My Long List of Amplifiers and My Personal Review of Each!

Natural Clarity is definitely a balancing act. I think a lot has to do with your listening levels, quality of your system and the type of recordings you usually listen too. I’m a low level listener so I want a lot of natural detail, however there can be too much if your equipment is not up to the task or if the recordings you listen to aren’t that good. Personally I’d error on the side of too much detail rather than not enough, then you can fine tune from there. Looking forward to this next video on this topic, should be very interesting.  @jays_audio_lab Good idea let the moderators do their jobs so you don’t have to. 

In an effort to get this thread on track,

I am going to be posting a video today using gryphon vanta speaker cables. I inserted them 3 days ago so they are settled in. I want you all to hear the difference in tonality when comparing to transparent opus.

One particular subject that isn’t talked about here is HOW MUCH CLARITY is too much of a good thing?

Here’s food for thought: if i use a full transparent loom, the clarity is incredible BUT if you crank things up, it doesn’t lead to long listening sessions. That said, the extreme clarity is amazing at low volume levels as well as under moderate levels. 

There is always the question of the Network boxes that these cables have which could be interacting with Boulder (cables are tuned for Boulder and msb). I am in search of a full loom of cables at half the price of transparent opus without boxes 

It’s a HUUUUGE balancing act that one needs to address and decide on. Anyhow, I’ll post a video shortly. 

Will do - thanks 

@cleeds

I’d appreciate it if you don’t address me. You and i have our differences and i don’t want to start a fire. You appeared out of nowhere and since you showed up, you have been argumental. You love to quote others and debate them each and every time. I’m not getting caught in that with you. I got better things to do. Thank you

Respectfully - Jay

@carey1110

And because this is the most popular thread, i will implement damage control. If i feel the thread begins to get derailed and it’s a constant confrontation, i will just message the moderators and let them know. They will warn the perpetrators directly and give them a warning. I have to be more diplomatic and use the resources available to me. I won’t wrestle anymore. I am done doing that. 

The reason why there’s no a separate thread is that this one has everything under the sun in it and is or used to be read by more people than any other.  People know if you want to reach the most people you post it here. Everyone wants to jump on board this train and be heard. That’s why I think there not a separate thread.

+100.

It is easy to criticise and complain and thereby add nothing. Keep going Jay, some of us are really interested in what you are finding and what you are doing. And the enormous amount of work you have put into this venture.  Illegitimi non carborundum  and yes I know it is not Latin.

One thing you learned from me is that you can make your own inverter system that is probably way better than a Stromtank.....of course, you would have to act on it to know.  You will see many people soon starting on the path of inexpensive pure AC power. I don’t want followers....I want people to think on their own......but I do tell everyone what I know works......We are all teachers and we are all students. I am the one that got the camero guy to stop stacking components, get his wires off the floor and try some audiophile fuses......so, people do learn from me.....you could too. I am learning from everyone.......all the time. Just learning to love what I don’t totally love is learning..........ever raising our vibrations to infinity. I have no products to promote here......I share freely......I do promote what I think is valuable information that can help people get better sound or a better life. What do you promote? How are you helping people? Just what have you learned here? This would be a good topic for discussion. Very few products within any price range are shown.......So, how do you know any product shown here is the best value? How many cables in the 1-5K range are there? How many have been shown? How many cables in the all out range have been shown here? Not many.....so what do we learn? How many different kinds of footers have been compared?......and amp stands....and whatever?......This thread is about all things audio. You do know you have to set up your own stereo.....sometime attach feet to things....change wall sockets, etc?....This is all DIY.....The whole game is DIY....unless you are super rich and just have someone set it up for you. An inverter will take you 5 minutes to install....this is way less than setting up speakers, etc. DIY INDEED! This game is infinite. If you want to follow and mimic one person.....that is great.....but finding your own truth is really incredible.....and empowering. There is an infinite universe out there. I am a fanboy of the all that is.........WE are all that is.....We are magnificient......if there is anything to truly learn from me, that is it.....We are incredible......we are the light of lights.....the love of loves.....the joy of joys.....the peace of peace and the compassion of all compassion. Blessed Be.

I love the name Dovedas........A dove is a symbol of peace......and das in Sanskrit means servant.......so Dovedas.....is the servant of peace......he acts that way....very cool. Who and What do we serve?

@ricevs

time to listen to your own words above:

“This channel is entertaining for some.....but for some of us......we are coming back less and less as there is nothing to learn.”

