WHF magazine encourage people to post up system pictures on Twitter every so often, so I gave it a whirl and they're featuring the system prominently on their Record Store Day page for 2014:
http://www.whathifi.com/news/whfsystems-pictures-%E2%80%93-record-store-day-special
Update, 25 September 2014: The link above has been amended by What HiF- and no longer takes you to the relevant part of their pages. Seems to be here at the moment:
https://storify.com/whathifi/whfsystems-record-store-day-special
Tuesday, 22 April 2014
A Tale Of Two Yellos
Boris Blank and Dieter Meier - the heart of electronic / electronica / pop music creators and production team who call themselves Yello. Or have done for many decades. You can enjoy lots of their material here on Spotify.
They're frequently playing on my system, from the earlier stuff like "The Race" on the album "Flag", through complexities such as "Nervous" on "The Eye" to the latest (2009!) sophisticated and equally complex but far more subtle tracks with Heidi Happy and Till Bronner on the "Touch" album, I enjoy their quirkiness, sense of humour and unique blend of electronic music with real tunes rather than just beats. With "Touch" a 10 year trend became very well resolved - a move to a more sophisticated, jazz inspired kind of direction. Bland even sings in a more traditional sense when dueting with Happy on the "Touch" track "Kiss In Blue". And pretty much every one of their albums has been a sound quality benchmark of its time.
At the Scalford Hifi Wigwam show this year I showcased the "Touch Yello" virtual concert DVD throughout the day on a modest Rotel / Mission fronted system with a Dell projector and it seems to have gone down reasonably well with a good number of visitors. That's reported here, but is an aside to this review really. Today I'm going to review Yello's respective solo releases - they've come about 4 or 5 months apart - an interesting departure, but hopefully not the end of future releases for them together as Yello.
You can read about Yello in the usual places, wikipedia for example, where you'll get the history, discography etc. I don't have their very earliest stuff as I don't like it so much, but have all the major releases from 1987's "One Second" through to the VW Golf promotion of 2012 "The Key To Perfection". My first real experience of their stuff was when "The Race" was used as a backing track to a 5 minute or so summary video of Patrick Snijers' incredible driving skill as he took his BMW M3 to a stunning victory on his first visit to the Isle of Man in 1988. Playing on a big screen as the prelude to the rally's awards ceremony, it certainly made an impression when matched to those images. Still one of the best pieces of driving I've had the pleasure to witness first hand.
Imagine this:
So that was worth further investigation. Hence began my interest in Yello and their music that's never really gone away in the intervening 26 years (gulp!). They're pretty experimental in their approach. The music tends to have a few constant features - a very clear beat, melodic & very deep bass lines, multiple layers of complexity, mixing electronics & orchestral arrangements and a very quirky sense of humour. How many bands can include Shirley Bassey and "Tweaky" from the Buck Rogers TV programme as guest vocalists for example? There's diversity, sophistication and a unique approach across their work, and whilst it doesn't always hit the mark, most of the time it works well, as long as you like that kind of stuff. Give it a try if you don't know them yet.
Now, after so many years working together, they've released solo projects. The first to market was Boris Blank in partnership with Malia with "Convergence". This week the pre-ordered signed copy of Dieter Meier's "Out Of Chaos" landed on my doorstep. These albums aren't on general release in the UK, but they are available through the likes of Amazon.de using an Amazon.co.uk account id. "Out of Chaos" can be legally downloaded in full CD quality on junodownload.co.uk "Convergence" is available as a CD quality download at qobuz, if you're lucky enough to be in the right territory. Unfortunately I've been unable to locate at 24 bit / 96kHz or similar quality versions as yet.
Malia and Boris Blank - Convergence
On Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/6EqhJyJT6R5HZTfENZPyqP
If you were hoping that Yello would continue the direction they were taking with 2009's "Touch" album, particularly those tracks with Heidi Happy on vocals, then this would probably have been a great follow up album.
What's there? All those lush Boris Blank hallmarks are there: deep, tune-laden bass lines, somewhat mysterious and layered percussion, shadowy underpinnings (you might not spot some of the subtleties until the third or fourth listen), strong structure, changes in direction and masses of layered synthesized orchestral stuff. Malia's jazz / african vocals are superb throughout, as are the strengths of the song and tune writing. With only one cover on the album ("Fever") the quality of the songs from this pairing are impressive - varied, fresh, sophisticated and well suited to the blend of electronica with jazz. Yet again, production values and sound quality are sky high.
What's not there? The quirky humour is distinctly absent - this is almost Boris Blank saying that this is his "grown up" approach to music. And that's great. It would be a mistake for a Yello album to move away from the humour, but here, with Malia, its the right approach. It doesn't mean that there is no humour in this album, its just much more subtle rather than up front. I often think that Yello's humour is probably what prevents them from reaching a wider audience - it's likely to drive some listeners to not take them seriously as musicians. This is a shame, as they are very serious about their humour! There are no really "edgy" tracks here, some might take it as a bit too smooth.
Celestial Echo: We kick off with some deep, echoing, haunting electronic bass drums and some subtle effects as Malia advises us that she's the mad storyteller. She seems to be out to save the soul of a lover and to offer comfort. There's some doubt about how this ends - there's no clue about if the offer is taken up. Underneath the story the bass drums continue their tune and there are instrumental interludes which are impressively subtle but don't add much to the storyline. I get the feeling it went well, but I don't really care too much as its not really very involving.
Embrassable Moon: The pace picks up a touch here and Malia's voice is more expressive - there's a raspy edge now, which is more engaging. This is another positively spun tune on a familiar theme ("I live to breath the air that you breathe") with some lilting percussion under a keyboard and sax led melody. It drifts along and then fades out without you really noticing.
I Feel It Like You: Perhaps a touch of Yello quirkiness here? Its a contrast to the first 2 tracks with a rhythm that bounces along a little playfully and some of that synthesised flicks and tricks in the percussion that will be familiar to fans. The guitar riff and hand claps / finger clicks drive the track along well, along with splashes of horn section. Again this is a positive track, but there's a playful mystical twist to the way its structured and sung - its a love rekindled rather than a given.
Touching Ghosts: Oooh, now we're getting going. This tracks opens with a swimming, swooning melodic line and Malia sounding a little melancholy. The voice and sad lyrics are contrasting with the more playful melody of the instruments. Pauses in the tune give you time to reflect - there's mystery in here (and a reference to a later track with "I put a spell on you" used as a backing line), deep bass melody is inter-played with brass interjections and the snowflakes keep falling. This track leaves me wanting to hear a longer version - it could develop into something very delicious indeed.
Claire Cadillac: I can't quite get my head around what this one's about. But there's no doubt that Malia's showing off here vocal versatility in this one - one moment its a bit girlish and playful, the next its multi-tracked lushness. I think it could be about jealously of another woman who "has it all". There's synthesised dulcimer and other unexpected elements in here. This track is both playful and sinuous at the same time. With the prevous track and this one, I'm hooked into this album now.
Raising Venus: Sadness and ruthlessness are the themes here. She'll burn you. But its also very sinister and that comes through in both Malia's vocals, the tension in the music and the interjections from synths and other squarks and squeeks in true Yello style. But the way Malia sings "Little Red Riding Hood drives through, she does not cry, boo hoo" is like a really unpleasant story teller trying to scare the life out of a bunch of primary school kids. And me. This is a slightly disturbing track and rather good for it.
Fever: I refreshing take on this classic track. Constructing the backing track very sparsely from drums and a single synth with trademark (but very difficult to describe) noises and punctuation, swinging along at a very gentle pace transposes this track from exciting and celebratory to something a bit more predatorial.
Smouldering Ashes: Smoldering voice. Malia talks us through this track, and you could probably say this is the one track that Dieter Meier could deliver equally well. The percussion bounces along in the background with long trumpet cords tying the drums to the melody. Very sparse again here. Its one of those tracks that sounds very simple, but probably took many hours of experimentation to ensure that the right balance of tension and emphasis is delivered. Its another song that's about something that's not happy. There's something in there about being together but as part of possession rather than partnership and then there's something about that going wrong too. These unhappy topics really do work well in this collaboration between Malia and Blank.
Magnetic Lies: This and the next 2 tracks drive this album towards a real songwriting crescendo. Deep staccatto bass lines with swooping instrumental fills blend superbly with Malia's seductive sweeping multi-tracked vocals. Its about cheating in relationships. There are some elements where it the chord changes are very much carrying an air of that cheating, but enjoying it too. There's one particular chord change that needs a system to go deep to work fully - on my main system it goes deep enough to mean that the lower notes in the chord change are reproduced and its distinctly melancholy. On the dining room system that can't get that low the chord change sounds somewhat happier. Interesting to hear how the system's ability to resolve the recording can change the emotional content.
Tears Run Dry: Oh, how the sadness continues in Malia's world, but that's good for us because it produces another stonking track. The timing of the musical phrasing in this track is superb. A walking bass line dominates, but various muted trumpets (probably not real ones of course!) build the feel, along with the occasional echoing percussion exclamation points. "Tears run dry, what's left to try? Tears run dry, you lost all your balls". Says it all really, except that this is another track that deserves another couple of minutes of development but ends too soon and leaves you wanting for more.
Turner's Ship: More mystery. More echoing deep drums, but this time they're slower paced, spaced out and take a long time to fade away. Then there's the surprise of a very African tribal chant which is positive sounding and tuneful. Then Malia cuts in, supported by hand claps and percussion that will be familiar to those who know "The Key To Perfection", along with multiple complex arrangements of cow bells, cymbals, bongos and other percussion, to deliver another heart-wrenching set of lyrics. Not love this time, but it would seem to be the tragedy of hunger and the imbalance of poverty to wealth. Sobering. Another really engaging track.
Conclusion: After the first couple of tracks that are more positive and light in outlook but which are a little bland, this album really gets going. Once Malia gets into the meat of the serious, melancholic and in some cases downright twisted/tragic topics the musical quality of the album transcends the slick and sophisticated presentation and becomes a more engaging listen. Not to be missed by any Yello enthusiast, but also deserves to be embraces by a much wider audience as a great mix of electronic with jazz.
Dieter Meier - Out of Chaos
If you're familiar with Meier's contribution to the Yello albums, that gruff, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes playful, sometimes downright weird deep baritone voice will be very familar. Is it singing? Not really. Is it rap? Nope. I guess it's more of an in-tune talk really. You'll not mistake it, that much is sure.
What's there? This is a step back in time for a Yello listener. If you consider the direction of "The Eye", "Touch" and "The Key To Perfection" as the way Yello has developed over the last 10 years, then Meier's solo project doesn't really pursue that path further, but steps back to the more individualistic work and is better aligned to the left field of electronic music. The "singing" is more of that deep tuneful talking too. Sound quality is decent, but doesn't feel outstanding.
What's not there? Well, you don't get that super sophisticated jazz-infused lushness of "Convergence", nor even of Yello's own work with the likes of Heidi Happy. Curiously, the humour's not there either - this must come from the guys working together rather than them as individuals.
Conclusion: I was going to write notes about each of the tracks. But, to date, I just don't feel there's enough differentiation between the tracks to merit writing about them individually. On a Yello album, Deiter Meier's vocal contributions are well placed and welcome - they're usually on the more sinister / quirky songs and are great when other tracks are pure instrumentals or feature guest vocalists. But track after track, they become rather wearing and lose there mysterious edge - they just become a bit monotonous. There are various musical stylings under the lyrics but they're hard to associate with - its a more electronic kind of sound - it doesn't sound as mature as Yello's and Blank's offerings. Some tracks I've still to get all the way through, and there's a doubt that I'll bother. So overall, rather a disappointment.
So there we have it. I'm still looking forward to the next Yello album (hopefully there will be one) and would welcome more from Boris Blank and whoever he cares to collaborate with. On the flip side, I won't worry too much if Meier produces another solo effort - you might like it, but its not for me.
