TNT-Audio Readers' Corner
Monthly section devoted to your letters, positive and negative feedback about everything related to Audio and HiFi.

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January 2017

Bookshelf speakers
Sir,
I am planning to buy a pair of bookshelf speakers, as I use both tube amp & solid state, in a 13x20 ft room. These speakers are purely for music and should have a 3 dimensional image, the brands I have short listed are Dali Zensor 3 & Rega RX1.
I need your opinion of these two speakers.
Thanks,
Chandrakanth - E-mail: enfieldarun (at) yahoo.com

LC
Dear Chandrakanth,
do you have the possibility to compare these two speakers? As these are both excellent products the choice mainly depends on your personal taste and room/system matching. The Rega RX1's are probably best suited in a close-to-rear-wall installation while the Dali's can work better in a free-standing position. Hence, if the 3D soundstage is one of your main concerns perhaps you could choose the Dali Zensor, provided you have enough room to play with speakers installation. The best 3D image is always highly dependent by rear and side walls distance. Speakers need to be as free as possible. Be sure not to place anything between them (no TV screens, not even the HiFi rack!).
Hope this helped somehow,
Lucio Cadeddu

Monica DAC
Hello Mr. Whetstone!
Will modified "Monica 2" work well without Rudolf Broertjes' SS I/V Stage?
Best regards,
Mikhail - E-mail: zubo-m (at) mail.ru

NW
Hi Mikhail,
Yes it works well without the RB stage, but better with it.
Regards,
Nick Whetstone

Speaker cables
Hello-I am fascinated with your articles on building speaker connecting cables.
I am using old components- JBL L100 speakers and an Adcom GFA 5500 amplifier. I am using an Apple Express as a pre-amp for the Adcom and the music comes from my old MAC computer with iTunes. The computer is dedicated to the music and I use share screen and remote from other computers and phones around my place to control it as it has no monitor.
Please tell me- since one listening room has one speaker very near the Adcom amp and the other speaker is 8 meters away, may I make cables different lengths OR do I need to make identical cables and coil up the left over cable?
Until I get to making your DIY cables is there any advantage to slipping a magnet over basic clear heavy speaker wire?
Thank you!
Gene - E-mail: Gene (at) genesmithstudio.com

LC
Dear Gene,
generally it is very hard to detect differences in cables lenght between two channels. Hence, you can use different lenghts and live happy. Jim Smith, in his Get better sound fundamental book, writes the very same thing. In any case, try it by yourself: use two pieces of cables of different lenght and try to detect differences!
As for ferrite rings...yes, you can try using these even with standard electrical cables. Also in this case, differences might be negligible.
Hope this helped somehow,
Lucio Cadeddu

Dedicated mains supply
Hi Mark,
Ref your article on dedicated mains supplies. In it you mentioned "Radex" cables. Did you mean Radix? Where can I get details from please.
Great article, many thanks.
Kind regards,
Robert - E-mail: yates.robert (at) me.com

MW
Hi Robert,
Many thanks for the kind words.
It is true that a dedicated mains supply circuit is probably the most cost effective upgrade you can install, as soon as the cost of a single system component exceeds the cost of installing a dedicated mains supply.

Getting the actual impedance of the earth (ground) connection as low as possible pays extra dividends. Conventional pvc insulated earth (ground) usually exhibits a rising impedance with frequency, it is inductive. This can deteriorate over time too. Therefore running a parallel connection to ground, using ultra-low RF (radio frequency) impedance cable will lower the system noise at these important, interference creating frequencies. I am only aware of 'Radex' cable being both suitable for mains connection as well as possessing the required impedance characteristic. I think I got mine from Moth Marketing, now British Audio Products whoe sold all the Ben Duncan components. Ben Duncan is one of the most reliable walkers on the tightrope between engineering, old ideas, new ideas, and the kinds of inter-fields-of-enquiry-interconnectedness of authors like Fritjof Capra.

I too have been unable to locate any Radex suppliers now; I believe it may have been mil-spec for radar purposes at some time. Amateur radio enthusiasts needs good low impedance ground connections and they seem to favour multiple constantly watered earth connections connected by copper tube and they no longer refer to low Z (low impedance) connector cable but seem to jury-rig something with ordinary cable. This implies that Radex is no longer available, which is sad.

However, if it would be approved for mains wiring in your area, and installed, tested and certified by a qualified electrician, a useful alternative would be conventional TV aerial co-ax cable with the centre and screen soldered together at both ends, but it will need to be insulated with mains approved insulation and bundled closely in a sleeve with the extra earth connector connected at the same point at both ends. Do not attempt to modify mains connection or earth arrangements unless the work is carried out by a locally registered qualified person.

'Radix' do supply various specialist cables and it may be worth asking them if they do make a suitable cable. The Roots Radics were a top reggae house band back in the day too.

Good luck with the upgrade and please let us know how you get on.
Happy Listening,
Mark, The old Scribe
Mark Wheeler

Supertweeters
Hello,
Just finished reading your article about adding supertweeters to your QUAD 988. I would like to do the same to my QUAD 57. What values (resistors, caps) did you use? I will be using the AMTPRO-4s.
Thanks,
Larry - E-mail: larry.yee (at) hotmail.com

AK
Hello Larry,
In the article I mention that I ended up with an L-Pad for resistance, also from Parts Express and set it at level 8. The article also mentions the capacitor I ended up using was 1.0 mF, but you may want to get a few between 1.5 and 0.5 mF and see what you like best. I strongly encourage you to use the tweeter without the felt pads, the dipole sound integrates beautifully with the Quads.
Arvind Kohli

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