Hi Dave,
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PLEASE humour me with this (I'm an old Aspergic you know and not too flexible...)......
I always 'humour' you, so this time won't be any different :eyebrows: ;)
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If you took your Spendors off their Mana supports, what would happen?
And put them on the floor or on another type of stand? No matter, really, as both the former and the latter (perhaps to lesser extent) would result in them sounding crap, compared to what I'm enjoying now.
The Mana supports used throughout my system are responsible for a huge percentage of its performance, especially the stands under the Spendors. Such big speakers in a relatively small room would boom all over the place otherwise. The Mana stands effectively isolate the speakers from the effects of the room, keeping bass sphincter-tight and controlled at all times, but also 'real' - no other speaker stands I've used so far have done this.
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Would you get too much bass with the 103/Spu/M3D setup then?
Yes, of course, but that would be no fault of the 103 or M3D (I don't own an SPU - yet!); simply the lack of proper isolation under the speakers.
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If you then changed to a 33PTG, would it then help restore the balance and also make CD's more inviting????????
No idea - I haven't tried it. CDs are "inviting" on my system, very actually; just not as "inviting" as records played on my modded Techy, particularly since I've fitted the M3D!
I think you're slightly misunderstanding me. When I made the comment about bass in reference to the 103 and 33PTG, I wasn't talking about quantity of bass, but rather the quality of it, and most importantly, 'tone'.
Don't get me wrong, the 33PTG undoubtedly has excellent bass......for a modern design. That last bit's the key. Quite simply, until you've heard an SPU, M3D or 103SA do bass in a fully optimised, sympathetically matched, system you won't 'get' where I'm coming from.
Yesterday I was listening to an original 1956 vinyl release on Capitol of 'Swing Easy' by Frank Sinatra, and quite apart from the excellent music, I marvelled at the phenomenal quality of the recording, in terms of how musically 'real' it seemed. It used valve microphones, mixing desks, etc, throughout the (simplicity) of the recording process, compared to the bastardisation which often happens to music nowadays in studios.
These high quality old recordings are to my ears much more faithful to musical performances than about 95% of what's produced today - certainly this fact is borne out within the contents of my own (fairly substantial) music collection, and my tastes are wide and varied. The difference is hard to put into words... I think much of it is to do with dynamic range and resolution, which simply makes these recordings sound so vivid and utterly 'wide-open'.
In terms of the Sinatra recording I was listening to, this allowed his voice and the accompanying instrumental support by Nelson Riddle complete freedom of expression, and in the process giving the performance a level of realism which allowed one to form an emotional bond with the music, transcending the constraints of the reproduction chain - thus one was presented with living, breathing, 'live' music, as opposed to a worthy but ultimately artificial 'copy', represented in my experience by the majority of today's recordings in comparison. In short, I marvelled more at the passion and emotion of the performance than how good the sound was, consequently allowing me to make a genuine 'connection' with the music. I just wish that all recordings today had those qualities.
It's the qualities I've described above which, when 'done well', cartridges such as the 103SA, M3D and SPU possess over their sonically 'technically accomplished' modern counterparts, such as the AT33PTG we're discussing and most of today's cartridge designs. Excellent as they are in many respects, to my ears they just don't have the 'magical' way with music presented with such aplomb by the classic cartridges I've mentioned.
Does that help?
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I'm not being cheeky and as I haven't heard your system I cannot possibly comment other than by asking what appear to be silly questions like these...
No worries, Dave. Continue to ask away! :cool:
Marco.