Don’t stop the Music, or turn it down…

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I have the opportunity to listen to a wide range of speakers, and one thing which often stands out for me is the ability for higher end speakers to cope with complex passages of music.

Often songs start quiet, with maybe a great vocal and cut back instruments, then when the chorus kicks in everything steps up a notch – it’s at this point that often people reach for the volume control to turn the system down. In my experience, with good speakers you do not experience this, they just carry on playing with the treble, midrange, and bass all just playing nicely together.

This year I have loved Gareth Thomas Band‘s album Lady Alien, and track 2 Don’t Stop, really highlights what I’m talking about here. On some speakers the track starts off, the vocal images nicely, the bass from the kick drum is solid and everything’s great, then the electric guitar comes in and we are still doing ok on most speakers, but then just after the minute mark the drums kick in properly. It’s at this point that on some systems you grab the remote and down goes the volume.

Now, I don’t claim to be an expert when it comes to Physics (Unlike Tiens who actually is…) or speaker design for that matter. But I suspect this is because small amounts of distortion is creeping in due to cone break up, and these small blemishes start to muddy the sound, so you lose focus, frequency response and therefore the sound can become flat and harsh.

Jamo C607 Floorstander

I don’t really care so much for technology in speakers for technology’s sake, but I know most speaker companies spend a lot of time talking about technology to minimise cone frequency break up.

I used to think that the more drivers you have the more this phenomenon was reduced, and that certainly can be true when you compare models within a range – For example, this is where the Castle Knight 4 out classes the smaller Knight 3.

But now through my own experience I think it comes down to the driver in respect to cone break up and cabinet design, i.e. the less resonance the better. I use to run Jamo Concert 607′s as my front speakers before I upgraded to my current Paradigm Signature S2′s. Now these are both very different speakers – Rather than describing the differences here’s two photos which I think demonstrate the differences rather well!

Paradigm S2 (Version 2)

Now I should point out that the S2′s sell for more than twice the price of the 607′s, and while that hurt at the time I have never looked back, the S2′s are such an amazing speaker.

When I was comparing the two speakers, one of things I found was on complex tracks the 607s sounded muddy and flat, whereas the S2′s just kept pumping out clear sound – which is incredible when you think what that bass/midrange driver on the Paradigm is being asked to do. Back when Coldplay was good ;) they released the outstanding Rush of Blood to the Head. The opening track Politik I had always skipped, it just sounded flat, harsh and hard to listen to. One of the wow moments I had with the S2′s was when I put this album on and went, wow, I’ve never heard this song like this before. SOLD.

One of Tiens’ all time favourite speakers are the Jamo Concert 8′s, a very solid 2 way standmount. It’s these same aspects of clarity that shine when listening to complex music, the Concert 8′s just play effortlessly. Tiens has always told me that you get a better image from a standmount over a floorstander in the same range, I think its fair to say that the smaller rigid cabinets help in minimising resonance, but perhaps less is more when it comes to complex music?

So the moral of the story, when auditioning speakers, don’t just listen to the nice easy listening jazz that the Hifi stores and shows will play you, take your own music along that you are familiar with, some quiet, some loud, and make sure you’re in charge of the volume control. :)

This is what PureAudio Sounds like – Part 2

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PureAudio Control Preamplifier

It was with anticipation that I opened the new toys from PureAudio, I’d seen the preamp before when Gary visited us a while back, but I hadn’t had a chance to spend some time listening to them in detail until now.

First impressions

I like the packaging material. The units arrived double boxed with enough space around the units to allow for that accidental knock (God forbid!). The thick sponge is a welcome addition for protection against vibration during transportation and can’t leave small white balls of polystyrene floating around in the box.

I like the openness of the units design. It reminds me of the ultramodern “industrial” look of some recent modern architecture.  PureAudio’s design is totally different to anything else, very original and timeless.

