On 24 Oct 2004 16:28:48 GMT, ohawker (Andy
Evans) wrote:

I think Stewart is on to something with acoustical transparency here. I was
just playing a piece by John Cage on the hi-fi and I swapped from valves to a
ss amp. Sounded exactly the same. I swapped in three different DACs - again
sounded the same. I tried nine cables - again, sounded the same. I tried some
floorstand speakers instead of 2 ways. Sounded exactly the same. Turned on the
subwoofer - sounded exactly the same. I had to keep turning back to the
beginning of the track because it's only 4m33secs long. Tripped over the left
speaker cable and pulled it out the back of the amp. Sounded exactly the same.
I tried listening from a different room - it sounded exactly the same. Now this
is the amazing bit - I switched off the whole hi-fi and it sounded exactly the
same. Well, that's not strictly true - I felt the blackness of the backgound
had a more velvety feel.

Ah, I see the problem. You''ll find that this piece has much better
definition and low-level detail on CD. After all, the whole point of
that piece is hall ambience and audience interaction, which you simply
won't hear properly via valves 'n vinyl!
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering