My Music Hall MMF 9.1 arrived . . . and departed!

[Hairsonfire]

Well, I came home to a H - U - G - H - E box on my back porch and when I dragged it inside and opened it up I discovered the folks at the shop had mistakenly sent me some sort of demo unit. There were loose bits all over the inside of the outer box and the dust cover was damaged, transport screws missing, the horror, the horror, etc . . . so, I rang them up and a brand spanking new one is on the way today. I have to say though, despite being a demo unit with some scratches and obvious wear, wow is that thing beautiful. Can't wait for the other one to arrive. I also received a mint condition brand new Jolida phono stage and a couple pairs of Kimber Kable Hero interconnects. $300 for one pair of cables - well - they are nice to look at but no one will ever convince me that High end cables sound any better than well made "low" end cables. Of course, I do have MIT 750 and 330 cables throughout my system but, it's more of a zen thing, they look in keeping with the quality of the other components but I would never claim they make it sound better. Once my Music Hall is set up I will attach a pic for you folks to see.

[poppachubby]

Sounds good and congrats on the TT!! You are in for a real treat, well worth the aggravation.

Mr. Fire, I feel the same way as you regarding cabling. Do you have any insight into solid core? Here is a link to the absolute proof. The only scientific study done on the subject by one Omar Hawksford. In stranded vs solid...solid came out on top. Not only that, but 22 AWG solid!!

I have fashioned my own solid core cables. I am now on my 3rd version and I believe this will be what I stick with.

I can tell you without a doubt. Regardless of any varying circumstances ie; room, gear, etc. these cables give a fuller low end response and allow for a wonderful, tone rich high end.

I challenged my local hifi shop. 6 of us in the room listened to my DIY cables vs a pair of Kimbers that the shop had made for a customer. In the end, the room was split and I would say although the solid core did not trounce the Kimbers, they were at least as good.

The link is directly to the university's site, and is unedited by any third party. Be warned, it's heady stuff...

http://www.essex.ac.uk/csee/research...bles_1985).pdf

Here are a couple of pics of my latest (and greatest) cables. They are much more aesthetically pleasing than previous versions while maintaining that same great sound. I used simple erasers for the Y splitters and covered them with wrap.

[Hairsonfire]

Very impressive craftmanship there Mr Chubby! I look forward to reading that article as well. Thanks very much.

[poppachubby]

Thanks. I look forward to your thoughts on the MMF. I very much hope to have a 5.1 someday soon...

[02audionoob]

It's amazing to me that even a dealer doesn't take care of a turntable or ship it safely. When I bought my mmf-5 as a demo from a dealer, it was misssing the transport screws, clamp and level. It also had an incompatible cartridge. They shipped it with the dustcover, counterweight and anti-skating weight installed and just wrapped the whole thing tightly in bubble wrap and in a single generic box. They were very nice about making amends, though.

[Hairsonfire]

The UPS gentlemen just delivered a very pristine, virginal looking Music Hall MMF 9.1. I have to wait until the shelf unit from Boltz Furniture arrives next week before I set it up though. Today I picked up Dire Straights Brothers in Arms, Cold Play Parachutes, Eva Cassidy Songbird, U2 The Joshua Tree, Crosby Stills and Nash, uh, no title but it's the one with Suite Judy Blue Eyes, and Beach Boys Pet Sounds which I think I will take back because I just noticed it is in mono. Hmmmm, maybe I won't wait till the Boltz shelf gets here!

[Luvin Da Blues]

Crosby Stills and Nash, uh, no title but it's the one with Suite Judy Blue Eyes, !

You mean the self titled LP?

[02audionoob]

That mono Pet Sounds might be worth something...$

[Hairsonfire]

Well, all the albums are new Audiophile 180 gram remastered editions. I have read of folks who cherish quality monophonic records but I cannot imagine I would appreciate that particular experience.

[02audionoob]

Ahh...I thought you meant the original. Anyway, I would definitely recommend giving it a try. I have some very nice mono records.

[LeRoy]

It's always so exciting to get the new gear in and put it into play.

For those of you who like to experiment with speaker wire, Poppa, you may want to check out the following Radio Shack product. I think you will be surprised at the SQ with this wire as part of a system.
-
Part# 278-502
50-FT Insulated Wrapping Wire.
30-Gauge
Should be about $4.00 or so for the spool. I've used this wire before and was quite pleased with the overall SQ. The wire is quite small and you would have to also purchase the wire wrapping tool that goes with it in order to strip the insulation and that should cost about $8.00 or so.

While I think there are some exceptional makers/models of speaker wire that actually can help to transform a rig into a much more musical system those particular makes are so expensive or unavailable to listen to that it's easy to dismiss them.

