Musicosis - Musings from a self confessed music nut.

Today's Play List

2012-01-29T16:06:00.000Z

The Malchiks - To Kill a Mocking Bird (CD)
The Pretty Things - Balboa Island
Johan Pachelbel - Canon / johan Fredrick Fasch Concerto for Trumpet (CD)
Yiddish Theatre of Bucharest - Yiddish Foksongs (CD)
Kayleigh - Celticdance(CD)
Dave Brubeck Quartet- Park Avenue South(CD)
Steve Miller Band - The Very Best Of (CD)
Naciones Celtas - Celtic compilation (CD) Great intro if you don't know about Celtic music on the Fon Music Label

2012-01-29T16:05:00.000Z

It's funny how things pan out in life. I had wanted too keep this blog updated regularly, but work and health prevented that for a while. Now while nothing has changed much on that score, I find I want to get on with my "Audio Life". I've started a new Musicosis eBay record and music store located HERE. Early days yet with literally hundreds of records and CDs to be cleaned, graded, photographed and posted, but hopefully it's getting there, please check it out.

Eric Yam hand made Passive Pre, made to my
unique specification.

Also, I've been playing with equipment design and modification again, for the first time in ages. I'm now using a passive pre, I configured this and had it made to my specs in Hong-Kong. Using Vishay resistors in a stepped attenuator that presents a constant 50kOhm load to my Art Audio Quintet power amp and a hard point silver selector switch coupled with very high quality RCA sockets and Belden silver wire, this pre is just transparent. I will be marketing it in the new year, as a bespoke produt, under my Shushan Audio brand.

Moon LP3 Phono Preamplifier

As I now needed a phono-stage, I auditioned a few O'Briens in Wimbledon offered me a new Moon LP3 for less than half price and as I like Sim Audio products and I can't resist a bargain, I took home to try. The highs and mids were sublime, the mids being especially fluid. The bass to me lacked just a little weight and the obvious culprit was the tacky switch mode wall wart power supply.

A "Mains Cables 'R' Us" Power supply
main unit

I know it's all about cost, but why do manufactures lobotomise their products with these crappy things? I discussed this with David Phillips at "Mains Cables 'R' Us" and decided on one of his top of the range three box units. this sorted the bass end perfectly, increased the overall dynamic range and lucidity and made the whole thing holographic it terms of stability of image.

On the digital side, I started playing around with DACs again last year, as most commercially available product didn't cut it for me until you were spending at least £2,500. However, I found a nice little Chinese supplied unit, which uses a Wolfson Upsampling Chip Set. On this, I could easily modify the Op Amp as well, to make the thing operate as near single ended class A. This works equally well from my Mac Mini, which is used both with iTunes and Spotify, as well as various other streaming sources on the net. After a bit of experimentation, I discovered that using an optical cable, instead of a USB connector, sounded better. This is, of course, because the glass in a piece of medical grade phase coherent fibre optic (or any other fibre optic, for that matter), does not transmit RFI from the noisy "computer environment" and as the input is all up sampled by the DAC anyway, quality is maintained. Having reclaimed by Orelle CD 10 T from a dealer who had failed to commission sell it for me, I have put this back to use with the new DAC, with which, it sounds superb.

So, in all, the last few months have been a very busy period on the audio side and I hope to keep everything updated more regularly this year.

Thanks for reading!

Playlist for today:-

2010-10-02T19:47:00.003+01:00

Blue Egypt - The Pharaohs Spotify Stream

The Collection - Barry White CD from the Server

Magical Mystery Tour - The Beatles (Mobile Fidelity AudioPhile Cut)

Sketches of Spain - Miles Davis - Spotify Stream

Colours - Donovan - - Spotify Stream

All Things Must Pass - George Harrison - CD from the Server

Houses of the Holy - Led Zeppelin - CD from the Server

Funk - Starbuck Compilation - CD from the Server

Time for a rebuild

2010-10-02T18:56:00.003+01:00

It had to come, I've fially got some time to get back to the music and this blog. The exciting news for me is that an up and coming band has asked me to come "out of retirement" and get back behind a desk and mix one of the tracks for their forthcoming album.
Also I decided it was time for a change on the Hi-Fi front. Although my video edit/audio sweetening suite has modest JBL Control One monitors driven by a Samson amp I sometimes use the DAC in the Mackie desk to play Spotifiy over the net as the premium service sounds good at 320kbps better than CD. I also changed my home cinema set up, although I'm still using the Tannoy FX 5.1 speakers everything else has been changed to go HD.

