Fidelity Research FR-64 vs. FR-54

Dear @lewm : Maybe you can understand why your system as almost all audiophile’s systems are so far away to reproduce what’s in the recording please read this, it’s only what is part of my audio system that obviously is not nearest to " perfection " ( nothing is there. ) but through the time " each day " comes close to reproduce what is in the analog/digital recordings adding the lower degradation my ignorance levels permit it. All these permit me to be aware of multiple kind of souce’s audio signal degradations that I have perfectly identified ( several of them I " discovery " by accident and not because I was looking for. I found out because my mistakes during everywhere system up-dates. ):

- my TTs ( BD and DD ) are nothing realy special, makes what is supposed to do it.
What’s special is the propietary design/build TT mat and clamp.

- A very special propietary design/build tonearm with the lowest self added signal degradations of any kind. Wired with silver, All my system is wired with silver, including the electrical power cables.

- After the tonearm and along the speakers/room the must important audio link in the system chain is the PhonoLinePreamp.
Here our self design, Essential 3160 use bipolar transistors in two gain stages for MC phono stage and FETs for MM phono stage.

In reality this phonolinepreamp have five preamps instead of only one: it has a dual mono MC phono stage, it has a dual mono MM phono stage and a line level stage preamp. All these stages are totally independent from each other.

This phonolinepreamp design is a discrete Non-feedback, direct coupled, current drive, pure class A , true balanced ( differential ) input to output, dual mono design, fully regulated input to output and with dual mono external power supply.

Inside parts: teflon capacitors, " naked " resistors,matched active devices , no internal wires ( every part is soldered directly to the four layers circuit boards. ), etc....., only the best neutral non-sound parts ( no step-up transformers, no head amps, etc.. ) and in the critical stages with tolerances at 0.005%.

A developed proprietary technique guarantee an accurate RIAA de-emphasis. This technique assures an initial RIAA accuracy of +/- 0.015 dB from 20 Hz to 20 kHz ( Both channels ), resulting in a neutral phono stage that reproduces exactly what the cartridge generates that are in the recording.
My unit measures so " perfect " that in the measured RIAA chart showing both channels we just can’t see no single frequency deviation from 10hz to 50khz and we can’t distinguish the line from left to rigth channel responses !!!!!!!!
I posted in this forum and if I remember you posted in that thread something about.

To round off the preamplifier’s RIAA capabilities, its has a switchable 3.18 us turnover point to compensate for the cutting head preemphasis roll-off during the recording. Other specs:

Frequency range to: 0.01 Hz to 1,5 MHz. ( both channels. )

Signal to noise ratio: better than 82 dbA in MC stage refered to 0.5mv. and according the standard/norm/rule: EIA/CEA-490-A , the same spec for MM but reffered to 5.0mv and 110db at 1 V ( unity gain ) in line stage. ( Both channels .)

Slew rate: 300 V/mseg.

Common mode rej.: 130db. ( Both channels. )

Distortion: 0.0002% ( Both channels. )

Input overload: MC: 15 mVrms @ 1 kHz (High-gain), 30 mVrms @ 1 kHz (Low-gain)

MM: 500 mVrms @ 1 kHz.

Total weight: 55 lbs.

When I write ( both channels ) this means that both channels measures exactly the same ! ! !


- Mark Levinson Reference 20.6 monobloks:

It is a great industrial design, military specs, bullet proof, great and unique bipolar amplifier design.

It is a fully regulated input to output design that use Arlon circuit boards and have " only " 100 watts of pure class A at 8 ohms, that double that figure at 4,2,1 and 0.5 ohm with an output impedance of 0.012 ohms!

Each monoblokc amplifier power supply is supported for two " big " toroidal transformers ( 600VA each ).

I modified the original Levinson circuitry with better passive parts , silver internal rewiring and not only for the signal but for the electrical power one, power supply lines are free of fuses because I by-passed all of them, by-pass some circuit stages where the signal passed and the must important was the invert stage for balanced operation.

Things were that the 20.6 was designed as a single ended amplifier not a dual diferential true balanced design, they only adds a fully invert stage for the customer can play with in balance mode if he wants it but the real " magic " in this design is in single end way that’s how I’m using it by-passing totally the very complicated ( several parts. ) invert stages, with this the " purity and integrity " of the audiio signal suffer way lower degradations/distortions.

It is at the 20.6 input where through only one best Teflon cap and best naked resistor it makes the frequency croosover for the main speakers in the bi-amp system. Both Teflon caps are mated at 0.1% in between and the resistors at 0.001% as tolerances in between.

