Munich

Some more pictures of MBL. For me definitely a reference system. You can throw anything at it and it always sounds fine. In the years I have listened to this system I haven’t heard notable deficiencies - not to say that it’s perfect, but it comes pretty close. Only a bit short of 400K so not even that expensive :-)....

David Hendon posted:

Richard Dane posted:

joerand posted:

Bert Schurink posted:

Shure KSE1200 and 1500

Speaking of Shure and their HPs, have you heard that after 90 years Shure has ended phono cartridge manufacturing?

Yes, I posted on this on the Garrard and SME thread last week.  It's certainly the end of an era, but the fact is that for many music lovers a Shure cartridge hasn't been on their purchase radar for a good many years.  The days of the M75ED/EJ being the de-facto standard across the entire turntable world are long gone.

Surely (no pun intended!) it was the V15 in its various marks that was the de facto standard?

best

David

David, the V15 was certainly, at one time, considered the best cartridge around, but I would reckon that many more turntables were sold with an M75 fitted in the head shell as standard.

Bravo Bert!

I almost feel that I've made the trip to Munich thanks to your very extensive coverage which you have generously shared here with the forum.  Many thanks.

Peter

Bert Schurink posted:

Kharma, never heard of them had this amazing wooden panels on the sides of the room. They played Santana and I had the feeling that I missed a level of detail and that the sound stage could be wider. The rest of the sound was nice.

 

You never heard of them? But they are Dutch like you . Looks like the Enigma Veyron EV-4D.

Then the Can Jam. Never been to one of them before. But I think it would quickly need to change to become more succesful. The problem was that the big guys decided to be at the main show and only nice players and specific brands where represented. It was also rather small. So the only thing it brought me was the opportunity to listen to the Sony beast, and it was a nice short walk in the sun. Some pictures for impressions....

What did you make of the €52k ones? They seemed to be playing a different music programme with those, hardly any classical.

Going back to the egg timers, whilst I was there someone came up with a CD and got it played, must have been a transfer from historic analog as I noticed the recording quality far too much, in fact I don’t recall the piece.

Drikus posted:

Bert Schurink posted:

Kharma, never heard of them had this amazing wooden panels on the sides of the room. They played Santana and I had the feeling that I missed a level of detail and that the sound stage could be wider. The rest of the sound was nice.

 

You never heard of them? But they are Dutch like you . Looks like the Enigma Veyron EV-4D.

When I still was in the Netherlands I was a mere lover of good music, had a for the time excellent system of Revox Electronic, piano lacquer boxes, with good JBL speakers. It took me to go to Germany and returning back from Hong Kong to Germany..., to conver to the real religion of audiophile nerd after I needed to replace the JBL and then also exchanged my electronics for Naim...

yeti42 posted:

What did you make of the €52k ones? They seemed to be playing a different music programme with those, hardly any classical.

Going back to the egg timers, whilst I was there someone came up with a CD and got it played, must have been a transfer from historic analog as I noticed the recording quality far too much, in fact I don’t recall the piece.

What are you referring to, I saw so much that I am not sure what you ask my opinion about, happy to oblige when I know the product you refer to.

I wasn’t prepared to be so shaken on my mobile audio front. Multiple thought went through my head by listening to the Sony Walkman NW-WZX1 hope I have the code right, the Shure KSE1200 and 1500,  the new Senheisers, the Ultrasone Edition 15 and 8EX and finally the Hugo2. I was so far pretty happy with my Sony NW-ZX2 and Shure SE 846...., a great set...., but the above products started to plant a bug in chang8ng the configuration. 

So first concentrating on the Sony. Just WOW, listened with my Shures. And was blown away. It gives you the impression of listening to a full blown desktop system. What a depth, soundsignature is a bit warm. Also no hiss anymore like my current one, while it never bothered me by the way. Even while it’s 2000 euros more expensive than my current device, it’s a clear indication of upgrading unless totally other options are considered. Just would need to ensure to get the non capped version - meaning outside the EU. 

It’s for me clearly ahead of the Astell and Kern Ultima. Yes the Ultima has also detail etc but it doesn’t have the boogie factor and misses the low end quality of the Sony. If you have the opportunity have a listen to it with good cans, you will be blown away.

Yes, bravo Bert! Quite a feat of endurance. Part of me loves the no-holds, no compromise nuttiness of some of this stuff, in particular the speakers and turntables. But living with it... Thank you naim for those bland, rectangular boxes! 

The Pioneer - of course by far not in the same league as the Sony, had a decent overall sound, however for me a bit edgy in the piano, didn’t like that...

Nagra nostalgic with the tape machines. Good sound as connected to the Wilson Audios, which are by the way great speakers. While this tape sound is nice, it sounded a bit too nostalgic for me.....

Further into history the big horn things from 1930, sound also from the 30, scale and massive, but not my thing. But it always draws attention due to the big size...

Elixer Loudspeakers are very convinced of them selves. It shows in all - the pathetic we are the best thing, but also the only ones giving us a sound of a organ in the church... but all a bit too much and too loud, so no good way of really accessing if they are the best. But let me say this size, mass etc great, detail not to sure, didn’t stay long enough to really evaluate so let’s stop het with showing the pictures of them

For PMC fans, they had quite impressive speakers at the show. Nice overall. While the played pieces didn’t give me a good understanding of their capability for the higher end of the tones. It was clear that bass and mid end is great. While I lost had the feeling that the bass is a bit too prominent in the mix and sometimes even gave a feel of boom. I guess these speakers will need room and also very good room treatment to show the full potential. I liked it and would assume they will score good in reviews...

 Munich coverage by Stereophiles  Micheal Fremer - From the brilliant Analog Planet You Tube site

Bert, another thank you from me to add to all those above. Great of you to share your love of hi-fi, music and your opinions and reviews of so many of the various new bits of kit coming to the market. 

