the sound of tao - some video shares

[JackD201]

Keep ROCKIN' it Graham! Great work!

 

[the sound of Tao]

Thanks for that Jack. My job is relatively simple. I figure your work perhaps has somewhat bigger implications. Hope that your country is doing well in these times.

 

[Lagonda]

Your bass situation must have drastically improved with bricks in the new space, the old one with open hallways and all wood must have been difficult.

 

[bonzo75]

The nos input valves in the LM805ia are just starting to settle in... still sounding forward but the great recession has at least begun and some depth is starting to return... but these 1944 RCA VT-231 do seem more forward than the Sylvanias but I will know more in a week or two I spose.

One of my favourite pieces of chamber music is Prokofiev’s cello sonata... enjoying the performance of Bruno Phillipe and Christoph Eschenbach and also liking the tonal balance that Harmonia Mundi have achieved here.

Last night I returned again to Brahm’s German Requiem. I have a few but the Klemperer is hard to go past. Both Schwartzkopf and Fischer-Dieskau were such extraordinary artists. This movement of the requiem features the great baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

Then finished with something a shade more now from Gregory Porter.

Here's another Fischer Dieskau

 

[the sound of Tao]

Your bass situation must have drastically improved with bricks in the new space, the old one with open hallways and all wood must have been difficult.

The new space has proved to be a good space Milan, but with dipoles upstairs in the last home it was possible to get great sound... and the Harbeths worked in the larger space downstairs and seemed a good match and the Animas really came to life in the larger space. The stone floors and hardwood walls had a life that made the end balance a good one and musical one. Not perfect sonically but good for the music.

 

[the sound of Tao]

Here's another Fischer Dieskau

Thanks Ked. He was a giant. That lyricism is just pure and timeless.

 

[bonzo75]

Tao, did you do any change from the videos you had recorded a few days ago?

 

[the sound of Tao]

Ked, the only change has been the input valves on the amp which are shifting the sound around as they settle in. They are still only relatively recently in. They are just starting to open up a bit. The RCAs seem to have a more bottom up balance (well at this point at least) and I may well switch back in the Sylvania VT-231s as they seemed more evenly coherent but I’ll just play the RCAs in for a while longer and see. On the bright side the system tracks the differences between recordings well but the current forwardness would be nice if it stepped back a bit more the way the Sylvanias layer complex sound more deeply. The output and driver valves are next up for upgrade. I figure this may be a potential bonanza in more nuance.

 

[bonzo75]

Ked, the only change has been the input valves on the amp which are shifting the sound around as they settle in. They are still only relatively recently in. They are just starting to open up a bit. The RCAs seem to have a more bottom up balance (well at this point at least) and I may well switch back in the Sylvania VT-231s as they seemed more evenly coherent but I’ll just play the RCAs in for a while longer and see.

Ok, I asked because these videos were sounding much better.

 

[bonzo75]

Ok, I asked because these videos were sounding much better.

Don't ask Tang because he heard both on his mobile phone so he won't get the bottom up difference

 

[the sound of Tao]

Nice pickup Ked, I’m feeling things are on the up as well. I’d imagine I’ll hear what the RCAs are going to do within a week or so. It is opening up each night but I still figure the Sylvanias may just end up shading things more naturally and wish I’d started recording before swapping in the new valves but happy to play things in and see how they progress. I’ve plenty of things still to explore and it is just a work in progress. But I’m loving the music either way.

 

[the sound of Tao]

The great Argentinian pianist Martha Argerich has recorded Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances for 2 Pianos many times with a number of rising pianists. I get the impression she does this perhaps to help launch and establish new pianists, she clearly gives and perhaps also gets much from these collaborations.

No matter what she plays Argerich always weaves great poetry into her readings and as an interpreter of Chopin she is among my very favourites but she does seem to have great affinity with this Rachmaninov work.

