Brothers!
It is pouring rain in Boston and it won’t let up all day. Your input has given me clear instruction on how to experiment with my rig during the deluge. I thank you all quite sincerely.
- Jim
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Mmm, sounds like a cozy day to kick back and listen to albums. Enjoy Jim!
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Thanks, brother. I tune everything to a piano, so I’m listening to Marta Argerich’s 1979 Back recordings.
They are exquisite.
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Never occurred to me! I will give it a try!
Oh ya. If you’re used to listening intently to a piano - actually a range of pianos - then you can make a very good initial assessment of a system by listening to recordings of well-played solos. There are seven octaves present so the piano gives one the opportunity to key in on factors such as temperature, decay, timing, chordal clarity, atmosphere and material timbre. To me, if a piano sounds bad one can rest assured that no other instruments are going to sound good, or at least optimal.
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Good advice. Piano is immensely difficult to reproduce. Get it right and you are well on your way.
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I like to assess SQ with both violin/ piano sonatas and cello / piano sonatas. I find both piano and violin to be challenging.
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Thanks for the advice @jimkiely1960
My speakers deliver 84dB (86dB on paper). So it is going to take me a few trials to make the right assessment.
I use the following signal chain…
Roon (antipodes CX/EX) == DSD (volume at 85) == BHK pre == BHK250 == spendor d9.2’s.
I like loud music.
Night time listening has me around the click at 25. When I crank it I normally don’t go above 60. Any more would be too loud.
The spendors seem to work better at higher volumes. All the sound comes together much better at volume.
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You and I both!
Over the weekend I adjusted my DAC output so a preamp setting of 50 = loud. However, I still have an issue with my phono stage (Luxman EQ-500). For vinyl sixty on the preamp is now listening level and 80 is loud. I have no bias-adjustment option on the Luxman and the only thing I changed was a tube, which now has about 100 hours on it.
Any ideas?
@jimkiely1960 totally agree with your observation of solo piano being the default for sq on most systems, and to make a side comment, i posted that after a short burn in on a new P3 installed New Years Eve, that solo piano tracks suddenly appeared to flesh out with distinctive clarity from strike to decay taking the sq a level higher.
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I have tried various settings and here’s the optimal for me:
Analogue via Stellar Phono Preamp: BHK pre sounds great from 30 - 60*
Digital via Roon: Roon Headroom Enabled at -2dB, DSD set to 85, BHK pre sounds great 30 - 60*
*So far, 60 is the highest I ever used on BHK pre.
** I use M700 monoblocs with Dynaudio Contour 20, 4 Ohms stable with actual sensitivity of 84dB.