New member

[scipio13031965]

Hello, I'm Emiliano from Italy, I'm happy to have found a forum dedicated to CJ, my system is composed of CD player Wadia 850, pre CJ PV12, final CJ MV52, Avalon Opus speakers.

[admin]

Hi Emiliano,
Welcome to CJO. Great to have you with us. I have been to Italy several times and always had a great time and enjoyed my visit immensely. Congrats on the system. I also have the PV12 so I always love seeing fellow owners.

[roberto]

Welcome Emiliano,

Nice system you have. Avalon speakers are marvellous. Conrad Johnson gear makes them to sing very nicely. Wadia is a great CD player too.

Enjoy your music Emiliano...

Happy listening!

[scipio13031965]

Thanks, even if lately the MV52 gives me a little problem when I turn it on, the left channel generates a noise / murmur and then disappears as soon as it warms up.

[AnotherJohnson]

Sounds like a job for “Tube Rolling Man!”

[scipio13031965]

maybe you can help me?

[roberto]

Hola Scipio,

The noise usually comes from the small tubes. Change the first small left tube (V1)for the right (V2), and then have a listen. If the problem did change from left to right, then you found the problem. If still the noise is at the same channel. then swap the other left small tube (V3) for the right (V4) ..this will help to you to find which is the cause of the noise.

How long did you change the tubes? Are then over 10 years? How often do you listen to the music?

Happy listening!

[scipio13031965]

Hello Roberto,
I did the tests you described to me but the problem remained on the left channel, I understood however that the defect was on the socket of the V4 valve, last night I redone the welds and I solved the problem.
Thanks 1000

[roberto]

Wow Scipio...great to know that you could do the test and found that faulty contact. Yup, bad solder joints could happen, and cause that cracking noise like smashing egg shells. Very annoying noise. It is intermittent and also it bugs a lot.

On the other hand, it is wise to change the tubes. Don't change them completely...do it slow. Just mark your goal, and start to do it. Changing them the cost is high, but if you do it, little by little, you won't notice it, and in four or six months, you are using new fresh tubes!

Happy listening!

[scipio13031965]

thanks!!
...at the next useful advice

[roberto]

Scipio,

Every time that I am going to play my system, I have a little carton box next to my listening chair. I put $5.00 into that box. This money if for the maintenance of the system. When money is needed, there it is!. This is for anything that belongs to the system. Cables, tweaks, tubes, you name it. Take my word. Let's imagine that you use yours system three times a week. This means that you have in the box, $15.00 and in a month yo have $60.00. In ten months you have $600.00 and time flies away. Also, I quit smoking about 30 years ago. Every day, I put another $5.00, money that I have stent in cigarettes...now this money goes for my system.

Happy listening!

[scipio13031965]

Excellent philosophy

[Big Dog RJ]

Ah, Roberto mate,
I like your money in the box concept, makes perfect sense.

I also believe for a fact, the majority of your savings is coming from you quitting smoking! That's one of the biggest money spenders...

I know a chap over here who also saved in a small shoe box. However, when Covid crisis took off he was working harder non-stop. After working 6 days flatout 12-14 hr shifts, he would get 3 days weekend off as a reward. So work was never grounded due to the constant high demand and high pace in grocery retail industry.

That shoe box money went to awards a nice few bottles of wine... That chap was me!
It was a short term savings, I tried though ha!

Cheers Roberto mate!

[roberto]

RJ,

I am having that wine taste right though my windpipe right now! I have a watermouth. Wine and music, are cousins, with some cheese to share, that's the best!.
Believe me, I just had spent 300 Euros in a USB cable. Guess from where I got the money?

We have to think,(we the tube users gear), as the system is like our cars. Eventually we have to change the tires, and the shock struts, and the ball joints, suspension and steering. Spark plugs, (Gasoline) and the fuel injectors. Every six months, oil change and the oil filter...etc...in other words, vehicle maintenance. Same thing on tubes. They need maintenance. And this maintenance is not cheap.

So, my cigarette money, the one that was every day, a spent of $ 5.00 and up to $10.00, now this money goes to the box. Believe me!, ten bucks in 30 days are $300.00 (here goes the ones that you give to your friends too) and it is a lot of money. Some of you might say $10.00 is nothing for a day...just make the numbers.

Happy listening!

[AnotherJohnson]

I tried the “money in the box” approach many years ago when I first started using expensive phono cartridges.

An $8,000 cartridge that might last 1000 hours needs an $8/hr contribution to the box.

Tubes that cost $1600 for 2000 hours of expected life require another $1.25/hr. So I started chipping in $10/hr to try to “pay as I listened.”

