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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2021 11:35:33 GMT
Small anecdotes (which don't make data but do make for fun) about the trials and tribulations of buying gear.
I bought online from Germany the new Cyrus XR amplifier. There are of course lots of adventures with goods crossing borders, duties to be payed and obeyed.....never ending delays, courier damage and just the sheer mental distress of waiting and looking forward to caressing the new object of desire. In this case the new Cyrus XR. I had seen all the company videos - a short sharp series from Cyrus. Cool and Collected and read the few review articles on the net. All good. Almost revolutionary.
Let's start with the color. It was a new black. A new black? I remember in art school (well compulsory art classes in school, when I had explained that I couldn't draw nothink), where the teacher promised us a million quid if we could find a new colour. (I took him up on it, but never won). But Cyrus - you got it - a new black. Sort of blacker than black black. I couldn't wait to get my eyes on it. (Well actually I did have to wait.....)
And then there was all the new density of engineering in your favourite shoebox. And external power supplies (costing about the same), but luckily not available at the time of purchase. Dream on addict. And the display was no more the old familiar Cyrus electronic ink, but a thoroughly modern display. Sexy. The future has already begun, starting here.
Eventually it arrived (after much email correspondence) and it looked nice. The black was well actually just sort of ordinary black but definitely not white nor purple. The display was a set of fuzzy looking pixels - easily read but strangely disturbing to the eye.
Next problem was attaching the speaker wires to the amp. Who has invented that idiocy? Neither spades nor bananas are invited to this party. Adapters are provided, but my goodness they are fiddly and stick out and totally unnecessary if the company had just used normal terminals.
One hour later I start the thing up. No sound. Different cables....No sound. Different DAC. No sound. Different computer. Ah. Sound. Turn up the volume. No sound. Two seconds later - sound. Turn down the volume. No sound. Two seconds later - sound. Repeat.
And I think - This is not much fun now, is it?
Try touching the volume button. Increase pressure. No sound. Release pressure. Two seconds later sound.
Fiddling with the volume also periodically results in accidentally triggering one of the touch buttons that does something else.
So all in all I listened to a couple of tracks, and I thought. No way. This is going back.
All the reviews I read were very positive. All the pictures I saw were very delicious. No reviewer had the problems I had.
Conclusion
Love lasts no longer than the act of acquiring.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2021 13:03:59 GMT
And while walking the dog I remembered receiving my present amp - Le Lavardin. That also took time and wasn't actually the one I ordered and it rattled, when I took it out of the box.
Now - according to my school French this company makes things to last af lifetime (maybe two), employs one man in a garden shed with a pipe, who makes the things, and a master og disguise who "sells" them and is the old partner of the now deceased guy who designed it. Nobody really understands what the deceased guy said and did and the company apparently tried to keep it a secret that he was dead. The essence of le distorsion de la mémoire.
So with fears of this unknown rattling thing shorting things out I decided to open this pristine new amp up. Not something I do lightly. And almost not something I could do at all. The very elegant French screws did not respond to my star screwdriver, my Allen key or a flat screwdriver. With much huffing and puffing and an old plastic toothbrush I whiled away an hour of my life until I got the lid off. And what fell out? A little plastic spiral otherwise used to cover what looks like som naked wires.
One hour later and the lid was back on and tightly secured.
And as Lavardin says no burn-in time, no exotic cables, no warm-up.
Conclusion
Nothing's perffect.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2021 19:04:47 GMT
Did I ever tell you about the time I bought a pair of Jbl speakers online? A new set at a wonderful price. Made in China - but you know; feel the width.....
I rushed over to a friend and told him. Showed him the online shop and the pictures. "No you didn't," he said. "Yes I did". "Nope. You bought ONE loudspeaker at that price."
WHAT!?
How can you sell a pair of loudspeakers one at a time?
I rang the firm and talked to a friendly chap at an Indian call-center. He didn't understand me, and I didn't understand him. So I ended up paying double price for my set. Surprisingly they did arrive at the same time. And boy. Were they duds. Saxophones sounded like trumpets. Sometimes there was bass and sometimes there wasn't. I rearranged the room so many times but all to no avail until I began to feel like Gene Hackman in The Conversation. So I promised myself to never buy JBL again.
Which worked until a friend, who designed speakers for JBL made me his own set. And they were very intimate café speakers. After a year I realized that I never played Rock.
So I was invited over to his place. When he moved, he rebuilt his garage to house his HiFi. Air-conditioning, cinema seats with a 3D home-cinema built in. The first time he turned on the set all his neighbour's lights went out. See, his loudspeakers required 38 amplifiers to be turned on. He had 5 subs firing into your spine. All the cabling was silver and they cost a good deal more than my wedding ring. They played loud and clear and presented a clear and present danger to everyone's hearing. Luckily he used hearing aids himself.
We have a nice hobby. Don't we now?
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Post by electronumpty on Oct 2, 2021 20:02:15 GMT
"Saxophones sounded like trumpets."
I like the cut of your jibe, welcome and more ponderimgs from you please🙂
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2021 3:34:41 GMT
Have y'all read Herb Reicherts's new article about a Lautsprecher that costs 10 times as much as his (and my) Gold Badge? I like Herb. He is a poet and a mensch. He has lived in a fire station, a houseboat and a bunker. He toured America in an old Mercedes and panhandled the real Audio Note. For ten whole years he turned his back on HiFi and thrived with an old set ls3/5a's and a Creek amplifier. He only came back cos no-one bought his paintings and he had 10$ left in the bank. JA took pity on him. He is probably Stereophile's star writer. That man sells cold cakes like... well... hot cakes. This time he hooked us in by expressing an honest skepsis: Would these fine lautsprechers sound 10 times better? He didn't think so.
But by the end of the article, by God, he really thought they did.
Conclusion: Perception is everythink. Dependent on what hat you have on, you get yourself an hattidude. Look at those guys who have the small red hats on. They have hattitudes. They don't want to have a shot in the arm. They don't want things stolen from them. They are convinced they are right, but they don't notice that they are being surveilled and weighed by Suckerberg's army of eyes (and the red hats do make it easier). Stereophile and Facebook are but Trade Publications selling the sizzle, the snap, crackle & pop of the oligarchs.
My gold badges are 10 times better.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2021 6:44:44 GMT
So I'm trying to sell my JBL's. It's not going very well. I keep getting asked how they measure and how big my room is..... The asking price is about a tenth of what an equivalent would cost in the shops. But no one's buying. I have a wee suspicion, I'm doing something wrong.....
1. I can't remember how they measure.
2. I didn't understand how they measured.
3 The guy who built them is sleeping. Permanently.
4. All loudspeakers measure sort of iffy....
5.Jbl is a cult for gitty, nostalgics who thing Classic Rock deserves the West Coast Sound.
So I have tried answering -
"Mere facts make for factual men. Come along and listen to them. I'll provide the beer/coffee/tobacco."
"Take your own measuring pin with. I'll provide the test tones."
"I'm not selling these Classic Loudspeakers to a measuring hound. Piss off."
So far no one has turned up.
Conclusion:
I am putting the price up. What you pay for is what you get (WYPFIWYG). What giddy creatures we are.
