Apexorca systems

[80B]

Apexorca,
Just read your entire thread, and what an incredible journey you are on. The attention to detail has really paid dividends. Playing the Midnight Sugar LP on that rig has to be jazz Nirvana.

One interesting thought is how so many of these changes have brought improvements - how much of this is from the interaction of all the components than any particular component in isolation. That's an unanswerable question since each listening space is unique, but it boggles the mind how many combinations of sound you get.

Have you ever made a change in the presence of another person, and then disagreed about something sounding better, worse, or just a different impression?

My wife saw your first photo of the AF's next to the Fenices and now has Fenice-envy only a couple months after getting the AF pair, LOL.

Congratulations again on such an amazing system, and tack så mycket for sharing!

[Apexorca]

Hi 80B!

Gillar du Skåne Akvavit?

You Read the entire thread! Great! Thanks for kind words!

I think your thoughts and comments are splendid. I'll try to answer. It's really hard to understand what it is about a sound you really like and why? Can I/you trust my/your ears? My conclusion after years in this hobby and quite many blind tests and other tests is most often- Yes!

You Wrote:
"One interesting thought is how so many of these changes have brought improvements - how much of this is from the interaction of all the components than any particular component in isolation. That's an unanswerable question since each listening space is unique, but it boggles the mind how many combinations of sound you get."
- About interaction. - I think having the same brand can help. Cables especially. Amp and pre amp also. (looking for a Gryphon pre amp in the future). An Brinkmann Balance most certainly likes the Brinkmann 10,5 arm and Brinkmann EMT-ti. And the RIIA Einstein The turntables Choice is actually developed with the EMT pickup, so there its a synergi.
Another thing I discovered about acoustic characteristics is that different gear affect the acoustic outcome different. Since I changed from Amati Futura to The Sonus faber I'v got less bas problems!!! And the same between Krell 402 and Gryphon Antileon.
I think thats because these products produces a more controlled sound in a way that does not start the acoustic problems. But I'm not sure.

"Have you ever made a change in the presence of another person, and then disagreed about something sounding better, worse, or just a different impression?"
- Both better and worse. Often is the analysis of what happened consistent, but you can appreciate it differently.

Some more thoughts about it:

I have myself thought a lot about these kind of things. The whole chain from recording via my ear and into my head that interpret the music is very very complex and at first I mainly relied on specs and science to chose HiFi gear. More and more that does not makes my music experience better, of course you need very well developed HiFi gear, but without thoughtful listening experience you don't get the best results. Listening to a lot of music live and through different HiFi gear in different environments makes my experience better and better. Thats makes my choices more accurate to hit the sweet spot of reproduced music. I don't try bad things at home. They are already down the drain on my list due to earlier listening experience by friends, stores or HiFi shows.

Here in Gothenburg, we are a lot of music/Hifi entusiasts who are socializing a lot. The HiFi stores are very god at making interesting demos with a lot av brands and different gear and tweaks. We participate in HiFi shows both in Sweden and abroad, just for fun.
I'm traveling around the area and also abroad listening to live music and sometimes also music through HiFi systems. The music is the goal, the gear is just infrastructure to get musical nirvana.
I have good connections to some Hifi gear producers. Quit often I listen to their efforts and they sometimes want my point of view. These conversations are very fruitful I think especially for me. That is a good reproduced sound? Thats almost a filosofical question.
Not even real instruments sounds the same and not even the same instrument sounds the same in different environments. So what is a neutral sound? Is there really a neutral sound at all? So my goal is not to make a soundd thats is real because ther is no real sound! It should just sound great. And of course there is some parameters thats important for that. But the fine tuning both from producers and at home with the gear makes it all. It's not easy and takes som experience and knowledge to get good results.

All this makes me experienced with a lot of different sounds. The most important thing is that i know what I like and what sound I don't want myself. We all listen differently and likes different kind of sound.

I listen to both bad HiFi and bad HiFi tweaks and good ones. There are more things that I don't lika than that I like. Most of them I don't even try at all. I just bring home those things I already have had good experience of in other systems and think that they can suit my system.
Some things I test at home are as good as I thought they should be and some are not. I usually just write about those things that I like and that I think are good products, especially in my system.
So, the ones you read about in this thread are mostly the ones that pass my test and makes my sound better. Note those that did not.
Therefore it maybe look lika everything I'v tried were good, but that's not the hole story.

As I have a lot of friends in this hobby, both professional and entusiasts I always have a someone here to make their own comments and opinion when I test something. I also, very successfully, use my wifes ear/opinion. She is really good at listening and know nothing about different gear. It's always "blind test" with hear.
Most often we agree on what's best for my system and sometimes we argue about it. Sometimes it has to take a while, weeks, months, to come to the right conclusion.

Every system is really unik and every product improvement is not the samt in different systems. But some are similar and makes similar effekt and some ar not. Sometimes the effekt is in different level and sometimes the effekt is unwanted in some systems but not in another.

Thats was a lot of words. I hope you think its relevant.

/Apexorca

[80B]

Apexorca,
First, I have to settle for Linjie and sometimes Aalborg since Skåne Akvavit hasn't been imported stateside for many years now (not that I dislike Linjie or Aalborg, a variety of schnapps is a good thing indeed...). My first time in Sweden was a conference in Gothenburg's folketshus in '86, and I had a summer internship later that year in Helsingborg.

