Well it is football season, so here are the 'team changes" for season 2007:

IN:
- Zu Cable & Loudspeaker Definition Mk1.5
- Black Diamond Racing Cones (MK 3 & 4) under the RRM amplifier & Wadia CD player
- Bell'O Equipment rack
- Furman IT-Reference 16 E Discrete Symmetrical Power
- 'CD Sound Improver' Audio Desk System Disk Lathe
- CAIG De-Oxit & Pro Gold contact conditioner
- Various driver and output tubes
- Wadia output voltage change

OUT:
- Red Rose Music RoseBuds & various stands
- REL Stadium III Sub woofer
- E&T Spider equipment rack
- Furman FP E Power Conditioner
- Various driver & output tubes

Why so many changes? No simple answer, but here are some 'justifications'.

The biggest change this year has been the swapping out of the Red Rose stand-mounts and REL sub woofer for the Zu Definitions full range, active bass floor standers. Plenty of detail about the Zus a couple of blogs post ago.

As for power, the opportunity came up to get a new (but almost superseded) Furman Reference at a decent price. In my slightly rural location I was keen to get the 'best' power into my components as I could, especially now with the Zu Definition bass amps pulling more power from the wall / conditioner. After just 36 hours, my initial listening impressions are of increased richness (or gravitas) and a slightly lower noise floor.

The BDR cones were tried and I sensed improved speed and some sharpened imaging.

A return to the Bell'O rack is just temporary as I continue the search for a suitable platform. The Spider rack will see service in a yet to be finalised headphone system in the bedroom so no harm done by the acquisition.

The Audio Desk 'CD Sound Improver' device was discussed in the previous blog post.

The Wadia's digital output works best in a range greater than 70 (out of a maximum of 100). I have recently been averaging about 60 with the new Zus. So sensing I was losing something, the Wadia guru Tony whipped the top off the box and following some instructions from Wadia Central, changed the output voltage to move the output to the 70+ plus range. No real listening tests done yet, but it can't be worse...........

I have not cleaned the connectors and cables in the seven years I have owned my key system components, so the time has come. No feedback as yet.

Tube rolling can be an interesting and exciting pastime for those of us with valve amplification. My amp developed an annoying crackling noise under load when it warmed up and the original output tubes were thought to be the culprits. So we swapped the original Electro-Harmonix for some Telefunkens. To no avail. As it happened, subsequent investigations showed the fault to be poor ground switching on the amp, and a flick of a switch fixed everything! A tube-guru colleague (hi Moondog!) responded to my request for more bass and provided a couple of matched driver tubes guaranteed to provide more depth. Wow, was he right! Then I changed speakers from the stand mounts to the full range floor standers with stereo inbuilt bass driver amplifiers so the two channel power amplifier bass output was now overkill. Oh well...... Back to the originals again!

Now for some keen listening, but more importantly, just having some fun.

PS - I am sorry if this seems indulgent as it is not meant to be. When you all get to my age you will appreciate a permanent record of things that happened in the recent past! Short term memory isn't what is used to be!

PPS - Are there more changes to come? Oh yeah!!!!!!!!!!!