High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo Archives - Page 352 of 481

December 29, 2007 by Michael

CES 2008 Preparizations

We are not going to be providing photos to Audiogon for CES 2008, Albert Porter and crew will be doing the job for them. That makes life easier for us – we just do what we gonna do – which is probably a lot like last year, unless you people have other ideas?

Let’s see. Here, we are in disarray. Shipped 8 HRS platforms out to Vegas early in the week. We have two skids of equipment going there as well full of Audio Note equipment [Neli will have to let me know what she knows and then you’ll know what is on the skids]. We are taking two separate cars not quite full but too full for just one car. This for two rooms over at the Alexis Park. Near the back. Whatever, it’ll be better than over at the Venetian that seems to want to CRUSH whatever spirit and innovation and individuality it can find – which is funny for a place that hosts the Audio Video Awards. Maybe if we put more sex into our hobby, they would be more accommodating?

The things I am looking forward to? A few things….

The Lamm ML3 amps – which are now even more expensive. Yeah, they’ll be on – well they just say Wilson speakers. Anyway, no not the ultimate pairing, but one that should give us a sense of what the amps are doing, since the sound of most Wilson speakers are pretty familiar, well for the year or so that they are current production, anyway. Zanden front end. OK, going to be sweet. Good for driving Wilsons, probably. Silent Running Audio platforms and racks… uh – soft and mushy? OK. … TW-Acustic, Kubala-Sosna. OK, do not expect a forward and detailed presentation 🙂

The new Audio Note TT3 turntable (premiered in Milan). This will be in our room this year. Low mass platter with high torque motors. Should be interesting. We *do* like the voicing of Audio Note gear (so far :-)) so this should be …interesting… kind of goes counter to the high-mass platters we have had here – or the just-make-it-look-good tables that most other manufacturers build.

Emm Labs might have a thing or two to premiere… 🙂

The new and IMproved Wilson Alexandrias II+++ [I don’t know what their latest designation is]. I’d like to hear these. Hope someone is bringing them.

Kondo is doing a lot of press these days – maybe they’ll be at the show… and hopefully with a pair of decent speakers.

Maybe Clearaudio will actually *play* their uber table this year?

Video-wise, I would like to see a Sony XBR 1080p in 32 inches or smaller. The 20 inch LG I have on my desk now… is nice but… has issues. I’ll do a post on this thing sometime for those of you that give a hoot. 🙂

Uh, can’t think of anything. I hope it is sunny and warm, but I hear it has been a cold winter there (40s). I do about 45 minutes of walking outside, on a good day, carrying a large hunk of camera… so, uh, maybe gloves?

December 24, 2007July 23, 2014 by Michael

Walker Wash

Well, it is probably not called ‘Walker Wash’. Actually, it is definitely not called that.

But this post is about the Walker LP Cleaning Process Process Process Process.

It is officially, the Prelude Record Cleaning System.

The short and sweet is: It is a four (4) pass process. I hate that it is so labor intensive. I will personally hardly ever spend the time doing it. It works better than other, more commonly practiced processes. It opens a new world of music enjoyment for formerly unlistenable / unnatural sounding music genres.

It comes in some nicely labeled bottles. And I know one has purified water of some sort. Blah Blah Blah.

Neli uses 3 different brushes, all labeled according to their purpose in life.

Look, I did not clean the records. They had already been cleaned carefully by others. And then the Walker Solution was applied by Neli and Kevin. I just got to hang around and listen to several before and after results.

The results?

It made a previously, well – you know those kinds of jazz fusion bands that sounds like a cacophony of instruments slightly out of tune? Not exactly penetrable if you know what I mean. Cleaning with the Walker stuff made it sound like maybe the musicians did, after all, have some kind of plan in mind, perhaps even were accomplishing what they had planned. It was now possible to hear and follow the various, the SEVERAL various, melodies all happening at the same time, intertwining and playing off of each other.

It still wasn’t going to make the top 40 pop charts – but given that its purpose was more to be playful and complex and subtle and a little disturbing… it actually worked.

But before cleaning it with the Walker stuff, it was, uh, garbage? Can I say that? You know, Noise. I always thought that some bands just put out pure noise because, well, boys aren’t that particular sometimes, right? We just want to bang on cans and garbage-can lids and whatever…

Well, now, *dammit*, a lot of this really quite innovative and provocative music might just need an LP and 4 passes of cleaning on the Loricraft with the Walker cleaning fluids.

Whether spending the time to apply 4-passes with other cleaning solutions would also work this well, I don’t know.

Even if other solutions did work as well, it would still make this nirvana of uber-sounding LPs almost inaccessible to me, because, well, it is just so unlikely that I am going to spend the time doing all this cleaning. I mean, hello? How many years do we get? And I am going to spend them cleaning LPs?

But… well, just maybe, MAYBE, I’ll Walker the new Radiohead LPs I am getting for Christmas.

… and maybe DSOTM. … and Amnesiac.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

December 20, 2007 by Michael

Valhalla power cords on ODIN-cabled system

We just put the Valhalla power cables on the equipment: Audio Note Ongaku integrated amp and DAC 4.1x Balanced DAC and CDTThree transport.

Still evaluating. The equipment was off for several hours, so our listening must continue… but, so far, on some tracks the performance was improved and on some, not. Pretty much like any top-notch power cord.

So far we’ve tried Shunyata and now Valhalla. Elrod is next, and then Acrolink.

But can’t help but think what Odin power cords are going to sound like. And how much they are going to cost… *whine*.

This testing of the Odin with different power cords, then different components, will be necessary, I think, to get a feel for the overall performance curve of the Odin.

But, as a sneak preview, it is my impression that the Odin interconnect is the bargain [I know, I’ve gone from $7K bargain Jorma Prime interconnect to $16K Odin interconnects… but…] For some reason interconnects, perhaps because they carry the most delicate part of the signal chain, seem to have the most impact.

And the Odin interconnect is in the spirit of Ultimate harmonic detail, perfection and cleanliness personified. The Odin speaker cable is all about ease, dynamics and the darkest blackest background you can imagine personified.