Charging up for Vinyl

Ardbeg10y posted:

I will move away from the Project Debut Carbon and get something different. I think of buying an old table and move the Project arm and element to it and then start gradually improve the new table.

 

None of my business, but this looks to me like the shortest way between satisfaction and hell. Why are you wanting to destroy the unprecedented – for you – condition of being able to appreciate Mahler?

M.

Thanks for your reply Max, appreciated.

To start with, Satisfaction and Hell are not mutually exclusive. You are from a country where the people do understand that very well - thinking of Dante's fabulous inferno.

I have indeed more or less given up on the Project Debut. I can hear - having 2.5 years hifi experience - a bit what it can do, and what it can't. I hear some indications of greatness, but I know that the low frequency rumble - even when not audible in itself - has an effect on the total SQ. I do enjoy the vinyl music, but thats mostly caused by the rituals and the music - I like the old, a bit slow recordings of symphonies.

The Project Debut has given me many lessons, which I appreciate. One of them was of course the PSU thing. Indeed a cheepish standard 15v adaptor which probably does no justice to the other components. Maybe I should listen to the better PSU.

However, it has never been as captivating or convincing as my SN1 is.  Sometimes it happens that when I buy / listen / see something, I'm instantly deeply in love and it will never change. The SN1 was such a purchase, like the nSats are for you.

To give a bit more background on the direction which I'm turning in: I turn 40 this year. I have developed over the last years my Naim hobby. A bit strange that it did not happen earlier, I have a background in music (degree of the Royal Conservatory The Hague - you might know people from there - an harpsichord teacher was from Milano), I am fascinated by technology, and have no time to attend concerts caused by to many kids, then the Hifi hobby is a good one. I don't see myself developing new hobbies.

So I'm more or less arranging a nice present for myself to mark the 40 year milestone and give my family an opportunity to contribute to something better than mediocre supermarkt wines.

I should not forget to mention that my hifi hobby is also a seed which gets planted in the lives of my kids. When they have left our house and live on their own, music has another possibility to florish in them again.

Ps, many times when I read one of your contributions on this forum I get reminded of the great time I had in Conservatory. Whilst most students were around the performing music stars, I always identified myself more with those highly interesting theory teachers - the solid backbone of the school and appearing in the most weirdest places / concerts / exams. They seem to understand the world and be able to do an pitchclass set analysis on it (forgot what it was, but it sounds interesting). I can imagine that many of your students / ex-students have the same with you.

Well, thanks for your reply. I learn three things I didn't know: that you are Dutch, you have a degree from an important Music Institution and that you are a Gemini like me. I'd be curious to know who is the harpsichord teacher coming from Milano – I'll investigate. I see that one of the few living composers I really appreciate – Louis Andriessen – comes from The Hague Conservatory. So, if I may ask, what was your course?

As for the Pitch Class Set Theory, it is for me associated to the name of Allen Forte and not much more, because each time I had to take part into an exam commission for some analysis course, the PCS theory always resulted a little alien to me, something halfway between uselessly complex and unbelievably naive... I prefer other analytical approaches.

Interesting paths cross sometimes. I do wish you again best luck with your TT project of choice.

Best

Max

Max_B posted:

Well, thanks for your reply. I learn three things I didn't know: that you are Dutch, you have a degree from an important Music Institution and that you are a Gemini like me. I'd be curious to know who is the harpsichord teacher coming from Milano – I'll investigate. I see that one of the few living composers I really appreciate – Louis Andriessen – comes from The Hague Conservatory. So, if I may ask, what was your course?

As for the Pitch Class Set Theory, it is for me associated to the name of Allen Forte and not much more, because each time I had to take part into an exam commission for some analysis course, the PCS theory always resulted a little alien to me, something halfway between uselessly complex and unbelievably naive... I prefer other analytical approaches.

Interesting paths cross sometimes. I do wish you again best luck with your TT project of choice.