They're frequently playing on my system, from the earlier stuff like "The Race" on the album "Flag", through complexities such as "Nervous" on "The Eye" to the latest (2009!) sophisticated and equally complex but far more subtle tracks with Heidi Happy and Till Bronner on the "Touch" album, I enjoy their quirkiness, sense of humour and unique blend of electronic music with real tunes rather than just beats. With "Touch" a 10 year trend became very well resolved - a move to a more sophisticated, jazz inspired kind of direction. Bland even sings in a more traditional sense when dueting with Happy on the "Touch" track "Kiss In Blue". And pretty much every one of their albums has been a sound quality benchmark of its time.
At the Scalford Hifi Wigwam show this year I showcased the "Touch Yello" virtual concert DVD throughout the day on a modest Rotel / Mission fronted system with a Dell projector and it seems to have gone down reasonably well with a good number of visitors. That's reported here, but is an aside to this review really. Today I'm going to review Yello's respective solo releases - they've come about 4 or 5 months apart - an interesting departure, but hopefully not the end of future releases for them together as Yello.
You can read about Yello in the usual places, wikipedia for example, where you'll get the history, discography etc. I don't have their very earliest stuff as I don't like it so much, but have all the major releases from 1987's "One Second" through to the VW Golf promotion of 2012 "The Key To Perfection". My first real experience of their stuff was when "The Race" was used as a backing track to a 5 minute or so summary video of Patrick Snijers' incredible driving skill as he took his BMW M3 to a stunning victory on his first visit to the Isle of Man in 1988. Playing on a big screen as the prelude to the rally's awards ceremony, it certainly made an impression when matched to those images. Still one of the best pieces of driving I've had the pleasure to witness first hand.
Imagine this:
With this as the soundtrack:
So that was worth further investigation. Hence began my interest in Yello and their music that's never really gone away in the intervening 26 years (gulp!). They're pretty experimental in their approach. The music tends to have a few constant features - a very clear beat, melodic & very deep bass lines, multiple layers of complexity, mixing electronics & orchestral arrangements and a very quirky sense of humour. How many bands can include Shirley Bassey and "Tweaky" from the Buck Rogers TV programme as guest vocalists for example? There's diversity, sophistication and a unique approach across their work, and whilst it doesn't always hit the mark, most of the time it works well, as long as you like that kind of stuff. Give it a try if you don't know them yet.
Now, after so many years working together, they've released solo projects. The first to market was Boris Blank in partnership with Malia with "Convergence". This week the pre-ordered signed copy of Dieter Meier's "Out Of Chaos" landed on my doorstep. These albums aren't on general release in the UK, but they are available through the likes of Amazon.de using an Amazon.co.uk account id. "Out of Chaos" can be legally downloaded in full CD quality on junodownload.co.uk "Convergence" is available as a CD quality download at qobuz, if you're lucky enough to be in the right territory. Unfortunately I've been unable to locate at 24 bit / 96kHz or similar quality versions as yet.
Malia and Boris Blank - Convergence
On Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/6EqhJyJT6R5HZTfENZPyqP
If you were hoping that Yello would continue the direction they were taking with 2009's "Touch" album, particularly those tracks with Heidi Happy on vocals, then this would probably have been a great follow up album.
What's there? All those lush Boris Blank hallmarks are there: deep, tune-laden bass lines, somewhat mysterious and layered percussion, shadowy underpinnings (you might not spot some of the subtleties until the third or fourth listen), strong structure, changes in direction and masses of layered synthesized orchestral stuff. Malia's jazz / african vocals are superb throughout, as are the strengths of the song and tune writing. With only one cover on the album ("Fever") the quality of the songs from this pairing are impressive - varied, fresh, sophisticated and well suited to the blend of electronica with jazz. Yet again, production values and sound quality are sky high.
What's not there? The quirky humour is distinctly absent - this is almost Boris Blank saying that this is his "grown up" approach to music. And that's great. It would be a mistake for a Yello album to move away from the humour, but here, with Malia, its the right approach. It doesn't mean that there is no humour in this album, its just much more subtle rather than up front. I often think that Yello's humour is probably what prevents them from reaching a wider audience - it's likely to drive some listeners to not take them seriously as musicians. This is a shame, as they are very serious about their humour! There are no really "edgy" tracks here, some might take it as a bit too smooth.
Celestial Echo: We kick off with some deep, echoing, haunting electronic bass drums and some subtle effects as Malia advises us that she's the mad storyteller. She seems to be out to save the soul of a lover and to offer comfort. There's some doubt about how this ends - there's no clue about if the offer is taken up. Underneath the story the bass drums continue their tune and there are instrumental interludes which are impressively subtle but don't add much to the storyline. I get the feeling it went well, but I don't really care too much as its not really very involving.
Embrassable Moon: The pace picks up a touch here and Malia's voice is more expressive - there's a raspy edge now, which is more engaging. This is another positively spun tune on a familiar theme ("I live to breath the air that you breathe") with some lilting percussion under a keyboard and sax led melody. It drifts along and then fades out without you really noticing.
I Feel It Like You: Perhaps a touch of Yello quirkiness here? Its a contrast to the first 2 tracks with a rhythm that bounces along a little playfully and some of that synthesised flicks and tricks in the percussion that will be familiar to fans. The guitar riff and hand claps / finger clicks drive the track along well, along with splashes of horn section. Again this is a positive track, but there's a playful mystical twist to the way its structured and sung - its a love rekindled rather than a given.
Touching Ghosts: Oooh, now we're getting going. This tracks opens with a swimming, swooning melodic line and Malia sounding a little melancholy. The voice and sad lyrics are contrasting with the more playful melody of the instruments. Pauses in the tune give you time to reflect - there's mystery in here (and a reference to a later track with "I put a spell on you" used as a backing line), deep bass melody is inter-played with brass interjections and the snowflakes keep falling. This track leaves me wanting to hear a longer version - it could develop into something very delicious indeed.
Claire Cadillac: I can't quite get my head around what this one's about. But there's no doubt that Malia's showing off here vocal versatility in this one - one moment its a bit girlish and playful, the next its multi-tracked lushness. I think it could be about jealously of another woman who "has it all". There's synthesised dulcimer and other unexpected elements in here. This track is both playful and sinuous at the same time. With the prevous track and this one, I'm hooked into this album now.
Raising Venus: Sadness and ruthlessness are the themes here. She'll burn you. But its also very sinister and that comes through in both Malia's vocals, the tension in the music and the interjections from synths and other squarks and squeeks in true Yello style. But the way Malia sings "Little Red Riding Hood drives through, she does not cry, boo hoo" is like a really unpleasant story teller trying to scare the life out of a bunch of primary school kids. And me. This is a slightly disturbing track and rather good for it.
Fever: I refreshing take on this classic track. Constructing the backing track very sparsely from drums and a single synth with trademark (but very difficult to describe) noises and punctuation, swinging along at a very gentle pace transposes this track from exciting and celebratory to something a bit more predatorial.
Smouldering Ashes: Smoldering voice. Malia talks us through this track, and you could probably say this is the one track that Dieter Meier could deliver equally well. The percussion bounces along in the background with long trumpet cords tying the drums to the melody. Very sparse again here. Its one of those tracks that sounds very simple, but probably took many hours of experimentation to ensure that the right balance of tension and emphasis is delivered. Its another song that's about something that's not happy. There's something in there about being together but as part of possession rather than partnership and then there's something about that going wrong too. These unhappy topics really do work well in this collaboration between Malia and Blank.
Magnetic Lies: This and the next 2 tracks drive this album towards a real songwriting crescendo. Deep staccatto bass lines with swooping instrumental fills blend superbly with Malia's seductive sweeping multi-tracked vocals. Its about cheating in relationships. There are some elements where it the chord changes are very much carrying an air of that cheating, but enjoying it too. There's one particular chord change that needs a system to go deep to work fully - on my main system it goes deep enough to mean that the lower notes in the chord change are reproduced and its distinctly melancholy. On the dining room system that can't get that low the chord change sounds somewhat happier. Interesting to hear how the system's ability to resolve the recording can change the emotional content.
Tears Run Dry: Oh, how the sadness continues in Malia's world, but that's good for us because it produces another stonking track. The timing of the musical phrasing in this track is superb. A walking bass line dominates, but various muted trumpets (probably not real ones of course!) build the feel, along with the occasional echoing percussion exclamation points. "Tears run dry, what's left to try? Tears run dry, you lost all your balls". Says it all really, except that this is another track that deserves another couple of minutes of development but ends too soon and leaves you wanting for more.
Turner's Ship: More mystery. More echoing deep drums, but this time they're slower paced, spaced out and take a long time to fade away. Then there's the surprise of a very African tribal chant which is positive sounding and tuneful. Then Malia cuts in, supported by hand claps and percussion that will be familiar to those who know "The Key To Perfection", along with multiple complex arrangements of cow bells, cymbals, bongos and other percussion, to deliver another heart-wrenching set of lyrics. Not love this time, but it would seem to be the tragedy of hunger and the imbalance of poverty to wealth. Sobering. Another really engaging track.
Conclusion: After the first couple of tracks that are more positive and light in outlook but which are a little bland, this album really gets going. Once Malia gets into the meat of the serious, melancholic and in some cases downright twisted/tragic topics the musical quality of the album transcends the slick and sophisticated presentation and becomes a more engaging listen. Not to be missed by any Yello enthusiast, but also deserves to be embraces by a much wider audience as a great mix of electronic with jazz.
Dieter Meier - Out of Chaos
If you're familiar with Meier's contribution to the Yello albums, that gruff, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes playful, sometimes downright weird deep baritone voice will be very familar. Is it singing? Not really. Is it rap? Nope. I guess it's more of an in-tune talk really. You'll not mistake it, that much is sure.
What's there? This is a step back in time for a Yello listener. If you consider the direction of "The Eye", "Touch" and "The Key To Perfection" as the way Yello has developed over the last 10 years, then Meier's solo project doesn't really pursue that path further, but steps back to the more individualistic work and is better aligned to the left field of electronic music. The "singing" is more of that deep tuneful talking too. Sound quality is decent, but doesn't feel outstanding.
What's not there? Well, you don't get that super sophisticated jazz-infused lushness of "Convergence", nor even of Yello's own work with the likes of Heidi Happy. Curiously, the humour's not there either - this must come from the guys working together rather than them as individuals.
Conclusion: I was going to write notes about each of the tracks. But, to date, I just don't feel there's enough differentiation between the tracks to merit writing about them individually. On a Yello album, Deiter Meier's vocal contributions are well placed and welcome - they're usually on the more sinister / quirky songs and are great when other tracks are pure instrumentals or feature guest vocalists. But track after track, they become rather wearing and lose there mysterious edge - they just become a bit monotonous. There are various musical stylings under the lyrics but they're hard to associate with - its a more electronic kind of sound - it doesn't sound as mature as Yello's and Blank's offerings. Some tracks I've still to get all the way through, and there's a doubt that I'll bother. So overall, rather a disappointment.
So there we have it. I'm still looking forward to the next Yello album (hopefully there will be one) and would welcome more from Boris Blank and whoever he cares to collaborate with. On the flip side, I won't worry too much if Meier produces another solo effort - you might like it, but its not for me.
Saturday, 12 April 2014
Chester Show 2014 - General Thoughts
Well done Acoustica. This was a really impressive step up from last year's show - both in format, layout, manufacturer representation and the quality of sound being produced.
Rooms as follows:
High end Naim / Focal
Mid-range Naim / Focal (didn't get to this room, unfortunately the Aria 936s were on show and I enjoyed them at Bristol)
Rega
Audiovector (another one we didn't get to, so not sure on the electronics)
Arcam (yet another one we missed - possibly AV?)
