View from the wild Welsh Marches plus unexpurgated grumbling.

Apparently, I have to pitch something on the welcome pages… so here goes

Status: raddled old audiophile (b: 1961); hearing well shot so I wouldn’t take too much notice of anything I say (especially if it involves anything over about 12K).

Philosophy: rather spend money on music (and bikes and family and dog) than hi-fi toys, so a cheaper way of getting a good result is always good with me.

Outlook: sceptical. If all the ground-breaking advances since I bought my first system in 1978 added were as transformative as all that, new gear should sound worlds apart from even the very best of what we had back then. It doesn’t.

Best gear I’ve ever owned: (1) Speakers – Lowther Acoustas. So dynamic, so alive, and TBH the famed “Lowther shout” just didn’t make itself apparent in my system/room. Sadly also terribly fragile – too expensive to keep servicing/replacing drivers so no longer with me.

Best gear I’ve ever owned: (2) Power amp – Leak stereo 20. Infectious musicality minus the unrealistic “bloom” that I hear with many valve amps. Why on earth don’t I have one still?

Best gear I’ve ever owned: (3) Pre-amp – my own home-built passive-pre using switched pot. Volume control is a bit coarse (only 23 steps quiet-to-loud) but it's silent and sounds transparent. I’ve never really perceived the claimed lack of drive or dynamics that some people attribute to passive pre’s.

Best gear I’ve ever owned: (4) digital: Topping D30 DAC. Plenty of inputs, dirt cheap, silent and cleans up my CD, PC and radio sources impressively. Ludicrously competent and under £100!

Best gear I’ve ever owned: (5) analogue: can’t be anything other than my Garrard 301 with Martin Bastin plinth and Jelco 750. Got the style, got the sound. Not expecting to change it now.

Best bargain: Ocean Digital DBA-03R Internet Radio tuner. £45. That’s £45. Internet radio kills off DAB at a stroke – and I no longer use my analogue tuner either. The analogue outputs stink, but digital out to an external DAC sorts that out.

Is it just me?? (1) Do speakers get better as they get older? I know Lowther speakers have a reputation for getting better and better right up to the moment they break, but TBH I think this covers other brands too. (Yes – capacitors and resistors need replacing.) I’ve listened to a number of recent mid-price recommendations (Wharfedale, Tannoy, Q Acoustics) with a view to upgrading/up-dating. Haven’t liked any of ‘em. Sticking with my Bang & Olufsen S45 mk2’s. A cult classic from the mid 1970’s, there’s not much I like better. Not in my price range, anyway.

Is it just me?? (2) I love these classics, but I do worry about just being set in my ways. Is it like music, where nothing will ever sound quite as great as the stuff that excited you when you were 18? Maybe I only really respond to stuff that reminds me of the things that I aspired to back then.

Is it just me?? (3) Enough nostalgia! Some of that old stuff was always over-rated and is still just as poor. I’ve had a couple of pairs of Mission speakers through my hands recently – the little 70’s and 700’s. Both budget classics – and both ruddy dreadful. To be fair, I only tried them in my garage system with a Chinese 2020 class T mini amp, i.e. not remotely good enough to show you what’s good, but plenty good enough to reveal what’s bad. I “upgraded” to a pair of Sony mini-speakers that came with a low-fi mini-system. Genuinely, the Sony’s are a country mile better than the Missions! Shocking, eh?

Is it just me?? (4) I can’t hear what’s wrong with Class T amps! I currently use a couple of TPA3116 power amps – one in a home-made power amp with a Meanwell PSU, the other a cheap Chinese mini-amp. Both are great. I don’t hear any issue using switched mode power supplies either. (Like I said… old ears.)

Is it just me?? (4) Bloomin’ heck I do love Spotify. I know, it’s compressed digital, but at 320 mbps it sounds good to me. Very good, actually. (Old ears again…) Those LPs (and even the CDs) are getting taken out less and less. The choice! The convenience! I’m weak.

CURRENT PLAYLIST : Flook, Oi Va Voi, Stereolab, Kenny Burrell, Merry Clayton, Joni Mitchell, Delfonics, Bernad Peiffer, Sly & the Family Stone, Tortoise. Yeah, I know… but it’ll change next week, so never mind, eh?

And if you’ve read all the way to here, thanks for listening.

Great intro Andrew, welcome on board.

What a cool place name :)

Hi Andrew, good rant! Welcome to the forum.

