"What HiFi" - can it be trusted?
 

"Stewart Pinkerton" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 22:40:44 -0000, "Keith G"
wrote:

"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message
...

2) SS amps - May be more accurate, so the amp has relatively little
'sound'
of its own, hence the 'sound' depends more on the input than the amp.
Some
people prefer this as it allows them to hear more clearly what was
recorded
or broadcast and avoids applying the same 'effect' to everything they
hear.

OK, but very often has other 'effects' like killing the imaging, timbre
and
detail as well as trapping the sound firmly in the same plane as the
speakers.....

No Keith, those things were never in the input signal. What you like
about valves is the artifacts that they *add* to the sound, not
anything that SS amps magically remove.


Lack - I never said 'remove'.....


BTW, SS amps certainly do not
'trap the sound firmly in the same plane as the speakers' if you have
decent speakers.


You tell me - Ruark Paladins and B&W CDM1SEs (all 'rock steady') atm.....


The vague phasiness of a lot of valve amps might help
out some typically cold and clinical modern box speakers, but that's
still an artifice, not *high fidelity* sound.


'HiFi' is as 'HiFi' does - means a lot of different things to different
people. I dislike the phrase other than to distinguish 'home audio
entertainment' kit from, say, 'home theatre' gear'. The phrase 'the stereo'
will do equally well, often as not.

My requirements differ from those of the normal 'audiophile', I think - my
valves and (you know what) sound far more 'lifelike' to me than CD/SS ever
could. (Tried enough of it, both ways, in my time.)

If it helps, I readily admit a strong preference for 'listenability' over
'metered accuracy' but I ain't stupid enough to know that 'accuracy' isn't
important - it's a question of to what degree and at what cost AFAIAC......

"What HiFi" - can it be trusted?
 

"Stewart Pinkerton" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 22:40:44 -0000, "Keith G"
wrote:

"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message
...

2) SS amps - May be more accurate, so the amp has relatively little
'sound'
of its own, hence the 'sound' depends more on the input than the amp.
Some
people prefer this as it allows them to hear more clearly what was
recorded
or broadcast and avoids applying the same 'effect' to everything they
hear.

OK, but very often has other 'effects' like killing the imaging, timbre
and
detail as well as trapping the sound firmly in the same plane as the
speakers.....

No Keith, those things were never in the input signal. What you like
about valves is the artifacts that they *add* to the sound, not
anything that SS amps magically remove.


Lack - I never said 'remove'.....


BTW, SS amps certainly do not
'trap the sound firmly in the same plane as the speakers' if you have
decent speakers.


You tell me - Ruark Paladins and B&W CDM1SEs (all 'rock steady') atm.....


The vague phasiness of a lot of valve amps might help
out some typically cold and clinical modern box speakers, but that's
still an artifice, not *high fidelity* sound.


'HiFi' is as 'HiFi' does - means a lot of different things to different
people. I dislike the phrase other than to distinguish 'home audio
entertainment' kit from, say, 'home theatre' gear'. The phrase 'the stereo'
will do equally well, often as not.

My requirements differ from those of the normal 'audiophile', I think - my
valves and (you know what) sound far more 'lifelike' to me than CD/SS ever
could. (Tried enough of it, both ways, in my time.)

If it helps, I readily admit a strong preference for 'listenability' over
'metered accuracy' but I ain't stupid enough to know that 'accuracy' isn't
important - it's a question of to what degree and at what cost AFAIAC......

"What HiFi" - can it be trusted?
 

"Stewart Pinkerton" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 22:49:33 -0000, "Keith G"
wrote:

"Stewart Pinkerton" wrote in message
...

SS=accurate, so if you have a great recording, you get great sound,
but if you have a bad recording, you get bad sound.

Also close but no cigar - I have got (thankfully) a lot of great
recordings
that sound superb, but if I get a bad recording that I don't like (rare),
I
'recycle' it.......

Asithappens, I've also got a number of *lousy* recordings that sound
quite
superb - Django Reinhardt, Mahalia Jackson and Edith Piaf, to name but a
few. (Know what I mean?)

Accurate? - Oooh, I shouldn't think so.......

Quite so, but they're still bad recordings of great performances. Bad
sound, but you can hear through that to the performance,


Always.

Cheapest tweak in the world is get out of the chair and move back a bit or
even out of the room if necessary. (Says that sitting in a bungalow....)


which is what
really matters.


Yup.


That's why I still have a vinyl rig..................


Never mind - I won't tell anyone if you don't!

:-)

"What HiFi" - can it be trusted?
 

"Stewart Pinkerton" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 22:49:33 -0000, "Keith G"
wrote:

"Stewart Pinkerton" wrote in message
...

SS=accurate, so if you have a great recording, you get great sound,
but if you have a bad recording, you get bad sound.

Also close but no cigar - I have got (thankfully) a lot of great
recordings
that sound superb, but if I get a bad recording that I don't like (rare),
I
'recycle' it.......

Asithappens, I've also got a number of *lousy* recordings that sound
quite
superb - Django Reinhardt, Mahalia Jackson and Edith Piaf, to name but a
few. (Know what I mean?)

Accurate? - Oooh, I shouldn't think so.......

Quite so, but they're still bad recordings of great performances. Bad
sound, but you can hear through that to the performance,


Always.

Cheapest tweak in the world is get out of the chair and move back a bit or
even out of the room if necessary. (Says that sitting in a bungalow....)


which is what
really matters.


