Computer audio for dullards

[Frankie Lee]

best thing to do is try it

Will do.

[markof]

Ah the beautiful ML's! How are you getting on with them? Are they 'kind' to all types of music? Is the bass 'lean' or more than adequate? Finally (!!!!) what kind of music do you listen to?

Thanks for the interest and sorry for the slow reply - was out of the loop for the last week or so.

Re. the Martin Logan EM-ESL's
These are the best sounding speakers I have owned (Castle Harlechs were my previous set). Sound is more akin to a musical instrument than traditional speaker and the bass is fine for me. Unusually for Logans, the 8" bass drivers are passive which I think is a plus and are very capable and musical with lots of range (great reproduction of Pastorius bass opening on Cotton Avenue for instance) - lovely instrument separation and good soundstage. Another plus is their sensitivity - Av. 91db at 1W - easily driven by my 40W amp. The big characteristic the speakers is the pronounced midrange and smooth highs - no upper crossover or tweeters and great for vocals, piano, violin and horns all coupled to a fast, airy tone. Build quality and finish is very good (I have the piano black version). In short I'm delighted with them and any improvements I have made to other parts of the system have so far only improved their sound.

Re. Music
It's a glib answer but I like good music of all genres with a leaning towards baroque classical and acoustic jazz as I get older but I like a lot of rock, soul, folk and world music collected from the 60's to the present.

What about yourself?

Mark.

[cybot]

Ah the beautiful ML's! How are you getting on with them? Are they 'kind' to all types of music? Is the bass 'lean' or more than adequate? Finally (!!!!) what kind of music do you listen to?

Thanks for the interest and sorry for the slow reply - was out of the loop for the last week or so.

Re. the Martin Logan EM-ESL's
These are the best sounding speakers I have owned (Castle Harlechs were my previous set). Sound is more akin to a musical instrument than traditional speaker and the bass is fine for me. Unusually for Logans, the 8" bass drivers are passive which I think is a plus and are very capable and musical with lots of range (great reproduction of Pastorius bass opening on Cotton Avenue for instance) - lovely instrument separation and good soundstage. Another plus is their sensitivity - Av. 91db at 1W - easily driven by my 40W amp. The big characteristic the speakers is the pronounced midrange and smooth highs - no upper crossover or tweeters and great for vocals, piano, violin and horns all coupled to a fast, airy tone. Build quality and finish is very good (I have the piano black version). In short I'm delighted with them and any improvements I have made to other parts of the system have so far only improved their sound.

Re. Music
It's a glib answer but I like good music of all genres with a leaning towards baroque classical and acoustic jazz as I get older but I like a lot of rock, soul, folk and world music collected from the 60's to the present.

What about yourself?

Mark.

Thanks for the neat summing up of your Martin Logan speakers. You obviously have a lot of time for them! And you're right the passive drivers is a good idea.

My own musical tastes? Where have you been hiding? Ask Fergus LOL! Like yourself I have time for most genres of music. My system has to do reasonable justice to all the types of crazy tunes I throw at it :) Seriously I'm very big into improvisation, the making-it-up-as-you-go-along (as my friend once described the music I used to play him) type stuff and I love the music of sound as opposed to the sound of music. From environmental/found sounds to early electronics experimentation to the properly recorded sounds of guitar eg feedback etc etc. I also love 'normal' music too plus jazz and classical and particularly well recorded piano eg Roedelius, Story, Tiago Sousa etc etc Oh, and acoustic/electric guitar by the likes of John Fahey, John Renbourne, Steve Tibbetts, Jimi Hendrix, Peter Green etc etc Hope that gives you an idea :)

Edit: My own system consists of the following (one of them anyway!):

TT : Nottingham Analogue Space Deck w/Space Arm and Goldring mm cartridge.

Amp : Croft Series 7 (45 watt) transvalve power amp w/Croft Micro 25 pre.

Speakers : Nearly 20 year old Castle Howard's.

[jaybee]

TT : Nottingham Analogue Space Deck w/Space Arm and Goldring mm cartridge.

Amp : Croft Series 7 (45 watt) transvalve power amp w/Croft Micro 25 pre.

Speakers : Nearly 20 year old Castle Howard's.

nice! I was only getting a goo on on of those yesterday on analogue seduction!

[cybot]

TT : Nottingham Analogue Space Deck w/Space Arm and Goldring mm cartridge.

Amp : Croft Series 7 (45 watt) transvalve power amp w/Croft Micro 25 pre.

Speakers : Nearly 20 year old Castle Howard's.

nice! I was only getting a goo on on of those yesterday on analogue seduction!

Thanks jb :) I remember a friend of mine, who had just bought a Gyrodeck (the one with the MASSIVE lid), saying, if he had his way again, he'd have bought a Notts. Analaogue, for the sound as well as the looks! They were one of the first tt manufacturers to go lidless. Then,lo and behold, they were all at it, including Michell!

[Diapason]

Jesus, even a computer audio thread gets derailed into analogue shenanigans!

(Insert smilie here!)

[Ivor]

Jesus, even a computer audio thread gets derailed into analogue shenanigans!

(Insert smilie here!)

Resistance is futile

[jaybee]

Is there a way to extract the hi res two channel audio from an sacd for ca replay?

[Sligolad]

Is there a way to extract the hi res two channel audio from an sacd for ca replay?

You need an old PS3 Jaybee with early firmware but they are hard to come by, see informatione here:
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f11-s ... -2-a-7495/

If you need to make some backups I can oblige as I have an old PS3 for this purpose.
Drop me a PM if you are interested.

[james]

I am quite interested in the PS3 option for ripping SACD's. I have maybe 20 or 30 [almost all dual-layer] and I would like to rip them.

I have read [some !!] of the [very long!!] computeraudiophile.com thread but I am still not too clear about the following ..

A friend has a PS3 he will lend me that runs the 3.30 version of the operating system software. He uses it for PS2 games [as well as PS3]. He will loan it to me but I need to be 100% sure if I install all the software mentioned on the computeraudiophile.com thread that it will still work as a games machine.

Any advice ?

Thanks

James