Canuck Audio Mart

Please take notice, that this thread is about the RITA-880 integrated amplifier, positive or negative, i want it to be about the AMPLIFIER. thank you. MrAcoustat

The new setup for the system is almost finish,i have 75% of the console, the only thing missing is the granite top, it should be here in a couple of weeks, meanwhile i bought a piece of wood, that i can install, the cd player & dvd & cable box, hooked up the RITA-880 yesterday and the breakin resumes i am now going on 30 hours and i like what i'm hearing, if this is the worst then i can live with that and i have made a good decision, will keep you posted.

PS: The system looks awesome in the new setup, will post pictures, once finished.

Good to hear things are sounding good. Keep us posted.

Thanks Flash

Glad that you are happy with the setup...which is what's important, right?

PS Can't wait to see the pictures.

Yes very important, now i leave for work or bed, not worrying about my gear, yes i'm very happy, as soon as i receive my granite plate, i will post pictures.

Where will you be using the granite plate?

Not so much "where" but why?

Granite is a material that rings, it doesn't damp.

If you put your amp on it and use spikes any miniscule amplifier vibrations will travel down the spikes hit the granite and be sent back up the spike to the amp.

Wood , like real butcher's block is better than granite.

Also granite for the same reasons isn't as good to use as a turntable base as wood is.

That said all wood is not the same, each has it's own sonic characteristics-soft woods, hard woods.So butcher block or a shelf made of varying woods is better.

Granite is heavy, but it is not ideal.

Take a tuning fork.
Strike it on the granite, listen to the sound it makes.
Now strike the tuning fork on a solid thick block of wood and listen to the sound it makes.

The granite should set the tuning fork ringing much livlier than the wood.

If you need to use granite,put something absorbent between it and whatever you plan on placing on it.

Ok guys can't wait fot the pictures ?????, ok then here it is 2 colums 12x16x24 made of 3/4 medite black finish, top finish 48x20x1.25 granite for the cd player & dvd player & cable box, now for RITA-880 she will rest on a 15x24x6 box of the same material as the colums, braced inside with 6 pieces of 2x6 wood, on the floor between the 2 medite colums, once had the exact same setup with my Classe DR3-VHC and what was good enough for the Classe, will be good enough for my RITA i am positive, pictures to come later.

Mr Accoustat;

My Oracle Delphi V uses black granite for the plinth and I have never had any issues with acoustics. As a matter of fact I used an old granite surface plate under my Joule Electra pre and ASL Amps with great success. Looking forward to seeing the finished result and hearing more about the Rita as I am following your thread with an eye towards getting a Rita next year. I'd like to have an amp that I bought new for once and I like what I have seen so far.

Keep us posted


Mike

I Mike i have been using granite for my systems for a very very long time and i have NEVER had a problem with acoustics just like you, i have used it for plinths and also for Acoustat's bases, without any problems, i love that material, it's nice and heavy, in 3/4 - 1 1/4 - 2 1/4 inches thick, but i do think that the safest place for a heavy amplifier, is on the GROUND, it can't go much further than that right.

PS: I am 64 years old and the RITA-880 is only my third piece of gear that i bought new, reason i have champagne taste with beer money, even those pieces, i had a very good deal.

hmmm, does it use black granite for the plinth or for the base? on my oracle the plinth is machined aluminum (and shaped like a weird 5 pointed star - three legs, arm, level), while the base is made of acrylic.

the base is very isolated from the plinth by those three towers of springs which provide the isolation between the sound source and the base, in your case - the granite.

Looking forward to the pics, Mr A.

Granite has weight, which is the main thing. The problem I think is not to isolate the amplifier from itself, I just don't see an amp, even a tube amp, "ringing" and sending reflections back to itself. IF there's any sound from an amp, such as from an output transformer with slightly loose coil, then that is creating an astronomically greater "disturbance" to other parts of the amp than any reflection of such. I think what DOES matter is isolating the amp from the speakers, and anything to solidify the placement of an amp with its always somewhat microphonic input tubes will improve the sound.

It's been said that an amp and turntable should be to the side of the room, outside the focus of inward pointing speakers and the sound field, rather than between them where it gets energy from the corner effect and from direct reflections from the back wall. I find I have far less problems with rumble and feedback with the turntable off to the side rather than between the speakers, so that's a litmus test for what the amp would be hearing.

I hope this is considered on-topic, my comments are related to damping the amp and how RITA is being placed in her shelving.

True, I just consider the upper part to be part of the TT and the granite to be the plinth is it is the resting place for the motor and the three columns. When I had to replace it after an attempted burglary they called it both. And this further reinforces my thinking regarding Granite because if anything is going to "ring" machined aluminum is it. The whole thing sits on one of my recovered granite surface plates.

But agree with Mr Acoustat that the floor is good for heavy amps if you can get a good strong floor stand. It sure can't fall very far.

Cheers

Mike

The Oracle's subchassis is actually 3 ply aluminium - it won't ring. The same can be done with granite.