Visit to Christoph: Odeon horns, Kronzilla SX, Aries Cerat Diana, Apogee Scinitilla
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Ked has requested I withdraw my claim of estimated £20k for restored Scintillas
I'd really hate to be the bringer of Fake News to WBF
Theres enough of that **** in the world w'out me adding to it
I'd really hate to be the bringer of Fake News to WBF
Theres enough of that **** in the world w'out me adding to it
We certainly biased and wired the Diana so she could show her full potential.
Would be rather silly not to do, right?
Another excellent report Ked, thanks for posting!
Is there any way you can find out which Kenneth Jarrett track that was used?
Is there any way you can find out which Kenneth Jarrett track that was used?
Thanks. Acousticsguru would know. It is a well known CD, from what I understand. I will PM him later
Thanks for the report, Kedar! Was a pleasure meeting you!
We properly biased the Aries Cerat Diana at 20/20/45 and connected the loudspeaker cables in "inverted" - that is, the correct for this model - polarity (first time I heard it, I kept complaining about the sound until someone thought of inverting the polarity - quite a difference!).
Rolf's heavily modded "Henk" Scintillas sounded, even if I'm judging from memory, way superior to the original. The steel frame appears to keep resonances down to such an extent that for the first time, the crossover transition sounded harmoniously done to me (having said that, I do not know if the crossover itself was modded as well). Needless to say, thanks to the perfect repainting job and vertical positioning, their WAF went up by 100%, to say the least: an ugly duckling turned into a beautiful swan!
The Keith Jarrett track gatekeepers at HiFi shows invariably refuse to play is Track 1 (which is Part I) of the Köln Concert on ECM. A favorite recording of mine (and the one that once sent me on this audiophile odyssey of mine), which can sound great on the right system, but less so on most. (I happen to find it ironic the record is getting turned down on a regular basis - sure sign of a lack of confidence in the gear one is trying to promote if you ask me…)
Note the Odeon horns at Christoph's were 38/2 and those at Michael's 32/2, AFAIK.
Greetings from Switzerland, David.
We properly biased the Aries Cerat Diana at 20/20/45 and connected the loudspeaker cables in "inverted" - that is, the correct for this model - polarity (first time I heard it, I kept complaining about the sound until someone thought of inverting the polarity - quite a difference!).
Rolf's heavily modded "Henk" Scintillas sounded, even if I'm judging from memory, way superior to the original. The steel frame appears to keep resonances down to such an extent that for the first time, the crossover transition sounded harmoniously done to me (having said that, I do not know if the crossover itself was modded as well). Needless to say, thanks to the perfect repainting job and vertical positioning, their WAF went up by 100%, to say the least: an ugly duckling turned into a beautiful swan!
The Keith Jarrett track gatekeepers at HiFi shows invariably refuse to play is Track 1 (which is Part I) of the Köln Concert on ECM. A favorite recording of mine (and the one that once sent me on this audiophile odyssey of mine), which can sound great on the right system, but less so on most. (I happen to find it ironic the record is getting turned down on a regular basis - sure sign of a lack of confidence in the gear one is trying to promote if you ask me…)
Note the Odeon horns at Christoph's were 38/2 and those at Michael's 32/2, AFAIK.
Greetings from Switzerland, David.
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Thanks again Ked for sharing the experiences. The blog is building into quite a storehouse of really cool and interesting systems and am finding your journey and all the various moments of system discovery and the people behind the gear is both fascinating and fun. Keep up the most excellent work.
