Volunteers needed for listening test

Will try this Sunday………

Its my pleasure...
Please suggest a suitable time.

Siva,

Would have loved to, but distance precludes it!

All the best,
Viren.

Viren,

It would be great if you get a chance to drop by BLR ... atleast sometime in the near future :-)

Regards
Siva.

Dear Siva,

I will be extremely happy to come along with my CDs. Pl. pm date, time and your address & phone number.

Regards

Hello Siva

I will be more than happy to come and listen. Do PM me when and I can be over.

Siva

I would be more than happy to listen to your amp.
When are you sending it over

I will surely listen when I can get to bangalore.

manek.

Manek schrieb:

Siva I would be more than happy to listen to your amp. When are you sending it over I will surely listen when I can get to bangalore. manek.

It would definetly be great to have u in BLR.

On a more selfish note ..I can use some info on the Cadence 845..in order to improve my own amp.

Regards
Siva.

Ah so thats your benchmark ? Good one to have.

Manek.

Manek schrieb:

Ah so thats your benchmark ? Good one to have. Manek.

At the moment i have no other benchmark....i guess it will be difficult to find a deHavilland 845..or even better ..ArtAudio.

I have not heard 845 before i made this amp....so i'm relying on feedback over phone from folks outside BLR. Any help will be greatly appreicated .. from those who've heard 845 based amps..

Regards
Siva.

It was a great audition on Saturday.
Very rarely have I heard a system so resolving and musical. I have no prior experience with 845 except the Arca / Cadence mono-block pairing. Due to the difference in presentation of the electrostats, I really can’t compare. Both were involving / resolving / musical.

can we sort of gather together on a saturday afternoon? would you be ok with it siva? i'd sure love to come over with my cd's and listen. say coming saturday afternoon 2 -5? or is evening convenient for everyone?

I am in.
Anytime is convinient.

[quote="square_wave"]It was a great audition on Saturday.
Very rarely have I heard a system so resolving and musical. [/quote]

I second square_wave on this one

I volunteered and listened to Siva's setup last Saturday morning for a couple of hours. Being a relative newbie, I had never before listened to an entire valve setup...the closest being Viren's equipment at Steve's place. Anyway this 845 based amp setup is a different league altogether. It was a totally new experience, I didnt know any damn thing about it..soundwise/moneywise..nor I intended to..had an 'open-mind' which inturn made the audition very interesting..ended up being an 'ear-opener' for my naive ears

I played Clapton and Alanis (MTV Unplugged versions), most of Floyd's 'wish you were here' and ELP's 'Trilogy' albums, Norah's 'come away with me' & 'nightingale' songs and Hariprasad Chaurasia's Flute rendition assisted by Zakir Hussain from the Stuttgart concert.

Midrange was neutral, liquid & clean (female vocals were the best I've heard so far in my musical journey), highs were transparent (more openness would do even better) Tonality and instruments timbre was very lush (flute/tabla combine was a treat) and bass was deep and punchy (felt I wanted a bit more pace at the low end when ELP (hoedown/trilogy/abaddon's bolero) was played.

Soundstage was terrific beyond the speakers horizontally, though I desired more depth behind.

Ofcourse, all this 'a bit more desired' can be totally ignored and forgotten if you just sit back and enjoy listening, rather trying to evaluate the setup.

Coming from a Solid State background, I dont know how much of my feedback helped Siva, I guess made Me more knowledgeable interacting with him for a few min, also remember him saying there are still some 'issues' to be sorted out, though my ears failed me on that count ..because I've never heard 'equivalent' setups to compare the differences. Hmm...not too late to start..

To sum up, on the whole... this 'all valve' setup was indeed a mesmerizing musical experience which mattered the most for me

Congrats and Thanks Siva. Given a chance would love to come over again and again

Voodoo
classic case of valves turning on their magic ....

Manek.

Manek schrieb:

Voodoo classic case of valves turning on their magic .... Manek.

Yup….
The sound made by valves can be very intoxicating. In the best valve setups I have heard, I have failed to hear any of the nonsensensical words like “tubey”, “ soft” , “ amps for classical” etc…which most solid state guys usually talk about. They just kick ass with the most “ dynamics “ and “ neutrality “ I have ever heard. I guess it is the design that matters. But of course, to get that kind of dynamics and power from tubes, you will end with a behemoth of an amplifier……I have heard two setups now.
1. arca with canasyas
2. Siva’s DIY 845 set.

In both, I just forgot about the equipment and about dissecting the music into bits and pieces. The system just don’t let you do it. The moment you load a cd, you are transported into the music. Music remains and you are transfixed to the seat. I now feel, that is what a system ought to be doing. If the system lets you dissect the music, it is doing something wrong or the guy is neurotic.

square_wave schrieb:

If the system lets you dissect the music, it is doing something wrong or the guy is neurotic.

This is one of the most subjective and single pointed view on can have on this Hobby !

