A short story which is also a quasi goodbye post

Posted by: Massimo Bertola on 16 November 2017

(Music: the lovely 1984 recording by Arthur Moreira Lima of Ernesto Nazareth's Brazilian waltzes and tangos. A disc I bought in another life at a used CDs' stall and am never ever tired of. Even on hi-fi systems.)

One.

Well I had this iPhone 5 given to me by my wife. I never thought of using it for storing music, even though I am what you anglophones call a commuter and spend time on trains and Metros. Instead, I love taking hot baths and trying to stop my mind and go back inside some maternal womb - as Woody Allen said, anyone's womb. So one day, while at the phone with a member here, my iPhone slipped into the hot, soapy water. Nothing could save it. It was lost and I had to think of another one.

Having seen and appreciated an Asus Zenfone 2 ML551 of a friend, my wife was so kind to give me one. It lasted six months until one day it fell face down on the ground and the touch screen was so compromised that it was useless to think about repairing it. It seems I have a bad karma with cellphones, but this is only the beginning of the story. I had bought a similar cellphone for my wife because her iPhone 4 was a) small, b) couldn't be updated or upgraded anymore and some apps already were announced as soon no more working on it. So, to cut a short story shorter, I took her 64 gigabyte Zenfone and bought her a smaller, more agile one.

Now, you find yourself with a cellphone with 64 giga store capacity and what do you do? You start thinking about putting some music in it. At first you think of just something you love specially to listen to while commuting, in the cold morning when you sit in a train and everybody around you is either cladded in black trendy clothes and is sucked into the screen of his/her smartphone or is a flock of faculty youngsters laughing at professors or discussing upcoming exams and talk loud and laugh but at least are not zombie-faced lost in a 5.5" luminous coffin. So I started thinking about how to do it, but my phone is Android and my Mac is a Mac and they will communicate properly much after Israel and Palestine will have found some agreement. But in the end, I did it: with a small app for the phone called Double Twist and its corresponding app for the Mac. I couldn't resist the ease with which I could transfer all my music from iTunes [never ever talk bad of iTunes: it's almost perfection in the absurdity of computer worlds] to Asus, and ended up with all of it in perfect order, with artwork and an absolutely unsuspectedly good pair of earplugs on my trips to the city of Milano which, in spite of Nigel's courteous admiration, is a repellent, anxiogenous rat-hole only devoted to money making and personal exhibition.

All my music on the Asus is either mp3 auto-rips from Amazon, AACs bought from iTunes or AACs rips from my own CDs. Not only we're not talking Hi-Def here, but we're talking that compressed thrash that Michael Fremer, the God of Audio, states he's able to recognize while sleeping in the midst of a metallurgic factory in full activity compared to any non-compressed format. Well, this morning I was listening to some of that thrash (David Chesky's The girl from Guantanamo, a nice musical poem for soprano and small orchestra, a piece I used to hear infinite times when it was trendy at my friend's audio store and he played it on systems costing like apartments [for people that actually lives in apartments costing like stereo systems]) and I realized that I had never heard it so well. The voice was beautiful, true, the stereo perspective wide and realistic, the acoustic instruments (mainly pizzicato strings and woodwinds, plus an occasional hand clap), the bass deep and controlled, the treble clean and airy and believable. I na word, everything I had always hoped to find in a system and have struggled (and spent, the f*uck with it!) to obtain. Even the mp3 of Smoke on the water, that I played on the way back after seven hours of teaching, just to bring back some irreverent fun into that twilight hour of the day, sounded perfect: the riff was rich, the drums was drums, and I could hear the pick work on the bass entry, like if it was not a rough recording of an overrated piece of thrash of 45 years ago but a good, enjoyable and believable piece of irreverent, funny rock, well worth listening.

Two.

