Listening to the violin under the guidance of a famous teacher by Mike Yu

Mr. Anders Hui is a violinist, chamber musician, orchestra coordinator and music educator active in the contemporary classical music scene. He joined the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in 2010 and is currently the second  concertmaster of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. On November 2, he visited the Divin Studio to share his experience of listening to the violin with the public.

Anders helped me understand that when listening to recorded the violin, I should pay attention to the following elements:

1. The origin of the violin in the sound stage
2. The acoustics of the recording venue
3. The thickness of the violinist's fingers
4. The violinist’s body shape
5. The violinist’s skills, specialties and habits
6. Understanding of the repertoire

The most interesting point he made was that that shape of the violinist's body and fingers have a profound impact on the sound he projects. David Oistrak had a sturdy body and meaty fingers. These innate advantages allowed him to use his dexterous finger strength to control the strings, producing a round tone, creating a distinct playing style. Nathan Milstein's hands are not big, and they are extremely soft, almost as if his fingers had no bones or joints. His fingering is very clear, allowing him to use relatively low pressure and long and sliding strokes to express the explosive power of the bow. His playing is fluid and not stiff. The sound is thorough, brilliant, and penetrating. In order to achieve maximum resonance between the instrument and his body, he never uses a shoulder rest. David started using shoulder braces in the 1950s. These habits are a secret technique for subtly adjusting the timbre.

If a worker wants to do his job well, he must first sharpen his tools. Anders shared the independent characteristics of each famous violin. It seems that the Stradivarius has a clear and bright treble and a gorgeous and continuous midrange, while the Guarneri's bass is more stable and thick. Different woods have different timbres. The type of varnish has a profound affect on the timbre. The old growth trees are gone. Climate changes over the years have altered the growth pattern of trees. New trees cannot produce the beauty of tone of the old ones. Even the master-level David Oistrakh had to encounter the famous Stradivarius instrument before he could play the sounds that allowed him to achieve the pinnacle of harmony between human and instrument.

Anders also told us that performers use different types of bows in rehearsal in order to coordinate with the acoustics of the concert hall. Only when the performer achieves the three-in-one realm of "human, violin, and ground" can the audience hear the best performance. After Anders demonstrated a composition by Bach with the Vuillaume violin, he felt that the acoustics in the Divine Comedy Studio were a little on the bright side, so he had to use more force to achieve the type of sound he sought.

Chris immediately turned off one of the active bass-absorbing instruments, and Anders performed the same song again. The violin immediately released more harmonics, but the technique became a little blurry. He demonstrated again that using bows of varying weights, even though differing by only a few grams gave the listeners different tonal experiences. When playing real instruments and speakers, you must deal with room sound effects.

Listening to the System

In a vinyl system, the phono stage is  very important. The famous vinyl record "The Magic Bow" was played with the world's only active RIAA phono stage "Hummingbird", using ordinary wires and  not connected to the Tripoint Elite NG and Subbase Vividus Zwo. Michael Rabin played Camille Saint-Saens' Rondo Capriccioso Op. 28. When bowing, the placement of the fingers of his left hand was very firm and precise, showing amazing clarity immediately awakening the soul of his famous Guarneri del Gesu instrument, delivering amazing energy. This shocked the whole audience.

When the same song was played with a passive RIAA phono stage, despite all efforts in noise management and improved cables, the treble completely lost its sense of movement and three-dimensionality, and the violin's ability to project was greatly reduced. I think this is a problem with the format. Using video as an analogy, Blue-ray is far better than DVD in terms of picture and sound. So it is in terms of phono stages: If you could only own one phono amplifier in your life, the Hummingbird would definitely be the one.

We also took the opportunity to ask Anders to discuss the difference he heard after adding the Pranawire Ground Master Level III to the system. He described the effect as being like switching from a large studio to a formal concert hall and being there in person at the scene. Everyone present unanimously praised the extraordinary effects of GML3.
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After that, Chris replaced the four-story Wellfloat Babel placed under "Hummingbird" with the limited edition six-story Babel Genesis. After comparing before and after, Anders described the sense of presence as even more shocking because the listening position seemed to have been moved a few lines forward, adding to the sense of intimacy with the musicians on the stage. Not only did the dynamics of each instrument come clearly into view, but different gradations of energy went straight through his eyes and body. I really think that the level of violin replay performed at Divin Studio has reached the realm of Ultimate Fidelity, which is amazing.

