Random thoughts on hifi

We use the Tune Method to evaluate performance

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Spannko
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

Post by Spannko »

Here’s another one for your enjoyment

https://youtu.be/VJboSby7nW0
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

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ThomasOK wrote: 2021-06-12 17:37 I don't understand but I can still get the feeling of it. Which gives me the perfect excuse to post this video as it is in German and is one of the coolest things I have seen on youtube:

https://youtu.be/Q2_rHQvKFq4
Du hast, or Du hasst? 'You have', or 'you hate'? A search for Rammstein comes up with Du hast, but the way she sings it sounds more like you hate me... Interesting.
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

Post by V.A.MKD »

lejonklou wrote: 2021-06-11 20:34 Then why do you need a good HiFi system?

Personally I don't care about how it sounds, only by how affected I am by the music. If a kitchen radio does that as good or better, then I'll listen to that.
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

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tokenbrit wrote: 2021-06-13 04:14
ThomasOK wrote: 2021-06-12 17:37 I don't understand but I can still get the feeling of it. Which gives me the perfect excuse to post this video as it is in German and is one of the coolest things I have seen on youtube:

https://youtu.be/Q2_rHQvKFq4
Du hast, or Du hasst? 'You have', or 'you hate'? A search for Rammstein comes up with Du hast, but the way she sings it sounds more like you hate me... Interesting.
In reading a bit about the song one article mentioned that similarity and felt that Rammstein chose that expression at least in part due to the similarity with Du hasst. A viewing of their official video for Du Hast makes that theory seem quite likely. Considering the small difference, and that she is 9 years old and not German, I'd cut her a lot of slack on the pronunciation!
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

Post by ThomasOK »

Spannko wrote: 2021-06-12 23:09 Here’s another one for your enjoyment

https://youtu.be/VJboSby7nW0
Yep, that's pretty cool too.
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

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ThomasOK wrote: 2021-06-15 20:40
tokenbrit wrote: 2021-06-13 04:14
ThomasOK wrote: 2021-06-12 17:37 I don't understand but I can still get the feeling of it. Which gives me the perfect excuse to post this video as it is in German and is one of the coolest things I have seen on youtube:

https://youtu.be/Q2_rHQvKFq4
Du hast, or Du hasst? 'You have', or 'you hate'? A search for Rammstein comes up with Du hast, but the way she sings it sounds more like you hate me... Interesting.
In reading a bit about the song one article mentioned that similarity and felt that Rammstein chose that expression at least in part due to the similarity with Du hasst. A viewing of their official video for Du Hast makes that theory seem quite likely. Considering the small difference, and that she is 9 years old and not German, I'd cut her a lot of slack on the pronunciation!
Actually, I meant her (impressive) attitude, making the rendition come alive, along with her fellow musicians... She really left you wondering whether it was have or hate, deliberately & perfectly interpreted based on Rammstein's lyrics, it appears... No criticism on pronunciation, at all.
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

Post by ThomasOK »

Cool! Yeah, I was quite impressed.
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

Post by beck »

Latest on the cd front from me:

With my cd player almost perfectly set up I am now really experiencing the pros of high resolution.

Just now playing a super audio DSD recorded cd and the music is flowing and the sound is great (not using it’s full potentiel with my normal cd player). HDCD cd’s plays music and sounds great too.

As the setup is nearly perfected I now feel that red book cd is great and better than mp3 coded cd’s that can sound just a little congested a bit like a low budget record player being full of music but lacking some finer details.

More importantly anything I put into the cd player comes out as music.
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

Post by Charlie1 »

Good stuff. Still very surprised you've been able to achieve this. When I ran a CD player back in the 80s and 90s, there were a lot of CDs that were unlistenable to me. I preferred silence. Mind you, Kan 2s and CD was never a good combination but I had the same issue in the car.

Just remember beck not to pursue perfection, only excellence, cos the former is unachievable :)
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

Post by beck »

Now this is what we all have been looking for! :-)

https://youtu.be/bxN2JSMpvCo


ThomasOK will love his call out at 1.20! :-)
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

Post by ThomasOK »

There is one being sold as non-working for only $200 on fleabay if you are interested. It is an amusing device, for a piece of junk.

By the way, he gives another anti "vinyls" rant at around 12:20 so he wins points for me on that. On the other hand considering how long he spends talking about this device that he dismisses as relatively pointless, and the fact he thinks it sounds OK, he definitely loses more points than he wins.

I will also note that this might be considered off topic since the heading is Random thoughts on hifi...
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

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Back to “hifi”.

Here is a really interesting demo:

https://youtu.be/XT8ytRoJblo
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

Post by ThomasOK »

It is an interesting demo in a couple of ways. It certainly is easy to hear how good the Beatles were when you hear a really questionable cover of one of their songs. I was surprised after having read about how wonderful the "master" tapes are to hear that the turntable seemed a bit better to me. (I only listened to the first comparison as I wasn't sure I could handle more than half of this demonstration.)

On the big band piece I did like the direct cut album better. It would be interesting to hear it on an LP12 rather than the Garrard. But it generated more questions than it answered. As an example the big band piece was claimed to have been recorded with 24 mikes onto individual tracks and then mixed down to stereo. But it was also recorded direct to disk at the same time. Yet he claimed everything was the same. Really? I don't believe that was a 24 channel LP. So the mixing for the LP had to be done on the fly, or it was just recorded by two or three mics as a separate feed. The taped version was mixed down later so there is no way they could be the same mixes. If it used different mics the phase information and the levels of the different instruments would be completely different. So much for being the same recording. Oh well!
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

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I've recorded many LP tracks playing on my systems now. One consistent finding is that digital recordings are more fragile. I can be really enjoying a modern recording in the room, yet if I record it to the phone and play it back, then it struggles to communicate the same way. Do the same with analogue recordings and they hold up far far better.

