Raul, I also took note of Lewm's comment and found this on eBay (350668391609). For $21.75 it was a no brainer. The shear number of Stanton/Pickering M/I bodies that are out there, is stagering.
"I think that I will stay " calm " about Stanton/Pickering with my two Stanton 981 L/H version , the Pickering 5000XVS and the TL-4S."
Raul, with that group of cartridges, staying "calm" will be rather hard to do.
Regards, Don |
Raul,
After thinking a little more of your stay "calm" statement, I think I'm beginning to understand how you are able to come to that conclusion. With all the cartridges you have and have had, perhaps the excitement has dulled a little. I, and I would imagine others on this forum still look for and get excited over finding that stone cold bargain in a market of multi-thousand dollar cartridges. Your bar of "also ran cartridges" is much higher than most. This fact has to diminish some of that excitement factor that you have eluded to with your stay "calm". Your entire thread is based on NOT staying "calm" but getting excited and spreading the word on great finds. Keep the fires burning Raul. This is a great hobby! Regards, Don |
Regards, Lew: Not sure of the exact date, CE 1977/78? Claims for output, "bigger is better" became so outrageous that truth in advertising laws were invoked. Ratings were tied to continuous maximum output for one hour without clipping and statement of distortion of all species were required to be lab validated.
Sometime in the late '80s, televised ads were supplied to broadcast stations with elevated bias. There was an FCC edict that this would cease. In the hey-day of loudness wars, compression was substituted for volume.
Last week this was reaffirmed. How quickly we forget.
Crystal ball says 64* F & a chance of rain in the Sydney NSW area. Clean power for the next several days. I understand Aussies have four seasons; street paving, elec. service repair, typhoon & fire up the barbie.
Peace, |
Yes, there was the use of the terms "IHF Power" or "Music Power", which meant a highly inflated number compared to steady state or "RMS" Watts, which leads us back to where we started. High Fidelity magazine was a culprit in the spreading of inflated power numbers for amplifiers. |
Greetings Professor, Your crystal ball needs refreshing.......it's summer here and more like 28°C (82.4°F).... Power is clean at the moment :-)........but 'fire up the barbie' season sounds good! Haven't seen a typhoon in Sydney since...........??? All the very best to you and everyone over the holidays and into the New Year. |
Regards, Halcro: FYI, my crystal ball is calibrated to two nines. You slept through some great weather. :)
The Virtuoso is holding your interest?
Peace, |
Dear Professor, As Nikola will agree........having 2 turntables and 6 tonearms is both a blessing and a curse. The Virtuoso is on R&R whilst I listen to the Signet MR5.0LC, the UNIverse, the FR-5E, the Signet TK-7LCa, the Signet AM10/155Lc and the FR-7f(Axel). I have been known to listen to all these cartridges in one listening session......but not today. I'm off to neuter a nearby abattoir :-) Regards Henry |
Dear Henry, Nikola does not agree with the 'curse'. On my Kuzma there are the Reed 2A and the Triplanar VII in constant use.They just got as present Miyabi and Benz LP S. On my SP 10 there is (one of) my beloved FR-64s. So no problems of any kind with those. My problem are those which I own for the looks only. This number just increased because Thuchan seduced me to buy some old I-A SME arm, Raul seduced me to buy this JVC kind while I seduced myself to buy the IT-345 . The last one looks fantastic and is beautifuly made but I am curious if anyone knows anything about those first (steel) SME arms?
Regards, |
Dear Nikola, Retired Balkan lawyers in Holland must have some good superannuation......or else the state is very generous with its benefits? Regards |
Dear griffithds: Well, stay " calm " only means that I will not following Stanton/Pickering cartridge hunt with what I own I think is enough.
Of course that the fire of new experiences never expired or expire, exiting/adrenaline is part of our audio life!.
Regards and enjoy the music, R. |
Dear Henry, You got it wrong again. I am an Dutch lawyer but from Balkan origin. Otherwise I could not afford all those tonearms, not to mention all those carts (grin).
Regards, |
Dear friends: I have not to much time today to be more specific/wide on the Precept 440 ( AT especial design. ) but right now all I can say is to recomend that if you look out there do it a favor and buy it. IMHO has and belongs to a cartridge reference level niche.
