Turn it on ,Sorry....lol
HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SYSTEM IN LESS THAN 30 SECONDS
I am serious. I work VERY hard to have the best system I can. I have made many upgrades and am more than happy with my equipment. I stream 100% of the time, mostly form Qobuz. My digital front end is highly optimized. But when I want my system to sound AMAZING?
I play Mark Knopfler or my favorite Dire Straits. Seriously. It is recorded so exceptionally well, and seems to have harmonics which just please the ear and soul. I often think it sounds a bit 'tube like', as my system is all solid state. There are just no offending sounds, and never sibilance. I could list songs, but it would be easier to just list the one not to play ('Money for Nothing').
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THGTTG is very important to me and I consider it (and the subsequent books in the series) to be a masterpiece. I consider Adams a "cynic with a heart of gold (not the infinite improbability drive powered spaceship)". Regarding the "talking voice" v the "pretty voice" argument, art is art. The argument is akin to "it's not a poem if it doesn't rhyme" and very tired. The delicate beauty of Prokoviev's Romeo and Juliet is not somehow superior to the fierce brutality of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, although the former is probably more accessible to the casual listener. In the end, nobody wins a "my favorite band is best" argument. |
I bought a Pioneer RT-707 and am having it restored at J-Coder It’s supposed to be a good sounding entry level R2R Moving up from there are the Technics 1500 or 1720 decks |
Also a big fan of Dire Straits and Mark's creations due to the fact that there is silence (blackness) between notes and large swings of sound that do no overwhelm the listener, but actually draws you in. IMHO, Money For Nothing deviated a bit from that and is perhaps the weakest offering on Brothers for Arms. Mark is a recording master of diminuendo/crescendo. Many artists - or producers - seem to believe that when a large swing of sound is purposeful, they up the ante and add db levels to boost or heighten the sound - such as TV commercials of old. Mark never fell prey to the 90's loudness wars. I have noted that many here are touting Shangri-La, which is one album I have not purchased. So when I went to do so, I was surprised it was well over $150? Why? Is anyone expecting it to be reissued? While I have purchased a $150 Steely Dan Aja UHQR album, I cannot fathom spending $150 on an album that is not, in some way, different than what was offered up in 2004 at $30. Guessing that the CD is the better choice..
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Thanks for pointing out how the Beatles albums were recorded, although I think many people who just joined the audiophile community in the past 20 years are unlikely to have those recordings, as it seems they are much younger than you or me. (I do have quite a few of the Beatles albums). What I find missing from nearly any thread is the music someone uses to evaluate a cable- or a preamp or amp, for that matter. One can’t use any old recording and expect to hear "low level detail" (whose meaning the great majority are confused about). As was the case in the 70s, 80s and 90s, reviewers listed the music they used, so the reader could then find their copy, play it and try to duplicate what the reviewer heard with that piece of equipment. I saw a thread asking what is "transient response" and it is such an obvious thing to me, as someone who’s spent the last 60 years in symphony halls, the ballet, the opera, and clubs that were intimate enough for them not to use amplified sound. Obviously, one doesn’t listen "for" transient response while at the symphony, but when you hear the sound of massed violins playing pizzicato, you know what "transient response" is. I think the older audiophiles (meaning those of us over 50) have considerably more exposure to live (unamplified) music, given many of us had music requirements even in high school, so we heard live music whether we wanted to or not. That might help the newcomers. It might also quiet those (but not likely) who claim that all cables sound alike, especially since so many have no acquaintance with the sound of live music, unless it’s amplified at a noisy concert (like the Beatles in Shea Stadium), which is most certainly not going to provide an inkling of low level detail. TAS used to have a vocabulary of terms (e.g. "midbass," "soundstage," "imaging," |
