GrahamN removes cobwebs

Whether you like your reputation or not sir, i'm about to reinforce it

This guy likes his sounds seriously loud. And i reckon he could even show WM a thing or to in the ear flapping warp factor stakes

Think before saying - 'i like it loud Graham - here is the remote'.

Man alive - tonight he propelled my flustered NAD up to serious warp factors, to which it had never ventured before. Admittedley i have recently stuck some attenuation on the old boy, but at one point it was charging along at 3 o'clock on the dial . I've never had it above 12 o'clock. But to give it credit, i thought it did an acceptable job, and was punching out some tasty crescendos, however hard Graham pushed it. So a serious workout, that has blown out any cobwebs in the system. Oh, and the woofers are still intact.

But honestly, it sounded alright. The sound was acceptable, and the volume, well....some things, such as the big orchestral pieces, just need that kinda juice it seems. I may be more liberal with the volume knob in future......:MILD:

Cheers Graham - the missus now thinks she has 7ft of extra storage space for some more shoes

 

Yes it's true Mr flash loves his Hifi so loud it makes the bathroom ceiling fall off and thats before he goes to listen to the real thing.

 

my bro listens at 3 o clock volume sometimes - Vincent amp/ Epos ES11- omg the distortion!!!
music does sound better loud (generally about 10 o clock) but anything louder?? not necessary imho©

 

OI...foul...ref.....video replay please......stewards inquiry


IIRC...it was you who raised the question of whether is was loud enough.....and then said you usually played it louder. OK..so maybe you won't make that mistake again . And the point when we had the wick turned up really high was on a very low-level recording (honest).

V. enjoyable evening. We definitely established (if there was any doubt) that Cookie's prime interest lies in the Baroque (but there was some definite promise in the neo-classical). Which is useful, as that's a sound quite reasonable to reproduce on a hifi.

The good stuff was:
Pergolesi - Marian Verspers (New College Choir/Higginbotom) - a double CD I picked up for about £6 at HMV Bond St a couple of weeks ago
Stravinsky - Pulcinella (ASMF/Marriner)
Warlock - Capriol Suite
Tallis - Spem in Alium (Tallis Scholars)

and to that I'd certainly add (to my own collection as well)
Praetorius - Dances from Terpsichore (Pickett)
Rameau - L'Apothéose de la Danse (Minkowski) DG has recorded this at the same time as another CD due out in November, but it doesn't seem to be showing up on their release schdule ATM.

Was quite impressed by Cookie's system. OK missing something in terms of scale (but then all standmounts do in my book) and bottom end was a definitely missing, such that the doublebasses in the Stavinsky sounded rather "farty" (only really getting the overtones). Top end was really very nice, although it hardened up a fair bit when it got a bit loud (I suspect that's the amp's fault - sounded just like that when I demoed it with some £1200 speakers). Did come alive very nicely when played a fair volume - with beautiful female vocals, brass and great individual string sounds. Lost it a bit when the texture thickened up though.

Pretty darned good front end and, for the price, those speakers (B&W 602S3 ?) are excellent. Cookie was obviously worried about my reaction to the metal dome tweeters, but I have to say they really didn't worry me at all. I would say that the next upgrade should be the amp - the NAD C370 is good and powerful, but the system would probably benefit with something packing that punch with a bit more refinement. Lee's Lumleys?

 

For the money, I found the 602s (of any series) to be very capable. That's why I hung onto mine for over seven and a half years.

However, given the similarity of my system to dino's (at least of a couple of months ago, pre DAC20 for him and pre kestrel for me), I wouldn't rule out the speakers going a long way. Obviously WM's system said something to me that it got me hooked on the meadowlarks, and it has borne out with my ownership of them (they're about a quarter of the way run in, with about 115 hours on them from me). These filled in the lower octaves nicely, where the 602s could not go... (but not as deep as WM's shearwaters, obviously).

Certainly the 602s like amplifiers with big power, and certainly sang much more on my 971mkII and dino's C370 than my previous marantz and pioneer amplifiers.

 

Re: Re: GrahamN removes cobwebs

Aha, clearly a civilised gentleman...

 

Twas me who suggested cranking the wick . I just didn't realise it was 'possible' to crank it that far . Altogether impressive:MILD: No mistake.

Herein lies the weakness of the system - but what amp to get ??

And the speakers are top dollar in my book, but rolling off at 49hz robs the bottom end, and a single driver will not provide the greatest scale. So there lies another problem with classical reproduction.

Re-evaluate, when i get the bigger room i think. Big amps and speakers as i have been told before. Just bigger than i have now.....tricky though, 'cos i don't want to sacrifice the boogy woogie that i have now, for the rest of my listening habits.

I find those glowing bottles a bit scary..........a bit like Mahler

 

Not to mention involvement

ATC SIA2-150 ? 150 Watts (100 Watts pure Class A) Real punch with refinement and musicality (there's that word again!)

Or something digital perhaps.

REL Storm III ?

 

I'd honestly disagree with that to some degree. I know it gets criticised a lot. But i don't feel it is as bland as its exterior. It bubbles quite nicely even if it is a bit fruity It lacks 'refinement' on occasion and can get flustered with complex passages at high volumes as has been demonstrated, but i don't think it is bland really. Depends what you partner it with as well i suppose.

£2000 rrp? I doubt i would spend that much - time will tell. I would imagine more like £1000 tops. I don't know yet. But all will wait 'till i get a larger room - nothing changes until then. Hence why no sub, i've tried one in my current room - but integration was a real pain, not aided by the fact that my current listening room is only 15"x9". I'm looking for a bigger room - the search continues......

 

Hi,

perhaps reading Alco's Sonneteer thread at PFM would be interesting. I haven't heard these machines myself yet, but from what I'm hearing they give a lot of music for your money.

Herman