PureAudio Monoblock Amplifier

PureAudio Monoblock Amplifier

I like that you can have a peek inside through the wire mesh and see the clean layout, the superb quality board components, and the big toroidal transformers – you immediately know this is serious gear that has been engineered with every last detail thought of and with a specific reason. The dimensions are spot on, not to small not too big, just right.

 

I decided to start off by listening to both the preamp and power amps together to get a grip on what the “PureAudio” sound is about, thinking I will later try them separately.
Set up was very simple. I like the Cardas Rhodium RCA plugs and Cardas speaker binding posts – the same ones used by the prestigious Jeff Rowland brand as well. These are some of the best you can get in the industry. A nice touch is the a toggle switch on the rear to switch the power lights on and off, theory behind the design is that by switching off the lights and you have no distractions, just PureAudio.

PureAudio Preamplifier Rear

The Volume Control is all class

I switched on preamp, waited 30 seconds and then turned on the power amps. I then turned up the volume a bit and that is when I heard something I very rarely hear… the soft clicking sound of the solenoids clicking in and out the resistor bank as the volume control is turning up. I love the volume control of this preamp! To me it’s one of the nicest, smoothest, classiest, volume controls I have ever come across – pure class and a pure pleasure to use.

OK Music! First up were my Maggies 1.7 speakers.

I always test equipment first with good quality voice recordings that I am familiar with, if you don’t get the mid-range right the rest will be of no consequence. This is the problem with most modern equipment, especially speakers, manufacturers play with the top and/or bottom end to catch the attention of the new buyer in the showroom. This is because the human ear picks up anomalies in these areas the best. You can either impress them or disappoint them. It all depends on what their taste is – Sharp top end or big bass are the extremes but it will only impress you for short burst of times.  Mid-range is the place where long time listening can make or break a system; this is where listening fatigue comes in.

The Maggies 1.7 are one of the most detailed speakers you can find in the important mid-range field. It’s also the most realistic sound I have found closest to the human voice, so it’s ideal speakers to test a systems realism. My test tracks were The Painter by Sara K and Beat Hotel by Allan Taylor, both on Stockfisch Records.

What I heard via the PureAudio units was… REAL human voices. Immediately I knew we were in business… but a few minutes into the song I noticed something I never notice before. I could hear background instruments more clearly now standing out in the mix. Distinct low level instruments that I honestly never took notice off before. The main singer’s voice became more separated from the background and was more clearly identified with more air around him.  It reminded me of driving in my car on a beautiful clear sunny day and looking out the window…you can see the houses nearby but you can also see the islands and boats sailing clearly in the far distance over the sea. On other days its misty and diffused but you can still see the nearby houses clearly, but not the background. 

I never heard this before and its very, very nice to hear all the detail that is lurking in the obscure background all this time! In a sentence that sums up what I have heard all day….that fine detail. I think it has to do a lot with what you will NOT find on PureAudio components.

So then, what’s missing on PureAudio equipment?

  • Remote control.
  • Bass and treble controls, balanced control in fact not even an input selector control! Nothing! Just a volume control knob… that’s it!
  • No flashing lights and big LED displays either!
  • Balanced line level inputs and outputs.
  • No 100w or 200w (or whatever) power.

Why? You do not need them! Let me explain:

If you go to a live concert, do they issue you with a remote control? I think that answers the first Q. Also did you know that remote control-, bass- and treble-, balance- and input selection circuitry can effect the quality of your signal. Yes, your signal has to pass through those extra circuits and thus can be effected by them. If you want your signal to stay as pure as possible you have to avoid those. The brand’s name PureAudio says it all. Volume control is done by a hand control that is set to your preferred level, then you can sit back and enjoy the music. The volume is controlled uniquely by a sophisticated resistor bank selection process to make sure once you have selected your volume its circuitry are then bypassed and a “straight line” is opened at that level. The same goes with the “input selection” which is done automatically for you. The preamp detects which input has a live signal, selects that input and then connect that input to the “straight line” thus freeing it from that circuitry.

LED lights and displays?

