mute/aux
Posted by: ken c on 05 September 2003
i hope this post doesnt appear more than once -- have been having problems posting. lets try one more time:
Reading one or 2 posts in the thread “what records do you keep playing” got me scurrying to our loft to retrieve my vinyl copy of van morrison’s “poetic champions compose” – an old favourite. Next stop lp12 with aro/dv xx2. I was to be disappointed. Somehow, it didn’t sound as good as I remembered. Van sounded like he was just going through the motions. This was a couple of weeks ago. I dint worry too much – CD still sounded OK. I just put this down to perhaps the lp12 needs a service.
Last night, anxiety got the better of me and I decided to give the lp12 another spin. Stevie wonder’s “love is in need of love today” on “songs in the key of life” is a song I know naim weaves magic on, so I decided to try this. Oh dear! Sounds so and so – certainly not as emphatic as I recall. In fact my attention kept being drawn to what sounded like a dominant treble – the song lacked balance, I felt. This so-so sound was confirmed when I played other records. Ah, so my lp12 really needs a service….
Preparing to pack up and return the lp’s to the loft, I noticed something odd on the nac52. on the bottom row of buttons (the record source selectors) – the mono button was ON together with AUX. Normally I operate my 52 with MUTE/AUX on in the bottom array of buttons. This reminded me of the time when I A/B’d this mute/aux config and didn’t notice any difference at all – however I still use it anyway as I didn’t detect it causing any harm. But obviously, I, or my daughter, had pressed the Mono button unintentionally. So I decided to put that right. I was not expecting to hear any difference – but out of curiosity, I decided to play the wonder track again. Oh, my god!!! Balance was back. And then some. I was now aware of quite of lot of subtle nuances in this song. Also there was a much stronger sense of harmony – I could hear harmonic parts that I couldn’t before. I could hear deeeep into the mix!!! Encouraged me to sing along. The “lingering tune” was back. What’s going on? And why on lp12 source only?
It was at this point I quickly grabbed the randy Crawford cd that was on top of the xps. Played that. Ah!! CD sounds better too. A lot better. So in fact CD was affected as well and I never noticed – have been playing cd’s as b’ground music while I work. Quick change to tuner – same result. My whole system was better!!! I played records till very early this am and couldn’t get up in time for the school run …
I don’t want to understand all this. I am happy that my system is on song again. Its just that in MY system, going from mono/aux to mute/aux DOES make a difference.
Now please, please, I don’t want to start another long and boring debate on what, if any difference MUTE/AUX makes. That is NOT the point of this posting. I just wanted to share this experience with you. I am also not claiming this is a rigorous experiment either – I didn’t start out to “experiment” on anything. I was trying to track down why vinyl was sounding as sumptuous as before. In fact, it does.
enjoy…
ken
Reading one or 2 posts in the thread “what records do you keep playing” got me scurrying to our loft to retrieve my vinyl copy of van morrison’s “poetic champions compose” – an old favourite. Next stop lp12 with aro/dv xx2. I was to be disappointed. Somehow, it didn’t sound as good as I remembered. Van sounded like he was just going through the motions. This was a couple of weeks ago. I dint worry too much – CD still sounded OK. I just put this down to perhaps the lp12 needs a service.
Last night, anxiety got the better of me and I decided to give the lp12 another spin. Stevie wonder’s “love is in need of love today” on “songs in the key of life” is a song I know naim weaves magic on, so I decided to try this. Oh dear! Sounds so and so – certainly not as emphatic as I recall. In fact my attention kept being drawn to what sounded like a dominant treble – the song lacked balance, I felt. This so-so sound was confirmed when I played other records. Ah, so my lp12 really needs a service….
Preparing to pack up and return the lp’s to the loft, I noticed something odd on the nac52. on the bottom row of buttons (the record source selectors) – the mono button was ON together with AUX. Normally I operate my 52 with MUTE/AUX on in the bottom array of buttons. This reminded me of the time when I A/B’d this mute/aux config and didn’t notice any difference at all – however I still use it anyway as I didn’t detect it causing any harm. But obviously, I, or my daughter, had pressed the Mono button unintentionally. So I decided to put that right. I was not expecting to hear any difference – but out of curiosity, I decided to play the wonder track again. Oh, my god!!! Balance was back. And then some. I was now aware of quite of lot of subtle nuances in this song. Also there was a much stronger sense of harmony – I could hear harmonic parts that I couldn’t before. I could hear deeeep into the mix!!! Encouraged me to sing along. The “lingering tune” was back. What’s going on? And why on lp12 source only?
It was at this point I quickly grabbed the randy Crawford cd that was on top of the xps. Played that. Ah!! CD sounds better too. A lot better. So in fact CD was affected as well and I never noticed – have been playing cd’s as b’ground music while I work. Quick change to tuner – same result. My whole system was better!!! I played records till very early this am and couldn’t get up in time for the school run …
I don’t want to understand all this. I am happy that my system is on song again. Its just that in MY system, going from mono/aux to mute/aux DOES make a difference.
Now please, please, I don’t want to start another long and boring debate on what, if any difference MUTE/AUX makes. That is NOT the point of this posting. I just wanted to share this experience with you. I am also not claiming this is a rigorous experiment either – I didn’t start out to “experiment” on anything. I was trying to track down why vinyl was sounding as sumptuous as before. In fact, it does.
enjoy…
ken