The New Standard System

Sorry Obb

I couldn't help myself



The thought of having a tuning floor and SAM was too much for me not to look at.

Wow thank you Michael that looks amazing! I can feel how great it would be through the pics already. This would totally change the sound of my room!

Yes it would, in a big way

For starters you will gain about 2 db of headroom. That's a lot.

Today I was thinking about Obb's system to be and I remembered that I got his permission to copy and paste this email sent to me.

Obb

"Hi Michael,

I don't have any limits on my soundstage. I love my music wide and tall like they should be in real life. I guess I don't like when I listen to those mega systems with huge speakers, huge amps, huge cable that most of the time everything seems so damped and way bigger than real life. Don't get me wrong, I like huge soundstage, but I just don't like vocal that seems like coming from a dinosaur's mouth instead of a woman LOL. Less is more, I believe. I just like the real live music effect that everything feels real if you know what I mean. If something is big, then it should be, but if it is not that big in real life, it should not be in the soundstage. I think "tight but fluffy" sounds great for me. I don't know if I will freak when I hear the real 3D / 360 sound around me, but that is what I'm looking for.

Also, I guess I'm a bass man too LOL. Though I haven't really once have real bass in my room, that would be something that I would love to have. When I first read about Cdimi's room and he was saying something about having 2 bassists playing in his room, I was amazed. I know my room can't go that far with the Mini Mod, but a fraction of that experience would be great.

One of the reason I decided to try the tune join Tuneland is because I truly believe in your way and it's so much fun. I've always love to open up and play with equipments since I was a kid. Love to take things apart, and my mom always thought that I would not be able to put it back LOL. I also love tweaking and love to adjust little details to tune the sound. I do not like High End equipments and never really owned one because I believe that using money to buy the best sound possible just seems like a wrong idea. Plus they lack a lot of things and never actually sound better in the end."

mg

I think the reason I wanted to post this is because I like when I find a listener who hasn't bought into high end audio myths. I think it's much harder to go in reverse than to begin simple to start with. Everytime I start from high end and have to go backward I realize somewhere along the way that if that same person would have started with a much simplier system they would be much further ahead in their listening experiences.

Thank you Obb for letting me share this.

Hi Tunees,

When I said that I love open things up when I was a kid, I meant more like taking things apart, but not open things up sound wise LOL. I love fixing stuffs especially electronic equipments, and my mom would make fun of me and say that I will over-engineered things.

Updates on my room,

I haven't been doing much lately just only letting the Sherwood burn in. I took the cover off, and cracked the screws as Michael advised, and that's it. Michael said the Sherwood takes a long time to settle in, and I totally agree. My Sherwood has been like a roller coaster this past week, someday it sounded great, warm and big, the next day, it seemed fast and crisp. But all I can say is it is a really great amp for me. It has some very good detail both upfront and in the background. Don't really know how to explain, but it makes the music seems more real than other amp I've tried. Plus, it seems to like my Philips DVD player.

I will take down the HT stuffs this weekend if I have time, so I can start tuning per Michael's suggestions.

Hi Obb

Wanted to stop by and say hi. Michael and I have been working on your wood and I can't wait to see pictures of it after everything is installed.

The redwood is very nice. I'll have to put up some pics.

Hi Tuneland

I've been busy with work and life , but I'm finally back on listening! I have also moved to a temporary smaller listening room since my original room had some issues with water leakage. I had a contractor came in and fixed the problem, but now it's back again.

My smaller room is not as bad as I thought it would be. It is a small 10ft x 10ft room and it has a full window wall on one side, which in the audiophile world is a really bad thing, but it's in fact is not. I will put up the photos soon.

Also, I've got most of the stuffs from Drewster (thank you Drewster!), including PZCs, Platforms, and the Classic 60 when he was moving to South America. I did not have the time to assemble some of them yet, but now I have time to start again!

Welcome back Obb

Welcome back, Obb. I wondered what happened to you.

Enjoy!

Greetings obb!

You got Drewster's gear? Wow

Sonic admires your patience -- you had Drewster's system in your dwelling and you have not wired it up and played some music

I am very interested to hear how those speakers and system sound in a room constructed like we have in Thailand and Singapore.

For Sonic it took the purchase of a Sound Effect Amplifier to close the stubborn gaps in my system sound caused by the materials of my room/dwelling. And yet you can see from my post today that I have to work out of the box.

Sonic

Sonic.beaver wrote:

Greetings obb!

You got Drewster's gear? Wow  

Sonic admires your patience -- you had Drewster's system in your dwelling and you have not wired it up and played some music  

I am very interested to hear how those speakers and system sound in a room constructed like we have in Thailand and Singapore.

For Sonic it took the purchase of a Sound Effect Amplifier to close the stubborn gaps in my system sound caused by the materials of my room/dwelling. And yet you can see from my post today that I have to work out of the box.

Sonic

Hi Sonic & Tuneland

I have been away for a while and so sorry for my super late reply.

Yes I think rooms in Thailand & SG are built almost the same. Hard thick concrete wall don't help us at all. I notice that with this kind of walls, we need much more absorb/burn than rooms in the US. Maybe that has something to do with not having anu insulation in the walls too? I'm not sure.

People here tend to go with carpets for the floor too, to get rid of the nasty mids and highs. Also, it seems like we need more toe in too in order to get the tighter and more focus 3d sound.