I sincerely appreciate that AE often invites experts in various fields to mentor everyone how to appreciate music. If you don't have the most basic musical knowledge, holding hundreds of thousands of dollars of famous cables or millions in pieces of equipment, the meaning may be limited to the satisfaction of material desires. Price may reflect quality, but these exquisite items require knowledge and perseverance to discover their value.

The spiritual satisfaction from this encounter cannot be described in a few words, and the excitement has not yet subsided.

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When I first connected the PRANAWIRE NIRVANA XLS Level III power cable, it underperformed my previous references, the PranaWire ARHAT Lightspeed and COSMOS LE. It took some days for the cable to burn in and become stabilized in the context of the system.

I will be short: this is, for me, a real breakthrough in cable performance, even surpassing the evolutionary step the ARHAT LS presented some years ago. This cable improves transparency, lifts many veils and gives a sense of presence and body that is really jaw dropping. At first, the bass was significantly less present and well defined than the previous references. I can now say that the bass is much better than the ARHAT LS and COSMOS LE in all regards. Voices are so present that it is quite unbelievable and highs have a rightness I had dreamed of for years but never found until now. Extension, power and the sense of genuine, natural and organic highs is a wonder. Soundstage is also wider and deeper.

On ‘Coal Train’ (Hugh Masekela – ‘Hope’): Every word is easy to understand and perfectly defined. Each choir member appears as an individual, appropriately spaced within the stage. The air surrounding them is palpable. I have experienced this album in CD, SACD and now in streaming. No matter the format, the playback is really immersive. My wife said that this is by far the best this track has ever sounded.

‘B Partita’ (Philippe Manoury): This experimental music is really well recorded but extremely difficult to play back as the high frequencies are powerful and very extended. With the NIRVANA XLS LIII, the sound is engaging and never bright.  Each instrument is present, vivid and exceptionally precise in the soundstage.

Bryce Dessner’s ‘Solos’ album: The violin on ‘Delphica II’ is present, detailed and has grip without being hard or dry. Strings are very close to what I hear in a live acoustic concert at row 1 or 2.

This new power cable is a game changer, extracting a higher level of performance than I had thought possible. The overall tonality of the system has become much more natural and balanced.

Philippe
PHP AUDIO

​Divin Lab Divin Lab is the largest flagship store among Audio Exotics' three stores in Hong Kong, China. The main system is equipped with German Goebel's speaker "Divin Majestic" and Goebel's subwoofer "Divin Sovereign". The preamplifier and power amplifier are "Takumi K15EX" and "Takumi K160" from Japan's Robert Corda. The analog players are "Statement" from Denmark's Hartvig Audio, "Akasu Elemento" from the UK's Dalby Audio Design, and "Gabrielle Mk4" from Switzerland's DaVinciAudio Labs, and the phono equalizers are "Jinpu" from Japan's Zanden Audio Systems and "PHS 7.3" from France's JMF Audio.

　Divin Lab is a spacious space with a huge group of speakers from Germany's Göbel and three super-sized turntables, overwhelming visitors with their imposing presence. When our reporting team visited, they were not switching between multiple systems, but instead using the best system selected by Chris as the basis and using some equipment such as turntables depending on the source. This is the basic attitude of the shop, which is different from general audio shops. Rather than lining up multiple components and systems for customers to compare, the owner selects and refines the system to play the sound, and customers who resonate with the sound will often purchase a product that suits their environment and preferences. It seems that this sales attitude is gaining support. Customers who purchase expensive audio products at Audio Exotics have complete trust in the owner's ears and audio philosophy. Founder Chris Leung takes a logical approach to finding the perfect sound 　Founder Chris Leung's life is closely linked to the economic development of Hong Kong after its return to China. He majored in economics and statistics at Columbia University and New York University in the United States, and obtained a master's degree. In addition to his main job as an economist with a 25-year career in banking, he was drawn to the joy of audio as a hobby by his father since childhood, and entered the world of high-end audio. He has been involved in audio for over 30 years.

I first tested one Level III Interceptor connected to the audio stand. Then I connected the second Level III Interceptor to the DAC/CD-SACD player. Lastly, I connected both to the VAULT II.
 
Test tracks included Keith Jarret, Youn Sun Nah, Henry Dutilleux and Karlheinz Stockhausen, but also many more.​

I connected the DAC-Transport and the audio stand to the Vault with PranaWire silver ribbon cables. There was a huge improvement in dynamics, body and, curiously, the system opened up with more air. Bass became deeper and more solid. 
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Returning to the untreated system after one day of listening demonstrated that without the PranaWire Master Grounding System, the sound is very good but lacks immediacy, a sense of power and subtle shadings of tones that I hear only in rows 1 to 7 in a concert hall or in a recording studio. I think the next step will be to add the Interceptors and Vault to my Alsyvox full range ribbon speakers. 

