Gdhal so true, maybe their greatest legacy aside from Rock’s first and foremost "jam band" is allowing themselves to be recorded during their concerts. Agreed, Workingsman Dead and American Beauty are definitely the place to start to those unfamiliar with this band. Love the passion btw and expected a little backlash. I’m just a mere fan rather than a bonafide "dead head".
Schiit not that Good?
Schiit was at AXPONA again this year. They were showing a Salk music server streaming into a Gungnir Multibit (?) feeding a Freya and two Vidars. Speakers were the Salk Song 3As.
So what happened?
Esoteric was just next door. This allowed attendees to move immediately from one room to another. Esoteric was showing a full stack of thier latest separates plus a VPI Avenger for analog. Speakers were a pair of Cantons I didn’t get the model of.
The Schiit room, while not bad, was completely destroyed by the Esoteric room. Esoteric played one SACD that unfurled a massive soundstage that I could sense even not being in the best seat. The sound of the Esoteric system, both via SACD and vinyl was dynamic, resolving, extremely musical, collected, vibrant, both large and delicately structured. It was a system that got all the minor details right. Such a good setup. The Schiit setup, while unoffensive, clean, and musical in its own right, simply couldn’t face the Esoteric in inner detail, soundstage, reality and low-level dynamics.
Why did the Schiit system fail so hard vs the Esoteric? Part of the reason might have been the junk cabling used by Schiit. Peaking behind the system I was Blue Jeans speaker cables and mess of power bricks, basic cabling, etc. I don’t know how much of the Schiit’s performance was compromised by inferior cabling, but I’m curious how close it would have come to the Esoteric had Schiit paid some basic attention to that area.
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Read this article about the Dead’s introduction to good sound - and parallel universes. "At the time, live sound at rock concerts was extremely primitive. Musicians plugged their instruments into amplifiers connected to single-channel speakers. There were no onstage monitors, so musicians couldn’t hear one another. Owsley wanted the Dead not only to be clearly heard but also in stereo, a concept so far ahead of its time that it would be ten years before such systems were installed in movie theaters. Thanks to Owsley, the Dead were soon playing through four immense Altec Voice of the Theatre A7 speakers powered by four McIntosh 240 stereo tube amplifiers as delicate as they were huge." |
Judgmentday, I feel your pain...I have an amazing sounding dual mono balanced Kavent S-33/Vincent (rebadged for reasons I don't understand) preamp that I have actually dragged to friend's houses to see if it sounded any better than other things, and it does. After owning a Freya for 6 months or so I recently stuck the Kavent back in the system and it still sounds great, but the Freya sounds better. Tubes…NOS Sylvanias, etc., and note that the Freya is so inexpensive relative to its features and sound quality that there actually is no current competition for it in the marketplace, except for maybe the Schiit Saga which gets good reviews and is simpler. OK Judgmentday, you can stop reading now. Also, regarding great sound back in the day, many other bands that cared about sound used piles of Altec A7s, including a Bob Dylan and the Hawks show I saw in Hawaii in 1966 or something…loud and life changing. |
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