That Jarrett recording can be pretty cold and disparate in the wrong system, sounding often fast but sterile and unforgiving
On Lp it really needs a tt w a lot of control to replicate Keith's blazing speed , and a tone dense cart/amp/spkr combination to flesh things out
I believe it's the album where Jarrett famously did not have the piano he expected, was mad as Hell to in fact have a lesser practice piano, and then went on to rip things up w an amazing performance full of attack, verve and character
There really has been no one since who combines improvisation and soul in an appeal to the head and heart
I'm still working at getting this recording to sound of its best on my evolving systems
On Lp it really needs a tt w a lot of control to replicate Keith's blazing speed , and a tone dense cart/amp/spkr combination to flesh things out
I believe it's the album where Jarrett famously did not have the piano he expected, was mad as Hell to in fact have a lesser practice piano, and then went on to rip things up w an amazing performance full of attack, verve and character
There really has been no one since who combines improvisation and soul in an appeal to the head and heart
I'm still working at getting this recording to sound of its best on my evolving systems
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Yes, that is the one. They installed the wrong Bösendorfer piano, of which part of the keyboard was unplayable. Jarrett apparently sat in his car ready to leave and stayed only out of pity for the young female artistic director who was standing outside in the rain, soaking wet, imploring him to think better of it.
Greetings from Switzerland, David.
Hello gents
Looks like you guys had great fun.The view from Christoph's window is amazing.
Couple of spoilers..
The specific Diana piece had a beta testing tuning on the both the interstage circuits.Input to driver and driver to output.This tuning makes the amp loose -8db in gain( that is why you used a separate preamp) and tuned on the soft side.Reason for this tuning, please allow me nit to disclose it but I certainly did not expect this particular piece to go around in demo/shoot outs with this test tuning.The current owner can confirm though not mandatory.
Eitherway the Diana will be returned to be re-tuned to the normal settings as all other Dianas.
Have you used the RCA tubes (black plate) I had send? or the bluish plate General electric?
Personally I use the former though you cannot argue with someone else taste.Some clients that like chamber music like the GEs while RCA are all arounder kind of tube.
Best
Stavros
Looks like you guys had great fun.The view from Christoph's window is amazing.
Couple of spoilers..
The specific Diana piece had a beta testing tuning on the both the interstage circuits.Input to driver and driver to output.This tuning makes the amp loose -8db in gain( that is why you used a separate preamp) and tuned on the soft side.Reason for this tuning, please allow me nit to disclose it but I certainly did not expect this particular piece to go around in demo/shoot outs with this test tuning.The current owner can confirm though not mandatory.
Eitherway the Diana will be returned to be re-tuned to the normal settings as all other Dianas.
Have you used the RCA tubes (black plate) I had send? or the bluish plate General electric?
Personally I use the former though you cannot argue with someone else taste.Some clients that like chamber music like the GEs while RCA are all arounder kind of tube.
Best
Stavros
Lp really beats the cd on this one
Joshua, are you going to play it on yr Torqueo?
Let me post on yr specific thread, maybe we can get into thoughts re this Italian beauty
Their website is frustratingly vague, but their product is drop dead gorgeous
Joshua, are you going to play it on yr Torqueo?
Let me post on yr specific thread, maybe we can get into thoughts re this Italian beauty
Their website is frustratingly vague, but their product is drop dead gorgeous
The LP sounds better than the CD (referring to the original LP, can't vouch for the repressings, but assuming they're the same), but note there is also a high-resolution PCM download and the all-new SACD (last month) and DSD download (last week)!
Greetings from Switzerland, David.
I haven't been very happy with the last set of downloads so even if they have them available I am sticking to LP or redbook and rip it myself. Most of these downloads add a lot of compression. The one I ordered is a reissue so fingers crossed.
I have both CD editions, and the PCM download sounds much better in this case. The DSD I haven't listened to yet but am hoping to do so later this weekend. There's rarely any compression for classical or solo piano etc., but I hear you when it comes to pop, rock etc., pretty vile sometimes, and on a side note, I don't get why so many releases that say "mastered for iTunes" MP3 (which I couldn't care less for) has the same compression level as the same remastering in "audiophile high-resolution" (= am I allowed to use swear words on this board, would love to in this case!).
Greetings from Switzerland, David.
Even aples to apples I like to rip so I can also apply a nominal replay gain +/- so that all of my own ripped audio is at the same volume level from track to track. Most downloads I have to turn way up and others way down so I tend to by CD when possible.,
Swear away my man! i won't judge you...
