Flow...continuity

spiritofmusic

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I think you are completely missing the point. I do hear more flow through sets, analog, etc etc that I extol for flow. In case you didn't read my initial posts on this thread, the swissonor is a cone not a horn.

Yes, there are other speakers. Many don't do flow. They do other things. Some might do more bass, separation, etc etc, when did I say they didn't. This was about one attribute. Like I said, you are not even interested in what this is about, you, like Al, just want to post on.
And you have no interest on my various Zu based comments but similarly chip in. Yep, you're right Ked, I'll butt out. Al can always keep you company.
 

bonzo75

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And you have no interest on my various Zu based comments but similarly chip in. Yep, you're right Ked, I'll butt out. Al can always keep you company.

Sure I do.. But I don't say things you have not written. This is not about preference. This is about an attribute. It is the equivalent of me saying you think your Zus are sensitive while scintilla owners think their speakers are sensitive. Duh. No one does that. You like your speakers for different reasons than scintilla lovers like those, but they are not arguing over the same attribute
 

bonzo75

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One more

 

Al M.

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I just think that trying to demonstrate deep and hard to describe qualities of music reproduction via these videos is like freeze drying the perfect meal, and adding water at the other end.

Best comment of the thread.
 

Al M.

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Audiophile Bill

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bonzo75

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That is beautiful.

You can easily reproduce it using the Schiit dac into Merrill class D amps into the Zu. They synergize well with the class D in the Zu bass section. You just need a good room in a chapel with loads of GIK traps, isolation, cabling, and balanced power. And the moat to jump into when you can't take it anymore
 
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spiritofmusic

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Hey, you've been paying attention. Kudos.
 
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bonzo75

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Nice music. What is that?

It's divertimento in G major by JB Vanhal.

Not to be confused with Jump by Vanhal (en)
 
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Folsom

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some of these are in the mile-long decay category - too much for me.

then again, i don't know any of the music :oops:

I think for some the sounds never fades as interesting. Maybe it’s just my millennial attention span but I like dynamics (attack in this case), and there seems to be a sort of tipping point once you get to really good stereos. You can’t have both to an extreme, and you tend to have to choose a balance you like between super flow and super surprise dynamics.

By no means do I think all flow character is realistic by any means, it’s just a fascinatingly pleasant sound. I totally get why people will sway beyond realism.
 

Al M.

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I think for some the sounds never fades as interesting. Maybe it’s just my millennial attention span but I like dynamics (attack in this case), and there seems to be a sort of tipping point once you get to really good stereos. You can’t have both to an extreme, and you tend to have to choose a balance you like between super flow and super surprise dynamics.

By no means do I think all flow character is realistic by any means, it’s just a fascinatingly pleasant sound. I totally get why people will sway beyond realism.

I like both, a beautifully even flow on one hand, and wild contrasts and dynamics on the other.

You can also get an incredible continuity of flow spanning across a constant onslaught of strong contrasts. Beethoven was a particular master at that, hardly equalled with such consistency by any other composer on this specific musical characteristic.

Totally agree with your second paragraph. But I tend to get shouted down when I raise the point about artificial flow, with the attack line that I "don't understand flow".
 
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Folsom

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I like both, a beautifully even flow on one hand, and wild contrasts and dynamics on the other.

You can also get an incredible continuity of flow spanning across a constant onslaught of strong contrasts. Beethoven was a particular master at that, hardly equalled with such consistency by any other composer on this specific musical characteristic.

Totally agree with your second paragraph. But I tend to get shouted down when I raise the point about artificial flow, with the attack line that I "don't understand flow".

Well I could talk about the problem with currents running across the back of amps and how they make a necessity for some creative liberation, as do spicy sounding capacitors in the signal path... but there isn’t room in the thread ;) What it leads to is that flow is possible without being artificial, but that doesn’t mean it is subjectively enough to float someone’s boat!

I really, seriously, enjoy piano where one person playing nearly sounds like dubbing because you aren’t sone hearing what they are playing by the time they’re playing the next part. The sound just runs together beautifully for transitions. That’s probably my favorite example of flow, and yes it takes a decent stereo for it to be great.
 
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Al M.

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What it leads to is that flow is possible without being artificial, but that doesn’t mean it is subjectively enough to float someone’s boat!

Of course natural flow is possible, and certainly, it may not always be subjectively enough.

I really, seriously, enjoy piano where one person playing nearly sounds like dubbing because you aren’t sone hearing what they are playing by the time they’re playing the next part. The sound just runs together beautifully for transitions. That’s probably my favorite example of flow, and yes it takes a decent stereo for it to be great.

Yes, recently I have revelled in Debussy's Preludes Book 1 with the young Spanish pianist Javier Perianes in a recent recording on Harmonia Mundi, and all the decay laden flow, recorded in a suitable acoustic, is just magical and mesmerizing.

It does take a decent stereo for that. I have also lately enjoyed Haydn's piano sonatas with John McCabe on Decca. My system configuration from two years ago made a muddled mess out of piano and hall decay, now everything is separate and in place, and finally enjoyable.
 

tima

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You can also get an incredible continuity of flow spanning across a constant onslaught of strong contrasts. Beethoven was a particular master at that, hardly equalled with such consistency by any other composer on this specific musical characteristic.

I think of Shoshtakovich.
 
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Tango

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This Shostakovic is without a system. Does it flow?

 

Al M.

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I think of Shoshtakovich.

Close, but not quite in my view. Typically contrasts are not presented with quite the relentless successive speed as in Beethoven, and like Mahler, Shostakovich also at times intentionally "breaks" the flow for expressive purposes. Beethoven rarely breaks the flow; even his "stops" usually are presented such that they inherently carry the propulsive energy for the momentum of flow to forcefully continue into the next section (think about the transition from first to second theme in the opening movement of the Fifth Symphony, for example).

Yet indeed there are outstanding examples of Shostakovich's mastery in handling propulsive flow across constant great contrast, such as the first movement of the Ninth Symphony.
 
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bonzo75

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This Shostakovic is without a system. Does it flow?


This is beautiful.

This shows you poorly my iPhone records in comparison, as this too is live, Shosty cello sonata

 

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