I must state first off that I am a changed man. Up until last sunday, I was a big advocate of CD and SACD, and I remained happy with digital formats. A powerful force shattered my long-held beliefs about formats: I paid a visit to Todd Green's place. As many of you know, he operates a new company aptly named Todd the Vinyl Junkie (http://www.toddthevinyljunkie.com). His premise is that the "old format" of vinyl is still by and large better sounding than any new digital format.
At about two-thirty P.M. on Sunday I showed up at his place. He has a small office with lots of audio equipment and supplies; I spent a few hours listening to stuff in this building. The first thing he did was stick in an old pressing of Ride of the Valkyries, a pretty well-known symphonic work.
Right off of the bat, I was impressed. The sound was clean, smooth, and more lifelike than I had ever heard before: the highs seemed to breathe a sigh of relief; there was no longer a distinct "bass," "mids," and "treble," but just plain music. Detail was excellent, and the tone of the trumpet was just excellent, much better than any CD or SACD I've heard on any source.
This was just a warm-up of things to come. I was at this point highly skeptical of vinyl, having never heard it before in my life, I had no idea what the overall outcome of this audition would be like. Our second album was some pink floyd.
In spite of the fact that the record was at least thirty years old, it sounded clean and above all more natural than I had expected. Having heard such remarks as "vinyl is a colored format" from some people, I wasn't expecting the neutral detailed presentation from this album.
A few minutes later, we fired up a pressing of Dark Side of the Moon. Todd said that he's been lucky finding recordings such as these; there is a wide variety of quality levels due to how people took care of their records.
I was skeptical for the first seconds of the introduction. The "pounding heart" bassline that is so recognizable lacked a bit of sparkle compared to my SACD setup.
And then it happened. The first voice entered, and set the standard for detail, blowing away the SACD and CD remaster of dark side of the moon (you know, "I've been mad for ********* years," etc). What was more amazing was how the introduction built up: It sounded more coherent and detailed than I had EVER heard it on digital. I could hear each and every individual voice or instrument, but the musical whole was surprisingly natural.
Things just kept getting better. I heard some really old stuff as well, and we also listened to a couple of audiophile pressings. Nora Jones was my favorite, especially the introduction, also some disco pressed on a '45 (can't remember the name of the group) but it's the first time I've heard excellent electronic-ish music.
When we plugged the HD600/cardas and my MOH(R) into Todd's analog setup, things just got better. Detail, decay, and texture were mind-blowingly realistic.
After much delight we finally hooked up my NS500V and Todd's Meridian to the MOH amp.
We directly A/B'd these two sources with the same equipment we had used to hear the records.
Surprisingly (or not, depending on your personal experiences) the meridian was o.k., but sounded grainy and "hashy," compared to the vinyl DSOTM recording. What I mean is, the high end exhibits a signature with digital, a sort of glare which never went away and drove me nuts after hearing the vinyl. The SACD player was also o.k., but the meridian performed better with CD. We agreed that the NS500V has some promise as a SACD player: it didn't sound like a $120-$200 player; it had more bang for the buck than was expected.
Let's go back a bit. Listening to track 3, "Time," the first one minute is where you can really start seeing the benefits of vinyl as a format. When the clocks and bells start going off all over the place, the vinyl setup made it sound eerily realistic: tone and texture was next to perfect. Imaging was also excellent, and detail was more lifelike than any digital format I've heard. When switching to the meridian, the sound was much less lifelike. Detail was all there, but the highs lacked much of the qualities exhibited by the vinyl recording. Mids were actuall more colored with the meridian/CD version. Switching to SACD, the sound was a tad hashier/brighter and we both thought it sounded tinny in comparison (its not easy for a $120 player to hold its ground to the 507 and a bluenote turntable though!).
However, the verdict remains: I just plain flat-out liked vinyl better. Not only did it have more detail, imaging, and balance, but it was just plain a hell of a lot more lifelike. Soundstage depth was better to boot, and the sound was dead-smooth, startlingly so with HD600s. There were no "bumps" in the frequency spectrum, as I had incorrectly expected. I have never heard cymbals sound so realistic, strings so organic, horns so piercing, etc. etc. The only thing better is live music, if only for the fact that you gain the visual perception of the performers and the feeling of intimacy which comes with being at a live performance. Let's just say the sound was all there with vinyl.
Of course, there are a few downsides. It's a bit more work maintaining a good collection of records, and you've got to take care of them to keep them sounding good over a long period of time. Also, there is the occasional pop or tick, which is a minor setback compared to the massive gains of the format itself.