Karlheinz STOCKAUSEN - track 1.
This is a very difficult track (most radical contemporary recordings are) because the composer uses piano combined with percussion instruments, both of which are in the treble spectrum. This leads to blurring and a sense of saturation.
 
For the first time, I could listen to this track without any frustration due to aggressiveness or simplification of the tones of the instruments that were absolutely without saturation even on dramatic crescendos. This is the same difference as listening on a very good (but not top level) high-end CD player verses a professional R2R master tape. The PranaWire Master Ground System is quite expensive and Vault is big and heavy. I can not imagine the demo system without them, even if each component by itself is at the pinnacle of today’s audio standards.
 
Philippe
PHPAUDIO®
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(The first section of this blog is a reprise of the original Advanced Record Cleaning On The Cheap. Scroll down to the divider to read the new section.)

O.K. So these aren’t cheap, $38 for ten at The Last Factory, https://tinyurl.com/yx3h3gpd
but your cost for one is $3.80. The auto tire weights aren’t cheap either, but you’ll only be using pennies worth of them. The ones that are left over can be used for all sorts of audio improvements. See my tweak of the Acoustic Revive RR-888 Ultra Low Frequency Generator: https://www.lotusgroupusa.com/blog/tweaking-beyond.
 
 
I removed the magnifying glass and one of the alligator clips. I added the auto tire weights to the base to make it more stable, and to the brush as well. On its own, the brush will not seat well and needs the weights to make positive contact with the surface of the LP. You might want to experiment with how much weight you add to the brush. Orient the brush so that is about 10 degrees off of plumb, perpendicular to the grooves and place the base on your cleaning machine. (If your machine does not have room for the base, there are clamp-on versions of the helping hands, or you might otherwise need to improvise.) You should be able to press gently on the articulated arm to flatten the bush against the LP (after you’ve added your fluid). Voila! You now have a cleaning machine that will push fluids around the grooves for as long as you choose without having to stand there holding a brush, feeling stupid and building up tension in your back. You can go and check your email or make coffee, and come back, remove the unit and vacuum up the well-saturated debris. Just don’t forget you left the LP spinning there. It will dry out after not too long a while.  Keep a paper towel handy in case some fluid gets squeegeed off the edge and drips on your machine.
 
Since I clean really dirty LPs with two different fluids followed by a rinse, I purchased a second unit so that I don’t have to clip and unclip the brushes, just lift one out and put the other one in. This setup will clean nearly as well as the Matrix for just the cost of your existing manual machine plus the materials to make your articulated, weighted brush holder. It’s not automatic. You still have to run the vacuum and flip the LP, but the increase in cleaning time accompanied by the fact you don’t have to stand there any more (or at least as much) is well worth the investment. 
 
The LPs I’ve cleaned so far are the cleanest I’ve ever had. I experimented with several of my favorite pressings that had already been cleaned. I listened to one cut and then did a one step brushing plus rinse cycle on each side. A visual inspection comparing a previously cleaned side with a newly cleaned one showed the new cleaning to be much more thorough. It is sparkling and pristine. The old cleaning appears slightly dull and grainy side by side with the new. I don’t think I would have characterized the old cleaning as not fully clean until I had seen the difference. I came back and played the cut again. In every case the presentation was quieter and more transparent than before.
 
The downside to all of this is that I may have to re-clean all my favorites. Oy!
 
But wait! There’s more! See below for my instructions on how to supercharge your LP brush project in the second installment, turning it into a true world-class contender for around $60.
 
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In the previous section I described how to build a brush that would stand on its own so that you don’t have to stand there holding it for the number of revolutions required to get the record clean - a process for which I have little patience.  My limit is about 6 revolutions before I get antsy and need to leave, but six revolutions does not give the enzymes enough time to do their job. They have to break down what in many cases will be decades long embedded dirt.  The advantage of having a brush in place for longer than any reasonable person should be willing to stand there for is undeniable, but is that freestanding brush, on its own, enough to insure the kind of deep cleaning needed to extract all the information hidden in the grooves?  
 
Jeff  recently reminded me that you have to agitate the brush to get deep cleaning, but then you are back to standing there holding the damn brush. There had to be a better way. Does manual agitation alone bring you to the promised land? My answer is no it does not. Not after I have heard what I am now hearing.  But to backtrack, his reminder was the basis for my latest upgrade to the standing brush system, one that brings your ordinary spinning vacuum cleaner into megabuck performance for around $60 (A little more if you haven’t built your stationary brush yet.) 
 
