Dev visits...his neighbour!
Posted by: Dev B on 02 January 2003
Imagine my shock and delight to discover that my neighbour is not only a music enthusiast, but a hifi nutter too - thankfully he does not wear an anorak. And this only came to light when I opened our front door on Monday, saw him and wished him a happy x-mas, new year and all that. He asked me what I had been playing earlier and I told him rather excitedly about the Fabric Live CD No 7 – John Peel, and how there is a real danger that I won’t listen to another record again for a long time. We then talked about playing music loud and how I have abandoned such pursuits for the joys of parenthood. He then told me a similar story and how he now listens to music at more moderate levels. I assumed the unmentioned system was one of Denmarks finest and I was about to utter the words “B&O” when he said “Well Tempered”. I first thought Bach, but then I fought back with a “Naim”. His eyes lit up and then we spent the next five minutes outside in a frenzied battle of hifi words – “Linn”, “Naim,” “Shahinian”, “Dynavector”, “Records”, “Look at my Galaxie 17”. Passers by looked at us weirdly, but we didn’t care, we were in our own world, the new audio saviours of West London.
It was with a bit of excitement that I took John Peel (the CD not the man) next door to listen to this genius compliation again. Well Tempered Classic turntable (replaced a LP12/Ekos/Lingo four years ago), Dynavector XX 1-L cartridge, Linn Kairn Pre-amp, Linn LK280/Spark Power Amp, some blue Kimber cable and Shahinan Arcs (which has just replaced a pair of Linn Kabers). Also a Rotel 965BX CD player and an old Pink Triangle DaCapo DAC were in attendance. All housed in a rather suspicious looking wooden rack , no glass or iron anywhere!
Same size room as mine (18ft length x 14ft wide x 11ft tall) sitting about 11ft away and the speakers 2ft from the wall. We chatted and then I cued up The Datsuns, and I listened. This system is very different to mine and I missed the speed, drive, energy and propulsion of my set up. I felt that the sound of the CD was very smooth but not very well integrated top to bottom. There was an exaggerated sense of height and depth to the music. The presence of the music was slightly odd, this was not a performance projected at you but rather it was in the air slightly behind the speakers. The timing and the relationship between the notes was a disjointed too. This was more hifi that music. I felt that the guitars and bassline on Derek Baileys masterpiece ‘Guitar, Drum and Bass’ to be playing separately and not together. With every single musical variable that I value changed so much in this system I found it difficult to acclimatise to.
Thankfully, John (not Peel but John the bloke next door) then cued up a record. Ahhhhh, phew, much better, mucho relief, here we have some semblance of normality. Timing, speed and propulsion now came back into focus and the distorted “widescreen” version of events had now been restored to 4:3. And the performance came at me and wanted to be listened to. After a while, we went back to the CD and found that it was a little better also, was this me just adjusting to this systems presentation or what? I don’t know, but I felt over a couple of hours listening I was able to pick the aspects of this setup that I liked, and those that I found musically distracting.
On balance this system was not to my taste, it played John’s classical and especially the Keith Jarretts Bach harpsichord really well (and I would like to publicly add that I have a vinyl ECM copy of the Goldberg variations before Matthew Robinson calls me a dance music philistine), and some vocal pieces were really nice. But it did not play other things naturally, in perspective or in time. There was a distinct lack of propulsion, drive and dramatic tension to the music. Sorry but there wasn’t, but it was also clear that I just do not like this type of music making, so this is as much of a critique about how I listen as opposed to what I was listening to.
John is coming over to mine for the return match, maybe he will need to reacclimatize to my tastes first. I don’t know, but he seemed to understand my what I was saying, but his system is clearly tuned to his love of baroque classical and girly vocals. But he did like the John Peel CD so there is hope.
John hasn’t lurked or posted here so I have and told him about this site. I’ll tell him about the Mana one later
He’s a really fabulous open minded guy and am sure he’ll have much to say when he is ready.
Happy new year everyone,
Dev
It was with a bit of excitement that I took John Peel (the CD not the man) next door to listen to this genius compliation again. Well Tempered Classic turntable (replaced a LP12/Ekos/Lingo four years ago), Dynavector XX 1-L cartridge, Linn Kairn Pre-amp, Linn LK280/Spark Power Amp, some blue Kimber cable and Shahinan Arcs (which has just replaced a pair of Linn Kabers). Also a Rotel 965BX CD player and an old Pink Triangle DaCapo DAC were in attendance. All housed in a rather suspicious looking wooden rack , no glass or iron anywhere!
Same size room as mine (18ft length x 14ft wide x 11ft tall) sitting about 11ft away and the speakers 2ft from the wall. We chatted and then I cued up The Datsuns, and I listened. This system is very different to mine and I missed the speed, drive, energy and propulsion of my set up. I felt that the sound of the CD was very smooth but not very well integrated top to bottom. There was an exaggerated sense of height and depth to the music. The presence of the music was slightly odd, this was not a performance projected at you but rather it was in the air slightly behind the speakers. The timing and the relationship between the notes was a disjointed too. This was more hifi that music. I felt that the guitars and bassline on Derek Baileys masterpiece ‘Guitar, Drum and Bass’ to be playing separately and not together. With every single musical variable that I value changed so much in this system I found it difficult to acclimatise to.
Thankfully, John (not Peel but John the bloke next door) then cued up a record. Ahhhhh, phew, much better, mucho relief, here we have some semblance of normality. Timing, speed and propulsion now came back into focus and the distorted “widescreen” version of events had now been restored to 4:3. And the performance came at me and wanted to be listened to. After a while, we went back to the CD and found that it was a little better also, was this me just adjusting to this systems presentation or what? I don’t know, but I felt over a couple of hours listening I was able to pick the aspects of this setup that I liked, and those that I found musically distracting.
On balance this system was not to my taste, it played John’s classical and especially the Keith Jarretts Bach harpsichord really well (and I would like to publicly add that I have a vinyl ECM copy of the Goldberg variations before Matthew Robinson calls me a dance music philistine), and some vocal pieces were really nice. But it did not play other things naturally, in perspective or in time. There was a distinct lack of propulsion, drive and dramatic tension to the music. Sorry but there wasn’t, but it was also clear that I just do not like this type of music making, so this is as much of a critique about how I listen as opposed to what I was listening to.
John is coming over to mine for the return match, maybe he will need to reacclimatize to my tastes first. I don’t know, but he seemed to understand my what I was saying, but his system is clearly tuned to his love of baroque classical and girly vocals. But he did like the John Peel CD so there is hope.
John hasn’t lurked or posted here so I have and told him about this site. I’ll tell him about the Mana one later
He’s a really fabulous open minded guy and am sure he’ll have much to say when he is ready.Happy new year everyone,
Dev