At home, I wanted to play some more music. I was hungry with that same fun and quality enjoyment. But my Royal stereo – Naim's CDX2, SN, two extra PSUs, NAC A5 and Ovator S-400s – couldn't come close to that experience; it was just flat, aggressive, modestly detailed, a zero spatial plastic reproduction. And I knew (what most kind guys here seem to be completely unaware of) that no setup and no tweaking on this unlucky planet could have changed that sound into something listenable, enjoyable. My 16/44.1 CDs sounded like I had some problem in my ears. And the problem in my ears is that it is a stereo system inside a domestic room: something that will never be able to work properly, under any circumstance. To me, this is now a given fact, a plain truth. A system, and a costly one, is HDMI: a hoax, a disappointment and a mission impossible. No responsible, no-one guilty, nothing I didn't know before; but a simple acknowledgement that all efforts are vain, are money down the toilet: stereo systems will never sound as good as an mp3 inside a good pair of earplugs from a decently designed telephone. Speakers in a domestic environment cannot cope with the infinity of acoustical, unmanageable issues; spatial details get lost in the real space but are preserved in the perfect rendition of two things inside the ears; and, the most humiliating thing of all, although I have tried headphones costing around €1000, no one sounded as good as the free pair of plugs I got with my Asus. And the iPhone4 I was almost tempted to ditch is, perhaps, even better. iTunes is not perfect, but a tad clearer and luminous than double Twist.

Three.

So what am I doing here now? I have no advice to give anyone anymore, I am not interested in upgrading or spending and I know that each day, when I feel a tickling, pleasant itch to buy some new box or cable, it is not anything else than an induced need leading me nowhere. So, with the rock-solid conviction that most of what I wrote until now will sound like drunken bulls*it to most (well, I am not drunk), I have nothing left to say than good night to everybody, not knowing if we'll ever meet again on the congested, delusional, sometimes unreadable pages of this loony bin.

Cheers

Posted on: 17 November 2017 by Monkadill

I bought a HD Sony player and matching head phones so I could listen to FLAC on holiday, I had a Apple iPod mp4 player as a comparison and there is a massive increase in sound quality playing FLAC on a reasonable player versus a mp4 player.

So..the holiday was great and the Sony player hit the mark for the duration the holiday but I couldn't wait to listen to music in all its glory in my front room with out the isolation of a media player, and yes with S400's!

So..I don't totally agree with your post, but hear what your saying and respect your view.

Good luck on your musical journey.

Posted on: 17 November 2017 by joe9407

Max,

A few thoughts. First: there's lots of talk on this forum about controlling resonances, but not much discussion about controlling expectations. A "happy surprise" is one of the purer forms of delight and can leave a lasting impression. Could this be part of your reaction to your new headphone "rig"? (If so, perhaps we'd all do well to read some Buddhist treatises whenever the urge strikes to upgrade the stereo.)

Second, MP3 files or streams thereof can sound really good! I can't hear much of a difference between a 320kbps file and its lossless version, and I'll listen happily for hours to FIP's 128kbps stream. Zero expectations, indeed.

In solidarity,

--Joe

Posted on: 17 November 2017 by Claus-Thoegersen

Much of my casual listening is radio on 128 kbps ,with Paradise or Naim radio mixed in. This can sound ok, and more than that. I have a Tidal premium subscription as part of my cellphone subscribtion used to identify the cds I want to buy. The difference between 320 and lossless are not always as obvious as I would hope. But selling or downsizing is not something I would consider. I am hoping that my 252 soon to be recapped, in time can be replaced by a 372 with 555 ps, then I can go from 9 boxes to 7.

Claus

Posted on: 17 November 2017 by Monkadill

So im planted in front of my glorious S400's listening to some "Underworld" and im thinking that yoir post is a wind up..

Posted on: 17 November 2017 by Massimo Bertola

Sorry, wind up has too many meanings and I couldn't translate what you mean for sure. Would you mind being more explicit?

Thanks

Max

Posted on: 17 November 2017 by Massimo Bertola

Brilliant posted:
Max_B - glad I read your story! First time I have chuckled since Tuesday, after losing a friend to the big C! Hope you keep writing!
https://youtu.be/ci_2ETb3Gj4

Thanks! I am really happy to have made you chuckle. Everybody here knows I won't stop writing, I love writing too much and I love Naim a lot even when I hate it.

I am sorry for your friend. I had two really old, good friends I could call brothers; one is gone in 2008 for cancer and the other in 2011 for a brain hemorrhage. They died almost on the same day, three years apart. It was one of the greatest pains in my life. Let's always be thankful for the things and the people we still have.