Best

Max

The Milano harpsichord teacher was Fabio Bonizzoni. I've studied and completed Church Music on the conservatory, so I got my BMus degree there. The nice thing of Church Music is that the student can study almost everything. My main subject was Organ, and took as secondary subjects Singing and Harpsichord. Next to that there was an endless list of courses which I've done. It was mostly self satisfaction. I was studying while I had already 2 kids, and my third one was on its way when I tried to enter the masters of music theory track, but my solfege was below the level as it should be for that track. They did not sack me for that, but I had to take so much extra lessons that I decided not to go that direction. However there was a point that I saw that my only possibility for a full time job in music was to be part of the theory department of a conservatory.

It always surprised me that people wanted to study 'composition' whilst I believe that the best study to become a good composer is music theory.

I must admit that I have respect for the 'Haagse School' - the style of composition which Louis Andriessen was part of, but I always found it 'constructed' music. I mean by that that the result of the composition was too clearly an expression of an certain idea or concept. Too predictable music. So in my humble opinion, my tiny country has had precisely one great composer: Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. Having written that, I wrote an essay for music history where I argued that Sweelinck was not Dutch, but pan-European.

Regarding the analytical approaches. I concluded that the normal harmonic analysis does tell something about the progression in music and most importantly: how it affects the listener. This differs to PCS which was to my understanding more or less an anatomic lesson on a dead body. It does not really tell something about the soul of the music.

I must say that in my final study year, I did also study some musicology subjects and there I met a guy having an IT and Music background. He entered all organ works by Bach in a database and let a self written program analyze by a certain algorithm the likelihood that certain works were really composed by Bach. PCS theory can be useful for that. But it tells nothing about the aesthetics.

If you are ever over the NE of England there is hifi shop in Stockton on Tees that is an Alladin's cave of new and used turntables...look it up and enjoy. The person to speak to is Simon.

A.,

I agree with most of what you wrote. I'd love to discuss things further, and I'd have stuff for the discussion, but this is not the proper place unfortunately. If you wish, we can move the topic to the Music Room.

Glenn Gould often used to say that his preferred composer was Orlando Gibbons, and that any good music either is a fugue or has the character of a fugue. I am not so radical and eccentric, and although I admire Sweelinck greatly, I also like Andriessen's music because in my opinion one cannot avoid the art of his/her times. We have a terrible burden on our shoulders: at least 500 years of music which we have the duty to understand and accept – selectively, for sure, but for no reason rejecting a whole century or school or style in the belief that we use the music we love as a comfortable cut of clothes, ignoring what doesn't suit or fit us. But mine is the point of view of someone who cannot afford to have eccentric preferences. I cannot say 'I hate Richard Strauss' to a student; I can only do my best to show him/her why S. is a great composer independent of our subjective judgment. But today, music critic has only survived by audiophiles, so I very gladly leave the topic to explain music to those who use to quarrel over a piece of wire.

See you around – in the Music room?

Max

(BTW – I just love Richard Strauß).

Max_B posted:

A.,

I agree with most of what you wrote. I'd love to discuss things further, and I'd have stuff for the discussion, but this is not the proper place unfortunately. If you wish, we can move the topic to the Music Room.

Glenn Gould often used to say that his preferred composer was Orlando Gibbons, and that any good music either is a fugue or has the character of a fugue. I am not so radical and eccentric, and although I admire Sweelinck greatly, I also like Andriessen's music because in my opinion one cannot avoid the art of his/her times. We have a terrible burden on our shoulders: at least 500 years of music which we have the duty to understand and accept – selectively, for sure, but for no reason rejecting a whole century or school or style in the belief that we use the music we love as a comfortable cut of clothes, ignoring what doesn't suit or fit us. But mine is the point of view of someone who cannot afford to have eccentric preferences. I cannot say 'I hate Richard Strauss' to a student; I can only do my best to show him/her why S. is a great composer independent of our subjective judgment. But today, music critic has only survived by audiophiles, so I very gladly leave the topic to explain music to those who use to quarrel over a piece of wire.

See you around – in the Music room?

Max

(BTW – I just love Richard Strauß).

Max, I've just posted an follow up in the Music room, having the name 'Mess(iaen)'. It's about my experience this weekend and the reason why I was absent here.

My apologies to the Hifi-enthousiasts here for a rude distortion caused by talking about music. I have some new TT observations and questions which I will post here later. Thanks!