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Post by macca on Oct 3, 2021 6:49:39 GMT
Which JBLs are they?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2021 7:01:08 GMT
This reminds me of the time I tried to buy a Kenwood KA 8006.  I just loved those knobs. Strangely enough I never actually use the knobs, but there was a time I felt like a jet fighter pilot just looking at them. So I contact the seller. Asked him how it sounded and whether he could put some realistic loudspeaker terminals on the back. He replied very teutonically, that he never told people how things sounded, and he was deeply insulted that I would ever ask him to desecrate a true Classic. This amp would never be sold to me. Conclusion. Seller's market and we are the marks. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2021 7:09:08 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2021 7:22:43 GMT
 And before you ask Macca....The amp in the picture was a Urei 6260. About 400 watts and many many kilos. Made a terrible bang each time I turned it off. Couldn't live with it. |
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Post by macca on Oct 3, 2021 7:55:07 GMT
I'm familiar with Urei.  Switch-on thumps have never bothered me personally but can understand how a lot of people find them disconcerting. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2021 8:18:46 GMT
It wasn't a thump. It was thunder. It was Armageddon. I would gauge around 100 db. I tried to get the fault repaired - but it didn't work. And I have a suspicion that it was the passive pre-amp I was using at the time, that just was unsuited to this amp. I actually liked the amp. Mosfet transistors have a nice, soft sound, and like the proverbial tank it just ignored all these modern lifestyle products with a dignified nonchalance.
Conclusion:
Should have kept it.
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Post by macca on Oct 3, 2021 8:47:46 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2021 9:15:12 GMT
Oh. Dear Heart. It is all a flutter.
I suppose that's what friends are for......
Zig
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2021 10:27:05 GMT
Y'all know the farming legend of ducklings mirroring onto the first pair of Welly Boots they see and from then on following those feet around. Well, something like that happens in HiFi too. If we are to become audio-nuts, we have to imprint on something or other, the original Event, the Fall - and that becomes our Guiding Light. The northern star of our quest. The measure of all things good. I started out with the same amp for 25 years. It played music and I didn't know I was listening to sound. I had a friend, who had big amps, big speakers, big music and big sound. This actually made no impact on me at all - until that day he bought this:  And BANG. I imprinted. This is the most beautiful sound machine in the world. The Luxman L-550. 50 watts of pure Class A. (Which of course we know today not to be true). There it was. Hook. Line. & Sinker. I think there was about another 20 years before I actually got one. And what a disappointment. The dream did not come true. They never do. It just sort of stood there and looked old and tired and abundantly unnecessary. It was the GAP, the LACK.....hitting me hard. No thing ever fills the GAP. Our drive to fulfillment never reaches its goal. Cherchez l'ampli. It is the same sickness as looking for the woman. I still tremble when I hear the word Luxman. I have owned a lot of vintage Luxmen. But there was only ever one, that did it for me. The humble L30.  That one was nice. I sold that one as a package deal, when I could not sell my NAD 3020 alone. Now that was stupid. But ducklings following welly boots is also stupid. Conclusion: There is No Hope. There is no Guru. No Method. No Teacher. And No Plan B. |
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Post by karma67 on Oct 3, 2021 13:00:20 GMT
Y'all know the farming legend of ducklings mirroring onto the first pair of Welly Boots they see and from then on following those feet around. Well, something like that happens in HiFi too. If we are to become audio-nuts, we have to imprint on something or other, the original Event, the Fall - and that becomes our Guiding Light. The northern star of our quest. The measure of all things good. I started out with the same amp for 25 years. It played music and I didn't know I was listening to sound. I had a friend, who had big amps, big speakers, big music and big sound. This actually made no impact on me at all - until that day he bought this: And BANG. I imprinted. This is the most beautiful sound machine in the world. The Luxman L-550. 50 watts of pure Class A. (Which of course we know today not to be true). There it was. Hook. Line. & Sinker. I think there was about another 20 years before I actually got one. And what a disappointment. The dream did not come true. They never do. It just sort of stood there and looked old and tired and abundantly unnecessary. It was the GAP, the LACK.....hitting me hard. No thing ever fills the GAP. Our drive to fulfillment never reaches its goal. Cherchez l'ampli. It is the same sickness as looking for the woman. I still tremble when I hear the word Luxman. I have owned a lot of vintage Luxmen. But there was only ever one, that did it for me. The humble L30. That one was nice. I sold that one as a package deal, when I could not sell my NAD 3020 alone. Now that was stupid. But ducklings following welly boots is also stupid. Conclusion: There is No Hope. There is no Guru. No Method. No Teacher. And No Plan B. oh yeah well who sang 'she said' then? i love the rosewood on the luxman
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2021 17:17:46 GMT
Did the Who sing "She said"?
