Hi everybody, I'm John

[lexx21]

I have been into electronics for about 45 years now and have built a lot of my own tube power/pre amps. I decided to buy an mv-55 the other night when "she who must be obeyed" agreed...lol. This is the first time that I have owned anything "high end", even though it was high end back in the 90's and am really excited to receive it. It should be here Friday. I will be swapping out preamps that I have built with a SS sumo preamp to see what sounds the best, although the sumo has a built in phono preamp so it will likely get the most use.

My setup will be as follows:

mv55
sumo athena preamp
sony cdp750 cd player
denon 650s tape deck
teac equalizer
sony tts-3000 turntable with a denon da-50 tonearm...grado gold 3 cartridge
throrens td-150 with an sme 3009 s2 improved tonearm.... shure v15 iv cartridge with a jico HE stylus.
Audio nirvana 15" super alnico speakers in bass reflex cabinets.


I will take pics and post them in the gallery once it is all setup. I live in Durham NC, and am a big time nerd with good social skills...lol. If you live near here, drop me a line and we can get together.

[Big Dog RJ]

G'day Lexxy,

Greetings from Down unda!

Some pretty nice gear there, real classics! The MV55 will deliver all the wonderful musicality you're after. Look after it well and keep it ticking...

Enjoy those fine tunes!
Big woof! Welcome to CJO
Cheers mate, RJ

[AnotherJohnson]

Congratulations!

I hope you enjoy the classic CJ tube amp sound.

Welcome!

[admin]

Welcome to CJO, great to have you with us.

Gotta ask, why the equalizer as I find that they are frowned upon in the audiophile community?

[lexx21]

I wasnt sure if I would need to eq the speakers to the room, which is pretty small. The drivers are 15" full range in cabinets that come up to my chest. I was worried about the bass overtaking the mids/highs, hence the eq. I will likely use RTA and pink noise to balance everything out eventually, but for now I am just enjoying listening to the system.


My wife and I spent the evening listening to Jeff Waynes War of the Worlds on the new system tonight. My wife had the biggest smile the whole time. I have to say that it does not leave me wanting. The new amp sounds far better than anything that I have heard previously. I like it FAR more than Audio Research.

[admin]

Very nice. Glad you guys are enjoying the setup. If you do find that there are sound issues due to room size/shape, I find that speaker positioning and some room treatments can go a long way in alleviating any problems. I think the need for an equalizer is extremely rare and it's another item in the signal path that may be degrading the sound. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule but this has been my experience.

At the end of the day, the most important thing is that you are enjoying the music,... which is what it sounds like. Congrats on the setup and enjoy!

[AnotherJohnson]

If you’re not trying to create a holographic sound stage, an equalizer can give better tonal balance at lower cost compared to many other approaches. In fact, many speakers are designed with their own equalizing circuitry based on anticipated final environment.

Of course if you’re trying to minimize the manipulation and get as close to the source as possible, an equalizer may be problematic.

If you have one and want to easily engage or remove it, put it in a tape or effects loop.

Equalizers were all the rage back in the 70’s when McIntosh was still king. McIntosh even made some ... maybe they still do. I owned one from them at one time. I gave it up after I bought the PV5 and it obviously did more harm than good. I don’t think it is coincidence that equalizers fell out of favor with the advent of Audio Research and Conrad Johnson. Nevertheless, they can be useful under some circumstances.

The latest and greatest approach, especially for smaller rooms, is digital room correction software. Martin Logan and Linn are just two companies putting eggs in that basket.

[roberto]

Hola,

The active equaliser has a step every octave. In other words, let's say that the first knob starts at 20 Hz, then the second is at 40 Hz, the third at 80Hz, the fourth at 160 Hz, the fifth at 320 Hz, and so...

There is only one knob to cover a vast area where a problem might occur. Also, when you move a knob, there is a lot of phase shift, making this to vary the timbre of that zone. Usually we love bass energy, then what we do is to increase the bass knobs and also the high frequency knobs, making like a V shape with the knobs. Because our ears can be fooled easily, in the device we can take off the equaliser and put it back. The difference in the signal level is more evident with the equaliser, so we do believe that the overall sound is much better, because is produce more SLP at the bass region and also at the high region. And because we forgot the quality signal that was coming from our system. due to that immediate memory is really bad. How can we check if the equaliser is doing the right thing? Very easy. Just bring the volume knob to the minimum, and increase it to the desired level. Now, bring back the volume knob to the minimum, and bring back the knob to a desired level without the equaliser. After you do this, the equaliser is in the trash can.

Peaks do not match the valleys, it is a wrong way to tray to bring the wonderful quality signal to a level where it is totally chopped. It is much better to do a room acoustic treatment than the use of a equaliser. Basically phase shift is the clue. And also think in coherence, it is impossible to do that having an equaliser into the signal path.

My liking could not be yours, and vice versa. This is the reason why I do not use an equaliser, and also you don't find any bass or treble knobs in Conrad Johnson goods. Touching the signal path is a sin. Use the interconnect cables as an equaliser. Copper is very good at the low frequencies, and silver is very good for the high frequencies. Speaker cables also affects this too. Doing a combination of different type of cables, you can Tuned your system better that the use of an equaliser. Moving your speaker from their back wall decrease the bass energy, and also your golden seat too.

Happy listening!

[admin]

Peaks do not match the valleys, it is a wrong way to tray to bring the wonderful quality signal to a level where it is totally chopped. It is much better to do a room acoustic treatment than the use of a equaliser. Basically phase shift is the clue. And also think in coherence, it is impossible to do that having an equaliser into the signal path.

I'm pretty much in this crowd as well. If you absolutely think you need a equalizer, I would do actual measurements of the room. You can get a miniDSP UMIK-1 for $100 and take really accurate measurements. Most of the time you won't find huge issues and again, I always try to "fix" the room before attempting to change the audio signal.

I will make one caveat to this opinion. For home theater applications there is almost always a benefit to some level of equalization, and the majority of this is simply overall individual speaker volume adjustment or slight audio delay. But this should be expected as there are often 8 or more speakers actively present, most often different models/sizes of speaker in the same setup, and vast distance differences between listener and specific speakers in the configuration. Stereo listening and home theater are different beasts all together.

[lexx21]

Yeah....after listening more I think that I will leave it alone. It sounds great as is. Now to save up for a pv2...lol.

[lexx21]

I swapped out my EH 6sn7 tubes with NOS Sylvania 6sn7 tubes. There was a noticable difference in the sound quality. It has a smoother sound now.

I am on the hunt for a pair of NOS RCA 12ax7 black plates. Currently running EH 12ax7, which sound pretty good, but we will see.

Thinking about ordering some Russian FT-3 teflon caps and doing the cap replacement. They are only about 20 bucks per pair and cannot see shipping my amp off for something so simple.

Overall really enjoying the sound as it is now. Just waiting for a 23mm drill bit to arrive so that I can mount my tonearm...lol. I've been stuck with only cds as of late. Spanish and classical guitar sound really good through this amp.