Analog Manufaktur Germany (AMG) Event in Wisconsin

Thursday, February 20, 7:00–10:00pm: Garth Leerer and Ken Bowers of Musical Surroundings, importers of AMG turntables and Hana phono cartridges, will be at Ultra Fidelis HiFi, 7125 W. North Avenue, Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, demonstrating the new AMG Viella Forte turntable. AMG'S Giro and Viella 12 'tables will also be on hand. Food and beverages from Charles E. Fromage and Stock House Brewing Company will fortify attendees for the task of listening to lots of great music. RSVP is required, by email (dominique.evans@ultrafi.com) or phone: (414) 221-0200.

COMMENTS
partain's picture

What a gorgeous device.

As one who streams , exclusively , I honestly must classify it in the same category I would place a USB-powered buggy whip.

JRT's picture

Why would anyone want to whip a USB powered buggy; and perhaps more to the point, why would anyone want a USB powered buggy regardless the whipping?

Pricing for this record player seems to be US-$30k MSRP.

http://www.amg-turntables.com/amg-viella-forte-turntable/

Not sure which is more nonsensical.

Jack L's picture

Hi

"Art of precision" claimed by the TT vendor.

However "precision" it is claimed, my simple test is put on a grooveless track of a vinyl test LP for the TT tonearm to track.

For lofty price as such, I expect the tonearm should remain DEAD stationary on the rotating grooveless track.

Any features else, e.g. "precision" speed, etc etc etc, IMO, will be of lesser priority.

When my humble TT tonearm at home can track a grooveless track
perfectly, why not this pricey "art of precision" ????

Jack L

JHL's picture

Virtue signalling has much the same function in audio that it does elsewhere: To cast the purveyor in a positive light by projecting his or her limited depth onto a person or persons wished to be inferior.

Of course the trick to fine analog-based musical reproduction is to explore depth; to have the capacity to enjoy another domain and realm, to soak in the time machine of recorded sound, to transcend the apparent and get right into the sensory, ethereal, and seemingly impossible.

Maybe this is why just by existing it has such an uncanny propensity for drawing irrelevant aspersions right out of the woodwork.

JRT's picture
JHL wrote:

"Of course the trick to fine analog-based musical reproduction is..."

The output of DA conversion is as analog as the output of a phono preamp.

Jack L's picture

...... a phono preamp." quoted JRT.

Sorry, I do NOT agree.

Digital is always digital : 1010101010.... Analogue is always sinewave bound inside a seamless circular envelope.

How can 1010101010 digits be DA converted back to seamless sine waveforms of the original music? IMPOSSIBLE. This is physics.

Any critical ears can hear the difference distinctly.

This afternoon, I just completed a sonic comparison between the sound quality the music taken out from the digital O/P via an external DAC vs L & R analogue output of my same WiFi Blu-ray player, both feeding my stereo rig.

The sonic difference is nite & day. The analogue music sounds so full, airy & live vs the digital music.

Well, listening is believing

Jack L

JRT's picture

Jack, please watch the video at the link for a very good explanation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIQ9IXSUzuM

Jack L's picture

.... explanation..." quoted JRT.

You believe what whoever told you on YouTube or whatever alike?
I will be very skeptical.

If you know enough about how analogue signals (all sinvewaves) are digitized during recording & how these digits are converted back to analogue sinewaves on playing back on yr player. You should know it is IMPOSSIBLE for 100% conversion. This is simple physics.

How can we get back the SAME shape of cake after chopping it up thousand pieces ???? It is simple logic.

I will challenge even the professor from MIT on this D/A conversion issue.

Critical ears detect the difference.

Listening is believing

Jack L

Bogolu Haranath's picture

So, your same logic applies to digital photography and video as well as, 4k-8k TV and movie display .... right? :-) .......

Jack L's picture

Hi

Human eyes work differently from our aural perception.

The famous historic terminology (dated back to 1895 before the invention of motion pictures): Persistence of Vision explains why our eyes perceives doted lights or framed vision as uninterrupted vision. In other words, our eyes are 'cheated'.

But our aural perception works differently. Critical ears, like mine, do hear the distinct difference between analogue vs digital sound.
When I hear analogue sounds so much better than digital, I started to find out why I should detect such difference.

Yes, so many technical journals todate claim D/A conversion could 100% restore the original analogue quality with eye blinding scientific theories. But many critical ears do here the difference, including mine.

Still remember some 40 years back when Red Book Cd was invented jointly by Sony & Philips (16 bits 44.1KHz). It was claimed than "the best sound in the world". Back then the marketing made this 'huge invention' sound so great that virtually swiped analogue media: vinyl records & tapes out of the music market !!

But time tells us the truth! Vinyl analogue media comes back bigtime after 40 years !

Listening, not blinding science, is believing,

Jack L

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Let me give you one example ...... Look at the measurements of Benchmark DAC3 HGC, Fig.7 ....... Does that look like a sinewave to you? .... Benchmark is just one such example ........ There are many such examples of DACs reviewed by Stereophile :-) ........

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Compare the Benchmark DAC's measurements with BorderPatrol DAC SE measurements, specifically Fig.8 of BorderPatrol DAC ....... Does that BorderPatrol measurements look like a sinewave to you? ...... Many reviewers liked the sound quality of the BorderPatrol DAC :-) .......

JRT's picture

Jack, it is apparent that you did not watch the video and pay close attention to the included demonstrations and explanations.

I provided a link to that video because it does a very good job of simply and succinctly explaining some basics. The video does not deep dive into the math and engineering principles underlying all of that, which are widely and well understood, and are grounded in math not conjecture. The video also demonstrates some intentional deviation from perfection. Repeating something here that is already very well explained there in the video is a waste of time and effort.

Your analogy to sliced cakes does not apply, rather is deflection to an invalid strawman to knock down. The analog audio signal is bandwidth limited, and is a continuous function. The PCM digital audio data provides a set of sample points in discrete time, through which the voltage function passes, with only the one unique solution. It is not a set of slices or stair steps. It does not disassemble and reassemble.

If you want the deeper dive, here is a link to an online DSP engineering textbook.

http://www.dspguide.com/ch3.htm

Jack L's picture

.... not disassemble and reassemble.." quoted JRT

I tried to get in the video you suggested but failed.

First time I read PCM digital audio data do not disassemble & resemble.

I just read a huge discussion on bit depth & sampling frequencies involved in disamble & resemble of analogue signals in Jim Austin's "A High Resolution Audio Primer dated Feb 24 2020. Very informative.

When I can hear pure analogue music sounds so much better than D/A converted music, it only shows D/A conversion is far from perfect analogue. Any blinding so called scientific theories are white washing.

Listening is believing

Jack L

Glotz's picture

And both AMG 'tables sounded fantastic (with Lyra and Hana carts, and with the ARC electronics and Vandersteen speakers)!

The beer was superlative too! Everyone was also in great social spirit.

Thanks Jon!

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