There is some great kit from this era, I lust after a TA-N77 / TA-E77 combo…those big VU meters
Crazy to think these were contemporary with the Olive range naim components, They really are chalk and cheese. There are even more buttons hidden behind flip down panels!!
Bevo,
Fair enough - if you hear it that way then you hear it. I don’t. Never have done. But then I have no idea what reviewers are talking about when they describe speakers having holographic stereo images that you can almost walk around. I’ve heard many speakers in my time, including those that are reputed to image extremely well like LS3/5a’s, Quad ESL 57’s and Celestion SL6’s. I’ve never experienced anything but a vague suggestion of instrument positioning.
Interesting. I’ve never been one for the whole sound stage and imaging thing. However I’ve certainly heard it on occasion and one time in particular. It was a CD555 with 552 and 500, with the speakers being Wilson Benesch Chimeras, connected with Chord Signature cables. I was listening to a jazz singer with a simple acoustic quartet - piano, bass, drums guitar. The holographic sound stage was phenomenal, as if the musicians were standing in front of you and you could reach out and touch them. You could tell where parts of the drum kit were, and how far apart the musicians were and exactly where they were standing. I did find it a tad unnatural as it would never be that explicit in a jazz club; it’s something of an artefact but it most certainly can be done and I fully understand why some find it so beguiling.
Interesting, that could be a mastering choice.
“Added distance” and “added separation” is something I experienced too. Mostly in pop and jazz music.
Never had that feeling with Classical music.
I believe, the system only shows what’s in the recording. The “better” the system, the more it accurately shows what’s in the recording.
Sometimes it can be quite odd. If the mastering is poor, a “better” system can be disappointing.
I never listened to The Cure on my system 500DR system, and certainly won’t on the one I’m building now.
An iPhone is a lot more enjoyable or, better, cassette tape and an old Walkman from the 90’.
I find it sad when people won’t play certain music because they think it will sound poor. When I had a 552 etc I found it hugely accommodating of poor recordings. If music comes first it really shouldn’t matter. But when the performance of one’s expensive toys comes before the music, something is seriously wrong in my eyes.
That’s some extremely serious kit. I’ve no doubt that explicit stereo imaging can be achieved and that to some people it really matters. I suspect that for some reason I’m very much less sensitive to stereo imaging than average. It’s perhaps a bit like those visual puzzles where one tries to see a picture amidst a whole load of dots etc. I can never see it whilst some others claim it to be very easy to see.
I have an interest in film soundtracks, particularly from the 1970’s. A lot of these were never commercially available on LP at the time but over recent years specialist labels have been releasing many older soundtracks on CD. It’s interesting that many of these are quite poorly recorded. They were after all only ever intended to be heard in the final mix of the film. Nobody ever envisaged somebody sitting down and listening to this music on a hi-fi system. On my previous Naim system I found many of them virtually unlistenable and I lost interest for quite some time. My current set-up is far more tolerant of poor source material and my interest in soundtracks has been rekindled. Actually I suspect it was my Naim IBL speakers that made them sound so bad. These were nothing if not unforgiving!
I’m not too fussed about stereo imaging even though my 552DR / Dave does an excellent job of this but most of the time I plonk myself to the right as there’s a handy coffee table to place my cuppa or beer…
Very nice, what an awesome project.
Hi Andy what a lovely room and speakers, I also have a pair of Ovator S 400 but not in white my question what size Gaia thread would I need for my Ovator’s.
ATB Graham.
I see things differently. Or rather, we probably don’t have the same expectations.
As far as the 500DR system is concerned, my experience is quite different from yours.
The 500DR is an extremely transparent system. Especially when you add a second 555PS to the ND555.
On good classical music recordings, or a good old Pink Floyd, it is a wonder!
But when the recording and/or mastering is not good…
The 500DR system does not make it better. It shows what’s in the recording, it doesn’t fix it. At least in my experience.
And coming back to The Cure, my pleasure is to listen to it with earbuds and drown myself in its deliciously gloomy atmosphere (Faith / The Drowning Man).
My main system never gave me that (for The Cure and such). Except when the system was a SN2/nDAC with smaller and less revealing speakers.
My Ovator S600s are 8mm, I guess the 400s will be the same. They make a big difference.s
Indeed Thomas ATB Peter
If you visit the IsoAcoustics website, there’s a calculator on there which should sort out both, which model Gaia, and the required thread size / pitch you will need for your speakers.
It’s not foolproof though, as regards thread and pitch sizes, and it took AudioT three attempts to prise from them the correct ones for my Neats.
But they are a bit good, though I’ve no idea how they work their magic.
My own view is that an excellent system should not ‘fix’ broken recordings but neither should it over-emphasise what’s wrong. It should still allow the music to shine through. Easier said than done IME. When I had Kans many years ago now they were rather like the little girl in the nursery rhyme - “when she was good she was very very good. But when she was bad she was horrid!”.
I do not believe that the 500DR series system exaggerates, or over-emphasise, poor quality recordings. If it did, it would be a very bad HiFi system.
In my experience the 500DR system, does one thing : what you feed is what you get.
I don’t believe that any decent HiFi system can make a poor quality recording sound good, because that would mean changing the recording (adding, subtracting or moderating it). And in that case, it wouldn’t be high fidelity anymore.
But it is clear that a less capable system will be less able to reveal what is wrong in a recording. Which in some cases is a good thing.
Sometimes less details, less separation, less layering is a good thing.
In fact, sometimes, not always, less HiFi is better.
Of course, YMMV.
There is plenty of music that I prefer listening to in my car.
I have a BMW with the Harman Kardon audio factory option. A silly number of drivers throughout the car with two subs under the seats. Driven by some ragged class D amps that seem to have limitless power. This has little to do with hifi but that doesn’t matter, on the contrary.
The other day was playing some track from Rage Against the Machine at hurricane level. The raw power, bass heft and slam in the small cabin is phenomenal and perfect for this sort of thing. My home system, a zillion times ‘better’, doesn’t come close to that. It sounds pathetic in comparison.
Oh yes, the forever conundrum between LowFi and HiFi. ATB Peter