Same story as above, lighting displays can generate tiny electromagnetic interferences that can interfere with the tiny preamp signals masking the clear dark background with “tiny sparkles” so to speak and that will cloud that fine detail so lacking in so many other so called high end systems.

Balanced line level inputs and outputs?

Most people think that when you are talking about high end audio we are talking of balanced line level input and output and mega watts of power output. On the contrary, that belongs mostly to the opposite the market…. the professional equipment market for broadcasting and live concerts. Due to long cable runs and needing to run over power cables, a robust method of noise reduction like balanced cables comes into place. For a normal home with short cable lengths this is not a problem. True to the minimalist design principle of PureAudio they have decided to avoid this duplication of positive and negative signal paths and adding phases to avoid any possible phase distortion that can result effecting the fine detail in the higher frequencies.

Massive power?

High power amps by nature have to be more robust so you sacrifice detail for power (think low revs V8 engine power compared to smooth high revs 6 cylinder engines..same story…you cannot have one type of engine that can do both!) Then another factor not realize by the normal man in the street is that the output level of a 100W amp and a 200W amp are very close to each other and you will hardly hear any difference. That is because it will only give you a 3db lift and the human ear can barely hear a difference of 1db. Look at the LED volume display on your Home-theater receiver and turn it up 3db… you will hardly hear any difference in the sound level! That is what you will also hear when you change your amp from a 100W amp to a 200W amp. (see my previous blog on power ratings). PureAudio has decided to give us 60W RMS into 8 ohms but in pure CLASS A mode giving the least possible distortion in the amplified signal.

What I personally like about PureAudio is that it reminded me so much of my listening experiences and discoveries of this wonderful hobby in my youth, the golden age of audio… the 70′s. Every great manufacturer’s flagship models were made to be the best with no price object in mind. Money was no problem then it was all about who can make the best and for us the desire to own and to enjoy… pure enjoyment… PureAudio. Thanks PureAudio for taking me back there again and OMG how I missed that!

I’ll have to save the R909‘s for another day, Gordia is calling me for a cup of coffee.

Kind Regards
Tiens

To listen to the PureAudio range please contact us to arrange an audition.

For more information on PureAudio, please visit the store page.

Melbourne Hifi Show Report – October 2011

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Earlier this year I was excited by the announcement of a proper Hifi show in Melbourne. I say proper because it was at the Marriot hotel where each brand had their own room so you could actually listen to the gear on display – vs the type of trade show where everyone is setup in a big room competing for who can go the loudest.

So myself and a couple of mates (Jared and Marty) went off to Melbourne for a weekend away.  We arrived blurry eyed from the early flight at the show on the Friday afternoon and were greeted with a large queue, so we went to the bar for a while, as we thought that was a good way to start. :)

The queue quickly dispersed and we were on our way. We knew we weren’t going to be the majority demographic at the show (all three of us are under 30, just) but we were still surprised to be greeted with “What are you doing here, you look too normal” in one room, funny but true. Having said that on the Saturday it was nice to see a mixed crowd but still skewing very male.

The range of gear on display was impressive and I’ve put a bunch of photos up on Facebook. There were some very impressive demonstrations and really nice gear on show. Some rooms were obviously not the ideal setup due to the size of the room vs the size of the speakers on display, but everyone made the best of what they had which was evident by the generous amount of room treatment in some rooms.

What was starting to drive us insane was the music. I don’t get it, I really don’t. The reason for Hifi is to get more out of the music you love, but most rooms insisted on playing “Audiophile” recordings which mainly consist of terrible covers of songs that were good in their original form or unoriginal Jazz. Also, a lot of the music playing was very simple that actually didn’t push the gear on display and would sound pretty good on a modest system. It was on rare occasion that you stumbled across a room playing music that people would actually sit down and listen too in the real world.

If high end audio wants to survive and gain the interest of a new market segment we need to change. I know I’m generalisation as some companies get it but the majority seem so obsessed with the gear they forget what the real task at hand is, replicating music (not just sound) as good as it can be replicated in one’s home.