Yes, was designed and build by AT but is a " new " AT kind of performance.
Latter I will try to find out time to be more specific about.
Regards and enjoy the music, R. |
One tonearm I bought just for looks is a Grace 714, the wooden one. I found a mint one with box and accessory parts. I don't really think it could compete with my two or three best, but I like having it. I also think that with a few tweaks it might indeed come up several notches in performance. (Based only on reputation; I have not heard mine in my system.) The joint between headshell and arm wand could be stiffened easily, and I would like to put outrigger weights at the unipivot to both stabilize the pivot (weights on either side hanging below the pivot point) and to add mass in the horizontal plane. My very positive experience with the Reed 2A has led me to wonder whether wood is the way to go as a material for tonearm wands. |
Dear Lew, Your Grace (what a name!) 714 was in high regard in Holland in the 80is. I would not mess with the pivot but only stiffen the headshell and than try. A friend of my owned one and was very fond about this tonearm. As far as I remember it was not about the looks. But there must be something special with those wooden wands.
Regards, |
No you dont want to stiffen the headshell, that will destroy the euphonic hyperclarity that attracted Lewm to this arm. Based on the latest studies of the Guarnerie's it would be advisable to take to the arm with hammer and chisel, pop a few chips and dents, maybe a nice neat fracture that you can glue up, and you too will get that lovely sound of a Guarnerie in full stride. The best one I heard had the headshell dampened with bluetack, horsehair & nicotine - sounded wonderful. |
My dear Dover, The most fun about your posts when they follow mine is that I sometimes cannot figure out whether I am being insulted, or not. In any case, "euphonic hyperclarity" could be seen as an oxymoron and certainly did not attract me to the Grace 714, since I have never heard a Grace 714 in action in my or anyone else's system. (Is that now hyperclear to you?) As to the rest of what you wrote, was that sarcasm? If not, I apologize. I gather you are not a fan of the Grace 714. Cool. You may be correct in that opinion, so far as I know. Based on internet comments, some do seem to like it. |
Lewm - I'm not sure myself sometimes, but I'm glad you enjoy them. One part of my ancestry is "it must be correct" the other is more pragmatic "as long as we get there". I have heard the Grace sound quite good with a Garrott P77 but I dont think it's in the league of your other arms or some other unipivots of the same era. Grossly overvalued in my view. Best wishes for the festive season. PS The oxymoron is one of your own invention - 02-03-12: Lewm One of my curiosities about this arm is based on ownership of a Reed tonearm and auditioning of a Talea tonearm. The two have a certain something in common, which you might call a coloration but which I call a kind of euphonic hyper-clarity. |
The Guarnerie suggestion is pukka. Recent studies have indicated that the imperfections, variations in wood thickness, irregular holes, patched wood panels & tweaks to the original instrument are generating that unique sound. The headshell tweaks are a matter of taste. |
Ughhh! I actually wrote that. Who knew? I guess you did. Are you archiving my wisdom or lack of same? The term is still rather oxymoronic, even if I wrote it first.
While there are good practical theoretical reasons to eschew wood for a tonearm, I admit I like the Reed a lot. And my one audition of the Talea in someone else's system, but one that is very similar to my own, suggests it is also very fine.
When I look at the Grace 714 and then at the new Durand Telos, I see a lot of similarities, except the Telos obviously is a more sophisticated approach that pays attention to azimuth and VTA adjustment, and the Telos is the subject of cult worship. This makes me wonder whether one could squeeze a lot more performance out of the Grace, if one were to tweak it here and there. |
Dear Dover: Something like that was what Cardas made with its cartridge wood body build by Benz Micro and where the BM has not the wood body " holes ".
It is obvious that those " changes " on the build material makes a difference because change its resonances frequencies and how those resonances travel and " broke " through its " trip ".
That's what happen with tapered cantilevers and tapered arm wand tonearms and even on tiny shape differences on headshells.
Regards and enjoy the music, R. |
Raul,
"There are several manufacturer " line contact " versions. It's right the name " line contact for them ? well is IMHO not important what is important is that as the Shibata or the analog-6 or even the MR the Stereohedron has a wider groove contact."