Hi Andrew, great welcome post.
My ears roll off earlier than yours but that shouldn't stop the enjoyment. Good to hear you build stuff as well.
Yes you live in a lovely part of the country. Enjoy the forum.

Probably the best intro I have read.

Welcome Andrew

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Originally Posted by Andy831

Probably the best intro I have read.

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Took 5 years to write.

Welcome to AoS Andrew,

What a great introduction - funny, contentious and opinionated: just what we like to read. Agree with a lot of it, but from personal experience would also disagree with some of it. Such is life - we're all different.

Enjoy the Forum
Barry

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Originally Posted by JohnJo

Took 5 years to write.

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LOL clearly been lurking for years LOL had not spotted that John :mental:

Howdy! Welcome to AOS.

Have fun.

S.

Stunning read, thank you.

If you can listen to the Topping D30 with Linear Power Supply.

Gary

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Originally Posted by JohnJo

Took 5 years to write.

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Yup - been hanging around in the shadows for years. Positively sinister. TBH I was perfectly happy just browsing the entertainment herein, not particularly bothered about joining in. Then the other day saw a classified ad I fancied, and only then discovered that without posting a welcome, I didn't get the privileges to reply. So I thought I'd pitch a word or two, just to get started. and then one word led to another... Turns out I enjoy being opinionated! I may do it some more. In fact here's one to chew on. The version of Thunder Road recorded by Tortoise with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy on the album The Brave and the Bold is better and more affecting than the Springsteen original. You can check it out here if you haven't heard it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb1bf-HpyD0
(I've pitched this idea to a Springsteen fan elsewhere, and apparently it make me both stoopid AND deaf. (But, hey, I've covered the whole deaf thing already.) Let me know what you think - any if anyone's remotely bothered I'll carry on and tell you why I'm right.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stryder5

Stunning read, thank you.

If you can listen to the Topping D30 with Linear Power Supply.

Gary

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Interesting. Do you have an LPS recommendation? Do lab style regulated psu's cut it in this type of low-voltage low-current setting?

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Originally Posted by TegJ

Interesting. Do you have an LPS recommendation? Do lab style regulated psu's cut it in this type of low-voltage low-current setting?

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There are many on eBay as long as they deliver 15v DC @ 1 amp.

I've never used a lab style psu perhaps someone else may comment, they do have internal fans? So possible noise issue?

Gary

The old Maplin power supplies, said to be for 12vdc could go to 15v if you tweaked the variable resistor at 3A.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TegJ

The version of Thunder Road recorded by Tortoise with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy on the album The Brave and the Bold is better and more affecting than the Springsteen original.

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Very nice. I'm not sure I'd describe it as better, but certainly as good and a really interesting reinterpretation.

So good to hear a cover that isn't just exactly the same as the original with someone else (usually less talented) singing. Covers that take the music elsewhere (as the Tortoise example does) are wonderful (my favourite being Joe Cocker - “With a Little Help From My Friends”) and add to the art. The straight copies do little more than earn a few dollars for the bands involved.

Thanks Rob. It seems no great number of people are fussed either way, so I won't labour a point. However, I could certainly enjoy a thread dedicated to "cover versions that are better than the original". Is there such a thing? Or how does one start one. Being a noob here I have no idea how these things work. And you're right about Cocker - but I think a whole thread about Beatles covers could ensue. And then another one about Dylan.

Let me pitch another one: the best moments in all pop featuring any instrument in particular. Now, I know that some categories will be quite controversial and taste might enter the equation. (Your taste that is: I have objective reasoned fact; you have taste - old story.) Anyway, I recognize that a discussion about the very best electric guitar solo ever might go on for some time, so let me get a couple of the obvious ones out of the way right away. These are surely ones no-one could possibly argue with!

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the very finest Marimba solo in rock and pop: Moonlight Feels Right by Starbuck. Ker-ching. No arguements, just is.

Sticking to absolute dead certs, next up has to be... the very best bit of tambourine ever committed to vinyl: War by Edwin Starr. What is war good for? Absolutely nothing, you say? Not so. It's good for a sustained assault on an innocent tambourine by someone unconcerned by the tambourine's usual role in the background. On lead tambourine, it's... well, I don't know who it is actually, but there'll be statues of him in his home town, I'll be bound. And an annual parade I should think, with marching bands. Which reminds me, the Salvation Army have long understood the power of the humble tambourine. Shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it.

I think I'm on a roll here, so I'll give you just one more uncontentious example. Best demented Bongo in all pop: Oh Carolina - the 1960 original by the Folkes Brothers. It's pretty damned Lo-fi, this record, but no matter. The geezer with the bongo (just the one) is right there are the front, and it sounds like he's having a splendid time.

