Do you play a musical instrument?

Loki,

I never use the full Naim kit to play along for a number of reasons. If I keep my Ashdown cab in the same room, it soaks up some sound energy in the drivers and erodes SQ. Also, and mainly, as I try to figure out a track, my CDS3 will not allow me to select and repeat a short section of a song. Essential to picking up the notes by ear. I do this on an old Arcam system downstairs on "the Stage". When I crack it, I crank up the guitar amp volume and just use the CD as a backing track. It works for me.  

I take your point about re-playing the track: hopeless with vinyl, unless you've cracked it first time. Not so bad by iPad remote though. I haven't noticed any reduction in SQ with the M80 in the room, but it is 'hidden' from direct interaction with the Keilidhs as it is ticked in behind a record shelving unit and next to the sofa end.

Reduction in SQ is a small issue but previously the room I was using was pretty small and the head was close to the right speaker. Also, with a 500W head unit nearby, I guess some RF interference would be taking place. You're right about transcripting from vinyl. Alas, that was all we had years ago. So CD is better for sure, better still is the internet for a quick cheat of some one else's transcription!

Since I also have a DVD player in the system, I always make sure it has A-B repeat for the purposes of "cracking the code"; I don't even attempt it on my Naim gear.  Currently I have an ARCAM DVD player, but even before I used the cheapo Philips that is now the CD player for my bedroom system.

Unfortunately my limited abilities have more to do with me not figuring things out than any gear limitations!

Unfortunately my limited abilities have more to do with me not figuring things out than any gear limitations!

Ditto! I just like doing my own thing.

Listening to Stephen Bishop Kovacevich playing Schuman's piano concerto in A minor, with the BBC Symphony and Sir Colin Davis (Philips 1971), I was struck by a strange rasping/breathing murmur in the background. The noise ebbs and flows with the music, and is a part of the recording. I suspect that this is the player unconsciously 'singing'/'humming' along with the tune. Is this common practice in your experience? And do you think it adds to or detracts from the performance for audience and/or player(s)?

Loki,

I find it very funny to listen to the rationalizations of many who claim "live" is the truest form for the understanding for the musically illuminated among us (as opposed to or compared to recordings) though most can not tolerate the actual reality of a live performance.  For a piano recital, for example, the pedal or bench squeaking, a shoe tapping the floor, the odd fingernail clack or the grunts or groans or humming or facial expressions or body movements of a performer, or the odd mistake or memory lapse.  

Yes, the marketers of recordings have made sure that recordings are mostly sterile and sanitized of these abhorrent and inappropriate distractions and note perfect but I would rather have the truth.  When it is absent, I get suspicious and wonder why they doctored this?

I also like solo recordings of say a cello where I can hear the performer, their breathing, the movement of fingers on a string - this is intimate, this is real - it is what I would hear if I were playing or listening to someone else at close range so why wouldn't I want this in a recording?

I guess I am very tolerant of this as I myself am probably guilty of some movement / noise that most listeners wouldn't understand.  One can focus on trying to consciously play with a minimum of superfluous movements or noise or one can focus on the musical attributes and get something more special.  It does make a difference in the outcome.

To answer the questions, I believe this is very common and quiet natural.  I do not find it to be a distractions and mostly I wouldn't even know it was obtrusive unless someone pointed it out to me.

One of the perks of a better replay setup (Naim in my case) is that because I hear more of everything (good & bad) it feels more intimate and natural.

One of the perks of a better replay setup (Naim in my case) is that because I hear more of everything (good & bad) it feels more intimate and natural.

Too true! I think that's my point also. I remember listening to Yes on my first stereo deck (Sony PSLX4 DD turntable) and being overjoyed that I could 'actually' hear Steve Howe breathing and his fingers sliding over the fretboard because it was so closely miked on Mood for a day. To me it completely transformed the listening experience. I was no longer listening to some sort of disembodied and disconnected sound, but I felt I was connecting with this incredibly skilled human being not just at a pseudo-vissceral level, but also sharing his own emotional  connection with the music.  With Kovacevich I felt my own overflow of powerful feelings, excited by the music was akin to the spontaneous overflow of emotion experienced by the musician (to misquote Wordsworth).

As I type I am listening to the Pat Metheney Group's live offering from 1993, The Road to You. The strength of connection and fluid interplay between the musicians is almost palpable. Spine-tingling stuff. And all the more so for being finely reproduced.

The connection between live and faithfully reproduced recorded music is fundamental to the Naim experience. The amplifier has 'to drive the loudspeaker with a musical signal such that I could compare the sound with live music and get the same degree of enjoyment'. Thus said Julian Vereker. If you don't have a connection to live music, you have no reference point to make an informed judgement or to understand the raison d'etre of Naim. I rest my case.

I think most folks have been to live performances which have sucked. I'm not sure connection with live is then the full story. My view is that if you know how the instrument(s) sound in the real world, a lot of recording/systems disappoint. Naim sounds musical becasue the instruments sound real.

The last concert I attended was in an open stadium. The sound was dreadful and it was the last experience I would like to have a connection with.

It is the glowing phone screens, rather than the sound quality that puts me off most live music these days.

Having said that, all "major" acts play at our hockey rink here in Vancouver. They could save all the bother of the the artists having to play and sing by just playing Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music" over the p.a. The acoustics are that bad. Stone deaf sound engineers don't help.

 Naim sounds musical becasue the instruments sound real.

I think we're in agreement Bodger: you are making good value judgements about the quality of live perfomances, and so you should if you are going to assess the REALity of the Naim sound. Clearly you have that connection.

Winky: I know what you mean with the glowing phones, not quite a replacement for the flaming lighters of yesteryear. In Manchester and Sheffield we are blessed with some fine venues. But it depends on the dedication of the band to pristine SQ. Muse, Rush, Status Quo and Blackmore's Night tick the boxes. The Halle orchestra's not bad either in the suspended Sondek-like Bridgewater Hall! No phones there...