On Feb 13, 10:54 pm, John L Stewart <John.L.Stewart.
97f6...@audiobanter.com> wrote:
> I was at a concert in Copenhagen, where he opened the fall board
> of the piano, put on his reading glasses, studied the gold lettering
> for a moment, and said:
>
> "Steinway and Sons. He didn't tell me he was married"
>
> At the same concert, he was talking about the instruments of the
> orchestra. He said: The difference between the violin and the viola?
> The viola burns longer!""
>
> Iain
>
>
>
> My everyday driver, a Sansui AU717, 90 Watts/Channel & TU717 Tuner, Sony
> PSX6 Direct Drive Turntable, Akai HX-R44 Cassette Tape Deck, Technics
> SL-PG340 CD & RSC Olympus Speakers. I will listen to most anything Except
> C&W!
>
> And a Realistix DX-300 Triple Conversion All-Band Receiver.
>
> Still have my pair of PP 6L6GC UL Monoblocks I built around 1960.
>
> The differance between a cat & bagpipes? You can kill a cat!
>
> Cheers, John
Never heard of those speakers. Got lots about:
http://www.olympusthemusical.co.uk/inf.html
You've got some scary serious stuff there, John. I tend to imagine ppl
here use whatever amp they just built, as a matter of course. Yours is
the kind of equipment I might find in the home of a professional
engineer.
That's an early "single bit" MASH CD player I believe. Any reason to
choose that, or perhaps CD is a low priority for you?
Everyone's throwing out their CD players, so I've been comparing my
Sony with earlier players from pioneers Philips/Marantz, starting with
an original 14-bit CD104 and working through several generations of
mid-range TDA1541 machines. I love the cute styling of the early
square boxes, and their astoundingly heavy construction quality.
They definitely sound different, in mostly negative ways, probably
depending on the output stage and the DAC power supply I guess. The
CD65 is the closest to the excellent Sony so far, and also sounds the
best. I'm quite pleased that I can hear what the TDA1541 fanatics are
on about, but I suspect on balance I don't like it in the same way
that I'm not keen on what ppl call "valve sound".
Nevertheless, I'm going to clean up the analogue bits of a CD50, on
its way, and adopt it as a second player. Maybe it'll grow on me.
Other than CD I have nothing until I manage to get a DAB/FM tuner.
We're being slowly forced in that direction. Sold my Denon tuner
before I realised DAB/FM tuners can't be found cheap, so I just listen
to BBC on the 'puter, which is too mechanically noisy for anything
else. I've never liked vinyl or tape...too much fuss and/or
noise...even though I like the engineering of some reel-to-reels.
My Kenwood amp cost me a fiver for lots of watts, driving Mission
bookshelves with polyprop cones and sibilant tweeters, until I put the
missing 6CH6s back in my "power" amp and get my Celestion 33s back
from their perilous trip to Derbyshire.
C&W is so wide you can't dislike it all, surely. Much of it is shallow
formula pop, which makes the typically tragic themes sound silly. Some
go so far as to make this an art form though, like Tammy Wynette's
"D.I.V.O.R.C.E" or Kenny Rogers' "Ruby, don't take your love to town".
Then, round the French top and bottom of the States there's some nice
mixes. Also some hippy West Coast bands like Greatful Dead. Oh, and
some really outstanding individual songs like Emmylou Harris' version
of "Diamonds are a girls best friend".
Ian