Ron’s New System

[Ron Resnick]

Happy to help out. I learned a few things my self and also learned that Vidar is the nicest guy. We e-mailed back and forth a few times today and he really appreciates the audiophile community doing justice to his productions. As he wrote, you would be supprised how many of his clients who don’t even own a proper stereo system. Many of them just uses an iPhone with cheap head phones or a bluetooth speaker connected to it. Makes him feel a bit sad that all the effort he puts in his productions never really shines trough in those cases. They don’t even know how it is supposed to sound..

It is interesting that Anette herself joined a high-end audio manufacturer to perform at an audio show.

Do you think Vidar would have any appetite for recording Anette using a purely analog chain and mastering to vinyl side-by-side with the audio chain he uses to create a digital file?

(Alternatively I am happy to rent a Neumann U47, and record her live in my listening room to my A820.)

 

[PeterA]

Streaming, no, because I feel that iPad as streamer is totally unfair to the digital side. (Anytime I stream something off the iPad and it sounds halfway decent I feel like the Baltic 4 is doing some heavy lifting and is doing a great job for me.)

Vinyl versus tape, no, I have not thought about that, for all of the reasons I have posted before about my dim view of digitizing analog recordings.

However now that you mention it, what you are proposing does satisfy my personal basic minimum condition for the videos -- which is changing only one thing -- in this case, the source. So I think such a video comparison would be relatively valid.

I am open to doing this in the future. It is not my priority at the moment.

OK. Can you tell us the sources used for the videos you have posted of your system in this thread recently?

I know you have stated that videos are only useful for direct comparison purposes.

 

[bonzo75]

Ron, Have you considered posting three videos playing the same song demonstrating the sonic differences between your streaming, vinyl and tape?

It is possible to have very good tape of one performance and not a good LP of the same, and vice versa. So it is best to play the best tapes and the best LPs, which might not necessarily…in fact rarely…be the same performance

 

[Ron Resnick]

Ron, you state that you can’t even listen to vinyl anymore…how is what I wrote a mischaracterization of that clear statement?

What you are writing is an absolutist, across-the-board, universal (mis)statement that I did not remotely make.

I wrote: "When a tape soundly beats the vinyl, I can't even listen to the vinyl anymore."

"When a tape soundly beats the vinyl" (emphasis added) is a condition, a qualification, that defines clearly a subset of the universal, absolutist statement you are making. The subset I defined might be five tapes out of 10 or five tapes out of 100. Whatever it is it is not 100 tapes of 100, which is what you essentially are claiming I wrote.

Where did I write "I can't even listen to vinyl anymore"? This is so taken out of context as to be literally false, fake news.

A subset of a universe is a basic concept in both math and in logic. What is the problem here?

 

[Ron Resnick]

OK. Can you tell us the sources used for the videos you have posted of your system in this thread recently?

Soular Energy: tape

Anette Askvik: iPad --> Baltic 4

Stairway to Heaven: vinyl

Eva Cassidy: vinyl

A Whiter Shade of Pale: tape

 

[microstrip]

Fair enough. I have listened to loads of versions of "Night on Bare Mountain" and "Pictures at an Exhibition" and "Symphonie Fantastique" and Mozart "Jupiter Symphony 41" on Qobuz. These are my four favorite classical pieces. I'm happy to listen to them over and over and over.

I have never found on Qobuz a "Night on Bare Mountain" or a "Pictures at an Exhibition" that I find more convincing and natural sounding than The Power of the Orchestra (Chesky RC30).

Please post links from Qobuz to your favorite digital versions of these two titles and I will compare them to the Chesky.

Sorry, since long I am not using "explosive", impressive or Mozart music as a reference for my listening. I listened to a lot of them, Chesky RC30 is part of the Harry Pearson TAS list and sounds impressive, but if you look at opinions of people about the many versions and re-issues of this recording you will find people opinions split between them, considering them from fabulous to miserable for the same version! This seems to mean that the mastering and pressing determines the quality of the LP, not the fact that it is a miraculous analog recording.

May I suggest that you ask David (DDK) about this particular LP when he visits you?

 

[PeterA]

It is possible to have very good tape of one performance and not a good LP of the same, and vice versa. So it is best to play the best tapes and the best LPs, which might not necessarily…in fact rarely…be the same performance

that is fine or just do a number of comparisons to get a sense of each format performance in a particular system. Moot point in this case.

 

[PeterA]

Sorry, since long I am not using "explosive", impressive or Mozart music as a reference for my listening. I listened to a lot of them, Chesky RC30 is part of the Harry Pearson TAS list and sounds impressive, but if you look at opinions of people about the many versions and re-issues of this recording you will find people opinions split between them, considering them from fabulous to miserable for the same version! This seems to mean that the mastering and pressing determines the quality of the LP, not the fact that it is a miraculous analog recording.

May I suggest that you ask David (DDK) about this particular LP when he visits you?

Francisco, why don’t you want to answer Ron’s question? Even though you don’t use these recordings as your reference, you state that you’ve listened to a lot of them. Don’t you have favorites available on Qobuz? Ron is curious.

