audio research sp-10

Wow! I think synthgirl is absorbing a lot of ideas here is a very short time. It was never my intention to put any negative spin on the SP-10. Afterall I owned it for 8 years so that has to tell you how much I liked this product. I was only trying to make you aware that what you have, for the sake of playing CDs, you could make a change to your system at no added cost and gain an incredible amount of improvement. The other point I wanted to make was that the SP-10 can not at all be the cause of any bright or forward characteristic to your system. It has a laid back top end which allows you to hear the magical mids even more....almost too much of a good thing except for us ambience and bloom fanatics.

And yes, I also forgot to mention how fortunate you are to have this music system at the start. The sound quality you now have took many of us 10+ years to achieve.

Concerning the LS5, it came out I think in late 93 or early 94. In late 94 the Mk II came out which had a lower noise floor and changed to use 10 6922 tubes. In 1997, after the Ref1 came along, much of what was gained from this was put into a LS5 III. This had reduced gain and 8 6922s. So many people I met and talked to here in Minneapolis preferred the LS5 III to the Ref1. Do a search here for the LS5 and you will read what I have written on the differences between the II and the III.

Concerning my system, I have not gotten around to listing my system like so many other members. But the magical ARC PH2/LS5III/DAC3II/VT130 has morphed into AesthetixIo/BAT31SE/ManleyRefDAC/Wolcott. Speakers are Magnepan 3.5. I have two TTs: Clearaudio Ref/TQi/Accurate cartridge and VersaDynamics 2 with Koetsu RWS. A pioneer PD65 is my CD transport which drives a Genesis Time Lens which drives the Manley DAC. All cables are NBS Statement except for the phono cable with is SilverAudio SilverBreeze.

And yes, Newbee is clearly anything but a newbie.

So what was your first question again? 8-)

John

hi pmotz...all the controls are in neutral..being the purist i am..however i do think you are correct in that what i am hearing may not be so much brightness as it is lack of bass to balance it. do you have the kimbers on yours? do you have them on the stands they are supposed to be on? i believe that could be one of my big probs as well..not being on the "proper stands", also the speaker wires and as you suggest..that is the only thing that hasn't been changed in my entire system since starting out with nad and the vandies...hey, do you by any chance have the 2ci instructions?? thanks for your input :)

newbee...great advice..and what i am hearing directly reflects what you are saying...finally..it's starting to make sense..k..i'm gonna take a deep breath..relax...take my time..and ENJOY the hobby..you are so right there...looking forward to seeing the stars on a dark night in the country...but as they say anything worth having is worth waiting for....thanks soooo much :)

jafox...quite a morph there...i know..just part of the hobby:) what am i getting myself into!! lol

i've unabsorbed the idea that you put a bad spin on the sp-10...i get it now, for the money, it is not the #1 choice for playing cd's , which at the moment is all i do..so actually that was very valid advice.

i am also an "ambience and bloom fanatic" which is how i fell in love with tubes in the first place.

i'm beginning to wonder...maybe i should have brought this up first..but i thought it was a solved problem. the first day i had the sp-10 it was so beautiful..i swear i cried like all day...humbled..and just in awe. then late that day..the left channel crackeled...my ex told me to mess with the balance knob..i did, and it went away. however, it could be my imagination..but it hasn't been the same since. the ex who gave me the system said when he had it the left channel had done the same so he brought it in where he bought it..they "fixed it" supposedly just sprayed the switches and it was supposed to be all better. and that was the day he gave it to me. well the brightness thing started after the first crackle here...and today it did it again...since all of you agree the sp-10 cannot and should not be bright...and wasn't that first day..now i'm thinking it needs repair?? do tubes go out that way..by an occasional crackle and/or hiss..or would it be a switch prob..or?? and hmmm....could that cause the "brightness" i'm hearing that was just not there that first magical day?

thanks again all of you, not just for your help, but for the laughs..you seem like a great bunch of people :)

If you are hearing crackling/hissing without touching the dials it is not likely that it is the contacts in the volume or balance controls. If you hear it more when the amp is first turned on and it diminishes as time passes, like 30 minutes or so, you likely have noisy/dying tubes. Since it is restricted to the left channel - here is how to test it: turn it off til the tubes cool down. Remove the top. On the left side remove the front two tubes and reverse them. Turn the amp back on and see if the sound is now coming from the right channel. If not, turn it off and let it cool down. Remove the rear two tubes and reverse them and turn it back on. If the problem remains in the left channel its not the tubes. You don't need to change the tubes back. Now with the unit on, rotate both the volume knob and the balance knob (not at the same time) and see if you hear any noise - if you do then the contacts in the controls should be cleaned (by a technician) but you can usually remove the corrosion to a great extent by just rotating the dials completely for a minute or so. The friction from the contact will cleam them up. Now the killer answer - dying tubes and corroded contacts really shouldn't cause brightness, and in both channels - to the contrary, dying tubes usually cause dullness, noisy perhaps, but dull never the less. Have you read all of the reviews and user comments here and on Audio Asylum yet on your Shanling? Yeh, I know, it looks pretty - I'm waiting for the tiny space ship to land any day now. :-)