According to Pete, Geoff fell out with someone at Musicworks which may have “influenced” his view? Funny how there are so many different opinions - Geoff stuck a plastic box under the block he supplied to me but Pete got rid of it …
Haha! Good old Geoff - it doesn’t surprise me him falling out with someone.
Maybe the cheaper block with a plastic box underneath gave the same performance as the Musicworks? Money saved there could be put towards another Naim Black box. It’s a good job he didn’t fall out with Naim. The shop was littered with Naim boxes waiting to go out to customers whenever I popped in - to collect another Naim box.
Erm no more toys since a bit more fraim a pair of 808s and a 500 arrived just before Christmas! there is a new model of the mains block due (mk 3?) so am waiting for that (Pete didn’t know about it in December when I mentioned it to him - I said I wasn’t very interested in trying mk2 though not sure if he had that in stock anyway)
Hi Tim,
The current mk 3 or G3 Musicworks Mains Block advertised as ‘The dog’s Box’ is indeed very clever. Due out is the G4 , which apparently is an added uprated top plate, where you have to imagine the owner of Musicworks PLC carefully stirring a large cauldron mixing the magic hand grated rubber dust into a composite monomer all sourced from their own grown rubber plantation in the Midlands, and of course there will be a price attached to that.
However the G3, which I am going to stick with in my system, brings about improvements not dissimilar to the black box DR upgrades. Now as always some like some don’t. I liked the DR upgrades personally.
What matters most with the G3 mains box beyond plug in order, which can literally be chosen to match or for that matter counteract your room characteristics, is the floor/box interface:
- Plonk it on a bare stone/ wood floor and the sound becomes too edgy.
- Plonk it on a random piece of carpet might initially make everything sound good, but then due to its weight with added Powerline plugs after a wee while the rubbery spikes will have compressed the wool leaving it to rest on the carpet rubber backing- NOT GOOD
- Best solution ( trust me I’ve tried a few interfaces this including having it suspended in knicker elastic in free air off my Fraim stacks- ie no interface) is to make up a Burger like structure of white protective pads = the bun and in between a 10 mm old fashioned wool carpet underlay cut to shape= the burger. This solution maintains compliance over time and it needs exactly that being a tender little soul. Also do not hide it behind your stacks and blissfully forget all about it, as it sometimes needs a little tweak or a Power line needs dressing (see photo)
I appreciate this is not for everyone and yeah maybe being retired allows your focus in life to go a bit a drift…, but trust me I am actually happy as Larry! ATB Peter
Excellent Peter.
Have you tried that trusty favourite: sorbothane pads?
Could make quite a difference
Best, BF
You know I have and I realise, that I still owe you 4x2 pence Best Peter
Wicked me.
Seems to work on a Musicworks lite block though
This isn’t obsessive at all, is it?
Going for a lie down now, BF
The new one is eye watering expensive…might have to add your modification to my block instead.
I think it will boil down to personal taste but also overall room character, dark/ bright etc. I get the impression that your room is well damped and maybe in that case you could try putting it on a wooden chopping board on top of your existing carpet and see what you find? I know it’s a bit crazy, but my end solution works, well for me…
Plug in order is also worth a visit, just sayin’… ATB Peter
How much?
The G3 (with sparkly bottom) can be upgraded to the latest spec. Not sure if this can be done at home, like the addition of the sparkly bottom could. As the latest upgrade involves a new to plate (I believe) it sounds a bit more complicated to upgrade.
Do you know if Signals will be doing the latest upgrade, and what that costs?
It is not an upgrade unfortunately, but a replacement and it is over double the price of a standard G3. Best to talk to Signals on trade in etc, when they have some stock.
Likely to be over £2k
yikes. Didn’t realise it was “that much” of an upgrade
Naughty Pete has been on the phone and we are going to try superlumina between the 552 and 500
Does it ever end (he said howling into the abyss)?
I’m on standard cables all round and would be interested in your thoughts once bedded in a bit.
Well I already have SL speaker cable (large improvement over the naca5 that I had used for 20 years - just got that in place after I had the dem 808s for a week or two) and SL interconnect which I got around the time I got the 552 if I remember correctly (so nearly two years ago now). Everyone seems to say that full SL has some kind of great synergy, but I am not sure I am going to be able to comment on that. Pete offered to drop round tomorrow but I asked him to wait until lockdown has eased - so he is going to run a dem pair in for me that I can then try and keep if I like and want to spend yet more ££
I forgot to give any kind of update - all sounding very lovely, though I am not getting much time listening other than at pretty low volumes. Je ne regrette rien, as I might say if I were French
When I bought my 500 DR I bought the SL’s to go with it. For xxxx and giggles I used the standard cables when I first connected it up. It sounded great as I was going from a 250DR (552 pre) and then I changed over to SL. Like all these things it was an improvement at the margin but TBH I was not running the standard cables that long (2 days max) and the 500 was new so not sure how much was that settling in as well. Not much help I know, but I think having full SL is greater than sum of its parts and if spending that kind of money they are a drop in the ocean in relative terms.
- Plonk it on a random piece of carpet might initially make everything sound good, but then due to its weight with added Powerline plugs after a wee while the rubbery spikes will have compressed the wool leaving it to rest on the carpet rubber backing- NOT GOOD
- Best solution ( trust me I’ve tried a few interfaces this including having it suspended in knicker elastic in free air off my Fraim stacks- ie no interface) is to make up a Burger like structure of white protective pads = the bun and in between a 10 mm old fashioned wool carpet underlay cut to shape= the burger. This solution maintains compliance over time and it needs exactly that being a tender little soul. Also do not hide it behind your stacks and blissfully forget all about it, as it sometimes needs a little tweak or a Power line needs dressing (see photo)
Mine has pride of place in front of the third rack on our wool Wilton carpet. I’ve never thought of playing around. If the sound deteriorates I shall be forced to try.
Phil