iAUDIO IN BENGALURU-AUDIO YATRA CONTINUES

[rallynut]

@all,a small note here,the visual impact siva's setup has in his living/listening space was absolutely out of this world.most of us present would agree as to just how taken in i was with the way it presented itself.also,being able to dig in to some mouthwatering 'sindhi' grub courtesy of siva and his wife just made the little time we spent there,..sublime.of course there should be a mention that a setup like this inevitably is catering to a very niche clientile(money not an object types),so therein lies its usp and charm.my first 'high-end' experience,so an unforgettable experience indeed.cheers

@iaudio,awesome snaps,awesome indeed.

 

[ajay124]

@iaudio/rallynut/suri/saikat/santosh/stevieboy and everyone else in on the ride

All of you seem to have had a great time on the audio yatra.But reviews/side notes so far have been brief and sketchy.Catching up on work?Would love to have detailed impressions/pictures of equipment/room/music heard from everyone involved at different places including ARN/Absolute Phase.
As 'Every Picture tells a Story Honey', perhaps the Mods could consider a 'Photo Lounge' where members/dealers publish pictures of their hifi set ups with a brief mention of the equipment installed.
At times it would be nice to merely skim through pictures without reading 'words'.

 

[vinay]

The only problem with pictures is that we have to use the mouse to go towards the right by which the charm of pictures is reduced.

V.

rallynut and titus
very nice pics

 

[vinay]

Mr. Suri, so did you play the dvd player?

V.

the bangalore yatra is now a memory that i cherish -

 

[iaudio]

Vinay, i am very sorry about the inappropriate size of the pics. It was a mistake during conversion as I had hurriedly done it from Bangalore itself, where I was trying to make use of the better internet connection. I usually use flickr which has the option of changing image sizes even after we upload, this one doesnt!

 

[vinay]

In being a little away from your writing, please consider this link of documentary. A world beyond words.

Baraka (1992)

I found it out of the world, no dialogues, only video and music, which was given to me by Santosh.

I am sure you will like this video as i can understand some what your thought pattern. :licklips:

V.

At times it would be nice to merely skim through pictures without reading 'words'.

 

[iaudio]

@iaudio/rallynut/suri/saikat/santosh/stevieboy and everyone else in on the ride

All of you seem to have had a great time on the audio yatra.But reviews/side notes so far have been brief and sketchy.Catching up on work?Would love to have detailed impressions/pictures of equipment/room/music heard from everyone involved at different places including ARN/Absolute Phase.
As 'Every Picture tells a Story Honey', perhaps the Mods could consider a 'Photo Lounge' where members/dealers publish pictures of their hifi set ups with a brief mention of the equipment installed.
At times it would be nice to merely skim through pictures without reading 'words'.

Ajay, as you said, I think everybody is trying to catch up with pending work after the 'yatra'. I guess, its also because the rest of the guys are waiting for me to finish my posts and then start pouring in! Sorry for dragging things, will try to speed up. Moreover the thread doesnt show up in the new posts page. I have to request our Mods to look into that.
Photo lounge would be nice if attractively done, but I dont know whether it will happen since we have a Showcase your set up thread.
Enjoyed some of your cds at Suris place. Thanks for the great music.

 

[rallynut]

@iaudio/rallynut/suri/saikat/santosh/stevieboy and everyone else in on the ride

All of you seem to have had a great time on the audio yatra.But reviews/side notes so far have been brief and sketchy.Catching up on work?Would love to have detailed impressions/pictures of equipment/room/music heard from everyone involved at different places including ARN/Absolute Phase.
As 'Every Picture tells a Story Honey', perhaps the Mods could consider a 'Photo Lounge' where members/dealers publish pictures of their hifi set ups with a brief mention of the equipment installed.
At times it would be nice to merely skim through pictures without reading 'words'.

@ajay,the sketchiness in the worded impressions probably comes from the fact that most auditions were exactly that,..sketchy !!in a span of a day and a half,we managed to pack in so many rigs and combos that it was a logistical nightmare of sorts,blore traffic doing its bit to further make our lives difficult.

what i would like to say tho is,the purpose of this trip was more to ascertain the myriad variances in sonics offered in their different implementations and thereby to see if,..there was one setup out there which was absolutely mesmerising and did everything right .hence the one standard set of tracks used everywhere for comparisons.everyone has a different idea of whats hot/not,hence have to mention that impressions felt were as always,..subjective hyeah:.cheers

 

[GeorgeO]

AJajy

I think we have to give the 3 stooges(Oops, I meant the 40 thieves) the time for the write up. I was at a bit of disadvantage-first, my CD changer wasnt wired up to a primary system, and second I had a bunch of school friends over for dinner so I ultimately had to shoo the thieves out! Suri and I happened to go to the same school so intros were also made..

