Valve amps, great with Jazz, shit with everything else.

[KnuckleDragger]

OKies, keep us posted

Oh, and Mr KnuckleDragger, cheer up! Less terse, rather negative posts, please. This is a smiley happy forum, for smiley happy people, so embrace that vibe and fit in, my man

Marco.

Hi Marco. I don't believe my posts have been negative or terse. I believe I have been giving honest responses. That is all I can do. If you feel my posts have been negative than please point it out. I have given a reasoned reply to all evidence of issues described.

This is an edit as I feel it is required. My intention is not to fit in. People may not like my honest replies. However my replies are honest, nothing more or less. Also with 20 years of experience designing cad software for loudspeaker design. I am looking shortly at releasing my work as open source. I feel that people may be interested in my views...or not.
I try not to bring emotion into my answers. I feel that maybe that is why you are incorrectly viewing my responses as negative or terse. However they are not.
My best regards.

[Pharos]

I think your stated stance KnuckleDragger is one I share.

I strive for objectivity, not only as a philosophical approach to Hi-Fi, but also with regard to interpersonal relationships, and I try to avoid off-topic innuendo.

There is of course the need for diplomacy, if one respects others' feelings that is, and sometimes truth can be hurtful to receive if it conflicts with a comfort zone based on illusion, and if someone is to receive bad news, it is best done with gentleness and care, despite our current zeitgeist.

[Macca]

There is of course the need for diplomacy, if one respects others' feelings that is, and sometimes truth can be hurtful to receive if it conflicts with a comfort zone based on illusion, and if someone is to receive bad news, it is best done with gentleness and care, despite our current zeitgeist.

Depends on the nature of the bad news. Bad news about illness and death or something similar needs to be conveyed with tact and empathy. I'm not sure that bad news about audio playback need to be treated with the same care and attention.

[Marco]

Hi Marco. I don't believe my posts have been negative or terse. I believe I have been giving honest responses. That is all I can do. If you feel my posts have been negative than please point it out. I have given a reasoned reply to all evidence of issues described.

This is an edit as I feel it is required. My intention is not to fit in. People may not like my honest replies. However my replies are honest, nothing more or less. Also with 20 years of experience designing cad software for loudspeaker design. I am looking shortly at releasing my work as open source. I feel that people may be interested in my views...or not.
I try not to bring emotion into my answers. I feel that maybe that is why you are incorrectly viewing my responses as negative or terse. However they are not.
My best regards.

Thanks for your response, Stephen, which is appreciated. You've shown rather more diplomacy in what you've written above, than in your other posts to date, so I thank you for that. Ok, so if not terse, then a bit abrupt.

I have no problem with frankness and honesty, indeed very much welcome it, but it must also be tempered with the realisation that you're addressing a fellow human being, with emotions and feelings, not simply posting replies to a 'bulletin board' - and on AoS we're very focussed on maintaining harmony and a sense of community spirit.

In that respect, AoS is very much a community of real people, not simply an 'Internet forum', so I would ask you to bear that in mind in future. As they say, it's not so much *what* you say, but HOW you say it, and if you wish to remain here, as indeed I'd like to see happen, because I think you have something positive to offer, then you must embrace that aspect of how we like our members to communicate with each other.

Here's a small tip: one of the reasons why we insist on people providing their real first names, and putting them on their profiles, is so we can address them by them, thus making subsequent communication friendlier and more real (like we're chatting as friends in real life). In that respect, you replied earlier with 'Hi Marco', which made what you wrote after it come across as polite and reasonable.

I'd suggest therefore that in future, when you contribute to threads such as this and want to be as honest as possible, that you start off by addressing the OP by his or her first name, before 'diving in' and telling it as you see it, as it were, as that will make them more receptive towards what your saying, and avoid discussions like this in future. It's been helpful that Mike is a rather laidback guy and not easily provoked or annoyed, but not everyone is like that.

Anyway, I hope you've taken what I've said in the spirit it was intended, and we can move on positively from this

Marco.

[the_bat]

a stringency still exists in the high notes of sax/trumpet solos, which is hard to bear

Assuming you meant stridency, I thought that was the way they sounded live

[Marco]

Depends on the nature of the bad news. Bad news about illness and death or something similar needs to be conveyed with tact and empathy. I'm not sure that bad news about audio playback need to be treated with the same care and attention.

I agree, but it's also worth bearing in mind that everyone is different and won't necessarily react to situations in the same way. Therefore, it's usually best to adopt a 'default position' of friendly and non-confrontational/non-antagonistic, than anything that could be remotely construed as the opposite

Marco.

[fatmarley]

Assuming you meant stridency, I thought that was the way they sounded live

With certain recordings it's a fine line.

When voicing my own diy speakers I have a Christina Aguilera track that I play (don't laugh). If it doesn't sound almost ear bleeding when she's belting out a cetain part, I know something's wrong. If it is ear bleeding, then I've gone too far the other way.

[Macca]

Assuming you meant stridency, I thought that was the way they sounded live

Depends on the recording process but a recorded trumpet is never going to sound identical to a live one. Mics, used, mic placement and the recording space.

Then there's probably compression, eq, limiting, reverb and a whole lot of other stuff than can be done afterwards (or while you're recording) so you get a sound that compliments the sort of music you're making and that is going to sound good to the punter who buys the recording and plays it back in his living room for fun.

[Pharos]

Depends on the nature of the bad news. Bad news about illness and death or something similar needs to be conveyed with tact and empathy. I'm not sure that bad news about audio playback need to be treated with the same care and attention.

Of course the approach should be dependant on the situation, but there are some audio folk who invest a great deal of their self worth on the quality of their system, and they may be extremely hurt even with the most sensitively delivered criticism.

[AJSki2fly]

Of course the approach should be dependant on the situation, but there are some audio folk who invest a great deal of their self worth on the quality of their system, and they may be extremely hurt even with the most sensitively delivered criticism.

I agree, and also it should be remembered that most people on AoS have put time, effort and money into their hifi of whatever stature it may be in audiophile terms, and most are justifiably proud of what they have, whether others like it or not. So for someone to come along and say some of their gear or system is poor or should be replaced then it very likely to cause upset, especially if an individual has asked for advice on issues they are having. Also we should not forget, as we hopefully all appreciate, getting an audio system to sound great is not the easiest thing in the world to do, there are a great many variables involved, not just the kit and its synergy with each other, but how it is installed, the room layout and how it interacts with it.

There are certain pieces of equipment that I have learnt from personal experience I would not recommend, I try and observe caution before giving my opinions to owners of them unless they ask for it specifically if they know I experience of it. I might offer genuine advice on what might gain improvements but resist direct criticism. In the past my wife has often pulled me up for just saying it the way it is without any real tact or diplomacy, and I have learnt that it is best to consider what I do and say first, rather than regret the result after and possibly loose a friendship or unnecessarily upset someone. This does not mean I do not put my views across but rather do so in a fitting and appropriate manner.

Like Marco said, in my view its not what you say but how you say it that is important.