Fas42’s Stereo ‘Magic’

[charlesphoto]

24 minutes ago, semente said:

 

A good system will not sound loud even when it's playing loud.

Could it have been the distortion and not the loudness that scared him off?

 

I went to a friends the other day to listen to his new rig - Hegel H190 and B&W 702's and SVS subwoofer. I had to constantly turn it down on him - the sub actually made me physically ill feeling, and the whole thing just sounded disorganized and veiled and fatiguing. He had zero optimizations going on (power, vibration, etc) and the source was an SSD drive into the USB of an Oppo BD player. The sound had enormous scale and was very full of course, but almost impossible to follow any single instrument. It could reproduce that pounding attack one gets down at front at a live rock show (my little 35W amp won't do that) but couldn't do, say,  the detail and PRAT of a small jazz ensemble  in Rudy Van Gelder's living room. 

 

I didn't say much one way or the other as he thinks he's got an amazing sounding setup, and he couldn't be bothered to add anything else, not even cable or optical for ethernet to the room so he could stream properly vs navigating folders only on the barebones Oppo app. He also has a big 10 foot long modern credenza between the speakers that the Hegel sits on top of the Oppo in, all plugged into a cheap power strip. It's a shame as it's not inexpensive gear. 

 

In comparison, my setup sounds much smaller and thinner, but one can hear every instrument in isolation and detail. I don't need to, and don't want to listen to it at ear splitting volumes. It won't reproduce a Tool concert but will put Thelonious and his piano right there in the room with you. Each to his own I guess.