michael green
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Where's the listening?
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My favorite Genesis.

I am listening to this after many years of having set it aside along with many of my favorite 70s and 80s progressive rock and fusion collections. Its my goal to tune my system to allow these gems to be enjoyed.

I recently reduced the mass of my speaker cables in half (they are individually coated and stranded kimber) and to reduce tension on the speaker terminal block due to weight.The amp is stripped and has no back plate.

Let system settle overnight and the lower mass speaker cabling has improved the size of soundstage, over all clarity, layering and richness of tone. Back of soundstage is clear as a bell and deep and everything exists in its own space. It was clear before, but instrument sizes have increased and have a palpable presence without the typical cold analytical detail i have heard in the past with my older highend systems.

I know these sound like reviewer comments, but, I am not sure how else to describe them. Everything was just bigger and better.

This lessening of tension also helped the response of the subwoofer driven through speaker B terminal blocks. The sub goes lower with tighter and more well defined bass. This was a nice surprise.

I am starting to get a slight wrapping effect on left and right walls. I notice this on battle of epping forest with final chorus verse of 'picnic' which reaches out from left and right speakers and makes its way towards listening position. I am listening far field, so wrap around is tough!

Previous splashy hints of cymbals in middle layers have fleshed out with nice tone, resonance and distinctiveness. Keyboards and the layers they exist in are very evident and the nuance of the notes are entrancing.

Air intake on flute is much more evident and realistic.

The immediacy of Gabriel's vocals have improved considerably and if I am not mistaken I can hear the echo of the booth he may have been in when recorded.

Going to let the system settle around this CD and then move onto Foxtrot.

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I got a pair of Siltech silver/gold speakers cables manufactured by the dealer using original (and rather thin) Siltech wire.
First, I tested them "naked" (with only the wie and cable insulations). Then, after I decided to buy them, I also asked the dealer to make them "commercially-looking", i.e. to add the external tube of Teflon foam, the outer mesh and the Siltech aluminium tubes at each end.
Well, the result was horrible - I even won't describe it, it made me cringe - but knowing the dealer quite well I knew that assembly was excellent, so I just thaught I'll let them "recover from stress" for a while. Yes, they got slightly better after a couple weeks but still far from what I rembered. So, I got a lightbulb flash in my brain: since the only thing that changed was the cosmetics, it means this could be the only culprit. I asked the dealer for a pair of new "raw" cables and voila: everything was back in place. Of course I asked the dealer to remove the extra cosmetics from my cables (which he did in my presence) and now my speakers are in tune again.

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Hey Costin,

What are you listening to tonight. Any plans? I am debating if I should switch over to some Al Dimeola or stick with Genesis. Maybe just a night with Al ;)

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As it is 2:39 AM here and both my cat and wife are sleeping.
Tomorrow (well, today) I'll start my listening sessions with some Camel and then move on (probably) to Earl "Fatha" Hines... but who knows: it's just about what I "feel like feeling", and wit more than 2K CDs I do have enough choice.

Have a nice listening,
Costin

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Jazz piano .. One of my favorites. I am a big fan of Monk.

Pianos, IMO, are one of the hardest instruments to get right from lowest registers on up and to sound natural.

Late night listening is the best ... Nice clean power. How bout handing out the cotton balls at bed time ;)

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... but I'm working!
My main computer and the two 27" monitors are displaying stock market trends in the US and Asia.
Combine this with an European location and you'll get the picture.

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All plans are off: I started my daily listening with b-tribe "5", a nice reinterpretation of latin music in a smooth electro context, and I'll go on with Buckethead "Electric Tears", just to keep the latin mood going.

And BTW, the Buckethead album has one of the largest sundstages this side of symphonic stuff. Later on I have a friend joining in for some Garbarek (and maybe EST).

Have a nice music day,
Costin

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Top of the mornin to ya Costin,

Bucket head, thanks for turning me onto this. I just listened to sketches of Spain. Is this a mix or was he accompanied by someone. iPad YouTube combo ain't the best for fidelity. Lots of soul. On my acquire list.

I never did get to Dimeola, either.

Cable mod has highlighted a bit of compression and sibilance on a couple tracks of Selling England that I want to tune. So I am going to stick with that for a while. Should be fun.

How's the market doing.