Amplifiers bias is always mantained at same value in between the 20.6s as all the other main amplifiers specs.

My monobloks can compete with any today amplifier you can name it and can surpass some of them.

- Main system speakers. My ADS L2030 speakers were not designed as a home speaker but as a Professional Monitor.

What that means?, this is what ADS says: " reproduce the most challenging program sources with the utmost ACCURACY and authority. No other transducer ( in production. ) can offer the combination of ultra-wide frequency and dynamic range, freedom from SONIC COLORATION, extremely LOW DISTORTION, high image accuracy and superb dynamic linearity.

The speakers acoustic suspension design comes with very powerful magnets for the silk dome tweters and mid-ranges where woofers made it with pulp/fabric material with a magnetic flux of: 635,000, 1,830,000 and 1,400,000 nanoWebers respectively.

These L 2030 was designed by Mike Kelly ( Aerial speakers ) and till today it match all my priorities.

It is " heavy " tweaked to do that:

internally is hard wired with silver wire.

I take out the crossover ( now is external ) and change all the parts: resistors ( Duelum. ), all silver ribbon air core inductors, teflon caps, i dissapeared all the speaker’s protection circuits, apply internal damping to put at minimum its resonances, I integrate a back side speaker tweeter same efficiency and silk dome too that has its dedicated silver wired independent crossover at 7.5khz. and the speakers silver’s cables goes hard soldered directly to the crossover parts .
In reality are three separate/stand alone crossovers: one for the tweeter, one for the midrange and the other for the woofer, all these hard-wired directly to the amps ( no connectors. ) by 3 independent silver’s cables that goes from the amplifier outputs to each one external passive crossover.

I change the internal damping glass fiber by 10kg ( each one ) of long hair 100% virgin wool and change the fabric cloth of the grille for a " transparent one ".

Both speakers have at the rear-center the Antiresonant Vibration System by MICROSCAN model TM-8 that works from 20hz to 1.5Khz.

These are some manufacturer specs:

- Frecuency response: 22-20K +.- 3 db ; 18-28K +.- 5db.

-Efficiency: 95 db SPL.

- Power rating: 300 watts nominal; 1,200 peak.

Weight: 95kg.


- system room treatment almost dissapeared because I don’t need it any more because room interactions almost dissapeared too thanks to that " glorious " near " perfect " bass system’s management.



That’s only part of the whys I’m listening and enjoying MUSIC and not DISTORTIONS and why you can’t be aware of that terrible FR’s degradations. Got it?

Does any one experience for the very first time a true enjoying of MUSIC at home instead of distortions?, then first step is stay away of any single tube, try to remember that we are all living in 2017 ! ! not in the 30’s.

As I said the culprit are not the audiophiles but that old corrupted AHEE.


Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

Raul, your system has some interesting components. There are two glaring issues in my view -

1. It is simply not possible to accommodate a true full range system in your small, over damped room without the room itself inducing significant distortion. The location of your equipment between your speakers and the proximity of the speakers and subwoofers so close to the walls is a severe restriction on performance. If you believe that you have achieved flat response in this environment, then it must be at the expense of significant phase and time errors at the listening position resulting in severely distorted soundstage reproduction and distorted fundamentals and overtones.
Furthermore the multi driver approach to speaker building has its own distortions related to competing wavefronts emanating from the drivers in room that cause smearing and phase and time anomalies. Not even steep crossover designs and digital correction systems can fully address this issue.

2.You have stated recently that your analogue source cannot match your digital source. This indicates to me that your analogue system is seriously deficient, particularly in resolution. I have heard Meitner, Soulution, MSB, PS Audio Direct Stream, Zanden digital front ends in situ and they are still not up to the best analogue in resolution. I would suggest you look at purchasing a fully integrated analogue front end such as a complete Rega package ( P10 including Rega arm and cartridge ) that is plug and play. This would give you a benchmark analogue front end that will enable you to see where you have gone wrong. It is possible because you have so many turntables, arms and cartridges that you cannot see the wood for the trees and indeed are missing out on the analogue experience.

In summary it is great that you enjoy your system, but your system is a summation of distortions induced at every level in the chain including the room. That you would hold out that your system has lower distortions than any other on this forum would be a fantasy at best..
Regards

The location of your equipment between your speakers and the proximity of the speakers and subwoofers so close to the walls is a severe restriction on performance.