I more or less have stopped listening to CDs now, having ripped all of my music into my NAS, and play it back through my two SBs.

 

[iaudio]

Add to that the fact, that you get overwhelmed and sometimes your memory gets confused on what you heard where!
Next time, I am taking short notes, however presumptuous it might appear to be!
As rallynut said, we were doing our best to audition anything in bangalore that had a voice coil!

 

[santhosh]

In being a little away from your writing, please consider this link of documentary. A world beyond words.

Baraka (1992)

@Ajay and others: I know you guys are more into music than movies, but would still recommend this brilliant documentary, an absolute must see in High Definition. Mindblowing photography and great involving music.

@Goldenears aka iaudio: Waiting for the rest of the report mate.

 

[square_wave]

@all,a small note here,the visual impact siva's setup has in his living/listening space was absolutely out of this world.most of us present would agree as to just how taken in i was with the way it presented itself.also,being able to dig in to some mouthwatering 'sindhi' grub courtesy of siva and his wife just made the little time we spent there,..sublime.of course there should be a mention that a setup like this inevitably is catering to a very niche clientile(money not an object types),so therein lies its usp and charm.my first 'high-end' experience,so an unforgettable experience indeed.cheers

@iaudio,awesome snaps,awesome indeed.

Great to hear your comments on Sivas system. The only other system I have heard from the list in your audition is Sridhars offerings.

I love the way the EPs make music. I love the uncompressed way they can make music. The beauty of those speakers is that they take the room out of the equation. Wires and amplifier do not matter all that much for them to sing..Great speakers !

I have been listening to various versions of Sivas system for a few years now. His current system is very linear in design. And a very expensive design.
With good recordings of unamplified instruments and voices, the sound is startlingly neutral. This will be mostly classical. Western and Indian.

One thing with Sivas system is the massive differences you get to hear with recordings of great performances and of mediocre ones. The great ones transport you to the venue. It is startlingly real and you connect with the performance. With bad performances, you sit back and wonder what it is all about ! With systems which do a good job of all genres, this vastness in the differences is absent. They all sound more or less decent ! This aspect of Sivas system has always intrigued me.

Great to hear that you all had a great time.

 

[iaudio]

It was about 1030pm when we took our leave from Sivas residence. Tummy khush, I might add!
Stevieboy was ok with us coming at midnight for a listen( Hell, he didnt have much of an option, he was riding with us, he he!:lol Our Transporter Santhosh was very much game(Saikat retired, as it would be too long a commute, plus his bro was unwell) , so we decided to listen to Stevieboys rig the same day.
We reached there and Steven introduced us to his analog friends. His set up:
Source: project TT with Lyrita Phono stage
Amp: Lyrita SET amp with a plethora of tubes to roll!
Speakers: Lyrita Harmony Ones

Stevies set up

Lyrita amp and phono stage

Turn table

As our dear Vinay/Psychotropic would call it, a completely left set up! So Steve begins the process of cleaning the records, warming the toobs etc. We also get to see Bonds famous anti static gun and anti static gun!
He played Dire Straits: Sultans of Swing. The track started with usual pops and crackles and sounded quite veiled/dull. I have heard Dire straits LP on Rajivs TT set up with the same amp and I knew it could sound much cleaner.
As there was just little time before the clock struck midnight, Stevie was tripping over himself changing records and rolling tubes!
He played an Eddie Grant track and switched from Amperex to Telefunken tubes and the sound just opened up! It was beautiful and it did the same thing such set ups are known to do, make you just connect with the music and stop evaluating/analyzing etc
The vocals as expected were very good with sweet tone and the best part was that wherever you sat in the room you could place the vocals in the dead centre, no issues with imaging. But there was roll off on both ends of the spectrum and the soundstage was a bit narrow. I have to add that speakers were only about 4 feet apart.
The music was so soothing it put our Honda man Suri to sound sleep. Steven like Suri uses a mattress as room treatment but here Suri put it to use for its primary purpose.
The best part was seeing the love and affection with which Steven went through the whole routine of cleaning his records, changing his tubes, setting the tone arm etc. There was this look of contentment on his face which is what ultimately we are searching for. He played a lot of tracks which were new to me and I took a liking to. But sadly time was at a premium and we couldnt sample his Mullards either. :sad:
The clock struck 12 and we parted ways, and after dropping Suri and Rallynut at the club, I headed over with Santhol2 to his place to sample some more Avatar and music on his B&Ws.

