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The Speaker Presentation Trap.

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I have always argued that the voice is the sound we recognise the best because we are most attuned to it from our mother’s voice as a baby and onwards through life to wanting to hear the exact characteristics of a favourite singer’s voice.

Consequently, I have always been beyond fussy about voice and the midrange. E.g. Croft amps, classic BBC speakers and, of course the Quad ESL 57s.

Whether a bass guitar should sound tighter (very venue dependent) or a synthesiser more focussed in the original recording is neither here nor there if voices do not sound simply superb IMO.
For this reason, my speakers over the years have had to excel in this area. The V or U shaped frequency response curve seems absurd to me especially if you listen to vocal music…
Also, the prominent bass it requires will sound slower with more overhang than was intended. I prefer a fast, leading edge to the bass notes without the bloom.
And yet, I have been a little surprised lately by how some recent speaker designs in shows have seemingly clearer, better defined midrange instruments than my all-time favourite speakers while at the same time having inferior, more synthetic-sounding vocals!
Then it dawned on me, when I was studying some speaker crossovers, that often the tweeter is tipped-up to give ‘better definition’. One demonstrator pair had 3 ohms less resistance on the tweeter than the original crossover diagram to impress the gullible. This ‘improves’ midrange definition and attack but tends to make voices sound less real and more robotic! (Never mind the fact that many ears prefer a dip around 2 KHz over the flat response…)
A manufacturer’s trick which relies on impressiveness over naturalness in vocal tone.

Harbeth HL MK3 Monitors – £550

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Harbeth HL MK 3 Monitors.
(Better than the HL MK 4 with its ‘improved’ TPX bass/mid driver.)
And in my opinion (and to my surprise!) more musical, transparent and quicker sounding than the Harbeth HL compact 7 Radial.
In good condition with new original tweeters.
Serial numbers 1977A and 1977B.
Speaker 1
Speaker 2

 

Gold Note DS-10 PLUS & PSU-10 EVO Review

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https://soundnews.net/sources/dacs/gold-note-ds-10-plus-psu-10-evo-review/

…embodies 5 devices in a single component: it’s a fully-fledged streamer via Ethernet or Wi-Fi by its own GN Control app, it’s a Bluetooth receiver, a top-class digital-to-analog converter, a dedicated headphone amplifier and a proper preamplifier.

… their build quality is absolutely spectacular, they look eye-catching, fit and finish is at the highest level I’ve encountered with personal audio

… By far, the most interesting feature, is its chameleon DAC setting that can be accessed in the lower right side of the screen. You can tailor it exactly to your needs, you can make it linear and super extended in the frequency response, you can make it analytical or a lot smoother and easy going, you can even roll-off its upper treble if you want.

… Compared to a well-made Chinese DAC, there is more happening in the midrange, there is more vibration in the human voice, there are more nuances that I can pick and more important than ever, it just relaxes me every time I push that play button on the GN Control app. You can certainly make it drier, slightly more analytical sounding, but I think that its genuine Italian sound should be experienced first, before playing with those chameleon DAC settings. I’ve experienced a see-through transparency, a high level of detail retrieval and some of the best layering and depth I’ve heard with all-in-one units.

 

 

RIP Glenn Croft

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The man I have looked-up to the most in my life has suddenly died.

He had many rare qualities and what he stood for spoke volumes to me.

In some ways he combined those rare British strengths of being inventive, stoical, loyal, honest, shy, an animal lover, kind by nature, a man of his word.

But also strong, sensitive and quiet with a sharp wit that came out of the blue.

I stocked only the Croft brand of amplifiers he built by hand because they ‘spoke’ to me and to thousands of others.
Voices were real, the soundstage was 3 dimensional, timing spot on.

His genius lay in the intuitive minimalism of his designs. Sometimes, other designers would look at his beautiful hand-wired work and scratch their heads in disbelief at the apparent simplicity.

I have been thinking lately about how to view death; the cocktail of being unwell mixed with the illness of these times is heavy.
He became angry with the unbelievable, self-serving egotism of the Conservative party, the absurd bureaucracy around Brexit, Covid, Putin’s war. Most sensitive and observant people feel this burden.

I will never forget you Glenn. You understood the duality between objective and subjective better than any person I know. I just can’t believe you have left us!

Hi-Fi Shows

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I went to the Milan Hi Fidelity show last weekend and the same 3 things struck me as happens in just about all the Hi-Fi shows I attend.

1) Some absolutely dreadful Muzak is played just because they are excellent recordings. This means that when I request a decently-recorded CD track I know well to be played, I am nearly always disappointed compared to my own system.

