DAGOGO Letters: 2007 3rd Quarter

LETTERS
3rd Quarter 2007

Subject = Eastern Electric M520 stereo power amplifier review

Dear Doug,

I am currently looking at road testing the M520 and read your review article. Outstanding - easily one of the best reviews of an audio component I have read (and believe me, I have read a fair few over the years!) Apart from being well written (without the usual fanfare writers choose to attach to a review), I found it very informative - it teased out subtleties about the product, provided me with some ideas to try out when I do my road testing and above all has got me excited about testing this product.

Congrats and thank you!!!

Regards,

Gautam

(Response from Doug Schroeder)

Gautam,

The Joy of God to you,

I appreciate your compliments. If you like the idea of "working with" a component, i.e. different settings, tube rolling, etc. then you will most likely very much enjoy the M520! Some of us just can't keep our hands off equipment and the M520 just begs us to adjust something if the sound is not perfect to our ears.

The M520 should give you a very good chance to match source, cables and speakers to find a sound that appeals to you. Tube rolling had a profound impact on the sound; if you would like to discuss tube selection, Bill at Morningstar Audio, the Distributor in the U.S., is very knowledgeable and would be an excellent source of information. Have fun!

Blessings,

Douglas Schroeder

Subject = Audience au24 speaker cable review

Hi, I was curious if you had a preference for the au24 bi-wire or the single-wire with jumpers. I recently auditioned the single-wire and I was thrilled with their performance. It seems there are differing opinions on which set up is better. Any feed back would be much appreciated.

Thanks for your great au 24 cables.

Drew Turner in Canada

(Response from Jack Roberts)

Thank you Drew for reading Dagogo.

The question about bi-wiring or using the jumpers is a good one. I have done both with the au24 and find it is very speaker dependant. On both pairs of Audio Note E's there was no doubt that bi-wiring was much better, but on the Gershman speakers and the Ikonoklast with the Murata Super Tweeter single wiring with a jumper was just as good if not better. I wish I had a better answer for you, but like so much in our hobby there is no absolute answer for all situations. Thanks,

Jack

Subject = 47 Laboratory 4704 PiTracer review

Dear Sir,

In your review of the PiTracer, you state that you will follow-up with an update on any improvement on the factory re-adjusted PiTracer. Since I have not seen this update yet, can you inform me about the present state of skipping of your machine? Also I am interested in the actions you undertook to solve this problem.

Why do I ask? Well, since beginning this year I have a PiTracer too. And although I am very impressed with its unique sound quality, the high skipping rate is bothersome. I have found out two things: 1) the skipping rate is partly dependent on the room temperature (above 24 degrees Celsius the rate is rising), 2) cleanliness of disks is very important. But how to clean disks the best way? So far I used the Furutech spray and found this is not to be sufficient. So, I am looking into buying a CD-cleaning machine, but which one?

I hope you can give me some answers on which I can undertake further investigations about which - of course - I can inform you.

Yours faithfully,

Wilco Bos

(Response from Constantine Soo)

Dear Mr. Bos,

Thank you for your email and your readership.

Mr. Junji Kimura performed a latest update of my PiTracer, and it has not skipped a single disc since then. As opposed to not being able to play some discs brought by visiting manufacturers and distributors, my PiTracer is now fully able to play any disc.

I urge you to contact 47 Laboratory's U.S. Distributor, Sakura Systems, as soon as possible for information on updating your PiTracer as well. Yoshi Segoshi's email address is: sakurastms@aol.com .

