The KillerDAC Audio forum
KillerDac => General Information => Topic started by: braddo on November 18, 2013, 12:55:03 PM
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I gotta give a *huge* thanks to Hedalfa (Paul) who visited my place on the weekend.
Not only has he given his time with numerous phone calls throughout the year, but also shared knowledge, invited me to his place to hear his system, and travelled to Wollongong to help me set up a system (both with equipment and advice) as well as tons of tips to improve my system in the future.
I did not have to do much on the weekend except sit back with a beer and enjoy the experience while we listened to what I would call a very good sounding system. 8) (which has yet to be tweaked).
This has been a very big effort from Paul, and the reason for this post is to show my appreciation. :)
It all started when I sent an email to Steven a couple of years back, so I'd also like to thank all the people who have invited me to their place to hear their systems, and I'd also like to thank all of you that I have met along the way. I don't want to name names here cause I might leave someone out. ;)
So my system ATM with Goodmans speakers, tube pre/power, moderately modded Micro-Seiki CPD (tweaked CD94) and Linn TT.
I would have never gone down the path of Goodman's, tubes, CDM-1/TDA1541 without the KD forum.
(Speakers have been moved back a tad since the weekend session, don't freak out Paul they will be moved back soon enough ;) ;D).)
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Nice system Braddo.
In among all that goodness,,, is a particularly sweet looking cdp!!
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Your very welcome Brad, others have helped me, so its good to pass the help around. I wouldnt have got what I am getting alone. Alone you can go down a lot of dead ends.....
The system is a big surprise from sounding a bit ordinary with booming bass initially. With repositioned goodmans speakers and valve amps in the chain (in a small room) the great music flooded out like David tacking out goliath. The performance well exceeded my expectations. Very impressive CD playback. The Pete Seger CD that I know well sounded very similar to Stevens, accept Stevens has micro timing and some extra beauty. Thanks to Steven for the input valves in the power amp, for giving the extra mojo :o
Plenty of good times ahead with long cool beers and great music. I bet you and brothers I will get people hammering on the door to hear the tunes.... Just not at 2.30 in the morning! Brad knows what I mean..
Cheers
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Nice brad. Sound like you are heading down the fullrange path.
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Paul Hedalfa's sharing the Goodmans love 8)
Good to hear that you're enjoying your new system Brad.
Cheers,
William
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Your speakers look like they have class steven valve should look into making his speakers more eye friendly
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Advertising handbags on what is mostly a blokie audio site has got me worried....................... :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :P
V
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Nice system Brad 8)
Paul said it is brilliant!
Enjoy buddy
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Advertising handbags on what is mostly a blokie audio site has got me worried....................... :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :P
V
Plenty of handbags round my parts, just gotta dive under the beer bottles, tequila bottles and ashtrays, and step over the drunks and musos, (and whatever else gets dragged back from the local bars), as the sun rises in the morning to find em. ;) :P
Paul has had a small taster..... :D
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Hi Braddo. Yes Hedalfa has been to my place as well and has also helped me with lots of advice and experience over the past couple of years. I also had SG come on over a while back and help me out with some simple but significant improvements as well. It certainly all helps steer us in the right direction so I know how you feel. I've also had some really good advice from Oz, Craig, Graham, Mark, Mario among others who were all more than willing to help out in some way and all of which like you I'm grateful for.
I'm still a novice but at least I'm a novice heading in the right direction now and learning some of the really cheap and simple things (and sometimes not so simple) to get good sound. Mainly I've learnt not to follow the advice of advertisement fuelled mags where the people reviewing equipment either dont have good ears or have a very different idea of what decent music should sound like than I do. Running around like a headless chook on forums emptied my wallet for a few years but gave me uninvolving crappy sound.
If your not ego based and you're willing to listen and learn the guys here are very helpful thats for sure. Alot of the technical stuff goes over my head but I tend to pick up on some important things.