STAX headphones
B&W D802 with Classe electronics
Chord cables
2 x vinyl sellers
Cabasse streamer with Naim and Kudos
Kudos with Bauer / Linn / Naim
In one room (with mid-range Naim electronics and Ovator 400s), there was a demo of Daft Punk's latest album with one track played 3 times - the audience were asked to say which of the three tracks was the 16/44.1 version and which was the 24/88.2 version. One format was played once and the other twice, but the audience didn't know which was which and the streamer display was covered up to hide the information. There was a wide variety of opinions of which track was which, but no one in the room got it right on the occasion we were in there. Fascinating. The point being made by the demonstrator was that this is a well recorded and produced album and as such, will sound great in either format. Alan Sircom from HiFi+ magazine was in the room, so it'll be interesting to see if he reports on this.
There were plenty of signs to help with locating the rooms, the rooms were mostly reasonable in size and shape (the high-end Naim / Focal room was the exception) and it all felt a bit more considered and set out than in 2013.
2 small downsides - we didn't leave enough time to get round all the rooms, and £2.95 for a cup of tea and a biscuit is a bit steep - didn't see anyone buying any of that. Last year's show had some highlights, but there were more this year. Definitely a decent afternoon's entertainment and some interesting kit to listen to.
Rooms as follows:
High end Naim / Focal
Mid-range Naim / Focal (didn't get to this room, unfortunately the Aria 936s were on show and I enjoyed them at Bristol)
Rega
Audiovector (another one we didn't get to, so not sure on the electronics)
Arcam (yet another one we missed - possibly AV?)
STAX headphones
B&W D802 with Classe electronics
Chord cables
2 x vinyl sellers
Cabasse streamer with Naim and Kudos
Kudos with Bauer / Linn / Naim
In one room (with mid-range Naim electronics and Ovator 400s), there was a demo of Daft Punk's latest album with one track played 3 times - the audience were asked to say which of the three tracks was the 16/44.1 version and which was the 24/88.2 version. One format was played once and the other twice, but the audience didn't know which was which and the streamer display was covered up to hide the information. There was a wide variety of opinions of which track was which, but no one in the room got it right on the occasion we were in there. Fascinating. The point being made by the demonstrator was that this is a well recorded and produced album and as such, will sound great in either format. Alan Sircom from HiFi+ magazine was in the room, so it'll be interesting to see if he reports on this.
There were plenty of signs to help with locating the rooms, the rooms were mostly reasonable in size and shape (the high-end Naim / Focal room was the exception) and it all felt a bit more considered and set out than in 2013.
2 small downsides - we didn't leave enough time to get round all the rooms, and £2.95 for a cup of tea and a biscuit is a bit steep - didn't see anyone buying any of that. Last year's show had some highlights, but there were more this year. Definitely a decent afternoon's entertainment and some interesting kit to listen to.
Linn Exakt Starts To Trickle Down The Range - Exakt Akurate DSM and Exakt Akubarik Announced
Great news from Linn. They've extended their Exakt processing system down the range into the Exakt Akurate DSM (the streamer, ADC and pre-amp) and the Exakt Akubarik speakers which have the per-channel DAC and per-channel power amp built into the aluminium housing down the back of the speaker.
Looking forward to listening to this!
http://www.whathifi.com/news/linn-brings-exakt-technology-to-its-akurate-range
Update 22/04/2014:
Linn have officially launched this now on their own website: http://www.linn.co.uk/systems/see-the-range/akurate
Whilst it's clear from the Linn Forum discussions that the analogue to digital converter in the Akurate Exakt DSM is simpler and slightly lower quality than that in the Klimax Exakt DSM, there's no word yet on the DAC engineering in the Exakt engines. The ones in the Klimax Exakt Tunebox and Exakt engines are based on the ones in the Klimax DS/1, so I'm assuming the DACs in the Exakt Akubarik engines are based on those in the Akurate DS/0. In which case they will perform at a distinctly lower level of quality (although still very high quality of course).
Looking forward to listening to this!
http://www.whathifi.com/news/linn-brings-exakt-technology-to-its-akurate-range
Update 22/04/2014:
Linn have officially launched this now on their own website: http://www.linn.co.uk/systems/see-the-range/akurate
Whilst it's clear from the Linn Forum discussions that the analogue to digital converter in the Akurate Exakt DSM is simpler and slightly lower quality than that in the Klimax Exakt DSM, there's no word yet on the DAC engineering in the Exakt engines. The ones in the Klimax Exakt Tunebox and Exakt engines are based on the ones in the Klimax DS/1, so I'm assuming the DACs in the Exakt Akubarik engines are based on those in the Akurate DS/0. In which case they will perform at a distinctly lower level of quality (although still very high quality of course).
Chester Show 2014 - Dynaudio
Nice sounding Excite floorstanders here - fed by a SuperUnity from Naim. In the same league as the Kudos X3 I think, somewhat different presentation with a good attempt at lower bass frequencies and a touch of top-end stridency from time to time. But given the much lower cost front end of this system compared to the Kudos system, and impressive sound from the Dynaudios.
In the next room was a pair of the Xeo standmount wireless speakers. They're active so all you need is a laptop to which you connect a USB transmitter and a mains supply to each of the speakers. Very simple. Would be great as a way of extending and existing system across multiple rooms. Speakers sounding pretty good for their size and price, a touch boomy, but perhaps this was a room issue, perhaps not. Enjoyable and very convenient - certainly the best sounding wireless system I've heard to date.
Chester Show 2014 - Chord
Here we heard some cable comparisons, at prices in the stratosphere. And yes, the upgrade from 3rd from best to 2nd best to the Sarum arrays was there to be heard. But I still can't get my head around a pair of speaker cables that cost £2500. Its difficult to justify and the changes weren't of the magnitude that a good Naim power supply can bring, or an upgrade from a mid-range DAC to a top-end DAC.
And now for the controversial bit. Chord are now making Ethernet cables. Except they're not. They claim they make streaming system cables - by focussing on the "downstream" flow of bits of data with the "upstream" being untouched as its just about control instructions, not the music. How you can differentiate is beyond me, but I'm not a network engineer, nor am I a cable engineer, just passing along the explanation from the man from Chord.
Anyway, using a Naim NDX into what I think was SuperNait and then along to Kudos Super 10 speakers, the only thing to be changed in the comparison was the Ethernet cable. The volume control was not touched, the track was the same track, the NAS and network components (router and switch) were not changed. The NAS was connected to the switch by a Chord Sarum Tuned Array streaming cable, then the 3m or so length between the switch and the NDX was swapped from £ patch cable to ££ Chord C-Stream and then to ££££££ Chord Sarum Tuned Array streaming cable.
Here I am, probably one of the most likely people to say that this will make no difference to the music at all. And pretty determined to be very very sceptical about any demo. But there it was, all looking above board and also very distinctly audible (going both ways by the way - up and down the cost spectrum). I treated reports of differences being heard with a great deal of caution and I expect you to be doing exactly that. Most impressive of the demos was a Jake Bugg track that sounds like its recorded using some really cheap equipment in a bathroom (it might be that they intended for it to sound like that?) but it really was virtually impossible to listen to, so harsh and gritty it is. With the Chord Sarum, it became easier to listen to for a little longer, with Jake's voice easier to hear and the instrumentation being more distinct too. Its still an awful recording, but we managed to listen to about a minute of it rather than 10 seconds! It was still very rough.
The cable was then swapped back and the track became horrible again. I often find going back in a change is more telling because there's always the risk that familiarity with the music means you're more likely to start hearing subtleties missed in first hearings. Of course, if the apparent improvement in sound was purely down to familiarity then it would seem to get better again when listening one more time on putting the system back as it was.
As for the so called 'expectation bias', well, if it exists then my expectations that there would be ababsolutely no change at all would've been borne out. But weren't.
There were about 6 others I
in the room, all of whom thought they could hear a difference.
I'm stumped to explain it, and the man from Chord was very apologetic for the ridiculous pricing, but there it is. Very surprising. I don't think the differences remotely reflect the price of the cable (£1,600 for 1m!) but it is very interesting that an effect can be heard. It'll be great to find someone who can work out what's going on here and can reproduce the same cable effect for a tenner or so. Will need to give the C-stream a try at home, to see if the effect can be replicated in a more independent context with different networking components, and to compare direct cabling to just the last bit of cable from mains over Ethernet.
I didn't think I'd ever be typing a report like this, but there it is. Bizarre.
Chester Show 2014 - Rega
Saturn-R CD player, Elicit-R amp and what looked like RS5 speakers (but they could be RS3s - however, I remember them looking tiny and the ones today looked small but not tiny, so I think they were RS5). I'd really like the manufacturers to put signs up telling us what's playing - but I've decided that they do this to try and drive us punters to strike up a conversation. Which then interrupts the music...
A nice sounding system this one, nothing outstanding but nothing really of note to complain about either. I do like Rega's understated approach to their products and their realistic systems and prices.
Chester Show 2014 - Kudos, Naim, Bauer and Linn
Well, yet again, Kudos provided an excellent sounding system. Whilst not in the league of the Classe / B&W system in terms of scale and detail retrieval, it was equally musical and very much a room you'd want to sit and spend some time in.
Sources were Bauer DPS turntable / Naim Aro arm / Dynvector XV1 or a Linn KDS/1 into a SuperNait amp and the not yet released Kudos X3 floorstanders.
We listened to Blues Company's Dark Day on the streamer and London Grammar's Hey Now on the turntable. Both tracks were utterly compelling to listen to and fully enjoyable in all the usual hifi terms, but also on the basis of a musical performance worth paying attention to. You may know that my local Naimist has the Kudos Super 20 speakers and they're a decent listen, and these X3s are clearly from the same stable and are effectively a baby Super 20 in the way they sound and perform.
Available from July 2014 they're just under £2200 a pair. Note that the speaker cables feeding them (Chord Sarum Array) were about twice the price of the speakers themselves...
Chester Show 2014 - Naim and Focal
Thankfully, Naim's top end system (on display today) did 2 good things. It avoided the Ovator loudspeakers and it wasn't in the massive vaulted roof barn building that the hotel uses for events such as weddings and parties.
Here we had a formidable pile of boxes from Naim. Streaming provided by NDS / 555PS DR, control by NAC252 / SuperCap, power from the NAP300 and NACA5 speaker cables. This lot was piled up on the (well to me anyway) attractive Naim Fraim rack. Fed by about £2000 worth powerline mains cables and some fancy Perspex transparent distribution blocks the signal went off to drive a pair of Focal Scala Utopias. Not as big and imposing as the Grand Utopias, but pretty substantial all the same. They were in piano gloss black and exhibited a bit of orange peel effect in the paintwork, which would've been a reason to reject them back to the manufacturers if it'd been my money buying them.
I think this was easily the most expensive of a range of reasonably expensive systems on offer this weekend. So it should've been the best, you'd be right to expect.
I'm going to make this clear again - I've yet to hear a Focal speaker system from their upper ranges (so the Diablo and above then) that I've got to grips with. They just sound so technical and hifi to me, not really flowing with music that I'd want to listen to. And we have the same story here too. This system was massively better than the big Naim / Ovator rig from the 2013 show, but they did have a much much better room to work in. Even then, there was a high frequency ringing in the room - its a fairly large room and apart from the carpet and the small number of lightweight curtains, there wasn't any soft furnishings in there at all. So bearing that in mind it wasn't a bad sounding system, it just wasn't to my taste. A touch boomy as it was, perhaps the speakers were too close to the rear walls, but they weren't that close. The system also sounded better from the 3rd and 4th row of seats.
Chester Show 2014 - Classe & B&W
Here we have a Classe pre-amp / DAC, power amp and B&W 802 speakers being fed from the USB output on an Apple MacBook. This was joint best of the systems we heard today (but we didn't get to every room). I've not heard B&Ws sound this good before - they've always seemed to be part of a system that delivered syrupy warmth and a rather rosy outlook. Note I said system here, not that all B&Ws always sound this way.
Anyway, today, on the end of this Classe digital system I heard real depth, tightly controlled bass and dynamics, sweetness without being dull, stunning female vocals presented rock solid in the centre of the room, clearly defined instruments and a truly musical flow. I haven't heard Lou Reed's Walk On The Wild Side on every system I've listened to, but today was the best I've heard that track played to date.
