Bay Area Audio Society June GTG

RUR · Jun 28, 2010

I had the very great pleasure of attending the BAAS get-together yesterday and have to say that it was an absolute blast!

As a BAAS interloper, I wasn't sure who to expect, but I was pleased to meet not only Steve, but Greg (gregadd), Ron (Ron Party), John (Smokester), Larry (Astrotoy), Greg (Morbius) and Carl (cjfrbw). I know someone else sneaked in for a while, but I can't recall his name and for that I do apologize!

Yes, Steve's system is as astonishing as I had imagined. Easily the best I've ever heard and when Ron threw Jordan Rudess' version of Genesis' Dance on a Volcano in the CDP at a ahhhh very satisfying volume level, I was completely blown away. My reaction included several expletives, in fact. A LOT of really good music was played and I walked away with several albums added to the Must Buy list.

The conversation was as good as the music and I think a couple of the audio world's contentious issues were finally resolved, though the actual AES paper may take some time

I was fascinated, listening to Larry describe his efforts to digitize 14,000(!) LP's, and amazed to learn that he had acquired a Pacific Microsonics Model 2 ADAC, which is something of a holy grail.

Later in the evening, Carl was kind enough to have a few of us over to listen to his terrific modified Analysis Audio/Allnic system. More pleasant listening and, dammit, more albums added to the list.

My thanks to one and all, but especially to Steve and Carl, who opened up their homes to share their systems and their passion. It was a real pleasure!

Ken

MylesBAstor · Jun 28, 2010

Geez, this is starting to sound like What's Best West

Gregadd · Jun 29, 2010

I have pictures of my visit to California. I was in a house with not one but two Sirius turntables! Yes it does actually exist and lives up to its rep. An Avantgarde surround system. A near field modified experience. And of course the main attraction Steve's system. Music was a an on air recording of Boz Scags and Cowboy Junkies. Last but not least Steve's hospitality. More to follow...

Jay_S · Jun 29, 2010

I just returned from a trip out of town and couldn't make the Sunday meeting. But Steve was nice enough to invite my son and me over on Saturday night. It was nice to meet Greg. Steve and Greg were a bit hot and tired after a long day of audiophile activities and touring. But Steve, as always, was a gracious host. We played some tunes that I bought along - Modern Jazz Quartet with Sonny Rollins and some Coltrane. Steve also cued up some Tape Project cuts as well as the aforementioned Bozz Scaggs. For good measure, we also listened to the SACD version of Kind of Blue. In each case the sound was as good as I have ever heard.

Steve also demonstrated his Alexandria X-2 IIs with and without the Gotham subwoofers. As phenomenal as the Wilsons are, the subwoofers added another dimension to the sound, and the many hours Steve has spent carefully tuning the system were clearly worth it.

Finally, we watched The Hurt Locker. This is the perfect movie to demonstrate subwoofers since it features continuous pyrotechnics. Again, the well-tuned system was impressive as we were rattled by the gun fire and explosives, but the sound was very realistic and natural without a hint of bloom or bloat. I'm not going to describe Steve's phenomenal projection system as I'm not an expert and you can read about it elsewhere.

As always Steve, thanks for your great hospitality. I'm sorry I missed interacting with the larger group at the Sunday session but my son and I appreciate your flexibility.

cjfrbw · Jun 30, 2010

Thanks to Steve for another great listening session, nice to meet Gregg and Ken.
I am always amazed at the stamina of the BAAS listeners, 4-5 hours at Steve's then another 2 or so hours spinning vinyl at my place.

My apologies for the blazing hot day, I don't have audiophile air conditioning so when turning it off, the room got stuffy pretty fast.

I have never had so many listeners. It is more than a little intimidating having a large group of highly polished audiophiles listening to my Frankenstein rig.

The most I have had at any time before have been two playing snuggle butt for the sweet spot, so there was of necessity a lot of "off axis" listening since my room is much smaller than Steve's and designed around a fairly restricted "sweet spot."

In regards to Ron's and others curiosity about the King Crimson "Court of the Crimson King" re-issue, I played my 1969 vinyl copy yesterday. It is a thrift shop "doozie" with a good bit of surface noise, but it has no "mono crush" at all. Lots of space and panning on all cuts. On "I Talk to the Wind", lots of voice motion around the microphone and a lot of right left separation with instrument placement and panning.
On "Moonchild" the voice is hard right, with flute panning from right to center, percussion all over the place and drums centerish and other instruments to the left.

The only thing that I generally noticed was a tendency on some cuts towards upper midrange brightness, a bit unusual for LP's of this era, like there was some upper midrange compression without any re-expansion.

