Pete's System

[springwood64]

IMG_20231123_105310040_MFNR.jpg

Källa has landed. Currently playing the warm up playlist.

[Spannko]

Fantastic Pete! Linn Records would often use Espek’s to monitor their recordings in preference to any other speaker, so you’ve got a great system there. Enjoy!

[springwood64]

Thanks Spannko. My wife and I had the first listening session last night, which was thoroughly enjoyable. When Boazu arrived it seemed to really improve in enjoyability after the first week, so I'm leaving Källa playing Radio Paradise full time to settle him in.

In some respects Hakai is a hard act to follow for me, because it made digital music enjoyable as a primary source for the first time, and so enabled a new discovery of music and re-invigorated my interest in music. Pretty amazing for such a low cost digital player. Källa can only bring an improvement in character rather than kind. However last night's session revealed that the character is more engaging and with even more boogie! We found ourselves discussing the music and the musicians throughout the session.

Oh, and one thing the Espeks revel in is bringing out the bass - and so it appears does Källa. On Billie Eilish Bad Guy it felt like the house was falling in. I suspect I will have to refine the speaker positioning further.

[Spannko]

We found ourselves discussing the music and the musicians throughout the session.

Welcome to the world of Källa!

[Charlie1]

Glad you're enjoying it Pete!

Nice system!

[Hermann]

Glad you like it and that more and more people are enjoying the benefits of the Källa.

[springwood64]

Thanks for your comments.

One week in and I'm starting to understand what Källa does. Right now two of my kids are lounging in the living room singing along to "Sledgehammer". Källa is playing quietly in the background but somehow it draws us in to participate, by dancing or singing along.

Earlier I played "Tango In The Night" by Fleetwood Mac. I bought this on CD when it came out in 1987 and was disappointed and puzzled because it was so unengaging. The production is immaculate, the songs great and yet the album boring. When I bought my first LP12 I also bought the album on vinyl and was disappointed that it remained puzzlingly unengaging. It seemed emotionless, immaculately clinical, in contrast to Rumours which grabbed from the first few notes. I couldn't understand it. Hakai and Spotify were not able to reveal any emotion. However, Källa does. Now the album grabs me as I felt it should do all along.

Each listening session has been a very active experience. This isn't the same as the common 'upgrade experience' of playing familiar music to hear how much better it sounds, this seems to be a new way of experiencing music that used to be familiar but now is something different.

[Charlie1]

Earlier I played "Tango In The Night" by Fleetwood Mac. I bought this on CD when it came out in 1987 and was disappointed and puzzled because it was so unengaging. The production is immaculate, the songs great and yet the album boring. When I bought my first LP12 I also bought the album on vinyl and was disappointed that it remained puzzlingly unengaging. It seemed emotionless, immaculately clinical, in contrast to Rumours which grabbed from the first few notes. I couldn't understand it. Hakai and Spotify were not able to reveal any emotion. However, Källa does. Now the album grabs me as I felt it should do all along.

Glad you and the family are all enjoying this album on Kalla! It's part of my teenage years so has some meaning to me.

[lejonklou]

Each listening session has been a very active experience. This isn't the same as the common 'upgrade experience' of playing familiar music to hear how much better it sounds, this seems to be a new way of experiencing music that used to be familiar but now is something different.

Thank you Pete for this description of what Källa does! I could not have expressed it any better.

[ljknewbie]

Thanks for your comments.

One week in and I'm starting to understand what Källa does. Right now two of my kids are lounging in the living room singing along to "Sledgehammer". Källa is playing quietly in the background but somehow it draws us in to participate, by dancing or singing along.


Each listening session has been a very active experience. This isn't the same as the common 'upgrade experience' of playing familiar music to hear how much better it sounds, this seems to be a new way of experiencing music that used to be familiar but now is something different.

Exactly my experience. I was talking recently with a friend who wanted to know how it sounds and I mentioned that I am hearing/listening to the bass for the first time on “Tin Pan Alley” the focus was always on the guitar whenever I’ve heard it earlier (thousands of times along the last 3-4 decades)

[springwood64]

This hobby is so funny. I remembered some old posts on the forum about checking fuse orientation, so decided to test the orientation of the fuse in the power strip for Kalla and Boazu. To save time I decided not to reattach the top of the plug, leaving the fuse exposed as it is plugged into the socket (don't try this at home kids). The plug didn't sit in fully so I pressed it home (on the live), and got a hefty thump in my thumb as a reward for my stupidity.