It could also be that your are an Audiophile who has enjoyment of music just as a side effect and it is trueness to the source with 0 distortion and a flat response that is of parmaount importance.

their are people like that and have as valid a claim to be an audiophile as someone who is into it just to enjoy music + enjoy the much Higher fidelity as a path to it.

Arj schrieb:

square_wave schrieb: If the system lets you dissect the music, it is doing something wrong or the guy is neurotic. This is one of the most subjective and single pointed view on can have on this Hobby ! It could also be that your are an Audiophile who has enjoyment of music just as a side effect and it is trueness to the source with 0 distortion and a flat response that is of parmaount importance. their are people like that and have as valid a claim to be an audiophile as someone who is into it just to enjoy music + enjoy the much Higher fidelity as a path to it.

I know dissection is part of an audiophile’s life. But sometimes systems can make you forget it. That is the magic I was talking about.
One more system that made me do it is the Rethm speakers on VTL monoblocks at the the designer’s studio. If you dissect the sound, there are issues like lack of extension at both ends of the frequency spectrum. But the sound is such that , it makes you forget all that and you sink into the sofa enjoying the music…….

One more system that made me do it is the Rethm speakers on VTL monoblocks at the the designer’s studio.

Hi SW.

Where is this place ? In Bangalore ?

Would LOVE to hear the VTL mono blocks. Which ones are these ?

Odd combination though, (Only) in terms of the High Powered Monobloocks driving VERY efficient speakers.

Tube hiss audible at the seating position, when no music is played ?

Hi Amp nut,
This was at the designer’s (Jacob George) studio at cochin / kerala some 3 years ago. My memory is little vague now. They were tube SET monoblocks. Not 100 percent sure if they were VTL though. Perhaps Prithvi may be able to shed more light on this. I was a tube newbie then. No issues with hiss and noise.

I normally forget about equipments when I am listening to someone else's system (unless the system is extremely good or bad), may be because I haven't paid for it...but when I listen to my own setup, I do end up thinking something about it (mostly good things)...may be because I have paid for it .

square wave wrote:

In both, I just forgot about the equipment and about dissecting the music into bits and pieces. The system just don’t let you do it. The moment you load a cd, you are transported into the music. Music remains and you are transfixed to the seat. I now feel, that is what a system ought to be doing. If the system lets you dissect the music, it is doing something wrong or the guy is neurotic.

What do you think I have been harping on all these years!
People just have to learn to graduate to this level of listening. If you have experienced it, it's difficult to let go!

Viren.

Voodoo_CHild schrieb:

Coming from a Solid State background, I dont know how much of my feedback helped Siva,

Thanks Voodoo. Your feedback did help...the problem with highs as you mentioned was true. It was traced to my transport....and I'm in the process of fixing the same. Thanks again.

Regards
Siva.

stevieboy schrieb:

can we sort of gather together on a saturday afternoon? would you be ok with it siva? i'd sure love to come over with my cd's and listen. say coming saturday afternoon 2 -5? or is evening convenient for everyone?

The coming saturday is fine Stevieboy. However, let us have it after 4:30pm.

Regards
Siva.

square_wave schrieb:

It was a great audition on Saturday. Very rarely have I heard a system so resolving and musical. I have no prior experience with 845 except the Arca / Cadence mono-block pairing. Due to the difference in presentation of the electrostats, I really can’t compare. Both were involving / resolving / musical.

Thanks Sq.Wave. You have become an integral part of this DIY project. Appreciate all your help so far...and i will definetely ....be troubling with more audition requests.

Regards
Siva.

thanks for the invite siva! um your place is the same in banashankari right? left at the pizza place near the bda complex? do pm me your postal address. thanks.

also would it be possible to listen to the speakers you designed using the scanspeak drivers? i remember deaf being very impressed with them. would love to hear them.

abhi has said he's coming. anyone else? 5pm it is.



regards

I will be there too. I couldnt make it last Sat, apologies Siva. Will be there this time around.

A detailed report plz, boys-
and have fun!

saturday was a good listening session. hardly any systems i have heard so far have come so close to reproducing music this way. instruments sounded like real instruments, and one got the impression of performers in front of you. if i had to describe it in one word it would be scale. a sheerly huge sheet of music cascading over you and pulling you in. very very engaging. 'right there with the performers' is perhaps the best way i can find right now to describe the experience. sure makes one want to go back and listen again

there was one track that siva played from his collection and the crowd was cheering. you could make out so clearly the different sections of the crowd and then it piped down and you could hear the musicians on stage. i did feel i was there in the front row in the middle of the concert.

thanks for the invite siva!

I wish my wife will allow me to do this.....



This is a photo i got from a friend of mine, who found in on the internet. It needs lots of courage to attempt something like ....most of the material seems to be vintage ex-mililaty style components.

Awesome, Siva!
I can understand Steveieboys rave review of your setup.
Wives are dear things & where would we be without them?(Doing our own cleaning/cooking/washing-Ughhhh!!!)
But sometimes one gets the feeling that they are not really clued into the important issues of life.
Imagine preferring a clean, neat ,uncluttered sitting room vs a dream setup like this?