Never knew that.
But I suppose that guy had to steal it from somewhere.
Zig
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Oct 3, 2021 17:27:10 GMT
Did the Who sing "She said"? Never knew that. But I suppose that guy had to steal it from somewhere. Zig The Beatles. On Revolver. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2021 17:50:41 GMT
Oh!
I thought that that was "She said she said"
But maybe there was just a scratch in the groove.
Zig.
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Oct 3, 2021 18:07:56 GMT
Oh! I thought that that was "She said she said" But maybe there was just a scratch in the groove. Zig. You could be right! There was another one by a British guy....I believe he was in the Sweeney remake with Ray Winston. Can't remember his bloody name. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2021 18:10:05 GMT
You could be right!?
You mean about the scratch or the stuttering?
Zig
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Post by karma67 on Oct 3, 2021 18:20:50 GMT
Oh! I thought that that was "She said she said" But maybe there was just a scratch in the groove. Zig. You could be right! There was another one by a British guy....I believe he was in the Sweeney remake with Ray Winston. Can't remember his bloody name. thats what my comment was about in the first place lol, zig at the end of his post said there was no plan b hence my comment who sang 'she said' which was the name of the group plan b. keep up oli! lol |
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Oct 3, 2021 18:23:03 GMT
You could be right! There was another one by a British guy....I believe he was in the Sweeney remake with Ray Winston. Can't remember his bloody name. thats what my comment was about in the first place lol, zig at the end of his post said there was no plan b hence my comment who sang 'she said' which was the name of the group plan b. keep up oli! lol Ah.....sorry mate. Worked today and its knocked me out. First Sunday for 3 years 🤣 |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2021 18:23:15 GMT
On second thoughts - Lets keep it a mystery.
This is all beginning to feel like there was no Plan A either and my brain is shouting:
I scream
You scream.
We all scream
Ice cream.
Don't say it cos then you will need to repeat it....and well jelly beans for breakfast.
Zig
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Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2021 4:55:21 GMT
Not many people know this, but an addict's brain is broken. An addict believes what his brain tells him....
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Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2021 5:31:58 GMT
Like when a heroin addict well on his way to recovery and enjoying making plans (A B & C) for the future, suddenly announces that he has been cheated. Cheated from enjoying his last fix, because he didn't know it was his last fix, when he took it. So the new plan D was to take the last fix with the full knowledge, that it was the last one, so he could cheerfully carry on with plans A B & C and not be a bitter but recovered addict. He believed this so much, that he did it. About 4 hours later he had a new plan, yes he wanted to be an addict again. Just for today.
I mention this because I forgot to tell you that I had two Luxman L 30's. The reasoning was very simple. This was my last amplifier ever, so it would be best to have two of them. Right?
Wrong.
Because now that I had two, I could sell one of them and buy a completely new amp, whilst still having my last amp ever. Clearly no harm in that. And no swindle.
So I bought a new Luxman L550AXII Klasse A. With a little bit of mathematical dexterity this gives 30 watts Class A and 100 watts Class A/B. Completely unimportant and almost imaginary figures, when you own the thing but fuel for the addiction when drooling about it. This is one ugly beast. And an addict never gets all the information, before executing the no-plan B.
Everyone knows that Class A gives a sweet no distortion sound. (Which of course just means that we have been reading and believing too much propaganda from the Trade Presses, that keep the winter fires burning also in the middle of summer.) This beast sounded terrible. Different reviewers gave it different time ranges before it comes on song (so to speak). This varied from 30 hours to 90 hours to a month where radical changes and improvements suddenly appear as if from nowhere (forgetting the drudge of listening to bad music). I diligently played my music. It all sounded drab and unlistenable, which a couple of reviewers also described. Waiting for Godot I continued exploring the internet and suddenly one day I discovered on a cache that Luxman (those tricky Nippon people) recommended 700 hours of burn in.
