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.

=== Andy Evans ===
Visit our Website:- http://www.artsandmedia.com
Audio, music and health pages and interesting links.

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.

Pity you forgot to turn it on.

Ian
--
Ian Bell

"Ian Bell" wrote in message
...
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.

Pity you forgot to turn it on.


He didn't need to turn it - he probably zipped a two second clip of the
music through his spectrum analyzer. Tells you all you need to know.....
;-)

"Andy Evans" reported...

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.


I tried that, but found I had an increased sense of background noise. It
sounded almost as if I was listening to the sound of distant traffic.

I tried repositioning all the furniture in the room, removing the carpets,
then replacing them and adding thick wall hangings. This didn't help.

The only thing that made a difference was fitting triple glazing. Oh, and
adding a pipe and slippers. . . . and a Labrador. A black one.

_______
Geoff B

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

In article ,
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.

You can't hear the difference between speakers etc when listening to a
room or hall ambience?

You'd not make a pro. This is often used as a quick preliminary check on
the characteristics of a microphone before even rehearsals start.

You may mean it as a joke, but that's rather brought into question your
pronouncements on other matters - if this ever needed conformation.

One of my most used wild tracks consists of about 100 people sitting in a
court room doing near enough nothing - and certainly not talking...

--
*Proofread carefully to see if you any words out or mispeld something *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

You may mean it as a joke, but that's rather brought into question your
pronouncements on other matters

Check Cage 4m33

=== Andy Evans ===
Visit our Website:- http://www.artsandmedia.com
Audio, music and health pages and interesting links.

"Andy Evans" wrote in message
...
You may mean it as a joke, but that's rather brought into question your
pronouncements on other matters

Check Cage 4m33


Did I see that dickhead make some remark about recording 'ambience'?

Must be for 'digital' - 'ambience' is one the areas in which vinyl trounces
CD for 'listening quality'....

(So that says a fair bit, dunnit....??? :-)

Did I see that dickhead make some remark about recording 'ambience'?

No, actually Stewart's dead right there - 4'33 is all about ambience. I must
have a poor recording of it.................... Andy

=== Andy Evans ===
Visit our Website:- http://www.artsandmedia.com
Audio, music and health pages and interesting links.

On 25 Oct 2004 09:40:37 GMT, ohawker (Andy
Evans) wrote:

You may mean it as a joke, but that's rather brought into question your
pronouncements on other matters

Check Cage 4m33

We all know that piece, and it sounds very different on vinyl and CD,
as you would expect, and also very different depending on where it is
performed. Hence the comment above. You seem predictably unable to
understand the subtleties of music reproduction.
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering