Got the visit of Bernard.

[roberto]

Hola Chicos. Today, my system shined and sounded incredible. I got the visit from my Bro, our Bro Bernard. I really enjoy all his comments and his thoughtful ideas of how to grow even more with our beloved hobby. Bernard is a truly gentleman. He and his lovely wife invited us for lunch, then I brought Bernard to my home to listen to my system again.

He brought his music CDs, and also we did play some Youtube artists. With the music that I have on hand, and the ITunes library, we ménage to get along. At the first, there were some harsh sound, but as soon my system got right temperature, it started to sound right.

I will like to know his impressions too. It was an easy way to show him the SMD (shun mook discs) and also the mechanical resonators. With the SMD, without them the image of a female voice singing, was very high altitude, and just put 3 SMD, on the top of my center preamplifier, the image was at our ears level. What I did like was his face expression!. With the mechanical grounding, also the change was very evident. Under the preamplifier, we took them out and listen, them put them back again. The difference was astonishing. Also, with the special control sexted. I could show him, moving one stand 1/4 of turn of the left speaker, the speaker stop sounding...almost if the speaker was not there, but it was, then putting back 1/4 the SMD stand back to its position, the speaker was again working with the same level as the right speaker.

It was a glorious time spent with my Bro and dear friend Bernard!. I want to say is this: thanks Bernard to coming by and listen to my system and my music.

Also we did play with some USB cables...I will let Bernard to comment about this.

Happy listening!

 

[TomDac]

Awesome!!!

 

[amey01]

Great meet report!!

Tell us about the USB cables

 

[roberto]

Great meet report!!

Tell us about the USB cables

Hola Amey. I was very skeptical with digital cables, as an engineer, and I thought the same: bits are bits, and no matter how, numbers are numbers, and that's it! At my workshop, using a Kimber Cable digital silver cable, using a DAC made by Enlightened Audio Design, it was like night and day. When I listened this, immediately I did call Mr. Ricardo Bedoya, the other electronic engineer (and he is a digital electronic engineer) to come and listen and showed him my findings. I have to tell also, the he is not an audiophile. He only knows about quantity of bass, mid-range and highs. Of course, quality has to do also.

When I did put a Camelot digital cable, vs regular coax cable, the difference was very audible, but with the Kimber silver, the brightness and how clear the strings were, and guitar strings, the resolution to this was amazing! The stage opened with more separation between the instruments, and offered another dimension of sonic presentation. The speakers were the CLS and the electronics at that time was the Mark Levinson 20.5 mono-blocks. Then I remember saying him this to me: not everything is on the books. There are a lot of things that science is waiting for to be explained, like this.

His thoughts of what was going on, is that the cables, coax type, the length could be affecting and the made material, could be making little capacitors, and killing the high bits info only, or something like this. The transfer data was faster, or better, or different way to get to the input buss, or the digital frequency domain was alter by the way or type to transfer the data, he talked about multiple ways of how to transfer the data, and also the digital filtering when the signal was converted from digital to analogue. His brain was affected by several weeks. He could not tell what was going on. Then he started to show me the digital wave form at the scope (Tectronics) and that there must be a data loss during the transfer from the output of the transport to the input of the DAC. But the truth, I did not see any. Perhaps my electronic tools were not showing to us, that what we were listening.

Here again, I will let Bernard to tell us what he truly listened between the two good quality digital USB cables. Perhaps he did not listen any difference. His comments regarding this, was very little. On the one less expensive, the harsh was more evident, and the stage was compressed. But I do not want to influence Bernard with it. Perhaps he did listen different things that I am not aware.

It was a very nice afternoon, and also meeting this knowledge man Bernard, a very humble, extraordinary, and caring person! It was a honor to have him with me! I assure you one thing: This man can truly listen!!! He is an audiophile, and also, very skeptical. Not an easy mambo jambo.

There was a funny experience. We were listening to the music, and in one delicate music passage, one of the guitar strings blew away, making an odd noise. He jumped and said: What happened?. I showed him the guitar string. It was scary too. (LOL). Happy listening my friends!

 

[amey01]

I did put a Camelot digital cable, vs regular coax cable,

Whoa - hang on! USB v Coax is very different indeed!

One is a pure data transfer medium, and the other is a clocked / audio transfer medium. Very different.

Although - maybe not through your M-DAC - it buffers the input. Happy to give benefit of the doubt though

Then I remember saying him this to me: not everything is on the books. There are a lot of things that science is waiting for to be explained, like this.

