Schumann Resonator

Oh no now I no longer know what to do for sure!

Disclaimer: I may be biased.  I could even be very biased.....but probably not.

@sokogear,

"Like you, I am not interested in subtle or very subtle improvements, and I have been surprised by how little my turntable improved in sound in an upgrade from the Rega P5 to the P8 while using the same arm from the P8. If I can’t hear am easily noticeable change when hooking up the new equipment or change, it’s not worth it to me."



Agreed in that it’s the easy to hear changes that are most satisfying.

It’s also good to hear that the P8 is clearly superior to the P5 as they are radically different designs.

I’m sure that many Rega owners will find your experiences with siting helpful. For some decks especially, siting can have a considerable effect.

Rega’s approach to resonance control seems to feature ever decreasing mass with increased rigidity and accuracy in bearing / arm tolerances but that might not be the final word.

Even with the very low mass of your P8, siting seems to matter.



@mahgister,

"In the next week or 2 i will describe my last acoustical device more powerful than any other i used in the past..."


As ever, I’m sure your words will be of interest. Food for thought at the very least.


@djones51,

It's an interesting article which unfortunately highlights the difficulties of preventing human beings from concocting whatever stories they seem to fancy.

It's particularly troubling to me that historical images can nowadays be so easily be manipulated that it can be difficult to gauge whether they have any real veracity. 

Or are they also just stories some people want to tell?

When a geophysicist, mathematician and co designer on some of my projects came to visit I had her take a listen to my just turned on system. I asked her to close her eyes and spread her arms to the left and right edges of the soundstage. She expressed 11 to 1..

After 45 mins of playing time and repeating the same tracks at the same exact volume for her to close her eyes again and spread her arms to the left and right extension of the soundstage... ...she expressed 9 to 3 so it is the width of the room at 20.5 feet. She couldn’t believe the difference saying there was no way warm up or breakin of materials could affect electron flow and make that sort of difference. She could not express a different reason as to why. Her exposure to audio is a Bose system and her daughter is a cellist. Tom

@cd318 - my point was that I was surprised that the improvement from changing arms from the Rega P5 arm (RB700) to the one from the P8 (RB880) ON the P5 table was much more significant than when I changed the table itself (of course keeping the RB880) from the P5 to the P8.

I expected the table upgrade to be more noticeable, especially since it cost more than the arm upgrade alone. I am still glad I upgraded the table because it has a few features I really like - the better wiring and connectors to the PSU and from the arm, and the dustcover design in addition to sounding better.

It would be interesting to compare the P8 to much more expensive tables if they were placed on a perfectly non-vibrating surface. Regas have low internal noise due to their low mass, but can be vibrated easily because of it. I guess that's why Rega sells wall shelves specifically for the P8/P10. If you really want to see the philosophy taken to extremes, check out the Rega Naiad. It looks like it weighs nothing. It is the design model the P8 and P10 are based on. i think it goes for $40K and is very limited in production, if at all. Probably by special order only.

@theaudiotweak - not surprising that warming up an amp for 45 minutes from dead cold would improve the sound. I think the argument that Doug is making is about burn or break in not being important, not warm up. I think that is universally agreed upon.

What will be the amount of warm up time for a super conductive material to reach it's stasis level?
Tom