Marvellous, very enjoyable. Didn't hear anything particularly rock or bass driven, so there's more to hear with this combo, but it really did impress today.
Chester Show 2014 - Stax
Last year at the Acoustica Chester show, the upstairs landing area was occupied by a small system with dinky speakers, but it really wasn't a fair place to demonstrated a system - odd space and too much background noise.
This year, the space was occupied by a specialist vinyl / CD seller and a good range of STAX headphones with their matching amps. A much better use of the space - well done Acoustica.
As for the STAX, well this was something I was really looking forward to, as I've never had the chance to try a set of electrostatic headphones before. Having listened to some rather enjoyable Grados at the Bristol show just over a month ago, I was expecting to be really impressed with these cans, but it just didn't happen. They got better across the range as the price went up, but not in the way the Grados did - they were small step changes and even when I got to the top of the ones of offer here, I wasn't stunned or amazed. They're nice, but I was expecting extraordinary detail and imaging. I don't think they were held back by the source - with Ayre Acoustics providing the front end and playing Marc Cohn's eponymous CD. A bit plasticky in build too. Sadly, underwhelming for me.
Tuesday, 8 April 2014
Acoustica Chester - Hifi Show 12/13 April 2014
Went to this show last year, there's a report here.
Not sure if I'll make it this year, due to other plans, but here are the details:
Dates: 12 & 13 April 2014
Venue: Doubletree by Hilton Chester
Exhibitors so far confirmed:
Not sure if I'll make it this year, due to other plans, but here are the details:
Dates: 12 & 13 April 2014
Venue: Doubletree by Hilton Chester
Exhibitors so far confirmed:
- Arcam
- Audiovector Loudspeakers
- Bowers & Wilkins Loudspeakers
- Chord Cables
- Classe Electronics
- Dynaudio Loudspeakers
- Focal JM Lab Loudspeakers
- Kudos Loudspeakers
- Lyra Cartridges
- Music on Vinyl specialist record dealer
- Naim Audio
- Rega Research
- Stax Headphones
Naim NDS / 555PS DR Update - The Three Week Itch
If you remember back to early March 2014, I posted an article on the Linn Klimax DS/1 vs the Naim NDS / 555PS DR streamers, in a mainly Naim system with Kudos speakers. Here's the link to that story.
Most electronics (and pretty much every pair of speakers) seem to benefit from something referred to as "burn-in". This is the idea that the components are not working at their ideal when brand new, and some usage allows them to settle down and reach their optimum operating parameters. Some say that's rubbish (probably based on some theory or skepticism rather than actual experience, or maybe their experience has been with components that don't benefit), some say its essential. Cyrus electronics have a large print message on the inside of the box lid saying that users should expect the components to burn-in and change their sound quality over the first few weeks of use. I've heard this with Naim electronics too - certainly Richard's NDX improved over time.
The first NDS listen was a comparison against the Linn on a busy evening on the night before the Scalford show and we were listening to the NDS that had been used as the demo unit for the Naim Statement amplifier at the Bristol Sound & Vision show - so it had about 3 days solid use under its belt. The 555PS DR was at least 6 months old and has been powering the NDX during that time.
And so, to pick up where the story left off, we had a Linn DS sounding very controlled and considered against an NDS that just wanted to get on with the job, leaving me less than involved because things were too pushy and edgy - I couldn't relax into the emotion or flow of the music. Great with female vocals though - more texture and colour (not colouration) than the Linn. And Richard (who has the Naim / Kudos system and the NDS on demo) wondering if it was going to be right for him.
Now we're three weeks on and the NDS is a permanent fixture in Richard's system. So he's either forgotten the Porsche or the NDS has settled in somewhat.
Using the usual mix of artists such as Eagle Eye Cherry, Blues Company, Ana Brun etc., we had a bottle of Budvar in hand and listening commenced (there was red wine last time, so the alcohol relaxation factor was pretty much balanced across the 2 listening sessions...). Richard had warned me that things would not be all they seemed last time. And this was proven to be true. At first I was very quiet, listening intently, making sure I could take in what was going on. Subtle this ain't. And this time I don't mean the way the Naim attacks the music, I mean the change in that 3 week period. This box has really matured in that time, and maybe there is more to come. That Naim enthusiasm is still there in spades but the stridency has all but disappeared - the edginess does still happen, but it seems much more related to the quality of the recording being played - its not there as part of the standard mix of attributes. Imaging has a touch more depth too - not just width now, although from memory I still think the Linn is better in this area. Another thing that's changed is the clarity of vocals in the mix - male or female singers are now more distinct - less swamped - although, to be fair I hadn't really noted this in the earlier listen, perhaps the other more significant challenges in the sound were overpowering more subtle observations. There seems to be more subtle details across all the range of music and instruments - there's definitely more layers of detail under detail to be heard. The system even seems to get some deeper notes than on my own system, which was a suprise given the compact dimensions of those Kudos Super 20 floorstanders.
We come to a concensus - the NDS is a very different beast to 3 weeks previous. It seems a bit bizarre that the "burn-in" should be so significant. A replay of the Linn vs Naim bake-off is something we should go back to now, perferrably in my system to try and give us some balance.
There's also concensus on how we should describe the differences between the Linn and Naim streamers. There's probably little, if anything, to choose between them in terms of detail retreival, but their characters are very different. We're listening to some studio recordings and the Naim is delivering them much more as though the artists were performing live. And that's a key part of its character - a live sound, an enthusiastic sound. By contrast, on those same studio recordings the Linn doesn't add a "live" character to the music, rather it presents a studio session where the musicians seem to have put in that extra couple of rehearsals, as though they are striving for that extra bit of accuracy, more craftsmanship in the way they are playing. I love that "attention to detail" kind of presentation - as though the musicians care about what they're doing and how it will emotionally impact on the listener. The Naim, well that's keen to let you know there are human beings involved in producing the music, and it should sound live!
Makes you wonder why Naim would use a brand new out of the box NDS to demo their Statement amp, it could've sounded so much better. As I said at the time in the Bristol Show report, the Naim Statement room would impress you if you liked to listen to hifi. If they'd burnt in their streamer, I might've been reporting that it would impress you if you liked listening to live music!
Most electronics (and pretty much every pair of speakers) seem to benefit from something referred to as "burn-in". This is the idea that the components are not working at their ideal when brand new, and some usage allows them to settle down and reach their optimum operating parameters. Some say that's rubbish (probably based on some theory or skepticism rather than actual experience, or maybe their experience has been with components that don't benefit), some say its essential. Cyrus electronics have a large print message on the inside of the box lid saying that users should expect the components to burn-in and change their sound quality over the first few weeks of use. I've heard this with Naim electronics too - certainly Richard's NDX improved over time.
The first NDS listen was a comparison against the Linn on a busy evening on the night before the Scalford show and we were listening to the NDS that had been used as the demo unit for the Naim Statement amplifier at the Bristol Sound & Vision show - so it had about 3 days solid use under its belt. The 555PS DR was at least 6 months old and has been powering the NDX during that time.
And so, to pick up where the story left off, we had a Linn DS sounding very controlled and considered against an NDS that just wanted to get on with the job, leaving me less than involved because things were too pushy and edgy - I couldn't relax into the emotion or flow of the music. Great with female vocals though - more texture and colour (not colouration) than the Linn. And Richard (who has the Naim / Kudos system and the NDS on demo) wondering if it was going to be right for him.
Now we're three weeks on and the NDS is a permanent fixture in Richard's system. So he's either forgotten the Porsche or the NDS has settled in somewhat.
Using the usual mix of artists such as Eagle Eye Cherry, Blues Company, Ana Brun etc., we had a bottle of Budvar in hand and listening commenced (there was red wine last time, so the alcohol relaxation factor was pretty much balanced across the 2 listening sessions...). Richard had warned me that things would not be all they seemed last time. And this was proven to be true. At first I was very quiet, listening intently, making sure I could take in what was going on. Subtle this ain't. And this time I don't mean the way the Naim attacks the music, I mean the change in that 3 week period. This box has really matured in that time, and maybe there is more to come. That Naim enthusiasm is still there in spades but the stridency has all but disappeared - the edginess does still happen, but it seems much more related to the quality of the recording being played - its not there as part of the standard mix of attributes. Imaging has a touch more depth too - not just width now, although from memory I still think the Linn is better in this area. Another thing that's changed is the clarity of vocals in the mix - male or female singers are now more distinct - less swamped - although, to be fair I hadn't really noted this in the earlier listen, perhaps the other more significant challenges in the sound were overpowering more subtle observations. There seems to be more subtle details across all the range of music and instruments - there's definitely more layers of detail under detail to be heard. The system even seems to get some deeper notes than on my own system, which was a suprise given the compact dimensions of those Kudos Super 20 floorstanders.
We come to a concensus - the NDS is a very different beast to 3 weeks previous. It seems a bit bizarre that the "burn-in" should be so significant. A replay of the Linn vs Naim bake-off is something we should go back to now, perferrably in my system to try and give us some balance.
There's also concensus on how we should describe the differences between the Linn and Naim streamers. There's probably little, if anything, to choose between them in terms of detail retreival, but their characters are very different. We're listening to some studio recordings and the Naim is delivering them much more as though the artists were performing live. And that's a key part of its character - a live sound, an enthusiastic sound. By contrast, on those same studio recordings the Linn doesn't add a "live" character to the music, rather it presents a studio session where the musicians seem to have put in that extra couple of rehearsals, as though they are striving for that extra bit of accuracy, more craftsmanship in the way they are playing. I love that "attention to detail" kind of presentation - as though the musicians care about what they're doing and how it will emotionally impact on the listener. The Naim, well that's keen to let you know there are human beings involved in producing the music, and it should sound live!
Makes you wonder why Naim would use a brand new out of the box NDS to demo their Statement amp, it could've sounded so much better. As I said at the time in the Bristol Show report, the Naim Statement room would impress you if you liked to listen to hifi. If they'd burnt in their streamer, I might've been reporting that it would impress you if you liked listening to live music!
Cheshire Audio Show, 15th June 2014
There's a new Audio Show at Cranage Hall (near Holmes Chapel) on 15th
June 2014. Free parking and entry (by ticket from the website).
A few interesting brands are there, as are brianandtrevors (of House of Linn):
http://www.audioshow.co.uk
A few interesting brands are there, as are brianandtrevors (of House of Linn):
http://www.audioshow.co.uk
Thursday, 3 April 2014
Sherwood AV Receiver *SOLD*
5 channel Dolby Pro-Logic AV Receiver with phono stage *NOW SOLD*.
.jpg)
Please see the listing on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=291117182080
Please see the listing on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=291117182080
Wednesday, 2 April 2014
Copying CDs (For The Right Reasons) To Become Legal in the UK
At last, some sense prevails.
For copyright materials that don't have any copy protection, it will become legal to copy those materials for personal use on other formats (e.g. ripping a CD to MP3 to allow play on a different device). However, copying for someone else's use will remain illegal. In effect from 1st June 2014
This, at last, makes some sense, except it would still be useful to be able to legally make a back up copy of DRM protected content of course.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/03/uk-will-finally-allow-citizens-to-legally-rip-cds/
For copyright materials that don't have any copy protection, it will become legal to copy those materials for personal use on other formats (e.g. ripping a CD to MP3 to allow play on a different device). However, copying for someone else's use will remain illegal. In effect from 1st June 2014
This, at last, makes some sense, except it would still be useful to be able to legally make a back up copy of DRM protected content of course.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/03/uk-will-finally-allow-citizens-to-legally-rip-cds/
Friday, 28 March 2014
Don't Believe What They Tell You By Default - Mesurements Can Be Subjective Too
I've always been of the opinion that measurements, where they relate to how music is reproduced on an hifi system are only there to give some clues. There are those who believe that measurements can tell you everything you need to know and you can buy kit based on those measurements. I'm of the opinion that there are still limits to our knowledge and that measurements only cover some parameters, not all of them.
