re: Audiophile/Vinyl Thread - Post Pics, Advice, Questions, Setups, etc.

Thank you, sir

quote:

---

Found dark side of the moon today for 10$ in great condition

---

IIRC, Pink Floyd re-issued most of their catalog in vinyl a couple of years ago. You can get it new pretty easily. $27 on Amazon

$10 is a good buy though if it is in good condition, but I always prefer buying new vinyl.

quote:

---

I believe the cartridge screws from bottom up into to the metal plate

---

Here is the underside. Does this help?

Alright Marco.... been doing some research on the speakers you recommended. Since there seems to be no way for me to listen to either speaker i'm going on a rec and spec sheets. The biggest glaring thing b/w the 2 is that the 1Ci is a 2-way and the F6 is a 3 way. 1Ci with a 1' tweeter and 8" woofer in a cabinet basically the same size as the F6. F6 has a 1" tweeter, 6.5' mid and 2 6.5" woofers. By looks alone you would assume (someone not knowing better "me") that the F6 automatically sounds better. By size of the woofer and cabinet space of the 1Ci you'd assume you would possibly reach a lower bass level, but also still hit the tighter bass notes?
the 1Ci has a higher sensitivity rating @ 90db and the F6 @ 87db. I think i'm correct, but doesn't that mean the 1Ci should be more efficient at lower volumes?
I see (with the demo model) that i could either spend $759 or $999 and i'd assume get what should be the better speaker for $240 more although it technically has less speakers in the cabinet?

The thing that kind of concerns me (i prolly can't tell the difference) is that in some Q & As done on Vandersteen's site by the man himself he says the 1Ci sounds brighter due to it being an entry level speaker. Again, not sure if this matters to my virgin ears. not sure if i should be concerned or not with that statement. Also, says its like that so it performs well on demos?

I'm good with the recs on the amps and have read great things on both of them. Although, i think i may stay with getting the Debut Carbon though. Most forums say the tonearm alone is worth spending the money not counting the better cartridge.

let me know what you think.... and again thanks for your help!

edit... just realized that the 1Ci technically has no cabinet.

For now, just get the entry level Audioquest interconnects from Music Direct...the Forest line, I believe. They are usually like 40-50% off from MD. I bought a few pair to have around for when I swap gear around, but I got them at BestBuy--they will price match MusicDirect.

Most cables in the $50-$250/pair range will reveal similar results (IMO). When you start to move into higher grades of audio gear, say $8000+ power amps/$8000 pre amps and such, you would probably want to up the cable budget to the $800/pair per piece of gear range.

An audiophile rule of thumb is "spend 10-15% of the cost of the gear on interconnects/cables/power cords"--again, just a rule of thumb to go by for a beginner.

One thing to note, and it may not be an issue for you, is the AudioQuest entry RCA interconnects are a single cord that splits into a "Y" at each end. If the amps left & right RCA jacks aren't close together, you may not be able to spread them far enough apart. This is common on higher end gear, or mono amps, where one cord goes to one amp and one goes to the other.

Look at the pic below to see what I am speaking of. The red cable is an inexpensive AudioQuest RCA interconnect ($60). It is a single cord that splits at the ends.

The purple/green/white cables are reference class XLO Electric (not $60) interconnects. They are two seperate cables--one for left, and one for right.





The issue only arises when you have left/right inputs that are on opposite ends of the gear.

Below is a pic of the back of my McIntosh c500t pre amp. All the inputs for the left channel are on the left side and all the inputs for the right are on the right side--thus the cheaper AudioQuest cables pictured above would not work as they can not spread apart enough...




Also, the green/white/purple cables in the first pic are terminated with XLR connectors--also known as Balanced connection. It is the same as a Neutrik connector commonly seen on Pro audio/microphones/guitar amps, etc.

XLR, or Balanced connections, are usually offered on higher end pieces of gear, but not always--as it depends on the design of the amp.

If your new gear has the option of using Balanced connections, then do it. It usually has a much lower noise floor resulting in a larger Signal to Noise Ratio. Terminating the cable with Balanced connectors vs. RCA (also called "single-ended" in audiophile speak), will cost about 20% or so more.

Hope I didn't throw too much at you

quote:

---

the 1Ci has a higher sensitivity rating of 90db and the F6 @ 87db. I think i'm correct, but doesn't that mean the 1Ci should be more efficient at lower volumes?

---

No...it means that the 90dB speaker will play 3dB louder than the 87dB speaker given the same amount of power....

...or inversely, the 90dB speaker will require 1/2 the power to play at the same volume level as the 87dB speaker, or the 87dB speaker will need twice the power to play at the same volume as the 90dB speaker-- (every +/-3dB requires the amp to double/halve its output power).

quote:

---

No...it means that the 90dB speaker will play 3dB louder than the 87dB speaker given the same amount of power....

---

thats what i get for thinking i was getting somewhere with this!


I was looking into the inputs for the amp and the speakers. looks like the connectors for the vandersteens are spades, but the quad says analog (possibly bananas?) trying to find cables that'll fit both without having to spend $200 on those to. looks like audioadvisor will build audio quest type 4 wires with the type of connectors one needs.


would bananas be whats needed for this quad vena?

...and analog refers to the RCA inputs, not the speaker output taps.

All you need is a regular pair of speaker cables with spades on both ends (no bi-wire).

Get THESE KIMBER KABLE with spades and go for 8 feet minimum, 10 feet if you can swing the little extra $$.