That was on one of the screens in a pub I was in a couple of months ago now, this young 'chick' near us turned to her boyfriend and said "er...who's that old tramp on the telly?":doh:Quote:
Originally Posted by Ali Tait
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That was on one of the screens in a pub I was in a couple of months ago now, this young 'chick' near us turned to her boyfriend and said "er...who's that old tramp on the telly?":doh:Quote:
Originally Posted by Ali Tait
Ah well guess you had to be there.Varun,yes I think it must be Jerry you are thinking of,he is indeed a big classical fan.
By the way Ali,
I have installed my new cables-Ag>Cu very thick and the jumper leads are pure silver wire (strands). The manufacturer said NO NO - should not use spades and plugs for jumper leads-just plain wire.
Sounds great-very very good indeed. Better than the bi-wired sound I had and improving- which I bet it will for some weeks.
Glad you got a good result.:)
I was prompted by DaveK having been provided by some upgrades to improve sound reception.
This has made me return to my first intention for the thread-which was to raise a number of issues.
First of all- and briefly- people who sight read music- do not need nth degree of sound reproduction. That was the reason for putting the image of Mozart's caricatures in the score of his C Minor concerto K491. I do not sight read but professional musicians have to.
Anyway- listening the frequencies. Although most HI-FIs claim to have a frequency range of 20Hz to 20Khz- both extremes are outside the human ear's compass. There was a lot of excitement when the CD medium was new- that one could hear the conductor turning the pages of the score or the russle of people's clothes etc.
20Hz sound can only be reached by one music instrument- The Organ. But you do not hear it- you feel it as the seat you are sitting on or the walls start vibrating.
The sharpest sound of all wind instruments is made by the Piccolo- no where near even the 12Khz mark I would say.
Then in sound reproduction- or recording or listening- we have low soft pianissimo sounds-barely audible. One does not encounter this in Pop-Rock (examples- Dire Straits-"Down to the waterline" "Lions") much but is a nightmare with many classical works as any attempt to make the music more audible results in bringing out the Tape Hiss. The solution has- in my experience - always been expensive.
More later.
I have a "legacy" system (broadly described as a "museum piece" recently), which was pretty good in its day and was designed for reasonably accurate speech reproduction. A few cheap tweaks, home-made cables and a couple of new valves later and I have a musically involving setup which is used daily, give or take, is detailed without pulling the music apart as my ATC Monitors are designed to do and will also play at lowish volume levels without losing much at all, accepting that it won't play at ear-splitting levels as a good big speaker can.
I found that my tastes in audio reproduction at home changed markedly as I've become older. The quacky screech that emanated from my third pair of Isobariks would now be intolerable, the fuzzy muddle that emanated from my second pair of 'briks wouldn't suit either, yet I miss the Epos ES14's I had from Robin himself, which had me in tears with their beauty...
The final piece for me (nail in the coffin for my detractor) will be getting the Crofted Quad II's back into service - gloriously coloured but SO musical and involving to hear...
Get those Croft mod'd Quad's out of the loft and onto your BC2's, you know it makes sense.:smoking:
I do not think I can now say for sure which bit solved the noise floor problem..
LP12, Ittok, Assak and 802/509s did not-most certainly-even with all the uptodate mods of the late 80s.
Neither did the addition of Well tempered to the system to replace the LP12. If it did-then perhaps the biggest change was made by the phono-preamp I think. VPI-TNT is excellent in this respect. I was reminded of this aspect of sound reproduction by the reviewer (Stereophile) talking of that Australian 100K monster with glitches in construction here and there.
I'm not so sure about this; to me the instant euphony of valve equipment (with a few exceptions) is an easy fix. Yes, if I was bereft of money I could hook up my Leak Stereo 20 with a pair of half decent speakers and a Cambridge Audio cheapie CD player and have instant gratification. However, I think there is more to it than that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Varun
The reason I like solid state (and my Pass and Chord equipment in particular) is that it gives tremendous insight into the music, but the journey is not an easy one. Transistor equipment is much more touchy about synergy, mains power, cables, supports and in fact everything in order to obtain marvellous sound. All too often tranny gear can sound cold, harsh, lacking in depth and pretty horrible. But get everything right and, oh my, the level of fidelity goes through the roof and suddenly you're hearing things on a far higher plane, with greater consistency. I also believe, having heard master tape on a few occasions and hi-res source material on many, that it can truly approach the original sound to a very satisfying degree.
That, for me, is why I moved on from valve to solid state equipment some years ago and am unlikely to go back.
Varun.
”Then the methodology of what is 'better' sound system-utterly erroneous was introduced by the reviewers in the 80s. They started focussing on physical aspects of sound and NOT music”
The point at which the listener is listening to the equipment and not the music is often overlooked.