... and in an outright a-b comparison most of todays expensive high end gear would loose against the best mid level vintage gear ...
Low cost Natural sound systems from YouTube
- Thread starter bonzo75
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The super rare Infinity IRS-Omega's are the Infinity speaker I would have loved to have owned back in the late 90's. They retailed for $7,000 when they were new in 98 & were the last of the classic IRS speakers. And from what I've read, they are a big step up from the Ren 90. After all the Omega is an IRS series speaker, has a larger 12 inch watkins woofer, separate crossovers for each driver and used all poly caps throughout. There was also a rear-firing emit R tweeter. I'd love to pair those speakers with a Coda Model 11 amp, ARC Ref 5SE pre & Reimyo CDP-777 in a vintage system 
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.The super rare Infinity IRS-Omega's are the Infinity speaker I would have loved to have owned back in the late 90's. They retailed for $7,000 when they were new in 98 & were the last of the classic IRS speakers. And from what I've read, they are a big step up from the Ren 90. After all the Omega is an IRS series speaker, has a larger 12 inch watkins woofer, separate crossovers for each driver and used all poly caps throughout. There was also a rear-firing emit R tweeter. I'd love to pair those speakers with a Coda Model 11 amp, ARC Ref 5SE pre & Reimyo CDP-777 in a vintage system
... stick some diana krall on that cd player.
Then you only need 5 middle aged bald guys and 20 plastic chairs — and you can make your own hifi show...
Lol, yes I agree..one of the unforgiveable faux pas at audio shows. As for the age demographic, yes sadly that is generally true. Though it certainly wouldn't be the fault of those Infinity speakers.
Yes hair loss is hard to do much about.
Each his own, but I think the golden era of sound reproduction was the 60s. Earlier is also good and in some cases even better, but scarser and more expensive.
But the 70s can also be ok. I bet JR cue’d up dolly’s “9 to 5” on a technics 1200, luxman integrated, and a pair of 15” jbls.
Bobby, on the other hand, was an early adopter of digital and the little dinky bose speakers. In white.
HIFI show fodder can be musically mind numbing... try Diana Krall here doing happy holiday songs (does music just get any better than this) no wonder she looks exhausted... btw who art directed this cover, she looks like a zombie marionette. Ahh well, all hail the mighty hifi Krall.
Hahaha. Poor lass has OD’ed trying to numb the pain.
Actually, on a righteous natural system Diana Krall will sound not only hifi impressive but also as lifeless as she looks in that picture.
And the reverse is true: if you put Satchmo on a typical modern high end system you’ll hear only clicks and pops and needle noise...
Just to widen the scope here a bit can we also segue across to music used in hifi reviews.
I’ve just finished reading two gear reviews where the main musical references in one for the readers were UB40, Holly Cole and King Crimson... and the other used only a selection of various tracks from Billy Joël FFS... and yes these were equipment reviews that were written in the last month and not as you might reasonably conclude over thirty years ago... and we wonder why no one under 30 is indeed interested in our sport.
Yes, I get that then using Bach as a musical reference therefore might equally imply that no one under 300 would then be interested in or relate to our hobby but that I fear may also just be a matter of time... (all love and respect to papa Bach and all my fellow audiophiles who like me are also approaching 300 btw) especially if reviewers don’t mix it up more. The hifi industry perhaps needs to more regularly embrace the music more and less the sounds... engage also in the music of the now as well as the music of the golden glory days of the GenX or Baby Booming youth in current hifi reviews and reports.
The Cure is actually in the music, have some Faith that exploring great diversity in music from not just the past but also the present will ultimately then bring us all together and attract the great and the diverse who will also then come to enjoy it. But that is just me 50 cent... who so ever that might just be.
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Diana Krall she's good, Patricia Barber she's better.
That's my own personal opinion; no steel hammer needed.
That's my own personal opinion; no steel hammer needed.
We do live in a marvellously subjective paradise Bob, in music there is a happy place for each of us where some is right and some seems wrong... and for some there is even just The Beeber! It’s all personal.
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I think we are world observators. We assimilate with our entourage and we create like artists.
We paint what we like, we listen to what we like and we say it with words that we feel it's right.
The news from the past come to the surface today as the truth.
And we watch YouTube to discover more...about everything...our music systems.
...Part of ourselves.
I’d think it should be possible for a reviewer to put together a shortlist of accessible types of music for review that might give us a bigger insight into the gear performance. Small chamber and large scale orchestral classical, challenging types of jazz and big band, contemporary jazz, intimate vocals with acoustic instruments, rock, rnb, electronic dance, music that showcases dynamics, nuance, scale, coherence and presence and recordings famed for their capture of natural sound and captivating performances of musical artistry... rather than just half a dozen or so Billy Joël tracks. Can’t be too hard surely.
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One reviewer will never know all these genres equally well. So it is best to check what different reviewers are using and try them out yourself to see if it makes sense to you. Most of them mention the recordings they have used for their respective reviews. Whether you like them or not and draw the same conclusions is a different matter
It would be good tho. In the genres where they aren’t as knowledgeable they could just phone-a-friend and get some advice sure you guys could offer up some great recordings of landmark performances. If they were to lower their defences just a bit and just hop onto a forum like this one and ask for some good music for reviews across the genres then simply stream... they could also compile a Tidal playlist and share it online with their readers. Would be great. They could also then upload samsung videos of grabs from the playlist that they describe as well and share via YouTube. It’s been done already here
sure you guys could offer up some great recordings of landmark performances. If they were to lower their defences just a bit and just hop onto a forum like this one and ask for some good music for reviews across the genres then simply stream... they could also compile a Tidal playlist and share it online with their readers. Would be great. They could also then upload samsung videos of grabs from the playlist that they describe as well and share via YouTube. It’s been done already here
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The biggest trouble for our hobby is that the product is very poor. 99.9999% of today's recordings is
digitally manipulated computer manufactured rubbish. Nothing gets through a record company today
without going through pro tools and heavy compression or some sort of computer to take the life out of
it. The masters of nearly all vinyl reissues is digital -- so whats the point...?
Look at Kedar's reference recordings: nothing less than 50 years old.
Compounding on this is that most of the gear that gets produced today seems to be voiced to flatter
the junk software. Almost none of it will not stand the test of time. I have recently heard some excessively
expensive gear that tbh sounded horrible but came with 5 star ratings and rave reviews.
Just my few cents. Sorry for the rant. There's probably more. Will come to me later.
digitally manipulated computer manufactured rubbish. Nothing gets through a record company today
without going through pro tools and heavy compression or some sort of computer to take the life out of
it. The masters of nearly all vinyl reissues is digital -- so whats the point...?
Look at Kedar's reference recordings: nothing less than 50 years old.
Compounding on this is that most of the gear that gets produced today seems to be voiced to flatter
the junk software. Almost none of it will not stand the test of time. I have recently heard some excessively
expensive gear that tbh sounded horrible but came with 5 star ratings and rave reviews.
Just my few cents. Sorry for the rant. There's probably more. Will come to me later.
IS that Diana's Aretha Franklin imitation?....The super rare Infinity IRS-Omega's are the Infinity speaker I would have loved to have owned back in the late 90's. They retailed for $7,000 when they were new in 98 & were the last of the classic IRS speakers. And from what I've read, they are a big step up from the Ren 90. After all the Omega is an IRS series speaker, has a larger 12 inch watkins woofer, separate crossovers for each driver and used all poly caps throughout. There was also a rear-firing emit R tweeter. I'd love to pair those speakers with a Coda Model 11 amp, ARC Ref 5SE pre & Reimyo CDP-777 in a vintage system
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