M10 is breaking in quickly… RMAF 2006 is approaching quicker still
Argh.
New and cold out of the box, played quietly, the Audio Note M10 linestage preamplifier was heavenly.
Several hours later, played loudly, there was a harshness / brightness to the upper mids (could have been the Meitner still wamrmng up… people (and you reviewers out there) do know that the Meitner takes about a day to warm up, right?)
The next day, no harshness, but a very tubey tube tube sound.
Today – sounds pretty good. With the purity of the Meitner / Emm Labs front end and the M10, the upper frequencies are very very lovely, the diamond tweeter approaching (and perhaps even supassing?) that of the Acapella plasma tweeters. It WAS very lovely and giggle-inducing.
Tomorrow – who knows.
Break-in darn it. BREAK-IN!
We are thinking about seeing if we can keep all of this plugged in somehow, and then making a mad dash to the show so that everything will only be off for a few hours, instead of the day or so that seems much more likely given that it all sits on and in front of the rack that we are taking.
The Marten Coltrane Supreme loudspeakers are in Denver in Customs. The drivers of the Supremes are broken in at the factory for several hundred hours, as are various other o fits pieces and parts. Cool huh? But we would be a lot happier if they had several months on them.
The important thing now is to get them into the room and just have them sit still for awhile (all that jostling during moves is not good for any component), acclimize to room temperature (it really helps things to sound better if its parts are not both cold and warm and hot at the same time), and get them playing music. And I do not want to argue why all these things are so, just like I do not want to argue why gravity works the way it does – it just does. I mean is.
These things just are. Try and figure out why, if you want to and have the time and expertise. But just don’t deny their existence because nobody can explain why they are indeed so to your satifaction.
Oh, and some of these things people measure, trying to be all ‘scientific’ and using equipment with lots of dials and acronyms instead of nouns. Well, you might as well just the weigh two pieces of equipment to determine which sounds better as to compare them with most of this pseudo-scientific BS. Just because electrons are juicier in one cable than another does not necessarily have anything to so with the quality and accuracy of the sound as enjoyed by a human being. They never prove this casual effect, one way of the other, between what they are trying to measure and the experience that we lay down the big bucks to enjoy. They just pontificate (or assume – and we all know what Felix had to say about ass-u-me-ing something:-)) it is so and awawaaaaaay they go.
Oops, I think that was a soap box. Get that thing out of here!
Anyone know if it Rocky Mountain AudioFest or Rocky Mountain Audiofest or Rocky Mountain Audio Fest… or Rocky Mount Audio Feast?
Wow! I really didn’t think the M10 would arrive in time for RMAF. Very, very cool. Yes, by all means keep it plugged in and cooking. I’m also really glad you were able to put all the Audio Note bits together in one system!
Like your soap boxing, too! As Einstein said, “Not everything that counts can be counted,
and not everything that can be counted counts.”
See you Thursday around lunch time, or a little after at the Marriott – Tech Center, neighbors!