Detail and emotion, I would like to bring enjoyment in too.
I can still remember hearing my copy of Roxy Music’s Avalon played on a Sondek, Nait 1 and Royd Edens in Studio 99, in Fairfax Rd, Swiss Cottage. Probably late 80s.
It may even have been the first time I had heard a Linn. The pleasure was immense. Suddenly I got what the fuss was about. It’s a long time ago but I sometimes wonder if playing the record is as pleasurable now!
But the serious point is that the pleasure is surely not in any one pair of speakers, it’s the system that they are in.
I’m listening to Audio Physic Tempo 35 now actually. I find them beautifully balanced with my Pathos Classic One amplifier. I’m considering throwing a Naim Streamer into the mix.
Now here’s the thing. Music often has a sweet spot where it sounds better and this is often at higher sound levels.
With speakers 2.4m apart and listening position in a classic equilateral triangle I had detail and a very wide sound stage but such a narrow sound level range that some music failed to reach its sweet spot and some music recorded with super wide staging (think Electric Ladyland) was confusing to the point of being unlistenable.
My solution- Moving my listening position such that my speakers were 1/5 room length from front wall and my listening position 1/5 room length from rear wall. with the speakers still 2.4m apart the soundstage filled the front of the room, Hendrix’s stereo pans were back to being smooth cool sweeps and it was now possible to find the sweet spot volume for a wider range of music. Detail was still there but it was somehow more accessible. A bit like stepping back from an impressionist painting.
that what we should be concentrating on is , how accurate the speakers are to the original artist .
I recently bought an Eva Cassidy CD (Acoustic) recorded at different studios etc, there was no “universal” sound to it. My Harbeth P3ESR speakers showed this clearly , and that’s why if I had to draw up a short list , it would be firms with a pro background, such as PMC, Harbeth, Amphion or indeed Pro-Ac
I recall many years ago a school music lesson when our music teacher allowed us to play an album of our generation instead of the usual classical offering. A Jethro Tull album was placed on the platter. After playing the teacher commented on the lines of " people claim that they know what they like, but the truth is that they like what they know". I have always thought that there is a lot of truth in that sentiment. Perhaps, the added detail of new equipment will add to the listening experience, but that in producing a sound that does not quite match the listeners years of listening the result is a miss-match of their expectation that is interpreted as a loss of emotion. It may be that for some people when listening to old gems on new equipment, it will take time to become accustomed to a new sound?
The emotion, for me, comes from listening to a presentation that I ‘like’, with as few distracting aspects as possible. That’s a very personal thing for each person. Having witnessed the musical recording process from recording sessions right through to production, mastering etc (my son was in a fairly internationally successful rock band), I long since gave up on the view relating to hearing the accuracy of the original recording. Once you combine the producer and engineer tweaks and the equipment used, then combine that with your own sources, amps, DACs, speakers, rooms and ears, it’s a fruitless aim, for me anyway.
Some 20 years ago there was a single bass note on a Tina Turner album that boomed, buzzed, echoed and shook the windows, unnatural but so exciting. I would replay the track just for that moment. Now on my far superior system it’s just a single clear,deep bass note with no added “drama”. I kinda miss that note…
If you want the pure Naim sound, from source to speakers and including cables it’s the only way! I find early Naim speakers grab your attention and just don’t let go. Nothing I have heard has made me want to give them up.
I wonder whether the speaker-making genius of Focal could be persuaded to turn its power and creativity to making a special line of neo-Naim speakers based on classic models, e.g. SBL, NBL, SL2, DBL?