The Signet TK 7SU is a claimed to be a Shibata tip by Audio Technica. Their TK 7CLA is claimed to be a Line Contact. By your above quote, then they both must be the same stylus! Are they? I have both and they sure don't sound the same to me. Regards, Don |
Does anyone recall some earlier Clearaudio turntable designs, where the plinth was made of solid acrylic cast in a "curly" shape, something like that of the top of a baby grand piano? They said it was to control resonance, but I was dubious, because in the first place if you use solid acrylic, it's going to resonate at the frequency of that particular mass of acrylic, no matter what the shape, or so my off the cuff thinking told me. I then searched the internet to find out how and if the shape of a solid object, independent of its mass, of homogeneous material content could affect resonance. I really never found a good treatment of that subject.
At any rate, I notice that the most recent Clearaudio turntables use layers of several different materials to effect CLD, but nothing exotic about their shape. |
Regards, Lewm: It's a simple concept, the math is more than I want to tackle. Resonance is the result of an external force vibrating at the same frequency as the natural frequency, or eigenvalue, of a system. Resonant modes oscillate back and forth axially as helices between two turning points.
This illustration has been offered previously: Consider a clap of the hands in a square, empty chamber, then in a pyramidical or spherical chamber of the same volume. Axial reflections may actually increase amplitude of unintended resonances (ringing), because they lack parallel surfaces, irregular geometrical shapes disperse resonances.
By definition, he point of origin is the drive point. Transfer point measurements can be taken when attempting to identify boundary resonances. Doing so will identify both phase shifts and coherency. With this information, one can develop operating deflection shapes to minimize boundary resonances.
From this thread, post #7405: "Boundary conditions do effect the resonance frequency. The resonance frequency is influenced by Young's modulus, and geometry. --- resonance characteristics (of a beam) are determined by: 1. Young's modulus, 2. The cross-section. 3. The mass per length. 4. The associated eigenvalue, or the self-resonance--- as described by the preceding factors. " There is a probability that not just the primary tone but also the second and third overtones are also excited. Measures to correct this are selection of the material itself, damping--- by external or internal applications, by tapering or curving---". This conversation applied to tonearms.
"Music will depend upon a synchronisation and resonance of many parts and wholes and upon a radical rethink of how we can more harmoniously relate the units of geometry and number." (W. Roberts, 2003.)
Peace, |
But the point is whether shape can spread out or smooth the resonant peak of a homogeneous material. It is easy to see that shape can shift the resonant frequency per se. I suppose it can also spread out the energy so that several adjacent frequencies are excited each to a much lesser extent, and it makes sense that an irregularly shaped object could behave in such a manner, but I wanted to see the math/physics that describes and explains that. But if it's true, then Clearaudio was once on the right track that they have since abandoned in favor of CLD. |
Hi Raul, I'm wondering about the Precept 440LC, have you had a chance to listen to it much? I think these might be rare, I've never seen one. Does the stylus fit any other ATs? Apparently there was also a Precept 550ML. It would be interesting to explore these, but they might be hard to find. Regards, |
Does anyone recall some earlier Clearaudio turntable designs, where the plinth was made of solid acrylic cast in a "curly" shape, something like that of the top of a baby grand piano? They said it was to control resonance, but I was dubious, because in the first place if you use solid acrylic, it's going to resonate at the frequency of that particular mass of acrylic, no matter what the shape, or so my off the cuff thinking told me. I then searched the internet to find out how and if the shape of a solid object, independent of its mass, of homogeneous material content could affect resonance. I really never found a good treatment of that subject.
