"Andre Jute" wrote in message
ps.com...

west wrote:
"Andre Jute" wrote in message
ps.com...

Patrick Turner wrote:
Andre Jute wrote:

Seeing all the posts about RIAA filters, I can only say I hope
none of
the participants passed on the gene of obsessive shortsightedness
that
draws audiophiles into the wastelands of RIAA. Vinyl discs are bad
enough when good clean CD's are available, but RIAA is a bodge to
correct another bodge. Two bodges don't make it right.

Andre Jute
uses only CD and so has time for more music

I doubt you really know what you are missing out upon.

But all the really keen musically eclectic ppl i know who have vast
cd
collections
indicating a misspent middle age also still enjoy vinyl.
Most find that despite the vast sums they have spent on
cd players and transports, da converters, isolation platforms and
other widgets and gadgets, the humble black disk continues to
delight,
and
give a greater sense of connection to the artist than any CD manages
to
do.

I have been present at a number of AB comparisons where a CD version
and vinyl version of the same material from the same grand old
master
tape
was being played, and we could switch from one to the other,
and vinyl seemed to have more to offer the audiophile subjectively.

Mind you, the whole analog recording process onto tape et all is a
huge
bodge to.

So is FM stereo mulptiplexing.

Never mind the bodges, the sound does not seem to suffer, when they
do
it right, IMHO.

Patrick Turner.

I used to have c8000 vinyl discs, including some old shellac. I sold
the important subcollections and gave the rest away. Vinyl is just too
time-consuming. So much music to listen to, so little time. CDs are a
boon.

I think there is a certain masochism afield among audiophiles. Like
Morgan owners, or MG owners, they think that hardship on one's
pleasures is a symptom of manliness. I don't. I always preferred
Porsche. cars that worked and offered a modicum of comfort, and big-
engined fast tourers rather than harsh, loud sports cars. Same in my
sound systems. I define what I want the sound to be and to do, and
then put it together like that. That is why I think horns and panels
are important, and ultra-simple amplifiers -- and CDs, so that
chaniging the music is quick and easy.

There is nothing wrong with CD sound quality; it is better than good
enough. I decided to go over solely to CD on the day Nimbus, who
transfer ancient discs to CD, sent me a box of CDs including one of
Ponselle that was better than anything you could buy on any other
medium, no matter how much money you spent.

Andre Jute
Our legislators managed to criminalize fox-hunting and smoking; when
they will get off their collective fat backside and criminalize
negative feedback? It is clearly consumed only by the enemies of
fidelity.

And I am not taking a position on the vinyl vs.CD debate but I am
wondering if the convenience of playing both mediums were equal, which
would
you prefer?

That's a good question, West. I would choose CD because it doesn't
wear and it is small. I have 6000 CDs (or so) in a fraction of the
space consumed by 8000 LPs. Vinyl is (for me) simply a nuisance
unjustified by whatever extra audiophiles claim to hear in the
grooves.

Next question, if you don't mind ...what are you using to play your CDs?

Quad CD66 and CD67, very old, very reliable. Both of mine were on
lease to the BBC, then checked over at the factory before they came to
me about fifteen years ago.

Thanks in advance.

west

I guess you're not into SACDs or keeping up with the Jones'. Do you use a
high efficiency horn or those ESL 57s? I'm trying to picture your system
from some of your posts. Perhaps you use 2 systems.

west

Andre Jute
Visit Jute on Amps at http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/
"wonderfully well written and reasoned information
for the tube audio constructor"
John Broskie TubeCAD & GlassWare
"an unbelievably comprehensive web site
containing vital gems of wisdom"
Stuart Perry Hi-Fi News & Record Review

west wrote:
west
:
Next question, if you don't mind ...what are you using to play your CDs?

"Andre Jute" :
Quad CD66 and CD67, very old, very reliable. Both of mine were on
lease to the BBC, then checked over at the factory before they came to
me about fifteen years ago.

west:
I guess you're not into SACDs or keeping up with the Jones'. Do you use a
high efficiency horn or those ESL 57s? I'm trying to picture your system
from some of your posts. Perhaps you use 2 systems.

west

SACD is an irrelevance, another case the Himalayan Wasting Disease, of
engineers doing something because they can, when, if they had first
put their minds in gear, they would have discovered that it is
unnecessary.

I don't know who these Jones people are who expect me to follow
whatever fashion they have succumbed to this week. I make it a
principle never to do what people expect simply because they expect
it. The expectations of little people are an attempt to drag their
betters down to their level.

I don't have systems in the sense you mean, as in someone having a
listening room with a fixed setup; I don't have time to sit in a
listening room; I listen to music in my study and studio as I work; my
son has his own i-Pod/computer based system and my wife prefers to
read in silence though we could play music on the DVD player in her
room. I have ESL57, ESL63, horns of my own manufacture but built on
the Lowther Fidelio factory-cut wood with Lowther PM6Å, bigger
tractrix horns of my own design, various quarterwave pipes (I have for
instance a pair spefically tuned long to enhance the bass on Gregorian
Chant), Bang & Olufsen S25 (a copy of a very fine Goodmans bentback
bookshelf speaker of the 1960s), little Coral drivers in coconuts that
a Swiss designer sent me as computer speaks, ditto some from Apple,
and probably some more. I just play whichever speakers seem suitable
for whatever amp I want to use; in the middle of the night I often use
Sennheiser or Stax (electrostatic) earphones (I'm using Stax now -- I
have various tube and silicon amps both bought and of my own devising
specifically for driving earphones). In tubes I have SE amps from
about a third of a watt to about 80W, and PP amps from around 10W in
Class Å to over 100W in Class AB, plus of course silicon amps from
c10W to 150W, either of my own design and construction or from Quad
and Audiolab. The only speakers I have permanently rigged are ESL63,
which I use as a reference; the only amp I have permanently rigged is
Quad 405 MkII with an accompanying Quad 34 control amp (the last is
very useful for having a mono-ing button, to test amps of which you
have built only one channel, or a single speaker). I have more CD
players than the Quad 66 and 67 but I never use them; the Quads are
just too good to bother swapping players in and out, so they to are
permanently in use. Stuff I don't use is just packed up in boxes or
stands on the floor; I don't bother with "audiophile" conditioning of
the room -- book and CD lines walls do me fine, together with thick
carpets and throwmats for extra absobency anywhere I am likely to sit;
I live in a Georgian house at least 200 years old so the rooms have
high ceilings and abutments for fireplaces, which are all good, and
the converted attic where I spend most of my time has a sloping roof,
which is even better. I've been threatening for years to hide all the
cables and move the surplus gear out of sight into another room and
get a glass desk and a leather captain's seat (I sit on a cloth
covered high-backed chair office I designed and licensed to a company
which sells ergonomic gear) and become elegant but there is always new
work and no idle time in which to lounge elegantly. Maybe when I'm old
I'll be elegant and have an "audiophile system" and take myself and it
very seriously.

HTH.

Still working my way through my Handel disks. Now playing Fabio
Biondi's world premiere recording of Poro with Europa Galante (Opus
111).

Andre Jute
Visit Jute on Amps at http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/
"wonderfully well written and reasoned information
for the tube audio constructor"
John Broskie TubeCAD & GlassWare
"an unbelievably comprehensive web site
containing vital gems of wisdom"
Stuart Perry Hi-Fi News & Record Review