Peter's Living Room

Hi Peter,

iFi + Activ Audio… you must have talked to Vince :grinning_face: I’ve got the same thing!

Dan

Indeed and he got me into a LOT of trouble last week as I put in 2 dedicated 204V20A circuits on his recommendation, which is why we are plastering and painting (which is making my wife VERY unhappy)

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Absolutely wonderful.

Of course the little Bluesound-X is amusing, but my wife uses Spotify and has a massive disliking of Roon, so until I upgrade the transport to the Aurender N50 (or Pink Faun if they add Spotify support to the Ultra) the Node is a workaround

@Vince_Galbo so the 204V cuircuits should be terminated on Friday and then I have to find 3 strong people to help me rack the gear :slight_smile:

Please confirm it is 240 volt, not 204V. 220 v also acceptable

@Vince_Galbo yes 240V, I mixed it up with the 208V UPS I am waiting for, circuits installed and ready :slight_smile:

Almost there, the XLR’s are too short so I hade to put the Cascade at the back to reach, but new ones on the way and eventually the GAIA Neo’s will be out so the castors will be replaced. Next project after breakin and placement is the transport.

And I will post my reflections and thoughts on the upgrade later but a short @Dan @Daniel_Francis @Vince_Galbo thank you!

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Hi Peter,

Wow! Looks great…

Dan

Congratulations @Peter.Bomberg ! What an accomplishment of gear moving and system upgrades! I can’t wait to hear how it is sounding. Cheers!

I will add more thoughts and comments but I have to start somewhere and even though I only have a couple min free if I dont start I never will get to it.

So, the logistics were interesting to say the least and the main reason is last min I had the opportunity to install dual 240V20A dedicated circuits for the M500’s but it meant drywalling and painting over the week and weekend leading up to the delivery (which did not make my wife even remotely happy), but the actual move went well other than it appears somebody crushed the banana plugs on my AQ Dragon Zero cables, thank goodness for great customer service the replacement spades should be here tomorrow.

So I am hoping my first observation relates to the damaged cables not the Forzas but the first comment is what happened to the volume! I have to run the Cascade +10 from my old setting, ie quiet listening on the X Diamonds was 55 and a good volue was 65, now it’s 65 and 75 respectively, ok they are breaking in and the cables are damaged but …..

The second reflection was where is the base!

55/65 or 65/75 out of 100?

The it’s likely feeling a difference in the bass is due to the sealed vs ported design between the Forza and X. When I went from Focal Scala Utopia Evo to Magico S5. I felt exactly the same thing.

went from 55 to 65 of 100 for quiet and 65 to 75 for normal

I agree but I need to share more as it’s more complicated

such high volume level for such big amplifiers

This is a good thing! Please make sure both the gain and impedance switches are in the down position on the back of the M500’s. This should help.

The closer you are to 100 on the volume control the better. Not because of a loss of resolution, but you will get a better signal to noise ratio. Perhaps slight, but it is still a marginal gain.

The concern I had was heat, but the M500’s are cool to the touch and the Cascade seems cooler than with the M205’s. I removed the forced air as continuous playing for 8 hrs at normal listening volume (75 now) resulted in the powerbase reaching 36 degrees and the DAC 32 which from my memory is perfectly acceptable.

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So today I got the longer XLR and spades for the Dragon Zero’s, also took advantage and wired in dual 10G AOC cables for the future transport.

Playing around with placement a bit of the electronics and speakers but the truth is the room dictates the placement in my case and the adjustments resulted in very very negligible audio changes.

So the Base is definitely there but the X Diamonds were different. At low volumes the Forza’s dont have the same oomph but turn them up a touch and the base is simply better. It’s not more but it’s faster/tighter and much more controlled however I am going to credit the M500’s for the control and the Forzas for the improvement in speed.

More to follow but so far I am very happy.

Same, but looking at how much airflow is around each amp there should be no concern. I think you won’t have any issues moving forward. Generally, do you get a lot of summer sun through the glass door? You nailed the rack and setup :+1:

Wonderful! I am sure the break in on a fresh pair of Estelon’s will take some time as well. We found that to be the case.