Recent external build

They are wired in parallel, so his actually has less resistance in that position slightly. Given ours are a few years apart, mine is slightly newer so they must have adjusted the schematic.

All I can say about this, two nights ago something just clicked and the space ship has landed at Casa Trey.

Last time I had weight, depth and spatial imaging like this has been a long time.

Well worth the effort!

Side side note the parts in my crossovers have about 100 more hours on them than Jody's.

Redid the velcro! I like the look and it's easy to take on and off when I have to put the covers back on after listening.

So I listened a few hours tonight and a little bit yesterday with them on, I have a very lively room that can cause the treble to excite, especially at higher volumes. My old system, I had a huge area rug and curtains at all windows, now its basically bare floors and blinds so it has been an interesting challenge to say the least to find a balance! I do bring out 4 acoustic panels when I listen.

So over the past month, I have removed all of my silver cables in the chain, those duelund rca interconnects seem to dial back the treble without sacrificing any detail, not to mention they have a very interesting texture. The duelund power cables do not seem to make as much of a difference, but they didn't take anything away either. I also removed all of the no rez I had in the midrange cabinets and most all of what was in the bass cabinet and went to felt where removed. Halfway through tonight I added that fourth resistor that was in the original utopia design for giggles... Based off my modeling software and listening test, the removal of that resistor definitely was in response to the stereophile article, has to be. The bass is leaner without it, with it, the bass driver is boosted 2 to 3db, you can see what that looks like in the chart I posted on the thread mantis stated about 2 channel systems. Not really sure at this point what I prefer, still tinkering.

Anyways, the anti diffraction pads definitely clean up a "splash" in my system that I attribute to the room, if you could imagine a very slight echo that is tamed, it seems to really focus the sound.

I was listening to a few tracks of Billie eilish which have great imaging. I would listen for about a minute then take the pad off, listen again, start the song over. The pads retain all details, the imaging is the same for the most part, but there's almost none of that splash that smears the image with them off. This splash adds a perceived air that is semi attractive, but that comes at the cost of cohesion.

Now the caveat to that is that they do sound a hint brighter with them off, but definitely not as refined as I feel my room starts to play more of a role with them off.

This has been a long road with the utopias to getting them dialed in to my new space, ever since the space ship landed, that was when I got rid of the no rez, things have been fantastic. I had lined the midrange cabinet completely with no rez, and what a sound suck that was. Definitely can over do it with that stuff.

I will most likely try the silver cables again shortly with the diffraction pads to see what that sounds like! Easily the most fun I have had in this hobby in a while.