At any rate, thought you might want to putz around with this inexpensive wire.

Have a nice day guys.

LeRoy

[poppachubby]

It's always so exciting to get the new gear in and put it into play.

For those of you who like to experiment with speaker wire, Poppa, you may want to check out the following Radio Shack product. I think you will be surprised at the SQ with this wire as part of a system.
-
Part# 278-502
50-FT Insulated Wrapping Wire.
30-Gauge
Should be about $4.00 or so for the spool. I've used this wire before and was quite pleased with the overall SQ. The wire is quite small and you would have to also purchase the wire wrapping tool that goes with it in order to strip the insulation and that should cost about $8.00 or so.

While I think there are some exceptional makers/models of speaker wire that actually can help to transform a rig into a much more musical system those particular makes are so expensive or unavailable to listen to that it's easy to dismiss them.

At any rate, thought you might want to putz around with this inexpensive wire.

Have a nice day guys.

LeRoy

Thanks for the rec LeRoy. As always, good to hear from you. Quite frankly, I am done with stranded cable although I am sure it would be an interesting listen. I have 2 pairs of wonderful Ultralink stranded cabling, and these are collecting dust.

My next move is onto the 20+ AWG solid core, which is what Omar Hawksford concluded to be the best conductor of the audio signal. I have been using 12 - 16 AWG.

I certainly don't dismiss the high end cabling, but even if I was able to, I would never pay the exorbinant pricing.

BTW, did you finally find some peace with your system?

[poppachubby]

The UPS gentlemen just delivered a very pristine, virginal looking Music Hall MMF 9.1. I have to wait until the shelf unit from Boltz Furniture arrives next week before I set it up though. Today I picked up Dire Straights Brothers in Arms, Cold Play Parachutes, Eva Cassidy Songbird, U2 The Joshua Tree, Crosby Stills and Nash, uh, no title but it's the one with Suite Judy Blue Eyes, and Beach Boys Pet Sounds which I think I will take back because I just noticed it is in mono. Hmmmm, maybe I won't wait till the Boltz shelf gets here!

I certainly wouldn't be letting any shelf get in the way of that table. Congrats!! You must be thrilled.

Please give us some of your impressions thus far. What were you listening to previously?

[atomicAdam]

WOW - man that must have been an emotional roller coaster.

The 9.1 is a heck of a beautiful machine - I hope you get as much joy out of it as I've got from my P3.

What cart you going to use?

What type of sound you looking for?

-adam

[LeRoy]

Thanks for the rec LeRoy. As always, good to hear from you. Quite frankly, I am done with stranded cable although I am sure it would be an interesting listen. I have 2 pairs of wonderful Ultralink stranded cabling, and these are collecting dust.

My next move is onto the 20+ AWG solid core, which is what Omar Hawksford concluded to be the best conductor of the audio signal. I have been using 12 - 16 AWG.

I certainly don't dismiss the high end cabling, but even if I was able to, I would never pay the exorbinant pricing.

BTW, did you finally find some peace with your system?

That's some kind of patience and skill you got there to do all this DIY stuff. Ya, I also a believer in small gauge wire as a better conductor over the larger gauge wire so I certainly think you absolutely on the right path.

The body/texture I was trying to get into my system is not going to happen with my current set up. The XRAY, as excellent as it is, turns out to be a little dry though musical. The Belles Soloist Amp and Pre Amp that I am currently using just is solid state and no way I can put some tube magic in that. So, that project is over.

As it turns out, my latest purchase is the Stello Transport and I've been working it through a prototype integrated amp from Belles. Of course the transport requires a DAC and the Stello DAC is excellent in this configuration. So, income tax rebate time...the Stello DAC will be the next purchase...and this config is one I can live with forevermore...

[jrhymeammo]

I'm glad to hear you got it worked out.
Which Boltz did you go with?

JRA

[Hairsonfire]