Posted on: 17 November 2017 by Tony2011

Max_B posted:
Sorry, wind up has too many meanings and I couldn't translate what you mean for sure. Would you mind being more explicit?
Thanks
Max

“Prendere in giro” would be pretty close. cool

Posted on: 17 November 2017 by Brilliant

Max_B posted:
Brilliant posted:
Max_B - glad I read your story! First time I have chuckled since Tuesday, after losing a friend to the big C! Hope you keep writing!
https://youtu.be/ci_2ETb3Gj4
Thanks! I am really happy to have made you chuckle. Everybody here knows I won't stop writing, I love writing too much and I love Naim a lot even when I hate it.
I am sorry for your friend. I had two really old, good friends I could call brothers; one is gone in 2008 for cancer and the other in 2011 for a brain hemorrhage. They died almost on the same day, three years apart. It was one of the greatest pains in my life. Let's always be thankful for the things and the people we still have.

Well said & thank you!

Posted on: 17 November 2017 by TOBYJUG

I too love a bath. Especially a proper long soak with proper Himalayan bath salts. That's why I buy WhatHiFi magazine. If that gets sog eared or submerged ( whilst reading at length ) it's not a big deal. Using a device in the bath is just asking for trouble.

Posted on: 17 November 2017 by yeti42

Devices in the bath? Have you been listening to Zappa?

Posted on: 17 November 2017 by alanbass1

Bye

Posted on: 17 November 2017 by Dave***t

If nothing else, Max, thanks for making me realise that the word anxiogenic exists.

Sadly the internet doesn't seem to agree about the word this realisation made me think of, sapiolytic. But then I suppose it wouldn't, would it?

Posted on: 17 November 2017 by Innocent Bystander

Smoke on the water has sounded great in every system I have played it on. And when turned up I can close my eyes and be there. However, that only works with speakers, and does require sufficiently full range ones, enabling me to feel the music all over. The illusion is carried in the music.

What a better system does is let me hear more into the music, so to me - and many others - that is what the hifi hobby is all about. But maybe not if you get hung up on it, Maybe becoming too engrossed in chasing the tiniest improvement.

As for speakers in a room, that is a very real problem. The best sound I have heard from speakers ever was on an occasion of a party outdoors, when I installed my ancient IMFs at the bottom of the garden, eliminating standing waves, room nodes, nulls, and most reflections. They sounded absolutely superb and I crave that sound. The only solution indoors is room treatment, andafter my next house move that will be my one remaining hifi investment.

Posted on: 17 November 2017 by nigelb

Max, I have enjoyed reading your posts over the years and I must say, as a non-native English speaker (I assume), your grasp of our complex language is admirable. I am so glad to read you intend to continue to contribute to this fine forum and thoughtful, well written posts from contributors such as yourself makes this place a valuable and rewarding corner of my world.

It is also refreshing to read controversial and provocative points of view such as yours. I admire those who just say it as it is for them no matter how 'at odds' it appears from the mainstream view. To make all of us stop and just think about what it is we want from music in the home and how capable our systems really are in delivering what it is we really seek is a valuable wake up call that all of us (well I) need from time to time

Good luck and I sincerely hope you overcome your health issues. Keep posting, please.

Posted on: 17 November 2017 by rjstaines

Peace be with you Max.

Posted on: 18 November 2017 by Bert Schurink

I have always experienced that I can enjoy music in multiple type of setups. From cheap and easy to the most expensive setup. I would argue that I am listening to a lot of music I wouldn’t listen to when I wouldn’t have my Naim setup. So my system has opened up my horizon. And yes sometimes it gives a good feel to have the right level of noise, reflections etc of a mediocre setup....as opposed to my more controlled Naim sound

Posted on: 18 November 2017 by Bob the Builder

Max your post get's us right into the heart of this hobby and it's real purpose which of course is to take us to that very personal and individual place that music can take us. Depending on the circumstances and the emotions and even the day a mobile phone with a half decent set of in ear headphones can take us to that place as well or sometimes even better than a £10,000 Hifi system.

IMO there are two things at work here first and very importantly you expect nothing of a mobile phone and headphones and so when it takes you to that place so unexpectantly it is a beautiful thing but then when you are standing in front of those very expensive black boxes you are expecting something very special to come from those great big speakers and when it does not for whatever reason it can be horrible and frustrating and spoil the very thing it is supposed to be enhancing.