I imagine the British copies are the best, as usual. The Brits seemed to enjoy flicking boogers at the cousins by sending somewhat bright renditions of their LP's to the States while reserving the lushest for the home market.

MylesBAstor · Jun 30, 2010

cjfrbw said:
Thanks to Steve for another great listening session, nice to meet Gregg and Ken.
I am always amazed at the stamina of the BAAS listeners, 4-5 hours at Steve's then another 2 or so hours spinning vinyl at my place.

My apologies for the blazing hot day, I don't have audiophile air conditioning so when turning it off, the room got stuffy pretty fast.

I have never had so many listeners. It is more than a little intimidating having a large group of highly polished audiophiles listening to my Frankenstein rig.

The most I have had at any time before have been two playing snuggle butt for the sweet spot, so there was of necessity a lot of "off axis" listening since my room is much smaller than Steve's and designed around a fairly restricted "sweet spot."

In regards to Ron's and others curiosity about the King Crimson "Court of the Crimson King" re-issue, I played my 1969 vinyl copy yesterday. It is a thrift shop "doozie" with a good bit of surface noise, but it has no "mono crush" at all. Lots of space and panning on all cuts. On "I Talk to the Wind", lots of voice motion around the microphone and a lot of right left separation with instrument placement and panning.
On "Moonchild" the voice is hard right, with flute panning from right to center, percussion all over the place and drums centerish and other instruments to the left.

The only thing that I generally noticed was a tendency on some cuts towards upper midrange brightness, a bit unusual for LP's of this era, like there was some upper midrange compression without any re-expansion.

I imagine the British copies are the best, as usual. The Brits seemed to enjoy flicking boogers at the cousins by sending somewhat bright renditions of their LP's to the States while reserving the lushest for the home market.

As my ex- used to say, pack a toothbrush

MylesBAstor · Jun 30, 2010

cjfrbw said:
Thanks to Steve for another great listening session, nice to meet Gregg and Ken.
I am always amazed at the stamina of the BAAS listeners, 4-5 hours at Steve's then another 2 or so hours spinning vinyl at my place.

My apologies for the blazing hot day, I don't have audiophile air conditioning so when turning it off, the room got stuffy pretty fast.

I have never had so many listeners. It is more than a little intimidating having a large group of highly polished audiophiles listening to my Frankenstein rig.

The most I have had at any time before have been two playing snuggle butt for the sweet spot, so there was of necessity a lot of "off axis" listening since my room is much smaller than Steve's and designed around a fairly restricted "sweet spot."

In regards to Ron's and others curiosity about the King Crimson "Court of the Crimson King" re-issue, I played my 1969 vinyl copy yesterday. It is a thrift shop "doozie" with a good bit of surface noise, but it has no "mono crush" at all. Lots of space and panning on all cuts. On "I Talk to the Wind", lots of voice motion around the microphone and a lot of right left separation with instrument placement and panning.
On "Moonchild" the voice is hard right, with flute panning from right to center, percussion all over the place and drums centerish and other instruments to the left.

The only thing that I generally noticed was a tendency on some cuts towards upper midrange brightness, a bit unusual for LP's of this era, like there was some upper midrange compression without any re-expansion.

I imagine the British copies are the best, as usual. The Brits seemed to enjoy flicking boogers at the cousins by sending somewhat bright renditions of their LP's to the States while reserving the lushest for the home market.

Actually the best pressing of CC to my knowledge is the US first pressing version mastered by the legendary George Piros (he did the work on many great Atlantic, Mercury and many other labels; interestingly, Mercury Records was a much sought after mastering studio because as Tom Fine put it, They [Mercury] had an early reputation for making reliable stereo cuts (ie. they were dynamic but would track on any decent stereo phonograph)."

Ron Party · Jun 30, 2010

Carl, I played it at home on Monday and I had greater channel separation and depth as well. I don't know to what I (we?) can attribute it when I played it on Sunday. You may recall I struggled with finding the sweet spot on both KC tracks as well as the Jordan Rudess track.

We did not play Moonchild on Sunday at Steve's (but we should have - what a great song!). We played I Talk To The Wind and Epitaph.

You mention upper midrange brightness on your LP version. I noticed that on Sunday at Steve's as well as on Monday when I played it at home.

I also played the 5.1 surround version off the 40th Anniversary issue at home. To use typical audiophool language, it absolutely blows away the 2 channel versions, including the original, the 2004 remaster and the 2009 remaster. It might be the best 5.1 implementation I've heard.

cjfrbw said:
Thanks to Steve for another great listening session, nice to meet Gregg and Ken.
I am always amazed at the stamina of the BAAS listeners, 4-5 hours at Steve's then another 2 or so hours spinning vinyl at my place.