At any rate, I notice that the most recent Clearaudio turntables use layers of several different materials to effect CLD, but nothing exotic about their shape. |
Regards, Lew: Simple harmonics: http://sharp.bu.edu/~slehar/HRezBook/Chap2.pdfFactors we concern ourselves with: Damping: The dissipation of a vibration's energy into heat energy. This may also be considered as the frictional force that causes the loss of energy Quality factor: The number of oscillations required for a system's energy to fall off by a factor of 535 due to damping where quality factor, Q, is the number of cycles required for resonant energy to fall off by a factor of 535. Given is e2π, where e=2.71828, the base of natural logarithms. An interesting perspective on composition: http://www.principlesofnature.net/number_geometry_connections/more_resonances_between_musical_and_visual_scales.htm Driving force: Any external force that pumps energy into a vibrating system Resonance: The tendency of a vibrating system to respond most strongly to a driving force whose frequency is close to its own natural frequency (eigenvalue) of vibration Steady state: Behavior of a vibrating system after it has had plenty of time to settle into a steady response to a driving force In the example of the CA deck, consider wave cancellation. Hypothetically, as turning point resonances travel axially in sinusoidal form, and if introducing irregular geometry reduces amplitude of resonances through reduction of overshoot, it seems (to me) a structure might be designed so that turning point resonances encounter driving point resonances in a cancelation mode. Your thoughts? This math would fall into the realm of physics, my math is so rusty even my calculator squeaks. How might all this effect what I'm hearing with the cart Peter Leddermann waved his musical wand over? An AT-ML150 OCC, the generator can is fixed to a ceramic mount. A sapphire cantilever has greater mass than boron but is more rigid, IIRC self resonance is 16-17k, boron at 12k. Beryllium by mass is heavier than boron or crystal but a typical Be cantilever's eigenvalue is near 19k. Be aware this is from memory. On a Yamamoto HS-2 headshell & tied to a graphite "S" arm, resonances are damped rather than dumped. In architecture, boundary and air borne resonances are a concern. Think parking structure. There are not only the acoustical resonances (echo), but also the (imagine) mechanical rumble of passing traffic. In less utilitarian settings this is undesirable, constrained layer damping (CLD) is utilized. Shown as most effective, the introduction to a structural component by cladding or interruption by an alternative material is the most effective means of address. Efficiency is improved with integration by bonding or layering. Layering is most effective if, when there is a grain structure, laminations are oriented at 90*. Resonant waves don't like to make turns. As wood has both axial and lateral elements and space exists between these longitudinal and latitudinal structures the resulting effect is one of dislocating resonances. Cut to the chase. Resonant chain: Saphire cantilever, suspension, Mu metal can (sounds like something from Edgar Rice Burroughs), ceramic mount, cherry wood headshell with a bronze plate above. Headshell arbor, graphite curved arm, silicon fluid damped PU-70 arm transitioning to a sturdy laminated wood plinth. Damping is effective. The stylus is SS's optimized LC, tracing faults are not evident. Nuance and detail, initial transients and decay are quite acceptable. Output is 4mv, output impedance a good (to my ears) 530 ohms. Insturments are heard as entities rather than agglomerative. Coils are wound with OCC copper. In comparison, high purity copper has an estimated 1500 grains per foot. Grain boundaries tend to introduce distortion. Oxygen Free High Conductivity (OFHC), 400 grains per foot. Listen closely, there is a definite improvement in clarity. Dynamics are also more apparent. Linear Crystal (LC-OFC), 70 grains per foot. Ohno Continuous Casting (OCC) or "UP-OCC" (Ultra Pure Copper by Ohno Continuous Casting Process) was developed by professor Ohno of Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan. The process involves a heated mold continuous casting resulting in small rods of OCC pure copper. Wire can be drawn which can have Copper grains of over 700 ft length. Bass is vibrant, full and with dynamic impact, decay is precise and without bloom. Upper mids do evidence a forwardness in apparency, there is a consequential impression of clarity and resolution. Hfs are nuanced and with excellent detail. I do miss my favorite resonances. Peace, |
Dear comrade Don, Imitation is usually interpreted as a compliment but this does not apply by the so called 'intellectual property'. Shibata was a trademark while nearly everybody wanted to participate in 4 channel adventure. That is why we got 'Sterohedron' and other peculiar names for the fake Shibatas. The shape is pretty complex so one can easily change one or the other facet. Mitachi corp. produced 'the same' cart for the Astatic and the Glanz .The only difference was Shibata for the Astatic MF 100 and 200 with Shibata and Glanz 71, 51 and 31 with line contact. Vetterone and I were not able to hear any difference between MF 200 and Glanz 31 L (see the Glanz thread). We should also pay atention to the quality of the used diamonds and the quality of the polishing as Raul already mentioned.
