Audio stuff that is impossible to install right (or stay installed right)

Forsell Air Reference turntable - a long, long length of dental floss driving from a remote motor. It was a friend's system and trying to get the best pair pump and best air reservoir, plus experimenting with different floss would have exhausted anyone's patience.  And then there was the linear tracking arm with air bearing....

If you've never seen one, look at https://www.whatsbestforum.com/data/attachments/10/10567-cd62a15533b0947e5f62f4673862f156.jpg

"Sound Labs 845 tube monos" with bias swings sounds like a coupling cap failure to me... a cap turns into a resistor at various times with predictable results. Using good poly caps of high voltage and low ESR ratings helps a lot. Don't forget to ask for 105 degree C versions. de KQ2E

Cryogenic treatment. Frustrating because they all pretend to have some special thing they do for audiophile components that no one else does. But they never tell you what it is. Plus they charge a small fortune. Plus shipping. No thanks.

Until I track down Cryo One, less than an hours drive from home. Still not sure I throw a few likely suspects in the car and drive down to see for myself. Turns out the guy races and builds shifter karts, being a PCA track instructor we bond instantly, he shows and tells all.

Knives from custom hunting knife maker, professional musicians instruments, all kinds of auto parts from racers and builders, tubes, wire entire components from audiophiles, anything and everything goes in the same chest freezer. Yeah just an ordinary chest freezer. Ordinary except for being connected to a great big tank of liquid nitrogen.

So everything gets packed in there and in goes the liquid nitrogen. Doing just a few things isn’t economical, and it takes anywhere from several days to a few weeks to get enough to fill the freezer, plus the few days it takes for all that mass to cool down all the way. So that’s why they tell you the treatment takes a few weeks. It doesn’t. It’s the time it takes to fill the freezer.

Anyway so he cryo’d a power cord, interconnect, a few CDs and an entire CD player. Everything came back looking exactly the same but sounding quite a bit different. Biggest change, a lot more detail. Like after cleaning dirty contacts. Clear, detailed, free of grain and glare, a little more dynamic. Faster yet not in that annoying hi-fi sense of the word.

Now the most frustrating part, I just re-wired a dedicated circuit. Oh well. Pulled all that wire out and bagged it up with everything else- every interconnect, speaker cable, power cord, tube, everything but the speakers (he’s done em though!) and so now I probably got the most cryo’d system around. Worth it in the end but what a chore!

@bSimpson,

This is a pretty good thread you started.  It might be quite helpful to some people.  At the very least, they will know they have company in their struggles to make things work in this pleasurable, but sometimes very aggravating hobby.

Bob

Trying to get one sub to sound good. Turns out, because it can't be done. He learns after only 30 years trying. Four on the other hand, easy.

Bose wave radio with CD. No buttons on it and remote is beyond poor. Just being able to turn it on is a major achievement. Forget about changing sources or volume.

I know, it is not "high-end" stuff, but audio it is.

As for Salamander rack, I echo erik_squires. It works, but turning, and turning, and turning...

Yes getting my Maggie's set up after I have had to move them. They are so sensitive to placement. 

I build a “sound proof” room with double walls. On the inner wall I used 0.75” MDF, then special cock, then drywall. I also build MDF boxes around the air conditioner vents that ran through the ceiling. Packed the space between the walls with mineral wool. 

It took forever and was super hard to work with. Hard to even screw through. 

Doing the full monty upgrades and mods to the Lenco 78 and having the Lenco keep consistently correct speed. It only took me 5-6 years to finally get it right, but now, it is as good as any of the systems in sound I’ve heard at Axpona--the speed is now ABSOLUTELY PERFECT and stays that way. Plus, it now has the torque to pull my 8 lb. copper platter in addition to the Lenco’s original platter. With all the upgrades and mods I’ve done, it is jumpin’ dynamic, dead quiet, with stunning clarity and NO listener fatigue. I now have the Maplenoll Ariadne killer, which I used to have for 8 years. The Lenco is the equal of beauty to the sound and is much better than the MA in all other ways. It is heavy though at about 120 lbs. I have to give a shout out to the Pete Riggle Woody arm and Benz Micro Ruby 3, along with the Audio Horizons TP 8.13 phono pre--optimized for one cartridge, mine! It’s a wonderful and Iive sounding combo. And it looks good too.

Bob

P.S. Much PITA over the years to get to so much listening pleasure. Now, I will say it was all worth it. For awhile there, not so much...

Triplanar tonearm...

My brilliant idea was to make custom speaker stands for my heavy monitors using two metal stands fastened together top and bottom.It took way more fiddling and cursing than I expected:(

I had no issues at all with the Salamander stands, though they do require a lot of turning and turning and turning.... :)