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A few Listening Sessions

Posted by stellavox (A) on April 26, 2009 at 08:08:04

I want to describe the results of a few listening sessions. The first included me; my son; a friend Neil Newman and his visiting nephew who may now also be interested in “Hi-Fi” – or after these “goings on”, maybe not!

We listened to and compared tape playback equipment. The “candidate” equipment, in the order listened was:

1. A “stock” Lyrec Frieda – in very good condition; checked out, but NOT aligned (that is next). With Bogen heads (I believe) – minimal wear.
2. My “tweaked Stellavox Sp7 with a Nortronics professional playback head.
3. An “”in progress” Sp7 with a Nortronics professional head wired out to Cello electronics.
4. A Nagra IV-SJ with Flux Magnetics heads, switchable 2 track or quarter-track, feeding Manley tubed playback electronics

The source material was a master of a big-band Jazz group that I made. Playback system was my King/Cello Palette preamplifier; Tweaked Lazarus H1A, class A hybrid amp and Quad ESL-63’s with a homebrew ESL-63 center channel woofer.

Neil compiled the results:

Lyrec Frieda: midbass thick – brass recessed – dynamics in general a little soft

Nagra/Manley: Low bass good; midbass tight; treble definition just OK; image shallow and “inside” speakers

Stellavox – good imaging; good low bass; better low level dynamic detail; top end better than others but still compressed

Stellavox(Nortronics)/Cello – low/mid bass very dynamic and controlled (less compressed); deep/wide soundstage; best detail

We stopped; I outlined a few of my “theories”, then we listened again to determine if the others could pick up on my “thoughts, on which they seemed to concur. Now, I’ve mentioned in previous posts that in addition to differences in playback electronics, I can hear noticeable differences between tape heads. This session reinforced my opinion and the others concurred. Nortronics heads “let through significantly more information” than the Flux Magnetics (and from past experience Nagra). I have not had the opportunity to make a similar comparison with Technics or other Japanese heads but do have and will arrange similar sessions to compare a few different Bogen heads. The solid-state electronics (Cello especially) provided significantly more detail - we could easily pinpoint individual instruments and their location on/in the soundstage; the Manley blended/smeared this information.

A couple of weeks later I had the opportunity to borrow a Bottlehead Tape Repro device and had another listening session with a visiting friend. We compared the Bottlehead to the Cello electronics using the Stella(Nortronics) deck. “Firmware” used was the wonderful Tape Project Arnold Overtures. Bottlehead electronics was very smooth and dynamic but, like the Manley, had imaging problems. Soundstage with the Cello was immense with each instrument/instrumental group detailed and focused – Bottlehead “coagulated” things and just didn’t seem to have anywhere near the same resolving power.

I have some theories on what’s going on, especially with the tape heads but that is for a later date.

Charles

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