Eventually I quit this. But I can see the merit in it.

Eventually I realized that retipping was not as expensive as buying new, and so the need is lower unless you want to try something new. Within the Lyra line, it is possible to trade in cartridges toward more expensive ones.

I started with the Delos, liked it so well I bought a Kleos when a deal came up, and the same with an Etna after loving the Kleos. I’m watching now for a deal on an Etna SL to run with the TEA1.
This hobby is very rewarding, and if the focus is on the music, money put into program material is the best spent. But consumables like tubes and cartridges have to be covered one way or another.

[roberto]

AJ,

My Martin Logan CLX speakers here in Costa Rica costs over 30K. Can you imagine the time for saving this money in a carton box with the money for the cigarettes? You are missing my point. That saving belongs only to me. Only for me, and it is for my system. If I can save more, then why not? I just put it at the bank as an envelope for goal. A goal is different than a dream. A goal is marked at the calendar. Every day, you will be thinking, talking and writing about it.

Here at the forum, are many members that are a little short, and this is not a sin. It is just life. I have a system to mark goals and always I have two goals at the same time. If you reach one, mark another immediately and the mark must be at the calendar. If you did not reach your goal, two things could happen, the mark was not set it right or you quit. When you reach a goal, and that's the only one that you have, so what's next? What to do with that goal? This is the reason why you always must have two.

So, if you want something, must be marked at the calendar. The questions are: what I want, can I reach it? If the goal too is too far away, that no matter how hard I will try, it will be almost impossible to get it? Or it is too easy that I will not be moving and doing not enough effort for working for it? I have five cards where I did write what I want. This five cards are, one in my computer, other in my table, next to my system, at my pillow, and the bathroom and at the car. Each time that I see the card, I read it with my goal. This goal must be in present. If you think of it, write about it and talks about it, reinforce the probabilities that, that happens!

I don't want you to bother with my things...I just wanted to share a way of saving money with a good thing, health to you and to your dears, and having some money that you were spending on smoke.

Happy listening!

[AnotherJohnson]

Can you imagine the time for saving this money in a carton box with the money for the cigarettes? You are missing my point. That saving belongs only to me.

Here we call it “mad money.”

It is a good idea. My comment was not a criticism, or an alternate suggestion. It was an anecdote.

In fact, it was an anecdote supporting your idea, but it was not written with enough skill to bring that point out for all readers.

Giving up tobacco is a great idea all by itself. How much better to use it for audio system fun? (rhetorical questions ... not a real question).

It is funny (in the peculiar sort of meaning, but also a bit on the humorous side) just how addicted we (including me) can become to audio reproduction, and perhaps even more to live performance.

Some of the “guitar heroes” I know feel that coursing stream of music through their whole bodies when everything is right and the levels are vibrating in sympathy with their own resonance. Of course they all get tinnitus eventually. Just as though they’d spent years on the rifle range without earmuffs.

All this reminds me of the Pied Piper of Hamlin in the fairy tale. Those kids must have been hypnotized by his seductive tune.

No wonder we have “happy listening.”

[roberto]

AJ,

Sometimes, I can not express myself the way that I do in my main language: Spanish. I might sound rude, and this is not my intention. Please forgive this old wolf!.

You are right 100 times RIGHT!. My ex-wife is a breast cancer survivor. When she got sick, I was smoking two to three packets of cigarettes daily. When I knew that she was with cancer, I quit!. I throw my packet at the Dr's office to the trash that I had into my shirt's pocket, and I said, no more! That was thirty years ago. And she still is around, and we are good friends.

I think that I am lucky. When I was a kid, I studied classical guitar for almost 14 years...and ended being an electronic engineer. I love people, I feel confortable with them, and specially because we have in common the music. I can not see me without the music. There is only one type of music that I do not understand: reggaeton. All the music is based only in one chord. I have a good friends, old wolves like me, that we get together and play some music for the fun...there is no commercial intention with this...I just placed our last recording Flor de Luna, a cover of Santana's music. My roots are latin of course, and I love brazilian music and jazz. Having the background with classical music, that's what I like most. My favorite composers are Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Litz, that epoca. But I can enjoy from Bach to Stravinsky...new contemporary music, I do not understand it...I do Gershwin, Ravel, Tchaikovsky, The Strauss Family, Franz Von Suppe, Puccini, Lehar, Verdi, Rossini, Paganini, Barrios, Berlioz, Bizet, Camille Saint Saens, Offenbach, Donizetti, Brahms, etc. Out there are so great musician(s) and compositions. There are so good interpreters, brilliant musicians playing the music.
And what I like most, is to have a nice system where I can have the musician(s) feeling in front of me, there...a virtual stage performing for me and my friends...and Conrad Johnson singing...the truth is: I am in heaven.

