Another pointless Mana debate

The big problem for all of us is percieved differences and justifying our purchases, it is something we will never get away from unfortunatly

 

James,
The room issues are almost resolved, the speakers are in contact with the floor (indirectly) are a mere 2.5" from their intended height, my bass is invisable and well in the centre of the sound stage, my sound is articulate, groovy, quick quick, rhythmic and powerful, has great depth and texture, is detailed and oh so involving & the speakers have disappeared. Oh its slightly dynamic . Guess what no **** either strange that really

 

Paul I accept your right to be wrong also, this is only a paradox if there is an absolute answer which ther isn't as this is all very subjective, if I said that gravity exerts 12m/s/s then this is clearly wrong, however if i said that to me (from my point of reference) this does sound accurate then who are you to tell me I'm not, even the engineers mixing the stuff will find different qualities that are important to them, doesn't make them wrong, as with all subjective things Paul there is no right and wrong.

No one has yet answered the reason why these speakers are so accurate in ATC's development labs and on factory stands in studio floors, yet Bub maintains that they are more accurate in his system than they were on the factory stands, does he know something ATC don't?

 

Funny that Tony I would describe my system in much the same way particularly about bass in centre of stage(unless on the odd occasion it has been mixed in stereo with pans to left right etc) and speakers dissapearing, my speakers are on aluminium legs that have the m8 spikes screwed into them so are not in direct contact with the floor, but the funny thing is the same cannot be said of James' system, yes it amkes a nice sound but I was constantly aware of the speakers, sounded like the kind of soundstage you get from a £100 ghetto blaster, maybe we are after different things and if we choose our equipment to enhance these things then are we not both correct?....Paul R

 

This is fine James I accept your different opinion

This smacks of arrogance James "Pretty hard act to follow",......IMHO.... would be a lot better

Margaret would not do this james she thinks we are a bunch of nerds.

And I'm not sure If I will be able to tell the difference as I don't think my accoustic memory is that good.

 

Well the Meadowlartks sit on a 35mm Granite plinth (concrete floor and carpeted), spikes are removed and they sit on 3 Stillpoints with raisers.
Rough 1/2 and inch more than manufacturer inteneded.
The system drives the room now rather than the other way round, they are still some nodes, but these don't have have anywhere near the effect they used to with the GR 20's.
Basically is makes for a very invovling and 'Live' sound which I like, hence why my cd collection have expanded by 15% in the 3 months.
Its not correct by Hifi standards, but then what is correct or right, I've never found it yet

 

Have you tried the Blue Herons in that room yet, Tone?

-- Ian

 

ATC are well aware of Mana stands: JW demo'd the stands to them at the factory.

 

The ATCs are almost universally very highly regarded transducers, not just by me!

 

You could sweeten it by offering to help set it up and to pay for the return postage just in case, after all its hardly a free experiment otherwise.


Cheers

Jason

 

I am not some sort of Mana go-between. I am more than happy to help with setting-up, if asked nicely, but that's it.

 

'Hifi' isn't 'subjective'. The aim isn't to create pleasing sounds or effects, that's the artists job.

Paul

 

I find that the bass is rarely mixed centre. Odd that.

Paul

 

'Hifi' isn't 'subjective'. The aim isn't to create pleasing sounds or effects, that's the artists job.

Absolutely agree with that. The aim is high fidelity to whatever source/medium is used. You can hear very easily when something sounds wrong, this is why I mostly use well-recorded acoustic music to assess hi-fi systems.

At analoguekid's place, Bach's oboe concertoes had become something else.

 

Ian,

Simple answer is No sir, I really should get my arse in gear and try them, I'm pleased with the results so far with the system, so it really is time I placed them in situ and tried em.

 

paul / bub
i'd ask what your reference is? have you heard every piece of music in your collection live? i doubt it. also you are forgetting the physiological differences (as well as psycological ones). everyone's hearing and perception is different. i could have hearing that attenuates certain frequencies whereas you may not. this would mean that one bit of kit sounds 'accurate' to me but peaky at certain frequencies to you. hi-fi IS subjective.
in fact i find the whole 'accuracy' thing as silly as groovy,hi-fi, musical and all the other qualifications applied to systems. at the end of the day you either like the way the kit plays the music you own or you don't. i'm firmly in the former camp.
cheers


julian

 

Hi,

We all know how acoustic instruments should sound. If they sound different through your system, then it's the recording or the system at fault.

The task is to find well-recorded material and use that to assess accuracy. This is not very difficult to do, since most decent CDs & records are well-recorded.

As a matter of fact, I had a three-piece acoustic band (guitar x2, vocal x2, and tambourine) recorded in my living room last summer. I now know how accurate my own system is because of this experience - we played the recording back through the mixing desk/NAC 52/ATCs, then burned it to CD and played that too.

 

I think many systems with small loudspeakers sound like everything has loads of wobbly bass. Is that right? Or is just nice if you like that kind of thing?

It is (or should be) pretty obvious when a voice is coloured by the system, again is that right?

Paul

 

What were the mics and in what configuration where they used?
As I record around 15~20 hours of voice every week, I'm in need of some tips.

 

Missed this post...

Things must have changed a lot, Paul! When I was there, the room was swamped with overblown bass coming from all directions, but chiefly from the floor.

The only criticism which I might accept about the ATCs is that imaging is perhaps not their strongest suit. I think it's pretty good as speakers go, but I have heard better imaging from a pair of Castle Chesters. They more than make up for this in other areas, however.