Photo Highlights Of RMAF 2011

[LenWhite]

Len

Did Jonathan or Mike Spitz play the Louis Armstrong, St James Infirmary on 1/2" R2R

In all my years of listening this was about as close to live as I have ever heard. A most amazing demo coming from Jonathan's little MicroMini speakers which IMO remains the best deal around for book shelf speakers in this price range

Unfortunately I missed that Steve.

 

[MylesBAstor]

It would interesting and I believe the micromini one would give it a noble run but bear in mind the Q1 is $25K a ten fold increase in price over the micromini one

Has the Micromini gone up in price? I thought it was $2000 but could be mistaken

 

[microstrip]

(...)
I have heard and loved it on vinyl but this was made at 30ips. I swear I could shake hands with Louis.

Steve,
Usually after such an experience we have two possibilities - either we leave and keep this magic experience forever in our memories, or you we just ask to listen for several other recordings we know well, covering very different types of music. During this system evaluation we risk ruining the the magic of the system. Which did you choose?

 

[MylesBAstor]

Len

Did Jonathan or Mike Spitz play the Louis Armstrong, St James Infirmary on 1/2" R2R

In all my years of listening this was about as close to live as I have ever heard. A most amazing demo coming from Jonathan's little MicroMini speakers which IMO remains the best deal around for book shelf speakers in this price range

The first time I heard the AF recording was many years ago in Jeff Joseph's room. Jeff had turned Classic Records onto this recording which they later released. And the original LP release had that wrap your arms around like reality you mentioned with the tape!

That said, I didn't think the Microminis sounded as good as I've heard them previously, most recently at CES. When I heard the MMs, the top end just sounded a little tipped up to me; the Armstrong sounded a bit "hot" thought it might have been recorded that way. But I thought I heard the same things on the other 30 ips tapes Mike played. OTOH, as we well know, may have depended up which day you heard the demo!

 

[Steve Williams]

Steve,
Usually after such an experience we have two possibilities - either we leave and keep this magic experience forever in our memories, or you we just ask to listen for several other recordings we know well, covering very different types of music. During this system evaluation we risk ruining the the magic of the system. Which did you choose?

Nothing IMO would ruin the magic of the system. This was audio at its finest

 

[mep]

The ATR-102 was a little hot on Thursday night and JT pointed that out to Mike Spitz as soon as the first notes spilled forth. Mike tweaked and peaked the deck and then played the Louis Armstrong cut and it was heaven.

 

[rbbert]

Has the Micromini gone up in price? I thought it was $2000 but could be mistaken

$500 for the stands

 

[MylesBAstor]

$500 for the stands

OK so then the Q1s are 20X, not 10X the price of the Micros

 

[Steve Williams]

good thing you're not a math teacher

 

[rockitman]

The first time I heard the AF recording was many years ago in Jeff Joseph's room. Jeff had turned Classic Records onto this recording which they later released. And the original LP release had that wrap your arms around like reality you mentioned with the tape!

So the tape that was shown off at 30 ips on a RTR was the one used to press the Classic 45 rpm release on 12 " Clarity vinyl ?

Dr Steve,

I know you don't have a turntable yet......but if your thinking about it, you might as well get the closest version to that tape before the OOP stock is gone...

http://store.acousticsounds.com/d/59563/Louis_Armstrong-St_James_Infirmary-45_RPM_Vinyl_Record

 

[c1ferrari]

Thanks for the link...

http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/pages/noise.aspx#sounds

informative NIH material, Greg.

 

[MylesBAstor]

So the tape that was shown off at 30 ips on a RTR was the one used to press the Classic 45 rpm release on 12 " Clarity vinyl ?

Dr Steve,

I know you don't have a turntable yet......but if your thinking about it, you might as well get the closest version to that tape before the OOP stock is gone...

http://store.acousticsounds.com/d/59563/Louis_Armstrong-St_James_Infirmary-45_RPM_Vinyl_Record

I'm not sure about that. I asked Mike Spitz if the original master was 15 or 30 ips and he didn't know but said he could check. I'm only guessing but I'd be surprised if the master is 30 ips. But I could be wrong too

 

[mep]

I talked to Mike Spitz about this tape and I believe he said it was the safety copy that was used to cut the LP. I could be wrong and it may well be “the” tape that was used to cut the LP.

 

[rockitman]

I talked to Mike Spitz about this tape and I believe he said it was the safety copy that was used to cut the LP. I could be wrong and it may well be “the” tape that was used to cut the LP.

The Classic LP I alluded too earlier ? I just listened to it again (2 songs) with the Phantom Supreme and A90. I went back in time....like a time machine.

 

[Steve Williams]

I talked to Mike Spitz about this tape and I believe he said it was the safety copy that was used to cut the LP. I could be wrong and it may well be “the” tape that was used to cut the LP.

He did say it was the safety copy

 

[rockitman]

He did say it was the safety copy

Safety makes sense...in that vain and in the spirit of analog enthusiasm & insanity, I just secured (hopefully) another Ortofon A90 still sealed this evening...My 2nd such cart. It represents incredible value and I am now sleeping better knowing I have 2 of the 400 made on a Planet of 10 Billion people....

any hi-end audio Psychiatrist on bd. ?

 

[MylesBAstor]

I can recommend one Handles audiophile divorces too

 

[RUR]

Forgot to ask... Did anyone else visit the DEQX room? They were using their $2K HDP Express with a pair of Gallos. First, they played a cut uncorrected, then with speaker correction on, and finally with both speaker and room correction. The improvement in imaging, soundstage and tonality was a shocking improvement and got a LOT of attention from everyone in the room.

Nyal would have been pleased.

 

[rockitman]

I can recommend one Handles audiophile divorces too

Never got married. Pre-nup conditions non romantic....

 

[garylkoh]

I heard it in Gary's room and was very impressed. If there were a shortcoming I noticed introduction of noise into the system whenever the remote control was used. This perhaps could have been related to the other similar problem Gary had but was quickly solved by Steve McCormick

The VRE-1C was a prototype, and this will be fixed in the production models. Steve hadn't had time to verify the programming of the control system before shipping the unit off to me for the show. There wasn't time to fix it either.

What happened was that every time the volume was changed via the remote control, relays would switch different resistor banks for attenuation. It's these changes that we are hearing when some resistors are completely switched out and a whole new set switched in. Steve uses some complex logic to switch just 14 resistors in various combination to implement the first 10 steps of the volume in 1dB steps, and then 100 steps of 0.5dB, before the last 10 steps again at 1dB.

The solution is to implement something that will only allow the resistors to switch when the music signal crosses zero. Then, the control circuitry will go back to sleep.