Terrific to hear about your community of music/HiFi enthusiasts in Gothenburg. Listening oftentimes seems to be a one-person or very small group activity, what with sweet spots and such. However, like you, we enjoy it a lot for parties as well, and sharing the experience with drinking and dancing with friends are my best memories of the system.

You're absolutely right about the gear being the infrastructure to the music; for me it's also led to exploration of more music since we have a system that is enjoyable to listen to. Our music collection has expanded quite a bit, and we have enjoyed discovering classical and jazz compositions that are new to the both of us, as well as my introductions of classic rock to my wife, who grew up behind the bamboo curtain, but now says Jimmy Page is her favorite guitarist.:thumbs:

Having great sound is a very reasonable approach, and a common-sense recognition of the fact that sound will always be different due to all the different variables, not least of which includes the chain from our outer ears to the part of the brain that enters the music into our consciousness. Heck, at my first concert (the Stones in '81 in a huge stadium) I was a shocked teenager to find the sound was SO bad (plus it wasn't really one of their best performances - much better as old men here in ATL two years ago).

Your thread does show everyone what a well-reasoned and methodical approach can accomplish.

Skål,

Paul

[Apexorca]

Originally Posted by 80B

Apexorca,
First, I have to settle for Linjie and sometimes Aalborg since Skåne Akvavit hasn't been imported stateside for many years now (not that I dislike Linjie or Aalborg, a variety of schnapps is a good thing indeed...). My first time in Sweden was a conference in Gothenburg's folketshus in '86, and I had a summer internship later that year in Helsingborg.

Terrific to hear about your community of music/HiFi enthusiasts in Gothenburg. Listening oftentimes seems to be a one-person or very small group activity, what with sweet spots and such. However, like you, we enjoy it a lot for parties as well, and sharing the experience with drinking and dancing with friends are my best memories of the system.

You're absolutely right about the gear being the infrastructure to the music; for me it's also led to exploration of more music since we have a system that is enjoyable to listen to. Our music collection has expanded quite a bit, and we have enjoyed discovering classical and jazz compositions that are new to the both of us, as well as my introductions of classic rock to my wife, who grew up behind the bamboo curtain, but now says Jimmy Page is her favorite guitarist.:thumbs:

Having great sound is a very reasonable approach, and a common-sense recognition of the fact that sound will always be different due to all the different variables, not least of which includes the chain from our outer ears to the part of the brain that enters the music into our consciousness. Heck, at my first concert (the Stones in '81 in a huge stadium) I was a shocked teenager to find the sound was SO bad (plus it wasn't really one of their best performances - much better as old men here in ATL two years ago).

Your thread does show everyone what a well-reasoned and methodical approach can accomplish.

Skål,

Paul

"Your thread does show everyone what a well-reasoned and methodical approach can accomplish."
- Thanks! That's one of my points with the thread. I'm glad you see that.

Skål!

[Apexorca]

One of my HiFi-friends uses STAX and I tried that Headphone set up some days ago.

(iPhone pics...sorry)






He is starting the signal here... May be one of the best DACs I'v heard.

(real camera this time)


This set up sounds good. Very good. Soft and smooth all over the frequencies. Comfortable on the head too, but I still think Focal Utopia and EAR HP4 is better for my ears. Faster transients, more air and I think its more natural sounding.

At some point you have to decide. I could probably do even more tests with more products, but I'm pretty sure Focal Utopia and EAR HP4 will be good, maybe even the best for me.

[Apexorca]

"Now, this is fun" (Depeche Mode, 1982)

I'v been waiting patiently.

Two packages. One like ordinary HiFi packages and the other more wrapped like Hi class Mac gear.

EAR HP 4 and Focal Utopia headphone.



The Focal Utopia box smells like real leather, texture is great and the stitches are like those in an Italien sports car with a horse on the hood...





Opening up and I just want to pick them up, but patience, patience.

The inside is also good but looks like acoustic treatments.





Back to EAR HP4.

EAR have had problems with their shiny front plates and could not ship any units for a while. Now, it looks fine.





The back...



I must say, the heavy duty HiFi feeling of HP4 is top class.

The team...



I think i have to change this...



Some détaillés...






Utopia connections (Neutrik) and cable are good quality.







Who does really read the manual??? I do... actually.



Time to try it on the bench.



I'm not sure if this will be the end destination in my rack. Time will tell.



The first impression is... hmmmm... it's a headphone.
Though, it's sonds really good from the start. I listened from my MSB dac and drive. The resolution is fantastic. The separation is high class. Very open sound.
I imagine what can happen during and after burn in. My guess is, even more air, softness, warmth and more texture. I'll get back to that later.

Right now I'm very agog and enthusiastic about it.

[vegaracer1]

Very nice, I can only imagine how great that sounds. Congratulations.

[vinod_david]

Wow, amazing photos by OP of Focal and EAR.

[Apexorca]

Originally Posted by vegaracer1

Very nice, I can only imagine how great that sounds. Congratulations.

vinod_david Wow, amazing photos by OP of Focal and EAR.

Thank you. I think I can get used to this kind of listening as a complement. Headphone listening that is.

[Apexorca]

I discovered that it was not a good idea to have the headphones laying down in the rack. The scratching sound when I move them is awful. I had to have something to hold them.

This works very well.









Now I'v played Focal Utopia and EAR HP4 for 75h and it's like normal equipment I think. The sound is getting smother, better and more relaxed.