Regards, |
Dear Griffithds: No, are not the same. What I'm telling is that over the years when appeared " line contact " stylus shape: Shibata, Stereohedron, VDH 1 and the like many people name it as " lene contact " because all them have a wider stylus contact area with the groove.
About AT its Sibata ones are different than the Line Contact ones or the MR stylus shape even in what AT name it as Line Contact there are variations and diferent quality on the polish of the stylus or grain oriented and the like.
Regards and enjoy the music, R. |
Dear Fleib: Before I bought the Precept 440 I heard the Precept 220 but was a dissapoint I don't like it in any way.
The Precept 110 and 220 you can find out every day on ebay but as you pointed out the Precept 440 is hard to find with 440 original stylus and in good condition, I think I was lucky about.
As with some AT cartridges we can use with the 440 the stylus replacement as the one of the AT 440ML.
I bought a 550 stylus replacement and an original AT 440ML to check about but exist one build design diferencen between these stylus replacements and the original P440: the cantilever of the Precept 440 was made from beryllium where the 550 ( even that the seller of the 550 said it it is an improvement over the original P440 and even that owners of those 550 stylus replacements said the same: I disagree with them. The original cantilever per se make a differences. ) and the AT 440 did not.
That single difference makes a huge difference, at least this is what I'm experienced on my tests. Obviously that the stylus shape is not exactly the same shape and this is a diference too but the cantilever one is more " substantial ".
I'm finishing my tests on the Precept 440 and will share those experiences.
Regards and enjoy the music, R. |
Raul
"About AT its Sibata ones are different than the Line Contact ones or the MR stylus shape even in what AT name it as Line Contact there are variations and diferent quality on the polish of the stylus or grain oriented and the like.
That is why I questioned PickeringUK's use of the term "Line Contact" for their Stereohedron stylus in their ad. They are not the same but different profiles. Same family but slightly different! Actually the Shibata came 1st. So it should be of the Shibata family, not line contact family.
Regards, Don
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Lewm/Timeltel - You may be interested in reading up on the materials used in my Final Audio Parthenon VTT1. Both the platter and tonearm pod are bolted directly to a 40kg slab of superplastic zinc alloy ( SPZ ). The TT was designed to have a rigid loop from cartridge to platter and defined energy paths for getting rid of unwanted energy to ground. The main plinth that the bearing and tonearm pod are directly bolted to is a 40kg 35mm slab of SPZ – superplastic Zinc Alloy. This "metal" even though it is incredibly rigid and strong, actually self damps at a molecular level due to it's superplasticity – from 10-100hz it behaves like a HIDAMET at room temperature. Check out p30-35 in the following link - http://www.interzinc.org/pdf/zinc6.pdfFurthermore the profile of the 20kg solid aluminium/copper platter has a "curved" bottom profile from the centre out designed to squeeze or deal with energy deflection. There is an explosiveness, density of tone and lack of smear from the sound of this deck that I have not heard in any other including the much vaunted heavily modded SP10mk3's. The industrial sized AC motor that came standard back in the 70's with a split phase sine/cosine wave generator and torque controller and driven by an 80wpc power amp probably helps too. |
my only question was "what is the effect of shape of a solid homogeneous piece of any material on its resonant character?" The key word is "homogeneous"; I am not talking about CLD. The material could be acrylic, bronze, brass, stainless steel, slate, Panzerholz, etc., altho the latter two are "natural" and are actually not homogeneous in terms of grain structure. So perhaps they are not to be considered. Just shape vs resonance. |
The only homogeneous material in your list is slate. Bronze, brass, stainless steel, panzerholz & acrylic are all alloys or compounds that may be homogeneous or heterogeneous in their grain structure. If you assume for the purpose of this exercise that they are homogeneous then SPZ is in that group. It is an alloy of aluminium, copper, magnesium, lead, cadmium & zinc. |
Gosh thanks. I SAID that perhaps Panzerholz AND slate should not be included on my list, because they have grain structure or are not homogeneous. Bronze and brass (and stainless steel) are indeed alloys, but I think alloys DO qualify for this analysis. (Last time I cut into a piece of brass, I did not notice any obvious inhomogeneity.) Acrylic can be considered in the category of an alloy, for this purpose. OK?
