critical listening session

Posted by: woody on 16 October 2003

My friends and I have just spent a very enjoyable hifi appreciation evening listening to various CDs on my sistem (NAIT5,CD5,FC2 powering NAIT and CD5), B&W CDM1NTs on Soundstyle stands.
Background info: One of my friends owns a Butler Audio 5 channel AV valve jobbie, MF Nu-Vista CDP, top-of-the-range Yamaha AV receiver as preamp and some floor-standing KEF speakers (dunno what). The other friend owns MF pre-power, MF X-Ray CDP and B&W floor standers from 600 range. It must be said this is the 1st time we've done this so haven't listened to their stuff yet and I'm the guinea pig!

Overall reaction to my sistem was very positive and stuff I knew already - great detail, transients, seperation, imaging but one question they had which I have to agree with: how come it can do real solid, decent bass on some disks (e.g. Diana Krall "Love Songs" and almost all disks with analogue instruments/double bass) and fall over a bit on some disks with whereby they (my mates) reckoned an octave was missing...is this my speakers, although it's weird if it is as mentioned some disks (e.g. Krall) sounded great? Oh yeah, and the XTC CD (dunno title) one of my friends brought over sounded truly dire - very "shouty" and generally top heavy and real nasty.
Any ideas/thoughts welcome.

[This message was edited by woody on THURSDAY 16 October 2003 at 23:53.]

Posted on: 03 November 2003 by Steve Toy

I do have feelings of guilt about the loudness, but when I go to the garage for a cigarette (don't like the smell of smoke in the house) I can't hear anything from upstairs, so I presume that the neighbours can't either. The house is detached and well insulated. I did accidentally leave a window open at 4 am once though

Regards,

Steve.

Posted on: 03 November 2003 by woody

Another smoker? Sometimes it feels like we're the only 2 left?

-- woody

Posted on: 03 November 2003 by Steve Toy

Markus,

That last line was in answer to Ludwig's question. I didn't feel the need to be rude to him and leave his question unanswered. Note the brevity of that sentence.

Regards,

Steve.

Posted on: 03 November 2003 by Markus S

quote:
Originally posted by woody:
Another smoker? Sometimes it feels like we're the only 2 left?

Hah! Would it were so!

Posted on: 03 November 2003 by Steve Toy

Marcus,

I did notice plenty of provision in public places for smokers in Germany. Very democratic

Regards,

Steve.

Posted on: 03 November 2003 by woody

oh my god - WHAT HAVE I DONE?

-- woody

Posted on: 03 November 2003 by herm

quote:
Originally posted by woody:
oh my god - WHAT HAVE I DONE?

Nothing. Why should you feel responisble for this dinosaur drivel? In fact you had asked, on the previous page, to stop the relationship discussion.

Herman

Posted on: 03 November 2003 by P

Well said Nick

I gave up years ago

P

Posted on: 03 November 2003 by Steve Toy

If it wan't for herm this thread would have been abandoned by me ages ago.

Stallers would be proud.

Are you men or mice?

Regards,

Steve.

Posted on: 03 November 2003 by sideshowbob

I think Sinitta put it better than I can.

-- Ian

Posted on: 03 November 2003 by Steve Toy

And now who really thinks that my own partner is a repressed being?

The strong-minded females don't play silly games or start power struggles that will kill the music.

Reason, fairness and due compromise will always prevail - unless the bloke is a wimp, and/or the woman is just a complete bitch.

Regards,

Steve.

Posted on: 04 November 2003 by Mick P

Steven is intelligent and his opinions are mostly well founded and correct.

Unfortunately he is inarticulate and generally presents himself and his case badly.

This results in him just being plain annoying and at best one wishes pestulance upon him and at worse gives many people the urge to kill him.

Basically he has a good brain but lacks the social skills and the ability to successfully integrate into any form of community.

One should therefore try to bypass the personna and concentrate on the issues being reviewed.

Regards

Mick

Posted on: 04 November 2003 by Steve Toy

quote:
One should therefore try to bypass the personna and concentrate on the issues being reviewed.

Now that would be a good idea.

If I purposely wind folks up it is to see who is focused on the issues being reviewed and who isn't.

Regards,

Steve.

Posted on: 04 November 2003 by Steve Toy

Marco tells it as he sees/hears it and to hell with the consequences.

I don't have a problem with that as long as it doesn't get personal.

Regards,

Steve.

Posted on: 04 November 2003 by Markus S

Steven,

your last two posts contain such a glaring contradiction that you should have picked up on it even though I sometimes think the frequency of your posts shows an inverse relationship to the amount of thinking that can have been invested into any one of them.

Posted on: 04 November 2003 by Steve Toy

"the fact that Steven has gone on like a big girl about relationships doesn't mean the kind of people he refers to don't exist."

My suspicions are that such people not only exist but have posted on this thread.

I'll give you a clue: those who've goaded me and turned the topic of discussion away from the one of relationships and hi-fi to one of me and my perceived social ineptitude (as some kind of deflection from the above issue) are a good place to start.

Regards,

Steve.

Posted on: 04 November 2003 by Thomas K

quote:
If I purposely wind folks up it is to see who is focused on the issues being reviewed and who isn't.

Goodness me. I much prefer the posts in which you stick to what you do best:

quote:
The preamp in isolation could be a 282 or a 252, in which case, is the box under the CDX a Supercap or an XPS? I guess it could be a 250 or 180 because there is a Hi-cap - which would be redundant if that big Olive box were a Supercap, or is that Olive half-width a 140?

Thomas

Posted on: 04 November 2003 by Steve Toy

"Looking through the forum over the years you might notice that the contributors to this thread rarely mention their wives."

Relationships and hi-fi was the topic of this thread, and had become so before I joined it.

Do a quick search on, for example, "SWMBO" and mentioning wives or partners then isn't as rare as you think.

Regards,

Steve.

Posted on: 04 November 2003 by garyi

Steven, my fiance is currently on top of me, but I wonder if I am better off on top of her.

As the forums self appointed rack placement master and all things relationship wise, could you offer any advice?

cheers.

Posted on: 04 November 2003 by Steve Toy

Gary,

Whatever floats your boat.

Regards,

Steve.

Posted on: 04 November 2003 by Steve Toy

quote:
is mentioned

Appropriate use of the passive voice here because it's not always mentioned by me.

If we let this thread die it'll be mentioned less.

Regards,

Steve.

Posted on: 04 November 2003 by NB

NB thinks we should have less wife bashing here and more music!!!

Posted on: 04 November 2003 by NB

Ps

NB's partner thinks that hi-fi makes a great light stand!!

What is it with partners, why do they have to insist that something is placed on top of our beloved hi-fi's is it some kind of control thing?

Regards

NB

Posted on: 04 November 2003 by woody

quote:
Originally posted by NB:
NB thinks we should have less wife bashing here and more music!!!

Well said!

-- woody

Posted on: 04 November 2003 by NB

Well it is almost the silly season again!