Agree with most of these but I think your being a bit kind to B&W. Less of a cigarette paper more of a 13 Tog Duvet.

Which Audio Note product did you hear that you thought so little of? The UK made stuff and the Japanese stuff are very different.

guy sergeant wrote:

Which Audio Note product did you hear that you thought so little of? The UK made stuff and the Japanese stuff are very different.

Guy, I did not really was “thinking” about it. I just wrote down my very initial reaction to Sound produced by the different manufacturing houses, without rationalizing or judging. Also, although I am not a big fan of Audio Note (either one) but I do not think that the sound itself was something that forced me to feel the switch from a toilet paper to “ass utilizing manual”. Rather he reasons were the Hercules efforts of the AN owners and AN dealers to convince and persuade me that the Sound they got out of thier ANs was worth something.

Rgs,
Romy

| agree with your feline wariness with regard to torch bearing disciples of any given faith, be they believers in Altec, Audio Note or even Vitavox. In the case of Audio Note the fervour has often been exacerbated by the activities, pricing and proclamations of PQ. I have visited the Japanese factory and know Mr Kondo quite well. He is a quiet and humble individual not given to ranting about the merits of what he makes. Some of it, (the current speakers and some of the amplifiers) are in my view, not outstanding. Other items, (the big preamp, phono stage, cartridge, MC transformer, silver cables and largest power amps are exceptionally good.) They no longer make their best product (a field coil cartridge). If you ever see one of these for sale you should get it (or tell me where it is!)

There are still a few well engineered, correctly voiced audio products around but I agree that they are hard to find among the dross.

best regards,
Guy

guy sergeant wrote:

Some of it, (the current speakers and some of the amplifiers) are in my view, not outstanding. Other items, (the big preamp, phono stage, cartridge, MC transformer, silver cables and largest power amps are exceptionally good.) They no longer make their best product (a field coil cartridge). If you ever see one of these for sale you should get it (or tell me where it is!)

Well, you see, it is always difficult with Kondo products. I agree that some of his stuff is quite dead, another is more interesting. The problems is that it never was possible (at least for me) to perform any more or less objective evaluations without diving deep into the AN's paranoia that eagerly supported by the Kondo dealers and owners. I always was turned off by a high degree of hypo pro-Kondo enthusiasm that the Kondo-crusaders usually expressed.

I’m familiar with Kondo “big preamp” and it left me without interest. I do not care about his phono-stage, as I believe in the different phonostages. Kondo does have quite interesting cartridges and his transformers are fine when the transforms primary sees 1 Ohm. (Hey, any transformer will be happy to see such low impedance!) I do not think that anyone else dose such a low Ohms cartridges. If someone would do them, and without the foolish silver obsession that Mr. Kondo unfortunately deeply subscribe, then it would be very interesting. BTW, the Kondo cables, from my point of view, are Japanese-Lowther-orientated crap, I had them…

BTW, I do not think that it is difficult to get “some” Kondo’s products. I do not know where you are but there is 40 miles from me a US’s Kondo distributor and, am sure, that if you like something that Kondo “no longer make” than it always possible to get it.

Rgs,
The Cat

Can't say I share your abhorrence of all thing silver. My experiences have been somewhat different. I wouldn't however want to be accused of blinkered partisanship towards any particular brand though so I'll say no more about (some of ) the AN stuff. Can't say I share your fondness for either of the Koetsu or Shelter cartridges either (or especially the Denon 103!) None of these are top class in my humble opinion. We'll just have to agree to differ on them. I would however be interested to hear the ET transformer. What do you understand of their construction that makes them so well regarded? I see they were made in MA. Do you know the people involved / where they were wound etc?

Regards,
Guy

guy sergeant wrote:

Can't say I share your abhorrence of all thing silver. My experiences have been somewhat different. I wouldn't however want to be accused of blinkered partisanship towards any particular brand though so I'll say no more about (some of ) the AN stuff.