Bert Schurink posted:

Some more pictures of MBL. For me definitely a reference system. You can throw anything at it and it always sounds fine. In the years I have listened to this system I haven’t heard notable deficiencies - not to say that it’s perfect, but it comes pretty close. Only a bit short of 400K so not even that expensive :-)....

Biggest egg-timers I've ever seen

Bert Schurink posted:

yeti42 posted:

What did you make of the €52k ones? They seemed to be playing a different music programme with those, hardly any classical.

Going back to the egg timers, whilst I was there someone came up with a CD and got it played, must have been a transfer from historic analog as I noticed the recording quality far too much, in fact I don’t recall the piece.

What are you referring to, I saw so much that I am not sure what you ask my opinion about, happy to oblige when I know the product you refer to.

Sorry, it was the MBL room.

Silvertone had a room of vintage speakers valves and vinyl. Had a chat with Frank Schroeder about my referance arm since he was in attendance.

yeti42 posted:

Bert Schurink posted:

yeti42 posted:

What did you make of the €52k ones? They seemed to be playing a different music programme with those, hardly any classical.

Going back to the egg timers, whilst I was there someone came up with a CD and got it played, must have been a transfer from historic analog as I noticed the recording quality far too much, in fact I don’t recall the piece.

What are you referring to, I saw so much that I am not sure what you ask my opinion about, happy to oblige when I know the product you refer to.

Sorry, it was the MBL room.

I didn’t hear them this time, so I would need to refer to memories of last year, that’s difficult. But I still belief they were also good sounding.....

Bert Schurink posted:

I wasn’t prepared to be so shaken on my mobile audio front. 

So first concentrating on the Sony. Just WOW, listened with my Shures. And was blown away. It gives you the impression of listening to a full blown desktop system. What a depth, soundsignature is a bit warm. Also no hiss anymore like my current one, while it never bothered me by the way. Even while it’s 2000 euros more expensive than my current device, it’s a clear indication of upgrading unless totally other options are considered. Just would need to ensure to get the non capped version - meaning outside the EU. 

It’s for me clearly ahead of the Astell and Kern Ultima. Yes the Ultima has also detail etc but it doesn’t have the boogie factor and misses the low end quality of the Sony. If you have the opportunity have a listen to it with good cans, you will be blown away.

I have been using the Sony 1Z for the past year paired with a Focal Utopia and the matching Sony Z1R closed back headphone.

If one day I want to downsize and get rid of my 500 system I would have no problem living happily ever after with this setup.

Did you listen to the Sony via the balanced output or just the single ended. If you only heard the SE then you did not get any idea of what this unit is truly capable of.  Balanced takes it into an entirely different league.

And almost 24 hours of battery is not too bad either.  Along with 256gb internal storage and 512gb micro SD card that is about - 1200-1500 full resolution FLAC albums in the palm of your hand.

For me a Sony 1Z/Focal Utopia/Kimber Axios headphone cable is my portable 552/500/Klimax DS system.

Bert Schurink posted.

And an apology to William who I met at the show. I went on quite quickly as I wanted to hear the next demo.

Not a problem Bert, it was nice to bump into you and I have to confess I only had 2 and a half hours time at the show in total as I had to catch a train out of town.

The Naim room was a highlight for me, I enjoyed talking to some of the guys from Salisbury and hearing the NDS/Statement/Focal. I belong to the group that consider the Focal design to be an aberration in the context of Naim‘s image and design philosophy but boy did that system sound good.

Two more highlights were catching up with Roon and meeting the man who built and recently upgraded my Metrum Pavane DAC. He showed me how I could easily swap out the USB for an i2s board and connect the DAC via i2s to Metrum Acoustic‘s Ambre, which is Roon Ready.

Now enjoying catching up reading your comprehensive report Bert. Thanks!

glevethan posted:

Bert Schurink posted:

I wasn’t prepared to be so shaken on my mobile audio front. 

So first concentrating on the Sony. Just WOW, listened with my Shures. And was blown away. It gives you the impression of listening to a full blown desktop system. What a depth, soundsignature is a bit warm. Also no hiss anymore like my current one, while it never bothered me by the way. Even while it’s 2000 euros more expensive than my current device, it’s a clear indication of upgrading unless totally other options are considered. Just would need to ensure to get the non capped version - meaning outside the EU. 

It’s for me clearly ahead of the Astell and Kern Ultima. Yes the Ultima has also detail etc but it doesn’t have the boogie factor and misses the low end quality of the Sony. If you have the opportunity have a listen to it with good cans, you will be blown away.

I have been using the Sony 1Z for the past year paired with a Focal Utopia and the matching Sony Z1R closed back headphone.

If one day I want to downsize and get rid of my 500 system I would have no problem living happily ever after with this setup.

Did you listen to the Sony via the balanced output or just the single ended. If you only heard the SE then you did not get any idea of what this unit is truly capable of.  Balanced takes it into an entirely different league.

And almost 24 hours of battery is not too bad either.  Along with 256gb internal storage and 512gb micro SD card that is about - 1200-1500 full resolution FLAC albums in the palm of your hand.

For me a Sony 1Z/Focal Utopia/Kimber Axios headphone cable is my portable 552/500/Klimax DS system.

I listened to balanced and SE already with SE I was blown away, balanced indeed added something. Are you running on an European version with capped volume or do you run uncapped as I am interested how it would drive a big headphone as well in the European version ?

[@mention:1566878603958572], I bet that portable system sounds fantastic and I understand the point you make regarding been able to live with it forever if needed. 

I visited CanJam UK a few years back and was blown away at the sound that can be produced by these systems.