The previous pairing of the Op 45 with fiery Lilya Zilberstein brought a shining brilliance to their reading and here Dong Hyek Lim doubles down on the poetic and collaborates beautifully with Argerich in this romantic rich read. There is still plenty of brilliance as well... and quite fast in parts as well lol. Hope you enjoy this, this performance is a moment of reverie and Martha Argerich is a beacon of light and an ocean of soul.

 

[the sound of Tao]

There's also been a lot of love for Bruckner 7 of late and for me that is a good thing.

Putting my hand up for HVK and the Vienna Phil. While I do turn to Herbert Von Karajan for this as a reference and perhaps Karajan mightn't quite make it to my desert island list of conductors (how many conductors could you actually take to one island?) but I would easily put his Bruckner 7 up on the platform of great Bruckner benchmarks. It was also on my Sony Walkman when backpacking through Europe and this formed the soundtrack to many train rides including the one I was on when first going into Austria.

Funnily it was a needle drop I did before going to Europe from my Sota SME Garrot Brothers Dynavector back in the day (all of which I sold to help pay for the trip )... and now this is an streamed iPhone drop to my uhmmm iPhone... go figure, though the horns and SET however do give it some measure of sanctity .

 

[the sound of Tao]

Here’s two made earlier for the rock and drum thread

 

[the sound of Tao]

One of my very favourite pianists is Ivan Moravec. Here he is scaling the mountain that is Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor (Pathetique).

He really is just brilliant, intense and yet effortless and fleet like quicksilver poured over a plate as he moves through this like a gymnast. This is extraordinary for it's fierce passion and fire, both Beethoven's music and Moravec's performance.

 

[the sound of Tao]

and to shift the energy to perhaps another plane and a bit of magic from Mozart... Soave sia il vento from Cosi Fan Tutte. To suggest that this comfortably borders on sublime is not at all overcooking it.

 

[the sound of Tao]

Here more transport magic still as the Brad Mehldau Trio rework another kind of wonderful out of a Paul McCartney classic.

 

[marmota]

Here’s two made earlier for the rock and drum thread

Absolutely loved the Nirvana video, what a nice system. 2x15' open baffle woofers are the natural partners for Nirvana

 

[the sound of Tao]

Absolutely loved the Nirvana video, what a nice system. 2x15' open baffle woofers are the natural partners for Nirvana

Many thanks Marmota, I love that these can now play any type of music and can still get great connection. I also agree very much 100% about 15 inch woofers being the true way to Nirvana. 15 inch drivers will also be the basis of my next build.

 

[the sound of Tao]

Having modded and lived with (and come to love) the Pureaudioproject Trio15 Horn1 I have now bought into the bigger Quintet15 with it's 8 x 15 inch woofers to use as a base to explore and develop and potentially roll in some other horn combinations.

I put the big 2.1 metre tall beasties together back in early January and have been just playing them in (and enjoying) since then. Still just early days and its coming along even better than I hoped. I'm using the stock Pap horn1 and have modified and made the crossover external and also using silver hook-up cables. They are already sounding great. Big scale, a sea of woofers to make the air move and super coherency are some of the main goals for the project.

I am surprised by how the early iteration sounded over the first weeks/late nights ... I’ve been a bit absorbed in it but am really just loving the first signs of how the big horns are playing music effortlessly, honestly and epically. I was expecting there’d be trade-offs (mainly in terms of coherency) by going to more drivers and also that the balance in the multi big drivers would become a bit dominant with all the extra heft and presence, but in its earliest form the big quintet is seeming every bit as coherent as the smaller trio horn... there’s nothing I’m missing at all... and I already loved that. The trio horn as it was has a balance and bass foundations not dissimilar to the 20.7 Maggies (agile and full) but these 7 foot tall 8 x 15 inch woofers towers are just reaching deeper but more importantly energising the space considerably more and are approaching a realistic presence and scale that really big speakers can.

Here's a first peek. Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade - Festival at Baghdad. Fritz Reiner and the CSO. I will follow with some more comparison videos with the Quintet15 horn1 v Trio15 horn1