Anyone got any gem's you'd like to share? Or maybe there's a thread for this topic too, in which case, I'll see you over there.

The first thing that comes to mind is the flute solo on the Jethro Tull Auqalung album. That’s kind of obvious, really, but there aren’t too many flutes in rock music.

Welcome to the forum! You’ll fit right in.

Russell

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Originally Posted by TegJ

Thanks Rob. It seems no great number of people are fussed either way, so I won't labour a point. However, I could certainly enjoy a thread dedicated to "cover versions that are better than the original". Is there such a thing? .

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yes there is https://theartofsound.net/forum/show...cover+versions

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Originally Posted by Macca

yes there is https://theartofsound.net/forum/show...cover+versions

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Ooo - thanks Macca. See you there!

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Originally Posted by alphaGT

The first thing that comes to mind is the flute solo on the Jethro Tull Auqalung album. That’s kind of obvious, really, but there aren’t too many flutes in rock music.

Welcome to the forum! You’ll fit right in.

Russell

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Ian Anderson? A unique talent. Special. But let me try to turn your head – and without looking too far from the ‘Tull’s 70’s heyday.

I got into Caravan absolutely by accident. Back in the 70’s, still at school, I got a copy of the compilation Canterbury Tales in a swap with a mate. I can’t remember what I gave in return, but I know I disliked it enough that I took the Caravan LPs in a swap despite the fact that I’d never heard of them. Anyway, I liked the cover. I was instantly hooked – and love ‘em still.

Caravan looked pretty much your regulation ‘70’s rock outfit EXCEPT for their mysterious not-quite-a-proper-member Jimmy Hastings – big bruvver of the band’s singer/guitarist Pye Hastings. You could see why they wouldn’t let him join – ‘cos then he’d have to be in the band photos. Even then he looked like a bank manager (the way bank managers used to look – not the spiv-insurance salesmen fresh out of 6th form we have now).

Note: when trying to describe band members from the 70’s in terms of job roles, very few careers are permitted. This conforms to the same principal that says that when trying to describe the size of a country, the only permissible points of reference are Wales, Ireland and the Isle of Wight. How lucky are we – having these global reference points right on our doorstep? Think how much harder life is for the good people of Memphis, Moscow or Mombai, having to learn about Eire, Cymru or Insula Vectis before being adequately able to explain to visitors quite how effin’ huge their country is? It’s the same with rockers back in the day. They can look like bankers, brick-layers, geography teachers, or in a few distinguished instances, mad professors. And that’s your lot. If someone tells you’re their cousin Malcolm was in a band, and he definitely looked like a doctor, send ‘em away with a flea in their ear. It’s just not permitted. (You could make out a case for a few of them looking like gnomes, and this is allowed, because gnome is not a profession. They’ll have been gnomes who also laid bricks or arranged mortgages. No question.)

Anyway, back to the Jimmy Hastings. Turns out his part-time status was because he already had a really solid career as a jazz-man and session player. In a particularly pleasing bit of “who’s coolest now?” he turned up as a side-man on Radiohead’s Amnesiac. (And he still looks exactly the same.)

Part-time or not, he added a glorious range of fills and backing lines over a bunch of Caravan’s ‘70’s classics. Never in the foreground, but a delight if you can be bothered to listen out for him.

So – greatest rock flute = Jimmy Hastings? No. Love him ‘though I do, if you’re looking for one moment that nails exactly what the flute is all about – tender, ethereal, fragile and just goddamn pretty, it’s I talk to the Wind by King Crimson – flutes by Ian McDonald. Part of its power is due to what comes immediately before. 21st Century Schizoid Man blindingly sets out KC’s agenda of spending most of the next 50 years scaring us witless. It’s a virtuoso onslaught – a statement of intent like few others. (Here’s another thread – the greatest album #1 side #1 track #1 ever? Like the sound of that.)

And then the flute arrives. Serene, limpid, perfect. Jimmy H (and dozens more) could probably play Ian Mc off the block, technically. But as a moment that defines what the flute can do in a rock context, this has my vote.

Remember Caravan well. Top band in the day they were. Nine feet underground was a long and good in. Had a nice cover.. Pink I think, but can't remember the name of album. Had 3 or 4 of theirs when young

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Originally Posted by struth

Remember Caravan well. Top band in the day they were. Nine feet underground was a long and good in. Had a nice cover.. Pink I think, but can't remember the name of album. Had 3 or 4 of theirs when young

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'In the Land of Grey and Pink'? (Don't ask me to explain what is meant by the title. :D) One of their best though.

