nick: steve, good update. trouble is I read them when I'm at work and haven't got much time to reply, I'll try and put an update in tonight (after class). But didn't want you to feel you were posting to a vacuum!
 

 Steve: Forgot to mention (maybe I did it afterwards)that I ordered the Yes live triple last night. I found a £1 CD-WOW offer so felt a) I need to get the album out of the 3 of us, and b) use the voucher. Oh and Egg card to get a further 5% off. So will let you know what it's like when I can. More Bruford has to be good and a live Soundchaser...

BTW if you search around you can find offers aplently like the CD WOW vouchers. It was a URL for customers of another company but people post the URLs for all to use. It resulted in an email of 3 £1 vouchers. Another one I know gets you 50p off chart albums.
 

 Tim: Nope, we're still likely to exchange in "a couple of weeks", same as last month. If stuff actually happens it'll be such a shock.

Meanwhile Steve, you can relax a bit, because I'm catching up with my Fax collection again. There have been some well-received releases recently so I'm holding my nose and getting everything. Had the first consignment, mainly Namlook / Moufang releases, and of the ones I've played 2 sound good and one (famously) dreadful Still got to play the much-feared DSOTMX.
 

 Steve: (Relief) you're back up-to-date with Fax then. BTW two of the guys here went to see Sparks at the weekend. I probably would've gone if we weren't busy Saturday night. I borrowed their last album (not the new one) and it was very good - musical pop with lots of oddness.
 

 Steve: Well I went to this guy's dingy bed-sit in Wlathamstow (end of Victoria line!) and bought his Audiolab 8000S for 275. My negotiating skills being pretty useless but he just wouldn't go as low as 250 and it had been up for 300, then 285. It appears to be in pretty well mint condition and I heard it working which is not going to happen with eBay. I probably paid the going rate for a late version to be honest.

Got home a bit late so hopefully tonight it will get a run. I just hope it's better than the Marantz I have. Paul asked the question which album is to be the first... I dunno! The guy had previously run it with the 8000P but said it wasn't a lot different unless you cranked it up.
 

 nick: Blimey steve, well done. So I no longer have the best amp among us then? What will you do with the Marantz?

I'm sure you'll notice a difference, although whether it's real or imagined might be harder to tell..

What's next on the hifi upgrade path?
 

 Tim: Nothing wrong with paying the going rate, and (knowing nothing) 275 doesn't sound that much for a good amp?

So now do you need an 8000P...for when you crank it up?
 

 nick: Mike Oldfield is selling a load of his old equipment. From his website:

Having a big clearout of unused gear recently and most of my guitar collection is now for sale. Contact chandler guitars for more information.

I notice there's still a banjo available steve
 

 Steve: I'd like to get an 8000P but I'll have to see what this one's like. The aim would be to bi-amp the speakers; use the 8000S to drive the tweeters and the 8000P bass units. Ideally you get a preamp and 2 8000Ms (monoblocs) :)

I think the first disk will be Jeff Buckley and Grace. Voted second in the hi-fi mag I bought, second to Dark Side of the Moon. Actually the KS Dark Side would be a good one, and that may well need bi-amping.

Soon getting part of a bonus payment and I can't stand by to see it go on a car or some carpet can I?

Nick you still need to get a decent CD player, but if you're happy with the (interim) one you have then you should stick with it I suppose. You seem to be up against it in that house with regards to hi-fi. I think wooden floors are very bad for bass and then you have the alcove situation as well.

I'm starting to think about getting a hi-fi stand/rack so that the components get some ventilation, but they take up space and can be pretty ugly. And it would go where I was half-planning to put a sub-woofer, between the speakers.

Not sure what to do with the Marantz, maybe give it to Paul. I still have the good old Cambridge as well.

The banjo is tempting, no bagpipes I suppose?
 

 Tim: Nick, what are you up to looking at the Mike Oldfield site??

(Steve - steel drums?)
 

 Steve: I tried this earlier and my laptop keeled over so here we go again.

I'm sure you're dying to know what the amp's like. Well pretty fantastic in two words. Paul, who has not read any (hifi) mags that I know of said that it had put more space around all of the instruments. First up was Jeff Buckley and the clarity was pretty superb but where has the bass gone, who's substituted my speakers for HB1's? Next up was Orbital's In Sides which brought out a lot of things I'd not heard before. Moved on to David Sylvian and he's even more hauntingly in the room than before. This morning(!) briefly tried some of: The Kick Inside, So and Andy Summers.

