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.
Exactly my point. We have the strong opinions of a few spread along several threads, and many opinions on value and quality of systems based just on the videos.
I do not consider it a proper discussion or scrutinization of the subject.
We had great debates in WBF on fundamental items such as measurements, tube sound, digital, servers. But videos are still taboo.
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
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.
Agree. I was just at a live string quartet concert today in Zurich Tonhalle (kleinsaal) and sat quite close in the fourth row. Tonally it was worlds away from this playback. It was rich, it was woody and so present and expansive.
If I think back now to what I heard in Munich, the closest thing I heard there to what I heard live today tonally was the Living Voice room. Dynamically it fell a bit short but that might have been down to the 8 watt amp in a big room.
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.
definitely, and IME this comes pretty close to a life experience ( no I'm not a life performance fetishist).
I recently calibrated my ears at an Arcadi Volodos concert and few kits I heard in Munich portrayed the ambiance and tonal colors right, and most did not at all. Hammering dynamics, ear piercing shrill highs, thumping yet undefined lows for me do not compensate the midrange where the majority of the music is centered around.
I agree for a large part .
As a speaker designer i did a unit study as well at the show .
Among the best ( natural ) mids and highs in cone speakers i d say living voice and wilson benesch and kharma
The living voice MTM cone speaker has a paper mid with a foam surround and the good old scan speak revelator tw as far as i can see , so much for high tech cone progress..lol
Making things more complicated doesnt result automatically in better sound , plenty of examples in munchen of high dollar speakers which dont have finesse /sound natural.
It seemed speaker voicing in some cases was just not right , at least to my ears
These textile tw domes sound excellent and are not very expensive , off course Living voice did a good job to make it sound coherent
But its a small mtm design you cant ask for large scale dynamics like the big kharma or rockport
My first more prolonged exposure to horns was back about 10 years ago when a good mate got a pair of Tune animas. After many hours hearing his system over and over in a year or two of my visiting I realised my listening experiences with his setup were fundamentally different from any of the types of box or panel speakers that I’d heard and or owned.
It’s taken me years of living with horns to get to what I believe is the fundamental nature of that difference and it relates a lot to concepts on differentiation between experiences within the brain and those more seated in the perspective of the mind.
For me there is a more easy flow state in my experience of the music with the horns that I have than in my other speaker setups and that there is a generally greater focus in the sensations of the many distinct sounds for instance when listening through my Maggie 20.7s whereas with the horns there is a deeper concentration in the mind.
Both are valid and can be rich sonic and musical experiences but the horns that I have ultimately lead to more lastingly meaningful music experiences for me. But the types do also seem to lead to essentially quite different states of being.
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.
“It is very difficult to understand why the release went for that kind of money as I do not believe that any record is worthy of such a valuation. You imagine that the highly limited edition nature of it would have been a major factor. The individual who made the purchase must have had some kind of special connection to the work too. There was a buzz around the record in 2008,” says Scaramanga Silk.
“It means a lot that Choose Your Weapon is so special to somebody. However, it is disappointing to see a promotional item reach such prices in the resale market when the artist sees no remuneration at all. Second-hand trading of records in this way seems to overly favor sellers rather than musicians or record buyers. Fortunately, as technology has evolved, more and more ways of accessing music now exist, giving greater choice.”
Fremer is getting on in age but that's a big 'get' for TAS - congratulations to Lee and Harley. Wonder what happens to analog planet? I have my issues with Fremer but he has always been a stalwart mainstay for vinyl. I don't see anyone filling his shoes in that capacity.
"To get" sounds like you could place an order for somebody with a 30÷ year reputation. I was thinking who among current writers has been a long term vinyl advocate with sufficient reputation that could step into his place at Stereophile? Not anyone's shoes, Fremer's shoes.
"To get" sounds like you could place an order for somebody with a 30÷ year reputation. I was thinking who among current writers has been a long term vinyl advocate with sufficient reputation that could step into his place at Stereophile? Not anyone's shoes, Fremer's shoes.
"To get" sounds like you could place an order for somebody with a 30÷ year reputation. I was thinking who among current writers has been a long term vinyl advocate with sufficient reputation that could step into his place at Stereophile? Not anyone's shoes, Fremer's shoes.
If we associate vinyl reputation with ownership of the TechDas Air Force Zero, than TAS seems to have a large advantage - both Jacob Heilbrunn and Michael Fremer own it. Anti-monopoly high-end laws should impede this move!
If we associate vinyl reputation with ownership of the TechDas Air Force Zero, than TAS seems to have a large advantage - both Jacob Heilbrunn and Michael Fremer own it. Anti-monopoly high-end laws should impede this move!
I agree for a large part .
As a speaker designer i did a unit study as well at the show .
Among the best ( natural ) mids and highs in cone speakers i d say living voice and wilson benesch and kharma
The living voice MTM cone speaker has a paper mid with a foam surround and the good old scan speak revelator tw as far as i can see , so much for high tech cone progress..lol
Making things more complicated doesnt result automatically in better sound , plenty of examples in munchen of high dollar speakers which dont have finesse /sound natural.
It seemed speaker voicing in some cases was just not right , at least to my ears
These textile tw domes sound excellent and are not very expensive , off course Living voice did a good job to make it sound coherent
But its a small mtm design you cant ask for large scale dynamics like the big kharma or rockport
Dynamics, while not horn good, were manly limited by the 8 watts on tap rather than the speaker. This speaker, probably due to its high sensitivity, was very good with micro dynamics n a way most of the bigger, lower sensitivity multi-ways could only dream of. So much nusnce and tonal shading… I thought it was stunning.
If we associate vinyl reputation with ownership of the TechDas Air Force Zero, than TAS seems to have a large advantage - both Jacob Heilbrunn and Michael Fremer own it. Anti-monopoly high-end laws should impede this move!
Why would we associate a vinyl reputation with owning this or any other particular turntable? Surely reputations are based on much more than that, even if it were true
I posted a like to Bonzo's WE Vid as it jogged a similarity memory for me re the presentation -even from my Headphones here.
In the early 60's I'd walk round from my Doughty St bedsit down Kingsway to Kodak pick up film -on one occasion I by chance ventured down a right of way /alley along side the Kingsway Hall-being rather warm/humid London day the rear trade doors were open and this glorious Music was coming forth from an Orchestra rehearsing -being nosey and seeing no "security " I stayed just inside the doors and heard wondrous sound that stayed with me to this day.
Gazumped my poor Leak/Decca deram/ mono Richard Allen/etc--ha!
Oh yes the sounds on B's WE Vid were true to what I heard then
Thank you for the memory Ked--carry on!
Fremer is getting on in age but that's a big 'get' for TAS - congratulations to Lee and Harley. Wonder what happens to analog planet? I have my issues with Fremer but he has always been a stalwart mainstay for vinyl. I don't see anyone filling his shoes in that capacity.
Why would we associate a vinyl reputation with owning this or any other particular turntable? Surely reputations are based on much more than that, even if it were true
I like to think our best writer’s reputations (TAS and hifi+) are derived from experience in several areas:
1. Doing great reviews and building up a rich history of experience with a wide variety of products.
2. Doing a great job explaining complex subjects in plain English to our readers.
3. Being ahead of industry news and trends.
4. Having good quality relationships with industry leaders and manufacturers so that tough questions can be asked and those questions can be asked of the right people.
5. Having real enthusiasm for music and audio and spreading that enthusiasm across many different types of audiences.
Folks like Harley, Heilbrunn, Valin, Fremer, Sircom, and many others have done admirable work in all five areas imho.