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Hi Toledo, selling's entering the air ways now.

michael green
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Hi Toledo

man I have to get my act together LOL

I've been playing recording after recording for the last couple weeks making I think one change. Mainly tuned to Abbey Road (very nicely I might add). So I know it's not settled but I put on track 1 "dancing" and the little jam and the drums were recessed almost completely out of the stage (freaky). So I had to change my Player block arrangement. Selling England without the drums being in the second layer back is not Selling England. Now I have to go back sometime and check the other recordings I played tonight to see if I treated them fairly.

I honestly don't know how people can play different recordings without tuning them in. Especially if it's a recording you know really well. One system setting is not my gig at all. Anyway I'll let it play through the night and do a little find tune tomorrow.

BTW Costin, love "Electric tears", big stage and plays on about any system nicely! It's one of those safe show picks. Just got "Electric Sea" a month ago (same feel). The other one I like of his is "Acoustic Shards". Not so much into his hard stuff though.

michael green
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Yup, to me Genesis is all about the keyboards and percussion. I like my genesis thick and full of impact. I re arranged the wood blocks on amp to use 2 in back and one in front to warm up the mids and beef up bass response.

Selling England is a layering monster ... Engineers had loads of fun.

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toledo wrote:

Yup, to me Genesis is all about the keyboards and percussion. I like my genesis thick and full of impact. I re arranged the wood blocks on amp to use 2 in back and one in front to warm up the mids and beef up bass response.

Selling England is a layering monster ... Engineers had loads of fun.

Wood is so interesting. I have quite a few Mpingo discs in my system, why I used to knock off the Shun Mook Mpingo discs as well as their Spatial Kits, also made of Mpingo. That was twenty years ago today. (sgt. pepper taught the band to play). I was at the demo by Mike Van Evers in the John Curl room at CES when Mike showed off the effect of his hand held contraption comprised of many different types of wood. I am quite fond of a number of woods and have used them in my products (in the PAST, I know what you're thinking), including cherry, maple, Baltic birch and ebony. You've got your Sugar Cubes (made by the dude who makes the platinum and gold tiny bowl resonators), the Sugar Cubes are teeny tiny little cubes of wood with a teensy weensie hole drilled in the center that are placed on walls. There's the Cardas Myrtle Wood Blocks, not sure what wood the Red Roller Blocks are made of, probably not pine. Lol. I am a big fan of pure natural cork these days, a magical wood, a very LIGHT wood. Wasn't there a balsa tonearm once upon a time? I wooden be surprised. See, we're not really that far apart, are we?

"No matter how much you have in the end you would have had even more if you had started out with more."

Geoff Kait
Machina Dynamica

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I love the guy, but just steer away from whatever he recorded for Tzadik, it's pure noise!
Try Colma, more layered than Electric Tears and as beautiful, but beware - it will give your woofers a nice workout.
All this mellow guitar just made me sleepy, think I'll try some Kruder&Dorfmeister next (or maybe Yello, or maybe Gaudi, or maybe... well, some Joe Satriani, that's sure to wake me up).

@toledo, the market is drifting East in response to the USD going nowhere fast :)

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Hi Geoff,
I agree, we are not that far apart. I think I mentioned this before everything got all tribal. We all love music and want to get the best from it using various techniques.

So you got wood .... a little TMI ;)

So what are you listening to today?

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Are you tuning your system for each and every CD you're playing?
If yes, how do you manage to remember the right "tuning" for all your music collection? And what are you doing if you want to listen to 6-7-8 albums in a row, just tune your system for each of them?
BTW, I sold my vinyl as soon as CD came out of age because I considered that the take-it-out-carefully-wash-it-play-side-A-get-up etc. was a real PITA, and I plan to go fully software-based as soon as I find a decent server/streamer.

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toledo wrote:

Hi Geoff,
I agree, we are not that far apart. I think I mentioned this before everything got all tribal. We all love music and want to get the best from it using various techniques.

So you got wood .... a little TMI ;)

So what are you listening to today?

Up this evening: Led Zeppelin Mothership, Disc 2 and Shonen Knife, Let's Knife, featuring the iconic Tortoise Brand Pot Cleaner, Cycling is Fun and Twist Barbie.

Photobucket Pictures, Images and Photos

Geoff Kait
Machina Dramatica

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Hi Toledo, Costin and gang

First off, Costin your naming some incredible music :), I'll pick up Colma, thanks. I also love Kruder&Dorfmeister and I don't know where I've been but just got turned on to Yello. How can anybody not have yello lol. Freaked me out when I heard some.