Happy listening my friend!

[AnotherJohnson]

I am sure that we would enjoy listening together. Our tastes overlap significantly.
I took classical guitar lessons for three years, and jazz for 1.5 years. I played regularly for maybe 50 years.

Sadly, I was never an accomplished player. I had thought when I was young that I would like to progress to the point where I could play sessions, but it became clear eventually that the fellows who are dedicated to that are far more natural and intuitively tuned in players than I am. I am no match for the best of Nashville's sessions players.

Nevertheless, it is a moot point at my present age. Arthritis in my left shoulder seriously limits my playing time. I enjoy playing at the level of my heart and head. But at the body level, it just isn't as much fun as it once was.

35 years ago I was actually recommended for membership in NARAS (the National Academy for the Recording Arts and Sciences - the folks behind the Grammy Awards). I was a member for about 20 years, but then dropped away. One of the great things about being a member of NARAS was that since the members voted on the Grammy Awards, NARAS had arranged for very inexpensive purchases of the current year's nominees. Many recordings are nominated, and so this allowed building a very nice collection during the vinyl and CD eras. I don't know how that is handled today.

One of the great things about the "audio reproduction in the home" hobby is that it takes no physical effort once the system components are in place. Just sit back and enjoy the reproduced music.

I used to make it a point to attend 50+ live events every year. About half were classical ... orchestral or small ensembles. Nashville and the Blair School of Music really facilitated this.

Harry Pearson always ranted about how important live music listening was to audio component evaluating. I suppose he was right on some level. But I stand by my comment that "If it sounds good, it is good." It is nice if it also sounds real, but this is neither necessary nor sufficient for happy listening. I would go further and say that "If it sounds good to the listener, it is good for the listener, whether some other person likes it or not." I think you agree.

The most amazing thing to me is that now, 45 years after I bought my first serious stereo system as an adult, I am still hearing new things.

I suppose that eventually, when my hearing fails (likely for all of us as we age), it will be disappointing. But it surprises me that I am still hearing subtleties and nuances, and they still delight me.

One of the systems that I kept going for literally more than a decade was based on an original LP12, the PV5, assorted inexpensive used amplifiers, and a pair of Thiel CS2.0 speakers. Amps started with an Electron Kinetics Eagle 2, and moved on through various mostly CJ products, including both solid state and vacuum tube. That system was very enjoyable, although looking back on it, it was not realistic. But it sure sounded musical, and it was sure a lot of fun.

You do not have to spend a fortune to enjoy music in the home. You just have to figure out what you like to listen to, acquire suitable material from that genre, and then sit back and enjoy.

I think we would all be in agreement on that too.

[roberto]

AJ,
Definitively agreed!. I had a back surgery with two bad discs of my dorsal spine and the position of my back with the classic guitar, in five minutes, my back was stiff as an iron bar...pinched my left leg nerve (sciatica) and I had to stop playing. That was 40 years ago...to be exact at August 1982. The Dr said that I was lucky to walk, because the pinched nerve was almost so thin that a little bit more, my left leg was dead. The right leg had it too, but not severe as the left.

So, playing is a miracle for me. You can hear me playing with my wolves friends at General, off topic, Roberto and friends latest recordings. My teacher was a direct pupil of Agustin Barrios Mangore, so his technique is basically what I learned. So, I got the feeling AJ, that you were a musician too. Things that only a musician knows...it is difficult to express, but I got the feeling.

I have told my life story many times, I am going to do it the shortest possible. When I was 12 years old, I told my dad that I wanted to play classical guitar. He said right away, get a teacher, I am supporting you on this one for sure. He played popular guitar, very latino way with good musical sense. We played together many nights, of course. When I was at College, fist year, he approached me and said that he needed to talk to me, just the two of us. I said anytime, then he said, come, let's go to the living room. I sat at the sofa and my dad standing said: I have been seeing you playing 5 to 7 hours a day. Are you planning to pay your bills with your guitar? If that is so, I do recommend to you do not do it. And don't get me wrong here. I have been supporting you since the beginning. Every Wednesday at two o'clock, there is an envelope with the money for your teacher. But again, if you are thinking on that, I recommend to you do not do it, and do you know the why? Because you are not that good!. Your mom and I, we love hearing you playing the guitar, your friends, your brother...but paying life bills with it, it is going to take to you a lot of effort!. Why don't you study another thing that will pay you your life bills, and keep playing it...to be a musician needs to have a special magic, and you have some...but not enough.

I wish to you a very happy listening!