A Copernican View of the Turntable System

Hi Halcro,

Before Nandric jumps in with his view, I'd just like to say that I have not meant to detract from the main subject of this post with my last comment and am sorry if I have.

I am not familiar enough with Frege (the 'extent' or impact of the supposed limitations of his mathematic on his luiguistic rationalism; the 'extent' and differences between his concept of 'logic', etc) to criticise his approach and thinking. For me, such difference in thinking still stands as a key and inevitable aspect of philosophy. Nor am I, as has been suggested elsewhere, a Kantian or Hegelian.

For those interested, I would never advocate standing under the banner of any one thinker and I realise that things are rarely as simple or clear cut as might be wished: 'http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/frege/'.

Apologies for this final abstraction and I continue to follow (and, hopefully, contribute to) the developments on this thread with real interest.

As always...

I view placing my rack between my speakers a lesser evil. I have very small room (16x10x8ft or 5x3x2m LxWxH). I simply do not have anywhere else where it can be placed other than in a corner, which is worse.

There is one place where the rack could be placed but I would then require long interconnects (20ft RCA's). As result I would trade off mechanical problems for electrical ones.

This sport is all about trade-offs, at all levels from the tone-arm to the room.

Hi Nick_sr,

I face a similar dilemma and tried both for some time. I went for the extra length on preamp to amp interconnects (power amp between speakers - feeling that the speaker cable length is more telling). Analysis Plus [Silver Oval, as originally recommended to me by Raul] pride themselves on control/accuracy over long lengths. Their conducted square wave tests appear to support that view and - as I said - my hearing seems to agree. Although not ideal, this might therefore be worth giving a listen.

As always...

Hi Nick sr, This is the difference between the 'actual world' and the 'possible world'. I used to have on my wall not a TT rack but many Playboy beauties while I married the
girl next door.

Regards,

Hi Nick:

20 feet (from preamp to poweramp?) should be OK for preamps that have good output drive capability and low output impedance. With preamps of higher output impedance, you may encounter some high-frequency roll-off. This effect can be minimized by making sure that you use as low-capacitance interconnects as you can find. I think that Blue Jean Cables offers some interconnects which prioritize low capacitance.

IME, the acoustic problem from having big, acoustically reflective objects between the speakers is a bigger problem than needing to use long interconnects. Having big objects between the speakers really does mess up the soundstage and imaging big-time, with lesser (but still significant) damage inflicted on instrumental timbres and dynamics. If you absolutely must have your equipment rack between the speakers, I would try to get the rack and equipment as far behind the speaker baffles as possible, and get the equipment or rack's highest edge lower than the speakers' tweeters, preferably the midrange also.

If you can't disassemble your rack and reassemble it to get it lower, perhaps you could keep a thick blanket handy to throw over the rack and gear when the speakers are playing. This won't be as effective as opening up the space between the speakers, but it will give better results than doing nothing.

One more simple setup technique that I habitually use is to experiment with the rake angle of the speakers front baffle. Changing the rake angle of the front baffle will modify the time-alignment between midrange and treble (unless you use full-ranges), and can be used to alter the perceived height of the soundstage center, and the tonal balance. I find that most people seem to find the sound most comfortable if I adjust the speaker rake angle to bring the vertical center of the soundstage to approximately ear level.

Note that if the angle of the left and right speakers is different, you will introduce a height skew to the left and right sides of the soundstage. Making sure that the left and right speakers have identical vertical rake will give better imaging focus and soundstage depth.

hth, jonathan carr