Couldn't agree more!

His thoughts of what was going on, is that the cables, coax type, the length could be affecting and the made material, could be making little capacitors, and killing the high bits info only, or something like this. The transfer data was faster, or better, or different way to get to the input buss, or the digital frequency domain was alter by the way or type to transfer the data, he talked about multiple ways of how to transfer the data, and also the digital filtering when the signal was converted from digital to analogue.

HOWEVER: IF that were the case, you'd also see differences in other data. Audio data is just data after all. The computer doesn't differentiate between audio and banking records and MS Word documents. And forum posts

Here again, I will let Bernard to tell us what he truly listened between the two good quality digital USB cables. Perhaps he did not listen any difference. His comments regarding this, was very little. On the one less expensive, the harsh was more evident, and the stage was compressed. But I do not want to influence Bernard with it. Perhaps he did listen different things that I am not aware.

Love to hear Bernard's thoughts too!

It was a very nice afternoon, and also meeting this knowledge man Bernard, a very humble, extraordinary, and caring person! It was a honor to have him with me! I assure you one thing: This man can truly listen!!! He is an audiophile, and also, very skeptical. Not an easy mambo jambo.

There was a funny experience. We were listening to the music, and in one delicate music passage, one of guitar strings blew away, making an odd noise. He jumped and said: What happened. I showed him the guitar string. It was scary too. (LOL). Happy listening my friends!

Sounds like a great day!

PS - Why are you posting at 3AM?

 

[roberto]

Hahahaha...because I rather be on the computer than counting my ceiling's wood bricks logs! I went to bed early, and my dog is suffering from one of her ears. The noise of her, shaking the head woke me up. I putted some Surolan for dog's ears medicine, and here I am...still reading.

All I can say, trust your ears Amey, no matter what ever the now days the science is telling you. I do trust mines.

Perhaps the banking's data and the Word data, and the forum's data in not as complex as the music is...just a thought!

Happy listening my dear friend.

 

[amey01]

Hahahaha...because I rather be on the computer than counting my ceiling's wood bricks logs! I went to bed early, and my dog is suffering from one of her ears. The noise of her, shaking the head woke me up. I putted some Surolan for dog's ears medicine, and here I am...still reading.
.

Hope your dog is okay. Yes, I've spent many nights awake due to my dog - however it is usually when he hears (or somehow otherwise knows) there is a cat out in the street (or yard)

He's always bloody right, but I don't like traipsing around the yard at 3AM trying to get him back inside!

 

[Bernard]

It was great visiting Roberto (a very gracious host) and his beautiful wife.

I did hear the differences Roberto mentioned:

- he was able to shift images by shifting the Shun Mooks

- I did hear differences in USB cables (the same as Roberto), but don't see any point in getting into another debate about bank accounts vs music. This was my first comparison of USB cables. What stumps Roberto and I is that people who say that there cannot possibly be any difference refuse to just listen for themselves. It costs nothing but a bit of time.

- music sounded much better going through the REFLink than via the direct Mac - MDAC USB LINK.

- the Diamond Resonators made a definite improvement, but I'm not surprised that they did. I noticed similar differences when relocating a CDT/DAC from a bookcase to a wall-mounted shelf. It's just vibration control.

Roberto, thanks for your hospitality. Hasta luego!

 

[twich54]

Roberto / Bernard,

Great to hear of the good time you had together and the interesting listening impressions that ensued !

 

[Joey_V]

This is awesome, 2 good forum guys meeting up. One of the things I would like would be to meet roberto one day.

I am sure you guys had a great time.... .

 

[roberto]

My dearest friends...it was a very interesting visit! Bernard likes the Latina's voice a lot! This is something very fascinating. As an example, there is a singer's name Marta Gomez. She is from Colombia, and she sings with a very clear and stable natural, not nasal or sore throat, and also she has not an educated voice. An educated voice is when you did study to sing, like a soprano, for classical music. Well, the truth is that she sang for us here, in my little room. She used to be at Chesky Records, but now I think she is with other label.

