On Mon, 14 Feb 2005 13:12:25 -0800, bryan_cass wrote:

Thanks Mick. I think I have enough listening experience already to know
what I like. I have played trombone and tuba in concert bands for about
12 years now. I have played trombone in orchestra pits for musicals over
the past 8 years. I played trombone and sang in a big band from 1995 to
2003. I played piano and sang for our church from 1998 to 2003. I have
been in marching bands and orchestras since jr. high school and played
piano since I was 9. Not to mention just playing instruments at home as
well, and of course attending professional concerts. I'm 43, and I want
to finally buy a sound system that I can immerse myself in, rather than
making price the driving factor as it has since my first Realistic stereo
in 1975. I want to enjoy my hearing while I still can! ;-)


Lol! Yep - I can go with that... :-)
Thanks for the link (next thread) by the way, there were some interesting
responses.

I have tried recording my own acoustic guitar playing & playing it back as
a test but never really satisfactorily. Ok, my gear is very limited but I
don't think we can actually obtain *realism*. We can get *apparent
realism* though - sometimes. I'm not sure that you can just nip to the
shop and buy a system that does what you want though. Specifications don't
tell you how it sounds; the shop has different accoustics to your
listening room; you had something different for breakfast. I dunno, there
are a thousand reasons why sometimes you get that WOW! feeling and other
times it just doesn't work. It certainly isn't just based on price, the
number of watts or the THD% though. It seems to work better when you are
relaxed, in a comfortable chair and holding a glass of something warming
though. :-)

If you appreciate brass (dunno why I should think that...) then *please*
try to listen to a valve amp as I suggested. I think you'll like it!

I think the most startled that I have been by audio gear was when someone
switched a radio chat show on in a large shop (many years ago now). The
loudspeakers were the Quad "electrostatic radiators". The sheer clarity
had me looking round for the speaker for a few moments... I also once
heard a demo at a hi-fi show in a hotel. The Linn setup there was terrible
and did no justice to the gear at all. What stole the show for me was a
system using "The Rock" turntable and some very nice (expensive) valve
monoblock amps (I've a feeling that they may have been Krell). The
demonstrators had stuck to fairly simple material (wisely IMHO) and the
effect was stunning. Unfortunately I have no Idea what the rest of the
stuff was now!

--
Mick
(no M$ software on here... :-) )
Web: http://www.nascom.info
Web: http://projectedsound.tk