Recently I've seen forum posts that cite the dynamic range (a measurement of the difference between the quietest sounds and the loudest sounds) of an album definitively proves if an album is going to sound good or not. Of course, dynamic range is an important measure and an important indicator, but it doesn't tell you anything about distortion levels, the quality of the recording equipment / mixing desk / analogue to digital converters, the care with which the recording was made, the imaging in the mix, the frequency range etc. etc. So its and indicator, but its not definitive.
So its interesting to see this article on the audiostream.com site which exposes some very specific measurements and how they were taken and why they are not necessarily even indicative of what they claim to be measuring.
http://www.audiostream.com/content/are-measurements-subjective
So, like I suggest above, just listen and decide for yourself - you'll like it or you'll not like it, but you'll be using the most important measuring technique you have available, and the most trustworthy available. Be confident in your own ability to hear the differences and make a decision.
Recently I've seen forum posts that cite the dynamic range (a measurement of the difference between the quietest sounds and the loudest sounds) of an album definitively proves if an album is going to sound good or not. Of course, dynamic range is an important measure and an important indicator, but it doesn't tell you anything about distortion levels, the quality of the recording equipment / mixing desk / analogue to digital converters, the care with which the recording was made, the imaging in the mix, the frequency range etc. etc. So its and indicator, but its not definitive.
So its interesting to see this article on the audiostream.com site which exposes some very specific measurements and how they were taken and why they are not necessarily even indicative of what they claim to be measuring.
http://www.audiostream.com/content/are-measurements-subjective
So, like I suggest above, just listen and decide for yourself - you'll like it or you'll not like it, but you'll be using the most important measuring technique you have available, and the most trustworthy available. Be confident in your own ability to hear the differences and make a decision.
Monday, 24 March 2014
Mmmmm Blues n Beer
Great combination. Katie Bradley Blues Band.
Listen to them on a radio interview here: http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/8/d/f/8df924adffa4d800/rnb-katiebradley.m4a?c_id=5850296&expiration=1396439719&hwt=828f12969f442537947721dd3c6b9cf6
Friday, 21 March 2014
Global Reach
Interesting debate going on at the sondex.ru forum about my Linn vs Naim streamer comparison:
http://soundex.ru/index.php?showtopic=9564&page=99
And here in the Netherlands:
http://www.htforum.nl/yabbse/index.php?topic=126367.800
And pageviews by country in the last 7 days:
http://soundex.ru/index.php?showtopic=9564&page=99
And here in the Netherlands:
http://www.htforum.nl/yabbse/index.php?topic=126367.800
And pageviews by country in the last 7 days:
United States
|
2756
|
United Kingdom
|
340
|
Sweden
|
184
|
China
|
120
|
France
|
116
|
Germany
|
98
|
Indonesia
|
77
|
Canada
|
63
|
Netherlands
|
62
|
Poland
|
46
|
Wednesday, 19 March 2014
FiiO Fi Fo Fumb
I'm currently on the UK west coast mainline heading for home. That's good news.
There is more good news, but its not 100% good news.
There's a new portable digital music player on my block and this is its first trip outside Musings Towers.
But what about the iPod? Well, that's still absolutely going to be my primary portable player - with AAC tracks ripped at 320kbps I get every single one of my 10,000+ tracks onto my 160GB classic, along with lots and lots of interesting podcasts. As an all in one solution, despite the bloatware that is iTunes, its still pretty much unbeatable. With 320kbps and the Beyer Dynamic DTX-101 ear buds, it works well, its versatile and sounds more than acceptable. It also appeals to my lazy side - I don't have to decide which tracks to take with me, or which to leave at home as they're all there all the time.
Under some circumstances, it would be good to take the full fat uncompressed FLAC music experience along for the ride. This needs a device designed to support this format, with a decent DAC that can handle 24bit files and with sound quality as a fundamental design objective (without which, might as well stick with the reasonable quality available on the iPod). I could have purchased an iPod and added rockbox, but that would still leave the quality of the headphone amp to be desired, and the inability to play 24 bit tracks. Astell and Kearn have been producing a decent device, but its price really puts it out of my range in terms of something that's more of a nice to have than a primary device.
So along comes FiiO with the X3, a device that's aiming exactly at what fills this gap for me. FLAC compatible, 24 bit capable, decent DAC and decent headphone amp. Add to that the ability to feed a line level output to an amp, or even an electrical SP/DIF signal to a DAC and it starts to look very flexible and worth a try. At a price around 1/3 of existing offerings and it looks like the way to go. The non-headphone outputs are very interesting from a travelling point of view when I have a car with me, and I'm stopping 2 or more nights somewhere. The ability to plug into a proper amp and use speakers in an hotel room is very appealling and will the subject of another post soon. No need to shop around, seems that they're the same price on ebay or Amazon.
Who are FiiO? They appear to be a Chinese company who are bringing low cost manufacturing to the sector, in addition to nothing particularly innovative, other than stringing some existing technologies into a new and interesting package.
If you're looking for something that's as simple and (relatively) foolproof to work as an iPod, then look away now. The FiiO X3 isn't there yet, but seems to be making progress...
Its not intuitive like an iPod, the control layout isn't brilliant and the screen brightness & image quality leave much to be desired. Plus, the process for getting a 64GB micro SD card formatted to work isnt exactly straightforward. Given that the device has a micro SD slot (there's only 8GB of on board storage), the first thing most owners will want to do is add a card and get it formatted. To have to search the forums so soon is not brilliant. And theres another challenge. The firmware is evolving so quickly that the forum discussions are already out of date on some topics. The firmware mine came preloaded with has a menu option to format the card, this seems to be a later addition, given some of the less that smooth routes some users have had to go through before this option was added to the firmware. Updating the firmware looks quite straightforward, but I haven't tried that yet, just getting used to the device first.
Plugging the device into my Dell Latitude Windows 7 PC was painless (using the supplied micro USB cable - some audio cables are also included, but thankfully they don't waste any of your cash on rubbish earbuds, you need to choose your own cans), shows the device storage as drives. Loading music is just a case of copy and paste in Windows Explorer and is a smooth process. Initially I've copied over about 300 tracks, all FLAC format and a mix of mainly 16 bit CD rips and some 24 bit material at different sample rates.
Back on the device and its supposed to recognise new music and update its library automatically. I'm not sure yet how well it does this as I prompted a refresh of the library via the menu option, just to be sure. Will kerp an eye on this and will report back after a few weeks of use.
Battery life seems decent, running to about 8 hours when using the headphones but seems much longer when using the analogue line out, to the point where it hasn't run down on me yet, before reconnecting to the PC. There is no charger included with the device. I don't have a problem with this as I have USB chargers and cables of a compatible type for my Samsung phone which I carry with me most of the time. It will charge when connected to the PC too.
So to sound quality. Very briefly, its a major step up from an iPod classic, even when the iPod is playing uncompressed ALAC files. Using either the Beyer Dynamic DTX 101 or the Sennheiser Momentums, the sound is bright, detailed, pacey and dynamic. Bass goes deep but occasionally is a little boomy, I set the tone controls to -1 on the bass which brings back control. The headphone amp has a switchable high and low output levels so should drive most models adequately. I find the higher output setting with the volume turned down gives a more substantial sound compared to the lower output with the volume turned up. Given this excellent sound performance, I was expecting 24 bit to be outstanding. However, with a bunch of mixed 16 and 24 bit tracks on shuffle, I felt I was remembering which tracks are 24 bit rather than hearing the difference. This difference is much smaller than audible on my Linn streamer in the home system. There are constraints on the capabilities of the headphone output. It will go fairly loud and maintain quality, but well before the volume gets too uncomfortable, the midrange does get congested and vocals become swamped. Bass remains controlled and deep, but the congestion in the mids make for uncomfortable listening. This is similar on the buds and the proper cans, but seems to come in at a slightly earlier point on the cans. But keep the volume reasonable and there's very little to complain about for a device of this small a form factor and price.
Later I'll write about using the line out and digital outs, but for now, I'm going to enjoy some more tunes.
Monday, 10 March 2014
Scalford 2014 - The Wigwam Hifi Show Report
IT'S DIFFERENT
The Hifi Wigwam Hifi show is like no other. 50 rooms of systems set up by enthusiasts in an hotel in the UK Midlands to play music for other enthusiasts.
What's the point of that? Well variety seems to be the watchword. There's nowhere else where you'll be able to hear so many different approaches to music playing in one day. And all of it is independent of the manufacturers. Don't take that to mean impartial - its far from that as the Wam is famous for the views of its members, and their enthusiasm to express those views.
Every room is very different (although you'll hear lots of ways of hanging vinyl, valves and horn speakers together), and tackles what the exhibitor thinks is a good way of playing music at home. Some of the rooms are very challenging (think hard walls with no furniture, or tiny hotel bedrooms with bouncy chipboard floorboards and sound bleeding through from the next room), and getting a system working even slightly close to its potential is often many hours of setting up work. Its a lot of work going to exhibit, lots of kit to be transported across the country, carried up stairs, positioned, re-positioned and then re-positioned again, take it all apart, transport it again.
WHY?
Its a strange thing, trying to figure out why anyone does this. There's no money in it for the exhibitors, in fact it costs money - as a minimum for the liability insurance, and for those in the larger rooms, the additional fee for a large room plus the cost of getting there, staying in the hotel and, the inevitable, beer money. Is it the community? Possibly - despite the outward appearances on the Wigwam forum, they're just a bunch of enthusiasts trying to get the best out of their (perhaps I should be saying "our", being a Wammer myself) music playing kit, and to learn from each other. Is it to gather affirmation of their ability to build / assemble and excellent solution? Also a possibility, but given the opportunity to produce a rubbish sound in some of these challenging rooms, it hardly seems likely. Is it altruism, offering to help others decide how to build a good music playing system? More possibilities here. What about just extending the idea of the Wammer gathering when a few get together and compare various bits of kit in one of their homes? There are probably more reasons too, but I suspect it is mainly a combination of the above for most, with other reasons thrown in (such as an excuse to get away for the weekend with like minded folk and drink beer whilst having a good old natter. There's certainly a community atmosphere about the place, and there's certainly a chance to help others (e.g. one year there was a Wammer there offering to test valves for correct operation).
TAKING PART
This year was my 3rd pie-fi show (it's near Melton Mowbray). The first year I attended with Richard and John as visitors. Some systems we enjoyed, some we hated, some were so-so. And so it will be every year and for every visitor - but every visitor will have a different list of systems in each of those categories. In every room, joy for one visitor may well be apathy for the next. What is a constant is the effort put in by exhibitors, and the risk of a disappointing sound. So even in the rooms where you're less then enamoured by the sound you hear, its always good to remember all that hard work, and acknowledge or thank each and every exhibitor you encounter.
Last year was the first time exhibiting. Richard and I took my all-Linn active streamer based system. Partially this was because I thought there would be interest in this as something different (there had been no all-Linn systems at any of the previous 4 iterations of the show) and partially because I really think that system has a lot to offer in terms of musical enjoyment. To be fair, there was also the fun part of taking something that many Wammers think has very little to no merit as a solution, nor as a brand. You can read about the results here.
So what to do this year? It didn't take long to decide to exhibit again, but with the over-riding attraction of Scalford being variety, it seemed appropriate to do something different to last year. Having more than one system around the house makes this possible. So this time I wanted to go for something less expensive, yet something again that was new or different for the show. What would it be? In the late Summer of 2013 and idea started to form and it was based around taking a Yello "virtual concert" DVD with me to a fellow Linn forum member's house to watch / listen to on his Linn system. This DVD is excellent sound quality, superb imagery and Yello is a perennial favourite at hifi shows. The idea was off and running. A post up on the Wam indicated that there was some interest in a visual presentation, but it wasn't exactly an overwhelmingly positive response.
