Category Archives: Gadget Corner

Master category for most electronics.

Pro-Ject Xtension 10 setup and first impressions

Electronics, Gadget Corner

It’s been ages since I took delivery of a new turntable; then again, I’ve never had anything this advanced.  One should be a bit impressed when a 50kg crate shows up at the side door.  I felt like I was back to working in a warehouse again!  And it took all I had to maneuver it through the side door and up the landing into the kitchen.

The Pro-Ject Xtension 10 is well packed.  It comes in a wooden crate, with all the major components separated by thick stacks of Styrofoam.  Setup really is not too difficult, as it involves putting the heavy platter on the bearing, attaching the feet, and attaching various bits and pieces.  Lugging the finished unit to a suitable temporary table was a chore in itself, due to its weight.

The hardest part, as always, is getting the cartridge aligned and mounted, and that took awhile mainly due to the finicky setup parameters of the Ortofon 2M Black (the Shibata stylus needing to have exacting setup to perform properly).  Having plenty of adjustability in the tonearm did help–that is one drawback to the Grace tonearm, in that there were a couple of adjustments I could not easily make.  Not to mention the inability to align the cartridge to a Lofgren A alignment.

The alignment still needs some tweaking at this point.  I will have another go at it when my eyes are refreshed, and I can print a couple of different alignment grids to cross-check my work with.  In addition, I need a way to view the stylus rake angle, and that may involve borrowing or buying a USB microscope.

I can say, however, that my first impression is that the music has taken on a clarity and solidity I have never heard from my own vinyl before (outside of the demo rooms, of course).  On a rather new vinyl acquisition, Kevin Eubanks’ Zen Food (on Mack Avenue Records), the sound of the vinyl is so steady and clear that you’d swear you had a digital hi-res file playing back.  The quiet surfaces of this LP help tremendously.

Two things work in its favor for speed stability and clarity.  The platter of this turntable is massive.  Literally.  Its high mass acts as a flywheel.  But what good is a flywheel if it is not fed “pure” energy?  The Xtension 10 also includes Pro-Ject’s Speed Box DS circuitry built in.  It is not a filter (like a couple of other turntable manufacturers use).  Rather, it is a unit that uses DC voltage to regenerate a clean 60Hz sine wave to feed to the AC motor.  (AC motors’ speeds are determined by the input frequency, not the voltage.)  With the motor being free of the “crud” that comes off of our electric grid, the motor rotates without any of the variations or “cogging” that this crud can cause.

The high mass of the turntable also dampens vibrations from the vinyl itself.  You notice this by way of a “blackness” from which the music emanates, along with a revealed strength in the bass performance.  I noticed this when stepping up from my Denon direct-drive to the Walker, and now an even bigger step up from the Walker to this turntable.  Good 180 gram vinyl is almost whisper quiet now, and the bass solidity and strength is “nailed”.

I will get into comparisons with other turntables I auditioned locally, but the short version is that for the types of music I’m listening to as of late, the Pro-Ject offered me the most musical and natural representation of all of them (although the contenders were really close).  With the included dust cover and built-in Speed Box DS, and an incredible Audiogon deal, the whole thing kind of came together somewhat quicker than I’d imagined, being an incredible value.

The coming weeks will feature more tweaking and listening impressions. Stay tuned.

 

First impressions of Oppo BDP-105

Audio/Video Hardware, Gadget Corner, , , , ,

The Oppo BDP-105 arrived last week and I have been putting it through its paces.  Unboxing was a bit of a chore, as the player was double-boxed and the interior heavily padded.  The cables were stashed in a separate box inside, and the player came not in a plastic wrap, but in a soft reusable tote bag with Oppo logo on its exterior.

Hafler & OppoThe weight of the 105 is substantial, much more solid than the Pioneer Elite DV-45A it replaces.  The panels feel much thicker, and the faceplate is thicker still, with a matte finish.  Neat touch is that the play controls are touch-sensitive behind the glass front panel.

