ZG goes to chez summit

just guessing here, but I saw the word 'Nadia'. That will be Nitin Sawhney, beyond skin.

 

That's the one.

 

Arghhhh, now 4 and I'm trying to save up

 

rob - be very thankful that dean wasn't there in that case.

 

Hi,

I was was tempted to go to this but I had a number of lessons to plan and coursework to do. It sounded like you all had a good time. I would have bought along some interesting cds and records for everyones enjoyment.

It seem the valve amp was a winner. I would have liked to bring along one of the valves amps for a comparison.

SCIDB

 

I'll be holding one soon Dean, hopefully you can make it then. Just need to save up first!

 

maroon 5 :NADowner: :mana:

 

I see the Smurf music doing the unintellectual rounds then guys Princeston Uni says its pants

 

It might be relevant to mention that AFAIK all the Nitin Sawhney albums - certainly including Beyond Skin at any rate - are currently selling in (my local) Fopp at £3 each.

Edit: And if you're interested w-m, I recently heard about an English musicologist whose research interests include Sawhney amongst other things - some interesting stuff about the way it's heard by people of different ethnic origins. Is it traditional Indian chants or something he uses in it? - anyway, IIRC they found something along the lines of: the way you hear the music and the moods and emotions you get from it are quite a lot different depending on whether or not you're familiar with the traditional chants, and basically only people who had grown up with that musical tradition seemed to hear it the way Sawhney intended, which I thought was quite interesting.

 

Pete, the Smufs music reference was to the Ghost of Rose Album thats done the rounds, maybe down to Moi? Timpys reference 'Smurfs'

 

Lost on me, I'm afraid. FWIW I couldn't quite bring myself to buy Beyond Skin because Nadia is just such an audiophool cliche now (see also Norah Jones ).

 

t-bone, thanks for the offer, certainly one to consider, its all a matter of time at the moment, and i know you have more pressing matters to contend with.however it would most likely prove which component is at fault.

where in the world are you?

 

And someone here is after an audiolab http://www.cheshireaudio.co.uk/secondhand.htm

 

Cheers Rob - though for now the audiolab stays, mostly due to budget constraints - 5 weeks to go on the house renovation, the bills are getting bigger........

need to sort the DAC - it has to go back to the east to get a coat of looking at, when its back i'll make sure its fully run in and quite likely look at the PSU before looking at further 'system surgery'

for now i'm running single wired (the other pair are in conduit under the new lounge floor)and NOS DAC free........though i think i can live with single wiring (speaker terminals linked with a length of speaker cable) i want my DAC back!

 

Away over the weekend, out tonight - back late (deserved drink in pub) but I thought I'd add my 5 penn'th of analysis to the evening.

DACs -
From what we heard - and I'd have liked to have done some more listening, but the Superdac developed a loose connector and the nosdac developed it's "Cher" fault - the nosdac had the more open, clear sound, but like Gazz, I wasn't too sure how tiring I would find it after extended listening, but with the potential for tweaks definitely worthy of much further investigation

Transports -
Chris1968 was so surprised at the easy audibility of the differences between the two CD players as transports that he invited us all to share his sexual favours - I think his exact words were "f**k me!" followed by something like "I thought they were only supposed to spin the CD round". I agree with TonyL, it was refreshing to know what can be done with transports and it's certainly confirmed my intention to add another DIY tweaking task to the list.

...as well as sorting out a new Dac. Very very tempted/encouraged by the nosdac, but I want a multi-input (and multi-freq) dac design (but then a nosdac is so cheap...)

Faulty nosdac -
It may well be the PSU - on listening to The Blowers Daughter back at home, at the point at which the distortion started (where the female vocals come in) there is a sudden increase in extremely loud bass, which I don't think could be readily heard chez Summit.

Amps -
I would have liked to have heard the MF for a bit longer - I liked what I heard, but it was at this point where the nosdac seemed to suddenly start distorting so the MF was heaved out of the way to allow the nosdac to be reconnected to the Ming-Da, so didn't really have a chance for an extended listen.

Okay guys, I've got to honest and say that I felt the Ming-da was being pushed to its limits at the volumes we were listening at - it could have been my ears gving up, but I prefered things when the volume was wound down just a little - I felt it then had more of a chance to breathe (or my ears did) -and therefore from the little bit of listening to the MF it seemed less constrained at our volume levels, which probably isn't a fair assessment of the Ming-Da.

Music -
Always good to hear other music choices - I too have got some CDs to buy - though I seemed to get my selection played at the end ('cause I'd brought some LPs). Tony, it was worring when you said "original pressing" for Physical Graffiti because sadly I remember buying it new as a teenager, so probably one of my most played/worn LPs

The positive result -
Was that I got some definite ideas for (affordable) future upgrades/developments/tweaks, and I came home and decided that there wer some really good aspects about my existing kit, although still with clear room for improvement

Thanks -
Lordsummit for hospitality, dogs etc.
Isaac for lift - I think we led you round the houses (or rather, round the villages) for the alternative route out of Rochdale on the way back, which didn't help your (or mine or Chris') bed time
Tony for the link to the ear plugs - I'm going to order some
Everyone else for your kit, kompany and konversation

Finally -
I really got it in the neck from my wife for setting a bad example for Internet liaisons to my children:
- I gave my home address to a stranger
- I didn't meet at a mutual location (is Heywood mutual to anywhere)
- I didn't say where I was going (yes I did - Heywood (where's that?))
- or when I'd be back (yes I did - "later")
- and she's right of course, I was in very strange company...

...and I'd love to do it again - thanks everyone - hopefully someday soon I'll be able to throw my Oracle into the mixing pot

Chris

 

Im in the sunny climes of Chorley, wedged betweeny bolton, wigan, blackurn & preston, bout 30 mins north of manchester centre, dead easy to get too.

 

I'm happy to report that the SuperDAC is sorted now with some proper terminals with Teflon insulation. No more dodgy bits coming loose and held on with fibre washers.

Can anyone actually clarify what they thought the difference in sound between the transports was (I know what I think, but curious to know other povs)?

 

Have to agree with that, the mf's 250wpc weight gave it much more control than the Mingda at such a loud setting, but would love to hear the Mingda at normal listening levels. Which is why I will be hosting an event very soon and trying to persuade some valvers to come.

Sorry Chris, I dont have a turntable but you're still more than welcome, I guess its too much trouble to bring a TT? But I do have a phono stage and would like to experiment with vinyl agin (no rude comments guys)

Isaac, I was at the loo for the initial transport test but what I did catch from the switch was your transport was much louder (for people not there the amp was left alone, using the same dac, just a transport change) Only listening to classical with that dem I can't comment on timing etc, but the scale and soundstage was much bigger. It would have been interesting to turn the amp up on the quieter transport to see if the scale was due to the higher volume?

 

The Ming-Da was I'm sure being played too loud, I never listen at those levels, I prefer to look after my ears! I actually enjoyed the sound of the MF gear, very nice to listen to.
The transport thing I too thought was difficult, I also thought the Marantz sounded louder, I wasn't convinced there was a huge difference, but then I'm quite sceptical about these things.
The NOS dac vs Superdac debate, well I really liked the Nosdac, it gave a really nice presentation, much more like being part of the ensemble, and less like listening to it. I'd like to hear some big orchestral music through it and see how it copes with that

 

Richard, will you bring the Mingda for the away game?