The amp itself uses the same remote as my CD-player (as did the Marantz) which is nice. It has a nice feauture where it mutes as it comes up and just as you power it off. I have to get used to a lot less bass but a lot more detail so have an exciting few weeks ahead of me. I guess then that adding a power-amp is not going to improve bass. The other Nick reckons sub-woofer and main filtering are the best investments. I wonder...
 

 nick: "more space around all of the instruments" - that's spooky - it's the same sense I remember having when hearing my audiolab for the first time - maybe it really is true!

Great that you can tell a difference. Also must be nice to have a child who can - I can't imagine Ella being in the slightest bit interested in this sort of thing.

Does the lack of bass mean that your old amp was "incorrectly" boosting the bass then? And that you're now getting a more realistic sound?

I find it hard to believe that subwoofers can be part of a hifi setup, it just doesn't seem right to me that you could have a component that might be stuck behind the sofa could improve the sound. But got to be worth a try, and presumably you could get some cheap ones off ebay.

Related to mains filters: the Guardian has a weekly "Bad Science" column in which they debunk stuff about e.g. homeopathy. Over the past couple of months he has had a series of articles about expensive hifi mains leads. See:

article 1

article 2

article 3

I think he's trying to set up some kind of double-blind experiment, but I've not seen the results yet. Still, at least there are some URLs in his article pointing at places that sell mains leads.


re: pink floyd - didn't see the DSotM classic album program, but went to see "Think Floyd" last week. They played:
- all of DSotM
- another brick pt3 (with school children)
- see emily play
- run like hell
- all of WYWH
- paintbox(? old track)
- sheep
- comfortably numb

And I was pretty disappointed. The performance was perfunctory - they were adequate musicians but it sounded nothing special (with the possible exception of the girl who sang on great gig, and also played sax. She was good. Mind you she also had a foxy outfit which enhanced the performance). Mix wasn't very good, and while they'd got some decent lights it was not a patch on the real thing. So I wouldn't go and see them again. Jethro Tull is coming up next, so need to get hold of Aqualung quick!
 

 Tim: I think I'll get one of those mains leads, it's cheaper than a new amp.

(As long as Paul can tell the difference, that is.)
 

 Tim: I followed a link to a hifi forum where they're discussing the challenge.

It gets off to such a great start it's unbelievable:
"What an odd article, you ask for people to come forward and prove they can hear a difference with these cables. Yet you say nothing of what tests you have done to prove that there is NO difference in sound. Surely the fact that many HiFi enthusiats can hear a difference, and put there money where there mouth is, lends some credibilty to these claims. ..."
 

 Steve: I enjoyed the articles. Lots of feedback too, I liked this comment:
"By the way I would be happy to participate in blind testing, as long as there is a buffet…" The option of comparing 2 CD files is not going to work though is it? I reckon the digital values would be different every time you played it due to dust, jitter etc.

Lemon Jelly was disappointingly low-fi and so was some of Matthew's Gorillas album. Also disappointing was Man Machine but we're expecting the live version to sound stonking. It's good to share this rather odd experience of comparing hifi album sounds. Matthew hasn't really got the music bug but I still have hopes. Most impressive so far was the Orbital which surprised me.

I reckon the Marantz was being a bit on the warm side then. It's what you get used to isn't it? The audiolab isn't harsh-sounding, just remembered, Brand X is good. So some albums that you maybe thought could do with re-mastering (like BX) don't seem to need it. Can't wait 'til I get Unorthodox Behaviour back from Jonathan.

Interesting point in my hifi mag about general stuff. Good quality gear should allow you to talk normally to someone even when it's turned up loud. They're right but how does that work then?

The Yes album arrived - a taller-than-CD box with yet more Roger Dean samey images. Lots of pictures and writing but I can't be bothered with them. I'm a bit of a way through the first (early) disk. Terrible mono quality and I skipped the first track in disgust. But the music is brilliant, 10 minute versions of 3 minute tracks with extended jamming - I could listen to Yes doing this sort of thing all day long. Further update as I get through it.

Shame about the Floyd thing but when you see the real band it can sometines sound like they've put the album on. Although they shone on Live8 and made most of the rest of the day's acts sound pretty poor. Do you want an MD of Aqualung Nick? I could maybe stretch to the live album if you want - it's on LP though.

Finally I heard/read a couple of things that seem to have hit the nail on the head. Someone said that Jordan had a monotonous voice and now I see that's so true. Also that when you listen to a Madonna song, afterwards you feel like it's been an empty experience. And sure enough, the next time I heard one...
 

 nick: Aqualung - thanks for the offer Steve but I've ordered it off Play, only 5.99