Bernard pointed out that because my speakers are very large, perhaps when playing them loud, there was some saturation my room. Well, I think that they disclose what it is at their input. If the input signal is right, then they are crystal clear, with tons of resolution. If the signal comes with a little dirt, then, you got that dirt too. They are not forgiving speakers at all. But the good thing, is that you get used to it. In other words, you became to forgive and forget those minor flaws, and enjoy the music, or better say, the musician(s) playing here. As an example, the scratch coming of the LPs, you get to use to this, and you still enjoy that wonderful sound. Digital computer still is not perfect. Yes, the CD still is a great way to reproduce the digital sound, even having high rez songs or albums.
I usually use an artist to show off, the name is Steve Davis playing the cymbals...and the CLXs harmonic texture is truly a champion here. You can tell easy when a Viola de Gamba is playing vs a Cello. All bow strings have a buzz when the bow is making the string to produce sound. This is something rare and difficult to get from other speakers. I explained as a musician point of view, some things that Bernard really understood. As an example, listening the left hand and the right hand separately of a piano player. Here is a very easy task to do.

I remember when studding some audio, the ideal speaker is having a room at the back of the speaker, with the same size of the listening room. Obviously, this its not possible. Why large speakers sound better? Because they are moving a lot of air, creating an atmosphere that emulates better the live instruments. A reason why at my system, a guitar or a solo instrument is almost there. Small groups like quartets up to octets are breath taking. Big orchestras are still with a lot of dirt and harsh sound!.

Bernard said, can you play Carmina Burana number 24th track, please? . I have three different recordings. The first was totally unacceptable. The second one was less but still we were getting a lot of harsh when heavy musical content was and the last one, with the London Symphony Orchestra with Richard Hickox director, was very acceptable. This is telling me, that the recording has to do with the harsh sound, not my system, computer or my speakers. It is the recording.

I putted stands to my CLXs, making to have almost the same height from the top of the speaker to the ceiling, and the bottom of the speaker to the floor. With that (about 20 cms height) and the furniture that I have in the room, I always can see the bottom of the high frequency stat panels. I did some from the back to front inclination with their spikes, about three to four turns at the back spikes, making the image presentation to be at almost ear level, and that's it.

Yes, we were able to listen differences for good or bad on cables, and with or without SMD. A truly great time spent with this gentleman...my Bro, my friend, Bernard. His ears are truly GOLDEN EARS! I have had many Costa Rican audiophiles here, and they were not aware of the minor changes for good or bad that Bernard did listen.

 

[roberto]

Joey, mi sistema es suyo, my system is yours! Any time, love to have you here! I will be really fun! And you can play with all my toys...happy listening!

 

[slowGEEZR]

It's great when members of our community get together. Great report.

 

[roberto]

Thanks Bernard, you are welcome! Please, have a safe trip back to Canada! My love to your beautiful wife Jacinta.

 

[Bernard]

I'm back home, but mercifully not to the deep-freeze I left. It's nice and mild at the just-freezing level (yes, I know, I'm sick!).

My last post was while I was waiting at the airport in San Jose, so it was brief.

Once again, Roberto, thanks for your hospitality. I learned a lot from you in that session.

Roberto taught me how to listen, as well as what to listen for. At times when he made a change and told me to listen to the difference, I heard none, multiple times. Roberto is obviously intimately acquainted with his system and the acoustics of his room. So we went back and forth a few times, with my finally hearing a subtle change. Without being told what to listen for, I would have never heard the change. What it comes down to is would you pay for the tweaks required to effect that subtle change? This change, if I recall correctly, had to do with the air in the room to the left of the listening position.

On one recording of a female singer Roberto was able to play with the height of the image of the singer by tweaking his Shun Mooks (yes, I know, sounds a bit kinky).

At one point we happened to discuss Kedar, at which point I remembered the Shun Mook Diamond Resonators. So Roberto lifted his preamp while I removed the Resonators. We listened to a recording of a guitar with a female singer, then replaced the Resonators. When we replayed the recording it was a "WOW!" moment instantly when it started. The guitar sounded so much better, as did the singer. Would I buy the Diamond Resonators if I could afford them ? Very definitely, but considering they cost more than the price of a ticket for my next trip to Casa Herrara, I think not. Roberto also has a set under his power amp, but I didn't have the heart to ask him to lift his mammoth ARC VT100. Kedar, if you have a set you're not using, please donate them to me!

Roberto did not have any $2 USB cables. All he had were a $150 cable and a $250 cable, both from DH Labs, but it was obvious that there was a difference; the cheaper one sounded harsher. I'm looking forward to trying this in my own system. I have the cheaper one as well as a standard $2 cable. If I notice no difference or too small a difference, the $150 one will be up on Audiogon.

