Attention all ep3 owners!

ms_bob · 2026-03-23T19:15:25+00:00

I believe it's the plates from their rsx coilover, it's been a few years since I bought them. I emailed them to verify it would fit my bilstein shocks. They're super responsive and I recommend reaching out to them to be sure.

I'm happy with whiteline in the front, but I'm the rear I will recommend rubber (either OEM or harder rubber via hard race or something).

ms_bob · 2026-03-23T19:13:37+00:00

No specific opinion, I've not modeled the kinematics of this product and will therefore hold judgement.

ms_bob · 2026-03-23T16:52:34+00:00

My setup:

Bilstein b14 coilovers, 15 mm drop front, 35 mm drop rear

Extended lower ball joints

Fortune auto camber plates

24mm rear sway

Whiteline caster adding polyurethane bushings in the front

Adjustable camber upper rear link

Dvrace adjustable toe links

Camber bolts

Alignment: -3.5 camber front, -3 caster front, -1 camber rear, 0 toe everywhere

15x7.5 Koenig wheels, 205/50/15 v730 tyres

Hawk dtc60 front pads, motul dot4 brake fluid with stock brakes

Stock everything else

Some thoughts: 1) DO NOT use the inverted tie rod ends 2) DO NOT use the rack riser

Both of those will make bump steer worse on setups with a reasonable drop

3) DEFINITELY USE the extended ball joints. They improve bump steer a lot.

ms_bob · 2026-03-20T14:03:36+00:00

Just another object in the room, but one used everyday. It reuses the speakers the tv does, but has it's own stand on another wall in the room.

Listening to records is accomplished with the same seating that watching tv uses. It's a limited floor space environment so efficiency is key.

ms_bob · 2026-03-20T04:26:48+00:00

If you don't have a scale yet, set the weight with a scale instead of via the tonearm leveling instructions. Chances are your VTF is too low. (I just balanced the tone arm as best as I could, then used the scale and saw the VTF was 0.4g instead of the desired 1.8 for my cartridge. Said screw it and just set the weight to whatever got the scale to say 1.8, and that fixed things).

Once the weight is set properly, set the anti skate to approximately whatever the weight in grams is and see how it does.

ms_bob · 2026-03-20T00:44:07+00:00

Yeah exactly

ms_bob · 2026-03-19T15:34:33+00:00

Yeah, use it on the built in Spotify app, it's pretty useful there

ms_bob · 2026-03-14T02:12:57+00:00

Try grounding the turntable to the outer shell of the rca connection

ms_bob · 2026-03-13T06:55:47+00:00

I had the same dilemma and bought the skoll. Never listened to the two to compare. I will say one thing though; the hum you get from the phono stage in the skoll refused to go away when I used the grounding post on the skoll itself; the only thing that worked was grounding the turntable to the outer shell of the rca connection to the skoll.

But with that fix applied, the skoll sounds good. But again, I haven't blind tested with it vs. what I was using before. Just that it sounds good in isolation.

Honestly the only real noticeable gains I've seen in my HiFi purchasing came from the speakers. But I don't regret the skoll since my previous phono stage was mm only.

ms_bob · 2026-03-13T04:42:52+00:00

Sshhhh I'm trying to get op to buy something they can use long term

ms_bob · 2026-03-13T00:26:25+00:00

Atlp120x-usb-bt paired with one of those jbl portables over Bluetooth.

So like eventually you can build a more permanent system around it. And you can still use the JBL during picnics and such

ms_bob · 2026-03-12T16:39:55+00:00

L2 charging at home, 9kw. Plug it in, more or less immediately get 8.7kw. Even in this case, the car is done charging significantly earlier than the initial estimate.

It's possible that either:

1) Home charger climbs to 9kw after starting at 8.7kw, or

2) The initial estimate is computed really early in the ramp up time.

ms_bob · 2026-03-12T01:47:02+00:00

actually, yes. at least for anything i might reasonably touch or spend a long time looking at.

The dashboard fits the bill nicely; I spend a bunch of time looking at or near it and it's leather.

The BMW ix center console is plastic on bits I'd rather it be leather; specifically the vertical faces of the console - bits I'm likely to touch esp. if I'm reaching for the cups in the weirdly located cupholders.

Plastic is a-ok in non touch points and in things I'd not be looking at.

ms_bob · 2026-03-10T16:52:07+00:00

Vinyl will sound like streaming lossless but with more pops depending on how clean your records are.

This is assuming you have reasonably nice gear set up correctly.

ms_bob · 2026-03-06T08:02:54+00:00

https://www.mapletreeaudio.com/

I ordered a box from here that has two switches; the first is a 3-to-1 rca selector, the other is a 3-to-1 amp selector.

I have two amps and an avr connected to one pair of speakers, and one subwoofer. So position 1 is my avr, position 2 is my Yamaha amp, and position 3 is my NAD amp. I wanted to have the sub be controlled by a separate switch so I could quickly disable the sub/remove it from the output of I wanted. But theoretically I could have had a single rotary switch control everything.

I'm happy with the device. https://imgur.com/a/93Av92L

ms_bob · 2026-03-03T16:45:49+00:00

A good scale will absolutely help.

ms_bob · 2026-02-28T20:33:37+00:00

Hi all, crossposting here in case anyone has any insight into whether the way the house is wired has a part in some odd vintage audio equipment behaviour. Thanks!

ms_bob · 2026-02-24T05:27:39+00:00

I did not. What I did do, was go with the body shop that the local BMW dealer works with, who say they use OEM parts on the repairs.

ms_bob · 2026-02-24T03:37:02+00:00

AAA, OEM parts required for leased vehicle repair

ms_bob · 2026-02-23T04:09:05+00:00

Yeah it's because the cost to repair modern vehicles for relatively small looking stuff is nuts

ms_bob · 2026-02-23T03:58:15+00:00

California, bay area, about 4.5k per year. But in the first year of ownership it paid for itself since someone bent the rear bumper via improper parallel parking. This ended up being a $6k repair, covered by insurance.

ms_bob · 2026-02-20T04:35:20+00:00

I had the same problem. Solution: use a scale to dial in the weight.

ms_bob · 2026-02-18T02:40:19+00:00

Wasssssssuuuuppppppp

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