fuwen

Hi! My favourite CD for testing system. String sonatas by Rossini. Performed by the very good Academy of St Martin-in-the-fields and their resident conductor Neville Marriner. A total of 6 string sonatas for 12 violins, and I believe 2 violas, 1 cello and 1 double bass. Written at the age of 12 and I am so surprise at what this young composer can do at that age! I like to use this for testing system as I can get violin, and especially cello and bass solos to check the system. Double bass had been given lots of solo part in the sonatas. These pieces are by no mean easy to play and need a first class ensemble to play them in the necessary precision. Total of 2 XRCDs and also includes works from Donizetti, Cherubini and Bellini. Recording of the violins are a tad harsh, not typical of DECCA but probably due to the age of the recording (1964 - 1968). I have seen the normal CD version available.

Recently came across this XRCD recording on percussion instrument. The English title is Rhythmize Heartstrings. It is a China production and manufactured in Japan. I do have a few audiophile percussion recordings but the problem with percussion is that I find it hard to continuous listening to them for half to an hour. I find listening to drums and percussion alone is quite tiring. However this particular recording to me is very refreshing. Firstly all recordings are new works. The scores are written in a light hearted way rather than very classical. Some of the arrangements even sound light and modern to me. Also many tracks do include a musical instrument other than the percussion instrument, e.g. piano, trumpet and etc. I particularly like track 3 'Earth and Sunshine'. I enjoy very much the combination of piano and percussion. The arrangement made the music sound very grand like the moment earth is from. Also I like track 4 'The hare and the tortoise' that famous tale we all know. The instrumentation protrayed the hare and the tortoise vividly and I was laughing all the way listening to this work. Another track I liked was track6 with a solo trumpet. The music is in fast pace and I find it good for testing system. I bought my copy at X-audio, Bukit Timah. Not sure the availability elsewhere but heard can also get at New Disc Village but apparently different packaging.

Was listening to this and find it easy to listen and recording was good. Mozart's Haffner Serenade and Serenata Notturna from Telarc, one of the reputable label for classical recordings. Written for small orchestra, the music is light and easy going. The Haffner Serenade has many violin solo in many of the movements. The Serenata Notturna is interesting as it is written for a string quartet (2 violins, viola and double bass) pitted against a small string orchestra with timpani. Very interesting insturment set up.

Interest check. Thinking of selling a set of East German made out of production Praktica camera equipment. BC1 body with body cap 20/2.8 CZJ 28/2.8 P 35/2.4 CZJ 50/1.8 P 50/1.4 CZJ 50/2.4 P 55/2.8 CZJ 80/1.8 CZJ 135/2.8 P 135/3.5 CZJ 300/4 CJZ angle finder magnifier eye cup macro tubes repro arm eye piece cap Bellow All for S$2800, only to sell as a set. In user condition but not in worn out state. Sell as-is but will ensure all items in working condition. Recommended for non-fussy Prakticar collector, or a serious beginner who wants conventional stuff. If you are interested PM me for more details. Thanks for reading.

IMHO HD650 is less laid back then HD600, the bass is tighter and less booming, but the highs are rolled off and actually not to my liking, but managed to solve with the Clou-red cable. Personally I think HD650 is better so it is on my home main rig and the HD600 is now in my office.

I do have problem unplugging the headphone cable connectors for the first time both for the HD600 and the HD650. Try with strength 2 fingers holding very tightly the cable plug and the other hand supporting the headphone(not the headphone head band!) firmly. i do not think need to resort to using pliers. Good luck! U may need at least 15 minutes of trial and error.

My speakers Grand Piano home perform much better (esp high frequency) with the cover off, convincely, to my taste. But I have to keep the cover on, otherwise when my 3-year old son and my 2-year old daughter see the speaker tweeters and drivers they will .....................

Still thinking about the Grace headamp HPC is offering ................

Hi all, below is the reply from Bryston on my preamp. " Dear Sir; Thanks for your recent inquiry. The connections you describe will result in absolutely no degradation in sound quality. The output of the Bryston BP-25 can drive even low impedances of less than 1000 Ohms without increased distortion. In fact, the output of the line drivers is used to drive headphones directly without altering the preamp's specifications. One thing to make sure of, however, is that none of the loads you describe should be powered 'off' when signal is being sent to the other loads. That could add distortion to the signal due to a nonlinear load. I hope the above is helpful, but please let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks for your interest and support for Bryston audio components! Sincerely, Chris Russell Bryston Ltd. "

Ha ha! Maybe my RCA splitter thread can solve your problem. To use the Spark as preamp your HT receiver need a pre-in. Not sure your receiver supports this. I am not a tube person so cannot answer your tube question. I ever asked an expert on SS pre and tube poweramp, the answer is yes you will get the tube characteristics.

Hi! Rameish, not that bad lah for the HA-2. In fact it is taking the signal from the tape out of the preamp. I have briefly compared preout and tapeout and found no difference (based on my ears, which are not that good in that sense). Why go through preamp is because I have 2 CDPs and one I prefer for redbook classical and the other for SACD. Why 2 outputs for SA14 because the balance mode of SA14 and the preamp have different standard so there is phase switch when using tape out. I can of course solve the problem by using preout but I opt for tape out for the HA-2. Anyway the switch box idea is interesting and will wait for your advice.

Oops! I need to check my system then. I am presently connecting both my SA-14 balance and RCA output to my preamp. Do not remember the SA-14 manual mentioned anything about using both the balance and RCAs output. Also I am connecting for my preamp, the balance outputs go to poweramp, one of the RCA outputs go to the tape player, and the tape out go to the HA-2 headphone amp.

