schneiderhan
27-02-2011, 20:18
Hello everyone
I'd like to say this forum has been a big help to me (for reasons that will become obvious).
I started with a Marantz CD52 / Pioneer A400 plus Mission speakers about 20 years ago. Didn’t we all? An MF A3 system kick-started my interest in hifi in 2000 or thereabouts and then I did lots of box-swopping until I discovered Harbeth speakers. Also at about the same time, having had various TDA1541 CD players, I found a Marantz CD12 which was head and shoulders above the others (wonderful tone and such a beautiful thing too, possibly the most stylish-looking cd player ever made IMO).
So my system was:
Harbeth P3ESR (courtesy of Hifidave)
Marantz PM95 (an ebay bargain)
Marantz CD12
JPS cables
And happy I was until I managed to snag a Sony DAS-R1 and a barely used X7-ESD both for a very good price. Perhaps the CD12’s tone is ever so slightly more realistic but the Sony is incredible. Notes decay as they should - the noise floor is super low - and musical lines are separated by tone, timbre, rhythm etc in a way that I have only heard vinyl do. The TDA1541 is enabled to work its magic. Everything you read from Marco about this player is right.
So the Marantzes have to go (upstairs that is – I would not part with them for love nor money) and a new amp combo will take the place of the PM95. I’ve already got a supercharged Croft pre-amp (copying Marco again!) and will soon have a power amp.
As for vinyl, I've just got a nice Pioneer PL71 and am looking forward to using a Denon 103, a SPU or a London Decca. Probably a Denon first just to get started. The Decca appeals particularly to me out of a sentimental love of Decca SXL vinyl and because of Mr Croft’s admiration for it. But with a removeable headshell I will be able to enjoy all 3. Before this I had a set-up with a Zyx cart - it was ‘musical’ but didn't move me one bit.
As for music, well Wolfgang Schneiderhan was a great Viennese violinist famed for his elegant classical performances of Mozart, Beethoven etc. His playing is sometimes a little stern and buttoned-up, his tone perhaps a bit ‘samey’, but he was capable of conveying great power and tenderness and his bowing is simply perfect. Though I think I should have called myself Kogan as he is really my favourite violinist. I don’t listen only to music from the 18th / 19th century though. I particularly love that moment when blues / folk / jazz (and a bit of country) fused in artists like Freddie Neil, Tim Hardin, Karen Dalton and my all-time hero Tim Buckley. Take a listen to Tim Buckley live at the Troubadour in 1969 – unbelievable. Tim Hardin 3 (live at Town Hall) is equally awesome. And Fred Neil’s ‘Sessions’ – what they all have in common is a jazzy sense of phrasing, each holding notes over bar-lines (and for days and days in Tim and Fred’s case!) And as for Sandy Denny everything you've read about her recently is true – like Tim B she was capable of singing anything brilliantly – and bad luck to anyone who didn’t manage to get the (overpriced) box set.
Whilst I grew up in Wales, I’m an English boy (as my Welsh friends would say) and therefore (they might add) I live in Oxford!
Sorry for over-long post.
Matt
I'd like to say this forum has been a big help to me (for reasons that will become obvious).
I started with a Marantz CD52 / Pioneer A400 plus Mission speakers about 20 years ago. Didn’t we all? An MF A3 system kick-started my interest in hifi in 2000 or thereabouts and then I did lots of box-swopping until I discovered Harbeth speakers. Also at about the same time, having had various TDA1541 CD players, I found a Marantz CD12 which was head and shoulders above the others (wonderful tone and such a beautiful thing too, possibly the most stylish-looking cd player ever made IMO).
So my system was:
Harbeth P3ESR (courtesy of Hifidave)
Marantz PM95 (an ebay bargain)
Marantz CD12
JPS cables
And happy I was until I managed to snag a Sony DAS-R1 and a barely used X7-ESD both for a very good price. Perhaps the CD12’s tone is ever so slightly more realistic but the Sony is incredible. Notes decay as they should - the noise floor is super low - and musical lines are separated by tone, timbre, rhythm etc in a way that I have only heard vinyl do. The TDA1541 is enabled to work its magic. Everything you read from Marco about this player is right.
So the Marantzes have to go (upstairs that is – I would not part with them for love nor money) and a new amp combo will take the place of the PM95. I’ve already got a supercharged Croft pre-amp (copying Marco again!) and will soon have a power amp.
As for vinyl, I've just got a nice Pioneer PL71 and am looking forward to using a Denon 103, a SPU or a London Decca. Probably a Denon first just to get started. The Decca appeals particularly to me out of a sentimental love of Decca SXL vinyl and because of Mr Croft’s admiration for it. But with a removeable headshell I will be able to enjoy all 3. Before this I had a set-up with a Zyx cart - it was ‘musical’ but didn't move me one bit.
As for music, well Wolfgang Schneiderhan was a great Viennese violinist famed for his elegant classical performances of Mozart, Beethoven etc. His playing is sometimes a little stern and buttoned-up, his tone perhaps a bit ‘samey’, but he was capable of conveying great power and tenderness and his bowing is simply perfect. Though I think I should have called myself Kogan as he is really my favourite violinist. I don’t listen only to music from the 18th / 19th century though. I particularly love that moment when blues / folk / jazz (and a bit of country) fused in artists like Freddie Neil, Tim Hardin, Karen Dalton and my all-time hero Tim Buckley. Take a listen to Tim Buckley live at the Troubadour in 1969 – unbelievable. Tim Hardin 3 (live at Town Hall) is equally awesome. And Fred Neil’s ‘Sessions’ – what they all have in common is a jazzy sense of phrasing, each holding notes over bar-lines (and for days and days in Tim and Fred’s case!) And as for Sandy Denny everything you've read about her recently is true – like Tim B she was capable of singing anything brilliantly – and bad luck to anyone who didn’t manage to get the (overpriced) box set.
Whilst I grew up in Wales, I’m an English boy (as my Welsh friends would say) and therefore (they might add) I live in Oxford!
Sorry for over-long post.
Matt