Thanks hcow! I do enjoy Salty Dog! So much good stuff I agree with everyone (except maybe the Peter Cetera thing) :) I just keep finding songs I like and adding them to my playlist. I have about a thousand I shuffle through, and often stop and investigate the wnole album or albums from there. Roon i squite good a selecting songs one might like based on their selections..better than most software I have sampled. To thos who say they have heard it a thousand times, I challenge their listening habits not mine. I just pointed out what sounds good. I love the phrase 'hits you in all the right places' so true. I would say all the music i truly love does that. or at least hits someplace with exceptional emotion. Example for me Genesis 'The Lamia" and most of the second side of that album. But this does not sound great on every system. For me it was also a standard evaluator for that reason. |
FF: There is nothing to argue re: your statement that some groups (and their instrumentation, production, recording engineering, ad. inf.) sound better to you on a good system (also hard to simplify the variables here) than other above above referenced qualities. Mark Knopfler knows how to hit you in the right places. Strictly as a background note which may please you, Douglas Adams (alas, gone too soon at forty-nine) loved Dire Straits and mentions the fact in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series (also, HIGHLY recommended). His other big favorite was Gary Brooker and Keith Reid as Procol Harum--my personal high IQ rock legends. Try "Salty Dog" from 1968, Best Fishes, HC, English Lit and Physics Lab teacher, retired. |
...just for some fun for the Mark & Eric fans....*s* 10:38 of time well spent....;) Too many favs, too little time to append, so I'll just.... ...run past with some diversions I like; this one gives the whole system some exorcise... Anyway....Happy Sundaze....."...what I do, isa' what I do..." |
Heard that Knopfler insisted his recordings had quality recording/production. Thanks Mark. Discussing some or many recordings where we like the music but the recording is so-so, personally think many artists compromise their careers by not doing exactly this. Back in my twenties, which is way back, was friends with a local band from Athens. Great musicians led by an excellent songwriter who played with Howling Wolf and was with Steve Winwood on the road for many years. Us fans eagerly awaited their next album only to be disappointed time and again by the recording. They should have gone to Muscle Shoals. The guitar player played quite a bit in MS and Nashville. Always wondered why he didn’t drag the band up there. |
@dwcda yep, in fact, i was just talking like Knopfler and Cash in the shower a half hour ago (no aptitude required). Here are some bros who can actually sing. The recordings may not be "audiophile" enough for the gon crew, but, nevertheless, it is the voices of these type of bros that the lasses fall for. Lasses are not attracted to talkers (unless they get rich). Poppy Bros George Michael - Father Figure Michael Bolton - Said i loved you but i lied
Rocky Bros Geoff Tate (Queensryche) - Silent Lucidity Geoff Tate (Queensryche) - Della Brown David Coverdale (Whitesnake) - Is this love David Coverdale - Sailing Ships Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden) - Tears of a Dragon etc, etc, etc
and my personal favorite bro, of course (might be a very complicated voice for some of y’all)
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fastfreight,
So agree w u on Dire Straits. I “discovered” them in the late 90’s thx to Absolute Sound. I use the later tracks on Brothers In Arms for my evaluations. Also, Famous Blue Raincoat by Jennifer Warnes. I consider Knopfler a bit of a mixture of Santana and Clapton. Love the riffs he puts in. My system is made up of an ARC SP-9 MkIII, Leach mono SuperAmps, Genesis IM-8300 speakers, NAD CD, SOTA Sapphire w ET-2 tone arm and Sumiko Celebration Pearwood. |
I agree @ossicle2brain. I have an extensive hard drive with files from standard CD's to DSD. But my streaming is so highly optimized that is not always true that local sounds better than a high rez stream from Qobuz. I love Bela and Cosmic Hippo has amazing bass! Recall I never challenged anyone's local file sound quality. |
It has been fun hearing everybody's "favorite sounding songs that they like''. Is that fair to say?? My only intention here was that some music (that I like) sounds better than other music (that I like). There have been many great suggestions here..hopefully many pick up a few songs that they like and that leads to even more music that they like. It is the process of streaming....hear something new and broaden your listening. Why the haters??? Rosy54 accused me of listening wrong. The Carpathian was just plain mean to rcm1203. bolong put me and others in a sad old group...I think a sadder group is those who write stuff like that. and fpomposo is accusatory, assumptive, ignorant and rude. I am so proud of him for having an Aurender with a hard drive. That certainly proves his music sounds better than mine. The only approach that needs reevaluated is how you respond on a public forum. Thanks all for the great suggestions and enjoy your music! |
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Those bands are good, but it's boring and we've all heard it a million times, great songs great recordings but there is so much great music with insane fidelity besides that stuff... And your 100% streaming which sounds like crap anyway, that's your problem... I have a Aurender with a SSD with about 800 CDs ripped in WAV on it, and Qobuz... Is no contest, the ripped CDs off the hard drive absolutely blow away the streaming Qobuz music including Hi-Res tracks and albums , it's not close. I like Qobuz, listen to it often, but when I find something I really like I'll buy the CD and rip it to my library You need to re evaluate your whole approach... Just having a system that is dedicated to a few old albums we've all heard a million times is not what I would consider a audiophile system |
An acoustical recording of an orchestra, chamber group or vocalist/vocalists is the only way to hear the real thing. Not that overly processed recordings aren't exciting with thumping bass, dazzling highs and dynamic range beyond imagination, but they are so far from reality that they enter a new dimension of media presentation. Acoustical reality is an honest thing but the twist of a knob, the use of an "app" and the panning of material all over the soundscape is a tool and should be recognized as such. Kudos should go in equal parts to the performers and the engineers in such cases. Great examples of both are the recording of Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Symphony performing the Carmen Suite of Bizet arranged by Schechedrin for string orchestra and 40 or so percussion instruments and the collaborations between Linda Ronstadt and George Massenburg as performer and recording engineer . The best of both acoustical beauty and engineered ingenuity ! YMMV ! |
I take the opposite approach. I want my system to sound good on "average," standard issue records, not audiophile "spectaculars." That isn’t to say I won’t search out a "best" pressing, but having accumulated a lot of LPs over the years, and culling them out, replacing some, buying others, I’ve found that the better a system is, the more it will reveal from "standard" issues- I collect a lot of small and private label post bop, have a ton of classic rock and a considerable amount of classical that I bought decades ago. Most of the "audiophile" stuff collects dust- simply too banal, musically. If you dig down, you can find interesting music that sounds good. It used to be easier before record inflation (grading and price) kicked in. But there are a lot of gems out there that are not on the standard "Chad" or "MoFi" reissue list. I also like to challenge myself by listening to music that I once would have regarded as too cacophonous. There is a happy medium for every taste- from country to free jazz. Part of the quest, for me, is discovery of "new to me" music that may be "old." It’s astounding what you can pull from those grooves if you can land a copy that hasn’t been abused. There is also a considerable amount of "new" music that is worth exploring. Open the aperture wider--audiophiles tend to silo themselves into approved sonic wonders. I rarely go near that stuff, even though I have shelves of it in my secondary storage area. |
@katzenjammer27 I'll give it a listen. Thanks for the recommendation. I have a Gustard R26 dac. I'm using it with an Innuos Zen Mk3 streamer. I'm very happy with the dac. I had read that the U18 adds a bit of improvement. I thought that made more sense than upgrading to a more expensive dac. I go from the Innuos to the U18 with a usb cable and from the U18 to the dac with an I2S cable. I'm not saying this is the End Game dac, but I'm very happy with it. |
@sls883 Best song on In Step, Cross Fire is ok, Tightrope, some others, but this one is on another level. (instrumental) Looked at your Gustard 18 - seems like a neat interface. Right now I stream through my Blusound Vault, I don't have any need as the bluesound connects directly to my pre-amp and has usb port if needed.. |
katzebjammer27.