Interesting. I was trying to add a bank account in paypal for withdrawal of money. From the info asked it seems they are asking for a bank account rather than credit card account. For those who have done this did u all key in the credit card number as the bank account number?

The answer is interesting. Just wondering what is going to happen if connect 2 CDPs to 1 amp and both CDP is playing at the same time.... the inputs add up and the amp will output rubbish?

Not sure has this been posted before....... If I were to use a RCA splitter, is it recommended to use on the source (1 source go to 2 amps) or on the amp (2 sources to 1 amp with source selection)? My guess is 1 source to 2 amp.

I was trying to figure out how to cash out money from paypal and now finally get the answer. But about the adding of bank account, not sure can POSB be the bank account. Not sure how a US base paypal can transfer money to a local Singapore bank accout?

PreserveIt is something new to me. Rameish, where to get this? Can u elaborate more on this? Does the progold damage the non-gold plated connectors or they are not effective for non-gold plated connectors?

Butterfly lovers by Philips The recording was horrible! For once something that is unacceptable by me. So u should only get this one if u like the performers or the performance.

I am a SACD supporter and has been collecting SACDs since 2002. I am using SA-14 for SACD playback at home and Philips 963SA for SACD playback at office. Most SACDs that are made from new recordings are in multi-channel format. However there are lots of SACD that are remastered from old recordings and they are likely to be in 2-channel format but some are remastered into multi-channel format also. IMHO it does not defeat the purpose for using SACD for headphone listening as I felt that it is still a superior format even playing back in 2-channel mode. My personal experience is the difference between the SAME recording in SACD mode and red book mode can easily be heard (but I must agree that it took almost a year for me to be able to do so, as I am not a critical listener as far as A/B equipment is concerned). The biggest difference, based on my experience, is that the frequency extension at both ends, and especially for percussion instrument and piano, they sound much more realistic than red book. Also for vocal in the mid range SACDs sound more relax and natural. However, I think it is fair only if we are comparing XRCDs with SACDs. I still think SACD is superior but I know there are people out there think otherwise. Anyway SACD nowadays are cheaper than XRCDs. About the price increase justifiable, at this point of time I still think SACDs are more for audiophile rather than for a normal listener. I do not think that in the near future it will replace the much cheaper redbook CDs unless it can be sold at that kind of price. Also although the SACD titles have really increased tremendously but redbook is still much more. Also I believe SACDP will not play back red book as good as conventional CDP at the same price. As for 963SA, IMHO it is a very good player for that price. Can already hear the difference in SACD mode (but slightly lacking in dynamics and transcient) but certainly just an average performer when play back red book CD, even with the audio direct function and 192kHz up sampling. It is a good SACDP and DVDP but if you are fussy about sound u may need another CDP for redbook CD playback. It has been mentioned in other thread in this forum, that in the end it is still the recording source that will affect the CD performance. So u can get rubbish recordings even for SACD and personally I have one of such SACD.

Was revisiting my Mahler and Shostakovich collection of symphonies lately. I mentioned about Mahler before but I think after listening to them this round I felt that although Mahler's stuff are by no means simple and easy to understand, they are actually not that difficult after all. He liked to integrate songs into his symphonies but in fact after his symphony no.4 most of them are pure music without vocal performance (the 5, 6, 7, 9 and the unfinished 10. 8 is the exception). Here I would like to recommend the Mahler Symphony no. 1. Also is to recommend this series of 'Great Composers' budget recording by DECCA. You get the great performance of most of the important symphonies at very good price. I am not sure the availability of these at Towerrecords, HMV and etc but I bought all mine from Popular CD RAMA. Notice out of the 15 Beethoven already occupied 4 (Symphony no. 3, 5, 6 and 9).

I have the following information: SONY D-555 16bit linear, 8fs digital filter Technics SL-XP300 8 times over sampling, 18 bit digital filter I am not electrical or signal processing by training and so do not know what they mean and with reference to today's 24 bit player I do not know are we talking about the same thing or are comparing apple to apple.

WTW, I dun think many people in SLS selling the 4-pin XLR. I got mine from the shop Coastal Electronics, few shop away from Hungs Brothers, a shop selling lots of funny connectors and switches. I got my Neutrik 4-pin XLR for $5.70 and Neutrik 1/4" TRS headphone plug for $5.

Depending on the source. If u are using CDP direct or through the tape out of a preamp then for me the HA-2 volumn is at about 80% position. I am a person who do not like heavy bass and most of the time listening to classical music so bass is not a problem to me. Anyway, to me the bass of K1000 is adequate and accurate. The ear speakers of K1000 is adjusable so if u tilt them towards your ear then you will get more bass. This may not be your last AKG, depends whether they are comming out a AKG K2000 or .......

BTW, you need to run in the K1000 for at least 300 to 500 hours using normal music.

You can also use the cable provided by AKG to connect your K1000 directly to the speaker binding posts of a integrated amp or a power amp. I do not think any body in Singapore sell headphone jack adaptor for K1000. The K1000 uses a 4-pin XLR connector. You can get in SLS to DIY for yourself. 4 pins because they are positive and negative for left and right channels. Over the headphone jack, you need to solder the left positive and right positive to the respective tip and ring and solder both the left and right negative together to the sleeve of the headphone jack. Of course to do this u need a total of 4 wires. There are some headphone amp out there in the market that accept the 4-pin XLR from K1000 but I have no information on those. Enjoy your K1000. They are really special!