Nathan
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Hi guys,
I had a chance to have a good listen to Brad's system yesterday. What a FUN day! Thanks for the hospitality Brad, I had a great time yesterday :)
The system sounded lively and relax, bass was tuneful, tight and punchy, no boom whatsoever, and if you consider the small size of the room it's even more amazing. If anyone can recall the sound we heard during Canberra GTG, it's even better in Brad's system. The musical qualities, beautiful tone, weight, body and dynamics were all present. Very impressive indeed. I kept telling Brad if he's going to sell the speakers (and other stuff), I would like to be the first in line to audition in my own room.
We played different IC, speaker cables and power cables. I didn't have any fancy IC, speaker cables nor power cables so I only brought IC from Bunnings (SV likes and uses this IC in his second system) and Neotech speaker cables. The system certainly has very good resolution as the differences between these cables were easily heard. Paul (hedalfa) brought some nice Van Den Hul cables. I think everyone agreed that the VDH were the best cable for the system. I liked them too, compared to my Bunnings IC and Neotech the VDH were more sophisticated and smooth. Sorry Steve, you gotta chuck away those Bunnings IC, Paul absolutely can't live with them! :P
We also tried different valves for the preamp. I brought some nice RCA red base 5691 and 5692 for Brad to try, a pair of Amperex EL34 double D getter (my personal favourite EL34) and also Siemens EL34. We didn't have more valves to compare so we could only compare them to the Russian valves. Let just say, it was not a fair comparison. Paul has some interesting words about these bloody Russian valves. Go for it Paul! ;D
Next step for Brad is to try the U52 rectifier. I didn't know his Supratek preamp can run U52, otherwise I would have brought some with me. The good thing is I might come back to Brad's in a week or two to bring the U52. Have another listen and maybe another chance to enjoy super special hot chilli sauce that he personally makes (Loved it Brad!). I will also get a chance to tune my Leak 20 for the Canberra GTG since the speakers have similar qualities and sound similar in a way. So, I look forward to another meeting with you Brad! :)
Cheers,
William
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Looks like i have to visit some time later this year or early next year with the wa team.
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Looks like i have to visit some time later this year or early next year with the wa team.
Jeez a team of big boys like you will not fit on the plane :-*
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Big boys indeed, as long as ego's are left at home and the couch experts are respectful.
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Yep was a great day/night William, thanks for coming over, and also for bringing tubes, wow what a difference they made. Always nice when the system moves forward.
Your review of the system is too kind, I'd like some negatives too please, I can take it, i think it's important to cover all angles, and I think one of the reasons for a GTG is to learn and get something out of it (for me anyways).....
Drop in anytime, bring your Leak, and whatever else you like. :)
Don't know what we will do next time without 'Scout Leader Hedalfa', we would have starved if he did not get the fire raging under the barby hotplate. 8)
Will see you soon.
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Looks like i have to visit some time later this year or early next year with the wa team.
No problem Mario, sounds good to me. We have $7.99kg rump steak from the market at the end of the street to feed the men, and my vintage pinball machines should be restored/up and running by then too....... ;) . Good times.
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No problem Mario, sounds good to me. We have $7.99kg rump steak from the market at the end of the street to feed the men, and my vintage pinball machines should be restored/up and running by then too....... ;) . Good times.
$7.99 wow that will buy you polony on special in perth mining has really enriched our prices
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$7.99 wow that will buy you polony on special in perth mining has really enriched our prices
$7.99kg pre-sliced on a tray. $4.99kg if you buy in bulk, and carry it out on your shoulder......... ;)
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Yep was a great day/night William, thanks for coming over, and also for bringing tubes, wow what a difference they made. Always nice when the system moves forward.
Your review of the system is too kind, I'd like some negatives too please, I can take it, i think it's important to cover all angles, and I think one of the reasons for a GTG is to learn and get something out of it (for me anyways).....
Drop in anytime, bring your Leak, and whatever else you like. :)
Don't know what we will do next time without 'Scout Leader Hedalfa', we would have starved if he did not get the fire raging under the barby hotplate. 8)
Will see you soon.
