HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

spacejay wrote: i think steve albini produced in utero. he pays particular attention to the recording technique, uses old mics and generally knows how it should sound.

Whoever it is and whatever he did, he's made a wonderful live club sound. You can almost smell the sweat!

Listening to Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony. Moved them back about 1/2 inch. Either that or things generally warming up has had a beneficial effect on the soundstage all a little clearer and better placed. That's my fiddle for this evening. I've a bunch of vinyl to listen to.

Still can't get away from a sibilance/glassiness at the top end on some tracks. I've now removed all other speakers from the room. I've tried single amping. I've pushed the speakers back as far as I can. None of that made much of a difference. I've just swapped LS6 for LS5 for the top. That seems to have made a difference. I'll leave it like that for a while.

The other stuff these are revealing and the presence of the music, I'm really enjoying. I played 'Son of a Preacher Man' from Dusty in Memphis, and these let you hear all the lovely little bass runs and embellishments down there.

Hi terryboth,

been following your thread with interest.

Did you step back to the epos?

What Talk Talk album were you referring too.Is it Colour of Spring-if so,how does the piano sound ?

Cheers,

Ronin

PS,hope you don't mind the questions

Hi Ronin,

I've not stepped back to the EPOS yet. I haven't had much chance to do any listening over the past week or so. Yes, the Talk Talk album I was talking about was the Colour of Spring - however, I haven't dug it out of the record collection yet. (I take it you're thinking of 'Life's what you make it').

For power, scale and sounding like music (rather than hi-fi), I rate these speakers.

The downside for me, in my listening room and with my kit, is that I haven't yet found a way to get away from what I hear as sibillance on some tracks (e.g. Elbow - Mirrorball, Paul Simon - The Boy in the Bubble).

Finally, dug out the Talk Talk. It's reminded me why I played it to death. Plenty of bass interest for the cubixes to get their teeth into. Yes, there's that deep piano riff on 'Life's what you make it' but there's electric bass and acoustic bass (Veronicka, I presume, because it's Danny Thompson and that's what he calls his double bass) on 'Happiness is easy'.

Yep....Talk Talk - The colour of spring.
Great album.
Give it up............Sublime.

jammy

terrybooth wrote:Finally, dug out the Talk Talk. It's reminded me why I played it to death. Plenty of bass interest for the cubixes to get their teeth into. Yes, there's that deep piano riff on 'Life's what you make it' but there's electric bass and acoustic bass (Veronicka, I presume, because it's Danny Thompson and that's what he calls his double bass) on 'Happiness is easy'.

Thanks for the reply terrybooth.

The reason that I asked about that particular album is, I always found it a challenge for my systems,at it's worst it's a complete mess,and at it's best, it's tolerable in most places apart from the lower frequencies.

So,it's either poorly recorded or I've never had a good enough system to bring out the best.I've got 2 copies;the original and a 180g audiophile one.


Sounds like it's working out for you though, and I can see that jammy's there too

Maybe when my ship comes in (retirement),I'll audition some higher-up the ladder NVA amplifiers along with the speakers.

I've heard omni-directional speakers in the past and preferred most to the usual box .

Are you still suffering the "sibilance " I guess,if it's on some records and not others it could be just down to the recording ?

Thanks once again for your findings.

All the best

Ronin

Yes, it is an oddly recorded album. I've been messing about with room position and found that bringing them forward by a few inches (which goes against what the Doc was saying) brings huge sonic rewards. This certainly improved focus and seemed to reduce sibilance - but I was enjoying the music too much to check the 'naughty' tracks.

Not my advice, that was to use your ears and get them to work in the room. It is a fiddly process but teaches you a lot about acoustic synergy, because you can apply it to any speaker but not to the same extreme results.