System
05 November 2000
"Re-Visit":
16 June 2002
|
System |
|
05 November 2000 "Re-Visit": |
|
Brian Rowe
|
Nearly? E-mail correspondence with Adnan actually lead to all of the above. To rewind a bit, I should start by relating the beginnings of a love affair with music. My father dearly loved his Johnny Cash records. My mother was a talented multi-instrumentalist. I found my way through several instruments and the requisite lessons-only to eventually dump them all in favor of the double bass (and it's electric brethren.) Jazz gigs, pop gigs, large venues, small dive bars-the utterly real connection between audiences and musicians is a hard communion to ignore, and that's what drives me to grow my system at home. I want to be involved. I hunted through on-line forums and web sites and stumbled upon a world of high-fi that I'd never seen before, and from a group of enthusiasts in Turkey I learned to set my sights a little higher. Single-ended triodes? This stuff sounded like the electronics work my father did in the basement: tube-testers, oscilloscopes, caps and resistors and diodes... my ears were re-opened. It's no secret that most musicians could care less about hi-fi, but this stuff really sparked my imagination. Slowly and surely, I've brought vinyl back into my life (wow, this stuff never sounded this good when I was a kid!), discovered planar speakers and tube amplification. The Audio Electronic Supply preamp was my first audio kit project, completed earlier this year. Talk about involvement! It's hard NOT to enjoy music at home, knowing that some extra sweat went into the equipment itself. And the music. How sweet it is to really enjoy not only making music, but listening to the music of others reproduced so beautifully. The corpus of work available on vinyl alone opens up a whole world of new composers, artists and styles. I might never have seen Miles live, but his performances can live on when the music starts. Plus, working out James Jamerson bass lines from Marvin Gaye records has never been this much fun! Fast-forward to just a year ago, when my wife and I were set on visiting Turkey for a few reasons: to explore the city of Istanbul, the ruins at Ephesus and to get married. Throw in a gathering of Adnan's friends and-voila-the virtual became real. The nuance here was the charming nature and overwhelming hospitality of the man and his cohorts in audio who took us in and made us feel at home and among friends. As for recordings, I listen to roughly 50% jazz, 30% pop/rock, and 20% classical. After being in some wonderful (and some awful) recording studios, I have a much deeper appreciation for the work that producers and engineers put into a record. Every audio enthusiast should have a chance to see real pros choose microphones and their room placement, select mic preamps, run Studer 24-track machines and ProTools software and manage all the other myriad ancillary gear and details that go into a great take. They can really make a cut come alive. For system component evaluation, I refer to the following recordings:
System's
Components
Brian's comments about his System: AA: "Brian, how would you describe your system's sound?" BR: "It's large, visceral, and very neutral-what they put to tape in the studio is pretty much what I hear, warts and all. The soundstage is wide and very deep, and I mean DEEP, most likely due to the speakers' placement so far out into the long axis of the room." AA: "Do you think there is room for improvement?" BR: "I'm looking for more body, more flesh on the bones of the instruments. I plan to experiment more with different 6SN7 types in my preamp." AA: "Have you got plans for upgrading?" BR: "Absolutely. The power amp is the next item to address. I auditioned amplifiers like the Bel Canto Evo 200.2, Cary SLM-100, Rogue Audio mono blocks and the Audio Research D130-one or two of which might come home in the future for a spin in my system." Since the initial virtual visit with Adnan,
quite a number of system parameters changed, not
the least of which is a new house! Well, it's not
a new house (early 1920s construction, actually),
and the springy wooden floors add a certain bouncy
element of frustration to tweaking my suspended
turntable. However, the trade-off is. . . wait
for it. . . a dedicated listening room. The
Magnepan 1.6QRs occupy the best spot possible for
such a small room, but the impression is still that
they could use a little more space. Bass
frequencies load the room quite nicely, and I like
the system in this room over the old
apartment--even when image depth now is sacrificed
for truer timbre and more 'flesh' to the notes. Equipment changed in stages, with the VTL
ST-85 tube power amp taking over for the sand
amp prior to our move. The VTL brought an
emotional involvement to the presentation that
simply was not there before. Other additions
include: * Salamander Designs Synergy 30
equipment rack * Bright Star Audio Big Rock (turntable
support) * Arcam CD 62 compact disc
transport/converter A note on the Arcam: after auditioning their
simply wonderful FMJ CD23 player, I had to hear
their entry-line models. After a home trial, I
decided the CD 62 offered great value for the
money, capturing much of what I loved in the FMJ
player at a significant savings. Suddenly, a
challenging Shostakovich piano trio became a deeply
moving experience, complete with the vodka and
Russian winter. I was sold. The Big Rock came as a surprise, as I didn't
expect to notice much difference. Footfalls (as
previously mentioned) were a problem, which the Big
Rock curbed to a large degree. I also like what it
did for the 'table's sonics--tighter bass response
and a bit more focus overall. |
Home