I do occasionally listen back to back sessions but when I do a need to tune the systems to a flatter stage maybe 4-8 feet deep because if I set the stage to go full blown the recording never gets a chance to settle in. I'm as I have said extreme nearfield and even though mid and far field can do the depth extreme nearfield does (sometimes) it's a lot faster with extreme nearfield. I'm a stage madman and like super big stages. Me talking about it doesn't paint the picture. These stages get huge like 360, way out there, all around you huge and a system any system won't give you that unless it settles. So this means for me and my desire to hear it so big, I let the recording settle in and when I can in the next room hear that it's busting loose I then go in and listen. But that's me and my style. I can set things to be a lot closer to you guys and do for people but when it's me I personally like to hear a stage that grows the same amount front to back as it is side to side. The other advantage to me is hall music. When I listen to hall music and set it for full blown huge my stage will go as high as the ceiling of the recording. So like when someone is listening to a piece of classical they get a 8-10 foot ceiling, I get 25-30 feet tall and way behind me. So some might like to listen to back to back more but for me I like to listen to a recording all stretched out and then go in and listen. Gives me much more of the concert feel or transported into the studio. I think I like this type of listening better cause I grew up an audio engineer/performer, and was more familar with studio and hall listening than home listening, so when I started home listening I felt the stages were way too small. To me home audio systems sound more like pancakes and once in a while something will come out a little but not really 360 3D type of thing. This is why I became a designer. I did it for me first in my stores then it started to catch on once a couple of reviewers heard of it, and the rest is history. So I'm not against smaller stages but I can go smaller all the way up to full size if someone wants. The hard part is this, most audiophiles think they are listening to the full size and it makes them a little nervious when they hear about this guy who can make these. Kinda funny, but that's life.

Toledo, the selling england explosion happen here, huge buddy! The 3 block thing was perfect, man I can't believe how big it is in the there right now. I got it going way behind me so some of the parts will start in the front and go past me and a few of them are starting behind me and come forward. Like on the first track right before the side to side big keyboards and then it goes into the dreamy state there are those 3 falling star like sounds. Well now their starting from out of the back of the room over my left sholder about 10 feet high and fly over the back to the right front of the stage. nice! big big big :)

michael green
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1. Arturo Sandoval - "Trumpet Evolution"
2. Charlie Haden Quartet West - "Sophisticated Ladies"
3. Clark Terry - "Out on a Limb" + "Duke with a Difference"
4. Gerry Mulligan/Johnny Hodges - "Gerry Mulligan Meets Johnny Hodges"
5. Herbie Hancock - "River: The Joni Letters"
6. Jeremy Monteiro/Eldee Young/Isaac "Redd" Holt - "Blues for the Saxophone Club"
7. Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington - "The Great Summit: The Master Takes"
8. Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio - "Misty"

Not necessarily in the above order, of course!

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Dang Costin, I can't keep up with ya.

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Michael,
You dawg and that soundstage. I am not even close to that .... yet ;)

The shooting star starts out in middle of room for me.

I never tire of this recording.

What about the second track? The hauntingly deep synth starts out deep in the soundstage, moves forward and then floats left and right. Then as track progresses, there are floating peek a boos of the same synth that culminates at the end with the synth fade out. Crank it up.

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iosiP wrote:

1. Arturo Sandoval - "Trumpet Evolution"
2. Charlie Haden Quartet West - "Sophisticated Ladies"
3. Clark Terry - "Out on a Limb" + "Duke with a Difference"
4. Gerry Mulligan/Johnny Hodges - "Gerry Mulligan Meets Johnny Hodges"
5. Herbie Hancock - "River: The Joni Letters"
6. Jeremy Monteiro/Eldee Young/Isaac "Redd" Holt - "Blues for the Saxophone Club"
7. Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington - "The Great Summit: The Master Takes"
8. Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio - "Misty"

Not necessarily in the above order, of course!

iosiP, you are undoubtedly a man of taste, but don't you sometimes listen to more accessible, popular music? Let's take Huey Lewis and the News. Their early work was a little too new wave for my tastes, but when Sports came out in '83, I think they really came into their own, commercially and artistically. The whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost. He's been compared to Elvis Costello, but I think Huey has a far more bitter, cynical sense of humor. In '87, Huey released this, Fore, their most accomplished album. I think their undisputed masterpiece is "Hip to be Square", a song so catchy, most people probably don't listen to the lyrics. But they should, because it's not just about the pleasures of conformity, and the importance of trends, it's also a personal statement about the band itself.

