Playground for practical listening exercises

Defender · Post by **Defender** » 2020-12-08 17:08

with the piano piece I like the second one which is marked A better (the piano player seem to have better flow) - for Dire Straits I need to do it later ...

undecided for Dire Straits after I had a chance to hear them

Defender · Post by **Defender** » 2020-12-08 17:43

Charlie1 wrote: ↑2020-12-07 11:35 Round 2 - both sets of cards powered on overnight. Same 32.5 unit.

Unserviced 1: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8gikpc0r6j8zd ... 4.MOV?dl=0
Serviced 1: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1syxug8paeuxr ... 8.MOV?dl=0

Unserviced 2: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2r6noyvy8mqrq ... 5.MOV?dl=0
Serviced 2: https://www.dropbox.com/s/j707d10zodhmc ... 9.MOV?dl=0

I agree with there might be more sound differences than musical ones but if I would be pushed for a decision I would go with serviced

V.A.MKD · Post by **V.A.MKD** » 2020-12-08 19:28

Charlie1 wrote: ↑2020-12-07 11:35 Round 2 - both sets of cards powered on overnight. Same 32.5 unit.

Unserviced 1: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8gikpc0r6j8zd ... 4.MOV?dl=0
Serviced 1: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1syxug8paeuxr ... 8.MOV?dl=0

Unserviced 2: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2r6noyvy8mqrq ... 5.MOV?dl=0
Serviced 2: https://www.dropbox.com/s/j707d10zodhmc ... 9.MOV?dl=0

Sorry for late participation Charlie1, things go fast here, like F1 ...
I'm for serviced here.
On 1 it was hard for me ... beside that I like female vocal, but on 2, Phil, it was easier for me ... serviced definitely.

V.A.MKD · Post by **V.A.MKD** » 2020-12-08 19:37

Spannko wrote: ↑2020-12-08 15:08 Just this week, I’ve had a bit of an itch that needed a good scratch. About 12 months ago I had a single 6mm radial installed for the HiFi, but I can’t help but wondering if I did the right thing. In my old house I got great results from a 4mm cable and a friend’s system also sounded very good with a 4mm feed. So, just to make sure, I’ve redone the 4mm V 6mm comparison.

Here’s two vids using both cables, marked A & B.

Enjoy 😊

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B125qXGF1HNqUx6

Piano music clear A, even pause between notes have meaning ...

Charlie1 · Post by **Charlie1** » 2020-12-08 20:53

Dire Straits more joyful on A for me Spannko.

Super clear recordings btw and I like the crisp packet - I think it's a crisp packet anyway.

Lego · Post by **Lego** » 2020-12-09 00:19

Charlie1 wrote: ↑2020-12-07 11:35 Round 2 - both sets of cards powered on overnight. Same 32.5 unit.

Unserviced 1: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8gikpc0r6j8zd ... 4.MOV?dl=0
Serviced 1: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1syxug8paeuxr ... 8.MOV?dl=0

Unserviced 2: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2r6noyvy8mqrq ... 5.MOV?dl=0
Serviced 2: https://www.dropbox.com/s/j707d10zodhmc ... 9.MOV?dl=0

Prefer unserviced in both ,seems to have more emotion and an edge to it I like ,especially with, is it Genesis ?

Spannko · Post by **Spannko** » 2020-12-09 00:23

Charlie1 wrote: ↑2020-12-08 20:53 Dire Straits more joyful on A for me Spannko.

Super clear recordings btw and I like the crisp packet - I think it's a crisp packet anyway.

Haha! Cheesy Wotsits!

Lego · Post by **Lego** » 2020-12-09 00:43

Spannko wrote: ↑2020-12-08 15:08 Just this week, I’ve had a bit of an itch that needed a good scratch. About 12 months ago I had a single 6mm radial installed for the HiFi, but I can’t help but wondering if I did the right thing. In my old house I got great results from a 4mm cable and a friend’s system also sounded very good with a 4mm feed. So, just to make sure, I’ve redone the 4mm V 6mm comparison.

Here’s two vids using both cables, marked A & B.

Enjoy 😊

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B125qXGF1HNqUx6

Prefer B with Beethoven A or B with DS couldn't detect much of a difference, your clips are too quiet Spannko.I do however like the A-ha style video though :0)

beck · Post by **beck** » 2020-12-09 10:08

I prefer A.