So what form does this fevered inspiration take and what was the reasoning that got me there? I have been thinking a lot about ultrasonic machines, their pros and cons. One thing is the fact that the cleaning agent is primarily water with perhaps some small amount of enzymes or surfactant added, but on a spinning vacuum type of machine the fluid can be 100% enzymes or other concentrated cleaning liquid. So there has to be an advantage there. How much fluid does the record need to see to clean very deeply. I think the answer is, not all that much really, just enough to decently flood the surface plus enough time to penetrate the dirt and enough agitation to assist. Ultrasonic cleaning is not the only type of sonic cleaning used in industrial processes. There is also just plain sonic cleaning. So what if you could modify your freestanding brush holder to vibrate while spinning? What would that do, and how would you go about making that happen? It turns out that all the technology you need is readily available and costs little. I simply put together pieces that I knew already existed. 
 
You can order a small transducer (Tectonic TEAX19C01-8 19mm Metal Cup Exciter 8 Ohm
 Parts Express - https://www.parts-express.com/tectonic-teax19c01-8-19mm-metal-cup-exciter-8-ohm--297-208 - $6.80.). Its purpose is to turn any surface into a “speaker”. ​

 While these devices and the panels that you apply them to will create truly awful sound (It is a novelty to be able to turn your walls into “speakers”), there are other very useful applications such as this one where they can be quite valuable. You will also need a small amplifier such as the Dayton Audio DTA30HP 30W Class D Mini Amplifier  (2 x 30W –Parts Express - $38.95, https://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-dta30hp-30w-class-d-mini-amplifier-with-headphone-output--300-3812)  some wire and a signal generator. I use MultiTone 4+
Signal Generator for Audiobus by Thomas Gruberon the Apple App Store.

Be careful not to turn up the volume too high as requiring this tiny speaker with its super tiny xmax to work too hard will cause it to overheat. (For that reason, I do not recommend leaving it unattended until you have figured out the best settings. Similary, I do not recommend using sweeps and ultra high frequencies for the same reason.) I will leave the brush on the record for from 3-5 minutes while I do something else (like write this blog). Then vacuum it up and rinse with Unity Audio Vinyl Rinse Pro. Voila. The proof is in the listening. Don’t forget that new record sleeve. I use compressed air to blow out any dust remaining in the outer sleeve and the original inner sleeve if I am saving it for reference.
 
(Note that the Clearaudio double Matrix that was the inspiration for this project lists a sonic cleaning option.)
 
I have noted a significant improvement in removal of surface noise using this method, however, sometimes one such cleaning is not enough. If the surface of the record is blemish-free on close inspection, but there is still a fair amount of surface noise after cleaning, it is either due to ancient debris still remaining in the grooves or something more permanent that no amount of cleaning can cure. Nevertheless, I do find improvements on the second cleaning. The benefits of deep cleaning to be had with this method far outweigh the minimal expense and effort. 
 
 
Let me know if you try it and what you discover so that I can pass any new info on to others. You can post on my blog page where this article is archived (a slightly different version: https://www.lotusgroupusa.com/blog/advanced-record-cleaning-on-the-cheap) or email me directly at: [email protected]. Thanks.
 

​How often are you shaken to the core by what you are hearing? How often is your preconception of what the ultimate might sound like shattered by the actuality? 
 
You might think from some of my previous rantings that that is a common occurrence around here. But actually no. Not on this level. I will have to dig deep to describe what our latest addition is doing. What is humbling in this process is that we are not adding anything, rather we are attempting to remove that which we are not able to perceive until it is gone. We try not to self-censor before we start a new project.  We try to allow our imagination to explore the farthest reaches of what is possible, not rejecting ideas that seem impractical. The whole venture is impractical from the start, but you knew that already.
 
Today I began reading a rant from a respected engineer who was leaving an online group because he could no longer countenance conversation that included "non-scientific” claims of any kind. It was pages long, too long for me to read to the end, and to be entirely fair to him he presented important and cogent scientific information. Look, I get it. To an engineer why should a connector matter when it comes to transmission of electricity. Either it does so safely and properly or it does not. From that perspective he is entirely right. I am not going to argue with him whether cables matter or not, whether all of these upgrades are worthwhile or not. 
 
