I wanted to share some thoughts on Al's system, but the site's problems are getting in the way of highlighting certain things, as the post-controls are not available...
I'll come back to this, but wanted to say a few quick things, after spending 4 hours listening to this beautiful system yesterday
- At a high level, I view live music and high end systems in terms of circles, where live music is perfectly circular and as large as you want it, and stereos are approximations in terms of circle size and perimeter roundness, and must not intersect with live music's (when they do, the system is way off, trash) but they can touch (and when they do, the system does things really well); when stereos intersect between themselves, there are offering alternate versions of reality. Then, the more the perimeter distortion, the more distorted a system sounds (in all sorts of ways); and the smaller the circle, the farther it is from reality in terms of scale, transparency and liveliness.
- All systems sound different, and that's OK, because there are different versions of reality: e.g. the BSO sounds different at Symphony Hall than Tanglewood, and both than their recordings.
- But systems can sound very much alike in all sorts of ways without being identical; in the circle-paradigm, they would be virtually concentric circles of similar-shape perimeters
- If I were to name two such concentric systems, it would be mine and Al's. We pretty much hear the same way and have very similar goals; the approach may be different, but the results are very similar
Since last time I visited, the settling of the treble was quite obvious - be it the DeOxit, break-in, or otherwise. We played a number of tracks and I noticed the following:
- Great transient speed and transparency
- Great scale
- Truly metallic low-register piano notes (not there before, and something I had pointed to Al back then)
- A bit higher noise floor than what I am used to, masking a few things and showing a bit of graininess on low-level information
- A little less separation of instruments than what I hear at home, with a little less clarity
- Spectacular micro-dynamics
- Great string tone, really shines!
- Great palpability and presence
- Redbook is coming of age and can sound like analog
- Man, these Octave amps are a true wonder of electrical engineering; love the build quality, operation and those incredible KT-150 tubes
In terms circle shape and size, it's all subjective, and I won't go there right now, but I would say that we all need to perfect the perimeter as much as possible, before we make the circle larger. Having said that, I REALLY enjoyed the sound, and suggested to Al that he get a reclining chair, because I could easily spend a whole day listening to his system, as I do in mine.