Ian's system

[IanG-UK]

I bought my first hifi 43 years ago this month as my single affordable purchase when I was about to start university. Just a turntable, amplifier and speakers for about £70.

So I thought it would now be revealing to try to remember all the wise and all the many more not so wise purchases over that period. I was surprised to see that I had purchased 165 items - which is pretty crazy - over that time, though 39 of them are in the “bits” category (signal and mains cables and equipment and loudspeaker stands). Even now, when I think I have gone minimalist, I find I have 53 items including 23 “bits”. And so much for minimalism when I find that 16 of the 53 are “alternatives” (other loudspeakers, cables and stands).

The main source is a MacBook Pro (512GB SSD 2011 model) which should, once all ripped, accommodate my 600 or so CDs plus a few purchases from iTunes and HD Tracks. I use iTunes as my data carrier plus the recent addition of Qobuz.

This communicates through an Apple Airport Time Capsule, now in its 5th generation, which replaced one of the previous generation and provides an improved wifi signal probably as a result of the different aerial array. This is pretty important in what remains, in my opinion, the weakest area of the Devialet offering.

Mobile control is through an iPad or an iPad mini (or a iPhone just for the app), with all this mounted close to the listening position using Luminati acrylic wall supports, which also house Oppo PM-1 planar magnetic headphones and Stax SR009 electrostatic headphones, an Oppo HA-1 headphone amplifier (for the PM-1) and an Astell & Kern AK240 music player. The AK240 and PM-1 are generally for mobile use.

The MacBook Pro connects to my Devialet 800 using wifi and Meicord Opal ethernet. Wifi is fine at 16bit/44.1kHz but occasionally not 100% faultless at 24bit/96kHz even though there in line of sight four metre transmission path.

The kit at the speaker wall end comprises the Devialet 800 on their wall mounts driving Magico Q1s and a Wilson Benesch Torus “infrasonic generator”. This sits centrally on a low Futureglass plinth, primarily because the Torus weight means it is impossible to site it exactly where you want it on a spiked wooden floor but easier to accomplish on a thick glass plinth. Below the plinth is a Cyrus CD xt Signature transport, sourced just in case the entire computer source goes pear shaped. This can be swapped with a Quad 99FM tuner - now my only Quad gear, things having been exclusively Quad for about 20 years - fed from a Ron Smith Galaxie 17 element aerial and a Yaesu G-450C rotator.

Other kit is concealed behind the speaker wall, namely two PS Audio Power Plant Premiers, the Wilson Benesch Torus amplifier and the Cavalli Liquid Lightning headphone amplifier (for the SR009). These latter two are operable through the Devialet remote and configuration cards.

I describe myself as a gullible cable sceptic, so I buy stuff from no-nonsense engineers (good) but then buy more alternatives (bad). Signal cabling is either Missing Link Cryo Reference or Soundstring Generation ll; and power cable is a mixture of Missing Link Opus and Soundstring Generation ll. I also made a “placebo”(!) purchase of two Entreq Minimus/Silver Eartha units. I did feel they made a difference on audition, but i have not subsequently rechecked in case I get the wrong answer.

Having gone minimalist, or so I thought, I then succumbed to buy or keep a few playthings:
speakers: CML Etude; Rogers LS3/5a; KEF LS50; Boenicke W5; supertweeters: Murata ES105;
more loudspeaker cables: Solid Core Audio; DNM Resolution;
loudspeaker stands: Track Audio Precision; Boenicke; Custom Speaker Stands.

With Devialet now doing SAM options for the Q1 and the LS50, all this gives me 272 combinations to try which, as they say locally, makes me “daft as a brush”.

Other big boys toys are a Squeezebox Touch, bought as a “vintage” piece before they stopped production, and a DSPeaker Anti-Mode 2.0 Dual Core “loudspeaker optimisation system”.

To finish the room I’m in the middle of applying Advanced Acoustics foam tiles on the walls to the rear and sides of the loudspeakers concealed behind heavy curtaining. Whilst the room is dedicated for listening it is quite small at 10ft wide and 17.1/2ft long - so, much as I like Quad electrostatics, it proved been a bridge too far, sonically and visually.

Musical tastes on CD are split 2/3rds:1/3rd - with the former favouring Yes, the Beatles, Dire Straits, Clapton, Pink Floyd and Queen; and the latter favouring Rachmaninov, Kings College Choir, Lang Lang, Beethoven, Chopin and Mozart. Nothing too adventurous.

Soon I will post pictures - once I get the acoustic stuff finished. Which means just before Christmas. Possibly!

[flohmann]

So many similarities! Not only am I now using the Magico Q1 with my Devialet 250, but I had a pair of Quad 988 electrostatics for several years, before moving to the Dynaudio C1 speakers, which were then replaced by the Magicos. I also assembled a Pinterest board that attempts to list all the stereo gear I've owned since I started the hobby in 1988.

