A few detail corrections here, where my meaning doesn't seem to have been
correctly understood:

What it does have is a lot of nothing - nothing between individual instruments
except space.

It's absolutely *not* 'nothing', some of us call it atmosphere..... (SP)

Yes of course - but what I was trying to say here was that there was 'nothing'
in the places bewteen instruments in place of the larger image of the
instrument caused by resonances etc.

b) I've done all this by ear
Me too, but under controlled conditions.(SP)
As I said, when I AB componants I do it one change at a time, and if possible
put the system back again to verify the change. I also control what I listen to
(acoustic music which is a known reference) and what I listen for (timbre and
known low level details which are nearly inaudible)
How, precisely, is Stewart listening differently from this?

ss versus valve - no comment, we've been there countless times, except:
"it's very difficult - and extremely expensive - to achieve sonic transparency
using valves."(SP)
It may be difficult and time consuming, but not expensive if you build
yourself. If you are going to buy, a Nagra VPA will set you back over £10k it
is true, but then so will a lot of ss amps.

"Anything which does not sound *exactly* like a top-class solid state amp is
not removing 'greyness', it's *adding* artifacts.(SP)
Well, this is where we disagree, as you well know and as I pointed out from the
first.

Then I wired my whole system through a monster variac which I have (25
amps). Obviously an effective mains cleaner.

No, it has no effect at all (SP)

Now this is where you constantly get into real trouble, Stewart. You are not
present when members of this newsgroup tweak their systems, you are not
listening so you can't possibly hear anything or comment factually, yet you
persist in telling people what they are hearing. Frankly, it's bizarro stuff.

That's what a Variac is *for*, it varies AC - Variac, geddit? (SP)
Stewart, you ar not the only person on this ng who knows what a Variac is

An isolation transformer is an *entirely* different beast,
An isolation transformer is a toroid with 230v in and 230v out, unless my
electronics catalogues are lying. You may be talking about balanced power lines
here?

BTW, sounds like you may have a hum problem in your system, 50Hz as
opposed to PSU ripple.

Now this is constructive. I've been reading about this on DIY audio, including
how to use probes since in some countries neutral is referenced to earth. I
really know very little about this, since cleaning mains supplies is completely
new to me.





=== Andy Evans ===
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