Spannko · Post by **Spannko** » 2020-12-09 11:49

Looks like “A” it is then!

That’s a great result, and thanks for the feedback everyone 😊

There’s an overwhelming preference for the 4mm^2 cable, which I wholeheartedly agree with. At the time of the recording, the 4mm cable felt slightly more musical, but had an awful mid range harshness I wasn’t sure I could live with. Also, the bass was missing, as picked up by tokenbrit, which was also a bit of a deal breaker.

Because of the increased musicality, I thought I’d give the 4mm cable about 3 months to see if it settled down a bit. Fortunately, I only needed to wait another 6 hours or so before the bass came back, the midrange harshness disappeared and the musicality took another step forward. It now feels like a genuine absolutely fundamental improvement to the way the system plays tunes.

The piano track was chosen because it’s very difficult to reproduce well. The piano is an original fortepiano, which is why you can hear all those strange clicks, and I’m not sure of the details, but they were either tuned differently or they were not capable of playing in the right key or in tune with other instruments or something - I need to look it up - which is why the piano forte was designed to overcome this problem. Now that the cable has settled down a bit, it’s possible to hear that the tuning is a bit odd, but the rhythm and key pressure is reproduced in all its glory!

I’m going to update the videos with recordings of the more run-in cable later today.

Update: I’m not sure of the tuning problem now, but the fortepiano wasn’t liked because the lower, middle and higher notes all had a different tibre so was sometimes unpleasant to listen to.

Defender · Post by **Defender** » 2020-12-09 12:10

thats great news for me as I was lurking around to see the outcome. Why? I have a dedicated 4mm cable for my music system so a preference for the 6mm cable would have made me disappointed.
So its good the 4mm cable performed better and thats what I also heard.
However there is the slight chance that the 6mm cable is at disadvantage as it might be against direction or the 4mm can be even better the other way around. ... I am sorry 😐
Piano tracks help me for decisions with musicality as they highlight issues very well.

V.A.MKD · Post by **V.A.MKD** » 2020-12-09 12:53

Spannko wrote: ↑2020-12-09 11:49
I’m going to update the videos with recordings of the more run-in cable later today.

That will be excellent Spannko ... with same piano music if possible.
Thank you.

Spannko · Post by **Spannko** » 2020-12-09 12:53

Defender wrote: ↑2020-12-09 12:10 thats great news for me as I was lurking around to see the outcome. Why? I have a dedicated 4mm cable for my music system so a preference for the 6mm cable would have made me disappointed.
So its good the 4mm cable performed better and thats what I also heard.
However there is the slight chance that the 6mm cable is at disadvantage as it might be against direction or the 4mm can be even better the other way around. ... I am sorry 😐
Piano tracks help me for decisions with musicality as they highlight issues very well.

No need to worry Defender! Both cables were used in the same direction (after listening for best direction) and were good quality standard building cables manufactured by Prysmian. What I mean by good quality is that the cables are made to stringent quality standards by a reputable company. I originally I bought the cheapest cables off the internet, which were all made in third world countries and yielded very unpredictable results. The UK standards authority state that approximately 20% of all cables on the market do not comply with the necessary standards. My guess is that for the cheapest cables the figure is even higher. The Prysmian is about 50% more expensive than the cheapest at about £30 for a 25m roll.

I would expect other reputable manufacturers cables to perform equally well, particularly the US standard cable which has a thicker “earth” wire.

Edit: Now updated

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B125qXGF1HNqUx6

Enjoy 👍🏽👍🏻👍🏿👍🏼👍🏾😃

beck · Post by **beck** » 2020-12-09 15:54

We know that my cd player cannot catch up with my Sondek but how close can it get?

Here is a vinyl favorite of mine.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2qqhk4jg839b6 ... 4.mov?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lvvwfleqsgj6d ... 6.mov?dl=0

Spannko · Post by **Spannko** » 2020-12-09 16:51

I’m just luvin the old fruit box beck! I think we’ve both got a way to go with our digital efforts ☹️

beck · Post by **beck** » 2020-12-09 17:15

Sadly, but yes.......

