Inky blackness...

Hungryhalibut posted:

I remember seeing the Hilliard Ensemble and Jan Garbarek in Chichester Cathedral, and being entranced by the way the music emerged from complete stillness, yet at home somehow there was a fug around the music so that it was never quite the same.

Somehow the new Naim stuff seems to be able to do this, and in a way that enhances enjoyment of the music while preserving the involvement and joie de vivre that Naim does so well. 

I never thought I'd say this, but hurrah for inky blackness!

Amen.

may i join you in the "inky blackness" claptrap brigade? 

doesnt matter about round vs flat earth -- just need to make sure its all earthed properly (ooops!)

enjoy..

ken

Amen amen ...

HH, but is it the SL's or the DR.......?

Given my, much less sophisticated, experience with my SU and 200, I, like you, somewhat surprisedly, agree with the 'inky blackness' statement, albeit perhaps a slightly different shade.

The puzzling thing is though that I perceived said inky blackness to become more apparent in a bi-wired configuration........?

KR to all,

J

I have noticed this same "inky blackness" as you call it when switching from my previous gear to my 202/HCDR. It is one of the things I love about my naim set up. 

Nigel - scientific studies commissioned and payed for by the EU have shown a direct correlation between the darkness of the ink and the blackness of the black, compared to the amount of movement during a (repeated) head nod, peak distance from toe to floor and the level of approving look on the listeners face.

And people say our money is wasted being part of the EU 

And all at EU recommended safe listening volumes of course! 

EU health and safety regulations require , that you can see clearly through the inky blackness

When my sons were small, they used to love watching The Blobs on TV. The best Blob was Inky Black, the scary witch...

Inky blackness sounds like the name of a band.....

Hungryhalibut posted:

When my sons were small, they used to love watching The Blobs on TV. The best Blob was Inky Black, the scary witch...

Don't they make Audio Cables...known for their inky blackness?

G

Hungryhalibut posted:

When my sons were small, they used to love watching The Blobs on TV. The best Blob was Inky Black, the scary witch...

Where did you get the picture of my mother in law? 

Definitely enhances the enjoyment / involvement for me. Well worth the appreciation! 

The Inky blackness or lower noise floor must be an important consideration in amp design. Also the timbre of instruments, separation,image,prat.

I suppose it's like baking a cake amp design....but the Inky blackness is an essential ingredient in the bake.Would love to know what journalist first penned those words.Maybe if he visits this forum he will remember with a smile on his face......maybe he's dead and joined the Inky blackness !

Glad the Ink is doing its stuff in your system Hungry Halibet

So I have to conclude that your set sounded broken before you had dr and sl...., which would require besides a lamp also a safety helmet...

watch out folks, there are in fact different shades of 'inky blackness' 

enjoy

ken

Surely the only sonic inky blackness that actually exists is that found in a vacuum?

Every concert venue and recording studio is subject to some ambient noise from heating systems and air conditioning, to traffic noise from aeroplanes, trains, and motor vehicles, and even people walking about in the same building.

I have the idea that there is something wrong with any replay system that produces inly blackness - sonically speaking - between the musical notes.

Best wishes from George

George Fredrik Fiske posted:

....

Every concert venue and recording studio is subject to some ambient noise from heating systems and air conditioning, to traffic noise from aeroplanes, trains, and motor vehicles, and even people walking about in the same building.

 

and "inky blackness" allows this ambient noise to come through and be heard clearly in replay.. 

enjoy...

ken

But the normal ambience has been well relayed in recordings and replay for more than fifty years. It is simply called accuracy and is nothing new. 

In fact recordings have captured - at their best - very convincing ambience for the last eighty years since the introduction of the electronic microphone to the recording process.

So if we are discussing low system generated noise we looking at very old news at least from the best recordings and replay.

Best wishes from George

Anyone watching Horizon on BBC2 this evening (available on catch up) will perhaps reclassify "inky blackness" as a form of "dark energy", not to be confused with "dark matter", that is an integral part of the accelerating expansion of the universe. None of the clever astrophysicists on the programme could actually explain what it was, so I reckon Hungry Halibut could be on the way to a Nobel Prize. Going back to the early 1980's, when I was a Saturday shop boy in Moseley Audio ( Birmingham), the boss of this very fine Linn/Naim dealer, now long gone, used to try and explain that the difference between such a fine system and other hi- fi was " the silence between the notes". Is this the same thing, I wonder.

George Fredrik Fiske posted:

I have the idea that there is something wrong with any replay system that produces inly blackness - sonically speaking - between the musical notes.

George, it may be so, but I think that the 'culprit' is not the system but, possibly, software employed by the recording company/studio to eliminate that ambient noise.. The same as they eliminate sometimes the 'silent' moments between movements of a symphony. I have a demo CD by Harmonia Mundi where an orchestral piece is digitally muted so abruptly after the last note's very short echo, that it's weird to the ears.

Belfast Taxman, would the shop you refer to be Sound Advice/Sound Control? 

I agree that some digital transfers have alarmingly short reverberation after the last note, but this not new.

On tape the attenuating slider went down fast to avoid studio noises off at the end of a “take", and on 78s they simply turned the signal off. 

Recording is not always that very naturalistic ...

Even the best of them ...

Best wishes from George

MarkJH posted:

Belfast Taxman, would the shop you refer to be Sound Advice/Sound Control? 

Mark - I think you might be right, it was in Moseley village on the Alcester Road next door to A well known supermarket. Such a long time ago.

MarkJH posted:

Belfast Taxman, would the shop you refer to be Sound Advice/Sound Control? 

I bought my first Naim amps from there