Secondly it is all about mood, music should be an emotional experience and the mood we are in can effect that emotional response that is why mood altering substances can and do enhance music so depending on the mood we are in the way in which we replay music can be of little consequence listen to music on an expensive Hifi in the wrong mood and it won't be good but listen to it in the right mood and the level of system sometimes doesn't matter.

Let us be very honest with ourselves for most of us owning Naim Audio equipment is as much about pride of ownership as it is about SQ.

Posted on: 18 November 2017 by Innocent Bystander

Bob the Builder posted:
Let us be very honest with ourselves for most of us owning Naim Audio equipment is as much about pride of ownership as it is about SQ.

That is a very interesting suggestion/belief. I wonder how much truth others will see in it in relation to themselves...

Maybe that's the reason I'm not a Naim owner. (Pride of ownership is not something in which I generally indulge, in anything.)

Posted on: 18 November 2017 by Corry

Max_B posted:
Corry: Thanks, I think I understand the 'Nait or 552' perfectly well having owned a Nait many years ago and being occasionally exposed to a 552 at a friend's. I'll never reach 552 level because: 1) it would mean equal ancillaries, 2) I believe that the problem is inherent in audio between six walls, c) the idea of Digital Room Treatment is more accessible perhaps. But it's a little like I wrote a long rant saying that I had found a €3 wine much better than a €40 one, and you suggest me trying a €1500 bottle... Or simply imply its benefits. I know the 552, but I don't include it in the category of preamplifiers but rather among that of controlled substances.

Max,

The “€3 wine vs €40 wine” is something I can relate to, in that there’s a certain amount of expectation and stress present with the more expensive wine that just isn’t there with the cheaper one. More and more with things like wine, I find myself looking for the sweet spot – something that’s just good enough to be enjoyable, rather than the absolute best I can afford. I’m not sure how far that analogy applies with hi-fi (for me), as I seem to be on a quest for the most transcendent listening experience available, within my (partially) self-imposed restrictions.

I realise that I may be romanticising the 552, but there’s only one way for me to put that to rest. And (of course) another option that may emerge after I take that step might be something like “Wow, this sounds great … but I bet it’ll be just amazing when I upgrade <power amp, speakers, cables>, etc.” But I know that there are limits to my hi-fi aspirations – e.g. I have no interest in enormous full-range speakers, nor do I aspire to an active system – so I remain hopeful that a satisfactory end point is within reach. And there would be an incidental bonus: If I exchange my 282 for a 552, I get rid of the NAPSC: in NaimWorld, it’s not often that you can make a major upgrade while reducing your box count.

Best,

Posted on: 18 November 2017 by Massimo Bertola

TOBYJUG posted:
Using a device in the bath is just asking for trouble.

Amen.

(You're perfectly right)

Posted on: 18 November 2017 by Massimo Bertola

nigelb posted:
Max, I have enjoyed reading your posts over the years and I must say, as a non-native English speaker (I assume), your grasp of our complex language is admirable. I am so glad to read you intend to continue to contribute to this fine forum and thoughtful, well written posts from contributors such as yourself makes this place a valuable and rewarding corner of my world.
It is also refreshing to read controversial and provocative points of view such as yours. I admire those who just say it as it is for them no matter how 'at odds' it appears from the mainstream view. To make all of us stop and just think about what it is we want from music in the home and how capable our systems really are in delivering what it is we really seek is a valuable wake up call that all of us (well I) need from time to time
Good luck and I sincerely hope you overcome your health issues. Keep posting, please.

What can I say? Thanks, indeed. I am happy to contribute to discussion and controversial topics have been the love of my life – audio and women being the two major available. Listen, I am being serious. Who knows me a little personally or on these 'pages' knows that I will never leave Naim or the forum; I am a sort of specular HH – I rarely have ready, informed and reliable answers; I am specialized in doubts and de-constructing questions. But here I am, with a mild shock induced by an unlikely comparison. I'll sort it without disappearing, or making my system disappear.