I just canned my plan to go SACD, or any digital format for that matter. I'm going to sell my player pretty soon, and start hoarding the vinyl: It's just too good to pass up.
Cheers,
Geek
At about two-thirty P.M. on Sunday I showed up at his place. He has a small office with lots of audio equipment and supplies; I spent a few hours listening to stuff in this building. The first thing he did was stick in an old pressing of Ride of the Valkyries, a pretty well-known symphonic work.
Right off of the bat, I was impressed. The sound was clean, smooth, and more lifelike than I had ever heard before: the highs seemed to breathe a sigh of relief; there was no longer a distinct "bass," "mids," and "treble," but just plain music. Detail was excellent, and the tone of the trumpet was just excellent, much better than any CD or SACD I've heard on any source.
This was just a warm-up of things to come. I was at this point highly skeptical of vinyl, having never heard it before in my life, I had no idea what the overall outcome of this audition would be like. Our second album was some pink floyd.
In spite of the fact that the record was at least thirty years old, it sounded clean and above all more natural than I had expected. Having heard such remarks as "vinyl is a colored format" from some people, I wasn't expecting the neutral detailed presentation from this album.
A few minutes later, we fired up a pressing of Dark Side of the Moon. Todd said that he's been lucky finding recordings such as these; there is a wide variety of quality levels due to how people took care of their records.
I was skeptical for the first seconds of the introduction. The "pounding heart" bassline that is so recognizable lacked a bit of sparkle compared to my SACD setup.
And then it happened. The first voice entered, and set the standard for detail, blowing away the SACD and CD remaster of dark side of the moon (you know, "I've been mad for ********* years," etc). What was more amazing was how the introduction built up: It sounded more coherent and detailed than I had EVER heard it on digital. I could hear each and every individual voice or instrument, but the musical whole was surprisingly natural.
Things just kept getting better. I heard some really old stuff as well, and we also listened to a couple of audiophile pressings. Nora Jones was my favorite, especially the introduction, also some disco pressed on a '45 (can't remember the name of the group) but it's the first time I've heard excellent electronic-ish music.
When we plugged the HD600/cardas and my MOH(R) into Todd's analog setup, things just got better. Detail, decay, and texture were mind-blowingly realistic.
After much delight we finally hooked up my NS500V and Todd's Meridian to the MOH amp.
We directly A/B'd these two sources with the same equipment we had used to hear the records.
Surprisingly (or not, depending on your personal experiences) the meridian was o.k., but sounded grainy and "hashy," compared to the vinyl DSOTM recording. What I mean is, the high end exhibits a signature with digital, a sort of glare which never went away and drove me nuts after hearing the vinyl. The SACD player was also o.k., but the meridian performed better with CD. We agreed that the NS500V has some promise as a SACD player: it didn't sound like a $120-$200 player; it had more bang for the buck than was expected.
Let's go back a bit. Listening to track 3, "Time," the first one minute is where you can really start seeing the benefits of vinyl as a format. When the clocks and bells start going off all over the place, the vinyl setup made it sound eerily realistic: tone and texture was next to perfect. Imaging was also excellent, and detail was more lifelike than any digital format I've heard. When switching to the meridian, the sound was much less lifelike. Detail was all there, but the highs lacked much of the qualities exhibited by the vinyl recording. Mids were actuall more colored with the meridian/CD version. Switching to SACD, the sound was a tad hashier/brighter and we both thought it sounded tinny in comparison (its not easy for a $120 player to hold its ground to the 507 and a bluenote turntable though!).
However, the verdict remains: I just plain flat-out liked vinyl better. Not only did it have more detail, imaging, and balance, but it was just plain a hell of a lot more lifelike. Soundstage depth was better to boot, and the sound was dead-smooth, startlingly so with HD600s. There were no "bumps" in the frequency spectrum, as I had incorrectly expected. I have never heard cymbals sound so realistic, strings so organic, horns so piercing, etc. etc. The only thing better is live music, if only for the fact that you gain the visual perception of the performers and the feeling of intimacy which comes with being at a live performance. Let's just say the sound was all there with vinyl.
Of course, there are a few downsides. It's a bit more work maintaining a good collection of records, and you've got to take care of them to keep them sounding good over a long period of time. Also, there is the occasional pop or tick, which is a minor setback compared to the massive gains of the format itself.
I just canned my plan to go SACD, or any digital format for that matter. I'm going to sell my player pretty soon, and start hoarding the vinyl: It's just too good to pass up.
Cheers,
Geek
. Just thought it might be good to be aware of what a serious wallet-sucker it can be if you're not careful, didn't mean to bring ya down.
