OFF: What hi-fi equipment do you use to listen to Hawkwind?

[Filip Vanhuyse]

I'm only saying one thing about turntables:

LINN SONDEK LP12

That's all folks,but I don't mention the price.

greetings filip


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Doug Pearson" <jasret at MINDSPRING.COM>
To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET>
Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 2004 9:44 PM
Subject: Re: OFF: What hi-fi equipment do you use to listen to Hawkwind?


> On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 10:33:06 -0500, Alastair Sumner
> <alastair_sumner at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
>>I was wondering what kind of hi-fi equipment people on this list use to
>>listen to Hawkwind. For the past ten years or so I've had a Nad 5220 CD
>>player, Nad 3020i amplifier and Mission speakers. Despite the clear sound
>>I've always felt frustrated at how neutral and lifeless it sounds. I can't
>>put my finger on it but I used to enjoy music more playing LPs through my
>>old Aiwa midi system.
> 
> I use a NAD amplifier (can't remember the model number) and Vandersteen 1B
> speakers.  I'm not sure that I would recommend the speakers in your case,
> since they tend to reproduce sound very flatly and accurately (they're
> fantastic for reviewing studio mixes since their response is so much like
> studio monitors) and don't "color" the sound much (which is what it sounds
> like you're looking for).  In general, the speakers are the component that
> will have the most effect in that area, so all I can really recommend is
> auditioning a whole bunch of speakers at your local hi-fi shop.
> 
>>Now I've decided to bring my vinyl back from the dead
>>and invest in a Rega P2 or P3 turntable and will probably build a new
>>system around it. So what kind of equipment do you use? And what do you
>>think makes Hawkwind come alive?
> 
> Dual CS5000, which sounds great IMHO.  But even a low-end Rega is probably
> going to be just as good or better.
> 
> Subjectively, I find that no CD beats the sound of *well-pressed* (this is
> the key!) vinyl.  The German pressing of 'Warrior' that I have sounds
> astounding.  On the other hand, playing any 80s Flicknife pressing on a
> decent turntable & system is a waste; those records will never sound
> great, and get noisy after just a couple plays.  (The original London
> pressings of the early ZZ Top albums [not the Warner Bros reissues!] are
> also great examples of well-pressed records, check out "Beer Drinkers and
> Hell Raisers" [as later covered by Motorhead] from 'Tres Hombres'.)
> 
> And while it's true that CD's theoretically have a greater dynamic range
> than vinyl, the sad fact is that most modern mastering/remastering jobs
> squash everything into just a few dB's of variation in pathetic attempts
> to win the "loudness" wars, with the result being distorted transients,
> ear fatigue, and zero dynamics.  Great as the recent Litmus CD is, the
> drums sound like crap because of the mastering job!  Completely trashy and
> distorted; unlistenable with headphones :^(.  The most recent Rush album
> is another example (as I try to think of a particularly egregious large-
> selling recent instance) of horrid-sounding drums resulting from
> compression/mastering.  Mastering is a skill that takes *excellent* (i.e.
> way better than mine) ears to do right, and right now, the market is
> flooded with so-called experts who don't have that trait (and compound the
> problem by using cheap plug-ins on cheap computer systems but still
> consider themselves "professionals").
> 
>    -Doug
>     jasret at mindspring.com
> 
>