Cheers,
Geoff Kait, Machina Dramatica

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Hi Toledo

The synth movement is so big that when it goes from side to side it is running me over. I'm right in the middle of this thing but the frontal goodies are popping within the huge mass, a pretty cool perspective. And the little hidden treats are moving front to back along with side to side, kinda like being in a music fog or dream maybe is better and the objects are coming in and out. As you mentioned I think these guys (if they heard this and would think they have certainly) were in an extremely experimental mood. What puts this in context for those who may think I'm overly expanding the stage is when somethin like "more fool me" comes on and is this simple perfectly spaced song with everyhting in great proportion. Then the battle starts and I'm thrown in this big music dramatization again. "your telling me" and "Shoot" actually took me off guard a little (and what I've heard this 2 million times). I was expecting them but not quite where they were and this life like. Then when "pinic" comes you can hear the sarcasm, and kinda like a leaning into the mic, like "picnic" then back away, then "picnic", pretty cool.

I did not get any sanding done today need to get my butt out there lol.

michael green
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But as I said, today is "Great Jazz" day (the wife is out for the day, meeting her high school ex-colleagues, so I'm alone with the cat and the single malt).
I kinda remember Huey Lewis and the News, but didn't give them a listen in many, many years The problem is I'm always behind with my music purchases, like now I have more than 30 CDs on my "to buy" list, including a few Allan Taylor, Joe Barbieri, Paul Desmond, Sonny Rollins and Scott Hamilton.
But to answer your question: yes, I sometimes relax with a mix of Dschinghis Khan, ABBA, BoneyM and even Gary Glitter (!), not to mention Supertramp or Prince & The Whatever Band He Used (LOL). Not to forget Neil Diamond and Smokie (who the f*ck is Alice?).
So no, I'm not the kind of broomstick-up-the-ass audiophile, and I enjoy Guns'n'Roses or ol'lady Elton John as much as the next guy.

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Doesn't really matter what type of music you listen to or how accessible it is as long as it's music you enjoy.

That will be the day I purchase music only because it's popular.

Don't let geoff bother you iosiP
, he's a bit of a joke around here.

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tmsorosk wrote:

Doesn't really matter what type of music you listen to, or how accessible it is as long as it's music you enjoy.

That will be the day I purchase music only because it's popular.

Don't let geoof bother you, he's a bit of a joke around here.

In this corner the lightweight older retired and in the way dude.

Geoff Kait
Machina Dynamica

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geoffkait wrote:
tmsorosk wrote:

Doesn't really matter what type of music you listen to, or how accessible it is as long as it's music you enjoy.

That will be the day I purchase music only because it's popular.

Don't let geoof bother you, he's a bit of a joke around here.

In this corner the lightweight older retired and in the way dude.

Geoff Kait
Machina Dynamica

And in this corner the middle weight older semi retired likable dude.

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tmsorosk wrote:
geoffkait wrote:
tmsorosk wrote:

Doesn't really matter what type of music you listen to, or how accessible it is as long as it's music you enjoy.

That will be the day I purchase music only because it's popular.

Don't let geoof bother you, he's a bit of a joke around here.

In this corner the lightweight older retired and in the way dude.

Geoff Kait
Machina Dynamica

And in this corner the middle weight older semi retired likable dude.

Thanks. You can go to your corner now.

Geoff Kait
Machina Dynamica

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Well it's off to the music store for me. Got my voicing done for the day, and now it's play time. I'm pretty spoiled. My house is a wood voicing paradise, so I can get any sound I want, and my music store is 7 blocks from my place. Then when it comes CES time I'm 3 miles from the convention center :)

Hopefully I'll be breaking in a new soundstage tonight.

michael green
MGA/RoomTune

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tmsorosk wrote:

Don't let geoff bother you iosiF, he's a bit of a joke around here.

It takes a lot more to bother me, and my list of "bothersome" people is filled to the brim with left-wing politicians, so geoff is buried far at the bottom (along with May Belt, Michael Fremer and far below the garbage truck driver that insists in waking me up twice a week by revving the engine)!

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iosiP wrote:
tmsorosk wrote:

Don't let geoff bother you iosiF, he's a bit of a joke around here.