Here's a way to phrase my question: "What is the difference in resonant properties between a sphere made of one pound of acrylic vs a cube made of one pound of acrylic?" I could imagine that they could be different, but I wondered whether there are established rules that describe the differences. Timel, does "Young's Modulus" address such issues? (On now to Wikipedia.)
Or would you prefer only elemental materials that appear in the Periodic Table? OK. Iron, nickel, yadayada. |
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Happy holidays to all, I have a question regarding the Signet line. I have picked up a used TK5ea, understanding that this cartridge was probably not on the same level as the Tk9__ series. I have noticed several of the lower lines ( TK1 and TK3 ) selling for more than the TK5. I assumed that there was a progression from the TK1 thru the TK9. Did I miss something, and is there a reason the lower models sell for more?
Don |
I am quite familiar with the Soundfountain site. It's a nice site but full of one man's opinion and no real science, does not address my simpler question.
Merry Xmas and Happy New Year and thanks the earth did not explode on 12/21. (I had planned to take all my tt's with me, anyway.) |
Dear Grbluen2, your thoughts on the progression are correct. If those 1ea and 3ea were to go to auction they would get far less than what their owners are asking.
I am going to point you back to page 69 of this thread, where Professor Timeltel does a thorough job on describing this cart with multiple AT styli.
Merry Christmas to ALL! |
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Dear Friends:
M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S A N D
A H E A L T H Y F U L L O F S U C C E S S
2 0 1 3 ! ! !
to all of you along your dearest family.
Sincerely,
Raul. |
Regards, Griffithds: TK5Ea:
Freq. Response: 10-30,000Hz Tracking Forces: 3/4 - 1-3/4 grams Channel Balance 1.0 dB Channel seperation: at 1kHz 29dB, at 10kHz 20dB Output at 5cm/sec: 4.2mV Stylus tip: 0.2 x 0.7 mil nude square shank elliptical Stylus cantilever: Tapered tube Magnetic system: Dual Magnet Vertical tracking angle: 20 degrees Load impedance: 47,000 ohms Cartridge Inductance: 1,000mH DC Resistance: 1,200 ohms Cartridge weight: 6.8 grams
The TK3Ea is 470 mH, 780 Ohm, .3 x .7 mil nude ellipt, the TK1Ea with a .4 x .7 bonded ellipt. The plastic mount of the 1Ea tends to be susceptible to microphonic influence.
I think you'll find the 5Ea slightly more capable in detail retrieval, the 3Ea less aggressive in the mids. The TK1Ea is entry level of this series, IMHO would do better with the AT7V.
Apologies for the short response (Lew, too), am still short on time.
Peace, |
Greetings All,
MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR
John
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Merry Christmas everyone.
Hi Raul, Thanks for the Precept stylus info. I saw that the PC-550 stylus is beryllium/ML, but didn't know what series it fit. It seems there are 2 versions of the AT-440ML stylus. The orig 440ML/OCC must have stronger magnets than the MLa. OCC Output is higher, yet motors have identical specs. Regards, |
Merry Christmas and the happiest New Year yet,
One and all
As always... |
Dear Fleib: The 550 fits the PC-440 and I think that AT 440 too.
I don't post yet my Precept 440 experiences because I just changed the last SR20 fuses ( 4 of them. ) in my ML monoblocks that as the other fuses changes makes a difference for the better and I have to re-evaluate not only the Precepts but all the other cartridges ( MM/MI/MC. ) with I used as comparisons.
Btw, I heard the AT 440 in my system ( time ago ) and other system and I found out is a cartridge that not satisfied my " priorities " at both frequency extremes. I would like to try it again if I have the opportunity.
Regards and enjoy the music, R. |
Dear friends: Final stage/step on the SR20 fuses " film/picture ".
I changed the four ML fuses ( these ones in the internal power supply stages. ). To make this task I have to open the ML amplifiers ( take out two face plates. ) because there is no acess from the top of the ML.