Yup.


That's why I still have a vinyl rig..................


Never mind - I won't tell anyone if you don't!

:-)

"What HiFi" - can it be trusted?
 

On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 14:04:01 -0000
"Keith G" wrote:

Lack - I never said 'remove'.....

Actually you did. unless 'killing the imaging' doesnt count as removing something...

--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with ketchup.

"What HiFi" - can it be trusted?
 

On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 14:04:01 -0000
"Keith G" wrote:

Lack - I never said 'remove'.....

Actually you did. unless 'killing the imaging' doesnt count as removing something...

--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with ketchup.

"What HiFi" - can it be trusted?
 

On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 13:47:28 -0000
"Keith G" wrote:


Consider these two entirely different forms of distortion - the close-up,
cosy, 'muffled' tone of an old Bogart movie and the 'cavernous', tinny sound
of a Bollywood movie (when they are dancing and singing those songs where
every word ends in 'air'). In your opinion, is the sound ruined in either
case?

TBH I like neither type of sound ;-)


--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with ketchup.

"What HiFi" - can it be trusted?
 

On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 13:47:28 -0000
"Keith G" wrote:


Consider these two entirely different forms of distortion - the close-up,
cosy, 'muffled' tone of an old Bogart movie and the 'cavernous', tinny sound
of a Bollywood movie (when they are dancing and singing those songs where
every word ends in 'air'). In your opinion, is the sound ruined in either
case?

TBH I like neither type of sound ;-)


--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with ketchup.

"What HiFi" - can it be trusted?
 

On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 14:54:24 +0000
Kurt Hamster wrote:

music is only made of sounds you know...

A cake is only made of ingredients you know.

What do you consider the audio equivalent of the 'baking' process then?

And a bad performance is not necessarily only due to the musicians -
the conductor isnt garaunteed to be good...

But he isn't likely to be the one to blame for a raucous sound coming
from the 3rd violin though now is he?

No, but he'd be to blame for not giving the 3rd violin a good rap on the
knuckles with a sharp baton...

I *was* unhappy when my old recordings sounded worse.

I was *very* quickly made happy again when I heard just how amazing
my*good* recordings sounded.

It still doesn't mean you were no longer unhappy about the bad ones
though.

Of course. however I felt the improvement in my good tracks outweight
the small hardship of re-aquiring my bad ones.

So I need to get better recordings of some tracks. not much to pay
for how good my GOOD tracks now sound.

I'd like to see how you'd manage it if you were a fan of, say, Django
Reinhardt or Lonnie Johnson.

I'd probably beg borrow scrounge or build a valve amp or valve-amp
emulator or something.

You have no idea what I spent on my gear.

If you spent just one penny then it would make your wallet lighter
would it not?

I'd consider anyone putting a hifi together for 1 penny to have got a bargain.

Not to mention all the money you've saved ripping off all those
musicians.

Who says I am?

A skinflint rip-off artist apparently.

I guess you dont know that I try to send money to artists via other channels, or pay to see them (not had the chance of late though) then?

If I cant find ANY way I sometimes buy a CD.

I *refuse* to pay good money to comapnies (the artists see sod all in most cases) for low quality, badly mastered garbage with about one half awful version of a track I like on it.

Record companies have themselves to blame. I do buy originals, eg. DVDs, when I consider the price fair (none of my DVDs cost over 7ukp (most were ~5ukp))

Get off the soapbox please.

--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with
ketchup.

"What HiFi" - can it be trusted?
 

On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 14:54:24 +0000
Kurt Hamster wrote:

music is only made of sounds you know...

A cake is only made of ingredients you know.

What do you consider the audio equivalent of the 'baking' process then?

And a bad performance is not necessarily only due to the musicians -
the conductor isnt garaunteed to be good...

But he isn't likely to be the one to blame for a raucous sound coming
from the 3rd violin though now is he?

No, but he'd be to blame for not giving the 3rd violin a good rap on the
knuckles with a sharp baton...

I *was* unhappy when my old recordings sounded worse.

I was *very* quickly made happy again when I heard just how amazing
my*good* recordings sounded.

It still doesn't mean you were no longer unhappy about the bad ones
though.

Of course. however I felt the improvement in my good tracks outweight
the small hardship of re-aquiring my bad ones.

So I need to get better recordings of some tracks. not much to pay
for how good my GOOD tracks now sound.

I'd like to see how you'd manage it if you were a fan of, say, Django
Reinhardt or Lonnie Johnson.

I'd probably beg borrow scrounge or build a valve amp or valve-amp
emulator or something.

You have no idea what I spent on my gear.

If you spent just one penny then it would make your wallet lighter
would it not?

I'd consider anyone putting a hifi together for 1 penny to have got a bargain.

Not to mention all the money you've saved ripping off all those
musicians.

Who says I am?

A skinflint rip-off artist apparently.

I guess you dont know that I try to send money to artists via other channels, or pay to see them (not had the chance of late though) then?

If I cant find ANY way I sometimes buy a CD.

I *refuse* to pay good money to comapnies (the artists see sod all in most cases) for low quality, badly mastered garbage with about one half awful version of a track I like on it.

Record companies have themselves to blame. I do buy originals, eg. DVDs, when I consider the price fair (none of my DVDs cost over 7ukp (most were ~5ukp))

Get off the soapbox please.

--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with
ketchup.