It takes a lot more to bother me, and my list of "bothersome" people is filled to the brim with left-wing politicians, so geoff is buried far at the bottom (along with May Belt, Michael Fremer and far below the garbage truck driver that insists in waking me up twice a week by revving the engine)!

Glad to hear it and thats a great way to put it, lol.
It seems like every site has someone that gets there jollies by annoying folks, guess they don't have anything meaningful to do with there time.

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tmsorosk wrote:

It seems like every site has someone that gets there jollies by annoying folks, guess they don't have anything meaningful to do with there time.

It's probably nerve-wrecking to drill tiny holes in atoms to remove the nucleus, so he deserves some relaxation! LOL

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Today while voicing some wood flavors I put on "year of the cat". Sounds beautiful. Tons of layering and again a very good front to back. I did make a little tweak (adjusting the tuning blocks) and reset my amps transformer and that was all it took took make the magic.

For those of you who tune. If you reset your transformer when needed it can add a great deal of stability to the soundstage. Another reason I don't like locked down transformers. Transformers build electromagnetic charges and if these charges are not released once in a while it can cause your soundstage to collapse. For those who will come up and give the technical spin on this topic, before you start in I recommend you set up a listening test of 3 things. One the transformer shielded, two the transformer not shielded but tightened down, and lastly the transformer unbolted and tuned. The shielded setup makes the stage shrink and sound sterile, but focused until you see that there are things in the stage missing and some clustering. Bolted down makes the stage smaller and if the transformer is left on for any length of time you will hear the stage start to become inflexible. But set free a transformer will give a lot more dynamic range and can be very tunable. And the electromagnetic discharge can be done at will. It's really more of an alignment of the surrounding energy.

michael green
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You might want to put a disclaimer in your sigline and a warning that these sorts of things are messing around with potentially lethal voltages. If not for your sake, Stereophile should require it. You guys are hanging your asses out wide open for one hell of a liability should someone poke around in an amp and get hurt.

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All electronic components have a disclaimer attached to them. Anyone who does electrical tweaks period should be aware of electronic shock and comply with their component manuals and warnings.

You see people up here and all over the industry inside of components, so if I do it so should all who come here.

I give tests and show people how to tune. How they conduct their safty is up to them.

I do appreciate your concern though and am glad your bringing up the safty end of the hobby. All wiring that I do personally meets the same approved standards as any repair shop.

Have you brought this up with the other people suggesting tweaks? Just curious why me? I haven't seen you talk to Geoff or any of the others here about this, or do you bring this up with the other designers who may come up? I'm not trying to be on you about this just that if we were calling out the safty issues tweaks would need to be shutdown all together even on a private user threads. Changing feet on a component, changing tubes, dampening circuit boards and many others could be called out, and should be, so maybe you can see why I would be curious about you pointing to me specifically?

michael green
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But, I don't recall any particular threads involving working under the hood of amps that didn't include the usual caveat about safety first. I don't think you realize how casual you've become about popping open gear and sticking your tools into them.

It really didn't dawn on me to even bring this up until today. As for the whole responsibility for safety resting with the tweaker, that's not going to fly if it ever becomes an issue. If McDonalds can be held liable for selling hot coffee...

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I read through some of the post and figured I would add my take on it. I think it would be interesting to see more post on music, but even most of the post above it seems to be along the lines of still talking about a stereo system or how large the soundstage is. It all really seems to relate to setup or tweaking and very little on the music.

For instance i very rarely hear people discuss how they like how the vocals were recorded, or that the level of reverb in the song gave it that edge that made it great or a settle effect added by a plugin or effect module gave it an interesting quality. For instance take the soundtrack from the "Great Gatsby" film. Not going to come out and say all the music is great on it, but it is fun to see how the studio used plugins to give and old school feel to many of the songs. i'd imagine many of the songs were routed through some sort of analog or tape plugin to give it that distorted sound that really makes it feel like the music came from a different era.

Even getting more basic than the above, you rarely see anyone mentioned how an artist actually played on a recording or what a great performance it was.

Just wanted to basically add a different side that even a lot of post related to playing music are not really about the music. TBH i think it would be a nice section to have as it would be a good place to discover new music.

With that said, i also value the more technical side of the post as I feel the only way to truly progress in this hobby is to understand why things are becoming better or worse and I feel these forms are a decent place for that.

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I think your right on the money. We need to get into the listening part of this much more. But along with this comes and interesting door for me, for example today I was tuning "year of the cat". The changes I went through would be equivalent to the average audiophile having 10 different systems in his room. For this reason I have a tendency to do more of my music descriptive writing on TuneLand where people are actively doing these types of things to shape the sound everyday.

here's what I did this morning

I first started off with my setting being very up front and extremely analytical, hearing all the percussion exacting, of course with the big stage. Al's voice was present and crisp and the instruments were very much to the point. As I listened I thought it would be nice to smooth things out a little more and bring in the bass more. So I made my first change, and things went very warm indeed with his voice going from nose to chest. The cymbals then rang with more mid to them and spread out to the same areas of the room but with more fullness. As I listened I could feel that I wanted more front to back hall, so another change was made. After this change which was also nice I noticed that I needed to turn up the volume 2 clicks, this told me something was being absorbed, so after a few more slow changes I ended up with Al's recording sounding perfect to me. Cymbals have beautiful shimmer, his voice "personal" and in his chest throat and nose and instruments working with each other to surround him. Drums sound far more full of body and the wood block lower in pitch. Guitar leads are in a very good place as far as tonal balance. The percussive response is very full and emediate.

After a couple of hours I'm looking forward to going in and taking in the whole picture. This is the type of setup I like for Al Stewart cause it really shows off his story telling with things swelling as if you were on a boat ride adventure with him narrating through the songs, then all of a sudden you hear "for eternity" and then later "for infinity".

Every recording has it's own magic and for me it's very important to set the system to that recording to be able to feel the mood and meaning of the artist. Systems don't do this automatically just as guitars don't play themselves. This is why you guys see me coming up here with this talk on variable tuning. It's something that I do and have done all along but see that others are not in the high end audio mainstream, and I know from doing this they are only hearing the recordings from one point of view every time.

It's like for me I'm going to listen to Al Stewart much differently than Yello, and Yello much differently than Rachmaninoff. I'm not going to change out systems every time I listen, and I'm not going to call one recording better than the other. What I'm going to do is tune to the recording and enjoy the concert not through the eyes of the system but through the eyes of the artist and what I picture them as.

So I do think we need more of the referencing and the sharing of the music we are listening to. This is how we learn. It's not about who has the best system or spent to most, but more what does this music do and how do we uncover it's treasures.

michael green
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Hi Guys, just thought I would reference this for you, kinda cool. On "Midas Shadow" (year of the cat) when they do the panning this comes way out into the room and swishes side to side, very headphone-ish. The extreme ends to each side comes out to slightly behind me and 10 feet on either side of my head. A very cool effect.

michael green
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Come on guys, I just got done listening to "born to run" on a huge open beautiful soundstage. Why wouldn't you want a system that can play this? Get it out and throw it on your stereo today and tell me how it sounds. Come on, you guys love The Boss. Are you telling me you would not like to hear this as clear and powerful as your classical or jazz, with just as much detail? This is a recording I have had audiophiles complain about, that is until they hear it tuned. I have a feeling there's a lot of guys who do the jazz and classical thing but use to love rock till they got systems that couldn't play it "my system is too revealing". No, your system is inflexible. Stuck!

just being a rock snob :)

hope you guys have fun listening today

michael green
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From Patricia Barber - Cafe' Blue
MFSL UDSACD 2002

Ripped to my PC NAS

foobar2000 1.1.14a / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2012-08-29 22:05:42

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analyzed: Patricia Barber / Café Blue
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR14 -5.93 dB -23.59 dB 5:24 01-What A Shame
DR15 -5.33 dB -25.19 dB 7:00 02-Mourning Grace
DR13 -7.80 dB -25.41 dB 4:40 03-The Thrill Is Gone
DR14 -6.66 dB -26.72 dB 4:27 04-Romanesque
DR17 -5.25 dB -25.18 dB 5:07 05-Yellow Car III
DR14 -8.21 dB -25.88 dB 0:57 06-Wood Is A Pleasant Thing To Think About
DR14 -8.35 dB -25.10 dB 5:07 07-Inch Worm
DR18 -5.41 dB -27.96 dB 5:21 08-Ode To Billy Joe
DR12 -5.35 dB -23.03 dB 7:59 09-Too Rich For My Blood
DR16 -5.23 dB -26.63 dB 4:30 10-A Taste Of Honey
DR17 -3.63 dB -26.06 dB 9:04 11-Nardis
DR20 -4.98 dB -28.52 dB 3:30 12-Manha De Carnaval
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of tracks: 12
Official DR value: DR15

Samplerate: 88200 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 24
Bitrate: 2458 kbps
Codec: FLAC

The finger snap.....

