what's your best audio system experience?

Polarbear posted:

ChrisSU posted:

The Strat (Fender) posted:

I can honestly say I prefer PB's system to NDS/Statement/Focals.

What system is that? Was there Sellotape all over the platter?

Excuse me?????  Sellotape?

 

Sorry, that was a different PB (I presume.) No offence intended 

There's another PB? How can this be?

There is only one PB   

...and then there's the PB that is Peter Belt.  Which I presume is what elicited the "sellotape all over the platter" remark.

k90tour2 posted:

Anto68 posted:

An audio system that you have tested at your friends house or a some audio shop, show or similar, the top of the top,  unsurpassed even by yours system?

Mine was "simple" system

Audio Research separate pre and power amp in pure class A (I don't remember the model)

Marantz CD (I don't remember the model but was the Top of the range)

Wilson Sabrina Speakers .....Love them.. just a dream (sexy speakers too)

I had this wonderful experience last weekend it will be hard to forget

 

That's good to hear.  My new Audio Research is on its way to me.

But up till now, a set up in the dealership that I worked in 25 years ago;

LP12/Ittok/Troika, 32- 250s into active SBLs.  Playing the Mravinsky/Leningrad  recording of Tchaikovsky 4th Symphony. Such energy. Mind you, that recording is pretty special anywhere you hear it.

Update.

Audio Research SP20 and Reference 75 power amp into PMC 20-22 is amazing.  Probably the best system I have ever heard. It's astonishingly life-like in timbre and timing. I'm using a Linn KDS and a Gyrodec/SME IV. 

There have been some "wow" moments, but demoing the addition of a Lingo to my LP12 with 72 / Hicap / 140 I think has to be the greatest moment. It was a real upgrade, that generated a smile that has probably never been bettered by some bigger (financial) steps. This is not meant to denigrate the sonic impact of a six pack driving some 'briks, Eddy Louiss' synthesiser nailed me to the back of my seat and made it feel that two tectonic plates were having a barney. 

I have been to numerous places mainly HiFi Specialist shops and heard various systems (via two speakers) including some interesting Hi - end Naim equipment.  But when I hear music via headphones the resolution/transparency seems to just simply focuses in and I am wondering does it require a super expensive Hi-end HiFi system through two speakers to achieve the same quality sound?  Does any one else find the same results when listening to stereo music via headphones?  I love music and love good quality sound, headphones seem to get the sound straight to the point while it seems a battle to get the right sound via HiFi systems via speakers?  Maybe I am just focusing one aspect of headphone music, I find that reproduction of live music via headphones seems to be spot on while via speakers it is more complicated.  Maybe I am just getting deaf in my old age!

Yesterday I went to Milano High Fidelity 2016  where there was a demonstration of Ubiq Audio model One loudspeakers, incredible slovenian speakers and FM acoustic amplifiers.I was shocked by the Ubiq Audio performance's.

Do you know this brand?

regards

My experience from various shows is that FM acoustic amps can make any speaker sound fabulous. But we're talking Statement-level cost. 

bdnyc posted:

I have been fortunate enough to hear many great systems over the years.    Here are a few highlights:

In the Linn/Naim category, my favorite experience was hearing the DBL's with Julian at a CES in Chicago where Chris West and Julian kept a steady diet of explosive rock music playing on the six pack all weekend.     Nothing will replace the excitement of hearing the Talking Head's Stop Making Sense at near concert volume through this active system.    It felt like you were walking into the venue as I walked into that hotel ballroom.    Later on, I got to enjoy playing the CD of the Grateful Dead's performance from the summer of 1968 they released as Two From the Vault up at concert volume.  Hearing Phil Lesh and his original friend Mr. Garcia dance their way through New Potatoe Caboose was very nearly the most fun I ever had with a stereo.

For pure goosebumps with vocal music, very few systems fully equal the pairing of the 300 B based VAC Renaissance 140's amps through a pair of Wilson Watt Puppies.     Allison Krauss was in the room, floating between the speakers with an utterly human quality to her beautiful voice.     This system was almost spooky on the right material.

I had a friend in the 90's who owned one of the very few sets of the massive Wilson Audio Wamm's in the U.S..    I was stunned into submission on more than one evening listening with him and his wife.     A first pressing of one of the singles from Paul Simon's Graceland is the one song which remains etched in my memory, although he played many fine LP's on a beautifully set up and lovingly assembled system.

For my tastes, one of the most wonderful speakers I have ever heard was the Avalon Eidolon Diamond.    I heard this in Boulder at Avalon's facility, hosted by their gracious ambassador Lucien Pichette.    He played a quirky track by Luka Bloom that was nothing like most audiophile fare, but it amply displayed the wonders of a speaker designed to disappear entirely.     They are majestic creatures.

We were delighted to present the Naim Statement system on our Wilson XLF's last fall and this was a system that brought music to life in a breathtaking fashion on so many types of music.   One visiting customer had brought in a beautifully natural jazz recording from the late 50's that seemed to entirely engage the "Time Machine" function in the Statement control APP.    

Lastly, I will point out two of my favorite musical experiences which nicely illustrate the still large gulf between music on a stereo and music in a live setting.    I took a few friends to see Rosanne Cash in a rare un-amplified acoustic show with just her and her husband John Leventhal on guitar, and this was remarkable.     This is the closest I will likely ever get to seeing an artist I love in their living room.    When Rosanne played my selections from her brilliant masterpiece Interiors in this show, it felt like she was singing just for me.

The last memory is of seeing the Grateful Dead live during the band's great run in the spring of 1990.     We had perfect seats about twenty rows from the stage- straight back in the middle of the floor, in front of the mixing console- so the sound was unbelievable.     That night they brought out Branford Marsalis for an impromptu jam on one song in their first set and it was a pleasant surprise.     When they returned to the stage for their more exploratory second set, and Branford was with them for the whole of rest of their performance, they reached a late career highpoint that remains one of my favorite memories of live music.   Hearing it on their state of the art PA made most home stereo's seem like toys.     It turns out that certain things require power and a rock band in full flight is certainly one of them.    For anyone interested, you can hear this show on various formats which is known as Wake Up to Find Out- Nassau Coliseum 1990.

Good listening!

Bruce

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great post Bruce. I was fortunate to have caught about 100 Grateful Dead shows between 1987 and 1995, including 5 nights on that incredible Spring 1990 tour (although sadly I missed the Branford show by one night). I'm sure the exposure to the band's incredible sound system influenced me enormously... in terms of trying to find something to "recreate" what I was hearing in the venues. 

There is a great book called "Grateful Dead Gear" by Blair Jackson that goes through the evolution of all the gear the band used in chronological order... you would dig it if you haven't read it yet.

Yesterday's opening of a new hifi store in my hometown was a spectacular event. I was invited as I'm familiar with the owner who I bought my stereo from when he worked at another place. It certainly was a grand opening with a world premiere of a new reference speaker from Piega of Switzerland. Can't remember the name of it but it costs more than £ 50 000,- . They used some enourmos amplifiers from Solutions which was equally expensive. Total cost was around £ 1.5 million. It was certainly impressive and mighty, but believe it or not I actually preferred the Naim rig which cost about one third and consisted of Naim Nac-N272, XPS DR, NAP 300 DR playing through KEF Blade 2. I just sat down foot tapping and had a big grin on my face which I kept until the turned off the music. An utterly fantastic experience!