I've read comments that state that USB between source and DAC is best, as well as S/PDIF being best, so I asked Roberto to make the comparison. It was a no-contest situation. The S/PDIF config using the Bel Canto RefLink was better. This is not to say, of course, that this will always be the case. Of course, once you use S/PDIF you then have to play with digital coax cables. I found a difference between those cables as well (a big difference). When I stated this here many years ago, a pompous engineer with qualifications as long as my arm replied with derision.

I was once again charmed by the look of the CLXes. They are a thing of beauty. Wish I could afford to buy them. I have the space but not the cash.

I started a thread on MDAC problems a while ago, where I stated that when I pulled out a digital coax cable, the ground part of the female connector on the MDAC broke off. Roberto has had the same problem. Audiolab is going to supply us with a few replacements. We have to install them ourselves, of course, involving some unsoldering. Roberto surprised me by giving me a gift of a brand new unsoldering tool, the same as what he uses. Gracias, Hermano!

It was a most enjoyable and educational visit. Roberto, be warned! My next visit is going to be longer!

Thank you Roberto

p.s. If you meet Roberto, don't expect to recognize him from his avatar. He has shaved off his beard, and looks younger, but less like a musician

 

[roberto]

Bro, the way that we can grow more in this beloved hobby, is doing what we did. Sharing our experiences, knowledge and what we like most: music! I did learn a lot too. You are like a Pandora Box: full of good surprises! Your ears are very well educated, and you got right what to listen to right away! This is not an easy task for a not trained ears!

Because I decided not to be as demanding in quality sound as I was before, I forgot that with just a little patience and two to three hours of listening carefully, you can tuned back you system to another forward step, if you had it as I did. All the Shun Mook Diamond Resonators were out of the right position. My mistake Bro. The lady who help us to do the cleaning was here, at my system. That was last week. Yesterday, she told me that the room was too dusty, and she did try, without alerting me about it, that she move some of the Diamond Resonators. Now they are back to their position, and I can tell a good difference. Remember that I was having to the left, some voices? Now they are centered. I thought it was the recording, but it was not. My system was a little out of balance. Now it is sounding as it should. I apologize for this inconvenience. I promise to you, that the next time, I will do my best to optimize my system and do not let my maid to do any cleaning here!

I forgot how important is to listen what its wrong too. I decided not to listen the little wrong things, like harsh, and the digital garbage. Why? Because you became obsessive with this, and its like an endless road. When you told me that some changes was just subtle, there I got that they were totally out of position...the rods of the SMD (shun mook discs) work together in a perfect alignment, and this must be very precise, and they were not where they should be. Next time, I will need your ears, so, I will try to adjust and with your expertise golden ears, I know this will sing much better.

Also, this week, I am getting 8 KT-120 output tubes. I did not bring the KT-150, because I do not know if the output transformers of my VT-100MKIII can handle them. I did read a lot about the KT-120s, where the 6550s are a little behind. Where they do more to the music is at the lower mid-range and mids, giving more resolution and warmer overall sound.

Also, the stands that I made, need some spikes, I will getting some soon. I definitively know that this will make another forward change.

La Casa Herrera is your Casa my Bro, any day, any time! You are welcome! Happy listening!

PS. I will tell the wife to take another pic, and I will change my avatar soon!

 

[User211]

Guys the next time you play with Shun Mook mpingo disks, get one person to do it wit, say, an LP cover in the way so the other cannot see what he has done.

Then move the discs, or pretend to move the discs, asking the listener to say when he hears a difference.

You will very quickly discover that no one can hear a difference. I know I've done that experiment.

Sorry to spoil the fun. But I know you'll find I am right.

It is psychological.

 

[Gordon Gray]

Roberto,

I purchased a used Carmina Burana Telarc SACD - Robert Shaw / Atlantic recently for about $30 on amazon.

This is recognized as one of the definitive recordings of this piece.

Gordon

 

[Gordon Gray]

Hi Justin,

Any comments on the USB cable difference statements in the above posts?

Gordon

 

[User211]

USB cables with my DAC? I can hear zero difference into its Amanero USB card using an ASIO driver. Mind you I have only tried an ultra cheap one (which I use) versus a Lampizator one.

I think I have heard differences between different types of digital input, though e.g. coax versus SPDIF versus USB. Why I do not know.

In fact a while ago in a Nordost dem I think I heard a difference between coax cables. The freaked me out a bit. Were they cheating somehow? Maybe. Or maybe it was just me.


Anyway I am repeating myself I spoke about the Shun Mooks a while back when Kedar lent me his.