Why ask David for his opinion on the Chesky recording? What will that tell Ron?

 

[Hi-FiGuy]

A large enough fraction of my favorite titles are on tape that I'm questioning whether I even need vinyl.

When a tape soundly beats the vinyl, I can't even listen to the vinyl anymore.

It seems to be in the nature of tape that it sounds more relaxed and wider and more spacious. Instruments and singers are more separated. Everything seems a little bit more spread out.

Of course, the Denon is not a fair match for the Studer.

Your tape machine far surpasses your current turntable, kinda like your current speakers far surpass your loaners. Get your vinyl rig on par with your tape and you might change your mind about needing vinyl.

 

[thomask]

Soular Energy: tape

Anette Askvik: iPad --> Baltic 4

Stairway to Heaven: vinyl

Eva Cassidy: vinyl

A Whiter Shade of Pale: tape

Your recording from tape sounds very natural and balanced.

Eva also sounds fantastic.

But some details are missing from Anette Askvik.

I recommend you to get Aurender N20 which is easy to use.

Although I am happy with Aurender N30, the difference between N30 and N20 is rather small.

 

[morricab]

Soular Energy: tape

Anette Askvik: iPad --> Baltic 4

Stairway to Heaven: vinyl

Eva Cassidy: vinyl

A Whiter Shade of Pale: tape

Ron, at the moment you are comparing apples to oranges to pears. Get your AS2000 running and get a good music server or cd transport for the Baltic and then compare with the same recording at least. These recordings are as variable in quality as your sources! There is nothing that can be gleaned from a comparison here.

You mentioned many posts back that your system was not sounding like it had tubes even it was “festooned” with tubes. Can you expand on this impression? I am assuming that it also is not sounding SS but that maybe there is a edge to the sound that is not relaxing. Or is it something else?

 

[Ron Resnick]

There is nothing that can be gleaned from a comparison here.

I agree. I never suggested this was a valid three-way comparison. I posted this list solely because Peter asked me to.

 

[Ron Resnick]

I recommend you to get Aurender N20 which is easy to use.

Although I am happy with Aurender N30, the difference between N30 and N20 is rather small.

I am waiting for Fabio of Alma to install an Innous PULSEmini.

 

[Johan K]

THE Fabio… ..??? Hahaha!!

 

[cjfrbw]

Don't knock it. Fabio is a hard core audiophile with the most fanatic. He put all those bodice ripper cover art commissions to good use.

 

[Johan K]

Don't knock it. Fabio is a hard core audiophile with the most fanatic. He put all those bodice ripper cover art commissions to good use.

Hahaha - Yes I know… Krell, Martin Logan Statement’s, Infinity IRS V… among other things…

According to himself it is a NASA-Standard stereo system? !!

Cheers / Jk

 

[Ron Resnick]

THE Fabio… ..??? Hahaha!!
View attachment 106676

No, but this Fabio I used to see regularly at an Italian restaurant called Café Med at the corner of Sunset Blvd. and Sunset Plaza Drive in West Hollywood. I saw him there so frequently that eventually I introduced myself and asked him how his Martin-Logan Statement system is doing.

Funny timing you should post this picture, because Café Med was replaced by a seafood restaurant, and for the first time I had dinner there with Don just last night! When I mentioned to Don this used to be for decades a restaurant called Café Med I told him the Fabio story!

 

[Alrainbow]

He loves his cars seems to be a regular guy in interviews
Jays garage had a nice episode with him

 

[Johan K]

No, but this Fabio I used to see regularly at an Italian restaurant called Café Med at the corner of Sunset Blvd. and Sunset Plaza Drive in West Hollywood. I saw him there so frequently that eventually I introduced myself and asked him how his Martin-Logan Statement system is doing.

Funny timing you should post this picture, because Café Med was replaced by a seafood restaurant, and for the first time I had dinner there with Don just last night! When I mentioned to Don this used to be for decades a restaurant called Café Med I told him the Fabio story!

Lovely story Ron . Thanx for sharing.
Well, a couple of swedish TV-guys was going around the US some 15 years ago, doing interviews with all sorts of celebrities including Fabio. They were filming inside his house, showing all his equipment, which was really nice to see… and it was there he told everybody that his equipment was like ”-It’s the Best… It’s NASA-Standard”, and he said that so many times in the same clip, that Philip and Fredrik (the TV guys) had a ”best’io’meter” setup in the TV screen to count all his ”It’s the best”… in the end of the clip I think he was up to like 25-30 times, haha.

Eventually they were all going on a motocross ride, due to Fabios interest in motor bikes. While trying to make a smooth start, Philip did something weird and stupid with his throttle, resulting in crashing into Fabio on film, making both of them look like amateurs. For that embarrassing moment, they invited Fabio to Sweden as a goodwill to his very calm behavior after the crash with the motorcycle.
Btw: non of them was seriously hurt - just some scrapes, haha.

/ Johan

 

[Johan K]

Here’s the clip… it is some swedish talking, just ignore that and watch the clip - kind of funny… Behold!

/ Jk