Frankly, I am honored to be the subject of so many interesting, insightful and critical responses. I don't try to stir up trouble for the sake of notoriety, but just describe what I hear, putting it into my perspective of long musical and audio system experience. It will be surprising when I now reveal that my approach to live music is somewhat different than for audio systems. This is relevant because Kren's excellent, informative connoisseurship of Spendor speakers reminded me of a few things. I appreciate Kren's taste in the new more detailed Spendor designs, as having the best combination of the sweet classic Spendor sound with the new technology precision. Spendor is a GREAT classic company founded long before Wilson. When I dumped my huge Maggie Tympani 1D, I got the mini monitor Rogers LS 3/5a, and was hooked on it for a few years for its clarity and naturalness. Someone played a Spendor mini monitor for me, and I appreciated its greater beauty even if the Rogers had more snap.
I know that few people here are interested in violins, but Kren's taste is similar to my holy grail quest for my dream violin my whole life. I have played a few thousand old and new violins made from 1500 to the present. The few rare, highly prized violins now command tens of millions of bucks. I was transfixed when I played a few of them. At one auction, in my left hand I held and contemplated a gorgeous Amati, made in the mid 1600's. This beautiful looking, sweet sounding instrument was owned by Mussolini. This tyrant at least had great taste. In my right hand I held a Stradivarius, made in the early 1700's. Amati made feminine looking sweet instruments that weren't as powerful as those of his best student, Strad, whose innovative sound was bolder, more powerful, not as sweet. Strad is more highly valued today, because it offers the best combination of everything--power, HF brilliance, and still excellent sweetness. 600 Strads survive, I played about a dozen, and one which was truly special. I think of Kren who seems to have optimized the combination of sweetness and brilliance in his choice of his present Spendor D model.
So in my music making, I like the combination of sweetness and brilliance. The trouble is that no audio system approaches my musical experiences as both listener and performer. I regard the live experience as the MUSIC, but view an ideal audio system as merely the passive honest messenger who transparently reveals the news (music), without editorializing the news. I love the colors of the real music, but if the audio system colors or editorializes it, I am losing the real music to an extent. The truth is that all systems editorialize, and I seek the least editorialization. So my quest for the highest clarity and detail in the system is different from my quest for the beautiful colors of the real thing--the live unelectronic music.
Chazzzy, I have used several headphones in my regular audio system. My favorite is Beyerdynamic 880, then AKG 1000, Grado 1000. I tried various electrostatic phones--expensive Sennheiser, Stax going back to 1980. I had hoped that the purity of the stat phones would give me the purity of my stat speakers, but the headphone effect is like being in a closet, which greatly magnifies the bass, muddying everything. I have improved the situation by using small cups around the cushions which give me a little distance from my ears, creating a close range ear speaker. Still, the tonal balance is not as pleasing as my in-room speakers. My favorite phones I listed are dynamic ones. Horrors--I have bashed dynamic room speakers while I like these dynamic phones! Why is this? The dirty secret is clever EQ by the designers of these phones to avoid the confining closet effect of phones on your head, and tailor the sound to the designer's liking. Judicious EQ really works in many situations.
I haven't used these phones on my computer outputs in a long time, so I don't remember whether they benefit me. Part of this is laziness, but many headphone lovers after initial fascination, get tired of it. We like music in a real space like our room or hall, but don't like it given by intravenous injection with the headphone. I'll get out my Beyerdynamic 880's and listen again. So for all of Jay's videos over the last year or two, I have listened with just my iMac stock audio system. It's good enough to let me hear the differences Jay presented.
I wish Kren well on maximizing the potential of his Spendor. If a Chord dac has the precision that opm says, then the Spendor could have that magic marriage of sweetness and even higher clarity, which I enjoyed when I briefly played that great 1736 Strad. Well done, Kren!