2) Some systems have impressive bass; more than I am used to. From experience, having owned some bass behemoths in the past, I know that – for me at least – it is just a novelty that soon wears thin. I much prefer a fast, transparent bass to room-shaking depth and the compromise in midrange clarity that comes with that. The unrealistic desire many have to recreate orchestral scale in their rooms detracts from the delicacy needed for World Music, Jazz or Folk.

3) And now for my most controversial point. I am used to what some would dismissively call ‘pipe and slipper’ speaker designs such as old Spendor BC1s, Harbeth HL Monitors and Rogers LS5/8s. As often happens, I heard a track I knew well at the show, a viola da gamba track played by Jordi Saval. The speakers were Brave New World designs built from what looked like solid aluminium billet. The natural resonances and reverberations I expected were, for the most part, bleached away! Many recordings seem to lose much of the natural resonance and 3 dimensionality of the music. The approach of most modern Hi-Fi systems is to be clean, focussed, tighter-than-reality and rather uninvolving. Valves add a global 3 dimensionality often lost.
There is an intuitive understanding that for music to sound real something more Yin and Yang than simple resonance control is required. It is not that subjectivists condone adding colouration, as many objectivists claim, but that they instinctively seek that extra connection and engagement you get with the original performance which the recording often lacks. Furthermore, valve amps generally sound more natural than transistor probably because the signal travels through a vacuum rather than silicone.

Cleaning records.

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I have tried cleaning records in various ways over the years.

From tap water and washing-up liquid which can leave a calcium residue to wood glue which  can get stuck in the grooves where spread too thinly.

I recently tried Covid hand sanitiser rubbed gently into grooves with my finger tips and used warm water to rinse it off. This works very well and leaves no calcium deposits. By using finger tips one can feel how much attention each record needs before it becomes clean.

The objectivist/subjectivist battle rages on in audio forums

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Denial that subjectivist types hear what they think they hear.

That the ear is not reliable in blind tests etc.

That natural body and resonance are coloration etc. 

That an explicit, hyper-detailed sound must be right.

When long-term realisation shows that it is just tiring. If you want to show your system picks up a vocal inflection, a click of the tongue ”more betterer” than your friend’s system that’s fair enough I suppose but you are probably cheating.

The fact that it is probably a manufacturer manipulated upturned frequency response to impress in a comparison audition… well never mind. When I look at Hi-Fi magazine reviews I am mainly looking out for the reviewer’s description of something as ‘musical’. That is what music is about not logic. Should not need to be said really…

Or equipment that you simply really enjoy that takes your mind off comparing – ”but this, but that”… that is always a good sign.

Or an album track suddenly ‘making sense’ that never quite gelled before – that is a good sign.

When it comes to music with vocals, I think we are too generous when we say people have different tastes. The voice is either as real as possible or it is not. Too many systems produce voices in a way that is slightly robotic and cold. (Speakers with baffles less than 8 inches wide tend to be poor in this area.) I don’t accept this trade-off !

I sometimes genuinely forget that I have loaned an item from my system such as a DC blocker and filter which would be hidden behind the equipment rack. I absent-mindedly wonder why the soundstage is relatively congested, where the life has gone. Then I remember I have loaned this or that.

Or when you audition something that should be better than what you had. You start by hearing what it does better. Then, maybe through tiredness, you just listen almost subconsciously, half-listening. Then you can really judge if overall it is more musical and enjoyable than what you had before. In other words, when you are not looking for a difference and you hear one that is what counts! Call it subconscious comparison. 

Damage to New Records

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Record sleeves even with specialist pressings are often made of cardboard and put fine scuffs on the records every time they are removed. This can cause surface noise. E.g. Aldous Harding – ‘Party’ my most recent buy. I have had to buy plastic-lined paper inner sleeves which work well but the original cardboard one doesn’t fit alongside them.

 

Lavardin – Support Furniture Article

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I LIKE THE HONESTY OF THIS ARTICLE SO I HAVE POSTED IT WITH PERMISSION FROM LAVARDIN.

What is the best rack to put under an amplifier?

A platform for audio components should firstly support the component stably and secondly be itself as neutral as possible.

For this reason, placing components on resonating materials seems like a really bad idea. Some materials which at first may not be suspected of resonating do in fact do so much more than expected: glass, marble, even granite and all minerals and metals have very poor self damping properties and allow vibrations to be stored, amplified and sent back to the component.