We went into one room, and the dealer was complaining “We lost our box of cds so we had to go down to JB Hifi and we couldn’t find anything, sorry we only have a couple of discs”. I don’t think I need to point out how ridiculous this statement is. Although, contradicting that he actually then put on James Blake but proceeded to apologise that it was “all I could find”.

OK I’m ranting a bit here, but just one more thing on the music. If you follow me on Facebook you will have seen the What Hifi article I posted on Vinyl sales being up 40% on last year. Here were the top selling records from last year on Vinyl:

  1. ‘The King Of Limbs’ – Radiohead
  2. ‘21’ – Adele
  3. ‘Different Gear Still Speeding’ – Beady Eye
  4. ‘Suck It And See’ – Arctic Monkeys
  5. ‘Let England Shake’ – PJ Harvey
  6. ‘Bon Iver’ – Bon Iver
  7. ‘Submarine (Ost)’ – Alex Turner
  8. ‘Director’s Cut’ – Kate Bush
  9. ‘Build A Rocket Boys’ – Elbow
  10. ‘Nevermind’ – Nirvana
I wonder how many of these artists were played over the course of the show? When we visited Aaron Speakers they had Thom York’s solo album on but I know they were the exception. So if we “Audiophiles” love vinyl so much, and think its the best way to consume music, who are the people out their buying vinyl as it wasn’t this group? Why aren’t we trying to capture this market and turn them into overweight socially questionable audiophiles?  But seriously, if we want the audio market to survive, we need to show music lovers how their music can be even better. We need to demonstrate music, not gear.

 

OK enough ranting, Best in Show.

For me, the Cabasse room had the most “impressive” display, they had a drum track on that a blind man would have sworn was someone drumming live in the room, the transient response was incredible.  Just the active speakers are $129,000AU a pair, which makes them out of range for someone like myself. All the same I would have liked to have spent some time with this system listening to a range of music styles.

Bowers and Wilkins 802D and Classe
The B&W room was Jared’s pick of the show, the wonderful 802D’s powered by 600W Classe monoblocks, the sound was clear without being harsh, vocals floated and imaged just right. This is probably the system that I would most want to live with out of everything at the show. Although, I would have loved to hear the Jamo R909‘s on the Classe rig as a comparison as the Jamo room was not the best setup (The room was too small and the 909′s need space to breathe) and I know from our own demo room they sound much better than they did at the show.

Whatmough and Moon
Marty’s favourite were the Australian Whatmough speakers powered by Moon. The Moon components are stunning and obviously had the sonic prowess to match. What I loved about this system as that while the floorstanders are big, they aren’t stupid big. And they sounded wonderful on a simple two component setup – just the Moon Integrated amp and matching CD player. While this is still an expensive system, you’re talking 30K for everything here which is not in the realms of crazyness. Everything was just right on this system, treble detailed but not bright, full clear midrange and deep, full yet tight bass. The drivers worked hard, but with large voice coils in the custom drivers this was all part of the design.

Other notable mentions
On the home theatre side of things, the Paradigm/Anthem/JVC room had the clear advantage with their room, and the sound was amazing, even if the JVC rep couldn’t figure out how to turn the mighty Paradigm SUB-1 on, so I had to leave a little disapointed and still not knowing what this beast sounds like.

The Magneplanar 3.7′s are incredible for vocals, acoustic and jazz music. So while not a do it all kind of speaker, for some people these would be heaven. Sonus Faber impressed and I would have loved to hear the Stradivari Homage in a bigger less crowded room. The new DacMagic Plus from Cambridge Audio is a winner, building on the success of the famous DacMagic it has upgraded internals as well as a built-in preamp. The Castle Richmond Annivesary speakers are going to be something special, these will be available here soon!

All in all Melbourne was great, and it was fantastic to hear some speakers I would otherwise not be able to hear. Massive thanks to all the effort that went into organising this show, I hope all involved deemed it a success!

For more photos, head on over to the gallery on Facebook