Steve Toy
20-03-2008, 02:17
It all began a few weeks ago when I heard Marco's mate Ian's Yaqin amp at Marco's house. I discovered that valve power really is the way to go as long as you use a decent pre that can be either solid state or valve. At the time I was actually pretty convinced that my Spectral pre was considerably more transparent than Marco's Croft valve pre.
My own Art of Sound hasn't really changed in that I still seek musical communication and articulation above other aspects of faithful reproduction of music but I have discovered that valve power can give even more of that and other stuff besides. My suspicions were confirmed last week when Marco brought his own Yaqin round for me to hear in my own system and through my 4 ohm Piegas.
Good that the Densen B330 is and it's very good, notably at musical communication with sledgehammer (but not overblown) bass, it just didn't quite have the upper frequency extension, spaciousness and sheer clarity of the Yaqin. Tambourines had more body and the timbre of drumstick hitting snare was more pleasing. Then there was the human voice. Locked in centre stage it had more presence and tangibility whether this voice was male or female.
We tried the Spectral with the Yaqin and like at Marco's that combination was very convincing indeed. Moving to the Croft I expected things to begin to sound rather shut in, slightly flat and slightly tired as they had done at his place previously. Except they didn't. The Croft and Spectral were now neck-and-neck. For sure they sounded slightly different but in the grand scheme of things the differences were not worth bothering about. Over extended listening perhaps the Croft had the edge and the Spectral had an edge, although only very slight one that is a characteristic of all that is not valve.
AnthonyTD who posts here has modified the Croft since I last heard it at Marco's and has changed a few valves from what I gather. This would certainly explain the considerable lift in performance to my ears in comparison with the Spectral. I'll be keeping the Spectral though as the Croft is a bespoke item unique to Marco and would almost certainly cost thousands to attempt to replicate or even just approximate.
With the Croft the Yaqin was quite unfussed whether it was connected to my Piegas by either the 8 ohm or 4 ohm taps and we left the speakers connected to the 8 ohm tap. However, swapping back to the Spectral the bass sounded overblown and was actually robbing the midrange of energy. I'd go as far as to say that the amp sounded like it was now struggling via the 8 ohm tap. Switching back 4 ohm and everything was fine. Phew! (I want to keep the Spectral.)
We also tried switching between ultra linear and triode mode on the Yaqin. The former sounded more dynamic but unfortunately the timing was all over the place compared to the latter. The Yaqin is definitely preferable in triode mode.
On the basis of the above bake-off at my place I decided to book an afternoon with Tony of Coherent systems with the possibility that I may kill two birds with one stone in that I could get myself a valve power amp and also by so doing I could release some cash from the sale of my Densen power amp (worth £2300) to partly fund a CD player upgrade. I want something that is the sonic and musical equivalent of the Yaqin but this equivalent must come ready to take 240 volts without the requisite step-down transformer and be CE approved lest it caught fire and my insurance refused to cough up.
The Puresound A30 seemed like a viable alternative. The one I heard at Coherent had been modified by Tony and was impressive indeed. It could also be used in either triode or ultra linear modes without any issues of timing/phase coherence.
I'll have to say at this point that Tony/Coherent Systems' approach pretty much epitomises what the Art of Sound stands for. He has an amazing ability to transform dull yet perhaps reasonably competent hi-fi into something that enables you to actually forget that your favourite music is reaching your ears by electro-mechanical means.
It was my system that was sounding like dull hi-fi although I had left my acrylic Quadraspire stands and the Densen B-330 power amp at home. The Linn Majik CD, the Spectral into the modded Puresound A30 and then into my Piega TS5s were failing to show any significant improvements with the various cable changes that Tony was trying to demonstrate. These failed to lift the system out of its state of uninvolvement and lack of frequency extension at the top end. The Townshend cages underneath the speakers had sorted the bass in a very convincing no-brainer fashion though.
Then Tony tried these Black Ravioli thingies under my preamp that lifted its feet off the glass shelf by about an inch and everything just snapped into focus. Suddenly the top end really opened up giving rather impressive front-to-back soundstage depth and harmonic decay that was previously missing. Now the various Coherent systems' mains, interconnect and speaker cable changes were more convincing, each one in turn removing more noise and harshness while leaving more music intact.
I also heard a couple of CD player upgrades. The cute little Bel Canto CD2 gave my Linn a clean pair of heels in every area notably in terms of bass drive, articulaion and dynamics across the board. It is also only slightly more expensive new than the Linn. The top-notch Esoteric (12k) was just breathtaking and I think it would not be at all embarrassed in the company of a well setup dCS costing nearly three times the price. In some respects I may even prefer the way it it communicates to the slightly smoother sounding dCS. I can't afford it though, so I will have to consider the Bel Canto (with and without its off-board DAC upgrade) against the GamuT CD3.
At Tony's I also got to hear a pair of Focal 1007 be sound just as I would like them for the very first time. The Fleetwoood Mac Rumours CD that was the first I ever bought back in 1987 had never sounded so good. Tony has a real rare talent for putting together a truly musical system for sure.
This week I went to visit Anthony of Tune Distinctions to hear his own system. I learnt about his valve amp expertise and that his own listening priorities seem to be very close to my own. Both the Soul and Copper amps were extremely musical with the Copper amp sounding nothing short of breathtaking (I dream of hearing it with Tony's top Esoteric.) I've decided that I'd like to buy a standard Puresound 30 and get Anthony to modify it by changing all the main valves from 6550s possibly to cryogenically treasted Svetlana KT88s and one or two other bits and pieces. Then I'll have my own unique bespoke amp and still have change (hopefully) after the sale of the Densen.