I sold the bugger the next day.
Conclusion
Draw your own conclusion. But know that it already and always will be biased towards the self-interest of the addict part of your brain (She who must be obeyed.)
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Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2021 7:06:02 GMT
And then there are VU Meters & Wives.....
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Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2021 7:35:02 GMT
VU meters and wives belong to the SNAFU department of life (so to say).
They have quire a lot of things in common. Sort of like promoting the desire but hampering the performance.....
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day
Thou art more lovely and more temperate
Rough winds dost shake....
Translated into modern English, it would be
Her name was Louise
And she aimed
to please...
You get the message, eh....
Comparisons are evil.
I have a friend whose wife regularly says, "You are very quiet Jim. Are you going to be buying a new piece of HiFi?" And he says, "No no. I'm just looking." And she laughs her evil laugh.
It is reported that Jeff Beck's wife (or girl friend) said to him, "You gotta choose. Either the guitar or the heroin. Not both or no me."
Now every man with serial experience of the fair sex, knows that what his wife is talking about is neither guitars, drugs nor gear. She's talking about herself. Wives are jealous of our passions. They want them only for themselves.
It's like when the wife asks, "Is that microphone on?" and you reply, "Not any more, dear. You just talked over the feed."
Vu meters are sexy. Vu meters flutter and wiggle. Vu meters promise the promised land. As do wives.
But. (And there is always a butt in these affairs of the heart.)
They both distract. Grievously. From the serious business of listening to music.
"Stop banging the pots, dear, I'm llstening to Ozzy."
Fluttering VU meters in the mags tell you that you will be the master of the universe. Sitting in the hot spot, they don't tell you anything. At all. Then you switch them off. (Wives don't really have this button - at least not that you know where it is. But they know where and when to use it.) And you look at those now dull and turgid windows and think - better turn them on then. And then you switch them off again. This happens with our wives too.
And then in both cases they say, "You're very quiet again, Jimmy," and sweetly ask, "Anything wrong?".
Conclusion:
Nancy Regan was America's best President. She used astrology to guide the football and bravely said, "Just say NO".
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Post by misterc on Oct 4, 2021 8:38:38 GMT
Zig, Please do start a proper blog "Vintage the boomerang years" so many guys would secretely like the harking back to yester year and could relive their youthful dreams through your great exploits you would strike a chord with a quite a few here. Your mental dexiterity and subversion for early 70's illiminated analogue movement signal voltage meters, may cause a few fellows to juice thier silkies with anticipation of the the next exciting chapter! With the sheer number of quality vintage pieces of equipment that have passed through your hands possibly a side blog. An old sKool reference database 'Zig's Leg-ends', genuinelly a lot of over 45's would appreciate the time and retro - reviews of these rare audio legends. Thought for the day "Conclusion: Nancy Regan was America's best President. She used primate control techniques to steer Ronnie 'Ray gun' to even great feats of world stage awareness:
"Round em' up' put em' in a field, and bomb the bastards" You do put a smile on the faces of the chaps in the lab zig, keep up the good work! |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2021 9:10:00 GMT
Another good Nancy quote coming up....
Miles Davies was invited to a White House Dinner. He was sitting beside Nancy. Breaking the ice Nancy asked him, "Mr. Davis. What have you done to make your presence here at our little soirée?" This is the American equivalent of saying - What's a *Racism will not be tolerated* like you doing in a place like this? Go away. But Miles was cool. "Well, I've probably invented 5 different schools of Jazz Music. You know, the only Art America has ever invented. But do tell. It is Nancy, isn't it? What have you done to make you famous, Nancy - other than fucking the President?"
I don't know what Nancy replied, but I imagine it was along the lines of. "You are a Scorpion, Mr. Davis. Of course you are. I knew it immediately. You have Jupiter in the ascendent and Mars in the descendent. It doesn't end happily for you Mr. Davis. And now I know who you are. You are that guy on the saxophone on Saturday Night Live. Disgusting programme. Ronny and I never watch it."
Zig
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