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maxg

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Everything posted by maxg

  1. You are going to have to try it to see. Theoretically it should be better on the long wall - but that's theory and practice is what your ears tell you after you have put your back out moving them.....[]
  2. Yup - one of the greater assets of this forum. He even sent me some records and I am a long way away....
  3. That is Electrocompaniet territory - I recall some of their amps will happily drive a 0.5 ohm load. Not that it is relevent but if you want to see the limits of Accuphase try them with Final 0.3 hybrids. They, too, go down to 1 ohm and an accuphase will shut down driving these at any kind of volume (I know - we did it). Actually we shut down an E211 with a pair of Quad 988 speakers and they "only" go down to about 2 ohms....
  4. Crikey - critical listening is completely different for me than anything covered here. My normal listening is with the lights low, in the evening, with no other distractions - just getting lost in the music. Critical listening, for me, is rather different and I suppose there are really 2 types: The first would be listening to a performance - to see how a conductor / pianist / violinist handles a given piece - do I like the way they do it? Do they do something differently from other versions I have heard? That sort of thing - comparing, for example, the Rach 3 Piano - the way Ashkenazy plays it, the way Rachmaninof himself played it and the way, say, Volodos handles it (to use a newer, younger Russian pianist). The second type of critical listening is when listening to a system - to try to see how a given system handles a piece. To do this properly I use a few well known (to me) pieces and try to see if the system passes on to me the feel that I expect. For a vinyl system I find, for example, that the 4th movement of Sherherezade (Reiner/Chicago on Living Stereo) is an ideal test of a system. In one 8 minute burst you have everything from melody to dynamics, from pp to FF, sudden intrusions of the whole orchestra (thwack as a rocker might know it), massively apparent soundstage and depth - the whole 9 yards. All of this at the end of the record - the worst possible place to have it due to the nature of a vinyl record. Here I am not trying to listen to the music (although it is sublime) I am trying to listen to the system. It does not always work - but that is probably the best sign of how good a system might be - if I find myself forgetting the system during this type of critical listening then that is a system I want. Anyway - that is critical listening to me. The latter is something I almost never do when listening to my own system - unless I think something is suddenly wrong. The former is something I do with just about any new recording the first time I play it - after that it is all about the music and drifting off into its melodic reverie....
  5. Sad, sad day. The man probably did more to popularize Opera than anyone else in the last century. Unique voice and power demonstrated perfectly in probably the most famous Aria attributed to his performance - Nessun Dorma / Turrandot / Puccini which was the theme song for the World Cup (Soccer) in 1990 (I think). I have many of his performances on vinyl - the ones with Joan Sutherland being stand-outs. Can't imagine anyone else that could draw a 300,000 croud for Operatic Arias.....
  6. "and i plan to take 3/4" oak and wrap the 2 sides, the top and the back to further brace the cabinet and control any resonance, so if it is a general consensus that the ports are better it would be best if i try it now and this way when i do wrap the cabinets i can incorporate the port section and have seamless sides" Might be better to get the bass bin mods you want to make out of the way first and then do the above. As I recall there are 2 possible mods - the first is to build a bottom box for the Scala's that merely increases the sealed enclosure. This will also raise the speaker of course - which will also affect the sound. Probably best to try it like that first - then port and see what difference that makes. For each step you should see an increase in the range of bass frequencies that can be played - along with other effects concommitent with a raising of the speaker and dependent on your room. I'd guess it should be possible to re-plug the holes if you don't like the ported version but do like the additional sealed volume. Once you have all of that out of the way you can proceed with the mod you mentioned above in the knowledge that it fits whatever speaker you end up with. Be interesting to see you results / observations......
