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ironwood

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  1. Peter, I have an existing grounding post just outside the wall of my system that is used to ground the electrical box containing breaker switches. Can this post be shared? My kWP preamp and both voltage stabilizers have grounding posts. Should I use individual wires or can they share a single fixed grounding wire and be chained? You mentioned grounding cables. Would it be worthwhile to invest in a plug adapter and a new AC cord for things such as the Apple TV which only have a two prong termination? Thanks for your help.
  2. I recently upgraded my stereo system and I am now experiencing an increased audible "hum" coming from the speakers. I am currently looking for a solution to eliminate this distracting noise from the system. I have read all the related articles but none seemed to apply to my situation. I will begin with a description of my system starting at the power source. I live in a small rural town. The 60 or so homes of the 120 residences that have power draw from a local "power" relay in the valley. The power originates at a local damn and comes to us through the mountains. The power lines come up my driveway and terminate at my house and do not proceed past my property. I have a power transformer mounted on a power company pole less that 25 feet from my electric box on the outside of my home. In the box I currently have the line that the system draws from on a 15 amp breaker though I plan to upgrade this to a dedicated line with a 20 amp breaker. Inside the house the system is plugged into a standard socket that light switches and other appliances share. There may be a dimmer switch on this line as well but I never have it "on". I use a Rotel RLC 1040 as a voltage stabilizer and line conditioner. I have numerous components plugged into the LC. These include: Music System: Apple TV Music Fidelity X-PSU v3 & X-DAC v3 Music Fidelity kWP hybrid tube preamp Krell KAV 2250 Dynaudio Audience 72 SE Video / Gaming System Sources - Sony PS3 / XBOX 360 / DirecTV HD DVR Octava HDMI Video & Audio Switch Box Music Fidelity A3.24 DAC Fujitsu 42" Plasma Display In addition I have a Monster Voltage stabilizer that pre-dates the Rotel Line Conditioner / Voltage stabilizer. I plug some of the secondary components like the Octava switch into this. The music DAC and the gaming / TV DAC are assigned to different inputs on the kWP. I have post purchase power cables on both amps and the X-DAC. I use Tara Labs Air interconnect cables and speaker cables. The apple tv and the octava switch box have questionable power cords and I am not sure if they grounded. I have also noticed that turning off the X-PSU & X-DAC v3 decreases the audible buzz coming from the system. In the past while using the Squeezebox player it also created a louder buzz. The buzz or hum increased again when I recently added the kWP pre-amp. It actually got quite loud making enjoying music a low volumes difficult. I am planning on installing a dedicated line and replacing the 15 amp breaker with a 20 amp breaker. I also plan to upgrade the wall sockets as a beginning measure and upgrade. I am looking for any suggestion on how to identify the source of this hum and would also like advice on how to identify if I have a "ground loop hum" which I have read about plaguing some systems. I thought that the Rotel line conditioner would address this issue. Am I mistaken that a line condictioner should decrease such noise? I have also read that computers can add "noise." I have both the PS3 and XBOX 360 in addition to the Apple TV and the Directv DVR feeding into my system. Could all of these devices be generating noise and how would I go about isolating it? Would it be worthwhile to use a cable adapter and use after market AC cables on the apple tv or PS3? And lastly, My cables are laying all over one another given the small space I have to work with. I also have ethernet cables feeding into several devices from an ethernet hub. Should I consider cables running across one another as an issue? Thanks for your help and advice.
  3. Here is a good reference article that includes a hefty amount of technical information concerning "lossy" compression and its effect on music. This article also contains analysis and comparison between MP3 and CD. Article is from Stereophile Online: http://www.stereophile.com/features/308mp3cd/
  4. I must be the minority as I find MP3's to be noticeably lacking in bass and the treble decay often sounds abrupt. I find that the sound stage and spacing amongst instruments and other such nuances that a nice system reproduce are also lost. I have noticed that music recorded prior to the 70's that seems to have less resolution in general is less noticeable. Yet I have also listened to NPR radio podcasts that also seemed to suffer similar compression issues such as having the bass truncated and the highs clipped. For me the thought of missing in anything in the music is not a worthwhile comprise for the convenience that MP3's offer.
  5. May I ask if you have experience with pairing a tubed pre-amp with a solid state power amp. I'm quite happy with my Krell preamp but one of my next planned upgrades is removing the integrated pre-amp my system began with for another preamp. I have considered a tubed premamp but I am inexperienced as to how a hybrid system performs. Audio Research is one of the companies I would consider purchasing from. Can you inform me of any guidelines or pitfalls concerning pairing a solid state amp with a tubed pre-amp?
  6. Peter,<br /> <br /> I do indeed enjoy jazz and blues music in addition to the many underground genres represented in my international underground music magazine. The music covered in the magazine represents my musical roots in modern underground music while jazz, blues, classical, choral, blue grass and american roots music are musical styles I am currently just discovering and immersing myself in. <br /> <br /> I find pleasure in almost any quality music that has a sense of authenticity and creative excellence. Beginning my exploration of jazz and the other mainstream genres has been quite refreshing given the public appreciation these mainstream genres enjoy. <br /> <br /> It is surprising that more audiophiles do not deviate off the beaten path...<br /> <br /> Thank you for the compliment concerning HH as well. It has been a labor of love!<br /> <br /> <br />
  7. I had little guidance while initially assembling my system so I went with what I knew at the time. The inline tubes came after I starting using a music server. In the future I am contemplating a hybrid system. Though it would seem that some people think that tubed components rob the bass from a system and I have heard others claim that tubes need replaced as early as every three years. Also it would seem that many tubed power amps have much lower power ratings. Are these valid concerns?
