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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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In Reply to: What was your "Eureka!" audio moment? posted by tinear on April 2, 2013 at 11:23:16:
1. I was in the (now-defunct) Record Theatre store in Cleveland (Mayfield Hts.) OH, back in 1980 when I was a freshman in college. The Bob Seger song “Still the Same” emanated from Altec “Voice of the Theater” speakers suspended from the ceiling in the store. I just noticed so much more of the song than I recall hearing it so many times over the radio. I was into audio at the time, but never realized how much more of the recording could be heard, through a primo system.....2. In my second year of college, I went to UC Santa Barbara.... I first became aware of the high-end audio, and the publication “The Absolute Sound”..... And read how awful my phono cartridge (Shure V-15 Type IV) was.... After some research, I purchased a Grace F-9E cartridge.... It was the first time I attained really nice sound from my audio system. My first “high end” system was the Grace F-9E on a souped-up Technics SL-1700 Mk2 turntable, Kimber Kable, Amber Series 70 amplifer, and Saras of America 11 speakers.
3. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, I was one who had a growing disdain for CD playback....... I had an audiophile friend who called these silver discs “compact disasters”..... I really had doubts in regard to the sonic capabilities of CD playback......
Then in the early 1990s, while I was in Cleveland... Took a trek to the Sound Resource high-end store in Beachwood, OH. There was a large listening room with Jeff Rowland 9 Monoblocks, and a Wadia 7 CD transport and 9 Decoding Computer, and Avalon Ascent speakers..... The music was Stravinsky’s “Petrouchka”, the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Pierre Boulez. One of the best all-solid state systems I’ve heard. And my thoughts on CD playback were changed forever. For the first time, I heard CD playback that had a refined top end, “air” around the musicians, and a sense of presence in the hall. (It was almost like I was able to smell the floor polish at Severance Hall.) I gazed at the CD jewel case and CD, and was listening to heaven.....
I then purchased this very recording, and on my own system, wasn’t even close to what I heard on that system. But now I knew that CD was a capable medium...... I’ve since strived to replicate that type of presentation I heard on that system in Cleveland..... And although I never equaled the Wadia rig, I think I’m close enough to where I’m now happy with the CD playback. (Although the journey took LOTS of trial and error.)
4. The first time I heard Rush perform “Spirit of Radio” in the flesh...... 1985.... Pacific Amphitheatre in California..... And realized how much is really lost between the live event and a top-flight home audio..... And the passion to use live events as a sonic reference for improving home audio. (The most "electric" thing I've heard live was the sequencer/Lifeson riff/Peart glockenspiel playing together during the song.... I've heard this performed live about five more times after that, but it was never the same after Peart moved from an acoustic glockenspiel to an electronic one.)
5. The Philadelphia Orchestra concerts I attended at the Academy of Music...... Although the hall was never placed in the same echelon acoustically as Boston’s Symphony Hall or Vienna’s Musikverein, the acoustic presence of the orchestra was epiphanic, and once again provided a great reference to strive for in home sound. (I’ve had not been to the Verizon Hall at Kimmel Center, the Orchestra’s current home.)
6. Listening to Peter “Reverend” Clark’s system for the first time...... Custom cabinet and driver work, custom vinyl playback. Don Allen amplifiers. Still the best system (and best vinyl playback) I've ever heard.
The wacky part is I didn’t initially seek Don Allen’s products, because I presumed the prices would be through the roof.... Kind of like Lamm Audio or Wavac...... I was stunned when I found out his products were affordable.
7. Listening to the Don Allen modified Philips 935 CD changer for the first time.... It brought memories of the Wadia 7/9 moment in Cleveland.... I since acquired this player, and it has been my CD source of choice for the past three years.
The Philips 935 changer IMO has an incredible DAC section, but it never got any notoriety because the sound was held back by its analog electronics. Don's upgrade basically replaces the analog output stage with his tube output stage, the DAC section then shines through.
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Follow Ups
- Quite a Few, Over the Years............ - Todd Krieger 04/2/1320:21:56 04/2/13 (3)
- Those awful Shure V15 cartridges - LousyTourist 04:14:23 04/3/13 (1)
- I Was Told......... - Todd Krieger 17:58:53 04/3/13 (0)
- Duntech Sovereign's - aaahhhhh - 701 20:55:39 04/2/13 (0)
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