Playground for practical listening exercises

[Defender]

for me also clearly Puck
the bass in Hockey was less structured and defined and took away musicality

is Puck with Skeets and Hockey without?

[matthias]

Puck shoots the puck.

[David Neel]

Puck. No contest.

[Discodave]

Puck for me, listening through headphones.

Sounds like Puck had foam in bass ports and Hockey without.

[ThomasOK]

I think the first track sounds pretty Pucking good! As for Hockey, I'd just put that one on ice.

I agree with Fredrik that both bass and vocals are easily better on Puck and the timing is improved as well - it just moves better.

[tpetsch]

I have no opinion on this one, maybe if I used headphones I get better insight, but I don't.
Always Loved Don Rickles though FWIW..

[markiteight]

for me also clearly Puck
the bass in Hockey was less structured and defined and took away musicality

is Puck with Skeets and Hockey without?

He shoots...HE SCORES!!! That is precisely correct, Defender!*

Hockey is the usual spikes through carpet into the wood subfloor.
Puck is Skeets on top of the carpet.

I too prefer the Skeets and like many of you commented it's the bass that gave me that impression the most. It's as if with the Skeets the bass player had finished his cup of coffee. This surprises me because the Skeets on top of carpet remove some of the rigid stability that we were told is a major part of the Kan stand's performance. However I recall some positive reports elsewhere in this forum from people who have tried this, so when a set of cheap Skeets came up for sale I figured it was worth giving it a go myself. I'm glad I did!


* I'm not much of a hockey fan so correct me if I'm wrong, but the defender isn't supposed to be the one doing the scoring, right?

[David Neel]

This surprises me because the Skeets on top of carpet remove some of the rigid stability that we were told is a major part of the Kan stand's performance. However I recall some positive reports elsewhere in this forum from people who have tried this, so when a set of cheap Skeets came up for sale I figured it was worth giving it a go myself. I'm glad I did!

Some years ago I was similarly surprised when Quadraspire QX7 were placed under my spikes onto seagrass matting. I'm not sure whether that was with the Kans or 109s, but it was against conventional wisdom. I later added more under my (then) Isoblue shelving. Today, QX7s are underneath both speakers and Qudaraspire racks, on wooden flooring.

[David Neel]

* I'm not much of a hockey fan so correct me if I'm wrong, but the defender isn't supposed to be the one doing the scoring, right?

What matters is the score, not who did it!

[Defender]

mmh certainly not what I would expect either - whenever I tried the Skeets instead of a more direct connection the direct connection did win … on my floor which is suspended wooden panels.
Could be also the hight is different now.
These loudspeakers want to be treated with care.

[Spannko]

Shahinian loudspeakers have never used spikes. The lower end speakers have plastic feet and the more expensive models are fitted with casters!

[tpetsch]

mmh certainly not what I would expect either - whenever I tried the Skeets instead of a more direct connection the direct connection did win … on my floor which is suspended wooden panels.
Could be also the hight is different now.
These loudspeakers want to be treated with care.

Shahinian loudspeakers have never used spikes. The lower end speakers have plastic feet and the more expensive models are fitted with casters!

This is my experience too, I have rarely heard a properly spiked and adjusted/balanced (Non-rocking) set of speakers direct on a floor -especially speakers spiked to a poured solid cement foundation floor- that I thought sounded less In Tune than them free floating on top of carpeting, although hard "feet" on a hard floor can also work well if set up right and balanced. Spongy rooms with suspended floors can be challenging to work with, some of the musics energy can get unnaturally absorbed in these situations and then when that energy gets released back into the room -physics 101- the Tune can suffer. ...As far as Shahinian's go, we sold them for many years -Dick's shop was only 30 miles from where our shop was, he would sometimes stop in in the earlier years with something new to listen to- and pretty much every time we demoed them for a customer it was for the type of guy that wanted to listen to them low to mid volume, Chamber type music, "Live, five rows back, center" type volume I can remember one guy saying, almost never rock / heavy procession type music played at louder volumes. Don't think we ever tried to spike them even though we always thought wheels were a little funky but I think Dick might have liked the option to move them around/ reposition them a little on the fly should he think it necessary for a given piece of music, Dick always had his own way of doing things, was an interesting guy.

[Lego]

Here's some clips of the latest round of experiments. I think I know which one I prefer and it's not what I expected. What do you think?

Hockey:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/777mvkiqlk7jv ... 0.mov?dl=0

Puck:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/it50p76nynva4 ... 6.mov?dl=0

Puck had better intelligibility which is my main bag

[Spannko]

I’ve recorded 4 videos of just two options. Fumbling in the dark 1&2, and seeing the light 1&2. The low light recordings are FITD and the brighter recordings are STL. Which do you prefer, FITD or STL?