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Originally Posted by Barry

'In the Land of Grey and Pink'? (Don't ask me to explain what is meant by the title. :D) One of their best though.

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That's was it . Good memory Barry

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Barry

'In the Land of Grey and Pink'? (Don't ask me to explain what is meant by the title. :D) One of their best though.

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Still a favourite of mine. And Deram made nice sounding records back then. I don't know who produced it, but I think it sounds great. It got the Steve Wilson re-master treatment recently, which is fun and interesting in its own way, but in some ways a bit unnecessary. Some remasters dredge clarity out of recordings that came out sounding terminally compressed, messy and murky. Not so in the case of Caravan. The originals still sound fine. Better than fine.

Dave Hitchcock who also did Foxtrot

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TegJ

Ian Anderson? A unique talent. Special. But let me try to turn your head – and without looking too far from the ‘Tull’s 70’s heyday.

I got into Caravan absolutely by accident. Back in the 70’s, still at school, I got a copy of the compilation Canterbury Tales in a swap with a mate. I can’t remember what I gave in return, but I know I disliked it enough that I took the Caravan LPs in a swap despite the fact that I’d never heard of them. Anyway, I liked the cover. I was instantly hooked – and love ‘em still.

Caravan looked pretty much your regulation ‘70’s rock outfit EXCEPT for their mysterious not-quite-a-proper-member Jimmy Hastings – big bruvver of the band’s singer/guitarist Pye Hastings. You could see why they wouldn’t let him join – ‘cos then he’d have to be in the band photos. Even then he looked like a bank manager (the way bank managers used to look – not the spiv-insurance salesmen fresh out of 6th form we have now).

Note: when trying to describe band members from the 70’s in terms of job roles, very few careers are permitted. This conforms to the same principal that says that when trying to describe the size of a country, the only permissible points of reference are Wales, Ireland and the Isle of Wight. How lucky are we – having these global reference points right on our doorstep? Think how much harder life is for the good people of Memphis, Moscow or Mombai, having to learn about Eire, Cymru or Insula Vectis before being adequately able to explain to visitors quite how effin’ huge their country is? It’s the same with rockers back in the day. They can look like bankers, brick-layers, geography teachers, or in a few distinguished instances, mad professors. And that’s your lot. If someone tells you’re their cousin Malcolm was in a band, and he definitely looked like a doctor, send ‘em away with a flea in their ear. It’s just not permitted. (You could make out a case for a few of them looking like gnomes, and this is allowed, because gnome is not a profession. They’ll have been gnomes who also laid bricks or arranged mortgages. No question.)

Anyway, back to the Jimmy Hastings. Turns out his part-time status was because he already had a really solid career as a jazz-man and session player. In a particularly pleasing bit of “who’s coolest now?” he turned up as a side-man on Radiohead’s Amnesiac. (And he still looks exactly the same.)

Part-time or not, he added a glorious range of fills and backing lines over a bunch of Caravan’s ‘70’s classics. Never in the foreground, but a delight if you can be bothered to listen out for him.

So – greatest rock flute = Jimmy Hastings? No. Love him ‘though I do, if you’re looking for one moment that nails exactly what the flute is all about – tender, ethereal, fragile and just goddamn pretty, it’s I talk to the Wind by King Crimson – flutes by Ian McDonald. Part of its power is due to what comes immediately before. 21st Century Schizoid Man blindingly sets out KC’s agenda of spending most of the next 50 years scaring us witless. It’s a virtuoso onslaught – a statement of intent like few others. (Here’s another thread – the greatest album #1 side #1 track #1 ever? Like the sound of that.)

And then the flute arrives. Serene, limpid, perfect. Jimmy H (and dozens more) could probably play Ian Mc off the block, technically. But as a moment that defines what the flute can do in a rock context, this has my vote.

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I must confess I am not familiar with Caravan. But, with all of you remembering them so fondly, I’ll be sure to put it on my short list of bands to check out!

I heard a song just the other day that had the most killer harmonica solo! And I’ve been wracking my brain trying to remember what song it was? It may have been the Stones? It’s hell getting old, being forgetful and all, but next time I hear it, I’ll be sure to make note.

Russell

Speaking of flutes there's some lovely flute solos (or at least one I remember) in Voyage of the Acolyte by Steve Hackett.

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