So please, start your own thread for your own followers. I am glad you realize there is nothing left to learn here. So be respectful and exit. I for one have learned absolutely nothing from you (despite your multiple thousand word posts saying the same thing over and over), but I do not berate you, let alone the OP of this thread incessantly with my own ideas, products etc. And obviously this thread has never been and will never be remotely related to DIY. That has been obvious for years.  Know when to pack up the shop man.

and @cleeds, what’s your point? jay has not been hiding a thing from the beginning. We continue to be all adults. capable of making our own decisions, believe it or not. no need to disparage

I can hear the differences pretty easy using my Altec $39 speakers on each side of my computer monitor......however, I don't really know notin.....as, I know I am not in the room.  But I listen less and less to these videos as I have no interest in $45K speaker wires, or $27K inverters or $145K preamps.......I mean, who buys these things?  The average audiophile system is maybe $20-$30K.  This channel is entertaining for some.....but for some of us......we are coming back less and less as there is nothing to learn.  If I were doing this I would announce ahead of time what I was getting in.....then burn it in and do a serious listening test....and then tell you EXACTLY how it differs from my reference......and then show you short listening snipits that demonstrate these differences......hey, that would be cool, no!  Then you would learn something. 

Many like this teasing/guessing game, etc. and find it entertaining.  There are so frickin many channels of entertainment....OMG....there are things so inspiring.....so incredible.....will make you cry and laugh and feel soooooooo great full for being alive.  Recenty discovered Dovedas......incredible musician....and super nice guy....fun too.  There is a whole world out there.....it is so incredible.....and you can build a super stereo that is mind blowing for $10K.....if you are creative, driven and do your homework......Life is great.....wishing you all the best..

clearthink,

True.  However, only Jay knows what he is hearing in his room.  I suspect there are big differences between the two speaker cables which would be obvious with any recording.  But when you get a new component, you first have to play the system again with the old component, just in case the power quality is different, your emotional state is different that new day.  After you get your current reference point, you play the same recording with the new component.  Don't jump to conclusions, because something different may not be better after repeated listening.  Go back and forth with the same recording, to be sure you come to the correct conclusion.  Then repeat this process with a different recording, back and forth.  It will take a period of time before you are sure what the new component does, and then you know it, and can listen to any recording at random, and tell what the new component does.

There is NO WAY we YT listeners can come to reliable conclusions any other way.  Jay keeps asking what we think, but deep down I hope he wants honesty rather than shilling from us.

My plan is to have the most natural and organic interview. He's never done an interview with a YouTuber (haven't seen one) and i want to be sure he's comfortable. I want to learn more about what it takes to build a speaker: how many man hours? Is there any voicing involved? What challenges does he face with materials that we don't know about?  Which speaker has been the most difficult to design? Q7? M6? Why ? 

Why did he create the A series? What does he have at home ? Which is his preferred speaker ? And of course, i plan to be in front of the M9s and hopefully record videos from inside the room. It will be the most expensive speaker i have ever been in front of so I'm absolutely excited to say the least because I don't know what that level of a speaker brings to the table. 

More to come!

Hey WC,

When you visit Magico and Alon, are you going to ask about one of the negatives of a Magico speaker - the expense of replacing a driver?  Or, is this just a given and the Owner needs to account for that?

Thanks,

Dave

Why is this system the best system I have ever had in the room?

Find out today... PLUS, SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT at the end of today's video!

I suspect WC likes to listen to different music and not the same old stuff over and over again - might be a reason for different music on the videos.  Not sure what WC's expectation is though for his YT and A'gon audience for these videos with different songs??    I just take it as fun and listen to the videos, but I definitely won't be coming to any conclusions with different music on the videos.

Dave

viber6"Be sure to play a recording you used in the previous video.  This is the only disciplined way to tell the differences"

That would be "scientific method" but I do not think Jay understands, accepts, or endorses such an approach, discipline, or technique he is one of the audiophiles who goes by "feelings" when he listens and how he "feels" about the product he is promoting actually developing any experiment that could be duplicated or repeated by others is something he won't do because he is the "EXPERT" and wishes to remain the final, absolute, unchallenged authority on all matters regarding his system as has been demonstrated which of course is his right.

Be sure to play a recording you used in the previous video.  This is the only disciplined way to tell the differences between speaker cables.  As you say, speaker cables are the most critical of all cables, so even YT may allow us to discern the differences.