The group at Stevies, from left to right, Santhol2 aka Santhosh, Stevie, iaudio aka Titus, Rallynut aka Dr.Kannan. Suri was behind the cam, hence absent in frame.

 

[rallynut]

stevie's vinyl/lyrita setup was the first occasion i had to listen to a TT with virens offerings for our indian sonic palate,and as iaudio remarked,one does tend to forget cables/recordings/soundstage/etc involved in the equation.the music is what u listen to,period .of course,the proverbial arguments(a given) would continue as to dynamics(micro/macro),rolled of ends of the musical spectrum,yada yada,but that would just mean nit-picking at details.am sure a lot of people out there need that in their lives,i for one have just tried to enjoy myself at every listen,with every rig sampled.

i was quite startled as to the difference once a tube had been 'rolled',and the rendition of the doors'(roadhouse blues) with the telefunken?(stevie,..??) was the best i've heard them sound anywhere.again,the available recordings for the doors have always been very mediocre at best,so was a good listen indeed.

well,here u have a scenario where different genres/recordings probably demand different tubes :lol:.thanks stevie,for the indulgence.cheers

 

[stevieboy]

i was quite startled as to the difference once a tube had been 'rolled',and the rendition of the doors'(roadhouse blues) with the telefunken?(stevie,..??)

Hi Rallynut!

Yup I think it was the Telefunkens. I wish we could have played the Mullards too but all tubes take bout at least 3 songs to sound a bit decent and the whole rig takes a hour to warm up, by which time you'll were out of the door. But I think you'll got a fair enough idea of a single driver and SET amp sound. Kannan's got it right, it's a setup more geared towards musical enjoyment rather than details like oh what a lovely treble ting or that bass note. Perfect summary.

Thanks for the lovely pics iaudio! Yup some records can sound good or terrible depending on the copy. The Dire Straits was an uncleaned record dug up from the archives at special request So probably Rajiv's got a better copy.

Great to have all you guys over and meet Titus, Kannan and Saikat for the first time!

Regards

 

[ajay124]

@Ajay and others: I know you guys are more into music than movies, but would still recommend this brilliant documentary, an absolute must see in High Definition. Mindblowing photography and great involving music.

@Goldenears aka iaudio: Waiting for the rest of the report mate.

Baraka seems to be the kind of movie I would love to watch on a big screen.Watching movies on an lcd/plasma(no matter what size and with whatever home theater set up) is for me a sleep inducing exercise.Which is why I watch less and less of cinema.Of course,if I get a chance to watch Bela Tarr's SATANTANGO,I would travel many many miles to watch it even on a netbook.Although I don't expect anyone to have it,I would request forum members,if they do,to enable others to view this film and also WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES by the same director.Ditto for Miklos Jancso's Red and White/The Round Up/Red Psalms(have viewed these).These films are about as far from Hollywood as you can go on this planet and therfore should be mandatory viewing for everyone.
IMDb comments on Satantango http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111341/usercomments

 

[iaudio]

Yep, as Stevie said it does depend on the LP. I have heard both Stevies amp and speakers separately at Rajivs and Bala's place and I have a fair idea of how potent they are. So no doubts regarding that.
Hopefully, we ll have more time keep em tubes warmed up next time around and also listen to the Mullards and 45 globes that you seem to love to bits!

 

[Spidey]

At last, got to see mugshots of you guys !

Suri was missing, though.

 

[GeorgeO]

Don't worry he wlil emerge soon. no doubt!

>Suri was missing, though.

 

[stevieboy]

Hopefully, we ll have more time keep em tubes warmed up next time around and also listen to the Mullards and 45 globes that you seem to love to bits!

Yup, that would be a proper audition, cos then things like bass smoothen out and tighten up a bit sounds less jagged. The 45 globes are something else. They deserve every bit of the reputation they've earned. Spread out soundstage, far more detail and vocals especially female are right in the room with you. Once warmed up they just reach out and grab you. Was listening to Julie London 'Besame Mucho' apple lossless file through airport express last night and her voice was right there. Whoever's got the 2A3 amp would do well to research the tube and save money for em. Infinitely more seductive and enthralling than the 45 ST tubes. If I looked content then, I'm probably grinning away like the village idiot right now!

Regards