It is pushed through a reverb unit, probably one of Brian Zolener's.
It starts three feet off center.
The reverb grabs it, it travels back 15 feet, then fills the room as the echo bounces of the right hand wall next to my couch on that wall.
Each finger snap is unique, just as each snap made by a human is unique.
Each one with slight variations in timing, attack, dynamics & timbre.
It not not a tape-loop.
The amp for bass guitar is center-stage, 5 feet behind my speakers.
I can hear the finger as it touches the vibrating sting, making a raspy zing sound, then muting it for just a split second, before it is riveted to the board on the neck of the instrument.

tmsorosk
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audiophile2000 wrote:

I read through some of the post and figured I would add my take on it. I think it would be interesting to see more post on music, but even most of the post above it seems to be along the lines of still talking about a stereo system or how large the soundstage is. It all really seems to relate to setup or tweaking and very little on the music.

For instance i very rarely hear people discuss how they like how the vocals were recorded, or that the level of reverb in the song gave it that edge that made it great or a settle effect added by a plugin or effect module gave it an interesting quality. For instance take the soundtrack from the "Great Gatsby" film. Not going to come out and say all the music is great on it, but it is fun to see how the studio used plugins to give and old school feel to many of the songs. i'd imagine many of the songs were routed through some sort of analog or tape plugin to give it that distorted sound that really makes it feel like the music came from a different era.

Even getting more basic than the above, you rarely see anyone mentioned how an artist actually played on a recording or what a great performance it was.

Just wanted to basically add a different side that even a lot of post related to playing music are not really about the music. TBH i think it would be a nice section to have as it would be a good place to discover new music.

With that said, i also value the more technical side of the post as I feel the only way to truly progress in this hobby is to understand why things are becoming better or worse and I feel these forms are a decent place for that.

Good point.

Far too much being said about the sound and too little about the artists and there intension.

wkhanna
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...between listening & analyzing

Agreed.

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Boy do I have stories. Out of the audiophile companies one of my favorites was MFSL. There's a picture of me some where drilling through the wall in the big room. I was on the ladder drilling holes to mount an early version of wall tuners for one of the rooms, and as I drilled the screw driver kept pulling me back into the wall. I would try to pull the big bit out of the wall and it wouldn't come. I'd turn on the drill and it would spin some more, I'd make it spill one way then in reverse and nothing. I stood up there for a while (I think Shawn was with me) and finally the drill and bit and a huge gobb of melted twisted wire came out of the wall, think it was the compuer or phone wire. "I was teased" oops.

don't give me a drill lol

michael green
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Listening to some beautiful guitar work today form J. David Lindsay using Laskin guitars http://williamlaskin.com/ .

michael green
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Thanks for the link, Michael....
My late dear friend (surrogate father and mentor to all things musical & philosophical) was among other things a luthier. I have great appreciation for the artists who create such instruments.

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Listening to a bunch of stuff all over the map this week, playing Ellis Marsalis at the moment getting me pumped for another visit to the music store tonight. http://tuneland.techno-zone.net/t4p420-michael-s-system#4396 . Gotta love having a store that is open till 12am. The cool people hang out of all ages. Last time saw some young pups checkin out the old vinyl. Now how cool is that! About a month ago I saw a MoFi vinyl of Frampton Comes Alive with me on the back cover. I was kinda going out of my EGOed way to point this out to the store workers. Maybe they think I'm hip lol. How can someone be hip in Vegas though when every week you run into to someone "really" hip in the super market. It was worth a try though right.

Have fun listening!

michael green
MGA/RoomTune

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Gotta love just having a store that sells physical media. None left in my locale.

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Oh man, now that is a drag! I got two great stores within 2 miles, and for vinyl guys there's a shop who has a 3 story converted house packed. There are 7 stores within ten miles that I visit. I don't know if CES people still go record shopping every year but it use to be a stampede here.

just threw on some Stan Getz

michael green
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Dude, you are Michael McDonald! Grizzly Aadams is envious!

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Just had a wonderful time tuning in Amused to Death. I set things up several different ways depending on what I wanted to hear. A TOTAL BLAST! I had as many as 5 Floorstanders in the room to shape things, and this is a small room. That was fun!

Hope everyone is having a great 4th in the US! be safe if your driving

michael green
MGA/RoomTune

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