@afrancois - Yes, I suspect I know what you mean by "it never did feel right. Who knows if we hear the same thing, but there is something that niggles me a little when listening with the sPS-500 in play. As mentioned above, I am currently waiting for a pair of SR4's, these are due to arrive in early December.
So whilst waiting, I thought I would try a little experiment. A couple of weeks ago I swapped out all of the SOtM kit and I have been running my LPS-1 powered microRendu direct to the REF10 clocked MC3+USB. The idea was to simply swap to a system without the sPS-500, no A/B testing or messing about, and just see how I found the system over time. I have quite enjoyed this set up over the last couple of weeks, but any niggles I had about the sPS-500 have been replaced by a big fat niggle that I am losing a lot in terms of details, resolution and dynamics with the mR back in play. A whole chunk of magic has gone. I had a bit of free time this morning, and have just switched the SOtM kit back in into the system, time will tell how I find things moving back the other way.
Another thing that has happened is that I had a bit of a thought the other day. I have mentioned before about wanting to change the layout of my rack, which sits in the corner of the room, effectively to the right of and behind the right-hand speaker. I know from the work I did getting REW readings and correspondence with Home Audio Fidelity's Thierry regarding HAF filters that this rack is doing something measurably bad, hence my desire to switch to a fundamentally different rack layout that mitigates this issue. Two things happened, I was looking at the various REW readings taken to produce the HAF filters, at much the same time I stumbled across a track that niggled me slightly with respect to an overly prominent HF/presence range. The REW curves do indicate more of an HF drop off with the left speaker, or you could say a more prominent HF with the right speaker, although conversely, the right speaker indicates a slightly louder response with respect to the lowest bass. So just as an experiment, I tried listening to the subject track with the balance set fully left then right. OK, it is very odd experience listening to just one speaker, but it is fair to say that things sounded better with just the left speaker than with just the right speaker. Indeed, subsequent tweaking has revealed that the system sounds better with the balance set very slightly to the left.
The obvious conclusion here is that the sooner I sort the rack out the better. Other than the rack, the room is near enough symmetrical. I say near enough because there are curtains and a window on one side but not the other, but things are more or less dimensionally symmetrical.
OK - So sorting the room has moved up my priority list, about time too some might say. What does interest me is that with the old D800, mR, MC3+USB set-up, I was perfectly happy with the balance of the system. Now with multiple "improvements", the 1000Pro, REF10 and SOtM kit, room generated niggles are driving me mad. It seems to me that as the system has become more resolving, it has become less forgiving of imperfections in the room, or has perhaps served to push these issues into prominence. I know it is quite a common comment from some people that it is far better to spend time and money on the room rather than seeking out small gains, probably at some expense, from the electronics. Yes, I get this, but for me I have to say that I think both go hand in hand. There would be little point spending much time and money on the room if you are just running an Amazon Echo or something, but in the same way there is a point at which improving the speakers and electronics is pointless if you ignore the room. I have been very careful in the past with speaker placement, fine-tuning and measuring with REW, this kind of thing. Plus, the room is otherwise not too bad, carpeted, lots of soft furnishing and other junk acting as sound defusers. With all that said, the benefits of the REF10 and SOtM kit remain clearly apparent, indeed, I have missed the SOtM kit whilst the mR has been back in play, but the penalty is that room induced "niggles" blunt the enjoyment. It has been a bit of a troubled journey this year, but I have a feeling the ultimate destination is going to be very satisfying.
Lots of waffle here, but fair to say that as soon as I find the time, I'll be sorting that rack out.....
So whilst waiting, I thought I would try a little experiment. A couple of weeks ago I swapped out all of the SOtM kit and I have been running my LPS-1 powered microRendu direct to the REF10 clocked MC3+USB. The idea was to simply swap to a system without the sPS-500, no A/B testing or messing about, and just see how I found the system over time. I have quite enjoyed this set up over the last couple of weeks, but any niggles I had about the sPS-500 have been replaced by a big fat niggle that I am losing a lot in terms of details, resolution and dynamics with the mR back in play. A whole chunk of magic has gone. I had a bit of free time this morning, and have just switched the SOtM kit back in into the system, time will tell how I find things moving back the other way.
Another thing that has happened is that I had a bit of a thought the other day. I have mentioned before about wanting to change the layout of my rack, which sits in the corner of the room, effectively to the right of and behind the right-hand speaker. I know from the work I did getting REW readings and correspondence with Home Audio Fidelity's Thierry regarding HAF filters that this rack is doing something measurably bad, hence my desire to switch to a fundamentally different rack layout that mitigates this issue. Two things happened, I was looking at the various REW readings taken to produce the HAF filters, at much the same time I stumbled across a track that niggled me slightly with respect to an overly prominent HF/presence range. The REW curves do indicate more of an HF drop off with the left speaker, or you could say a more prominent HF with the right speaker, although conversely, the right speaker indicates a slightly louder response with respect to the lowest bass. So just as an experiment, I tried listening to the subject track with the balance set fully left then right. OK, it is very odd experience listening to just one speaker, but it is fair to say that things sounded better with just the left speaker than with just the right speaker. Indeed, subsequent tweaking has revealed that the system sounds better with the balance set very slightly to the left.
The obvious conclusion here is that the sooner I sort the rack out the better. Other than the rack, the room is near enough symmetrical. I say near enough because there are curtains and a window on one side but not the other, but things are more or less dimensionally symmetrical.
OK - So sorting the room has moved up my priority list, about time too some might say. What does interest me is that with the old D800, mR, MC3+USB set-up, I was perfectly happy with the balance of the system. Now with multiple "improvements", the 1000Pro, REF10 and SOtM kit, room generated niggles are driving me mad. It seems to me that as the system has become more resolving, it has become less forgiving of imperfections in the room, or has perhaps served to push these issues into prominence. I know it is quite a common comment from some people that it is far better to spend time and money on the room rather than seeking out small gains, probably at some expense, from the electronics. Yes, I get this, but for me I have to say that I think both go hand in hand. There would be little point spending much time and money on the room if you are just running an Amazon Echo or something, but in the same way there is a point at which improving the speakers and electronics is pointless if you ignore the room. I have been very careful in the past with speaker placement, fine-tuning and measuring with REW, this kind of thing. Plus, the room is otherwise not too bad, carpeted, lots of soft furnishing and other junk acting as sound defusers. With all that said, the benefits of the REF10 and SOtM kit remain clearly apparent, indeed, I have missed the SOtM kit whilst the mR has been back in play, but the penalty is that room induced "niggles" blunt the enjoyment. It has been a bit of a troubled journey this year, but I have a feeling the ultimate destination is going to be very satisfying.
Lots of waffle here, but fair to say that as soon as I find the time, I'll be sorting that rack out.....
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
