Good Evening All,
I’ve just made a posting in the thread about what makes an audiophile recording and then noticed this thread had started.
OK so I’m recently returned to listening to music via my system in the last two months after a 19 year gap.
The system right now is an LP12/ Akurate Radikal/ Keel/ Ekos MkII & Krystal (very soon to be Urika II’d), this is coupled with a Karik III/ late Numerik and a Akurate DS/3 Catalyst streamer.
Amplification is a NAC82 c/w Supercap, SNAXO 3-6 c/w HicapDR into 3off NAP250’s driving Isobariks.
This will very shortly be improved by the addition of a NAC52 and a further Supercap which will replace the Hicap DR powering the SNAXO.
There is no intention to do much more on the amplification front for the foreseeable future.
Streaming was almost unbeknownst to me 2 months ago and I then had a listen to a Klimax DS/3 Catalyst and was pretty well stunned as to what it was capable of and was kind of thrown a ‘curved ball’ as our American friends would put it.
Now I have the cheaper cousin of the Klimax it is still pretty good by any standard.
As a result of listening to music examples as quoted in the other thread I am faced with a further conundrum.
The Karik III/ Late Numerik combination in itself is much better than the early Karik/ Numerik set-up I had - surprisingly so if I am to be honest.
I have been able to listen to tracks off Peter Gabriel’s ‘So’ as follows:-
- LP12
- Karik/ Numerik
- as a ripped CD via the DS/3 with SO
- as a ripped CD via the DS/ 3 without SO
- as a Hi-Res file via Tidal via the DS/3 with SO
- as a Hi-Res file via Tidal via the DS/3 without SO
Talk about a bewildering choice and I am going to have to return to it as I’m not convinced I was able to pin the absolute winner down as I have to make sure I’ve heard it as 192kHz FLAC download!!!
Listening to Carmen Gomes ‘Don’t you Cry’ on Friday evening, as a 192Khz FLAC download via the DS/3, was literally ‘transformatory’!
Having listened to the Chris Jones’ ‘Roadhouse & Automobiles’ as a 192kHz FLAC and and now having the vinyl version the jury is still out!!
One thing is becoming very obvious to me with regards to a number of the vinyl LP’s I currently own and that is that I simply can’t play them as they just way too disappointing.
I have now bought all three of the Civil Wars LP’s - The Civil Wars is hardly a technical ‘tour de force’, Barton Hollow is better and ‘Live at Eddie’s Attic’ probably best. These two i.e. Joy Williams and John Paul White, deserved far more than this.
Let’s turn to London Grammar, Hannah Reid can sing there is no doubting that, do ‘they’ really need to put her through reverb on every track???
I’m paying say £20 each time for stuff I simply can’t play as it annoys me so much.
Against this I have such as Tidal at £20 a month. I don’t have any problem with the musicality of the DS/3.
I am pre-committed to the Urika II upgrade.
Where do I go from here. An Ekos SE is £4,000, the Kandid £3,210 to get a top of the range LP12 or spend not a lot more and get a UBG Klimax DS/3 (and yes I know there’re other manufacturers).
I am going to have to be very, very picky about what I spend £20 a time (or more) on vinyl or take the easiest route and go down the streamer route.
For now I’m going to sit on the fence and use Tidal to help me decide on any further vinyl purchases as I believe the Urika’d LP12 will undeniably have the edge on the streamer, but it is close.
Regards
Richard