This could be an " easy " task on normal system ampliifers set up but my ML's are hard wired input to output at both " sides ": signal and electrical, so it is not an easy task to do it and in the other side I have to make it by my self ( stand alone. ) when each monoblock has a weight over 40kgs.
Anyway, I made it and not a single doubt: worth that job, the rewards came inmmediatly.
This last step was the fourth step and in each one the audio system received benefits with unexpected improvements for the better: not different quality performance level but a better one, always.
What happened this time: well, overall distortions gone even lower given the whole system presentation a better accurate tonal balance, transparency, better dynamics and an unherad before music detail at micro and macro levels. Both extremes of the frequency range improves given the music the " immediacy " precense that only the live music has.
The whole experience in my today system is a really NEW experience that I never had before in any of several audio systems I heard.
The level of neutrality ( near cero distortions/degradations. ) of the system is just astonishing and if you are not accustom at this very REAL kind of audio system experience maybe you could think something is wrong down there. I say this because that's what I experienced and I have to " investigate " more in deep ( through more listening tests. ) what was happening there.
I invite two of my nearest audio friends that have " difficult " ears to satisfy ( each one in different time. ). In both cases they were surprised why the quality system performance level was " degraded ", why my before system losted its " live " its sparkle performance level.
In fact nothing was losted but distortions, every music nuances are there but in a new dimension in a more real dimension in a more " live " dimension.
Today if you listen to the Nardis track on the P.Barber Cafe Blue where through the track the cymbals sound from the left side of the stage are really " busy " once and again there are times where what you heard on those cymbals grooves are a very alive smearing sound that impose to the music performance a grade of " dynamics " that we can take as " alive ". Normaly through those cymbals sound you are hearing " sound " from the harmonics more than the fundamentals, sometimes because the speed of each and the next strokes ( one after one. )on those cymbals and some time because the kind of smearing sound.
Today I can hear any single stroke on those cymbals and I mean: any single stroke and now the harmonics tooks definition too, palpability and not only smear. Now you can " touch " that cymbals system sound. I only heard this kind of music performance at live events.
That's only an example of what is happening. The system dynamic performance is today a lot lot better than before with lower " spark " but with higher neutral and accurate reality .
I made tests with both friends changing the fuses ( the ones that I can change fast. ) for they can take in count what was happening and to confirm what I'm relating here.
Today the natural agresiveness that has the live music is more real than ever because there is not only that agresiveness but a more neutral, precise and defined agresiveness and not only non precise defined " distorted sound ".
IMHO maybe all of you can't understand what I'm trying to explain because mayeb you never experienced but on live music events and translate that to a home system is something that I think we can't " imagine " till we hear it.
Anyway, lower distortions means more MUSIC and more MUSIC ENJOYMENT.
A lower distortions/neutral and accurate audio system permit to evaluate in a better way not only music but any single audio item as cartridges, tonearms and the like. You can have better and truer conclusions on audio item comparisons/evaluations.
Regards and enjoy the music, R. |
Dear friends: Speaking of our audio/music hobby and now that the 2012 is just at the end and looking for what happened about I can tell that with out doubt this one was and is my best audio year I can remember. Of course because I " walked " throught with the best persons I could that where all and each one of you. I learned a lot and enjoyed any single post in this thread and other threads from you Agoner's.
In the other side I never imagine when this 2012 started that I could ( trhotugh it. ) achieve the quality level performance that I'm enjoying in my audio system, I just can't even dream that this could and can happen because at the begin of this year the system performance level was IMHO really good and IMHO too nearest to the top as ever.
Right now, I enjoy the music at other level and today I know for sure that exist a lot more information in those grooves that what we normally think.
To appreciate that we only have to work in the whole audio system and I mean in each one and all the links that conforms the complex audio system chain with out forget the room/system relationship and with out forget that the live music is always an excellent reference point to any audio system evaluations.
I'm sure that the kind of experiences I had and have this year were and are similar of what you had and have too.
We have to be congratulated for that!!!°!°!!
Regards and enjoy the music, R. |
I believe I have the honor of making post #9000. Ad aspera per astra. |
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