Still, it turns out I prefer the fuse oriented the reverse of its original position, so it was worth it. The last time I was zapped by 240V AC was as a child when I chewed thru a lamp chord and found myself flung across the living room floor and left with a strange lingering taste in my mouth. This time round the lesson was much gentler. Needless to say I hope my family don't read this thread ....

[springwood64]

Last night I followed the guidance in points 5 & 6 here: https://www.lejonklou.com/wp-content/up ... cords1.pdf:

5. Don’t bunch up, pinch or squeeze any cables. Don’t put them into
tubes. Let them lie and hang freely. If possible, try to keep power cords
and signal level interconnects slightly separated behind the system. Or at
least not running very close and parallel to one another.

6. The plastic jacket of most power cords gets slightly stiff with time. If
you soften the cord by carefully rolling and bending it with your hands
until the stiffness is removed, it will sound better.

I applied this to the extension block and the power cables for Kalla and Boazu. Previously I had 'tidied' them into bunches secured by wire ties. I stretched out the loops and massaged the cables until they were relatively straight and more relaxed.

It seemed to bring quite a nice improvement, and I spent the evening listening to Radio Paradise because every time I planned to turn it off for Spotify, another song came on that grabbed me.

[springwood64]

I came across a suggestion on Beck's thread to try placing cables on a sheepskin rug.

Happily my wife has a sheepskin rug which I borrowed to support the power cables.

Unhappily, my wife was quick to spot the theft and is unimpressed.

Even worse, to my ears it makes an improvement and now I don't want to give it back.

[lejonklou]

Ha ha!

[ThomasOK]

I came across a suggestion on Beck's thread to try placing cables on a sheepskin rug.

Happily my wife has a sheepskin rug which I borrowed to support the power cables.

Unhappily, my wife was quick to spot the theft and is unimpressed.

Even worse, to my ears it makes an improvement and now I don't want to give it back.

That is very interesting and I can't easily discount it. In India many saddhus used to meditate on tiger skins or deer skins placed over a kusha grass mat and covered with a silk cloth. This is to insulate the energy in the chakras from the earth's magnetism. My guru recommended a wool blanket with a silk cloth on top as similarly effective and more available to westerners.

Who wants to test sheepskin, vs. deer skin and tiger skin and make us clips?

[Tendaberry]

Then there's the question of curly or straight sheepskin, of course. I think I could also arrange deer skin and wolf skin for testing, maybe even reindeer ;-) I have small samples of straight sheepskin in the shop, I think I'll try one of those for the LP12 cables.

[springwood64]

He he!

I was prompted to browse through Beck's CD player journey because my son asked if he could play CDs through the system. He loves vinyl and music on physical media and has started buying very cheap CDs.

I thought: maybe I can pick up a cheap Arcam CD player and Beckify it.

Hence the rather flippant experiment with the sheepskin rug ...

[beck]

Then there's the question of curly or straight sheepskin, of course. I think I could also arrange deer skin and wolf skin for testing, maybe even reindeer ;-) I have small samples of straight sheepskin in the shop, I think I'll try one of those for the LP12 cables.

I think you will find that the Sondek is rather well protected against the kind of vibrations that a sheepskin can calm down but using it in a digital playback system will likely show results.
Let us hear what you find out when testing. :-)

[Tendaberry]

So, maybe for the cables entering and exiting the Akurate DSM then?
This is what the straight sheepskin looks like, I have samples 25 x 25 cm, about 5 cm high.

Sheep.jpg

[springwood64]

My rug is straight, tho doesn't look quite as luxurious or healthy as yours

[tokenbrit]

Is that a secret 50th anniversary product - the Linn Merkin?

[ThomasOK]

Is that a secret 50th anniversary product - the Linn Merkin?

Nah, Linn would make one out of wool and it would be called...the Kilt!

[tokenbrit]

Is that a secret 50th anniversary product - the Linn Merkin?

Nah, Linn would make one out of wool and it would be called...the Kilt!

Darn it, you're right but, based on the clips, the music would be a little off-kilter...

[springwood64]

I have sheepishly returned the rug to its owner. The folded arms, raised eyebrow and imperiously tapping feet were too much...

[springwood64]

Has anyone experimented with room treatments to improve their system?

At the weekend I serendipitously found myself with spare rockwool insulation and two 75cm x 100cm unwanted picture canvases.

It took about 5 minutes to stuff the frames with 5cm thick rockwool and place them behind the speakers to hear the effect.

My back wall is 9mm plasterboard with a 50mm gap in front of mineral wool insulation, and I was fully expecting to hear no significant difference from adding the panels:

without: https://photos.app.goo.gl/BkH1qbjyTkfQ6KtS8

with: https://photos.app.goo.gl/g3LzTNbFB2jFL33v9