Sincerely,

Constantine Soo

Subject = Shindo Monbrison tube preamplifier review

Jack Roberts,

Thanks for your excellent review of the Shindo Monbrison preamp. I purchased a slightly used (5 months) Monbrison preamplifier from Matt Rotunda at Pitch Perfect audio about 2 months ago. It is glorious. I play it with a VAC 70-70 MkIII signature amplifier, 65 watts of push pull power (8 300Bs and 4 6SN7s. I use a Resoluton Audio Opus 21 CD player, upgraded to reference status by Great Northern Sound. If you have not heard this CD player, I highly recommend it. It is the best I have ever heard, bar none. On Redbook CDs it is stunning. I do not have SACD. I have a VPI Scoutmaster with a Benz Micro L-2. I will probably purchase an EMT TSD15ilZ cartridge from Matt, his recommendation for the Shindo Monbrison, @ .21 mV a great match. Like you, I am still working on getting the bass right. It does produce more energy than my previous Thor 2000 preamp. I use Verity Parsifal Encore speakers. They still seem a bit lumpy in the bass. They are 38" from the back wall (the absolute farthest I can bring them out in my living room), and 2 2/1 feet from the left side wall and 3 feet from the right wall. I have them toed slightly. I have tried a variety of combinations (straight ahead, way toed in, etc.). This produces the most natural sound. I can also reverse the bass module and this will reduce the SPLs. Matt has sent me several suggestions (he used Verity Rienzi speakers, along with others, Living Voice, etc.) I am sure you've heard them all at his home. Thanks again for the your fine reviews of Shindo audio gear. All the very best! James May

Seattle, WA

(Response from Jack Roberts)

James, I want to thank you so much for your kind words and I continue also continue to enjoy the beautiful music that Shindo preamps can produce. The problem with you are experiencing with the bass is probably a room and speaker interaction. Without being there I can only make two suggestions. First, I have discovered my listening position is as important a speaker placement in my room. Second, bass traps often do work. Good luck and thanks again. Jack

Subject = Acrolink Mexcel series cable system review

The Editor, I read with much interest the article by your Ryan Coleman "Ryan Coleman experiences the $23440, seven-zeros Mexcel series of Acrolink cable system". I was however more interested in his description of the Homemade Powercord he described. Quote: "For the past 2 years, I've been using a DIY power cord that I have about $400 in that has absolutely smoked anything remotely close in price. The cord itself is quite simple to construct: use an Oyaide P46 (palladium) and C46 (gold) set of plugs, along with some Acrolink bulk P4030 AC cable, and piece it together. It's not the last word in any particular area, but it's wonderful and it's cheap, and I strongly recommend it." I'm from Canada and have found an Online source for the Oyaide line of products and was wondering if Mr. Coleman would verify if the cable he speaks of "Acrolink bulk P4030 AC cable" would be the same as this one which I found listed. " Oyaide Tunami Power Cable Cryo treated? Product Code: CR OE TUNAMI " http://www.takefiveaudio.com/mall/shopexd.asp?id=677 I am very interested in following his recipe for a powercord and would certainly appreciated any response he might offer. I really enjoy your Site and reviews and look forward to it monthly. Keep up the good work. Thanks again for any help you might offer. Larry Minicola

(Response from Ryan Coleman)

Larry,

A brief look at the site and i was able to find the 4030 wire (under the Acrolink brand, not the Oyaide brand).

FWIW, in my recent tests, the Oyaide P004 / C004 is a more neutral plug combination, and should serve as a replacement for the 79-series. The gold-plated 46-series is still a good choice for a system that is too cool (or for most digital pieces) as it imparts a false midrange glow / warmth, but the 004-series should be considered as the preferred plug for achieving neutrality.

And don't get me started on the R1 AC plugs---they are unbelievable (I'll write something for the December edition on "must have stocking stuffers" and the R1 will likely be at the top of the list).

Best

Subject: Von Schweikert VR4 SR MkII review

Hi Doug,

Thank you so much for the excellent and informative review of the vsa vr4 sr speakers. I want to know what bi-wire speaker cable and jumper cable for the base modules you used in the review as these speakers can be tri-wired. I also love my vr4sr's and thanks again for your help.

Sincerely,

Danny Elaco

(Response from Doug Schroeder)

Danny,

The Joy of God to you,

Being 99.99% certain that the speakers were not tri-wirable, I spoke with Albert Von Schweikert about your question. Surprise! They ARE tri-wirable, BUT ONLY if you have the company add an additional set of posts to the Mid/Tweet module (I assume this incurs additional cost to purchaser)!

In the stock speaker, the bottom two sets of posts on the bass module are for cables with four leads in one jacket (where one wishes to biwire but cannot physically separate the cables; it's necessary to use the supplied jumper between modules). In separately biwired configuration the bottom posts of the bass module are used along with the posts of the M/T module.

Definitely Biwire! It's much sweeter! Enjoy your lush speakers!

Blessings,

Doug