maxg Posted March 28, 2002 Share Posted March 28, 2002 I saw this story on the Audiophile club of Athens. That maxg character sounds like a right plonker!! http://aca.gr/paper24.htm ------------------ 2 * Heresy 2 (mains) 2 * Homemade horn speakers (rears) 1 * REL Strata 3 sub Accuphase E211 amp. Tube monoblocks with separate pre-amp (DECWARE ZTPRE with separate beefed up PSU) Pro-ject 4 turntable with Pro-ject 9 arm and Pro-ject 6 head, Marantz CD6000 player Sony NS900 SACD/DVD player Stax Headphones (on loan to a friend) Humax 5400 digital satellite receiver Sharp Video 32" Sony flat screen 16:9 TV Mogami interconnects Silver Synergistic speaker cable Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted March 28, 2002 Author Share Posted March 28, 2002 I just realised that that page has links to this site. I may be setting up a circular link here that you could follow for ever. I wonder if www.klipsch.com and www.aca.gr will ever be able to extricate themselves from this one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barista Posted March 28, 2002 Share Posted March 28, 2002 Maxg, it sounds like youre all the rage over seas! Man, makes wish there was a "HiFi" club here in Dallas..... I would love to hear a REAL vinyl set up! I have to say, I've always been very intrigued with vinyl. Being a younger guy, I grew up at the end of the vinyl era and it always brings back memories of a now forgotten era. Feelings rush in of being a kid playing Credence Gold on my fathers Zenith HiFi Stereo with flashy metallic spinning platter (Well, HiFi to Zenith anyway). Most of my HiFi childhood was there after stained by (GASP!!!) Cassette Tapes. I just really started my vinyl collection about 5 years ago, so it's still rather small. Luckily my father kept his collection boxed up in good condition, so I acquired his collection as a starter. It's rather difficult finding good recordings without paying an arm and leg these days. Its it a little depressing paying high dollar knowing the medium will only get worse with age. I personally have never heard vinyl outperform anything digital, ether. I have a few that come VERY VERY CLOSE (Some with little/no noise, cracks, or pops), and trust me I want to believe, however any and all A/B test I've done seem to leave digital with a slight edge over its vinyl counter part in both resolution and clarity. I await the day when someone can prove me wrong. I'm not saying one medium is better than the other; I've just simply come to the conclusion that, in order to hear vinyl in its full analog resolution and superiority requires equipment costing upwards of 10 times the amount you would spend to get a reasonably good SACD/CD player of near equivalent quality. This is a little less desirable option when your medium is degrading more and more every time you play it. There is no avoiding that sad fact. Friction will always exist between two moving masses, and no amount of "Last Stylist Treatment" will ever fix that. This leaves the other 99% of the population "in the dark" to the magic of vinyl (Myself included). I guess that's why I hold tight to my vinyl collection knowing that someday I might have access to equipment that could bring out that magic packed into those little groves. Until then, I can only enjoy the nostalgic "Ritual" that is.....Playing vinyl. ------------------ Barista T. Bill My Rig, Minus the new Klipsch RF-5 (Not shown) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted March 28, 2002 Share Posted March 28, 2002 That's awesome congragulation Max your famous !!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted March 29, 2002 Author Share Posted March 29, 2002 Thanks Nos - I will be signing autographs later. Barista - For vinyl to sound good (i.e. better than a digital source) you do need a reasonably good player. I am not saying that your player is not good - I dont know it - but from what I have seen to date it appears that belt driven turn-tables are regarded as the way to go. The good news is that these do not haveto be too expensive. The basic version of mine is about $250 I think and from all accounts has good sound. They even do a version with a built in phono stage so you dont have to spend there either (if you dont have one). Hang on to your vinyl collection (I wish I had had one to start with). If and when you get a good player I think you will be amazed - I know I was! BTW - last night I listened to Bob Marley and then Janis Joplin. Bit hissy but somehow it didnt seem to matter that much with music of this vintage (actually the clean sound of CD seems strange here - like it does with the Beetles). Big wow on the sound. Then I switched media and genre. I played Wagner's Ring of the Neibelung first and then followed up with Beethoven's Pastorale Symphony both on SACD. Huge wow there too. Seems that this is going to be my schitzophrenic future from now on! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barista Posted March 29, 2002 Share Posted March 29, 2002 Maxg, you right. My player is nothing wonderful. It's a vintage Sony Direct Drive (PS-T3 from 1977) with a Shure M97xE Audiophile cartridge (Shure added "Audiophile" to the name, not me). It does a real nice job for now, however it's scheduled for a replace when money permits. For now, I've got my eye on some tube amplification, so the turntable is on the back burner for a while. Yea, I'll definitely keep the records. Like I said, the magic is in the groves, and someday maybe I'll get to experience it all over again. Cool deal on the SACD, I bet that is Jaw dropping wonderful! ------------------ Barista T. Bill My Rig This message has been edited by Barista on 03-29-2002 at 10:34 AM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clipped and Shorn Posted March 29, 2002 Share Posted March 29, 2002 The reality here is that vinyl examples range from excellent to poor and from what I can tell CDs range from excellent to poor. I have concluded , at least for myself, there are two modes of listening. First, there is enjoying the recording for the audiophile experience where the choice of music is determined by picking a recording whose quality is the deciding factor. This, of course, unfortunately, is only a small percentage of recorded music and can seem like a very small window at times, if one has esoteric interest in recordings which are rare and not reissued and/or remastered. Second, there is listening to the music you feel like listening to regardless of the recording's quality. This choice might be done for specific interest in the particular music at that moment for whatever reason (not necessarily as an audiophile experience) and one is limited by what is on hand (what you can even get your hands on), what is available in that genre, in other words, what exists. It is always great when the two happen to coincide. This is the reason that vinyl collectors are continually upgrading to better copies as they become available. I have some vinyl recordings of music that is important to me in multiple copies (sometimes more the 6) as a result of upgrading and grabbing copies that become available. Sometimes one track on a particular piece of vinyl is better than another copy which is otherwise mint. If I were to burn a CD of this material I would draw from several vinyl examples of the same recording on hand. Many collectors who own later reissues often seek to find earlier and more scarce original recordings for the "deeper grooves" and thicker vinyl, as well as the collector value of original artwork etc. One Jazz reissue company addressed this situation by doing very high quality reissues of rare material. Mosaic Records put out several sets of incredible vinyl before finally throwing it in for CDs. Now their CD sets are also of superior quality and give the collector an opportunity to own not only great rare recordings, but in a form that is as close to high quality sound as it is going to get. Now that I am in the process of upgrading my system, I am in an awkward phase where my Cornwalls reveal too much of what is wrong with my bad recordings (remember, in many cases there simply is no other choice). Actually many of these low or compromised quality recordings sounded better on my old system before getting the Corwalls. I am hoping that the new tube amp and preamp will smooth this out again to a certain extent. (Maybe some ALKs as well) I had one CD of some historical Cuban material which didn't sound so good on my present system. I was very encouraged to hear how much better that particular CD sounded on mdeneen's system. It was a revelation to realize it was not totally the fault of the CD as I previously thought. Likewise, vinyl can be made to sound better than at first perceived. After upgrading stylus and cartridge there are some controversial techniques like playing the vinyl "wet". I actually have many vinyl recrording which require this technique, which is kind of an inconveniece and possibly not so good for the stylus and cartride in the long run. I may eventually only use this technique when converting these problem vinyl recordings to CD. It seems that some vinyl requires the "playing wet" technique every time the disc is played so it is not simply a matter of cleaning the grooves. The "wet" somehow masks some undesirable noise or distortion making the recording sound better. I use distilled water with a drop of alcohol as a wetting agent (surfactant). Anyone actually know what ingredients go into the professionally marketed disc cleaning fluids besides water? -eightched and two owed. ------------------ Cornwalls currently upgrading to all tube components Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clipped and Shorn Posted March 29, 2002 Share Posted March 29, 2002 mdeneen, What a great idea, if it works I know alot of vinyl collectors using tubes that would be interested in such a "product". And not just the tubies. I will say no more until we have this thing patented. -whetted and stoned ------------------ Cornwalls currently upgrading to all tube components Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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