The ultimate material is wood. Wood is made of random fibres that conduct energy and reduce it when energy has to pass from one fibre to another. Moreover, plywood behaves much better than solid wood because of its thin crossed layers that allow a maximum dispersal of energy. Chipboard and “medite” powdered wood do not spread energy because they lose the fibrous structure of real wood.

For these reasons, avoid any stand made completely or partially with:

– Minerals, glass, marble, granite, ceramic: dry sound, too much treble, loss of nuances.

– Carbon fibre, compounds, polyester, etc: as above.

– Metal, steel, aluminium, …. loss of nuances, aggressive sound.

– Pressed wood and medite: loss of detail and nuances.

– Solid wood: expensive and not as good as plywood : simplified music, loss of nuances.

– Springs, rubbers, magnets, air chambers: loss of treble, detail and nuances.

From our point of view, combining minerals with metal, rubber and everything else, is not a demonstration of know-how…

As soon as the life of the music is killed by poor sounding audio racks, tonal balance remains the only thing to discuss, sadly…

If you have a solid, well-built, heavy piece of wood furniture supporting your equipment, it has a good chance of sounding far better than most of the Super High Tech Space or Formula One technology ( ! ) options available on the market.

Furthermore, you can add a thick board of plywood under each component for even better results….

4 ohm speakers and effect on power delivery.

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I often get asked about this and some speaker manufacturers like to avoid stating average impedance when they quote speaker sensitivity…

In 2002, Paul Messenger described beautifully the paradox of 4 Ohm speakers.

‘Over the years, speaker makers have tended to evolve their designs to suit the typical transistor amplifier which is essentially a voltage source with a low source impedance.

Halve the speaker’s impedance from 8 to 4 Ohms and the speaker draws twice the current and power from the amplifier. This extra power gives an increase in apparent (though mythical) sensitivity. Once one manufacturer adopts the strategy, others feel obliged to follow.’

A 4 ohm speaker actually draws 2W when provided the voltage required to provide 1W into an 8 ohm speaker so a 93db 4 ohm speaker is no easier to drive than a 90db 8 ohm one!

‘SME’ RCA plugs.

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Many years ago I used to curse the overly complex 4-5 piece RCA plugs which were often referred to as ‘SME’ plugs.

I don’t know if SME made them but they were dreadful.

Often attached to arm leads the wires would shear, come loose and cause all sorts of intermittent problems.

The screen wires were trapped by a threaded portion which would soon enough break off the filaments or develop a loose connection.

To my surprise, some Chord cables use a similar design of RCA plug with a plastic outer casing.

My Chord iChord lead has been very unreliable with the centre pins sometimes sticking in the socket and the plastic body sliding off the plug (hence the ugly glue fix) and the same issues with the screen- pinching piece needing tightening and the screen coming detached.

Now, the last straw, the earth has sheared causing a rare drive-unit to be blown…

 

Audioflair

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There has been some confusion about our status. We never traded as Audioflair Ltd. We applied to be a Ltd Co to protect the Audioflair name but it remained dormant until it was voluntarily dissolved by us in 2016.  I have always been a sole trader and still am.

Vasari Gold Cartridge tested by TONE Audio

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There’s a new little star in the constellation of our cartridges: the name is Vasari, the sound is…well, just read the review by Jeff Dorgay on this month’s issue of TONE Audio if you want to find out:

“With decent cartridges in the four-figure range, what’s the new audio enthusiast to do? Four words: Gold Note Vasari Gold. And you can get one for $385.”

read the article on the magazine

Gold Note DS-1000 Music Streamer is on 6moons

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The brand new DS-1000 is our take on music streamers, we suggest to use it in pair with QNAP or Synology NAS and your favourite UPnP music server (like MinimServer) to achieve the best reproduction quality.

You can also use DS-1000 to enjoy TIDAL or Qobuz simply installing the MConnect Player app (see MConnect for iOS and MConnect for Android) on your smartphone and tablet.
Visit www.qobuz.com/goldnote to try the service for free with a 1 Month trial – please remember that Qobuz is not worldwide available yet.  

Now DS-1000 is also on 6moons:

“DS-1000 fears no competition. It is a very complete versatile machine with an unusually extensive upgrade path […] From a sonic standpoint, what else can be said than mission accomplished? Elegance, vividness, resolution, transparency and great dynamics honor the essence of music.”

read the complete review on 6moons.com

A review of the new Role Audio Enterprise Loudspeaker

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Dear Music Lover,

I write to share a review of the new Enterprise. The review highlights our great achievements producing compact loudspeakers that outperform loudspeakers twice their size from the standpoint of bass reproduction, soundstaging/imaging, and value.