I do wonder if digital recordings on a modern Lejonklou / Linn system would hold up better since the tune is better maintained.

PS the ultimate test is my Windows laptop with external monitor. My clips always sounded crap through them until things slowly improved. Now the analogue recorded/mastered LPs are really enjoyable, but not digital ones, although more so modern digital. Some early digitally recorded LPs are passable.
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

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Charlie1 wrote: 2021-08-26 15:58 I've recorded many LP tracks playing on my systems now. One consistent finding is that digital recordings are more fragile. I can be really enjoying a modern recording in the room, yet if I record it to the phone and play it back, then it struggles to communicate the same way. Do the same with analogue recordings and they hold up far far better.

I do wonder if digital recordings on a modern Lejonklou / Linn system would hold up better since the tune is better maintained.

PS the ultimate test is my Windows laptop with external monitor. My clips always sounded crap through them until things slowly improved. Now the analogue recorded/mastered LPs are really enjoyable, but not digital ones, although more so modern digital. Some early digitally recorded LPs are passable.
I have felt for some time that digital recordings are more fragile. Hence the amount of attention to detail necessary to make something like a Källa and the importance of how a digital streamer is fed. It seems like the many transitions the signal goes through are rife with possibilities for loss of musical information (as opposed to digital 1s and 0s). It might even be another reason why well made digital recordings generally are more musical off an LP than streamed (IME). In this case the signal is frozen in the groove in analog form and doesn't have to go through the routers, switches, RJ45 cables, upsamplers, DACs, etc. I am hopeful that Källa will substantially lessen this as so much work has been done on the proper handling of the signal at every stage along the way to make sure musical information remains intact.
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

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ThomasOK wrote: 2021-08-26 17:49 ……….. and doesn't have to go through the routers, switches, RJ45 cables, upsamplers, DACs, etc. I am hopeful that Källa will substantially lessen this as so much work has been done on the proper handling of the signal at every stage along the way to make sure musical information remains intact.
This is an area of system building/optimisation where I really feel nearly all HiFi manufacturers have let their customers down. It’s plainly obvious that the “wrong” ancillary components can kripple the performance of their streamers, and they don’t appear to care. I genuinely hope that the work Fredrik and his team are doing, to eliminate the vaiables and ensure predictable outcomes, pays off and gives us world class performance for a relatively affordable outlay.
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

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Charlie1 wrote: 2021-08-26 15:58 .. the ultimate test is my Windows laptop with external monitor. My clips always sounded crap through them until things slowly improved...
What brought about that improvement: something in the setup, or what you fed it?
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

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ThomasOK wrote: 2021-08-26 17:49 I have felt for some time that digital recordings are more fragile.
I've seen a few references to digital fragility. Whether I use server one or two, streamer one, two or three I've not encountered the problem.
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

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tokenbrit wrote: 2021-08-26 20:12 What brought about that improvement: something in the setup, or what you fed it?
The original Linn speakers were all a big step forwards, so Kans/Saras/Briks, but I sometimes wonder if they've helped the analogue recorded LPs at the slight expense of the digitally recorded ones. After all, they were optimised for an all-analogue era. In fact, most of my gear was designed before digitally recorded pop/rock really got going. I'd rather have it this way than optimised for modern recordings, it it's the case at all.
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

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Charlie1 wrote: 2021-08-26 22:51
tokenbrit wrote: 2021-08-26 20:12 What brought about that improvement: something in the setup, or what you fed it?
The original Linn speakers were all a big step forwards, so Kans/Saras/Briks, but I sometimes wonder if they've helped the analogue recorded LPs at the slight expense of the digitally recorded ones. After all, they were optimised for an all-analogue era. In fact, most of my gear was designed before digitally recorded pop/rock really got going. I'd rather have it this way than optimised for modern recordings, it it's the case at all.
Ahh, so no improvement to the laptop or monitor themselves, just in the system(s) from which you were recording, and playing back through the laptop... Got it (I think ;)
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

Post by Charlie1 »

Yes, just the HiFI systems have improved - well, in terms of how I comprehend music anyway
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

Post by beck »

I my case it has taken a long time to reach a level of playback from my cd player that can rival the connection I get listening to analog.
.
CD is now so good I get goosebumps listening to some of my favorites.

A funny fact is that hearing the hiss from the mastertape in the background from older recordings makes me relax even more into the music. :-)


Listening to “Tales of Mystery and Imagination” (Edgar Allan Poe) by The Alan Parsons Project is something everybody should try. Originally their first album from 1976 and made even better in 1987 with a few surprises added!
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

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Thanks for the suggestion. Wonderful thing about streaming services: I can put "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" into a Spotify search and try it as you suggest :) I haven't yet, but I can/should/will ;)
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

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tokenbrit wrote: 2021-08-28 00:18 Thanks for the suggestion. Wonderful thing about streaming services: I can put "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" into a Spotify search and try it as you suggest :) I haven't yet, but I can/should/will ;)
Yes, in this modern world almost anything is possible and I am not trying to promote one media for another. All I want is a lovely musical experience when listening. :-)
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Re: Random thoughts on hifi

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beck wrote: 2021-08-28 07:48 Yes, in this modern world almost anything is possible and I am not trying to promote one media for another. All I want is a lovely musical experience when listening. :-)
I hear you ;) I just took it that you were recommending the album... I only meant that streaming makes it easy to check out trusted recommendations. Cheers :)
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