It took awhile to hook up. I ended up purging quite a few cables that had strayed behind the shelving unit, got rid of the surround receiver I had tethered into the system for surround (which I hadn’t used in a year), and am mothballing the cassette deck again for several months since it’s had its workout for the time being.  Messing around with the cables made it clear that I am going to be shopping for some better interconnects.  I need a few in a half-meter length to reduce some of this cable clutter.

And judging from the photo, I also need a serious upgrade in audio shelving.  It is about time I invested in something more substantial, which also has some isolation properties to it.  It also needs a good, sturdy top shelf to support a 50 pound turntable setup.

The BDP-105 is not only a universal player (capable of CD, SACD, DVD-Audio and BluRay), it can also play files via the network.  It is DLNA/UPnP capable, which fits in perfectly with my networked media server.  I had considered getting a Pioneer N-50 network media player but, given the cost and unknown sonics, it was not that much of a stretch to revise my search upward a bit to include disc playback.  As this was a lightly used demo unit, it really did not cost too much more than the N-50.

Upon first playback using both discs and networked files, two things strike me immediately.  First, the sound is much smoother, lacking the grit, roughness and edgy highs of the Pioneer.  Music sounds more naturally balanced in tonality, and high frequencies do not leave me on edge as they do with other digital sources.  An unexpected side-effect: I hear less hiss on analog-sourced files–I guess that exaggerated high end of the Pioneer was doing more than making the sound intolerable!

Second, that soundstage!  Even if not sitting in a good listening position, you can hear the music filling the room.  In the sweet spot, imaging of instruments is dead-on accurate.  Playing one of the Living Stereo classical SACDs, I could easily place the different sections of the orchestra, and also get a great sense of the space inside the hall it was recorded in.

On both a Nexus 4 and Nexus 7, I use the BubbleUPnP app as a control point between a music server and the renderer.  It works nicely with the 105, even better than the laggy response I’d get when playing music through the WDTV Live.  Oppo’s own app requires a lot of hunting to find what I want to play, and another app I tried (offered by Linn) was very laggy and unintuitive.  The nicest part is that I can finally play back all of my high-resolution digital files in their proper resolution, not downsampled.  That was my intention of getting a proper network music player, and aside from playing SACDs, I can use the network player to save wear on the player’s disc drive.

Settling in with the Ortofon 2M Black

Audio/Video Hardware, Gadget Corner

It’s been a love/hate relationship with the Ortofon 2M Black.  But, the problem is not entirely with the 2M.  Alignment issues are hexing me.  For one, I cannot move the cartridge forward enough on the arm to get it to line up on the alignment grid.  Plus, the top of the headshell is not completely parallel to the turntable surface at all points through its arc, which may be a fault of the tonearm’s mount.

Thanking the mighty tax refund machine, my solution is to take a step up in my analog source.  In other words, why fight the turntable any longer?

I have been listening to a handful of tables at local dealers, comparing a lot of familiar names such as Rega, Clearaudio, VPI, Pro-Ject, Michell, Funk Firm and a few others.  I was not quite prepared to hear a lot of difference between them but alas, with the right recordings, I was able to pinpoint a few key characteristics and narrow down my choices a bit.  One model managed to make its way to the top of my list of choices, with two others not too far behind.  After I go back armed with a few more familiar selections I can safely pick one I would be able to live with for awhile.

Teaser: my top pick just seemed to have a “blacker” background than the others, the background being more recessed.  The stereo image was more solid than one of my other choices also (which has a non-conventional arm).  This should be an interesting experience!

Disturbing Trend: Universal’s Digital Watermark

Music, Tech

While I am not opposed to copyright owners protecting their works, I am opposed when it does so in an obviously intrusive and destructive manner. Sony’s big fiasco from several years ago was to install a rootkit on a computer, whenever you inserted one of their CDs into your computer’s CD-ROM drive. Universal has something new up its sleeve, and it is in my opinion, even worse.

