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

I had to take a little time this morning to slow down and stretch my back out. I will be heading back into the shop soon, but had a brief thought to add to my previous sticky note.

A few months ago I became acquainted with the terminology of 'being the mic'. It is an eloquent way to refer to the phenomena of a time/space travel feeling of being a fly on the wall for a an event through its audio playback... Is there a terminology for something beyond that? I guess it would just be 'like being there' as if they are in the room with you'... but that is  weak sauce. The phrases have been used so often to describe sub par experiences that are just better than the usual and no longer descriptive of the absolute grandeur of the true high fidelity experience... sales pitches for brochures and flyers that merely allude to such things so that everyday mid-fi audio purchasers can validate enormous price tags... rambling more, sorry...

Do we need our own language? I think we need our own language.

I will take it in the best way, Thanks for the comment. I am not the best writer, but, I try to keep things interesting one way or another. I would much rather just answer direct questions..

Yes, Terrific Turntable Tuesdays is an actual event, weekly on Tuesdays. It started as just an evening for Steve and his old buddy Tim to hang out and catch up. I started joining them after a few weeks, as I was also separately acquainted with Tim through one of his sons with whom I have shared several mutual friends. After a little while Tim's son started hanging out on Tuesdays and bringing in his new and favorite vinyl, soon thereafter one of the other builders and another old friend joined the group and I believe five people (with regularity) is enough to warrant a proper club name, and possibly even a t-shirt... we shall see... I MAY get a little carried away from time to time.

But, the thing is that Decware audio systems are so good that listening experiences can get transcendental, not only without warning, as you can regularly find things that you don't remember sounding as good as they do, but,  on command as well, given you know the source material is good... To me it is like flying a spaceship... or something else almost other worldly. On top of that, listening in a custom built space that is made to be as ultimately revealing as possible really sets these experiences apart...

There is also the occasion that some of the observations and personal revelations on sound reproduction that I make may also stumble into an area covered by other threads on the forum to which I think they would make more sense as an add on idea to someone else's more sensible approaches, so to keep from repeating or spoiling things I just hold stuff back from some initial posts...

Ultimately, my general musings are just me trying to give form to the amazement I get from listening to world class analog audio reproduction. It really is mind blowing.

Cheers! Interesting reaction to that double LP for me as I bought this 2 LP set when it was a Japanese import back in 1973. After getting into Miles Davis a year or two before that during his most experimental period I followed the first Weather Report LP with great interest  (only the Czech bassist Miroslav Vitous and this drummer of Weather Report were not a regular of the Miles Davis bands of the time) and when I saw this (then very expensive) import in a record shop I went for it. I guess it was a pretty challenging listen at the time. . . but now I listen to it with familiarity and ease. . . and there are far more challenging releases for me to face and encounter.

A nice recording though of persons pushing the boundaries of their craft and navigating musical egos. . . I feel the engineers captured that well, as Japanese jazz engineers of the time tended to do. I need to pull this out and listen to it again soon. My 2 LPs have held up well over the years. . . I really respected my records then, even more than I do now.

Musical interests are so personal, aren’t they? I was never a Dead fan but after so many years and concerts there is a nostalgia there that give me reverence for the band. It’s not something I would put on my hifi but it is music that I love when I hear it on the radio or if I am out of the house and it comes on in the background.
Zeppelin is the same. I grew up on Zeppelin IV. Learned to play so many of those songs on guitar, Bonzo was such an innovative drummer… it’s just something that is beaten into you after years. Physical Graffiti was an album that changed their music for me as youngster, too. If you’re struggling to get into Zeppelin, try and give the album “Presence” a listen. It is generally considered among their worst albums but for me it’s one of my favorites. It bridges two generations. Or if you don’t like it, that’s ok too!  :)

So, it turns out that the Weather Report album is a two vinyl set, I had only heard the first. I had a chance to finish listening to the second half of the album/ performance. I am much less mad about the whole thing. All together it is much easier to see the musical prowess that goes into making some of this stuff. I will say that had I not been hearing this on such a finely resolving system it may have been too much for me... that recording is really good, but adding chaotic sounds on top of system noise sometimes just grinds my nerves to their ends...