I'll go into that further at a later date but suffice to say I had some kit to change in and decided to PX it for a Mac Mini! This has been coupled with an M-Audio Firewire Audiophile. the benefits of the high-bandwidth IEEE 1394 interface are very apparent on playback and it is a true 24bit/96khz unit. The addition of a 1Tb fan less, silent Iomega hard drive makes a great music/home entertainment server and will allow the digitisation of some vinyl and analog tape.
While I was commissioning of the server, I also stripped dwn the Michell Orbe turntable and re-set up the bearing and SME IV arm and checked the Koetsu Rosewood Signature which has been back to Japan for a rebuild. Now, I'm thinking about re-valving the ART Audio Concerto Amp and VPI Pre. The Server sounds so good that I'm now selling the Orelle CD 10 T transport and Tannoy DAC. I all sound really good at the moment very open and spacious with, detail and good highs and lows. Nervous Records have started putting albums I recorded for them on Spotify and If you check out Blue Egypt by The Pharaohs you can hear one of the albums I like the best.

Thoughts on Cables

2007-12-06T12:02:00.000Z

For awhile I’ve been using Van den Hul inter connects mainly D 300 Mk111s. It’s a good cable and the hybrid construction means that the RF “pollution” is very low. They give good detail and a neutral sound. I find they ae as good in my opinion as cables costing many times more. I like these cables or to be more accurate I don’t dislike them as I can’t hear them which is right for an inter connect right? Well, yes but.....

So why change anything? Well I suppose we are all experimenters in this field. Couple that, with the fact I got a chance to audition the Rothwell “The River” cables and it’s time to play about. When I opened the package I noticed how thin they were not what I was expecting as the considered wisdom is that thick cables are better, But is this true? Well with speaker cables, within reason, it probably is. After all, the higher current means you want as much cross section as possible and as bass travels through the cross section and HF goes along the surface, you want the right balance between number of strands and cross section. More of speaker cables later.

What are they all About?

The River inter connects are a high quality cable with silver plated copper conductors and PTFE insulation. For the technically minded Capacitance is 64pF per metre which is low. Rather than adopt the approach of using esoteric materials and unusual topology to combat RF interference Rothwell have gone for a thin diameter of (2.3mm) this coupled with the braided screen helps to reduce RF noise to a minimum, Construction quality is good with what are claimed to be . military spec materials. The Gold plated RCA connectors are quite springy and give excellent contact.

So how do they sound and should they sound at all?

This is the million dollar question as, they should make no difference at all and this part is totally subjective. Having now tried them on three sources, (Vinyl, CD and Tuner) and used them between Pre and Power amps what’s the verdict? Well you can’t hear them, they don’t have a sonic signature but, compared to the D-300 Mk111s to me there seems to be more extremes of frequency and a greater dynamic. This could well be as a result of the similar construction as I feel sure the quality of both cables is equally high. Certainly at only £55.00 per meter pair they sound “better” to my ears than a lot of super cables costing many times more. If these came in a flash box and cost £250.00 per .8 of a meter many would still think them good for the money. These are an unsung secret and well worth trying out. Certainly for me they have know become the reference against which others will be compared and the pair I have are now in permanent residence between the MC Transformer and the Art Audio VPS Pre-Amp.

