Audio Research D-100 power amplifier

[Bill Stevenson]

Dave,

Yours is a very impressive system. It shows a lot of thought and attention to detail. You are way ahead of me. Although my main system sounds pretty great to me. I have cj ARTsa, cj ET5, cj TEA2MAX; for digital a Sony HAP-Z1ES; for analog a Technics SL-1200 Mk2 with full KAB mods and too many cartridges to list, but the newest is the best, an Ortofon Cadenza Black. Speakers are Sony SS-AR2 and all interconnects and cables are Blue Jeans. Tuners are McIntosh MR78-recently modded by Richard Modafferi, and a Kenwood KT600. RCM is VPI17. I also have not sold much stuff and still own systems going back to the early 1980s.

Bill

[daveyf]

Bill, you too have a very impressive system. I do not think I am ahead of you in any way. I have heard your speakers on a couple of occasions and they are very nice.That Mac tuner is really superb. I have to give a listen to the Ortofon Cadenza Black, it is getting great press right now.

[Bill Stevenson]

Dave,

The Cadenza Black reminds me of Jack Webb's line on Dragnet "Just the facts, ma'am." It is neutral, neither enhancing nor taking away from what is in the grooves. There is nothing exciting about it, rather it reveals what is there. Stark comes to mind. Good sound stage. Thanks for your other comments.

Bill

[daveyf]

Bill, I wonder if you could elaborate on the Cadenza being 'stark'.
I have heard cartridges from Ortofon that I thought were a little bit shall we say... less than totally resolving. By this, I thought that their portrayal of steel brushes and some other high freq effects was less than realistic.(Example,seemingly loosing resolution on the 'steelness' of the brush on the cymbal). BTW, I put the new A95 in this category, although due to the age of the the particular cartridge I heard, could be attributed to having not broken in completely or perhaps not??

[Bill Stevenson]

By stark I am trying to convey that the cartridge does nothing to either enhance or degrade the source. It is neutral, flat. Brushes sound like brushes, I know I have a set of drums in my listening room and many percussion instruments. One of my favorite tests is to compare a set of bells that Connie Kay (Modern Jazz Quartet) used often with an identical set of bells that I own. The Cadenza Black gets those bell overtones exactly right. Most other good cartridges accentuate the overtones making the bells take on a stridency or an edge (i.e. AT150ANV or 2M Black). Or in some cases they might sound slightly distant or muted (i.e. V15-V/mr). Over the years I have found that mono cartridges usually sound closer to the real bells than stereo, until the Cadenza Black. Back to brushes, I have collected many recordings of Mel Lewis over the years. Not everyone would know this, but he played Gretsch drums and always a natural calf skin head. My drums are Gretsch too, and I can distinguish the brush sound between calf and Mylar on my drums; and I can hear the same distinction listening to Mel Lewis' brush tone in comparison to my drum (although I can't match his technique) using calf and then Mylar for the batter head. Also in my music room I have a Yamaha piano and their pianos have a distinct voice (as do all the better pianos). Marianne McPartland's recording "Live at Maybeck" sounds exactly the same on my system using the Cadenza Black, as a Midi recording I have of her playing my actual piano. I also have this recording on Redbook CD, and it is very good, too, but not as faithful to the tonality of an actual instrument. So stark means it adds nothing and takes away nothing. "Just the facts ma'am."

Bill

[daveyf]

Thanks again for the description, Bill. I now definitely need to listen to the Cadenza Black!! Your description of the way the brush sounds is right on. I have found this to be a real determinant of how well a system performs when asked to play back a drum set. Most of the time, the brush sounds not at all lifelike and more like distortion with no definition at all.
The piano is one of the classic determinants of quality of any system; I have found this instrument is difficult to reproduce well enough so that it fools most listeners into believing there is a real piano in the room. I can probably count on one hand the number of times that I have heard a system that comes close...and zero times that I was 100% fooled.

[Bill Stevenson]

Dave,

I agree completely with you that piano is very difficult to capture and reproduce. I can stand outside my house with the windows and doors open and tell the difference between the piano and the hifi. We have a way to go if the reproduction of live music is the goal. Interestingly enough, both the Yamaha Clavinova series and the similar Roland instruments, which are electronic and have speakers and amps inside, can sound good enough to fool me, but I am 67 years old and counting. Nevertheless the day is coming even for recorded piano. Things just keep improving.