I found the sound of the rooms at this show almost universally good, but some stood out, including the Bowers & Wilkins / Classé room, which sounded fantastic with the Tidal-streamed 16/44.1 FLAC files played for us.
The system included a Classé Delta preamp with DAC and phono stage ($14,000), a pair of 300Wpc (into 8 ohms) Classé Delta monos ($15,000 each), a pair of voluptuously contoured Bowers & Wilkins flagship 801 D4 speakers ($45,000), each flanked by a subwoofer with a 12" driver and 2000W of amplifier power ($6500 each). Cables and power conditioning were by DR Acoustics.
Listening to Leonard Cohen's "Almost Like the Blues" through this system, I wasn't sure I'd ever heard the backup singers' voices sound this perky, luminous, and well-delineated in space or Cohen's baritone this resonant and chesty—but also clear, supple, and affecting. Oscar Peterson's "Days of Wine and Roses", recorded in 1964, produced a soundstage that was deep, wide, and, filled as much with air as with sound. Acoustic bass and piano had realistic tone and lifelike presence. The music sounded jazz-club live, effortless and engaging.
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COMMENTS
"I'd ever heard the backup singers' voices sound this perky, luminous, and well-delineated in space or Cohen's baritone this resonant and chesty—but also clear, supple, and affecting."
Nicley expressed, wonder if any Class-D in that system could have made you say the same.(doubt it)
Cheers George
...that the anti-high end belief system has in places taken things to such an extreme that any sound not wrung of natural life is said to be colored. That is, the language you quoted *has* to be induced by colored sound, ergo the gear is flawed. Ipso facto.
This is called objective audio.
"That is, the language you quoted *has* to be induced by colored sound, ergo the gear is flawed."
How do you work that out, to me Robert Schryer's descriptions of the backup singers are just saying everything has it's own space and you can clearly hear it. And with those amps that is what I would expect the sound to be like. Un-restricted in any way into those speakers loadings, unlike "as I said" in my first post any Class-D would be.
Just like what Rogier van Bakel Apr 25, 2022 review of the same system said.
"What distinguishes a good speaker from a great one? Detail, detail, detail. Clearly, none are obscured when the 801 D4s are matched with the right electronics and a halfway decent room."
Cheers George
Sometimes, mostly when it gels with JA's measurements and you get a synergy between the two.
Cheers George
...JHL is right. Every reviewer has ears. They're stuck to the sides of our heads. John's measurements have no bearing on that. (hehe)
Can't work it out is that a dig? or are you just being facetious.
Because measurements can very much explain what we hear from equipment. And if any piece was built without using them, that is a voodoo product, eg: Synergistic mains fuses.
Cheers George
I was just describing a physical attribute.
Measurements are indeed important. They just don't tell the whole story when it comes to what sounds "more real".
Georgie, meet Antonio...
Antonio, Georgie.
Play Don!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1djDThK8e4&t=96s
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Pitch_pipe#Media/File:Czechoslovakian_Pitch_Pipe.jpg
or
https://www.circuitbasics.com/circuit-analysis/
And what comes next?
No one can design/build an amp without measurement's and tests, and then it's listened to see if they got it right.
But a Stradivarius or Steinway can be, there lies the difference.
Cheers George
...George.
"...it's listened to (to) see if they got it right"!
Although similar Strads and Steinways will "measure" and have measurements that are very, very similar in every step of each instrument's construction.
And each piece and component that goes into the construction of an individual instrument is "listened to..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_Sy6oiJbEk
All electronics have to be designed using all the EE laws/test gear/measurements, if it's sound needs to be changed then it is adjusted again by the EE laws/test/measurements to get it the way wanted.
All those measurements taken by JA are not waisted, if you are knowledgeable enough to read them correctly they can give an indication how a piece will sound.
What a reviewers say about an amp if correct, can most likely coincide with what JA has measured. If not then he may as well not do them (sorry JA your sacked), and Stereophile can then be like Absolute Sounds and just write reviews full of poetic license BS like they do.
Cheers George
..."sound"
We measure for sound.
Then, ultimately, we listen.
...to construct his various instruments was measured and tested.
Measuring and listening after the construction is completed is just reverse engineering.
...can be measured!
https://www.amazon.com/Health-meter-Measuring-Accurately-Circumferences/dp/B008CENXCS
If you don't believe in measurements and tests why be here, you need to change camps and read Absolute Sounds and be mesmerized by their poetic license that they sell you.
Keep up the good work JA, and also Amirm over at ASR who has a massive following. You both have huge amount of believers that read your hard work, and we thank you for it.
My self and others I know that "understand them" many times read your sections first, and then read what the reviewer has to say and take it sometimes times with a grain of salt.
(I suggest the voodooists learn how to decipher measurements too)
Cheers George
Good for you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB6V5Zbj7DI
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