The Enterprise (at £3,295/pair) best the PSB Imagine T2 at £3,498/pair and the Vienna Acoustics Mozart Grand SE at £4,000/pair, two of the greatest speakers under £5,000.

Both the PSB T2 and the Vienna Mozart Grand SE are roughly twice the size of the Enterprise. Moreover, The PSB T2 has (3) 5.25 inch woofers. The Vienna Acoustics has (2) 6.5 inch woofers. The Enterprise has (2) 4.5 inch woofers.

The reviewer found the Vienna Mozart Grand SE is similar to the Enterprise in the overall beauty of its tonality and color, but its bass is not as extended, as taut, or as accurate as the Enterprise’s. And Vienna Mozart Grand SE doesn’t produce the large, layered soundstage that the Enterprise renders both in height and width. He noted that the “PSB Imagine T2 has very good macro-dynamics, but its overall presentation is not as silky smooth/musical as the Enterprise.”

And concluded that, The Enterprise will compete with speakers at least double their price and outperform much more expensive stand-mounted monitors both in soundstaging and bass extension.”

You can read the review here.

Tuscany Gold Moving-Coil Cartridge new review in Stereophile.

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Look for the new review of the Tuscany Gold by Michael Fremer in this Month’s issue of Stereophile and you will not be disappointed!

“The Tuscany Gold had a fine, beautifully balanced sound”

read the review

Tuscany cartridges feature an extra-thin Micro Ridge diamond tip developed with Adamant-Namiki, the worlds most famous professional Diamond manufacturer: the special multi faced shape cut guarantees the best deep vinyl groove contact possible.

Gold Note – New Year, New Speakers – the XT-7

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The new full-range, 3 way loudspeaker with anti-turbulence rear bass reflex and ribbon tweeter is finally here!

  • TWEETER – custom AMT ribbon.MIDS – 150mm curved cone in ultra-hardened woven polypropylene with custom copper phaser.
  • BASS – 2 x 180mm curved cones in ultra-hardened woven polypropylene with custom copper phaser.
  • CROSSOVER – low-high dual-slope at 280Hz & 3000Hz with resistive design and triple crossover network.

XT-7 means Italian design and craftsmanship, high quality materials,  the best audio grade components made in Germany by Mundorf and amazing custom drivers developed in collaboration with SEAS.

With many solutions directly derived from our flagship model XS-85, here is one of the best loudspeakers we have ever created. Handmade with passion in Italy.

discover the new XT-7

Fake Balanced Leads

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Many balanced leads available in the HI-FI World are not – one earth pin is either not connected internally or bridged in a pseudo-balanced way. Glue-up plug barrel – Hey Presto!

Reflecting back on Stereophile’s Croft Integrated review

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I have had many Croft Series 7 hybrids through my hands over the years and they do not run hot. They run warm as owners will attest. Yet, when being technically measured by Stereophile, they managed to make the Croft Integrated amplifier run ‘very hot’ and considered it a fair report.

My suspicion is that a music signal is less stressing to some amp topologies than the ‘steady-state one third power signal into a simulated load’ used by the technical reviewers.

So a topology of amp which tolerates this will have a technical advantage over one that does not. Of course, if you like to listen to a single note all the time….

This is one way in which you can achieve the contradictory situation where the reviewers rave about the amp, as occurred with the Croft Integrated, while the technician finds fault.
You can bet the Integrated did not run hot at the reviewer’s houses (before and after the measurements were taken) when sounding so musical.
As is often the case their testing is not what they think it is. If it ran hot on test bench they were overloading it in some way and inducing distortion.
The trouble with this kind of ‘science’ is that readers of such reviews tend to feel obliged to bow to the measurement facts unquestioningly.
Many years ago Glenn Croft said, ‘When you know what you’re measuring, measure it!’
It seems the measurements were taken from the Tape Out rather than the speaker outputs which would have loaded-down the amplifier’s output and induced the 6db roll-off.
Let’s not forget that Total Harmonic Distortion is also overstated as many Jap amps had vanishingly low figures such as 0.01% distortion and sounded rather thin and unengaging in reviews. In the meantime most speakers distort by about 33%…
If you prefer a more objective perspective regarding magazine technical measurements, Steve Elford of Vertex AQ cites that:
“Fourier transform theorem or FFT software is the wrong way to measure because it’s in the frequency domain and is an iterative process over time so you only see the presence of constant sine waves. By analysing the signal in the time domain, only then can you see the tracking error.”