  7. Thanks Andy, Problem is - I do think I hear differences in cables - and it is not just me - and it is beyond any of the issues outlined above. Here is the thing: Anecdote 1: I own 2 sets of speaker cables: Pair number one is a Silver Synergistic (actually part silver and part something else - platinum from memory) - seriously expensive. Pair number 2 are run of the mill Van Den Hull D102 hybrids - cost about 1/10th of the Synergistics. I used to run the Synergistics and then a guy comes to my house and politely informs me that the Silver cables are all wrong for Horn loaded speakers like Heresies (I had those at the time). I am, shall we say, not particularly receptive to his overtures in this direction. Anyway sometime later another person tells me the same thing so I go down to a local dealer and borrow the VDH's on a recommendation. In the meantime another guy has been to listen to my system and is only vaguely impressed. After about a week of testing (after his visit) - switching back and forth I conclude that I prefer the VDH's. OK - this is a personal choice - I could be mad (probably am - regardless of the whole cable thing) so I ante up the cost and shelve the Synergistics. Couple of weeks later the other guy happens by and has a listen - without knowing I changed anything. He immediately asks what I have changed because it all sounds "so much better now - with a lot more bass..." When I explain the cables he too is surprised - I was amazed - same story repeats with various listeners who got to hear the before and after. Anecdote 2: Actually this is for patch cables (getting worse arent I...): Anyway I am at a high end dealer store buying XRCD's. They have some serious TT setups (I didnt have a TT at all at the time). I ask to hear one in comparsion to the XRCD. They have the same recording on XRCD and on vinyl (Stokowski - Liszt Hungarian rhapsody No. 2 and other tracks). We listen first on the CD player and then on the vinyl rig (Clearaudio Master Reference / Master reference parallel arm / Insider Reference cart). There is a difference - Tony is going apopleptic but somehow it is not quite what I was expecting. The CD player was $5,000 and the TT $25,000 give or take. The grin on the owners face disappears completely when I mention that the difference, although there - isnt quite all that and certainly not worth the money. Suddenly he is listening intently to the sound (I think he was expecting we would be blown away and wasn't listening till I mention that I am not). He then gets up and goes behind the units where he does something - I did not know what. We go back to the CD player and then to the vinyl rig. Now there is a huge difference to my ears and I ask what he did. You guessed it - he replaced the interconnects with another pair. Summary: I have lots of anecdotes like the ones above. I have no idea why I think I hear differences (it doesn't always follow the cost as seen in the first example) and has cropped up when I really wasn't looking for it (second example). I know it is supposed to be psycho-acoustics but it seems to work in reverse for me as often as it does the "right way". Just as a further example - I attended a Nordost presentation on their cables and came away utterly unimpressed. The demonstrator was expert and building expectation and pretty much leading the croud into hearing what he wanted them to hear but I felt I saw (heard?) through the show. He worked his way from a pair of computer RCA's all the way through an 8 model line up to the Valhalla's. At every stage we all heard a difference with each appearing to be 10-20% better than what went before. It was impossible not to hear the difference in the presentation, but, at the end, when we went back to the original Computer cables - whilst there was a difference from the Valhallas it was not a cumulative difference. In other words if each was 10% better than the last the Valhalla's should have been 100% better than the computer cables. In terms of difference, however, it appeared only to be similar to the difference between the Valhalla and the next one down in the range. I concluded on the basis of this show that the whole thing was something of a sham (rightly or wrongly) - yet I have heard cable differences.... So - to summarize. I know that according to physics there should be no audible difference. I know there is a whole lot of snake oil out there - and an even greater amount of total BS from cable companies but, when push comes to shove I really am convinced I have heard differences. Thoughts? Just fooling myself? All Psycho-acoustics? Would love to know.
  8. True - but: 1. Shielding: Can be very important - especially when the cable runs near power cables for any length but also true for the proximity to other cables. I don't know anyone that recommends running unshielded cable but I do know of many options for the shielding. This applies (possible even more) to both power cables and interconnects (or patch cables if you prefer). If you can neatly arrange your cables at the back of your system with power cables well away from signal cables and speaker cables away from interconnects then you probably need less shielding - if you have spagetti at the back (like me) then investing a well shielded cables certainly cannot hurt. 2. Oxidation: Whilst copper cable is a great conductor copper oxide is not. Silver, on the other hand forms an oxide that is a perfectly reasonable conductor. If the ends of your copper speaker cable are green your resistance figures will be higher and this MAY impact on the sound. 3. Bi-wiring / Bi-amping: There may well be benefits to the latter of these 2 - although probably not directly related to the wire. Even with bi-wiring there may be improvements in separating the high and low signals (I honestly do not know). Certainly having a greater than required diameter of cable to connect your speakers will be less damaging to your sound than having less than required. There are probably other issues too - but this is all that springs to mind at the moment. I do understand the logic of the original post - there is far too much "magic" with regards to cables but even without that there is, perhaps, a little more going on than expressed here.
  9. Hey John, Not very near now - all the fires around Athens were put out sometime around Saturday I think - even then they were several miles from the suburb I live in. Brown skies though - and the air quality is not good. All very depressing.
  10. Well the good news is that we finally appear to be winning this thing and the fires are dying down. Amazing number of international supporting fire-crews are to thank and I understand the largest contingent was from Israel. The damage is staggering - much of what was once rather nice forrest, woodland, village and farm is now a moonscape - heaven only knows how long the region will need to recover - decades probably. Heres to praying the death-toll rises no further - its in the mid sixties now but there are a lot of missing persons yet to be accounted for.
  11. Its a surprising stat if true. I guess the other 4/5ths of the population just got lucky. []
  12. Interesting article on new research on human hearing from the ACA site: http://aca.gr/paper40.htm I wonder which group prefers horns?
  13. "Max, I was going to correct you about the year of Stravinsky's death because one of my cleanest and favorite albums is him conducting his own music on his 80th birthday; but I checked the record and it was 1962 when the thing was done. He died in 1971." So I was wrong - out by 2 years - so much for my memory: As for your record - I am guessing: Stravinski conducts Stravinski, the Firebird Suite on Columbia MS 6328 (or ML5728 for the mono version) "In honor of Igor Stravinsky's 80th Birthday" "The complete Ballet in the original 1910 Orchestration with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra" Right? I have it in front of me now - will probably listen to it this evening.
