High end at a real world price

High end at real world price

Wow, what a week I have had! A Kronos in my den, I couldn't believe it myself. For the informative audio folks, Kronos is the hottest turntable at the current moment could be a little understated. Best sound award comes raining where Kronos serves at front end, that's phenomenal.

Spot on

Superiority in any aspect always comes at a price and there is a cost basement to achieve that level of performance, Kronos is not excluded. "High end at real world price" still cost a lot for the middle income group, sigh. Those who own it, good for you while those who live from hand to mouth, a real world fantasy. To add insult to injury, you need to spend much much more to better Kronos, unless Kronos honcho decides otherwise. Who knows what Louis has in his sleeves?

Sparta to feed my somewhat lowly configured system, that's a blatant system as some would call it a dragon head with mouse tail, chirping an overly imbalance system. Victor brought his Sparta to my den, he is moving for the kill! A move that I'm well aware of, but the temptation is too great to resist .....

ZYX Premium Omega

Let me walk you through the costing, full Sparta turntable USD21500 with Halena arm USD6500, ZYX Premium Omega USD7000 MC cartridge, Nagra VPS tube phono stage USD8500 and Skogrand RCA phono cable. I got no idea how much the Skogrand costs but you could figure the ball park figure. Setting up was a breeze, Victor didn't go for the optimum, neither was I with the room acoustics. Further optimization takes time, we all know that too well.

Nagra VPS phono stage

First needle contact opened with hoo and ha, the baptism of vinyl begins. The sound was so easy on ears, the famous polymeric flavour that make folks return to analogue. Man! CD's spikes and glares are a sharp contrast. I constantly struggling with CD before settling down to listen, every time, vinyl is free of that. Texture of vinyl, OMG, wanting to be had. Smooth and rounded, in a good way. "Fluidity" could never be better exemplified. And this strange quality miraculously draws you into the music, readily urging you to crank the volume up. Now, some of us crank up to crazy volume to attain greater head room, greater presence. Flow with the groove as some may say.

The enormous energies across the whole frequency response courtesy of vinyl were staggering, indeed, it does a better job filling and loading the room. Bass is something that once you have it, you will never want it without, it serves the critical music foundation. Shaking my head in disbelief, the bass from vinyl is fulsome, tuneful and digs deep. Not particularly tight due to tube phono. What a treat for bass lover, the roll off would be from your system. But take this with a pinch of salt since I don't have others for comparison. I urge you to do your homework if you are serious.

Up to this point, I am glad to have Sparta in my system to acquaint what it capable of. Unmistakably, the sound emanated from my speakers possesses the rightness, to let my guard down and be submissive. Listen and stop analyzing the sound.

No test is complete without voices, Sparta was faithfully abstracting what on the vinyl, as you well aware of different pressings attribute different tonal balance. Different voices, skeletal, lush, thin, feminine, muscular, pitchy or husky, no hint of homogenization. True color, this is a hallmark of great turntable. No colouration is being add onto, you probably know that many turntables are not free of that.

The presence and spatial separation, Sparta has it covered. The images are swathed around with ozone, depicting the sense of spaciousness. Say Scott Hamilton on his sax, brassy, air velocity modulation, breathing and the pungency of notes, is presented. I'm sorry, the magic is either in the recording or not, that's why folks are paying top money for the promise of first pressing.

Victor listened for a good 4 hours the first day and returned for another 2 and a half hour the following day. He played loud with no regard to my small room to a point my amp was sucked dry especially on the demanding passages. Readers here know I'm a civilized listener. Victor left my den with a glow on his face, a gesture of satisfaction or wasted electric, perhaps? Is it me or what? I didn't know and I didn't bother to ask. All I care is me, and my listening pleasure. For the record, we played Kid Chan, Sarah McLachlan, David Fagan, Bill Wither, Kyung Wha Chung to Beethoven Symphony No. Five. 

"Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!" sum ups my feelings. Sparta showed me what a high end analogue can do and what's the revival of vinyl is about. My heart sunk the day Sparta leaves my den, Sparta was sourly missed. Sparta should be in your audition list if your budget within the range. Heartily recommended.

  

The devil is in the detail

"Money no object, what would you buy?"
"I'll buy 1st tier high end audio. You?"
"I beg to be different, I'd assemble a system that bangs on musicality."

Are you one of them too, running with your cash to the store and take delivery of latest top dollar engineering marvel home? Be the envy of thousands? Walking tall among your peers? This is an audio fantasy every audio folk wouldn't mind to have. High price correlates to better sound, the trending seems that way today.

Piano reproduction is a tough nut to crack though.

Most unfortunately, some high end equipment doesn't sound like music. Pretty sad, huh! Far too clinical and synthetic if you know what I mean. And why high end equipment inherits distinct sound character? Supposedly, without sonic signature. Abundant in detail and air but lightweight. You know what I am talking about if you are on the ball. Need not be argumentative, just listen. With greater loudness and higher dynamic on today's most desired list, the designer is on to uphill climb to realize the goal, they shouldn't compromise cohesiveness. More drivers, four boxes configuration and powered sub, these are all challenges the speaker designers are facing. Mind you, speaker is still the weakest link of the audio system. I couldn't imagine the calamitous consequences when highs and lows particularly playing their own tunes, ripping musicality apart. Ironically, I noticed many old goats still unaware of this!

Wishing thinking, I once argued that good sound could not be attained with premium parts alone, that would be too easy. I too had made that fundamental mistake. Good sounding equipment must first build upon a good topology. The devil is in the detail! Voicing is both a work of art and science. Open the lid of a component, experienced folks could make an educated guess on the sound. The greatest advantage of the manufacturers over DIYers is easy accessibility of parts and components within tight tolerances. Volume speaks louder. Part and component suppliers would be happy to sample their products in hope for commercial orders. Thing is unfortunate for the hobbyists, they will have to purchase bulk to do own pre-selection, the investment in parts and components is quickly becoming unbearable given the number of maker, part, and value.

Life is full of twists and turns. Unlikely victor, Leceister City FC clinched the prestigious English Premier League yesterday beating all expectations. No fat cheque book, no star players nor super coach, they made Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea look really bad. Now, where did that come from? Boy! I love underdog. Audio folks must do a little Leciester phenomenon, excel in one or two audio aspects to earn a little respect and accolades. This is definitely poor man's self esteem. You can't beat them at their strength (financially), go around and beat them with your game. A lot of ancient wars are won like that! Sharpen your set up skill, you know that it is an asset no one can take it away. You will get on others' nerves if you succeed even though they might not openly admitting the fact. That's human nature.

Going forward, I am not a fan of big bang music, the sky rocket highs and deepest abyss bass. Rather, I am the acoustic guy, preferring natural timbre beauty of music instrument. Dave Brubeck's Take Five is such a classic timeless example, new improvisations could not come anywhere near to the magnificent of the original, Dave's composition is perfectly right. Incidentally, an ex-colleague whom I hadn't seen and talked in years called me one day and says, this tune went on air reminds him of me. I was speechless.