Today, I had the pleasure of visiting our new high end shop.... Deja Vu west audio.
Our audio club visited the new store and we were treated to a very gracious host and an introduction to some of the most venerable antique gear imaginable....
The highly sought after western electric tube gear with assorted speakers utilizing Kondo drivers, Jensen drivers and EV tweeters. Along with that, we also listened to a fabulously restored EMT table and superb original Quad 57's in like new condition!
Mono was high on the agenda with a Thorens 150 table hooked up to a SME 3012 arm and a mono Ortofon SPU cartridge.
As some of you may know, horns really are not my thing...and while I thought the horn based systems today were some of the best I had heard, I realized something that brought home to me exactly why we have so many a'philes who swear by them and others, like myself, who are not that impressed.
The answer is ...and I think this is coming from my musician side more than my a'phile side....the western electric gear playing into a mono speaker with the horn was great at this....reproduction of TONE! Yes, the tone was excellent and was what one could fool oneself into believing the real sounds like. BUT here's where the problem lies, at least IMO...the sound was tone wise great, yet the other aspects of what I want to listen to as an 'audience' member were missing (an a'phile audience member)...those things being 1) extreme extension (both in the bass and more importantly in the treble) 2) resolved bass, 3) depth portrayal....very little with this gear, 4) separation of instruments on the stage and lastly, 5) ambience retrieval.
Now this system, based on some of the greatest gear from the past, had tone in spades, and for many this will be the end point of their journey. I can easily see why the likes of Art Dudley and so many others would go nuts for this sound...easily. However, if we are to value all of the other items that I mentioned above..they were either poorly presented or missing entirely from the presentation; then I think we have actually come a long way in the last 50 years or so since a lot of this gear was developed.
So, to conclude, how important is the reproduction of purity of tone to you...because I am now a believer that depending on the answer to this simple question, one can now assign a type of relativism to your expectation and desires for your audio system.
Thoughts...
Our audio club visited the new store and we were treated to a very gracious host and an introduction to some of the most venerable antique gear imaginable....
The highly sought after western electric tube gear with assorted speakers utilizing Kondo drivers, Jensen drivers and EV tweeters. Along with that, we also listened to a fabulously restored EMT table and superb original Quad 57's in like new condition!
Mono was high on the agenda with a Thorens 150 table hooked up to a SME 3012 arm and a mono Ortofon SPU cartridge.
As some of you may know, horns really are not my thing...and while I thought the horn based systems today were some of the best I had heard, I realized something that brought home to me exactly why we have so many a'philes who swear by them and others, like myself, who are not that impressed.
The answer is ...and I think this is coming from my musician side more than my a'phile side....the western electric gear playing into a mono speaker with the horn was great at this....reproduction of TONE! Yes, the tone was excellent and was what one could fool oneself into believing the real sounds like. BUT here's where the problem lies, at least IMO...the sound was tone wise great, yet the other aspects of what I want to listen to as an 'audience' member were missing (an a'phile audience member)...those things being 1) extreme extension (both in the bass and more importantly in the treble) 2) resolved bass, 3) depth portrayal....very little with this gear, 4) separation of instruments on the stage and lastly, 5) ambience retrieval.
Now this system, based on some of the greatest gear from the past, had tone in spades, and for many this will be the end point of their journey. I can easily see why the likes of Art Dudley and so many others would go nuts for this sound...easily. However, if we are to value all of the other items that I mentioned above..they were either poorly presented or missing entirely from the presentation; then I think we have actually come a long way in the last 50 years or so since a lot of this gear was developed.
So, to conclude, how important is the reproduction of purity of tone to you...because I am now a believer that depending on the answer to this simple question, one can now assign a type of relativism to your expectation and desires for your audio system.
Thoughts...