Today's Play List

2007-11-25T09:57:00.001Z

The Malchiks - To Kill a Mocking Bird (CD)
The Pretty Things - Balboa Island
Johan Pachelbel - Canon

Johan Fredrick Fasch Concerto for Trumpet (CD)
Yiddish Theatre of Bucharest - Yiddish Foksongs (CD)
Kayleigh - Celticdance(CD)
Dave Brubeck Quartet- Park Avenue South(CD)
Steve Miller Band - The Very Best Of (CD)
Naciones Celtas - Celtic compilation (CD) Great intro if you don't know about Celtic music on the Fon Music Label
Eisley - Combinations (CD)

Today's Play List

2007-11-19T00:07:00.000Z

Don McLean - American Pie (LP) I'd forgotten how good this is
Meal Ticket - Code of the Road (LP) What an amazing band so underrated in their day
Pretty Things - Balboa Island (CD) First new album in years from a legendary band so I'm playing it a lot and will review it soon.
Gene Ammons & Sonny Stitt - Boss Tenors (LP) Fabulous mono album on Verve from 1961 seriously swingin'.

Rothwell Moving Coil Transformer

2007-11-17T19:29:00.000Z

My Koetsu Rosewood signature has arrived back and is now happily back on the Orbe. When I set it up I decided to try some new step up devices. I started, as recommended by Absolute Sounds, with plugging in direct to the phono input of my Art Audio VPS Pre-amp and increasing the gain by using the active setting. This was very good but for me no cigar. The Art phono input has always been good (their stand alone phono stages are legendary) and in the past I have used this with low output moving magnets such as the Grados with great results but, for me this did not match as well as I wanted. I knew what the Rosewood Sig was capable of and that is were I was headed. Next I tried a couple of Phono Stages including a Michell Iso a MF XLPS and a couple of others which were very good but, not quite right for me (though I almost fell for the Graham Slee).

I have to be honest always liked transformers for MCs Even though I used to design and make my own head amps in the early 80’s. I tried the Ortofon’s classic T-15s which are built into outsize screened phono plugs and might have settled for them except, I remembered I had I Rothwell MC Transformer in the drawer.

This is a well constructed unit in an extruded aluminium case with high quality gold plated RCA sockets and a nickel plated earth binding post on the rear. Internally two Mu metal screened transformer cans sit on a high quality circuit board. This screening should prevent stay magnetic and RF interference. The whole thing has great mechanical integrity which can only add to sound quality an prevent microphony. Gain is quoted at 24dB which should be adequate for any input. DC Impedance is I understand around 300 Ohms.

How does it sound?

I was sceptical as too how the Rothwell would perform as at under £300.00 it is £2000.00 cheaper than Kooetsu's own transformer in the UK. I plugged it in and dropped the stylus into the groove and instantly that lucidity I had been expecting was there in spades. Hugely detailed and dynamic with no sign of saturation. Paul Rogers voice on Bad Company's first album had a tangibility and Mick Ralphs's guitar seemed driving and rhythmic. The combination with the Rothwell seemed organic and right. On the Bach one knew the Violins were made of wood and not just cat gut. Jazz, Rock and Classical were all auditioned and combination with the Rothwell was not found wanting.

The only downside was a very slight bass lightness which I feel will be dealt with by impedance matching. when I have tried it out I will report further as, on trying the system with an Ortofon MC10 this lightness was not noted and the Rosewood Sig is more than a match for the old Ortofon in the Bass department.

Conclusion

A well made unit that performs well and sound very good indeed. If you have an amp or phono stage that works well on moving magnet try and audition this unit before spending any more. Highly recommended. For more info click here

Why Valves?

