I have posted three times (#77,78,100) and in #100 I said that would probably be my last one. Wrong. I couldn’t resist posting again after today’s listening session. The M1200’s are drawing me in more and more. They sound so effortless, and yet at the same time so compelling. I never really fully felt that my rig was totally “letting go of the music” like so many high end magazine reviewers describe. Well, the M1200’s have done it. They have a totally relaxed presentation, along with all the other high end accolades that are ascribed to Class A gear, as I describe below.
Ryuichi Sakamoto CD: Neo Geo; “Risky”, “Free Trading”
Inner detail and ambience retrieval is bringing out the life of recordings and a effortless reach-in quality beyond what my all tube Wolcott Audio amps deliver, and up to this point they have been the best I’ve ever heard with my Soundlab Electrostatics. Electrostatic speakers are famous for the tough loads presented to amplifiers. A challenging combination of resistance, capacitance, and inductance. Depending on tube selection (mine are equipped with eight EL34 tubes per side), Wolcott Amps generate 200-290 watts. They are a famous cult amplifier for electrostatics, and they were given a class A nod by Dick Olsher some years ago. Before the Wolcott’s, I tried a bunch of amps, both solid state and tubed. The biggest Bryston’s. The big Cary’s, and others. None of them could drive the Soundlab electrostatics.
Bottom line, the M1200’s have bettered the Wolcott’s in every category. Timbral Accuracy. Dynamics (both micro and macro). Bass (both weight and texture). Imaging. Soundstaging. Inner detail and ambience retrieval. What’s left? Oh yeah, pace… they have ebb and flow that pulls you in and won’t let go. Toe tapping, head nodding rhythmic drive. Exciting.
Mitch Watkins CD: Hum Head; “Big Surf”
Piano and drums and Mitch’s lyrically intoxicating work on the legendary Michael Stevens LJ semi hollow body electric are so timbrally accurate, that it is as if one is the recording studio with them. Drums are crisp and punchy and the backbeats are so easy to follow and powerfully moving that it compels one to join in on imaginary air drums!! Powerful.
Mel Torme SACD: The London Sessions. This is a 1977 Olympic Sound, UK, recording of jazz standards re-released as a Steve Hoffman/Kevin Gray DSD mastered SACD. It is a superb recording of a superb performance from “the velvet fog” backed real-time by a full orchestra. Mel’s voice is like butter melting among the instruments, which are in full detail but do not obscure Mel’s articulate sibilants nor his emotional phrasing. Mel never received the accolades of a Sinatra or Bennett, but this recording is as emotive as anything old blue eyes ever did.
Mel left us almost 21 years ago, but the M1200’s brought him to life in my listening room …complete with goosebumps. His tone. The studio ambience. The saxophone’s attack and decay. The bass texture. Velvet fog indeed. if you like great masterpieces such as “ Yesterday When I Was Young”, and “Send In The Clowns”, you won’t be disappointed with this SACD, especially with the M1200’s extracting every nuance and feeling from the performance. Bravo!