Zero Distortion: Gian & Friends, CH, Montagna, Wilsons, AN IO J, Riviera,

[Legolas]

Indeed, as long as it is enjoyable LOL, airports and traffic jams....

Respect for the effort and detail /photos, it is great content.

In my own testing situations, I take some favourite recordings along, ones I know really well. Like at hifi shows, it is hard to drill down a systems status if the music is not recognised. I would say, many demos at these shows pic material that avoids throwing up any problems or weaknesses. There is mileage in listening to any music but to get datum points I believe I personally need some recognisable material. I have a good aural memory, and can recall a sound of a demo some time back with ease, but only on known tracks. But like looking at a painting, in print form, photo form and in real life, you can see the detail and saturation of colour, the differences .

 

[KeithR]

Always enjoy your write ups, Kedar

 

[jeff1225]

Those speakers from an industrial design perspective are exquisite. I also agree with your assessment of the Ortofon SPU 85 vs 95 SPUs as I now have both of them in my system.

Keep up the good "work."

 

[bonzo75]

Ked, you should get a nice headphone setup. It is cheap, sounds amazing and is space no issue. At least you will be rocking at home.

I use headphones quite a lot.

.
Astro, I consider this hobby more to be about finding out about gear. When I have investigated the gear that makes me curious I will swipe apps settle down with a simple system that lets me listen to original vinyl and stream a lot of high quality performances on digital. But then I will swap less.

 

[morricab]

.
Astro, I consider this hobby more to be about finding out about gear. When I have investigated the gear that makes me curious I will swipe apps settle down with a simple system that lets me listen to original vinyl and stream a lot of high quality performances on digital. But then I will swap less.

Or you will have an itch you can never scratch because hearing all gear in the world is not possible...

 

[spiritofmusic]

It is if you live forever. Ked is on a special regime of injections, supplements. He will live long enough to hear everything. And then start all over again.

Of course, aviation is going to be grounded by Brexit, and trains to Europe will also stop, so he may have to call it a day.

 

[Legolas]

Sorry, this is getting off topic, but anyway....

I personally couldn't live without in-house tunes. I recognise my own system is not the ultimate, who's is really? But it is very enjoyable to me. If we get too hung up on the 'perfect' system, it will never be. It is impossible. Meanwhile so many evenings of marvellous music lost.... But that is just me.

I am pretty focussed on my target as regards musical enjoyment and try not worry about what I may be missing. If I can listen and chill out to it for hours, I am happy. To do that obviously I need a level of sonics, the gear has to be up to that for my own illusion. I listen to both speakers and high end headphones. I have began moving towards accepting the music, the sound, and telling my brain I am in the zone with it. It is very easy to get distracted, obsess and dissect every part, focus on bits that sound a bit off, de-engineer it, criticise it. The knack in this crazy hobby IMO is to get to a place where you can hear all of it in it's place and be entertained.

For example, if I go to a live music event, I find I don't (almost never) dissect the acoustic, focus on a bit of brightness or bass distortion for example. At rock concerts there is lots of that for sure. Rather, I let myself loose myself in the atmosphere. It is possible to do that at home but in a scaled down kind of way, but it takes a shift away from the analytical and engage the other side of my brain I guess.

Anyway, that is my theory, and where I try to aim for. I think it is key to accept a destination in a system, otherwise I would never be 'in the now', always looking to some future purchase or upgrade, and not enjoying music at the moment. I admit Aries Cerat gear has helped me in this regard.

 

[the sound of Tao]

It is if you live forever. Ked is on a special regime of injections, supplements. He will live long enough to hear everything. And then start all over again.

Of course, aviation is going to be grounded by Brexit, and trains to Europe will also stop, so he may have to call it a day.

I’m not sure that even Brexit is big enough to ground Ked... so even if they close down Blighty utterly I am sure he will still find a way to upsample himself via VR to still allow for the most remote of out of body visitations on extreme audiophile setups and hopefully then blog report back. He is clearly if nothing else most intrepid!!!

However on the question of continued use of supplements and injections I believe long term over-use of phenolic resin will eventually make his cabinet too inert (ie dead) whereas just getting a pair of wearable Mooks (or Bonzo’s Mook Boots as they will then become known) would just as easily keep him as our purist audio Puer Aeturnus.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Even Mooks can't make SOME people more palatable. I know, I tried, and I stayed plain objectionable.

 

[bonzo75]

Fremer's review of KL in the Jan issue relate to allowing cartridge to express itself, but not having sufficient bass, weight, slam

 

[spiritofmusic]

Ked, it's a fallacy, urban myth, that linear trackers have less weight, extended bass.

I've directly ABd my Terminator air arm versus my old SME V, both on my original Michell Orbe tt, and on my current Salvation tt, and I'd say the Terminator reproduces bass far better.

Not euphonically bloomy or wooly, but fast and start/stop as you hear live, w just the right amount of overhang.

The only caveat is that linear arms really need to be set up correctly, or the sound can be a bit dry or clipped.

 

[spiritofmusic]

And isn't Fremer the guy who couldn't set up the Thales arm correctly, leading to an incorrect conclusion, and busted cart?

 

[bonzo75]

And isn't Fremer the guy who couldn't set up the Thales arm correctly, leading to an incorrect conclusion, and busted cart?

Read the reply by Fremer (Grooves) here https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/thales-simplicity-tonearm-review-in-stereophile

 

[spiritofmusic]

I know there was a back story here. But I haven't heard of any customers of the Thales doing the same.

I busted my first cart when setting up the Terminator, so we've all been there.

But 6 years later, I'm v unlikely to ever return to a pivoted arm.

If the KL really truncates the low end of whatever cart is put on it, then that's really not good. But as I say, set up is king on LTs.

Case in point is my recent experience where on moving the tt around on my Stacore I slightly dropped the arm out of level. Sound was just flatter and drier. Resetting level brought the magic back. Similarly when I accidentally disrupted air flow to the arm, things just weren't right. Going back to the status quo made everything good again.