Sticking with the cost effective route, I put together the following system, after a bit of a test session (read about it here), and the application for a room went in. As new exhibitors get preference, and that I was proposing something a little unusual, I kind of expected to not be offered a room this year. Selection is by a very small committee - its not a democracy, and that's fine. If it turns into a democracy we'd never see a show happen at all.
Sony BD-S480 Blu-ray as transport
Linn Akurate Kontrol/0 Dynamik as DAC and pre-amp
Rotel RB970BX power amp
Mission 773e speakers
Q Acoustics 2070Si sub
Dell M410HD projector & room whiteboard
Chord Prodac Pro Gold digital coax interconnect
Linn Silver analogue interconnect
Linn K20 speaker cable
Clearer Audio Copper Alpha HDMI cable
Clearer Audio Copper Alpha distribution block and mains cables
Quadraspire and Cyrus / Mission Isoplat system support
Atacama SE20 speaker stand for the projector
I also had a projector screen on stand by, but was hoping to get a room with a large flat wall or a whiteboard to work with. The Linn DAC / pre-amp probably doesn't qualify as cost effective, but you can't have it all ways when putting something together just for a weekend.
The music choice was easy - we would play the Touch Yello Virtual Concert on a loop all day - it plays for about 40 minutes, but most people only stay in the rooms for 5 minutes or so, so that's not a problem. Well, at least I thought it was an easy choice, but Richard was a bit less confident, which made me less confident, but it was kind of too late, as the application had gone in.
Having exhibited the previous year, this year was somewhat easier. Dig out last year's spreadsheet and swap out the kit names etc. Make sure the right spares reflected the system in use and make sure there are adequate boxes to protect the kit in transit. Having lighter speakers this year seemed to be a good thing - carrying last year's up the 2 staircases was hard work. Hadn't factored in that they're boxed as a pair though... We were successful in getting a room (again up on the 2nd floor in the main hotel building), so down to work. Accommodation booked, Saturday night curry booked and pork pies ordered for my room assistants.
THE WEEKEND ARRIVES
All boxed up by Thursday night before the show, signs printed (room door, kit list in the room, and signs to help visitors actually find the 2nd floor in the main building), stuff like biscuits and water for the room sorted and other sundry practicalities to deal with. Yet again it all looked like an huge amount of kit, stacked up in the hallway and our lounge. Was it all going to fit into the car? Saturday arrived - decent weather and all the kit squeezed into the car at the second attempt. Actually a bit more space left than last year, Richard came over and we set off on the 2.5 hours cross-country.
When you get to Scalford it all gets a bit surreal. There's folks and boxes and vans and trollies everywhere. Its all very purposeful. There are also plenty of folks already at the bar... We take about an hour to get everything up to the room and out of its boxes, with the help of brother John and fellow Wammer Rick who happened to be passing and offered to lift n shift - all part of the community spirit. We spent about 10 minutes discussing the layout of the room then got to setting up. About 30 minutes later we had music playing and a picture on the very conveniently located whiteboard. Speakers were moved around several times until they balanced well in the room, then we added a very subtle assistance from the subwoofer - again a few adjustments and we were done in under 2.5 hours. Still seemed a long time, but worth the effort. With cables taped down and signs up on the walls we were off to the bar to get refreshments.
On the Saturday evening there's a really relaxed atmosphere about the place as Wammers (with beer in hand) wander around to see who's set up yet and drop in for a listen. The surreal vibe continues - you don't know which rooms will be ready, where they are (the place is a rabbit warren) and what they'll be playing. Unlike Sunday when everything is very very busy, Saturday is chilled and easy going. There's good banter and the occasionally panicking Wammer trying to fix a problem or borrow a bit of cable from somewhere. Just meander around and drop in - you're always welcome. Bizarre though - who would ever think of running a pair of Quad ESL 63s in a bedroom for example? With the bed still in there! Everyone is both opinionated and friendly at the same time. Then there's the curry buffet and more beers with more listening to be done. As an exhibitor this is the best time to get around and hear some music. Sunday will be a bit manic in comparison.
A few pics of our very simple set up this year:
All the show pictures posted by Wammers are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thehifishow/with/12912104184
SUNDAY
Up around 8am, showered and down for breakfast. The bedrooms at Scalford are functional. There's a new owner now (must've been a bit of a shell-shock, taking over the reins on Friday then touring around the rooms over the weekend, seeing what goes on over the Hifi Show weekend) - lets hope it doesn't get too posh. Whilst a refurb would be a good thing, if it gets too posh it'll get too expensive for many exhibitors and perhaps the economics of the show will no longer stack up. Lets hope a good balance is maintained.
Breakfast is busy and there's lots more boxes of kit making their way into the hotel. More helping going on. There are lots of volunteers about the place - running the show, manning the ticket table, setting up the raffle, handing out the exhibitor badges, just running the whole thing or mucking in wherever required. And the ever tolerant and helpful hotel staff who probably wonder what's hit them. We finish off putting a few more signs up on doors and as directions then check out of the bedroom and prepare for the day. Our first visitors are in at 9:40 (the show opens at 10!) whilst we're still taping up some extra materials to help black-out the windows.
We take turns to look after the room and advise visitors on the kit and the artist (surprisingly, a good number are new to Yello), how much it cost, who makes the projector etc. etc. We get some good feedback, we get polite nods and we get folk who don't acknowledge that you exist (grrr, you don't have to like what we're playing but you could at least be polite). We get a few moments of a completely empty room, but that's few and far between. Most of the time there are between 6 and 10 visitors in the room. Some put their heads around the door and don't come in, some stay for 5-15 minutes (this is the majority) and some stay for a full cycle of 40 minutes. We have a good 10 or so who come back for more later in the day (or maybe more, I wasn't in the room all day to know who was a re-visit and who wasn't, in some cases).
Having 2 assistants to look after the room during the day meant a good amount of time to get about the other rooms too, which was really appreciated. There were many interesting exhibits such as Serge's quadraphonics, the professional reel-to-reel tape decks, fantastic DIY kit, some amazing workmanship in wood etc. I didn't get around to all the rooms but I particularly enjoyed the Jolida / Muhlidine system, Myrman's Zingalis (suffering from the boominess in the room, but cutting through that), the Wadia / Krell / Wilson Audio system making the best of a very large and reverberant room and the LP12 / Naim / Neat MF7 system. Hearingisbelieving (Chris) was getting exceptional results in what must be one of the worst excuses for a room ever - the T+A speakers coping well in what is effectively a wide corridor. I'm sure there were other highlights, but I either missed them, or they've slipped my mind for the moment.
Its amazing how quickly the 7 hours goes by. But by 16:45 we had an empty room and decided to start packing up. About 10 minutes in we had to disappoint some visitors who were still making their rounds, so apologies to them. Took us one hour (6 hands make light work) to get everything into boxes and packed into the car. Stirling work by Richard and John after a long day, they made the weekend much more enjoyable in terms of a shared experience, good banter, company when touring the rooms etc. - thanks very much to both of them (although I have a sneaking suspicion they had a good time too). Also many thanks to all the Wammers who make this happen, and to the hotel staff for their cheerfulness and tolerance. And to the raffle organisers - I came away with a SIM2 projector, so very pleased with that, but also for them raising approx. £2000 for cancer charities. Excellent.
Another 2.5 hours in the car in torrential rain saw us home again safely, boxes out of the car, then collapse and ready for sleep. A very exhausting weekend, but somehow very enjoyable.
One final thanks - and the most important one for me - to my wife and kids for letting me spend such valuable weekend time doing something quite so off-beat as the Wam show.
Now, what's the plan for 2015? :-)
AND FINALLY, SOME FEEDBACK FROM AROUND THE FORUMS
From Cyrusunofficial.co.uk :
abozo: TBH Yello isn't my taste in music but I have to admit that the sound in sunbeamgls's room was startlingly good. A very nice setup and those Mission speakers were outdoing themselves.
Moz: I think you got a great sound out of those Missions. Enjoyed my time listening and viewing. Thanks for exhibiting.
callen24: +1 so good where those missions that in the dark I thought they were £15k linn actives, yello isn't my cup of tea, but stop make sense, or some other classic concert film would float my boat.
the whole idea improved the show, still hifi , and not AV
hifinutt: I think sunbeams system was a real hit with many , it was so enjoyable and sounded better for knowing it was such a reasonable cost
Brumjam: The room showing Yello through a Mission system was another highlight.
From forums.linn.co.uk :
Slackboy: Sunbeam's room was cool; nothing like anything else there, which was great in itself. I was surprised at how crisp that Rotel/Mission pairing was, especially on percussion - very nice. I'm not all that much of a Yello fan, but I did enjoy something to look at other than a load of (other) middle-aged blokes with beer bellies. Great idea and well done. Very inspiring!
Dasher: I enjoyed your AV too even though I too am to a great Yello fan.
From hifiwigwam.com :
cobbler: great fun and loved the concept of a themed room.
petethefeet: Loved the setup in there, inspired. A real experience.
Turn It Up!: I think my Yello days are long behind me but fair play to you for the all out Yello only playback. Nice to see some visuals, be good to have a few other exhibitors get some screens running.
Beobloke: Fine sounding setup and I loved the Yello concert – a very novel idea.
sligolad: Met Niall(Neill), John and Friend at the saturday night curry. Great lads and fellow bikers as well but when Niall explained the system I though this is a bit ridiculous why bother doing it. Changed my mind when I saw the quality of picture and sound achieved with a small budget.
JANDL100: Sunbeamgls's Yello Touch virtual DVD concert on permanent repeat. A great idea. Fab.
themadlatvian: Actually I greatly enjoyed your Linn system the previous year, so I wasn't surprised when you came up with a musically pleasing room this time. I know the limitations of the 773es from personal experience, but you got far more out of them than I expected.
The Hifi Wigwam Hifi show is like no other. 50 rooms of systems set up by enthusiasts in an hotel in the UK Midlands to play music for other enthusiasts.
What's the point of that? Well variety seems to be the watchword. There's nowhere else where you'll be able to hear so many different approaches to music playing in one day. And all of it is independent of the manufacturers. Don't take that to mean impartial - its far from that as the Wam is famous for the views of its members, and their enthusiasm to express those views.
Every room is very different (although you'll hear lots of ways of hanging vinyl, valves and horn speakers together), and tackles what the exhibitor thinks is a good way of playing music at home. Some of the rooms are very challenging (think hard walls with no furniture, or tiny hotel bedrooms with bouncy chipboard floorboards and sound bleeding through from the next room), and getting a system working even slightly close to its potential is often many hours of setting up work. Its a lot of work going to exhibit, lots of kit to be transported across the country, carried up stairs, positioned, re-positioned and then re-positioned again, take it all apart, transport it again.
WHY?
Its a strange thing, trying to figure out why anyone does this. There's no money in it for the exhibitors, in fact it costs money - as a minimum for the liability insurance, and for those in the larger rooms, the additional fee for a large room plus the cost of getting there, staying in the hotel and, the inevitable, beer money. Is it the community? Possibly - despite the outward appearances on the Wigwam forum, they're just a bunch of enthusiasts trying to get the best out of their (perhaps I should be saying "our", being a Wammer myself) music playing kit, and to learn from each other. Is it to gather affirmation of their ability to build / assemble and excellent solution? Also a possibility, but given the opportunity to produce a rubbish sound in some of these challenging rooms, it hardly seems likely. Is it altruism, offering to help others decide how to build a good music playing system? More possibilities here. What about just extending the idea of the Wammer gathering when a few get together and compare various bits of kit in one of their homes? There are probably more reasons too, but I suspect it is mainly a combination of the above for most, with other reasons thrown in (such as an excuse to get away for the weekend with like minded folk and drink beer whilst having a good old natter. There's certainly a community atmosphere about the place, and there's certainly a chance to help others (e.g. one year there was a Wammer there offering to test valves for correct operation).