Best

Posted on: 18 November 2017 by Monkadill

Max_B posted:
Sorry, wind up has too many meanings and I couldn't translate what you mean for sure. Would you mind being more explicit?
Thanks
Max

Wind up = a joke

Posted on: 18 November 2017 by Massimo Bertola

Corry posted:
Max_B posted:
Corry: Thanks, I think I understand the 'Nait or 552' perfectly well having owned a Nait many years ago and being occasionally exposed to a 552 at a friend's. I'll never reach 552 level because: 1) it would mean equal ancillaries, 2) I believe that the problem is inherent in audio between six walls, c) the idea of Digital Room Treatment is more accessible perhaps. But it's a little like I wrote a long rant saying that I had found a €3 wine much better than a €40 one, and you suggest me trying a €1500 bottle... Or simply imply its benefits. I know the 552, but I don't include it in the category of preamplifiers but rather among that of controlled substances.
Max,
The “€3 wine vs €40 wine” is something I can relate to, in that there’s a certain amount of expectation and stress present with the more expensive wine that just isn’t there with the cheaper one. More and more with things like wine, I find myself looking for the sweet spot – something that’s just good enough to be enjoyable, rather than the absolute best I can afford. I’m not sure how far that analogy applies with hi-fi (for me), as I seem to be on a quest for the most transcendent listening experience available, within my (partially) self-imposed restrictions.
I realise that I may be romanticising the 552, but there’s only one way for me to put that to rest. And (of course) another option that may emerge after I take that step might be something like “Wow, this sounds great … but I bet it’ll be just amazing when I upgrade <power amp, speakers, cables>, etc.” But I know that there are limits to my hi-fi aspirations – e.g. I have no interest in enormous full-range speakers, nor do I aspire to an active system – so I remain hopeful that a satisfactory end point is within reach. And there would be an incidental bonus: If I exchange my 282 for a 552, I get rid of the NAPSC: in NaimWorld, it’s not often that you can make a major upgrade while reducing your box count.
Best,
C

Corry,

a member here, Roberto, [this is not a secret, is it R...?] has a full 500 system: CDP555, 2 x 555PS, 552, Nap500, S-600 and – so far – a SuperLumina IC from CDP to the controlled substance. I've listened to his system a number of times, discovering interesting things, one of which is that certain types of music or songs reveal their reason of being and emotional power at very high volumes.

The 552 is no doubt a sensational product, it takes Naim to have the nerve to build a preamplifier that instead of doing what 98% of top-end preamps do – marrying detail with smoothness, something that doesn't exist in real music, if you expose yourself to it closely – just gives you everything that is mechanically possible to extract from the CD in an awful way (meaning good) as far as dynamics, force, coherence, grip to life and energy are involved. I admire it enormously, even though I only hear it at Roberto's, whose musical taste is not always very close to mine, and who seems to have the ears of an elephant because he digests and controls sound pressure levels probably able to kill bacteria. I doubt I'll ever have one; but even if I had one, the problem would remain that I am now sure – the simple phone/earplugs test has proved it to me – that the greatest electronics in the world will always need the greatest speaker placement in the world and professional room acoustics to obtain what can be obtained, in terms of completeness of information and immersion in the experience, from a good MP3 on a good phone and good plugs in the ears. Even on a crowded train.

My very best

max

Posted on: 18 November 2017 by Massimo Bertola

Monkadill posted:
Max_B posted:
Sorry, wind up has too many meanings and I couldn't translate what you mean for sure. Would you mind being more explicit?
Thanks
Max
Wind up = a joke

Ok, thanks. I though it was something like it but I feared it had a negative connotation.

Posted on: 18 November 2017 by Timmo1341

Innocent Bystander posted:
Bob the Builder posted:
Let us be very honest with ourselves for most of us owning Naim Audio equipment is as much about pride of ownership as it is about SQ.
That is a very interesting suggestion/belief. I wonder how much truth others will see in it in relation to themselves...
Maybe that's the reason I'm not a Naim owner. (Pride of ownership is not something in which I generally indulge, in anything.)

If there's any truth in Bob's assertion I'm guessing it probably applies just as much to owners of niche/expensive items, be they cars, cameras, works of art, bottles of expensive wine......the list is endless.

Just a thought - does or can pride of ownership exist if you're truly alone, or does it rely upon others knowing of your ownership? I ask simply because none of my friends are interested in 'hifi', have never heard of Naim and are horrified by the prospect of anyone owning a system worth more than the average family car. I enjoy most of the products I own (I'd have to be pretty stupid to buy anything that didn't bring me pleasure), am grateful for having the means to indulge in my hobbies, but 'pride'? I don't think so.