2007-11-17T15:51:00.000Z

Have you ever wondered why valves are considered my many (including me) to be better for reproducing music and presenting it in a truly High End manner. The reasons are probably as numerous as the number of valve/tube amps on the market and I wouldn't pretend for a second that every valve amp is good (I have heard some pretty atrocious ones). Nor would I say that all solid state amps are bad (I have heard some pretty stunning ones in my time) but overall, a good Hot Bottle will, for me, beat a Silicon Sliver every time. Many have argued that it is the fact that valve distortion tends to be even ordered and therefore is in tune with the primary sound. Could be. Sounds pretty likely, in fact. However, when you look at the infinitessimally low distortion figures on many Solid State Amps today and in fact for many years, one would think that that would be pretty negligible. I do know, that to my ears, some of the hotter running transistor amps sound better than some of the cooler running ones, which may give us a clue in terms of switching distortion. Going back a good few years, when I worked for JVC as their resident Hi-Fi expert, I first heard (and had at home) their Super-A system. A pseudo class A system that raised and lowered bias voltage rather than switching it on and off. To my mind, this was then and if memory serves me right was one of the finest integrated Solid State Amps I have ever heard. Sugdens Class A efforts and Super Amps from the likes of Krell sound amazing. So why am I sitting here with just 7 watts a side of triode power driving my speakers? I think it is a combination of many things, including the large voltage envelope available to a well designed valve amp, allowing great scope for the cones to be moved accurately. The transformer matching, if the transformers are well designed, also means that the drive can be almost effortless, straining none of the components in the system. But I think that the most important thing is the sheer simplicity of valve amps, meaning that there is much less to get in the way of the music. Most of the extra circuitry on transistor amps, to my mind, is there simply to cope with the inherent defects of the devices and it is this very complexity which robs the reproduction of life.

Now its fairly fashionable to like valve amps these days but I can honestly say that I was there a long time ago. Round about 1968/69, my father had the then state of the art Quad 33/303 System. I had a Garrard SP25 and a Teleton Amp, which I later traded for a Phillips with fairly decent Decca Deram cartridge in the SP25's Arm. I remember taking a copy of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Willy and the Poorboys" round to one of my brothers. He and his wife had a mono system which consisted of a fairly large Leak Sandwich speaker driven by the original Quad One and the associated mono preamp, whose number escapes me.

This was driven by a Decca FFSS cartridge and arm on a Garrard 301. I was immediately struck with the lucid nature and detail in the midrange compared to what I had available at home, despite the fact that it was only mono, it still seemed to give a much fuller more detailed sound and certainly was much less aggressive than the Teleton or Phillips amps that I had at the time and seemed to sparkle more than the 33/303 set up. Later, as I progressed along hte audio trail, I ended up with an Armstrong 621 Transistor Amp, which, to be honest, never quite "cut the mustard". My other brother had a Quad II/22 set up and when his wife expressed some concern that their new baby might touch the hot valves, I "generously" offered to swap my sleek 621 for their clunky dusty out of date valves - just in the interest of the baby, of course.... Shortly after this, I revalved these and remember cycling over to see the late Alex Shackman to listen to his KT77 conversions to these amps, which, fabulous though it was at driving the exceedingly efficient speakers of the day I eschewed in favour of the classic KT66s. Somewhat later, I built a system comprising the Quads driving open baffle 3 way satellite speakers and an 8 cubic foot sub base loaded in a manner that in these days would be described as Isobaric, using 2 Goodmans 12 inch base units. This was driven by a phase linear mono valve amp. The sound was exceptional and over 30 years later, a friend of mine who is a professional DJ, is still using it for his home system. The only other thing I can conclude, is that because the valve sound is easily re-established by revalving when the valves get run down, every 4 or 5 years, you effectively get a new amplifier for a very small cost.

Today's Play List

2007-11-17T13:21:00.000Z

Bob Downes - Open Music (LP) Many years old and still fresh
Bill Nelson - Red Noise (LP) I'd forgoten how good this guy was
Enya - Watermark (LP)
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black (LP)
Miles Davies - Sketches of Spain (LP) Digtally remastered vinyl. Just a masterpiece
Isley Brothers - 45 Super Hits (LP)
Pretty Things - Balboa Island (CD)
John Lee Hooker - B00m B00m (LP)
The Band - Moon Struck One (CD)
The Pharaohs - Blue Eygpt ( I produced and played on this one)
Van Morrison - Astral Weeks (LP) Van is still the Man!!!
Pat Metheney -Works (LP)
Count Basie - Swings Featuring Joe Williams (LP)
J.S. Bach - Brandenburgs 1 & 3 Mariner (LP)
The Band - Islands (LP)
Bad Company - Bad Company (LP)

What do I Listen to?

