That the High End as we know it today has turned into some kind of a circus, or even worse some kind of medicine show in this case, the snake oil being $1000 power cords, cabling products for the sytem costing as much as the rest of the system. I guess the ultimate outrage is that priced out of reach product from the 50’s & 60’s, the now "obsolete"!!!! (Mac & Marantz tube tech stuff) comands prices 5 times higher than it sold for back then. However, refurbish these relics (new caps,new resistors) and they embarass much new equipment with high end pretenses. At least I can afford to buy the old stuff today, because its priced very competetively with today's over priced so called high end.

HOW DO I GET WHAT I WANT AT THE RIGHT PRICE?
IN ORDER TO REACH THIS GOAL SEVERAL APPROACHES CAN BE USED.
a. THE DIY ROUTE.
b. THE UPGRADE ROUTE.
c. THE VINTAGE ROUTE.

d. Check out internet & print rescources such as Listener Magazine (which helped re-establish my interest in affordable high end and piqued my interest in D.I.Y.). (sadly now defunct).
Also Positive Feedback webzine (formerley print) also there at the start with Listener and the plethora of DIY oriented web sites of which (John Meluish's hm.pge. and Single Driver web site) are just two among many.

SYSTEM EVALUATION-....TWEAKS


I've compiled a list of CDs. that I used to evaluate the resolving power of my audio system. One of the things I noticed while doing critical listening is; that I hate to do critical listening. I prefer listening for the spiritual effect(affect). Any of the changes that I've noticed have usually come about over the course of a few hours or even days of listening. I'll decide to go back to the original set up and that seems to be the acid test. I'll hear almost immediately if something is missing from or added to the sound.
Sound Stage depth & width MOBY..... PLAY.... I LIKE TO SCORE ...MORCHEEBA..... BIG CALM...ROGER WATERS IN THE FLESH
..both SACD & std. CD versions.
Imaging, LEONARD COHEN-The Future.
MICRO-DYNAMICS…SINATRA AT THE SANDS 1966 & MOBY....PLAY

……. MOBY..... PLAY.... I LIKE TO SCORE ...ALSOOOOOOOO MORCHEEBA..... BIG CALM
I think sound staging or a lack of has a lot to do with the system we choose, and the music we listen to. My choice of speakers is, as you know single driver, co-axial, dual concentric, for the obvious reason, sound radiating from a point scource is less likely to have time delay & phase problems than a speaker with remotely mounted tweeters and woofers.
I am not well educated with the scientific reasons why one speaker type sounds better than another but I think that to throw a sound stage a speaker needs to be able to image first. I think too that imaging and sound stage are a function of how the whole stereo system interacts, most important is whether the sound stage info is included in the recorded medium, or is it an artificially introduced coloration, from the system itself. Whatever it is it's interesting to listen to when its there and done properly.
What does done properly mean. I think for example that the sound stage presented on the discs mentioned above (specifically MOBY & Morcheeba) are some kind of studio ambience effects, that in the case of these recordings are tastefully used.

ROGER WATERS IN THE FLESH...both SACD & std. CD versions.
The experience I spoke of before, that of Hal's voice seeming seeming to come from my immediate left raises the issue of sound stage depth . Imagine sitting in the sweet spot (with Tannoys it's quite wide) approx 6-8ft. from the speakers. Now without moving your body fold your left arm over your solar-plexus, watch face turned up. Note the 10:00 position; now connect an imaginary line between 10 o'clock and 4 o'clock; after extending the imaginary line out to towards the left unfold your left arm along the imaginary line and extend your index finger; that is where Hal's voice seemed to be coming from. Surround sound anyone? 
As I've said before soundstaging & imaging can be colorations of our equipment. With the system I have, I seem only to get sound stage depth if it's present in the music. I really think God smiled on me when "we" put this system together.


MOBY PLAY for instance, on the track titled PORCELAIN, and especially on the track titled RUSHING, are good examples of this, when my eyes are closed the illusion of a much larger space is startling. Even Moby's early recordings have this effect on some of the tracks.
In the case of Roger Waters IN THE FLESH on the track titled PERFECT SENSE (PARTS I AND II) the voice of HAL on my system seems to be coming from 10 o'clock but about 3ft. from my left arm, startling to say the least. The concept of the monkey from 2001-A Space Odyssey.......The female vocalist who sings the lyrics "and the Germans killed the Jews, and the Jews killed Arabs, and the Arabs kill the hostages,and that is the news"...............ends off with...."and they gave him command of a nuclear submarine and sent him off in search of the Garden of Eden."
I don't know what happened that day, the way Roger Waters presents that package brought me to tears and I'm not talking about a small leak from the corner of my eye. Every time I heard it after that I got a little less teary eyed and now my top lip just quivers a bit when I play it. Roger Waters - what an awesome talent. When I saw a copy of in the flesh in SACD format I of course had to have it. Yes it definitely is better, how much better I don't know. I could be very happy with the PCM version if I lost the SACD... Sorry!!!
We're discussing imaging and soundstaging not comparing recording technology.

LEONARD COHEN-The Future. Last of all let's discuss imaging. Before I did any of the tweaks discussed above, my system consisted of Tannoy D/50s( 8"poly-prop cone Dual Concentric Driver) driven by a stock DYNACO ST-70, program coming from a cheap Denon 5 disc CD changer from it's variable output, volume adjusted by remote. Using Leonard Cohen THE FUTURE as my set up disc I was able to make frugal use of some sound absorptive foam and positioning my speakers 4ft.out from the back wall, slight toe in 26" off the side walls. Leonard was placed perfectly in the middle but seemed to be suspended 5ft. in the air and slightly behind my equipment shelf, when I was seated in my chair.
I've noticed that with my TANNOY ROYALS that he's sitting noticeably lower and a little more forward in the room. I was told that the height effect was a result of an interaction between the floor and the Tannoy D/50s. While they are 36" tall when sitting in my chair the cones centers are below ear level. The fact that my Tannoy Royals are mounted in taller cabinets seems to bear this theory out.

MICRO-DYNAMICS……… SINATRA AT THE SANDS 1966----MOBY....PLAY
My experience with the brand X cable I talked about under listening experiences is a case in point. It was definitley an improvement over the cheap factory interconnects with my CD player. The disc I used to compare the wires Wally made for me and the brand XXXX was a CD of an original analog recording of SINATRA AT THE SANDS WITH COUNT BASIE AND THE ORCHESTRA. This was recorded in 1966 on location live on analogue equipment. On the back of the CD they apologise for the outdated equipment used on the original recording. Thank God they didn't screw up the anolog to digital transfer. The details hidden in the bytes of this Cd never cease to amaze me.
On most studio recordings there's a definite space between cuts, on live recordings this is usually not the case. However crowd noise is usually filtered back somehow. On this record they didn't seem to filter out as much. I guess that's one of the limitations of the analogue process they were complaining about on the back of the CD. (most likely a function of the way the orchestra was miked) After each song you can hear people coughing, dishes clattering, knives forks and glasses clinking, the ambient sound of 2000 people in a large Las Vegas night club.
If you close your eyes you can almost imagine you're there. Then the orchestra hits the opening notes of I'VE GOT YOU UNDER MY SKIN and nirvana. With my original system (S/S) you could barely hear the ambient sound between songs on this CD. It was after Walter modified my Denon CD changer (with factory vol. cntrl.) by upgrading the op-amps on the board with higher quality units, that when listening (arbitrarily maybe serendipitously) to Sinatra that the phenomena noted above was more pronounced. From then on I made a mental note to use this record as an evaluation tool for the micro-dynamic capability of my system.