What Counts When Listening?????

G

Grainger49

New member
Ok, Who knows?

But... always a but (sometimes a butt, see George Shearing Latin Lace), I just put a 1M Harmonic Technology Truth Link between my FP 2 and my remote volume control.  It replaced a 1M Silver interconnect from Alpha Core.  I already have a 1.5M of the same Harmonic Tech cable between the remote (Creek OBH-10) and my Paramours.

I'm listening to the MOFI Santana Abraxas LP right now.  Carlos took a step (1-2 feet) back when singing.  The drums moved outside the left speaker and the organ (C3) is back by a foot at least.

So what brought this about?  I have been playing the stereo (70s term for y'ur audio system) for an hour.  I have listened to this side of the LP once, maybe twice then put in the cables. But...  you know!

It could have been the two fingers of Knob Creek.  I'll post cold sober tomorrow. 

I've been planning this listening session since talking to the mill safety coordinator at the urinals this afternoon.  He and I have the same bladder schedule.  I'm 63, almost 64, give me a freaking break! 

It just struck me today that this album would be a great diviner of sound.  I have always loved it and this is a great recording.  I have had many pressings/remasters including the original pressing. 

Not to mention I have heard them live several times.  I met (Jose') Chepito Areas in the 70s.  He said, "Carlos has a beeg head."  That is the inflection he gave it, not me.

Going to the second side I think the improvement in soundstage depth is still there.  The attack on the drums (timbales, Chepito's work) is amazing!

Holy Crap!  This sounds good.  I have bought some trinkets since being employed and this is a good one.  I have a Phono Cable from Harmonic Tech but may have to sell it.  I don't really have a place to use it now.
 
Ok, Granger, lets see if we can sum this up a tad...

You LIKE the Harmonic Technology cable. And you like/know well Santana Abraxas. And something about Knob Creek, which probably isnt helping this whole thing.... So, if I get this right, the Harmonic cable is giving you a new view into the album that you didnt have with the Alpha Cores. Something else about bladders, not quite sure about that...
 
Eric,

Did I ramble that much???  I thought I had a thin thread connecting the thoughts.  Kind of like a Firesign Theater album.

I'll check tomorrow, it is bedtime.
 
Haha Wax is right.. and Grainger is right as far as I am concerned. I also love Harmonic Technology.. I have their Magic interconnects and they really open up the treble giving air and detail while remaining natural. I havent heard that combo in that price range before. More treble detail and air without adding brightness... Good stuff... someday I want to cryo them and see what that does to them...
 
I just installed Jena interconnects between my pre amp and my power. Fp3 ex and paramore 2a3 it is the biggest improvement I have ever heard from a interconnect! Copper is the Jena what I went to was Silver clear day cable. I had the same experience more depth more outside the spkrs as you had. I had the same experience with Jena spkr wire. But it was EXPENSIVE! I would much rather bought or built another SE amp. Just thought I would give Jena a plug here.
 
I have a very nice Jena Labs digital cable that Jennifer gave me 10 or 12 years ago as payment for a room at VSAC. I think it is a Valkyrie, but I need to check. Unfortunately we are going to BNC on our new DAC and this cable is terminated with RCAs. So I think it's time to sell it. Don't have exact length, but it's probably a 3ft. Looks like they are $1600 list. I'd be happy to entertain offers.
 
And I have replicated it.  I worked all day Saturday outside and washing and waxing my car.  I couldn't move Sunday.  So we are now at Monday.  The images remain where they were on Friday.

Dan,

You need a Barter Town, like you trading for a Vivitar 283 Flash charger.  I still have my whole Vivitar 283 system.

I have 32 LPs to clean that I bought in the last 3 months.  I am going back to that task....
 
Grainger49 said:
I still have my whole Vivitar 283 system.
Click to expand...

You mean the flash and the batteries?  ;) We still use a 285 with the camera mounted sensor here in the lab, mounted on a light stand with a little tiny softbox on it and a 6V gel cell strapped to the stand, rigged to a couple of dummy batteries made from wood dowels. I think most of the recent manual photos are done with that setup.
 