For over a year now or maybe more, Universal has been watermarking digital downloads. Not only is it audible in lossless downloads, it can even be heard in lossy MP3 downloads, paid downloads through services like Amazon and iTunes, on Internet radio services such as Pandora and Spotify, and even over FM radio when sourced from a digital file. The audibility is such that it is placed right into the most sensitive range of our hearing (1,000 to 3,600 Hz), and that removal of the watermarking within that range will result in further distortion in the altered file. The more technical details can be read elsewhere online, and I will link to them below.

Due to the nature of how it sounds, many have placed the blame for the poor sound on lossy MP3 compression (which is sonically the worst-sounding lossy compression out there). But in the past several months, many have been finding that even lossless files don’t sound quite right. I am currently researching to find out if CDs are affected, as well as the high-quality HDTracks downloads that are growing in popularity.

This blog has samples posted of the watermarking, including a comparison between a watermarked and an unmolested file, and a “difference” file to cancel out the music and demonstrate only the watermarking signal.  It also gives more of a technical explanation of how it works.  The Hydrogenaudio forums has had an ongoing thread about it, and even the EFF has had a say in it.  This is no small issue.

Consumers like us are screwed. A large corporation once against harms the large majority of honest consumers to go after the scant few who pirate the files through illegal downloads. To those of us who value quality sound, it is an insult to us to provide such an obviously defective “product” to us, and have the gall to charge a non-refundable full price for it.

It is further proof of how the industry “experts” who recommended this watermarking are of the same breed who have already run the recording industry into the ground and made the industry what it is today: a shambles. I also feel for those working at the labels, including the artists whose creations are being destroyed by watermarking, who have to live with the fallout.

For now, I do not recommend buying any Universal downloads released from 2012 onward, and I advise questioning the quality of any CD, SACD or HDTracks download until we can verify that these versions are unmolested. If we are expected to pay full price for our purchasing dollars, we demand full quality along with it.

Join our discussion at A&M Corner Forum; click the Discuss link below.

The Walker CJ55 “Phoenix Edition”

Audio/Video Hardware, Gadget Corner

Phoenix Edition?  Yep, the Walker has once again risen from the dead.  The new belt arrived on Halloween, of all days, and I promptly moved the arm and cartridge from the Denon back to the Walker. I managed to get things dialed in within an hour, and was able to spin some vinyl later in the evening.

This is where things get weird. As you may recall, the problems I had with the Walker were speed related–not only did it always run too fast, it also had stability issues, and wavered constantly.  Piano music was a torture to listen to, as were any sustained notes.  I was at wit’s end.  Even with the Music Hall belt I borrowed, the speed would waver–the belt was a bit too narrow and would occasionally “hop” up and down within the pulley.

Here is what is supposedly an original replacement belt for the Walker CJ55.  But is it?  Any other belt I had always had some slippage to it.  This one doesn’t.  There is a groan as the turntable starts rotating, and then it locks on fairly quick.  My other belts never did this.  The tension of the belt is also higher than the other “official” belts I got from the importer–my motor mount modification would not be needed.  So far, so good–I’m liking this belt.

So far, the pitch seems like it is not wavering as much.  I still think I hear it wavering, but it could be all in my head.  But this is where the weirdness kicks in.  The turntable always ran fast.  Playing back my new setup, it seemed like the sound was dragging a bit.  I found a strobe online, which I printed out.  Turns out the turntable was now rotating too slowly!  Mmmm, OK.  I took off my rubber band fix from the subplatter, and tried it again.  Now, the speed is just about perfect!  If it is a hair off, I am not noticing it.

A quick summary then.  The original belt slipped and wavered, and the speed ran too fast.  A new belt from the importer did the same.  The Music Hall belt wavered because it was too narrow and sometimes hopped up and down within the pulley; the platter still ran too fast.  This new belt has the best grip, stays in place, and doesn’t seem to waver…and the speed is now perfect??

I just don’t get it.

My stylus is just about worn, so it is not too easy to give a good listen to this setup again.  I will follow up my listening comments in my next installment.