2007-11-17T10:09:00.003Z

I got an e-mail recently asking me what I listen to? The obvious answer is music but seriously, what was being asked was what equipment do I use? Which is a valid question. On The main system, primary sources are a Michell Orbe SE/QC power supply with an SME Series IV normally this has a Koetsu Rosewood Signature mounted but, this went home to Japan for a factory rebuild. This sits on a Soundstage Developments isolation platter which, is something I developed for Loricraft / Garrard for use with their state of the art Garrard 501. Next is an Orrelle CD10T transport feeding a prototype DAC made some years ago by Tannoy but never put into production as far as I know. This is a Bitsteam device which to my mind still gives a smoother and more "vinyl-like" sound. However as I see all CD as a compromise and I like the sound of it it will stay for a while yet. Due to space considerations the tuner is a TEAC Reference 300 series with, of course, a quality roof aerial possibly the best small VHF/FM unit around with a neutral but full bodied sound unlike DAB which, frankly sucks.

These feed into an Art Audio VPS Valve Pre-Amp and then into a Art Audio Quintet MKII Power Amp which uses EL34 output valves in triode mode and is incredibly sweet while still being detailed and punchy. The turntable feeds into a Rothwell Moving Coil step up transformer which, is a sub-£300 gem (more of this later). Except for the tuner and turntable All components are fed mains via Black Rhodium mains cables these are fed in turn from a Monster Home Theatre PowerCenter™ HTS 1000 power conditioner. All interconnects are Van den Hul D - 300 III HYBRID except the pre to power amp which is Art Audio.

Output goes to a pair of Lockwood Academy studio monitors loaded with 12" Tannoy Monitor Gold Dual Concentrics circa 1969 topped with Tannoy ST200 super tweeters which are a fabulous combination. Also, on the maim system I have a pair of STAX SR-202 Electrostatic Headphones with the associated Energiser/amp

Cables are Pure Silver Sound Octet a cable from Arizona which is budget for pure silver and blow away some costing 10 times the price.

Placed in the A/V system rack for want of space are A Pioneer CT - 615 three head cassette deck and a 525a universal DVD spinner both these are patched into the Art Audio VPS and the DVD feeds the Sherwood Newcastle A/V receiver as well. This second system rack runs into an Epson projector, a Samsung flat screen TV and a Tannoy FX 5.1 speaker system with powered sub.

Amy Winehouse

2007-11-17T09:21:00.000Z

I was sad to hear of Amy being booed in Birmingham yesterday. I was incensed to hear Jo Parkerson on LBC taking a pop at her family for wanting to help and protect her. I met her dad, Mitch backstage at a "Soul on a Summers Eve" gig at Penshurst Place in Kent a few years ago. She opened for the Isley Brothers I was covering the event as a photographer. Amy was magical that night and I liked her before but from then on I was a big fan. Mitch struck me as a caring dad who was blown away by his little girl's success. Now he seems to be doing what a father should and is trying to look after his daughter. People claiming that the family are just after their own 15 minutes of fame don't help Amy, her family, Amy's situation or the fans. They just make themselves look small and inconsequential. I hope we see Amy get out of her substance abuse and eating problems because she really is a great talent and if we are very lucky will go on making great tracks for many years. Get a listen to Back To Black and think of anyone else on the "Pop" scene that could do it.

Today's Play List

2007-11-16T00:57:00.000Z

Sex Pistols - Daily Star Sunday live freebie CD (one of the best newspaper freebies ever)
Stephan Grappelli and Yehudi Menuhin LP - Jealousy
The Eagles Hotel California LP (Still a Classic)
Pretty Things Balboa Island CD (Fabulous first album in years, I wish this was on Vinyl)
Cream Wheels of Fire LP on Simply Vinyl
George Harrison All Things Must Pass CD Box set
Handel's Messiah CD by The Sixteen
The Malchiks CD new teenage Blues Duo (Check them out)
Barry White the Collection CD

Why is this blog called "Musicosis"?