Actually, it is not my “abhorrence” of silver but just depressing facts about it’s sound. Believe me or not but I quite sensitive to detect silver’s presents in a playback system and there were many “bling” stories in the past…

Ironically, the presents of silver itself is not as bad (ET has some silver in it, Purist cables also do) but rather the designer’s stress of silver as an expressive tool is something that turns me off.  So far, and without exceptions, any manufacturing house that explicitly accented the value of silver within thier designs were failed short during my listening. In many instances I did not even know that some “pure silver” was used and I juts was commented that it sound like a silver-loaded… and here it were… it usually was the case. I have written in past, about all that silver paranoia the takes place in audio, but to recall it briefly here are just a few of my problems silver in sound:

1) Silver dehydrates sound. Pretend you have a certain sense of humidity of sound and pretend that this sense of humidity fluctuates with frequency. Silver dries upper bass and upper mid range and makes the sounds like the Sahara wind. The dryness itself is not the problem but the difference of sonic dryness within the frequency range is a highly annoying factor,
2) Silver wipes out the upper frequency information and substitute it with an artificial “presentation of high frequency screen” (sort of digitalized, micro-evented presentation that many people mistakably take as the evidence of “quality”). The “screen” does not sound like natural sound but rather as the presumptuous attempt to depicture the HF presents. This is why the “silverised upper frequency”, my hearing, are never properly integrated with the rest of the music.
3) 98% of silver cables that I heard artificially emphasized HF, not juts boost the amplitude but by injecting an accent that is a permanently damage music and is a non-curable audio effect.

There are many other problems with silver that sometimes might be attributed to adherent silver properties and sometime to the specific bad silver utilization. This all brings to the question of the questions: what is wrong with cupper?  Anyhow I have to note that I have seen some element that used some silver ingredients and blends to accomplish the specific purposed and it was fine. However, the situations when the companies and the individual people were stressing the “reimbursement” of silver-silver-silver usually juts did not sound appropriately. Furthermore all those people mostly turns out to be just holding the fashionable silver masks behind which was hidden a complete ignorance of the subject.  Besides, and it is quite interesting point: I know a guy who know very well how to work with silver and he affirms that by using the special precautions and with some expense it is possible to eliminate all known silver problems and make it sound like… cupper. This leads to the question that I asked before: what is wrong with cupper?

Rgs,
The Puss

guy sergeant wrote:

Can't say I share your fondness for either of the Koetsu or Shelter cartridges either (or especially the Denon 103!) None of these are top class in my humble opinion.

I sorry, I never was a fan of Denon-103. You may look at the thread:  http://www.goodsoundclub.com/TreeItem.aspx?postID=46. I do like the Shelter 901 a lot.

The Cat

guy sergeant wrote:

I would however be interested to hear the ET transformer. What do you understand of their construction that makes them so well regarded? I see they were made in MA. Do you know the people involved / where they were wound etc?

I am not qualified to judge what in the ET contraction made them to perform in the way they do. I can speak only about ET results and benefits. If you around Boston then feel free to stop by and I will be glad to demonstrate “how it works” I am not kidding: it is quite radical departure from any normal expectations from a step-up transformer - it is not only provide a gain but also it enriches each and single characteristic of sound. Yes, luckily to me they use to be made in MA, near Boston. I spoke with one of the guys who use to manufactured them and he told me that he did not wound them. I have no idea where it was done.

Rgs,
Romy

To my ears silver has a potential advantage over copper that unfortunately seems difficult to achieve. I've read that the advantage may come from the lower DC conductivity, and the problems from higher inductivity and skin effect, and lower internal damping. I believe the end result depends more on the implementation than the materials. However, with copper it is easier to get things right, while silver usually does more harm than good. Apparent detail is increased at the cost of bleached sound and boosted HF. I find "plain" silver works well only in the wiring and capacitors for my tweeters. As they cross at 12kHz the silver cannot mess up the rest of the spectrum. In this case it sounds more smooth and extended than copper, and I hear no integration problems.

Regards, Richard