  14. Mas, You haven't quite garnered the scale of the problem in this case. This pink monstrosity (a birthday present from friends I might add) is as far from the quality of an iPod as an iPod is from a Tube driven pair of KHorns in an ideal room playing superb, mint vinyl recordings on a Simon Yorke TT. Lets put it like this - there is obviously no bass (nothing below about 150 Hz I would guess) and no highs (guess about 6 to 8 KHz cutoff) and the midrange is massively distorted. No imaging, obviously and soundstaging scores negative figures. Even my daughter understands the quality difference but she wants to play on that because it is hers and not mine. Sadly - I am not sure how big the little girl audiophile market might be - otherwise I would be working on an entire pink and lilac range of speakers. I am told however, that you can order Avantgarde Horns in pink if you so desire - I just don't think Trio's will fit in her bedroom and the Solo jet engine design doesnt seem in keeping with the intended market. Anyway - to return to some sanity - Mas you are entirely correct. If the CD's she played had anything other than a modicum of dynamic range it would actually sound even worse than it does now and the speakers would blow in minutes. As opposed to merely sounding painful it would evolve into agonizing.
  15. My God Riven - that makes you even worse than me. I quite like Stravinski - and he died in 1973 from memory - so I am quite modern really. And just to really show off how up to date I am - I really quite like James Blunt (Back to Bedlam) which we listened to quite a lot on Holiday (wife's choice actually). We are also at the stage where my daughter is listening to modern Greek music. Whilst I cannot say I am an expert I do, at least, now recognise some of the songs - she can sing most of them of course - which is a not too unpleasant experience. I can say with some confidence that the compression is nothing like the problem that her lovely pink girl's baby boombox is for the sonics. This unit produces quite the worst sound I have ever heard but it has flowers on it and a matching pink micophone - oh the joy!!! Sadly - despite there being a rather nice JVC all in one system (the one with the wooden saki soaked cones in it) she likes to listen to "music" on her own system and mine does not support a microphone.
  16. The New Yorker article, Slippery Business: The trade in adulterated olive oil discusses what is virtually worldwide olive oil fraud! Not exactly like French control over wine-making, AFAIK. Good link Larry - nice to see the Romans had better control over quality than the Italians do today....
  17. Keeping an eye on it is kinda unavoidable right now - it is on every TV station and many radio stations and its one of those things you dont want to watch but cant help it. At the same time Greek Paranoia is at an all time high and theories abound as to the perpertrators of the fires. Most of the theories are pure hokum with the most popular one (unscrupulous developers) being pretty unlikely as the areas where the fires are burning are not exactly potentially high value real estate in the near future (neither the Peloponese nor Evia have particularly large or expanding populations). Fires that have occured around Athens are more likely canditates - but even there the likliehood of development ever being allowed on Imitos (the mountain behind Athens) is somewhat unlikely. Could be political motivations of course - there is a general election called for September 16th but it is a bit extreme (although extremism is rather popular globally these days). Simple put - a combination of incompetance in forest management, coupled to negligence and an unusually hot summer with high winds in a country of avid smokers and you have what we have today. Temperatures did rise again recently - everything is tinder dry - it is an accident waiting to happen. None of this is to say that some of the fires were not started deliberately but I think there were crimes of opportunity more than anything else. Of course the government is screaming political motivations to make them look bad - but frankly they do look bad - the response was too little too late (ring any bells? Thank God we dont get hurricanes) and the political appointements they made to head up the fire service highlights the lack of experience and competance in their choices. Will be quite impressive if they do manage to lose this election - they had a 7 point lead from the last one and the alternative party (PASOK) are not all that appealing except as a choice to these monkeys. I guess that was more than any of you wanted to know - and wildly OT for 2 channel.....er......the new Klipsch flagship speaker looks nice (Palladium?) [:S] I just hope they dont make them from wood from Greek forests.... PS - now would be a good time to stock up on Olive Oil - the Peloponese is a major region for growing olives here - and much of the "Italian" Product you get over there is actually from over here - exported to Italy and then re-badged to go to you (old Mafia thing apparently).
  18. Alive, well and back today. Mark was spot on. Was off on holiday on the island I always go to - no fires there thankfully - but the rest of Greece smells somewhat singed. Been a bad time all round here - and a shock general election has been called which has sent whatever was working into total chaos. Such is life. Thanks for the interest though....
  19. No thought required. If you have the money - buy it. As others have said it is a steal for the money. I had an extended play with one a while back and was pretty impressed with it. Also bare in mind that for many subs a dedicated sub out is not required - they can work off the main speaker out - in fact for some this is the recommended method of implementation for music (REL for example) .....
  20. Stereo that worked - got to go with DSOTM. Stereo that didnt - Rubber Bullet. Drove me insane - in the end I recorded the record onto tape on a mono player to get rid of the effect using a Y connector to mix the two channels.
  21. http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2127350,00.html Apparnetly it is the 7 inch single now that is making a comeback. Interesting to note that two thirds of UK singles now come out in vinyl as well. Maybe rumours of its death have been exaggerated after all.....
  22. Originally I had this - prior to all the mods of course:
  23. Was about two and a half years ago - my 40th birthday present to me. How time passes..... Thebes, I looked at that one too - was a bit worried about the availability of spare hands so I didn't go for it.
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