I just removed transparent opus speaker cables and added Gryphon vanta speaker cables and things are QUITE INTERESTING to say the least... Oh boy...stay tuned for the next video. 

Thank you 👍

Jay ,

I forgot to mention the DSD file types are .dff and .dsf on the drive 

I agree that it's difficult to compare, when the songs are different on each video.  Still, I do like the sound on this video.

Dave

viber6"There are too many variables here.  To proper assess dsd as a format, you need the same recording in different formats."

That is a valid, truthful, and accurate statement it is impossible with the video provided to determine with any certainty or authority characteristics properly attributed to the dsd format itself. This is a situation that Jay has previously used where different variables are introduced which is an outright violation of scientific method and renders useless any conclusions arrived  at.

The current, present situation is also complicated because other flaws in the video process or Jay remain such as the distortion, imbalance, spurious noises and other issues that have previously been shown, demonstrated, and explained and I susepct that some of these issues are not related directly to use of You Tube as a "source."

Jay,

There are too many variables here.  To proper assess dsd as a format, you need the same recording in different formats.  If you do this, people will agree about the objective characteristics of each format, at least with that particular recording.  Preferences are another matter.  I don't think YT has the needed resolution and quality to make a proper assessment, but in your room you can do this.  Still, you can best do this as I described.

The question Jay is what does it sound like to you. Which do you prefer? Your right some will like more warmth some more detail. I’m sure both sound very good but living with the system as you have allows you to better decide which is best. This is your system which do you like?

"Clarity" that others say it’s too bright and in your face ? Interesting 🤔... We can’t please everyone lol and then I'm being told it's more analog now but you claim it's veiled....we definitely do not hear the same and now we know why the audio industry will continue to move forward and continue to push out all sorts of products.  This is certainly a subjective hobby where there is no clear definition as to what is the standard and what isn't when it comes to sound reproduction. 

At least in the Olympics we know that we are being scored and have records to break so we know what we are aiming for and everyone is clear on what they need to pursue but not it's not that way in this hobby. 

I'm glad i am in a position to share everything in my lab 😀

Sorry but I’ve liked previous recordings. Just my opinion. Others had a tad more clarity.

Dsd? We’ll hard to tell what is going on here but It isn’t my favorite. Sounds a bit veiled or soft compared to the past few videos. Maybe more natural but missing the sparkle and instrument edge and attack. Also seems the dynamics are somewhat restricted. Now of course this could be the recording. I much prefer the past couple videos to this one. Maybe a few more recordings will tell the story more accurately.

Sounds good, but again it is meaningless unless you demonstrate the same recording in different formats.  A great recording will sound great no matter what the format, and a lousy ultra processed recording will sound lousy no matter what the format.

Coming tonight:

Dsd music makes an appearance on my channel for the first time. 

@jays_audio_lab 

@grey9hound 

Pretty sure that Jay is using an N30, it can sort by file type.

Jay ,

You have a lot of DSD on your  drive. There might be a folder labeled dsd. If not ,you can sort by file type or extension and find all of them, assuming you can do that (sort by file type)

What music server are you using?

So what happens when you plug in the preamp to the Stromtank?  Is it worse, better or same?

Music server and dac.

The 3010 and 3060 don’t need any help. Those you can connect with an orange Home Depot extension cord and plug them into your bathroom outlet or the outlet you use to power your Christmas tree in December.

If i didn’t have them, I’d plug in the linestage in stromtank too. 

Things such as clocks, transports, CD players, turntables and phono stage should be plugged into the stromtank. I just don't happen to have a system that has those components. 

@jays_audio_lab What pieces of equipment do you have plugged into the Stromtank? Would be nice to hear it without the Stromtank again with these recordings you used on your last video.

I am still waiting on the cartridge and that’s why no turntable has been showcased.

Pretty soon we will be able to enjoy one of the best shootouts on my channel folks.

Thank you to everyone that’s helped make this a reality. There might be a special guest show up on my channel around October. He is a well known reviewer who will be coming to judge my system! (Oh oh 😂)

 I am using a streamer, not a PC. 

@henry201 , the reason why I asked is w.r.t. software. If you are say running a Windows or Mac as your streamer, then there is the issue of the app and whether you are running bit perfect.   I have found it can be difficult to even be 100% you are comparing the same recording. They don't always make it easy.

That is my experience, regardless the setup, if both services sound the same to you, that's perfectly fine.