Spannko · Post by **Spannko** » 2020-12-09 17:22

What’s your LP12 setup?

beck · Post by **beck** » 2020-12-09 17:31

It is my own special weird setup :-).

Placed on my diy stand using an Audiotech topplate is a loose tramp 1! with a 1990 Sondek on top, standard sub chassis, cirkus, lingo 1, Ekos1, KlydeB, old 1.7 meters arm cable with extra care to setup not touching the tramp directly when leaving the Sondek.

Spannko · Post by **Spannko** » 2020-12-09 18:43

beck wrote: ↑2020-12-09 17:31 It is my own special weird setup :-).

Placed on my diy stand using an Audiotech topplate is a loose tramp 1! with a 1990 Sondek on top, standard sub chassis, cirkus, lingo 1, Ekos1, KlydeB, old 1.7 meters arm cable with extra care to setup not touching the tramp directly when leaving the Sondek.

Classic LP12! Even with a Cirkus it sounds lovely 👍

I can’t believe someone hasn’t found a sub £€500 mc cartridge which has some of the classic Linn musicality 🤷‍♀️

beck · Post by **beck** » 2020-12-09 18:52

Spannko wrote: ↑2020-12-09 18:43
beck wrote: ↑ It is my own special weird setup :-).

Placed on my diy stand using an Audiotech topplate is a loose tramp 1! with a 1990 Sondek on top, standard sub chassis, cirkus, lingo 1, Ekos1, KlydeB, old 1.7 meters arm cable with extra care to setup not touching the tramp directly when leaving the Sondek.
Classic LP12! Even with a Cirkus it sounds lovely 👍

I can’t believe someone hasn’t found a sub £€500 mc cartridge which has some of the classic Linn musicality 🤷‍♀️

Hit me! I am ready for it. :-)

tokenbrit · Post by **tokenbrit** » 2020-12-09 23:26

Spannko wrote: ↑2020-12-09 12:53
I would expect other reputable manufacturers cables to perform equally well, particularly the US standard cable which has a thicker “earth” wire.

Edit: Now updated

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B125qXGF1HNqUx6

Enjoy 👍🏽👍🏻👍🏿👍🏼👍🏾😃

Nice improvement :)

I hope you're right about the US wire - I still have some different gauge wire to play with here too (for a dedicated spur) Nothing as thick as 6mm2 ... thankfully by the sounds of it ;)

Charlie1 · Post by **Charlie1** » 2020-12-09 23:33

Yes, flows even better. Very nice. Amazingly clear sound too.

OscarH · Post by **OscarH** » 2020-12-10 08:09

beck wrote: ↑2020-12-09 15:54 We know that my cd player cannot catch up with my Sondek but how close can it get?

Here is a vinyl favorite of mine.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2qqhk4jg839b6 ... 4.mov?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lvvwfleqsgj6d ... 6.mov?dl=0

Nice! There may be off course be differences in both mastering and quality of the records themselves in this particular case, but for this n=1 it’s not even close.

I find the same at home even with the Hakai vs RP8, analog just has a more emotional connection.

beck · Post by **beck** » 2020-12-10 08:50

OscarH wrote: ↑2020-12-10 08:09
I find the same at home even with the Hakai vs RP8, analog just has a more emotional connection.

Yes, I agree OscarH.

I did not play nice with my cd player here. I went on full attack with one of the most analog sounding recordings I have and I played it as loud as possible to push it as far as I could putting max pressure on my cd setup.

I can hopefully relax in the fact that I gave cd my best shot.

Cd is good enough for me to enjoy but I feel analog creeping up on me again! :-)

OscarH · Post by **OscarH** » 2020-12-10 12:03

Yeah, I enjoy digital too. And that’s important because there’s lots of music that I want to listen to but it just wouldn’t be practical to get it all on vinyl.

But it’s an unfair comparison - there’s something very comforting about getting a vinyl ready for playback and eventually hearing the sound of the needle dropping. How can digital compete with stuff that happen even before the music starts playing?

One might argue that all of that is placebo... but is it really? If it helps your connection with the music then surely it’s real.

Playground for practical listening exercises

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Re: 4mm Vs 6mm Radial Power Cable

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Re: 4mm Vs 6mm Radial Power Cable

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