the simple bear necessities
Forget about your worries
and your strife"
Whilst cooking today's evening meal ('Hutspot met Speklapjes'. Dutch readers will know!) I was struck by an epiphany about my Hifi-usage over the last few months: call it a search for honesty.
The simple kitchen rig of JVC mini-tower and Wiim-Mini-clone IEast M50 were pumping out Duran Duran's 'Seven & the Ragged Tiger' and life was just flowing pleasantly along. Thinking about Hifi, I realised that my tastes, for now, have shifted into a different zone and the question is if that is a short-lived movement or one with a more permanent character?
Most of the more recent additions to my audio setups have not exactly been high-end or aimed at Purist Nirvana; if anything they have been simplifications and effective downgrading to a more basic, utilitarian format.
Two names have caused this restructuring: Sabaj and German Maestro (formerly MB Quart). The system that gets the most airtime these days is my Upstairs rig based aound the 2022 Sabaj models A20d DAC and A10a Class D bridged monoblock amps. Pricewise, the Sabaj gear is, effectively, budget level with the DAC and amps together weighing in at around the €700-€800 mark for the whole set. But this combo is delivering sounds with a power, control and accuracy that I had only previously experienced from a top-level Mark Levinson installation.
Similarly with headphones; my cans of choice are currently the German Maestro GMP 250 and 450 Pro. Both of these are certainly not expensive, luxurious or lush sounding but they have a quality of direct honesty that you rarely come across. No unnecessary colouration or accentuation, just the music as it was recorded. That's it.
Beginning my audiophile voyage back in the early 80's, I looked for a coloured sound - a sort of involving softness that would make all genres and albums come over as pleasant and enjoyable. Nowadays, technology has advanced and experience has taught me a trick or two about how to get the best performance out of even the most primitive audio system. And this experience is taking me back to those humble beginnings where the music was paramount and you wanted to hear: What is the band playing? What is the artists saying? What is that effect, that instrument?
Clarity, simplicity and honesty - these are the qualities I require at the moment. The music is not secondary to the gear - the equipment needs to be there to serve the music.
. I was not going to be sucked into the flat earth. Had I been aware of quality "high end" products which were not touted in the rags, NVA an obvious example, things might have been different and most likely would have parted with serious cash. This was not to happen until thirty years later when I was far better informed through the Internet. Over a few years I put together what I consider to be a very good sounding system, bolstered by my experience of what I heard at the Bristol show in February. In addition the second system in the bed room also sounds very nice.