2007-11-16T00:11:00.000Z

How it all started. Many moons ago, my father got bitten by the Hi-Fi bug and a stream of equipment started arriving in our lounge. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to what he bought and in those days of equipment being built to standards the manufacturers seemed to make up as they went along, there were often compatibility issues. Add to that the fact that my father was almost completely technically inept, meant that a) the system rarely worked and b) due to miswiring of the mains plugs, things often seemed to blow up when they did work. This was mainly caused by his excitement.

I will never forget his impatience to hear a new Sony reel to reel tape deck and his inability to find a screw driver led to him wrapping its mains cable round the pins of a 13 amp plug (which already had the amplifier wired into it correctly) and jamming the plug into an already overloaded 13 amp wall socket. The resulting short circuit not only destroyed the wall socket, it also took out the ring main fuse and the master fuse in our fuse box. The loud bang occuring in our understairs cupboard as my mother came down the stairs. The resulting argument was not a pretty sight. My role in this was generally to be told, "Leave Daddy's Hi-Fi alone". However, what I actually did at the age of about 10 was to wait for my father to go out, get out the instruction manuals, and wire the things up correctly, so that I could listen to music, which had already, at this early age, become an abiding passion. My father had become increasingly annoyed that I could use his equipment and make it work and he could not.

As we passed through an endless procession of what would now be seen as wonderful esoteria, and as they were rejected by him as no good, simply because he couldn't be bothered to read the manual. Sony Tape Decks gave way to Brennel and Ferrograph models, Tuners from Rogers and then to a Leak Troughline and an endless series of Amps from the likes of Radford, Leak et al. He did, sensibly, stick with a Thorens, I believe it was a TD 125 or it may have been a 150 for some time. Finally, the late Peter Sarner, founder of Sarner AV, who at the time was an A level student running a bespoke Hi-Fi service to pay for his school, convinced him to buy a Quad 33/303 with the cosmetically matched late Quad FM Tuner, a Thorens TD 124 with an SME 3009 arm with a Shure V15 Mark 1 Cartridge. This was coupled with a pair of Richard Allan Pavane 3 Way Speakers. This he kept until only a couple of years ago. However, it had not been used for a number of years which is sad, because, for its time, it had what I can only describe as a really nice sound.

Like all Quad Amps of that period, it was not particularly revealing or engaging, but when I had it tweaked up right, it sounded very acceptable. However, he soon broke the stylus on the V15 and blamed me! I was told never to touch Daddy's Hi-Fi again. So I asked if I could have a record player of my own, as I wanted to play my music. I was given the then huge sum of £20 and was sent off to buy myself a record player. I chose one by Ultra because it had a stereo cartridge, albeit wired for Mono and I carried it lovingly by its leather handle the 3 miles back to our house, set it up in my bedroom and began a process of annoying the neighbours, which goes on to this day. Shortly after that, I began to yearn for stereo (this was the late 60s after all and music was happening).

Lacking any real funds to accomplish this, I bought a book by Bernard Barbani, I believe it was called "Radio for Boys" and set about building a second amplifier. I also got an identical speaker to the one in my Ultra record player and after about a week, I had stereo of sorts. A trip to the library got me Gilbert Briggs' Speaker Design Handbook and nicking a pair of cast off Tweeters from one of my father's earlier efforts, enabled me to build quite a nice pair of speakers, at which point, I was totally infected with the bug.

But why is this blog called "Musicosis"? It's simple really. When I asked my father a couple of years ago if he still had his Hi-Fi and was still enjoying it, he turned round and almost spat at me his opinion "Hi-Fi is a neurosis and I'm glad I cured myself of it", which of course can be true if you listen to Hi-Fi. I don't. I listen to music and long may I have Musicosis.