Hear with the ear but listen with the brain.
State of the industry - Roy Gregory Editorial
- Thread starter Elliot G.
- Start date
I've heard that WE system a couple of times and it is quite an immersive experience, in a very good way, although perhaps not something to be accommodated in a typical domestic setting! Does make me wonder quite how far high end audio has come, particularly in recent decades where overt bling and big dangling price tickets seem to have taken hold of designers' imaginations.
Another friend recently bought some plug-ugly Altec A7 speakers, and they similarly laugh in the face of the current high-end audio obsession for shiny, expensive bling. Like the WE system, the A7s are very easy to criticise but with a sound character that's just so 'immediate', so 'palpable', so 'musical'.
They both
Yes, the Wilson system sounds more sterile and hyper-resolved, but I would imagine such a system might be more adjustable to reach a more balanced state. (and who knows what the system really sounds like when you have the actual bass foundation!) The horn system sounds like a lost cause to me.
All these horn system video's are interesting. They run the gamut from aggressive and distorted to resolved, balanced and lifelike.
They both sound off to me, but in radically different ways. If I had to choose one, it would be the Wison system. At least there you can hear what's in the recording. The horn system sounds colored, wooly and very distorted.
Yes, the Wilson system sounds more sterile and hyper-resolved, but I would imagine such a system might be more adjustable to reach a more balanced state. (and who knows what the system really sounds like when you have the actual bass foundation!) The horn system sounds like a lost cause to me.
All these horn system video's are interesting. They run the gamut from aggressive and distorted to resolved, balanced and lifelike.
Yes, this is very impressive, full of life-force energy, but I can't get past that it sounds like the music is getting pushed through a horn. This is particularly hard to ignore in the solo violin where the coloration overwhelms the woody tone I want to hear from a violin.
I was not meaning to say it is perfect, but considering this is a FIRST the achievement was humongous IMO! Close to a century ago, so let's review SOTA in this light...did we manage to come that much further?
From the look of it the room it was playing in might have been a bunker, but who knows.
How do you know the tone is because of the horn? This is a 100 year old amp and first Marantz preamp. None of these we have experience with to know what they do That 16a which is meant to be hung from the ceiling is resonating on the floor. How do you come to the conclusion that some attribute is because of the horn. Also the stereo is being summed to a mono to play back through the 16a.
I have posted other classical videos with western electrics (as have others) which can vary.
Statements on reaching a Zenith (article on March 9) were actually his final trajectory calculations.
Right, there are other factors that influence the tone. It's just my visceral impression. I hear the coloration immediately in almost every horn video and I heard it in my own system with horns for a few years. It's like I've developed an allegoric reaction!
Everything in audio has some form of coloration, and horns have their's. I think it's something you can get used to. I've just grown to more appreciate a different direction in sound reproduction. And that's not to say the WE horns don't bring a lot to the table!
I (and Al M) have discussed it several times. My personal objection to it is technical and logical, not emotional.
Bonzo and I have discussed it too, often with you and Al. It seems as though some do not consider our collective opinions to be a proper discussion or scrutinization in a dedicated thread.
Why would it be difficult to get a younger guy obsessed with vinyl? Seems a big opportunity for someone and the current generation loves the medium.
Everyone's discussed it many times. No discussion was required. Videos are like a dating profile. All it requires is to be enough to check out on a first date. No one is suggesting you marry them like you insinuated in your post. In the above example everyone has heard a Wilson, in fact many, almost no one on this firm has heard the other horn. That is all.
Unfortunately those with an agenda keep coming out with loads of discussion points on why videos cannot be accurate. The defenders of videos have never said they are.
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Lol that is like discussing how good gryphon pendragon is with the gryphon pendragon designer
they do, yet I have yet to see either of the two youngsters in our house spin one of the records they own...I still wonder what they love about the medium, I suspect it's the pictures.
Absolutely , here in brussels its at least 50 -50 LP s versus Digital based on what i see in store inventory .
You tube vids are good entertainment , the main thing they lack is accurate scale and bass reproduction
the main difference between the two formats is that Vinyl is buying you 'a something' you can hold, digital is usually a download...we've yet to see a revival of physical CDs
I wouldn't be too hard on them. I don't spin in my own house any of the records I own, either.
I'm not, I get it, the format does add something special when compared to a (low res) stream from spotify in your in ear pods...
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