Hahahaha! That GNR story is great! I knew someone out there had to have that idea other than me. I feel the same way about Nirvana. THAT is what they were selling to my generation as the epitome of quality in rock and roll, everything has since been vague shadows of what once was.

This weeks TTT was much needed.

Life, in all its glory has been a bit rough for a few weeks now. Tumultuous, some might say. It's not over, but I think I can see the end. We will see if the rug gets pulled out from under me again... the trick is on the universe this time. I have had this move pulled on me so many times I might not even know what solid ground is. I'm good at it with this much practice. Just like in the video games though, I sometimes need a recharge of my super power, and I got my full dose this week.

My thanks goes to my fellow vinyl visionary Ian this week for reminding me of the Wu-Tang themed albums by El Michaels Affair. We listened to 'Enter the 37th chamber". A jazz rendering of the classic hip hop album from the Wu-Tang crew "Enter the Wu Tang (36 chambers)". It and 'Return to the 37th Chamber' are great if your tastes cross boundaries, as mine do.

This was not the weeks notable moment though. I mentioned the trials and tribulations of the non-Decware part of my life for a reason earlier... and, here is why. I had been carrying an enormous amount of stress around for weeks. I have been unable to relax, as if caught in a continuing cycle of a regenerating fight or flight cycle. Before everyone showed up I had about thirty minutes of private listening after my shift. In this time I think I actually dozed off for about ten minutes. A well needed nap. The sound this week was the Decware experience I wish you all could share with me. It is deeply relaxing, rejuvenating, and washes over you and throughout the room as if you are being lifted out of your seat and teleported to a dimension in which our stressors have no power over you, at least for a short time. It is really a beautiful thing. I could wax philosophic about my opinions of the exact relationship between frequencies (which is so flat its almost silly), but the magic is in the larger picture. It is greater than the sum of its measurements that speaks to my inner self. We could talk numbers and measurements for weeks and never even scratch the surface of what I am talking about. Every Decware amp is capable of creating the magic. Given a corrected environment (treated listening space) what these amp are capable of truly blows mind over, and over, and over again.

After my 30 min session my muscle aches were drastically reduced. My headache was gone. my neck and back loosened up and my disposition and outlook had completely changed... and then my friends showed up. I was able to really relax and enjoy their  company. It was a fantastic evening.

Steve clearly made tweaks to the setup over the last week. It was for sure one of my top 5 listening experiences since I start at the shop a little over two years ago. All combinations of our gear sound amazing. However, sometimes a particular setup shines brighter than usual. This was one of them.

I am being intentionally vague. I don't want anyone chasing the wrong dragon. The implementation used for this circumstance may not do the same thing for you. The listening environment I refer to is a reference level listening space. It is designed to do this.

I believe that with just an average room and correct speaker placement you can deliver a solid 60% of the phenomena in your own home. With moderate treatment I am sure that you can jump up to 70% quickly, and with  extreme treatment up towards 90%.

It is those last elusive few, though, amiright!?!

I promise they are there... keep striving...

I think I may have an aneurism if I ever hit 85-90% in my own house... someday we shall see.



I know this esoteric type stuff sounds weird. Especially to ' measurement guys'. But, this is my real lived experience. I love to talk shop. OFC vs MCC, twisted vs Litz braid, Standard vs cryo, etc, etc, but that is NOT what this is all about. Its about the experience and I am so proud to be part of bringing this magic into peoples daily lives, into their own homes. I cannot thank team Decware enough for letting me be a part of this. All of them. Jake in shipping and Josh in the parts department are unsung heroes IMO. Sarah and Veronica are powerhouses that I did not expect, and Steve and Devon, well... they are very special people as some of us already know. I have seen some really great work from the build team and QC lately as well.  We all try to improve at least the smallest bit on every build, but the gains are really showing themselves lately in the implementation of Steve's designs.

I'm done. I have to get back to the real world and handle some business so I can go back to work to build more amps in the morning

Thanks for reading another one of my rants.

Cheers and goodnight