Silky and soft highs: product of coloration?

04-05-08: Sogood51 said:
"Reb1208, and Dcstep

Do you guys have $25,000-$50,000 amplifiers?...(" best of the megabuck power amps").....if not, and it looks like, you do not?"

Huh, why would you think that? I've got a $7000 amp that I bought used for considerably less. I'll probably buy the Jeff Rowland intergrated when it comes out, or either a Capri per with 501 mono-blocks.

I can't understand why someone would pay that kind of money for an amp. My violins and trumpets are all sounding mighty fine as is?

BTW, I played trumpet in an orchestra this week (three performances) including a wonderful viola concerto. The soloist was a dynamite young student artist. Alas, I was sitting twenty-feet in back of her, but, once again, my understanding of how strings really sound was reinforced and confirmed.

Dave

"You are degrading your violins....yes?... And you have just found your "weakest link"."

I found out long ago that the weakest link in my system was Me. That is no longer the case thanks to fearless experimentation and developing advanced DIY skills.

One thing that is tricky about these audio boards and about high end audio is the matter of degree of experience.

For example, the 'man on the street' often has **no idea** what is possible with high end audio. It is one of the things that, if the industry could educate the public, would be an area of industry growth. IOW more people would buy if they knew what is possible.

Similarly, this problem also exists within the community itself. Here on the boards we all use the same language to describe sound and our experience of it, but the degree of experience varies dramatically!

For example, how much would you spend if you could experience a whole new level of transparency and involvement with the music?

Would you go out and buy the amplifier that made that happen for you? How would you be able to tell that its that amp that did it? Especially, how can you tell when there are so many choices, most of which are hard to get to audition?

Herein lies our conversation- some on this list have heard some of the finest amps out there: CAT, Berning, Einstein, (if I may be so bold) Atma-Sphere, DeHavalind, etc., and might have even heard them on a set of speakers with a preamp and recording that actually does them justice!

Sadly, most have not (oh BTW my little list above is leaving off a lot, its just to make a point) and never will. It makes it very tricky to create a conversation like this one and have it make a lot of sense. Even if you have the 'best' amp out there, there is no point if your preamp is not up to snuff!

IME it is very useful to bring a musician into your listening room and have them play. If you can, record them playing. **Then** compare that to what your stereo sounds like! Then it is possible to create an idea of how your system really performs...

04-07-08: Atmasphere said:
"IME it is very useful to bring a musician into your listening room and have them play. If you can, record them playing. **Then** compare that to what your stereo sounds like! Then it is possible to create an idea of how your system really performs..."

I agree in general, BUT this must be done very carefully. First, you must realize that the recording chain is every bit as sensitive as the playback chain. Also realize that almost all mics add coloration.

Ok, so you've got the most incredible recording chain possible and a virtuoso comes to your house and stands between your speakers and plays as you record, but don't amplify. When you play back the image can't possibly match the point-source of the actual instrument. So, it's best to play the feed through the speakers so that you'll hear the same perspective on playback, unfortunately that adds the coloration of the playback system to what you hear.

IME it's best to let the musician play without going through the speakers and then focus almost entirely on timbre on playback. This is still tough because of mic proximity effects and the coloration of the recording chain, particularly the mics. Placement of the mics is tough also.

So, this is MUCH easier said than done.

Hearing live acoustic instruments often, from a variety of perspectives is as good or better, IMHO. The real vs. Memorex thing can be pulled off, but it's not casually done.

Dave

Dave, that's pretty much what we found, but it was very helpful too!