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A Revelation [message #99082]

Mon, 10 November 2025 16:50

gofar99
Messages: 2013
Registered: May 2010
Location: Southern Arizona

Illuminati (5th Degree)

Hi Everyone this is a bit long but shows how an unlikely collection of gear can produce great sound.

Today I had one of those revelations that seem to occur when you have too much time. I hooked up a “music” system to my main PC as my main system is not in service. I miss it greatly. I had a spinal nerve get pinched in the beginning of August. It was not too bad for the first few weeks. It was just a minor pain in the back, right hip, and foot. It got worse and the family doctor tried all the usual things for such problem. It resisted and finally on Labor Day I went to the ER. I was a mess. I could not walk to the ER. They had to get a wheel chair for me. Pain was nearly 10 on the 10 scale. Blood pressure was 193 over 94. My normal is about 115 over 73. It took 4 days to get the pain under control. At one point they were using morphine to get it down. The net result when I was sent home was to lay down most of the day on the living room sofa. Why it is the best I have no idea, but it was. Sandy broke out the day bed so she could assist me at any time. I was not really ambulatory. So I went to the spine doctor. X-rays and such determined that there were three likely problem sites. I went next to the pain folks that handle this stuff. Got the shots in the spine (didn’t hurt at all). It helped but was not good enough. I consider 4 oxycodones per day with 2 gabapentin’s, 2 amitriptons, and three other drugs is not the way to go as they don’t fully control the pain. Now generally 3 on the scale . So back to the spine doctor. Next step is surgery. I am not thrilled about it but the alternative is not acceptable. Anyhow the shuffle of furniture makes it impossible to use the stereo. That is the consequence of having speakers that sit about 4 feet from the back wall and the same from the side walls. So now back to the revelation. I set up the PC (an HP OMEN) system with a pair of Martin Logan Motion 4s, a Martin Logan D300 sub (handles 120 and down), a S.L.S.M dac and a vintage Marantz 2250 receiver. It was really stunning as a near field system. I am gob struck at the quality of the sound. It cannot compete with my main system, but it will do for now. I dare say that the main system will be hard to beat. Martin Logan ESLs, Altec Lansing Subs, Passive preamp, 4 special Oddwatt tube amps, two turntables, R-R and cassette tape, FM tuner, and Bluetooth. All the music is saved as WMF files. I used 24/92 and 32/192 for the files and use VLC to feed the dac. I tried my AT headphones and I was not able to hear any defects in the music.

Good Listening
Bruce

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Re: A Revelation [message #99086 is a reply to message #99082]

Tue, 11 November 2025 09:36

Wayne Parham
Messages: 18981
Registered: January 2001

Illuminati (33rd Degree)

I am so sorry to hear about your health issues. That's huge.

Kelly's mom had a similar situation and it initially caused her an incredible amount of pain and prevented her from walking without assistance. Thankfully, with some physical therapy, she is so much better. I can only assume that the nerve moved, became pinched and now - with physical therapy - it has moved back and is no longer pinched.

I hope the same will be true for you.

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