Forums - Print Page

Forums
https://www.decware.com/cgi-bin/yabb22/YaBB.pl
AUDIO FORUMS >> General Discussion and Support >> Another Terrific Tueday at Decware
https://www.decware.com/cgi-bin/yabb22/YaBB.pl?num=1719376445

Message started by 1stwattlife on 06/26/24 at 05:34:04

Title: Another Terrific Tueday at Decware
Post by 1stwattlife on 06/26/24 at 05:34:04

I love to write, but I suck at typing. One day I will have my thoughts more planned out, then I can use text to speech. Look out Decware forum and world, when that happens...

I use the forum space here to help me process and log my hifi journey at this point. I have never needed to do this before. It has always been such a slow journey, and not really a main emphasis in my life. After reading some articles I thought I might see what improving interconnects and cabling would do for my modest systems that sounded good enough to jam some rock and roll fairly impressively. So many things always HAD to come first, though... so many times. I would be able to try this or that... someday. I guess I was never really chasing hi-fi. I was chasing mid-fi. And that is SO fine, if that is all you need in your world... The highest fidelity really isn't for everyone('s wallets). It always lived in a dream world for me, the hi-fi. Mostly because of price and availability, but also because of the transient-esque lifestyle I have as a non home owner. Quality weighs, and I have been lugging so many pounds of gear around already... what would I do with MORE, EVEN HEAVIER stuff!?!

As I was slogging through that preverbal forest one day, I stepped on a a branch to avoid a large puddle, and the branch broke! I lost my balance and fell off my path and tumbled deep into a long dark hole. Before I could open my eyes after waking up I saw a vison of a white diamond with a slash towards the bottom, then it vanished... I could hear the voice of an angel...

...actually it was Elvis (and later Jimi Hendricks, but that's another story altogether).

That was the moment my hifi fate changed.

Tonight, Terrific Tuesday Turntable Club was light on attendees and those who had shown up needed to leave a bit earlier than usual. We have been auditioning a new arm/cart setup for a few weeks, and it is going swimmingly. We had a really informative chat on phono stages, tape stages, and analog media, as we do from time to time, but this one really opened some doors of understanding for us. Some technical ones for me, but alot of of well stated user end for the other guys as well. It was a nice time.

The predicted storm was rolling through pretty good at this point. Thunder rolled, lightning crashed, sheets of rain broke across the roof.

Serious night. Serious weather. We figured better to hide from it this evening as we were a bit worn out and we decided to let it roll through, but to ignore it we would need to go all the way.

I think the Terrific Tuesday Turntable club afterparty should be called the AfterTape Society (unless I come up with something better). We already would have a bit of ritual built in, with the loading and cueing of tapes, I think all we would need is a secret handshake to make it official. Its a society, not a club... sounds more serious that way. The rubber meets the road here folks...

If fidelity is what you are looking for... these recordings, the good ones anyway, are the epitome of it. Why stop at the mechanical media? Skipping an entire non-magnetic step in the process can bring you to the edge of nirvana.

To chronicle the details of how tape presents itself would take a special session/s, which I plan on. As it is I just wanted to whet your pallet. Poke the bear so to speak.

I am quite tired... I think this is post 99 for me... gonna have to wait till later as I have amps to build for a bunch of lovely folks tomorrow.

chow

Keep on listening! I know I will ;)

Title: Re: Another Terrific Tueday at Decware
Post by 1stwattlife on 07/17/24 at 04:54:26

I was just thinking to myself...

Self: you should really try to keep all your Terrific Turntable Tuesday posts-its in the same thread.... you animal!

Up scrolled this thread... and, it had the perfect title...so, here I am...

I am on my phone again, darn wifi went out on the laptop... that's a new one. Whatever. I'm tired and need to get some rest, so from the phone it is.

Best TTT of all time? Maybe, time will tell... but, let me just say that the guest book may need to start a fresh page if we keep this up. Tthe re
Cord piles were huge! And there were some zingers in there. What made the cut was was a classic rock party creme de LA creme! I made a suggestion early on for a request that had been nagging at me... and it went over well. I am pretty sure there were a few records before it, but I admit I don't remember them... and then there it was. Aja: Steely Dan; UHQR. I have been staving off asking for this album to be-replayed on TTT, all while hoping no one else would the get the bright idea to play this particular album until this new setup was at least starting to break in. As fate would have it... this is the week.

It was good. It sounded amazing. Clear as a mountain stream, steady as a ...as a... hmm...

I rember getting level with the platter and watching the stylus in the groove. I could try to go on to explain the depth of sound stage and other attributes we commonly refer to about these things, but the real revelation comes the awareness of the sonic signature of a cantilever imparts on the sonic characteristics of what is directly picked up though the stylus. I have been pondering it lighly as we have listened to this cart/arm combo ( definitely the secret sauce, very synergistic combo) for a while as it broke in. I finally " got it".

So, I really had to hold it together because I really wanted to freak out about it ( good revelations are few and far between sometimes... lol). I didn't want to loose my train of thought and not be able to hear it again, for no good reason, so I just kept listening. ..

** ethereal sparkles fall down a beam of inspirational light from the heavens**

You have to experience this setup to understand the benefits of its design. It's almost not fair to rate it alongside cantilever type cartridges. No, it's actually not fair... apples and oranges. Fortunately I love apples and oranges.

Spoiler alert: Aja was not the album playing when the deep hits of realization came to me. Someone else may want to break honey jar open on the album it was, so I will wait to opine on it later with a full keyboard...one thing that did pop out was the absolute linearity that has to be there for the timing and detail to be so rock solid in the mid range and vocals particularly.

It just took me a full 60 seconds to figure out how to scroll back down after loosing g my place on this phone! I gotta go... what a great TTT, !