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In Reply to: RE: Kudos to Art Dudley posted by Salectric on September 16, 2016 at 12:03:59
Art. Plus 1. Plus 2 other observations.
1. Excerpt from an email I sent my old friend, Kemper Holt, after the Capital Audio Fest.
"I wanted to review two listening experiences that are somewhat linked. The first was at Capital. The exhibitor was Deja'-Vu. The system was very old: a pair of Western Electric tube amps driving an equally old (bass reflex?) speaker I don't even know the name of. I don't remember the cartridge either. I just know it wasn't a new $10,000 jobby. Wow! I was reminded of that sound when I went to hear a classical quartet here in town.
The spec I believe we are missing when we talk about audio, is "aliveness." One reason it isn't a spec is because engineers haven't figured out a way to make it one. But boy, is it important. The cello I heard last week was alive. It was almost overpowering. It filled the room and asserted itself with every bow-stroke. It growled and was full of the most exquisite texture. It was enveloping. Even on my system, the cello doesn't sound like that. But it sounded a lot closer to that at Deja'-Vu. . . . I go to lot of concerts, small and large, from solo recitals to Mahler-sized orchestral performances. I have sung in semi-professional choruses (including the Paul Hill Chorale in D.C.) and I have produced international piano competitions. So I believe I have a reasonably good ear. And that ear is telling me we have a long way to go. And maybe, the direction we need to go is back."
2. You appear to be as in love with Frost's "Choose Something like a Star" as I am. In fact I wrote a short play about a bunch of high school students discussing this deep, surprising and multi-layered work. If you ask me nicely, I'll send you a copy.
Follow Ups:
Throwback,
I completely agree with your description of the Deja-Vu room. The liveliness of that system set it well apart from most of the other rooms at the show. The sound was indeed room-filling and HUGE. What is more amazing is that this sense of size and scale was achieved by a MONO system. Yes, there were two speakers in the system, but, the amp driving them was a single mono amp. The amp was built with a lot of old parts, but, it is a completely new design and build by the Italian builder Aldo D'Urso (the person who manned that room most of the time). This is a truly exotic amp that utilizes two mercury vapor rectifiers and WE 271 tubes in a pushpull configuration. The linestage was another Aldo design/build. The speakers are also a very recent build (finished the day before the show), again using vintage drivers and crossover parts. Old school equipment, particularly when reconditioned or repurposed in new builds can be quite amazing.
Thanks for the additional information Larry. I had wondered whether the amp was push-pull or single-ended, so I appreciate the clarification. It's just further evidence that both SE and PP amplifiers are capable of excellent sound. No one topology is best.
Great observations especially concerning the Deja Vu room at CAF. There was indeed an "alive" quality that was present in that system and lacking in the other rooms even those with ultra-expensive modern gear.
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