the A21 - is most notably more refinement, less grain, sweeter mids and highs, greater presence - THAT I expected based on my previous experience with this combo. What they also gave me, that I didn't quite expect, is much more bass (and I didn't really think the A21 was bass shy). Quality bass, in spades. Tight, deep, fast, articulate, tonally accurate - which is good because I'd rather not have much bass if it sounds a mess...but I love lots of the stuff when it's clean! Before now, I remembered Tom's old rig has more bass (like I'm hearing now), but I attributed that to variations in room and layout. Nope - it's the amp. Of course the JC-1 has also yielded smaller incremental improvements in dynamics, imaging, soundtsage, PRaT. In a nutshell, what the JC-1's have given me is a nice upgrade in both the hi-fi sense and a euphonic sense. It sounds more accurate, more detailed, more hifi. It's also more enjoyable and fun to listen to

In summary - the JC1's are seriously nice amps, gorgeous looks and sonics, though nothing too surprising for me since I've heard them extensively before I must say, the A21 is one helluv a deal for $1100-$1200 used since it features a similar basic sound signature and still offers a good deal of power for the money.

I'm currently waiting for the local audio dealer to setup my SOTA Star Sapphire with a new Benz Micro Glider cart...geez I can't wait to take pics of this gorgeous vintage table - the wood is a stunning, exotic specimen (Koa) and there was no way I could turn something that pretty down. Hoping it sounds as good as Tom's old VPI Scout that sounded so incredibly sweet with the Sig III/JC1

tonyb

Well it's about friggin time.Glad you like 'em.Seems like they gave you more of everything.Just when you think your speaks are at there limit,they surprise you.Thats what I love about Legacy speaks,they don't seem to have a limit to how good they can sound.That TT will be kick **** for sure.Your really going balls out Pal....and I love it.Cheers

halo

tonyb wrote: »

Well it's about friggin time.Glad you like 'em.Seems like they gave you more of everything.Just when you think your speaks are at there limit,they surprise you.Thats what I love about Legacy speaks,they don't seem to have a limit to how good they can sound.That TT will be kick **** for sure.Your really going balls out Pal....and I love it.Cheers

^^^ What he said

Congrats man!

Sounds like yer in the "sweet spot" now