TAKING PART
This year was my 3rd pie-fi show (it's near Melton Mowbray). The first year I attended with Richard and John as visitors. Some systems we enjoyed, some we hated, some were so-so. And so it will be every year and for every visitor - but every visitor will have a different list of systems in each of those categories. In every room, joy for one visitor may well be apathy for the next. What is a constant is the effort put in by exhibitors, and the risk of a disappointing sound. So even in the rooms where you're less then enamoured by the sound you hear, its always good to remember all that hard work, and acknowledge or thank each and every exhibitor you encounter.
Last year was the first time exhibiting. Richard and I took my all-Linn active streamer based system. Partially this was because I thought there would be interest in this as something different (there had been no all-Linn systems at any of the previous 4 iterations of the show) and partially because I really think that system has a lot to offer in terms of musical enjoyment. To be fair, there was also the fun part of taking something that many Wammers think has very little to no merit as a solution, nor as a brand. You can read about the results here.
So what to do this year? It didn't take long to decide to exhibit again, but with the over-riding attraction of Scalford being variety, it seemed appropriate to do something different to last year. Having more than one system around the house makes this possible. So this time I wanted to go for something less expensive, yet something again that was new or different for the show. What would it be? In the late Summer of 2013 and idea started to form and it was based around taking a Yello "virtual concert" DVD with me to a fellow Linn forum member's house to watch / listen to on his Linn system. This DVD is excellent sound quality, superb imagery and Yello is a perennial favourite at hifi shows. The idea was off and running. A post up on the Wam indicated that there was some interest in a visual presentation, but it wasn't exactly an overwhelmingly positive response.
Sticking with the cost effective route, I put together the following system, after a bit of a test session (read about it here), and the application for a room went in. As new exhibitors get preference, and that I was proposing something a little unusual, I kind of expected to not be offered a room this year. Selection is by a very small committee - its not a democracy, and that's fine. If it turns into a democracy we'd never see a show happen at all.
Sony BD-S480 Blu-ray as transport
Linn Akurate Kontrol/0 Dynamik as DAC and pre-amp
Rotel RB970BX power amp
Mission 773e speakers
Q Acoustics 2070Si sub
Dell M410HD projector & room whiteboard
Chord Prodac Pro Gold digital coax interconnect
Linn Silver analogue interconnect
Linn K20 speaker cable
Clearer Audio Copper Alpha HDMI cable
Clearer Audio Copper Alpha distribution block and mains cables
Quadraspire and Cyrus / Mission Isoplat system support
Atacama SE20 speaker stand for the projector
I also had a projector screen on stand by, but was hoping to get a room with a large flat wall or a whiteboard to work with. The Linn DAC / pre-amp probably doesn't qualify as cost effective, but you can't have it all ways when putting something together just for a weekend.
The music choice was easy - we would play the Touch Yello Virtual Concert on a loop all day - it plays for about 40 minutes, but most people only stay in the rooms for 5 minutes or so, so that's not a problem. Well, at least I thought it was an easy choice, but Richard was a bit less confident, which made me less confident, but it was kind of too late, as the application had gone in.
Having exhibited the previous year, this year was somewhat easier. Dig out last year's spreadsheet and swap out the kit names etc. Make sure the right spares reflected the system in use and make sure there are adequate boxes to protect the kit in transit. Having lighter speakers this year seemed to be a good thing - carrying last year's up the 2 staircases was hard work. Hadn't factored in that they're boxed as a pair though... We were successful in getting a room (again up on the 2nd floor in the main hotel building), so down to work. Accommodation booked, Saturday night curry booked and pork pies ordered for my room assistants.
THE WEEKEND ARRIVES
All boxed up by Thursday night before the show, signs printed (room door, kit list in the room, and signs to help visitors actually find the 2nd floor in the main building), stuff like biscuits and water for the room sorted and other sundry practicalities to deal with. Yet again it all looked like an huge amount of kit, stacked up in the hallway and our lounge. Was it all going to fit into the car? Saturday arrived - decent weather and all the kit squeezed into the car at the second attempt. Actually a bit more space left than last year, Richard came over and we set off on the 2.5 hours cross-country.
When you get to Scalford it all gets a bit surreal. There's folks and boxes and vans and trollies everywhere. Its all very purposeful. There are also plenty of folks already at the bar... We take about an hour to get everything up to the room and out of its boxes, with the help of brother John and fellow Wammer Rick who happened to be passing and offered to lift n shift - all part of the community spirit. We spent about 10 minutes discussing the layout of the room then got to setting up. About 30 minutes later we had music playing and a picture on the very conveniently located whiteboard. Speakers were moved around several times until they balanced well in the room, then we added a very subtle assistance from the subwoofer - again a few adjustments and we were done in under 2.5 hours. Still seemed a long time, but worth the effort. With cables taped down and signs up on the walls we were off to the bar to get refreshments.
On the Saturday evening there's a really relaxed atmosphere about the place as Wammers (with beer in hand) wander around to see who's set up yet and drop in for a listen. The surreal vibe continues - you don't know which rooms will be ready, where they are (the place is a rabbit warren) and what they'll be playing. Unlike Sunday when everything is very very busy, Saturday is chilled and easy going. There's good banter and the occasionally panicking Wammer trying to fix a problem or borrow a bit of cable from somewhere. Just meander around and drop in - you're always welcome. Bizarre though - who would ever think of running a pair of Quad ESL 63s in a bedroom for example? With the bed still in there! Everyone is both opinionated and friendly at the same time. Then there's the curry buffet and more beers with more listening to be done. As an exhibitor this is the best time to get around and hear some music. Sunday will be a bit manic in comparison.
A few pics of our very simple set up this year:
 |
| The kit |
 |
| Setting Up: Playing Toto |
 |
| During Sunday (photo courtesy of a Wammer - see the link to the gallery below) |
 |
| Audience (and sophisticated black-out arrangement!) |
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thehifishow/with/12912104184
SUNDAY
Up around 8am, showered and down for breakfast. The bedrooms at Scalford are functional. There's a new owner now (must've been a bit of a shell-shock, taking over the reins on Friday then touring around the rooms over the weekend, seeing what goes on over the Hifi Show weekend) - lets hope it doesn't get too posh. Whilst a refurb would be a good thing, if it gets too posh it'll get too expensive for many exhibitors and perhaps the economics of the show will no longer stack up. Lets hope a good balance is maintained.
Breakfast is busy and there's lots more boxes of kit making their way into the hotel. More helping going on. There are lots of volunteers about the place - running the show, manning the ticket table, setting up the raffle, handing out the exhibitor badges, just running the whole thing or mucking in wherever required. And the ever tolerant and helpful hotel staff who probably wonder what's hit them. We finish off putting a few more signs up on doors and as directions then check out of the bedroom and prepare for the day. Our first visitors are in at 9:40 (the show opens at 10!) whilst we're still taping up some extra materials to help black-out the windows.
We take turns to look after the room and advise visitors on the kit and the artist (surprisingly, a good number are new to Yello), how much it cost, who makes the projector etc. etc. We get some good feedback, we get polite nods and we get folk who don't acknowledge that you exist (grrr, you don't have to like what we're playing but you could at least be polite). We get a few moments of a completely empty room, but that's few and far between. Most of the time there are between 6 and 10 visitors in the room. Some put their heads around the door and don't come in, some stay for 5-15 minutes (this is the majority) and some stay for a full cycle of 40 minutes. We have a good 10 or so who come back for more later in the day (or maybe more, I wasn't in the room all day to know who was a re-visit and who wasn't, in some cases).
Having 2 assistants to look after the room during the day meant a good amount of time to get about the other rooms too, which was really appreciated. There were many interesting exhibits such as Serge's quadraphonics, the professional reel-to-reel tape decks, fantastic DIY kit, some amazing workmanship in wood etc. I didn't get around to all the rooms but I particularly enjoyed the Jolida / Muhlidine system, Myrman's Zingalis (suffering from the boominess in the room, but cutting through that), the Wadia / Krell / Wilson Audio system making the best of a very large and reverberant room and the LP12 / Naim / Neat MF7 system. Hearingisbelieving (Chris) was getting exceptional results in what must be one of the worst excuses for a room ever - the T+A speakers coping well in what is effectively a wide corridor. I'm sure there were other highlights, but I either missed them, or they've slipped my mind for the moment.
Its amazing how quickly the 7 hours goes by. But by 16:45 we had an empty room and decided to start packing up. About 10 minutes in we had to disappoint some visitors who were still making their rounds, so apologies to them. Took us one hour (6 hands make light work) to get everything into boxes and packed into the car. Stirling work by Richard and John after a long day, they made the weekend much more enjoyable in terms of a shared experience, good banter, company when touring the rooms etc. - thanks very much to both of them (although I have a sneaking suspicion they had a good time too). Also many thanks to all the Wammers who make this happen, and to the hotel staff for their cheerfulness and tolerance. And to the raffle organisers - I came away with a SIM2 projector, so very pleased with that, but also for them raising approx. £2000 for cancer charities. Excellent.
Another 2.5 hours in the car in torrential rain saw us home again safely, boxes out of the car, then collapse and ready for sleep. A very exhausting weekend, but somehow very enjoyable.
One final thanks - and the most important one for me - to my wife and kids for letting me spend such valuable weekend time doing something quite so off-beat as the Wam show.
Now, what's the plan for 2015? :-)
AND FINALLY, SOME FEEDBACK FROM AROUND THE FORUMS
From Cyrusunofficial.co.uk :
abozo: TBH Yello isn't my taste in music but I have to admit that the sound in sunbeamgls's room was startlingly good. A very nice setup and those Mission speakers were outdoing themselves.
Moz: I think you got a great sound out of those Missions. Enjoyed my time listening and viewing. Thanks for exhibiting.
callen24: +1 so good where those missions that in the dark I thought they were £15k linn actives, yello isn't my cup of tea, but stop make sense, or some other classic concert film would float my boat.
the whole idea improved the show, still hifi , and not AV
hifinutt: I think sunbeams system was a real hit with many , it was so enjoyable and sounded better for knowing it was such a reasonable cost
Brumjam: The room showing Yello through a Mission system was another highlight.
From forums.linn.co.uk :
Slackboy: Sunbeam's room was cool; nothing like anything else there, which was great in itself. I was surprised at how crisp that Rotel/Mission pairing was, especially on percussion - very nice. I'm not all that much of a Yello fan, but I did enjoy something to look at other than a load of (other) middle-aged blokes with beer bellies. Great idea and well done. Very inspiring!
Dasher: I enjoyed your AV too even though I too am to a great Yello fan.
From hifiwigwam.com :
cobbler: great fun and loved the concept of a themed room.
petethefeet: Loved the setup in there, inspired. A real experience.
Turn It Up!: I think my Yello days are long behind me but fair play to you for the all out Yello only playback. Nice to see some visuals, be good to have a few other exhibitors get some screens running.
Beobloke: Fine sounding setup and I loved the Yello concert – a very novel idea.
sligolad: Met Niall(Neill), John and Friend at the saturday night curry. Great lads and fellow bikers as well but when Niall explained the system I though this is a bit ridiculous why bother doing it. Changed my mind when I saw the quality of picture and sound achieved with a small budget.
JANDL100: Sunbeamgls's Yello Touch virtual DVD concert on permanent repeat. A great idea. Fab.
themadlatvian: Actually I greatly enjoyed your Linn system the previous year, so I wasn't surprised when you came up with a musically pleasing room this time. I know the limitations of the 773es from personal experience, but you got far more out of them than I expected.
Saturday, 1 March 2014
Friday, 28 February 2014
Hell Freezes Over?
There's a follow up posting to this story, 3 weeks later here. Read this post first then check out the follow-up.
As a starter for a weekend of hifi, I guess this is one of the more exotic ways to kick off.
As a starter for a weekend of hifi, I guess this is one of the more exotic ways to kick off.
