What is an example of a dodgy recording.

I listened to Loveless by My Bloody Valentine and Lonerism by Tame Impala last night. Two dense wall of sound pea soup albums. Both entirely listenable. Nothing to make you wince. These albums sit at the outer edge of my musical taste and neither are on high rotation. I was listening because i saw Lonerism in Pitchfork's top ten albums of the current decade. I thought, hang on, I think i have that one. While listening i kept thinking MBV, this reminds me of MBV.

I find smooth Jazz boring as hell so i am not a stereotypical :-) audiophile. I do like to hear what is on the recording. With Vivids you can fine tune with the electronics. B1 's give you what you want without punishing you for it, provided the rest of the gear is up to it.

Indeed, I totally agree.
Some studios use them to monitor.
They are very neutral and true to the sound.

With our B&Ws, we didn't notice so much that some of our albums were of low sound quality.
With our Vivids, these CDs couldn't hide their shortcomings anymore.
We simply don't listen to them anymore.
More than enough well recorded music out there.
And there Vivid Audio shines.
(Okay, I do listen to old jazz, these performances are so unique you can't replace them).

My G2s started off being driven with a Mark Levinson No. 334, now it's a pair of Ayre MX-R Twenties.

Hi Bart, have you tried pairing your Halgorythme pre amp with a solid state amp? Looking at going this route as I would like to run my equipment for long hours. Power amp tubes would probably be too costly and hot.

Have heard the devialet 400 which sounded unengaging. Looking for that bit of tube magic.

Also, any idea if Cedric would sell to Hong Kong or Singapore?

Hi gtl!
No I haven't tried.
I might do it in the future though.
Not because I'm unhappy now, on the contrary.
Just to try things out.

I don't think Cédric really wants to sell to customers who live far.
He likes to install everything himself after he's made the gear.
And... his order book seems to be full enough this way.

Such a pity. Looks like I might just look at getting some Pass Labs then. Would be interested in knowing how the Halgorythme pre goes with a solid state amp though, should you try it. Or even Class D.

800a has an input sensitivity of about 770mV, will that be an issue for most American brand preamps? It seems that it will become loud when the preamp (non-Luxman preamp) volume knob is only 8:00am position. Am I right?

Thx.

Could you share more on this?

I have an Ayre K-1x preamp and a V5 power amp driving a pair of B1. I want to replace Ayre V5 with a Mark Levinson 336. Will that bring me a substantial improvement over sound quality?

I love the mid and hi of V5 but it’s a bit light on bass. Will 336 give me good mid and hi plus bass slam?

Thanks.

Hmmmm...not too sure about that as all the preamps i have has digital displays of the volume. I currently run a Burmester 011 preamp with the Luxman and they seem to pair up great. I usually listen with the volume reading about 18-22 depending on recording.

Driving my Giya G2 S2s with a Wells Audio Innamorata Signature on highs/mids and an Innamorata on the woofers. Sounds quite good IMO.