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B12GtnIORHfS7Em

[tpetsch]

FITD is more in-tune than STL.

[matthias]

Prefer FITD as well

[David Neel]

FITD for me. Plugging in that lamp has really messed up the mains....

[Tendaberry]

I’ve recorded 4 videos of just two options. Fumbling in the dark 1&2, and seeing the light 1&2. The low light recordings are FITD and the brighter recordings are STL. Which do you prefer, FITD or STL?

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B12GtnIORHfS7Em

I prefer Fumbling as well.

[Defender]

absolutely - FITD is also clearly better for me
What kind of lamp is it? LED or Halogen bulp - I assume its not a normal lamp like in the old days because they are just a resistor.

[Spannko]

Ha ha! David Neel has thrown in a bit of a red herring! FITD is due to an LED spot light which is on its way out. I recorded FITD first, then for the STL recording, the bulb just happened to come back on. Nothing was planned, and it has no effect on sound quality.

FITD is my diy Henri power supply feeding a Netgear GS108T, and STL is the supplied Netgear power supply. I’m finding that as Henri runs in the gap between the two power supplies just gets bigger.

I’m so pleased with the outcome, I’m looking at making Henri a commercial product. It’s far too good to not share the love!

[lejonklou]

I’ve recorded 4 videos of just two options. Fumbling in the dark 1&2, and seeing the light 1&2. The low light recordings are FITD and the brighter recordings are STL. Which do you prefer, FITD or STL?

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B12GtnIORHfS7Em

I find the first recording to be 50/50. FITD may sound sweet but it's also lacking something.

On the second recording I find STL clearly better.

Sorry...

[Spannko]

I’ve recorded 4 videos of just two options. Fumbling in the dark 1&2, and seeing the light 1&2. The low light recordings are FITD and the brighter recordings are STL. Which do you prefer, FITD or STL?

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B12GtnIORHfS7Em

I find the first recording to be 50/50. FITD may sound sweet but it's also lacking something.

On the second recording I find STL clearly better.

Sorry...

That’s OK. We all make mistakes! They’ve got different sonic signatures, so with different tracks different elements of the recording will be presented differently. With the first track I find the voice is presented quite emotionally with the Netgear, but when the track gets going the Netgear gets left behind. We’ve got to remember that the Netgear power supply has been the best one (musically) we’ve found in the last 5 or 6 years so it definitely does something right! I can still enjoy listening to music with the Netgear, in the same way I can enjoy listening to say the Akudorik system, but they can both be bettered! With both tracks, if I try and listen through the music and focus on something else, the Netgear is relatively musically flat. The Henri has a great swing to it. Also, what can’t be heard in the recordings is how much clearer and precise Henri is. The difference on something like opera is quite substantial. Instead of the singers being presented in soft focus, they’re presented much more precisely, with all the low level detail which helps to make what’s presented more believable.

Just to make things clear about the recording. I’ve only just noticed that there’s a Majik-i in the shot, but it’s not being used, and in general the setup really is far from ideal. The system consists of Källa + Boazu + Keilidh’s with Linn silvers and 2.48m of original K20. The Boazu is on a board on top of acoustic tiles (it’s something I was experimenting with but doesn’t sound great, but because I’m enjoying the system as a whole it’s stayed). If that wasn’t bad enough I’ve got 5 pairs of speakers in the room!

The Keilidh’s are absolutely fantastic for the £200 I paid for them and I’ve never heard them sound better than they do now with a Källa and Boazu. They have a really infectious sense of musicality but I know they seriously limit the performance of the front end. Like most people on the forum, I’m struggling to find a pair of speakers which have the musicality of the Lejonklou’s (Listening to clips of the Klangedang’s, they might be a possible candidate though). So, I’ve decided to try and build my own. I’ve been listening to some bass/mid units, in free air and baffleless, and despite all the compromises, the rhythms and tunes the Lejonklou pairing is putting out is a real eye opener. There’s so much more that we’re not even hearing! The drive units vary in their musicality, but good ones can really sing. For some reason, things usually go drastically wrong when manufacturers put them in an enclosure with a crossover, and I intend to find out why!

[Tony Tune-age]

I’ve recorded 4 videos of just two options. Fumbling in the dark 1&2, and seeing the light 1&2. The low light recordings are FITD and the brighter recordings are STL. Which do you prefer, FITD or STL?

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B12GtnIORHfS7Em

I prefer FITD...

Cheers

[Lego]

FITD for me please,very tuneful setup Spannko I'm still humming the first tune.

[ThomasOK]

The tracks all sound quite good to me but I find STL are the two tracks that move better and that I enjoy more. They just seem to reach deeper into the music.