My apologies for the blazing hot day, I don't have audiophile air conditioning so when turning it off, the room got stuffy pretty fast.

I have never had so many listeners. It is more than a little intimidating having a large group of highly polished audiophiles listening to my Frankenstein rig.

The most I have had at any time before have been two playing snuggle butt for the sweet spot, so there was of necessity a lot of "off axis" listening since my room is much smaller than Steve's and designed around a fairly restricted "sweet spot."

In regards to Ron's and others curiosity about the King Crimson "Court of the Crimson King" re-issue, I played my 1969 vinyl copy yesterday. It is a thrift shop "doozie" with a good bit of surface noise, but it has no "mono crush" at all. Lots of space and panning on all cuts. On "I Talk to the Wind", lots of voice motion around the microphone and a lot of right left separation with instrument placement and panning.
On "Moonchild" the voice is hard right, with flute panning from right to center, percussion all over the place and drums centerish and other instruments to the left.

The only thing that I generally noticed was a tendency on some cuts towards upper midrange brightness, a bit unusual for LP's of this era, like there was some upper midrange compression without any re-expansion.

I imagine the British copies are the best, as usual. The Brits seemed to enjoy flicking boogers at the cousins by sending somewhat bright renditions of their LP's to the States while reserving the lushest for the home market.

RUR · Jun 30, 2010

Listening right now to the actual CD we listened to Sunday and channel separation on those two cuts seems OK, to me. Much Better on Wind than Epitaph. Can't comment on Sunday since I was right-rear for these and not in the sweet spot.

Rudess arrived today, Ron and I've been playing it way too loud for my own good. ;-) Andy Narrell and Shawn Colvin ETA tomorrow, Carl.

Ron Party · Jun 30, 2010

RUR said:
Rudess arrived today, Ron and I've been playing it way too loud for my own good. ;-)

Yup. The wink is a perfectly appropriate emoticon for this oxymoron!

The skill of the musicians on this album is off the charts. Besides Dance On A Volcano, what do you think about the other tracks?

Steve Williams · Jun 30, 2010

Which track sounded so good at my house that brought out some 4 letter words from Ken

BTW thanks to everyone who attended on this very hot day. it was 107 in my back yard that afternoon.

Ron Party · Jun 30, 2010

Steve Williams said:
Which track sounded so good at my house that brought out some 4 letter words from Ken

Dance On A Volcano.

BTW thanks to everyone who attended on this very hot day. it was 107 in my back yard that afternoon.

Of course, I had no idea since I was enjoying the afternoon inside. When I left your house at about 6:30, my car said it was 99. It was 99 at the 24/680 interchange. It was about 97 entering the Caldecott. It was 73 leaving the Caldecott. I was immediately reminded of one of the reasons why I prefer to live on the Bay side of the tunnel.

RUR · Jul 1, 2010

Ron Party said:
Besides Dance On A Volcano, what do you think about the other tracks?

They're all excellent, though the Genesis cut is my favorite. But, you probably already knew that.....

Hey, what were those internet radio stations with the no-fee custom playlists?

Ron Party · Jul 1, 2010

RUR said:
They're all excellent, though the Genesis cut is my favorite. But, you probably already knew that.....

Agreed. Interesting medley, though, in Track 4 with part of Supper's Ready and part of I Talk To The Wind. Paying homage to the godfathers of prog rock.

Hey, what were those internet radio stations with the no-fee custom playlists?

Start with Slacker, then try Pandora.

Gregadd · Jul 1, 2010

Picture

Pictures

MylesBAstor · Jul 1, 2010

Gregadd said:
Pictures

Man I can put my whole Manhattan apt. in that living room

cjfrbw · Jul 1, 2010

Yeah, but you have all the benefits of urban congestion, noise, pushing, yelling, insulting, degrading impersonal interaction with massive rat piles of people at incredibly high cost of living, so stop complaining already.
By the way, that is not the living room, the living room is downstairs.

Johnny Vinyl · Jul 2, 2010

Gregadd said:
Pictures

OK...so who is who in this picture?

John

Steve Williams · Jul 2, 2010

That's me standing and in the back row from left to right is Morbius, cjfrbw and The Smokester

Johnny Vinyl · Jul 2, 2010

Steve Williams said:
That's me standing and in the back row from left to right is Morbius, cjfrbw and The Smokester

Nice to meet you Steve! And hello fellas!

Here's me about 2 years ago...you know, it's the names to faces thing.

John

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