Playground for practical listening exercises

[beck]

Which one do you prefer?

https://lejonklou.com/1.MOV
https://lejonklou.com/2.MOV
https://lejonklou.com/3.MOV
https://lejonklou.com/4.MOV
https://lejonklou.com/5.MOV

My brain tells me that I should like 3.MOV. But I prefer listening to the music from 1.MOV………………..

[Tendaberry]

Strangely enough, I can't play them on my iMac :-( Unsupported format...

[matthias]

Prefer 3,
but it is like you have five children.......

[matthias]

I play them with Mac and Firefox (MacOS 10.13.6 / Firefox 115.6.0esr)

[tokenbrit]

It’s between 2 & 3 for me with 3 winning…

I listened to 1,3,5,4,2,3 using Safari on the iPad mini. Sense was dragging(1) fun(3) rushed(5) hurried(4) good(2) better(3) with this song, to my ears.

I don’t know if there’s temp control to test between 2 & 3 - my feeling is the optimal is closer to 3. The song chosen for these clips favored the upbeat energy of 3; a less energetic song might favor ‘2.5’

[Tendaberry]

I play them with Mac and Firefox

That's what I use, it's the first time I haven't been able to play a video. Even tried downloading it to play with Quicktime, didn't work either.
Edit: I now have listened to them on my iPhone and have a clear preference No. 3.

[matthias]

For whatever reasons I could play them as audio only, not as video.
I couldn't see Fredrik's speaker.

[El Mero Mero]

I would say nr5. Are these from Källa/Spotify?

[El Mero Mero]

Fredrik, why are you not using your own amplifiers?

[lejonklou]

I do use my own amplifiers, every day. This system, however, consists of Källa, Sagatun Mono and JBL708P. It’s really good for movies and pretty good for music.

The 708’s have certain strengths which are fundamentally different from those of Klångedang T1’s (which I find more musical but they struggle to fill this room). I suspect the quality of the internal amplifiers is the main weakness of 708.

I’m sorry you can’t play the clips, Tendaberry. I have no idea what could be the cause.

[Sopper]

I like 5 the most, shortly followed by 3

[El Mero Mero]

I do use my own amplifiers, every day.

That’s really good to hear.

[ThomasOK]

I also couldn't play these on the Mac. The last set of clips you sent out as MOVs still wok fine but Quicktime comes up with an error message with these files, probably from my old OS. I looked for a solution and found I had VLC on the machine but it won't open. Tried two other options recommended on the web and the first one downloaded but "quit unexpectedly" when trying to open any of these clips, the second one refused to download saying my OS was too old.

So I gave up and played them on my iPhone (also old). I like 3 the best as it moves me the most but I find 2 to also be good, just not quite as energetic (energetic in a good way). I immediately didn't like 1 and didn't listen to it all the way through. I tried it again after listening to the other four and still didn't want to listen to it all the way through. 4 and 5 just don't seem to move the song along enough for me to get involved in it. I'm assuming these are 1°F apart which is a shame in a way as I see tokenbrit's point - I have to wonder how 2.8 would sound! But among these I definitely go for 3.

[lejonklou]

Thank you for your replies!

Clip 1 was 666 degrees Fahrenheit = 352.2 degrees Celsius
Clip 2 was 667 degrees Fahrenheit = 352.8 degrees Celsius
Clip 3 was 667.4 degrees Fahrenheit = 353 degrees Celsius
Clip 4 was 668 degrees Fahrenheit = 353.3 degrees Celsius
Clip 5 was 669 degrees Fahrenheit = 353.9 degrees Celsius

So the soldering station was set to Fahrenheit on clips 1, 2, 4 and 5. On clip 3 it was set to Celsius.

The single joint soldered with these temperatures was the inner (signal) lead on the single RCA interconnect between Källa and one Sagatun Mono.

Clip 3 got the most votes by far (5 certain and one maybe). Tokenbrit and Markiteight also liked 2 and asked for something in between. Well, as 2 is 352.8 C and 3 is 353 C, that leaves the untested 352.9 C. Unfortunately I can't access that temperature without hacking the soldering station firmware, so that I can access all the 0.1 C steps it's apparently working with internally. Please allow me a couple of weeks to accomplish this. 😁

In the room we instantly preferred 353 C, so that's what this station+pen combination will continue with - when the 4.6 mm wide tip is mounted. Tips that are longer and/or more narrow have other (higher) optimal temperatures, which I have now also determined (in the same way, by listening to one joint).

Over the weekend I will run the same tests with the second station. Each station+pen combination usually differ by a couple of degrees, but the intervals between tip shapes has so far always been the same.

[ThomasOK]

I guess that leaves my 352.96 suggestion right out the window!

[Spannko]

I’m a bit late due to wanting to be sure before posting, however I feel a bit of a dick posting when the answer has been announced! Of the five clips I prefer no.3. However I prefer no.2 slightly to no.4 and definitely prefer no.2 to no.5, which skews my preference slightly away from n.3 towards no.2. Say about 2.7-2.8?

[Whatsmynaim]

Fredrik, with this knowledge in hand do you think you'll be able to produce interconnects that's even better than Linn Silver?
If so then you'll have me and very likely a bunch of other people lining up to buy a pair!

[matthias]

The single joint soldered with these temperatures was the inner (signal) lead on the single RCA interconnect between Källa and one Sagatun Mono.

IIUC, the soldering was done on a Linn Silver IC on the Källa end or the SM end or on both ends?

[lejonklou]

Fredrik, with this knowledge in hand do you think you'll be able to produce interconnects that's even better than Linn Silver?
If so then you'll have me and very likely a bunch of other people lining up to buy a pair!

I have tried and failed. Maybe one day I will succeed.

Just bought myself a pair of Silver Interconnect II because one of my old pairs went bad. Hope the new model is good, I have only heard clips of it before.

[lejonklou]

The single joint soldered with these temperatures was the inner (signal) lead on the single RCA interconnect between Källa and one Sagatun Mono.

IIUC, the soldering was done on a Linn Silver IC on the Källa end or the SM end or on both ends?

Not a Silver IC, but a cable I use for these tests only. And the single joint is on the middle.

[Whatsmynaim]

The Interconnect II is very good, and a step closer to the music compared to the model that came before it. I found especially singing to convey more emotion which is nice.

[El Mero Mero]

Thank you for your replies!

The single joint soldered with these temperatures was the inner (signal) lead on the single RCA interconnect between Källa and one Sagatun Mono.

Clip 3 got the most votes by far (5 certain and one maybe). Tokenbrit and Markiteight also liked 2 and asked for something in between.

Truly a fascinating comparison!

I voted for 5 since that was the one were I could follow the bassplayer and the kick drum at the same time. On some of the others I felt the bass was quite monotone and masked by the kick drum.

Did you desolder and then resolder the cable or did you cut it?

[Charlie1]

Just bought myself a pair of Silver Interconnect II because one of my old pairs went bad. Hope the new model is good, I have only heard clips of it before.

Please can you share your thoughts on the mk II's once you're done evaluating - thanks.

[lejonklou]

Did you desolder and then resolder the cable or did you cut it?

I have a special cable that I've used for small mass joint comparisons for at least a decade. I still have more than 50 of them so I can let the joints age and hear the impact of time and burn-in.

I first make sure they sound exactly the same. A few have been worse and they are discarded. Those that sound exactly the same are opened and the center conductor is cut. The cut conductor is soldered together and the cable marked with date, soldering station, pen, tip, solder&flux, which roll and temperature. The signal ground is run separately, otherwise these test cables differ too much to begin with and the comparisons become impossible.

The cables can be reused, but it requires the solder area being cleaned and the conductors checked so that they are pressed against each other in the same way.

For big mass joint comparisons I use K400 to banana plugs.

[Spannko]

Here’s another update on my diy loudspeaker project. I’m still only listening to one loudspeaker, and the loudspeaker is just sitting on the floor without any coupling/decoupling, and imperfectly sealed.

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0RGgZLKuv8riZ