Ordinaryman wrote: ↑Fri Jul 26, 2019 10:55 pm
Agreed 100% the trouble is every individual interpretation of what is "right for them" can be vastly different. What any individual hears cannot be considered right or wrong, just different. Some are better placed to give the opinion that "this sounds better" to them but that doesn't mean it's a fact or will be better for everyone, after all its purely subjective and if people's opinions are different, so what, it doesn't make them a fool and imo that's where most forum's fail..
Amongst people with integrity, there has almost always been a very good agreement on the sonic differences and which sounds best at bake offs I have attended.
The biggest difference with people with integrity has been when a more expensive component has sounded better and whether it was worth the extra money or not. Which is entirely fair and reasonable. Although it does seem that the owners of the worse sounding cheaper gear are more likely to say "Yours is better, but I wouldn't pay the extra money for it"
For the bake-off that Richard lost, it was a small south London bake-off - about 10 years ago now. Speakers were Impulse Ta'us. Source was a Squeezebox. Medium sized room.
The amplifiers were the hosts Bel Canto (£3000?) class D which was OK for pop music, but sounded all wrong - strangely artificial - on piano music.
A Leek (2020?) that cost the owner about £300. Pleasant enough but lush and pipe and slippers in front of a warm log fire type of sound. Nevertheless good value for money.
An NVA A80 at £800 new. You could hear the clarity and purity and potential of this amp but it sounded thin with these speakers.
A Coincident Frankenstein 300b prototype, bought used for £1650. Bass was a bit wooly, especially when warming up. This amp was best at making a piano sound like a piano. Best for sounding like there was nothing there between the source and the speakers in the midrange.
At the time and thereafter, Richard did say that the Coincident was the best sounding SET that he had heard. He also said that with different speakers the results may well have been different. This is something that I'd agree with.
) and I'm not interested in meeting up with you to demonstrate what I'm talking about" - eg some super duper modern speaker that pisses over anything from 50 years ago.
