MrT, Sound Labs had several hundred square feet of electrostatics filling a large room. They used Emm digital to demonstrate a recreation of a drum and bugle corp on a football field. It was very impressive indeed. I've heard that sound from both on the field and in the stands. It was simply incredible.
The IsoMike recordings used have incredible sound stage and ultra real timbres.
For me the demo clearly showed the best and worst of electrostatics. The good was the wonderful midrange and timbral accuracy. The worst is it took HUGE curved arrays to achieve this stunning presentation. If you moved to a single flat panel, we all know what happens.
Dave |
Jazdoc remined me of Sound Smith's strain guage and moving iron cartridges. I actually bought The Voice, Peter's top moving iron choice. Not only was the vinyl very impressive, but little two-way minis gave a big musical sound.
An extra treat for me was to hear Jon Pousette-Dart and Sean McGowan play my guitar. For those that didn't see the live performances, Peter usually started with a cut of John Hart playing my guitar, "Spot", made by master luthier Ken Parker. Believe me, that was a very realistic sound.
Dave |
Outlier, it's always interesting to see the show reports of a show that many attended. You loved the Utopias, but I thought that they were amongst the worst in the show. I focused on the presentation of Jennifer Warnes' and Mark Knoffler's voices. The sound effects music ran me out after about four cuts. Still, I understand where you come from. The bass was indeed big and powerful.
We all have different perspectives and focus our listening differently. This highlights the need to listen for yourselves and attend these kinds of events if you can. When you rely on the reviews of others, then you'll need to get real familiar with the reviewer to find anything of use.
Your summary was great Outlier.
Dave |
I find that I can get to know reviewers over time, even here on A'gon. When I'm able to do that, their input is valuable to me. As you say, others may have different tastes and would be mistaken to follow the same reviewer's lead.
One example is Art Dudley at Stereophile. There's very little that he likes that I'd put in my system. I'm not knocking Art, just saying that he and I come from two different angles. I learned this over a period of time. I still read his reviews, since he only chaps my ass when he gets political, which I hate in my audio reading. ;-(
Dave |
Good luck with the dyi Master Set Drubin. I'll just say, "take your time and don't give up." It took the Sumiko and Soundings guys SIX HOURS to set the Die Musicks. Toward the end, when it was 'almost' perfect, I was amazed at the impact of moving the speaker one spike-width or tilting it from verticle by a degree or two.
Dave |
There was no A-B comparison in the Sounds Real Audio room, so you just heard good sound, with the PD pushing through some nice tube amps into Wilson Benesch. I felt like the speakers were way too far into the room, away from the walls, so that most of the sound we heard came from the speakers. They needed more bass support from the room. Still, it was nice sounding and Jim did a nice job of showing them off, getting about 90+% of their potential.
The Soundings room really had the speakers at their full potential. (Guido and I watched them spend six-hours setting the speakers0. Unfortnately Rod occasionally lapsed into playing the soundtrack from "My Cousin Vinny" and a few other sound effects style tracks. When he focused on music it was pure bliss. Also, the big horn system next door kept overpowering that room and coming through the walls and down the hall (the clod kept his door open much of the time). Still, anyone that wanted to could judge the potential for themselves with little or no interpolation.
Despite these occasional problems, the Soundings room was so revealing and musical that everyone immediately recognized a change of CDP player and many people stayed through more than one "set". I never came back to the room when it wasn't SRO.
Dave |
Glory, there's lots of chatter about the PD here on A'gon. You'll be able to find a ton with the search function. I'm just glad to finally get some company in my view of the PD.
Could you name a few of the other CDPs that you listened to?
Dave |
Gawdbless, I have to disagree with you, in general. Most CDPs do sound pretty horrid through even the very best ancillary equipment, IME.
I own a Playback Designs, but unlike Glory I think that there are other contenders, such as Emm, dCS and Esoteric that are excellent in many respects. So far, the PD is my favorite, but I could "live" with some of the others.
Lot's of people do put systems together to cover up the weakness of digital, IMHO. They try to roll off highs and homoginize the mids, but I prefer systems that transparency and accurate highs. Unfortunately, only the best CDP will sound good in such systems, IME.
Dave |
A lot has happened in 20-years Tbg. Digital is finally maturing, with upsampling strategies and hard drive server-based systems. I haven't done hard drive yet, but I will within the next year or so. Playback Designs will soon have a separate DAC and ADC. I expect to use the ADC to convert my D2D LPs to digital and move my high rez digital to a server with terabytes of storage. The next generation of HDs will likely close the gap.
I've got CD, SACD, DVD-A and analog and find that they're finally converging in quality.
Dave |
For the record, my CD/SACD player costs $10,000. You've got the speakers' cost about right.
Dave |
Gawdbless, are you arguing with me about what I paid for my Playback Designs MPS-5??? I paid $10,000 and it's still available for that price.
No one's made a great sounding CDP for #1,000 that I've heard.
Dave |
The PD now (October 2008) costs $10,000, just in case Gawdbless has confused anyone.
BTW Gawdbless, what's all this talk about drums?? Have you got drum-envy or something? It seems to be a recurring theme that you intertwine in many conversations. I hear live drummers every week (real drums, not that synth stuff), in either my right ear or left ear, depending on how the band stand is set up. (I carry earplugs in my guitar and trumpet cases, for those "special" drummers that hurt my ears).
I do agree that reproduction of drums and other percussion are a big part of any good system. We all have different priorities and mine lean toward accurate midrange with stress free, musical production. Maybe this is why I prefer my CDPs to be free of glare and haze, while others don't find this particularly important.
Dave |
Sarcher30, did you mean Vienna Acoustic "Die Muzik" or "The Music" instead of "The Voice"?
Dave |
"The Voice" is a cartridge by Soundsmith (I bought one).
Dave |