OK, I'll bite: why do you use the camera-mounted sensor? Why not just run it in full manual mode? Won't that give you more consistent results from picture to picture?

FWIW, I have a 285, but I think the Sunpak 383 was a much better flash. True, it didn't have the zooming head of the Vivitar, but it has MUCH more intuitive controls, you can see your effective flash range at a glance, it is smaller and lighter (albeit not as robust) and (I think) it has more manual flash settings.
 
I'm not using it, Josh is, and he may well be using manual mode. He's the one with the photography degree and I'm not gonna tell him how to shoot. Anyway we have the little detachable sensor dohickey available.  I use Speedotron Blackline strobes and a couple of Chimera softboxes for my work here, which is pretty much just product shots these days.

My favorite Sunpak is one of the little Autozooms, that has a head that slides forward so you can tilt it, and you can also rotate the whole strobe for vertical or horizontal format. It's one of those pieces of gear I never let go of because it is so handy and relatively small.
 
I have the 283, remote sensor, bounce light attachment, wide angle and telephoto adapter lenses, a spare battery pack and a charger.  I bought a lot of accessories because I was shooting weddings for my friends, at my cost, in the 70s.
 
I always shoot in manual mode. I just can't work any other way. I set the ISO to give decent exposure in the 1/100, f/16-f/32 range. I fire off a few test shots (while PB grows progressively less patient) to get into the neighborhood and then tweak as needed. The ability to easily change ISO and the instant feedback on exposure are what really sold me on digital, at least for this kind of work. I basically never look at the meter on my digital camera. Primary lens is a Nikor 55mm macro. I switch to a 35mm lens for a few shots that I need more distance on (chassis orientation, terminal IDs, completed shots). These are all manual focus lenses, but if they were AF, I'd switch them to manual. I am far more willing to let a camera decide what my exposure should be than where my plane of focus is.
 
...especially for close-up shots, where autofocus is all but useless. And the old Nikkors are much better about retaining the focus setting and not drifting after you have focused. Some of the newer autofocus lenses are too loose, or have too much slop in the focusing helioid, so you can't just set focus and forget it, you need to keep verifying focus didn't shift between shots.

Also: Doc sounds a lot like my wife...  ;D
 
FWIW all that manual gear that Josh uses is my old stuff ;). I am quite happy with my little D5100 these days. I get shots that look a lot more like I got from my hassy digital setup than I got from the d300. The biggest issue shooting the photos for the assembly manuals is not the focus. It's controlling the reflection off those shiny panels.

When those two are in the lab shooting a manual I try to stay in my office. It's a pretty excruciating process to watch.
 
I'm listening to the MOFI Santana Abraxas LP right now.  Carlos took a step (1-2 feet) back when singing.  The drums moved outside the left speaker and the organ (C3) is back by a foot at least.

So what brought this about?  I have been playing the stereo (70s term for y'ur audio system) for an hour.  I have listened to this side of the LP once, maybe twice then put in the cables. But...  you know!

It could have been the two fingers of Knob Creek.  I'll post cold sober tomorrow.

Hi!

This is my first post!

Currently awaiting the Mainline and Beyerdynamic T1 to be delivered and will definitely do a post to review the Mainline.

Have spent the last 30 years listening to speakers, but after the divorce and kicked out of my house, forced to resort to headphones as I now live in  rentals and am seeking the Holy Grail where headphones/headphone amp can equal my Martin Logans.

I have found that music sounds WONDERFUL after a couple of belts of bourbon on the rocks, but unfortunately, results in cognitive impairment.

I would suggest, though, consider Bulleit Bourbon Frontier Whiskey as it is about $20 at Trader Joe's and tastes great! Knob Creek that probably costs north of $30.  Damn...the ten bucks that you save, could buy a hulluva lot of eutectic solder!  Cheers and happy listening!
 
Lloyd,

I might try Bulleit next time I'm at the store.  I have seen it many times, just never picked it up. 

Thanks for the recommendation. 
 
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