Hi Dover, I agree completely with you assessment on Raul’s room / treatment, especially the problem of putting all those turntables so close to the speakers. The airborne vibration, feedback to the turntable system when music is playing, is more than enough to wipe out all the so call low distortion measures of the equipment.

Yes, most audiophiles do put their turntables in the same room as the speakers for convenience purpose, but for someone like Raul, who claims to have pull all the stops on eliminating distortions?!!!!

I'm still laughing from Syntax's post.

Dear @dover / @thekong : As always you only looking for an " error " in what I posted here and elsewhere. I can’t remember you any single post in reference to mines where you really enriched/enhanced the ignorance level of audiophiles that reads the threads/posts. Always looking for an opportunity to " attack ". Fortunatelly with no success and this only increment your frustations.

Anyway, here my answer to your post:

as a very good student you repeat what the AHEE teached to all of us but that is not real rule because each " stage/enviroment " is diferent. Let me explain mine:

my subwoofers are not close to walls or in the corners, as a fact one of it is located in a " free " space and the other has the only wall damped, I still use, behind it. The main speakers that works 87 hz to over 25khz has no wall behind it but windows where in the center of the window ( floor to ceiling ) I have like 1m. wide damping. One of the main speakers is almost in a " freee " space. My in purpose room damping I’m using are ( mainly ) diffusors by RPG.

The furniture in the room are mainly wood/wool/cotton fabrics that are very good difussors and with some damping too. The rugs fabrics is all wool.

I have to say that I don’t live in my " island " of audio/music only environment/stage.
My system was and is enjoyed by several audiophiles and I listened " hundreds " of home audio systems here in México and USA. Lisneted systems from 25K-30K to over 350K prices. I did and still do that listening other system " lessons " to have true references against my system other than live MUSIC events.

So, it’s not only me who think my system distortions are really really low but other gentlemans including musicians that can attest it.

As you know and through the time I developed my own test/evaluation in deep proccess where through the years I received a deep training that permits me to identify several kind of distortions you just can’t imagine exist in your system. That bullet proof evaluation proccess is repeatable anywhere and I can identify advantages and disadvantages in any home system in no more than 1 hour.

Other that what I posted here about part of my system you can read too my latests posts in the subwoofer thread. I can’t give you all the information of my system here, it’s full of very fine details.

Due to your post I took some part of my evaluation proccess that normally I don’t use it very often becfause I know very well my system and the results/success of my up-grades/up-dates/tweacks but I did it these past two days because your post:

fist is to compare through my Stax headphoes the quality sound level against my near-field seat position. Nothing here confirm or even approach nothing of what you posted: there are no higher distortions, phase problems, colorations, time errors, distorted soundstage or fundamentals/harmonics: CERO CERO.

second, I use ( first ) a stetoscopyc not only at the TT/tonearm under evaluation/playing but at the other TTs that were in static way and through the racks too. I did it using Telarc 1812, Dafos and Firebird tracks not at 83db normal SPL but at 97dbs ( at seat position. ) with 109db on peaks and you know something: I can’t detect any vibration/resonance because that air borne.

Finally my water glasses test, with different glass sizes and different water quantities on each one. Where I put those glasses all over the system items that are inbetween speakers/subwoofers and you know something: NO SINGLE WATER MOVEMENTS at that very high SPLs.


On my posts here and in the Do you think you need a subwoofer? latest ones I posted: SYSTEM/ROOM NOISE FLOOR GOES LOWER AND LOWER WHERE THE ROOM ALMOST DISAPPEARED.
That is an experience where you can’t even dream with when you are living on and with those terrible 30’s.

When you listen my system you just can’t be aware of those subwoofers thank’s to system near " perfect " system/room integration that achieved a fenomenal system/room BASS MANAGEMENT as you can’t even dream with. You just can’t know what I’m talking about but my friends here can.
The level of resolution of my today system/room is second to none of all the systems I listened through my life.

No, it’s not a " fantasy " as you say trying to diminish my posts. The blend of whole circumstances/environment in my system/room made it that performs with that kind of quality level .

Btw, I did all my latest system/room evaluation with both alternatives: digital and analog one and I can say you and every one that digital is way superior to analog and I posted this not in the last month but for more than two years now.Btw, I’m not against the analog alternative, I like it too but can’t even the digital one.

Only whom his ignorance level is so high can today think that analog is superior to today digital

NO WAY MY FRIEND.

I can enjoy both alternatives and I will do in the future.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC not distortions,
R.