Are you liking SAM on your Q1s? I found it muddied the bass (perhaps your subs fix this), but have found that at 10%, I like it quite a bit. My theory is that the time/phase coherence adjustment on SAM happens so long as it is engaged at any level, and the percentage adjustment is the bass "correction." Anyhow, curious what success you've had with SAM.

[IanG-UK]

That Pinterest board is a nice way to display your history - I must have a go myself.

I'm not yet clear on SAM with Q1s (with or without Torus) - and further listening and tweaking is a bit limited by the fact that the Devialet configurator is currently not working fully for dual mono setups. I'll report more after a few weeks.

My thinking is that SAM should be more profound on more compromisingly engineered, probably less expensive, speakers. With the Atohm which is in the Devialet package, the effect is marked.

What I'd really like to hear is SAM with

(a) the Quad ESL63, Peter Walker's original concentric rings design. Or even with the later versions in the 98* series or the 2*05 or 2*12 series. Those speakers were/are allegedly substantially phase correct and overdrive protected - suggesting that the SAM effect should be minimal other than at bass frequencies; and

(b) a really poorly designed unit, just to see how much SAM can achieve. In fact, I'm surprised Devialet don't use something like that as a demonstration tool for dealers and at shows.

[krass]

What I'd really like to hear is SAM with
(a) the Quad ESL63, Peter Walker's original concentric rings design. Or even with the later versions in the 98* series or the 2*05 or 2*12 series. Those speakers were/are allegedly substantially phase correct and overdrive protected - suggesting that the SAM effect should be minimal other than at bass frequencies;

My understanding of SAM is that it's a processing-module that applies delay in the time-domain, to compensate for the speaker, crossover & different driver designs. At a simple level I imagine a simple time-lag for one driver compared to the other, but guess its more complex and that the amount of time-delay also changes with frequency (even if the signal ends up at the same driver). I postulate this because I think Devialet can only generate a sensible SAM profile if the speaker system under test has inherent time/phase discrepancies, which I guess they measure. With the concentric Quad design, I always thought they included time-delay within the electronics design to arrive at a different signal driving each of the rings. Since there are no individual drivers affected by time-errors, I don't think it would be meaningful or even possible for Devialet to generate a Quad concentric SAM profile.

That's probably what you already said !

I would really like to know more what they do; especially whether a SAM profile can be derived from the design (on paper) itself, or whether they have to use real speaker hardware to get measurement data.

[f1eng]

They measure the amplitude and time domain errors in the speaker (below 200Hz IIRC) characterise the thermal and mechanical limits of the drive unit, produce a transfer function for the speaker, invert it and use it to produce the SAM file which corrects the amplitude and time errors whilst making sure neither the thermal nor mechanical limits of the driver are exceeded.

[krass]

thanks, succinct quality explanation....

[Steelydan]

I bought my first hifi 43 years ago this month as my single affordable purchase when I was about to start university. Just a turntable, amplifier and speakers for about £70.

So I thought it would now be revealing to try to remember all the wise and all the many more not so wise purchases over that period. I was surprised to see that I had purchased 165 items - which is pretty crazy - over that time, though 39 of them are in the “bits” category (signal and mains cables and equipment and loudspeaker stands). Even now, when I think I have gone minimalist, I find I have 53 items including 23 “bits”. And so much for minimalism when I find that 16 of the 53 are “alternatives” (other loudspeakers, cables and stands).

The main source is a MacBook Pro (512GB SSD 2011 model) which should, once all ripped, accommodate my 600 or so CDs plus a few purchases from iTunes and HD Tracks. I use iTunes as my data carrier plus the recent addition of Qobuz.

This communicates through an Apple Airport Time Capsule, now in its 5th generation, which replaced one of the previous generation and provides an improved wifi signal probably as a result of the different aerial array. This is pretty important in what remains, in my opinion, the weakest area of the Devialet offering.

Mobile control is through an iPad or an iPad mini (or a iPhone just for the app), with all this mounted close to the listening position using Luminati acrylic wall supports, which also house Oppo PM-1 planar magnetic headphones and Stax SR009 electrostatic headphones, an Oppo HA-1 headphone amplifier (for the PM-1) and an Astell & Kern AK240 music player. The AK240 and PM-1 are generally for mobile use.

The MacBook Pro connects to my Devialet 800 using wifi and Meicord Opal ethernet. Wifi is fine at 16bit/44.1kHz but occasionally not 100% faultless at 24bit/96kHz even though there in line of sight four metre transmission path.

The kit at the speaker wall end comprises the Devialet 800 on their wall mounts driving Magico Q1s and a Wilson Benesch Torus “infrasonic generator”. This sits centrally on a low Futureglass plinth, primarily because the Torus weight means it is impossible to site it exactly where you want it on a spiked wooden floor but easier to accomplish on a thick glass plinth. Below the plinth is a Cyrus CD xt Signature transport, sourced just in case the entire computer source goes pear shaped. This can be swapped with a Quad 99FM tuner - now my only Quad gear, things having been exclusively Quad for about 20 years - fed from a Ron Smith Galaxie 17 element aerial and a Yaesu G-450C rotator.

