What is the standardised CD to evaluate your Naim?

quote:

Having a HiFi and not having a passion for music is one of the biggest OXYMORONS that exist.

Dear Dean,

Please do not get me wrong. I agree that for you and me and other music lovers, that if we did not have a love for music then we would not own any replay equipment.

But many people don't love music or have any enthusiasm for it and yet still own own top replay sets.

It is exactly as you suggest, like owning a great painting, and then putting [as so frequently is the case] in a vault, or having a collection of great vintage motorbikes and keeping them perfectly dusted, and maintained, but largely unused in a garage, perhaps.

It happens all the time, and there is great evidence of this - even with Naim Audio - in the Hifi Corner of this Forum, where people post at length about audio components, upgrading ceaselessly, and so on, whilst in so very many cases never even mentioning - even in most tangential way - the effect that the upgrade has on the way their enjoyment of music improves.

The most common comment is that this is a better component than that, and not that the music is more involving from this arrangement than that! It is in so very many cases demonstrably about the components and not about the music ...

So whilst I agree that for music lovers this attitude may seem a little odd, it is, I would suggest, more widespread than the one of loving music so getting good replay.

Look at the proportion of posts in the Music Room and Hifi Corner, and then study the quality of posts in the Hifi Corner for the characteristics pointed out in the above two paragraphs, and tell me the evidence is not there.

On the other hand, I don't think that a love of great and well engineered replay electronics is harmful. It is not, and there are many worse things, even if, to the music lover this does appear somewhat of an odd prioritiy!

Happy Easter, dear Dean. ATB from George

quote:

Originally posted by GFFJ:

Don't you think it is just as likely that there are Hifi enthusiasts who don't care much for music beyond it allowing their system sounds to make a splendid sound, just like there are motor enthusiasts who have next to no wish to drive their collection of valuable cars in the way that the original designers expected.

when i practice music, my attention is focused on the music. but when i go to audition new trumpets, my attention is focused on the trumpet. is it bright or dark, or, best of all, can i change the tonal cast of the instrument at will?

i think for most of us it is the same with hifi. on a day to day basis you listen to the music. but when selecting new equipment, you focus your attention on how the equipment sounds.

same difference in each case.

and who are we kidding? all hifi equipment has a sound separate and distinct from what is played on the equipment. if you ever hear equipment this is untrue for, let me know right away :-)

and make no mistake, the hifi is an instrument. and like all instruments, it has a sound separate and distinct from the music played upon it.

quote:

Originally posted by munch:
Mike,
I had ago on a friends 1930 brass Trumpet a while back,Even with my mouth piece it was bloody hard work.
Small tubes.
It did have a nice sound though.
Stu

was it a besson? what mouthpiece?

quote:

Originally posted by munch:
I cant tell you the make until i ring him to ask.
The mouthpiece i have had since i was 12,I dont know the make of it but i have used it alot over the years.
Save it more for special things these days though.
Stu

this is the first i know of you being a trumpet player. i've known you were a drummer for some time.

very nice :-)

i have an 50s-60s RCA Red Seal on a JVC CD of Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony playing Prokofiev's Lt. Kije and Stravinsky's Song of the Nightingale.

the trumpet solos in both pieces, but especially the Stravinsky, may be the most beautiful, perfect flawless things I have ever heard played on the trumpet. certainly few other performances come to mind.

the trumpet player is Adolph Herseth, who joined the orchestra at 21 and played into his 80s.

you have any favorites?

quote:

Mat,

I know what you mean I feel that with some hifi I've listened to its as if they've missed the point and also from reading other fora and it baffles me that people can have a HiFi and not being passionate about music but be passionate about HiFi for HiFi sake strange concept to me really.

Dean..

Couldn't agree more, but I would not wish to criticize those who do get a kick out of hi-fi for hi-fi's sake, like you I just don't relate to it.

quote:

and as many who do own very expensive replay sets and post here do in fact give very little evidence, or impression that they go to many, or even any, live concerts,

I am guilty of not going to enough live concerts, a great hi-fi can make you lazy in this regard. I used to go to loads of jazz gigs about 10 years ago and was also a member of Ronnie Scott's, but still when I do get to hear a truly great performance there is nothing like it.

regards,

mat

I've been through a couple of periods this year when I've had to wait for new equipment to warm up/wear in (waiting on the amps to come back from Salisbury at the moment - again! - Trying to chase down the fault) during which I tend to use the following CD's to observe the boxes going through their changes. Not strictly "just enjoying the music" I know, but an interesting process.

Ricky Lee Jones - first album.
Billy Cobham "Art of Three" and "Spectrum".
Earl Klugh "Finger Paintings"
Joe Walsh "Theme from Boat Weirdos"
Yello "One Second"
Miles Davis "Kind of Blue"
Bjork "Bjork"
The Floyd "DSotM"
John McLaughlin Trio "Live at the Royal Festival Hall"