Hopefully a new valve amp and CD player should be transporting me to(wards) musical nirvana in the next few weeks.
Watch this space.
My own Art of Sound hasn't really changed in that I still seek musical communication and articulation above other aspects of faithful reproduction of music but I have discovered that valve power can give even more of that and other stuff besides. My suspicions were confirmed last week when Marco brought his own Yaqin round for me to hear in my own system and through my 4 ohm Piegas.
Good that the Densen B330 is and it's very good, notably at musical communication with sledgehammer (but not overblown) bass, it just didn't quite have the upper frequency extension, spaciousness and sheer clarity of the Yaqin. Tambourines had more body and the timbre of drumstick hitting snare was more pleasing. Then there was the human voice. Locked in centre stage it had more presence and tangibility whether this voice was male or female.
We tried the Spectral with the Yaqin and like at Marco's that combination was very convincing indeed. Moving to the Croft I expected things to begin to sound rather shut in, slightly flat and slightly tired as they had done at his place previously. Except they didn't. The Croft and Spectral were now neck-and-neck. For sure they sounded slightly different but in the grand scheme of things the differences were not worth bothering about. Over extended listening perhaps the Croft had the edge and the Spectral had an edge, although only very slight one that is a characteristic of all that is not valve.
AnthonyTD who posts here has modified the Croft since I last heard it at Marco's and has changed a few valves from what I gather. This would certainly explain the considerable lift in performance to my ears in comparison with the Spectral. I'll be keeping the Spectral though as the Croft is a bespoke item unique to Marco and would almost certainly cost thousands to attempt to replicate or even just approximate.
With the Croft the Yaqin was quite unfussed whether it was connected to my Piegas by either the 8 ohm or 4 ohm taps and we left the speakers connected to the 8 ohm tap. However, swapping back to the Spectral the bass sounded overblown and was actually robbing the midrange of energy. I'd go as far as to say that the amp sounded like it was now struggling via the 8 ohm tap. Switching back 4 ohm and everything was fine. Phew! (I want to keep the Spectral.)
We also tried switching between ultra linear and triode mode on the Yaqin. The former sounded more dynamic but unfortunately the timing was all over the place compared to the latter. The Yaqin is definitely preferable in triode mode.
On the basis of the above bake-off at my place I decided to book an afternoon with Tony of Coherent systems with the possibility that I may kill two birds with one stone in that I could get myself a valve power amp and also by so doing I could release some cash from the sale of my Densen power amp (worth £2300) to partly fund a CD player upgrade. I want something that is the sonic and musical equivalent of the Yaqin but this equivalent must come ready to take 240 volts without the requisite step-down transformer and be CE approved lest it caught fire and my insurance refused to cough up.
The Puresound A30 seemed like a viable alternative. The one I heard at Coherent had been modified by Tony and was impressive indeed. It could also be used in either triode or ultra linear modes without any issues of timing/phase coherence.
I'll have to say at this point that Tony/Coherent Systems' approach pretty much epitomises what the Art of Sound stands for. He has an amazing ability to transform dull yet perhaps reasonably competent hi-fi into something that enables you to actually forget that your favourite music is reaching your ears by electro-mechanical means.
It was my system that was sounding like dull hi-fi although I had left my acrylic Quadraspire stands and the Densen B-330 power amp at home. The Linn Majik CD, the Spectral into the modded Puresound A30 and then into my Piega TS5s were failing to show any significant improvements with the various cable changes that Tony was trying to demonstrate. These failed to lift the system out of its state of uninvolvement and lack of frequency extension at the top end. The Townshend cages underneath the speakers had sorted the bass in a very convincing no-brainer fashion though.
Then Tony tried these Black Ravioli thingies under my preamp that lifted its feet off the glass shelf by about an inch and everything just snapped into focus. Suddenly the top end really opened up giving rather impressive front-to-back soundstage depth and harmonic decay that was previously missing. Now the various Coherent systems' mains, interconnect and speaker cable changes were more convincing, each one in turn removing more noise and harshness while leaving more music intact.
I also heard a couple of CD player upgrades. The cute little Bel Canto CD2 gave my Linn a clean pair of heels in every area notably in terms of bass drive, articulaion and dynamics across the board. It is also only slightly more expensive new than the Linn. The top-notch Esoteric (12k) was just breathtaking and I think it would not be at all embarrassed in the company of a well setup dCS costing nearly three times the price. In some respects I may even prefer the way it it communicates to the slightly smoother sounding dCS. I can't afford it though, so I will have to consider the Bel Canto (with and without its off-board DAC upgrade) against the GamuT CD3.
At Tony's I also got to hear a pair of Focal 1007 be sound just as I would like them for the very first time. The Fleetwoood Mac Rumours CD that was the first I ever bought back in 1987 had never sounded so good. Tony has a real rare talent for putting together a truly musical system for sure.
This week I went to visit Anthony of Tune Distinctions to hear his own system. I learnt about his valve amp expertise and that his own listening priorities seem to be very close to my own. Both the Soul and Copper amps were extremely musical with the Copper amp sounding nothing short of breathtaking (I dream of hearing it with Tony's top Esoteric.) I've decided that I'd like to buy a standard Puresound 30 and get Anthony to modify it by changing all the main valves from 6550s possibly to cryogenically treasted Svetlana KT88s and one or two other bits and pieces. Then I'll have my own unique bespoke amp and still have change (hopefully) after the sale of the Densen.
Hopefully a new valve amp and CD player should be transporting me to(wards) musical nirvana in the next few weeks.
Watch this space.