  8. As noted above the Genius sidebar is a real disappointment if your music collection strays off the beaten path of popular music. I have a sizable jazz and classic rock collection which the genius conveniently shuffles into a playlist though it does not distinguish between vocal jazz and instrumental jazz which is a put off.<br /> <br /> If your music collection does not include a majority of pip chart busters then the feature is pretty much useless. I bit the hook and let itunes scan my 1.5 TB library which took around 5 hours only to find that the program only recognizes about %15 of my total music collection. All other songs and albums retrieve a generic error message.<br /> <br /> If this was to be on of the most touted features it really only works for the pop music masses.<br /> <br /> <br />
  9. I listen to my 1.5 TB music collection over a wireless music network. I have constructed my system piece by piece over the past 8 years. When digital music became relevant to me I purchased the Musical Fidelity X-10 v3 inline tube stage for my system. My system works as described: Mac Mini & 4TB Drobo (All Files Apple Lossless Encoded) Music routed over ethernet cable to Apple TV Apple TV to Musical Fidelity A3 24 192K Upsampling DAC MF DAC to Musical Fidelity X-10 v3 inline tube stage Musical Fidelity X-10 v3 to Musical Fidelity A3.2 Preamp MF A3.2 to Krell KAV-2250 power amp Krell KAV-2250 to DynAudio Audience 72-SE Floor Standing Tower Loud Speakers Connected with Tara Labs RSC Air cables and other lower tier Tara Labs Cables. I bought the tube stage in order to buffer some of the perceived "glare" of digital music. I have found it very satisfactory. Has anyone else added tubes or else bought tubed amps specifically because of listening primarily to digital music? What solution or using using?
  10. I listen to a wide range of music. I own and operate an international underground music magazine so my rise in the audiophile world has been unusual to say the least as my music tastes often veer off far into left field territory most people are unfamiliar with. Seeing that my musical heritage is so uncommon amongst audiophiles I have little experience with more "mainstream" or more familiar styles of music. Recently I inherited a very large CD collection that included a sizable collection of classic rock, blues, classical and jazz music. As I make my way through this new treasure trove of music I am finding myself very drawn to early blues, jazz, blue grass, folk, early african slave spirituals and other early American music recordings. The only reliable source I have found for sampling such recordings is the online Smithsonian Folkways collection which supplies an archive of such recordings alongside MP3 samples and also Amazon.com where such albums and MP3 samples can be found. I know that audiophile recording techniques were not developed when such recordings were made. I am interested to hear from other people who have collected such music and would prefer to hear recommendations on various recordings sound quality and recommendations based on how recommended albums sound being played on an audiophile grade stereo system either on CD or over a music server. I am particularly interested in hearing recommendations concerning remasters of original recordings that might reduce some of the background noise or improve the fidelity of a given recording. I am beginning my exploration with the classic remastered "American Folk Anthology" issued originally on Folkway Recordings. Thanks.
  11. Chris, Thank you for the warm welcome. I would love to transfer my media dissemination to a FTP server but I am restricted by geography. I live in one if not the most remote area of N. California. The nearest small city is a three hour drive away. The only high speed internet access available in our entire county is Satellite internet which imposes absurd limitations of downloading and uploading. My needs require that I ship anywhere from 20 - 120 CD's a month internationally. With the current upload restrictions I would be unable to meet the quota. In addition I work with some people in countries such as S. America and Russia where the salaries are low and folks pay for the download by the MB. This is a further restriction as some of my staff cannot afford to pay to download. And finally file size is a restriction. I despise lossy music compression and cannot in good conscious as a music journalist to review a lossy compressed file even if it means I save cash or time. Thank you for the suggestion. My county is beginning the process of requesting permission to access the government and research exclusive Internet 2 network used by universities and research institutes. This would be a first if our county is granted access to the network. We are hoping our need for economic development will prompt the government to make an exception. If this transpires our county would have outrageous bandwidth. Keeping my fingers crossed. '
  12. Hello, I'm new here but I have been working with various computer based music server systems for a few years now. I own and operate an online music magazine called Heathen Harvest. I am the reception hub for all incoming review media that is reviewed by the international online magazine. As my magazine has grown I have needed to back up copies of each and every music review submission my magazine receives. I service reviewers around the globe with review media. When a release goes missing in the post I must supply reviewers with a back up copy which is why my storage needs are so great. After working with numerous 1TB external drives and various synching software I finally discovered a no hassle drive enclosure that does all the work and is continually upgradable without a hitch. As of right now I am enjoying 4TB of redundant back up without the use of RAID or its management issues. To learn more check out the drive enclosure device called "Drobo" check out this link www.drobo.com. I have been using my Drobo for nearly a year with 4 X 1TB drives. Its simple, maintenance free and has been the answer to my prayers with a lossless music collection approaching 1.5 TB. I am using the earlier USB only drobo but would be interested in hearing how the firewire version works should anyone else also be using this device. Hope this helps some other people save money as I blew way too much money on single external 1TB drives that continued to fail before discovering this device.
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