Hi Brad,
If I have to nitpick, I would say you need to get a reel to reel ;D With RTR you'll get more timbre and even more realistic presentation. Pity, we didn't get a chance to play your TT yesterday. I suspect the TT would have more timbre than the CD player. Also, I would like a little bit more liquidity and richness. Hopefully we can address this with the U52 brown base, otherwise you'd better start saving to replace the coupling caps of the Supratek with Duelund VSF ;D
Cheers,
William
PS: Yes, we need the Scout Leader back. I need to proof my manhood by devouring 1 kg rump steak!
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William the Supratek has a varletry of gain settings and transformer and cap settings. With a better rectifier the higher gain settings might be tried. In the long run a cap change could be considered.
The system has lost a bit of body from its original set up before the speaker wires were changed and the valve and cable swaps. A touch more body would be good, it doesn't need a lot, the right rectifier could help here. Be good to try your pre in brads system as a comparison. The turntable playback needs more work and Brad knows that. However despite that the Spanish guitar was amazing ask Brad and his brother Paul. The speed, the rendering, and emotional conveyance when de plata let out the howling vocals to get ready for the bull fight was primal. 8) 8) 8) The system plays even lower in the bass than before, surprising for such a small room.
You can do it William 1 kilo rump steak............. especially with a side of chilli sauce...
Paul
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Since Paul has chimed in, I'd like to thank him again for dropping in, which was to be the last leg of his East Coast Australian Tour. Paul puts massive effort into helping me out and I'd be a bit lost without his knowledge.
My system still has some tweaking ahead William, not living with it doesn't help, changes are slow and it's hard to get familiar with it when I only get to hear it occasionally, I'm much more familiar with my smaller cheaper second system and headphones.
Even though the TT is running on empty, we still managed to pull some great music out of it later on that night, but it needs a full set-up which will be done when time allows. Speaker switches will be replaced, and at worse the ones now need full reconditioning, plus some other tweaks here and there around the system. It's fun for me doing all of this one step at a time... I'll change caps if needed last.....and I already miss the VDH IC's the smoothness has clearly gone. HHHHHHmmmmmmm more $$$ >:( :(
So William are you sure you did not knock off 1kg on Sat arvo?? I'm sure you did......... :P or you went bloody close.........
Can you down a 6 pack of Coopers in 10mins after a steak with my next batch of extra strength XXX chili sauce which i'll brew up just for you......you can do it man!
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My system still has some tweaking ahead William, not living with it doesn't help, changes are slow and it's hard to get familiar with it when I only get to hear it occasionally, I'm much more familiar with my smaller cheaper second system and headphones.
Even though the TT is running on empty, we still managed to pull some great music out of it later on that night, but it needs a full set-up which will be done when time allows. Speaker switches will be replaced, and at worse the ones now need full reconditioning, plus some other tweaks here and there around the system. It's fun for me doing all of this one step at a time... I'll change caps if needed last.....and I already miss the VDH IC's the smoothness has clearly gone. HHHHHHmmmmmmm more $$$ >:( :(
Do it one at a time Brad. You're right that you need to familiarize yourself with the system. For all I know, your system was sounding real good even with some problems it had. I imagine it would sound so much better when you get the all the problems sorted. You're in for a good ride there for sure! ;)
My system still has some tweaking ahead William, not living with it doesn't So William are you sure you did not knock off 1kg on Sat arvo?? I'm sure you did......... :P or you went bloody close.........
Did I? :o That really surprises me if I did knock off close to a kilo of meat! My guts must be getting BIGGER and BIGGER! (I blame Steve for this because he keeps piling on the BBQ sizzling lamb whenever I visit him in the mountains)
Can you down a 6 pack of Coopers in 10mins after a steak with my next batch of extra strength XXX chili sauce which i'll brew up just for you......you can do it man!
Challenge accepted! If I can do it then you shall let me take your system home with me! ;D