What I try to do is to put more wood into the room. I have not yet installed the pczs, but I just put them on the floor around the corners and along the walls. And it really helps me out. Once I put them on the floor, I can feel/hear that the sound transforms into a more wood like, kind of like listening to a good piano sound. Also with the Classic 60s, I put some weight in the loading chamber in the bottom and that realy really help the 60's with more warmth and heavier mids and lows without sacraficing too much on the upper end. Without the weight, the speakers are still really natural, but a little thin at first. But I finally figured it out that it was not the speaker's fault but it was my limited knowledge in tuning instead. Once I started using more of MG's products here and there, things really really opened up for the better.

To me, MG's speakers are much much better than any other speakers out there. I have not heard any speakers that sound more natural like MG's. It has the best tonal balance too. I think you can't go wrong here Sonic. And for PZCs compared to Pillows, PZCs do the same thing as those pillows but with much more depth in harmonics and overall sound. They made my room sounds like I am sitting in a Piano because of that wood sound. After all, we really need to have more woods in our room!

I agree, all other speakers sound like HiFi regardless of price or audiophile story behind them. I say to myself while listening "this designer must understand notes". They're like learning how to play an instrument and when you figure it out you get nothing but natural sound.

nice to see you

Hi Obb!

Good to hear your system is assembled and that you are listening to music.

If you have been following Sonic's recent adventures, you may have seen that I possibly have come to grips with the sound of my room. Right now all Sonic has got this room to Neutral with the worst features addressed. I agree with you that beyond this lies the step of adding wood and shaping the Tone.

If you compare the pillow and non-wood panel products to PZCs, my understanding is both are equal in terms of control but the PZCs give the added wood-sound. So one group of Michael's products take a tunee to Neutrality, while the PZCs take us beyond.

Sonic

Hi Sonic

Yes I've seen your room and it's amazing
I love how you hang the Deco Tune up there. I wanted to tune my ceiling too, but what I've done can't be compared with what you've done! I only put some Balsa wood on the ceiling and that created a little more pressure for me up there. I've also learned that I need to put more pillows on the walls too. I wish I could listen to your room or Hiend's at least once so I have that reference of what the rooms can do.

I also want to get into the digital file playing too, but that will be a while new world for me to learn. Maybe I would once I understand the tune a little better.

Greetings Obb

The good thing is the DecoTunes are light and easily mounted. I am using string for now, will later improve the mounting arrangement. The much heavier PZCs will be harder to get up and stay up safely.

What this experience with my Ceiling Labyrinth and the DT Clouds is my room has an axis where the room problems manifest themselves most. Once this axis is Tuned and treated, the room problems start to recede noticeably. In my case the axis is across the width of the room and stuff happening at different levels of the upper zone of the room. It could be different in other rooms, might be down the length or ceiling to floor.

Given the height of your room (looking at the pictures it would be about 9 ft?) have a check if there are any hot spots of resonance up the walls but below the ceiling level.

Sonic

Here is what I have done to my ceiling. This is actually in another room from my previous posts. This room is a small square 3m x 3m (about 10' x 10') room. Hard wood floor, Gypsum wall (dry wall I believe), Metal frame, and the ceiling is naked, with the hardwood floor of the room above. Behind the listening chair is a window wall, with some thin Polyester material.

One thing I notice is that even my floor is hardwood and have some play, they sound pretty bright and thin in my opinion. I know this because when I set up the system in this room, I was not using any cable lifters. And the sound was kind of thin, fast, and just too harsh. So I tried many cable lifters by many different brands (different materials), but the problem was still existed more or less. One day I had some leftover Pine wood from my home renovation so I cut them in blocks and used them as lifters. That was much better. Finally, I tried and made cable lifters that look like Cable Ground, and I know it does not sound anywhere near Michael's Cable Ground, but they actually sound much better than other ones out there. I just can't wait to get some of the authentic Cable Grounds to play with

Greetings Obb

What do those narrow wood pieces that are attached to your ceiling running front to back do? You also got something perched on the top of the Floorstanding Room Tunes, what is that for?

Sonic

Sonic.beaver wrote:

Greetings Obb

What do those narrow wood pieces that are attached to your ceiling running front to back do? You also got something perched on the top of the Floorstanding Room Tunes, what is that for?

Sonic

Hi Sonic,

I'm not sure if you can see, but there a black I-beam running in the middle of this room. I found that the beam gave me this harsh sound, so I put some Balsa wood plank on it to help change the metal sound a bit. Also on the ceiling, they are also Balsa wood planks which help me add and balance some pressure in the sound stage.

The wood boxs I put on my Floorstands are made by a Thai designer; similar to the VPI wood box that are used to add/absorb some weight on components and speakers. They are from my pre-MG system. Now I use them as it also add pressure and warmth in my room. They actually sound very natural too, that's why I use them from time to time.

Hi Obb

Do you have more pictures so we can take a peek at the 360 view of the place?

This is pretty cool

Hi Obb

Yes, Sonic sees the metal I-beams in your room. Clouds/hanging baffles of some sort might be ideal for your room!

Sonic

Yes I'll put up more pictures of the room soon. I've been experimenting with some additional pair of diy wood floorstand in the back of the room by placing them to the sides of my listening chair. I tried them with and without placing MG pillow on the back. I like them with some burn in the back I think. Until now, they seem to fulfil the soundstage nicely.

Good to hear from Obb again as we are getting ready to take another step after a couple years of life. Maybe a new thread in "audio around the world".