Well, of course I could not wait so I moved my Rega Jupiter off of the top shelf and had no choice but to put the Jolida Phono Stage on top of my Aragon 28k Preamp (just for now). As I have no experience with this I was a bit intimidated. I had a hard time getting my head around the motor assembly . . . What do you mean it just sits there by itself? How does the belt stay on? Well, it does, and, it does. Now, time to set up the tone arm . . . Yikes! Thankfully, there is a great video on youtube with Roy Hall showing you how to do it in painstaking detail. So, I set my laptop up next to my rig and watched Roy, hitting pause every step of the way and I will be damned if it wasn't the easiest thing to do. The folks at the shop took the time to write out the exact specifications for the dip switches for the tubed phono stage, complete with hand drawn layout of the switches and which ones need to be on (damn those switches are tiny). So, everything is is set, amps on, preamp on, phono stage tubes glowing, hot cup of tea next to chair, Dire Straignts on platter is spinning, lowered the tone arm and . . . bliss. It sounds great. I am not going to go into any critical judgement yet as I have barely listened to a whole record yet but, I am very happy. I have had a stack of records that I bought at the Salvation Army about ten years ago just because they were there, cheap, and I knew I would have a very nice turntable some day. I didn't even really look at them when I bought them but they are mostly classical. I am listening to "Canon in D Major - Jean Francois Paillard Chamber Orchestra - and - if this is any indication of what is available for practically free and it sounds this good, what a wonderful adventure having a turntable may turn out to be. My twin brother has disowned me when I told him I spent three grand to play records. Hopefully he will get over it soon. Now, I need to get some sort of record cleaning equipment. I get the idea a t-shirt is not the best way properly prepare records for the platter. Boy, this Canon id D Major is really wonderful.

[02audionoob]

Hey, big spender...this is how you clean records in style...

http://www.vpiindustries.com/main_machine.htm

[audio amateur]

http://www.essex.ac.uk/csee/research...bles_1985).pdf

That's crazy I was going to study Audio Engineering at the University of Essex! (England) it's funny too because I had an initiation day when I went to visit and they sat us (potential Audio engineering students) in their audio room which had B&W Nautilus floorstanders Was a sweet day and they really put effort into showing us around and introducing us to the course. In the end I went to the University of Surrey (I believe the guy who created Podium speakers (http://www.stereomojo.com/Podium%20....akerReview.htm is a graduate of Surrey)) to study Audio Media Engineering but it wasn't for me so I quite the course after a year.

[Hairsonfire]

Hey, big spender...this is how you clean records in style...

http://www.vpiindustries.com/main_machine.htm

I have seen these before - maybe I can find one used!

Here's a question guys - how long does a cartridge last? Those little puppies are expensive! How durable are they, I mean, how difficult would it be to accidentally break one? Remember, I am REALLY new at this analog stuff! So far, I make sure that the volume is all the way down until the cartride makes contact with the record surface. Are there any other tips you can think of? I must admit I was curious to see what happens if you don't leap out of your chair when the record ends to lift the tonearm so I was pleased to see that it apparently just goes harmlessly around and around. Does it damage the needle if you let that happen?

[JoeE SP9]

I have seen these before - maybe I can find one used!

Here's a question guys - how long does a cartridge last? Those little puppies are expensive! How durable are they, I mean, how difficult would it be to accidentally break one? Remember, I am REALLY new at this analog stuff! So far, I make sure that the volume is all the way down until the cartride makes contact with the record surface. Are there any other tips you can think of? I must admit I was curious to see what happens if you don't leap out of your chair when the record ends to lift the tonearm so I was pleased to see that it apparently just goes harmlessly around and around. Does it damage the needle if you let that happen?

If you don't have a suitable microscope take it to your local dealer once a year to check for wear. They are fragile. So be very careful. Most moving magnet cartridges have a user replaceable stylus assembly. Moving coil carts don't. Letting it run for a few minutes in the run out groove won't hurt.

Cleaning all your vinyl once on a GemDandy or RCM can make a big difference in how your vinyl sounds. If you buy lots of used vinyl some sort of cleaning machine is almost a necessity.

They have manual versions of RCM's. I sold my old Record Doctor and got a GemDandy ($149). I think the GemDandy works better. The Record Doctor was a house branded version of the Nitty Gritty.
www.needledoctor.com carries Nitty Gritty RCM's; about $300
http://www.sleevetown.com/vinyl-cleaning.shtml for the GemDandy

[02audionoob]

Joe's advice on cartridge maintenance is best, but I'll add that I've seen estimates as low as 400 hours and as high as 1,000 hours. You might be able to hear some high-frequency distortion when it's time, but your ears cannot compete with a microscope. I do think 1,000 sounds unrealistic, but I think I've seen the number thrown around.

[poppachubby]

Interesting, the GEM Dandy involves using a cloth to dry. I know alot of guys disagree with this, including the noob. I have always used a hair dryer in combo with a microfiber cloth. I designate one cloth for cleaning and one for drying. I'll have to read the review because I'm wondering how they propose to protect the label using a power wash...

[02audionoob]

My problem with cloth drying is the tiny lint left on the record, even with microfiber. I suspect poppa's hair dryer is reducing that problem. One way to protect labels when wet-cleaning without a record-cleaning machine is with dent pullers, available at many auto parts stores.