Other kit is concealed behind the speaker wall, namely two PS Audio Power Plant Premiers, the Wilson Benesch Torus amplifier and the Cavalli Liquid Lightning headphone amplifier (for the SR009). These latter two are operable through the Devialet remote and configuration cards.

I describe myself as a gullible cable sceptic, so I buy stuff from no-nonsense engineers (good) but then buy more alternatives (bad). Signal cabling is either Missing Link Cryo Reference or Soundstring Generation ll; and power cable is a mixture of Missing Link Opus and Soundstring Generation ll. I also made a “placebo”(!) purchase of two Entreq Minimus/Silver Eartha units. I did feel they made a difference on audition, but i have not subsequently rechecked in case I get the wrong answer.

Having gone minimalist, or so I thought, I then succumbed to buy or keep a few playthings:
speakers: CML Etude; Rogers LS3/5a; KEF LS50; Boenicke W5; supertweeters: Murata ES105;
more loudspeaker cables: Solid Core Audio; DNM Resolution;
loudspeaker stands: Track Audio Precision; Boenicke; Custom Speaker Stands.

With Devialet now doing SAM options for the Q1 and the LS50, all this gives me 272 combinations to try which, as they say locally, makes me “daft as a brush”.

Other big boys toys are a Squeezebox Touch, bought as a “vintage” piece before they stopped production, and a DSPeaker Anti-Mode 2.0 Dual Core “loudspeaker optimisation system”.

To finish the room I’m in the middle of applying Advanced Acoustics foam tiles on the walls to the rear and sides of the loudspeakers concealed behind heavy curtaining. Whilst the room is dedicated for listening it is quite small at 10ft wide and 17.1/2ft long - so, much as I like Quad electrostatics, it proved been a bridge too far, sonically and visually.

Musical tastes on CD are split 2/3rds:1/3rd - with the former favouring Yes, the Beatles, Dire Straits, Clapton, Pink Floyd and Queen; and the latter favouring Rachmaninov, Kings College Choir, Lang Lang, Beethoven, Chopin and Mozart. Nothing too adventurous.

Soon I will post pictures - once I get the acoustic stuff finished. Which means just before Christmas. Possibly!

Hi Iain
Some lovely gear!
I just got the Devialet 200 last weekend ( replaces Chord Electronics Pre/power)...wonderful transparency and "grip" from something so svelte and minimalist!

Rest of the system is Esoteric X03 SE SACD player acting as transport, Magnum Dynalab T100 tuner ( good old FM!), MacBook Pro
Speakers are Raidho C2.1 in lovely walnut burl finish
All cabling from Nordost ( well speakers are full of the stuff!), Nordost QB6 , QX4, QV2, QKI mains treatment ...should have shares in these guys!
Supports are a mixture of Finite Elemente and Stillpoints
Room treatment is from GIK Acoustics and I'm running a separate earth to a long copper rod buried in the garden...my wife truly thinks I'm beyond saving!

Nice to join the forum !

[dradia]

Hi Ian,

happy to find your futureglass plinth solution for WB Torus as I'm also owning a pair of them. Seems very practical and aesthetically perfect. What's your findings about its antiresonant effect? Would you mind to post some photos of your Torus with futureglass plinth and of the whole your system? Many thanks..

[IanG-UK]

Hi Ian,

happy to find your futureglass plinth solution for WB Torus as I'm also owning a pair of them. Seems very practical and aesthetically perfect. What's your findings about its antiresonant effect? Would you mind to post some photos of your Torus with futureglass plinth and of the whole your system? Many thanks..

I'll try to post some pictures soon - I have sent you a PM with constructional tips!

[IanG-UK]

Hi Iain
Some lovely gear!
I just got the Devialet 200 last weekend ( replaces Chord Electronics Pre/power)...wonderful transparency and "grip" from something so svelte and minimalist!

Rest of the system is Esoteric X03 SE SACD player acting as transport, Magnum Dynalab T100 tuner ( good old FM!), MacBook Pro
Speakers are Raidho C2.1 in lovely walnut burl finish
All cabling from Nordost ( well speakers are full of the stuff!), Nordost QB6 , QX4, QV2, QKI mains treatment ...should have shares in these guys!
Supports are a mixture of Finite Elemente and Stillpoints
Room treatment is from GIK Acoustics and I'm running a separate earth to a long copper rod buried in the garden...my wife truly thinks I'm beyond saving!

Nice to join the forum !

Thanks and welcome - and it's ok as I am beyond saving too.

I always wanted a Magnum Dynalab. In fact I still do. But now it represents (on the whole) an excellent solution to an imperfect problem - good FM broadcasts are so rare that I cannot warrant spending £8k on the tuner I would really want - the 109! Or a similar amount on the 809.

You've reawakened my interest. Luckily they are hardly obtainable in the UK which is a useful deterrent.