After the usual week of work, everything was planned and ready to go for the Wigwam hifi show at Scalford with travelling on Saturday and the show itself on Sunday. Friday evening was supposed to be time at home before disappearing off for a weekend of sonic indulgence and maybe the occasional glass of beer. But "Richard Is My Naim", my local Naimist and co-conspirator at Scalford dropped a killer call at knocking-off time on Friday evening. Another black box had arrived. It needed setting up. It needed listening to. Now. An NDS had landed.
Back Story
In 2 parallel universes, somewhere in North Wales, 2 journeys from CD to streaming have been played out. Myself predominantly with Linn, Richard consistently with Naim.
My starting point: Meridian CD508.20 / Meridian 541 Pre / Rotel power amps / Active Linn Keilidhs. Via Squeezebox, CA and Cyrus DACs, Cyrus and older Linn power amps, Linn AV5103 pre etc., at the end of 2013 I was at Linn Akurate DS/0/1, Linn Akurate Kontrol/0/D, Linn Majik Dynamik amps and active Majik 140 speakers. And very happy was I. Until a "friendly" Linn forum member let me hear a KDSM versus the Klimax Renew (KRDS) streamers. With the advent of Linn Exakt, a good few Klimax DS/1s (KDS/1) came on the market, the prices fell, and, at the beginning of 2014, a black KDS/1 stepped in to my system and completely re-wrote the rule books. I could almost see the cogs whirring in Richard's head when he heard how profound a change the KDS/1 brought to my music.
Richard's starting point: Naim CDX2, XPS power supply, NAC252 pre with HiCap PS, NAP180 power and Wilson Benesch Arc standmount speakers. Then, via the second version of the CDX2, and improved XPS2, NAP250 power amp, NDX with XPS2, he has ended up with NDX / 555PS DR streamer, NAC282 / HiCap pre-amp, NAP250 power amp and Kudos C20 Super floorstanding speakers. He was also very happy.
So here we have 2 very different ways of getting to a decent quality streaming solution. And they sound very different too. Both have bags of detail, but the Linn system is very precise and instruments are really well separated whereas the Naim system sounds more like it wants to get on with everything (like there's not enough time in the day), it has a particularly expansive soundstage and, for me, can occasionally sound a bit strident. Guess what? We both think we have the correct answer, but we also seem to respect what the other is enjoying, if that makes sense.
Why Is Hell Freezing Over?
This is a reference to a couple of things. First, the live album by The Eagles - when they originally split up, one of the band was quoted as saying they would only get back together, "when Hell freezes over", yet there they were, playing live again together. The second reference is to the relationship between Linn and Naim as companies. Back in the 1970s, when Linn started out with the LP12 turntable and Naim started out making simple but well engineered amplifiers, the two companies had very similar outlooks - they were out to challenge the establishment and did so very effectively. When Linn added speakers to their range, and Naim expanded their line of amplifiers, all was well. The components worked well together and became the "established" route for UK audiophiles. But when Linn added amplifiers to their range (rumour has it that the Naim MD used one as an office doorstop), then Naim produced a tonearm for the LP12, it all started to go a bit off-kilter.
Despite that, many dealers and customers still work with and enjoy combining the 2 manufacturers' equipment today.
So perhaps this isn't Hell freezing over, but putting the top of the range (almost - more later) Naim streamer on the same rack as the top of the range Linn streamer is probably not something that happens too often.
 |
| Naim NDS on a shelf above the Linn KDS/1 |
Richard's usual streamer solution is Naim NDX with the 555PS DR power supply. The most recent upgrade step was to swap out the XPS2 for the 555PS DR power supply a good few months ago, and we were both stunned by the improvement this brought in terms of imaging, leading edge attack and more atmosphere to the music. In source terms, there's only one place its possible to go from there, and that would be to swap out the NDX streamer for Naim's current top of the range NDS streamer. The NDS can use a single 555PS DR power supply - the one Richard currently uses with his NDX - so its a straight swap, NDX out, NDS in.
Having packed up the KDS/1 into its Linn box, I was round to Richard's house fairly sharpish. Down to business - get all this stuff up and running to allow us to make the comparison.
 |
| A bit untidy with Ethernet and power cables. Left hand rack consists of Naim NAC282 pre-amp, Naim NDX, Naim HiCap PS for the 282, Naim 555PS DR for the NDS, Naim NAP250 power amp. In the foreground the Kudos C20 Super (in cherry veneer). Racks are by Quadraspire.
Get Set, Before Go
An unmanaged switch was connected into the Devolo Ethernet over mains plug to allow 2 x Ethernet connections. The KDS/1 was hooked up to the network, and with the wifi password sorted out, was pointed at the correct UPnP database from my Android phone (using BubbleDS control point) and that was sorted. Linn Silver interconnects into the back of the NAC282 (actual phono sockets!) and that was ready to go.
The Naim is a little more complex as it needs two very large ("bundy") cables connecting - both of these are intended to be connected to the 555PS DR power supply. It took us a while to work out which is which cable - apart from the different arrangement of pins in the plugs, there's not much to go on. Until we worked out that one cable had a single white band at one end with the other having 2 white bands. Turns out that this correlates to input 1 and input 2 on the back of the NDS. Easy when you know how! One more cable to carry the signal to the NAC282 pre-amp and we're good to go. The NDS pops up on the iPad and music is available from both sources.
Where Did That Come From?
The previous weekend I'd been at the Bristol show organised by Audio-T and WHF magazine. Naim had been there, with their first European public demo of the Statement amplifier which you can read about here. Turns out that what we had there in front of us right now was the NDS streamer that Naim had used in that demo in Bristol. Surprisingly, they seemed to have used a brand new unit that weekend, so perhaps it got better over the weekend and those who heard the system on Sunday may have heard something more enjoyable than the demo I was lucky to get into, first thing on the Friday. So it had some burn-in time, but not a great deal. My KDS/1 has about 15 months use, so no chance of any burn-in issues there.
Worth pointing out, at this point, that the KDS/1 and the NDS with a single 555PS DR are pretty much on a par, price wise. The KDS/1 is the top of the Linn range at the moment (of the conventional streamers that is, excluding the Klimax Exakt DSM which is a different kettle of deep fried fish in technology approach), but the Naim NDS can be upgraded further by the addition of a second 555 PS DR power supply. Apparently one serves the analogue circuits, the other the digital circuits, hence separating stuff even further.
Listen Up
Testing my memory a bit now, but I think this is what we listened to:
Steely Dan - Any Major Dude
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours (24 bit)
Ane Brun - Worship
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
James Taylor - Gaia
Eagles - Hotel California (Live)
Eagle Eye Cherry - Shooting Up In Vain
Some Radiohead, which I choose not to remember, and some other stuff I can't remember due to advancing age (probably). Maybe Richard will be along soon to provide an update - although he is one year older than me, so maybe that's unlikely ;-)
Strangely, for us, Blues Company didn't feature at all.
So What?
Well, that's a very good question. So what?
I like my Linn system. Richard likes his (almost all, but thank goodness there are no Ovators in the area) Naim system. Can you guess where this is going?
I've suggested a "Part 2" where we put the NDS into my Linn system. The NDS is on demo at the moment, so we're not sure if we'll find a mutually available time to give that a go. If it happens, you'll read about it here.
Interestingly (maybe?), this bake-off fitted with the Scalford Hifi Wigwam show weekend very well. How so? Did it sound like vinyl, played through valves and a set of extreme home made horns? No. No. Not at all. The alignment is this - Scalford is about variety and variety, with some added variety. For example, when exhibiting with my budget system and playing a Yello DVD (with a projector too), we had some people who walked out in less than 30 seconds (I think 3 minutes would be a fairer time to decide, but hey, I'm kind of known for being unreasonably reasonable, sometimes), and some who watched the whole video end to end - 40 minutes. Equally, I like to give every room a try, but some I stay in, others I find 3-5 minutes with a couple of different tracks and I want to move on. There is a theme with the Wam - there are some systems that do lots of things very well, but there are many systems that do one or two things exceptionally well, but don't do all the other things well at all. And that's what it seems to be about - enthusiasts playing what they think is right, whether you, dear visitor, like it or not.
Variety. See?
And whilst I wouldn't accuse either the Linn, nor the Naim, of doggedly pursuing a very narrow set of goals, you can very much hear a house sound from both devices, even in a predominantly Naim system (hence my suggestion we do this again in a Linn system at some point, to get some balance, maybe).
How is it that 2 expensive, highly engineered solutions, using exactly the same source material across exactly the same network, create such a different feel? What's happening to those bits and, further down the chain, those analogue waves that crunches them out so differently, and yet with some commonality?
What's common? Detail, layers upon layers of intricate detail. Tiny nuances in voices, subtle touches of cymbals which are normally hidden underneath other cymbals or percussion on lesser components. Bass lines that aren't one instrument, but are 2 or 3 that play tunes that intertwine with each other. That extra level of control that is only stunningly apparent when its there, and then when you step back to a lesser component and notice that the looseness is back. It amazes me that what sounds great on a system is suddenly put into a perspective of inadequacy when you hear it done "right". What is "right" anyway? I wasn't there at the recording so I don't really know, and yet its somehow obvious. A bit like colour in a photograph - its often obvious what's been changed in Photoshop (other programs are available), yet you weren't there to see the real thing - you just instinctively know its not right, not natural. And rhythm. Both of these players time superbly. Tap tap go the toes - its involuntary, its pretty much inevitable.
What's different? Everything else.
The Linn sounds so much like its fully in control. The music will do what the Linn tells it to do. The instruments are carefully "placed". The imaging is immaculately controlled. You can imagine the subtlety with which a string is plucked, a cymbal brushed, a sigh is delivered. Its precise. And yet, it flows so smoothly. There's something about the Linn that makes the music feel crafted by hand with skill and attention by musicians who care. Not lacking in attack, but instrument attack is precisely delivered - starts and stops are there to be heard. Decay is beautifully extended yet the instruments don't blur together. Clearly this works brilliantly on material such as James Taylor, the Eagles and Eagle Eye Cherry. Does this make Nirvana and Radiohead polite and lacking in bite? No, strangely not, the bite and anger is there, the emotion flows through.
The Naim is clearly a Naim component. There's very little chance that you would mix up the 2. It punches, it attacks the music, there's no doubt whatsoever that it means to get on with the job, to tell you that this is the way the music is, get on and enjoy it, or get out of my way. Its a much more raw experience than the Linn, and I think that's what Richard enjoys - he takes this as being more emotional, more like real life. For me it gets too much at times - pushing my limits of enjoyment, getting close to the point of aggression and boarding on harsh. Its not my cup of tea, but I can absolutely hear the appeal. The Naim has a tiny more expression in the vocals, especially female vocals - just a bit more texture, if you like. It also has a wider soundstage, filling the room more from left to right, but not quite so much front to back - delivering this as a counterpoint to the precision of the Linn. Sometimes the decay of instruments is lost a little in the mix, in comparison with the Linn - perhaps that's something that contributes to the need to move on, to deliver the next bit of excitement.
So there it is. Not much of a conclusion really, is it? Guess what? I'm very happy to have chosen the Linn, but that's not a slight at the Naim which I fully respect for what it does and what it achieves. Put the Naim in a Naim system and you get exactly what you might expect, just more of it, to a finer level of detail and with that extra bit of passion. I suspect that Richard will also choose the Naim. He's leaving it playing during the week, so maybe a bit more time on the NDS will change it further.
But I'm left with a bit of a nagging doubt, and we discuss it a number of times over the weekend at Scalford. Is the NDS worth the asking price over and above the NDX? On the basis of this session, upgrading the NDX / XPS2 to NDX / 555PS DR delivered a bigger step. Yes the NDS is better than the NDX, but it hasn't delivered as much as the power supply change. Seems counter intuitive really doesn't it? Surely a different DAC, analogue output stage and improved physical isolation makes a bigger change than a better, beefier, tighter power supply change? Not on this showing it doesn't.
Lets see what the week's extra burn-in brings. For this test I come away happy with the KDS/1, Richard comes away wondering about that 10 year old Porsche Boxster...
There's a follow up posting to this story, 3 weeks later here.
|
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)