I am not interested in being right. I am interested in being moved. I want to feel like I can walk up to Johnny Hartman and thank him for all the beauty he brought into the world. I want to see John Coltrane standing there in his quiet dignity. I want to hear the last wisp of Hillary Hahn’s bow and feel the internal volume of Giovanni Hidalgo’s conga as its sound fills the stage. I want to see La Scala arrayed before me as the engineer in the recording session heard it in his headphones sixty years ago. I want to be able to understand from the sound why he placed the microphones where he did. That is why I am willing to go to crazy lengths to get there. For this we have to make our own roadmap as we are in uncharted territory. Arguing the merits of such a pursuit is for someone else. We don’t have the time. We do it because we are compelled by each little thing that brings us a step closer - following the carrot on that stick for as long as we are blessed with the ability to do so.
 
Elsewhere I have written, “Everything influences everything. There is no such thing as a vacuum, even in a vacuum. Signal does not travel through conductors like water through a hose; rather, signal in its relationship with the conductor unleashes a host of primary, secondary and tertiary interactions in both the conductor, the dielectric materials and the space surrounding the cable (or component) where it will interact with the fields surrounding other components and cables. 
 
Cables generate their own autoimmune disease whereby stray signal may re-enter the signal path out of phase. Shields couple magnetically with conductors and each other. Materials interact triboelectrically, and generate static by the very fact that everything is always in motion and that charge imbalances are unavoidable. Nothing is at rest, even at rest. Noise permeates the ether, high frequency signals and pulses abound and conductors and traces are excellent antennas. In case you hadn’t noticed, the universe is conspiring to smear signal. Whew, I need to take a breath.”
 
We live in a sea of noise, now more than ever and tomorrow more than today. This is the march of “progress”. The way we know empirically that there is ultra-high frequency noise present is when we are able to diminish it using various techniques. Its absence is audible for reasons discussed previously, but is palpable nevertheless. One should never assume that signal in any location in a system is impervious to noise. This is why when people ask me which device is most important I always answer, “All of them.” 

Our flagship stand-alone Super Enhanced Ground Plane Box, the Emerald, with its massive multilayered pure silver plate and Duelund cast silver capacitor has great potential to disarm noise throughout the system. It took a little time, however, to discover the best means of absorbing and delivering that noise to it to be dissipated as heat - which turned out not to be connecting the chassis of the component to it but by connecting the collector plates that we have invented that are designed to go on top of the component. Connecting the collector plates to the Emerald has been eye opening. We could certainly place them underneath the component, but it was important in this instance that the collector plate function as a vibration sink as well. To this end we have designed the PranaWire Annapurna Collector Platform. With the Annapurna, Everest and Meru Collector Platforms and our top mount Chakradar, K2 and Crown Chakra collector plates we have created a complete ecology of noise reduction that surrounds the system’s equipment top and bottom and brings its performance into entirely new territory. (Since this was first published we have tried taking a full sized platform and inverting it on top of the preamplifier with a set of fo.Q Hem-25 footer in between and the results were amazing.)
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The top is of thick, heavily damped polished brass and composite material.  Inside is our Super Enhanced Collector Plate that is connected electrically to the top. The internal collector plate is surrounded by powerful noise absorbing materials. There is a binding post that connects the platform to the Emerald via a cable. The whole thing weighs approximately 60 lbs. The Brass top and the internal Collector Plate function in concert to draw vast amounts of noise away from the component, while the massive tuned brass top plate decisively shunts vibrational energy away from the component. (We recommend the use of fo.Q HEM-25 footers between the Collector/Platform and the component for enhanced performance.)

The PranaWire Everest Speaker Collector Platform uses a massive brass and composite top plate and will hold over 1000 lbs. Each will be built to the customer's specification.

In the coming months we will be designing some more affordable derivatives of these where we hope to capture a great percentage of the performance for less cost. Stay tuned.

When I am talking about compression in a system, I am not referring to the method of controlling loudness on a recording in the studio, I am talking anything which inhibits the full blossoming of the sound as it actually exists in the source whether bits or grooves. The experience of hearing a system with vanishingly low "compression" as I describe below is somewhat akin to a 70's light show. The sound appears from nowhere and grows to a particular shape and volume with its own constantly evolving colors, highlights and shadows. It grows to its largest natural intensity and then recedes and disappears. The orchestra, then, is seen as a fountain of bursting, ever changing colors and shapes that fill three dimensional space, and, like the tip of a gentle wave across the sand, each individual sound reaches its natural high point before receding without any interference from the other sounds. The entire system breathes like never before. The sense of intimacy, pace, rhythm, texture, unfettered dynamics and emotion is unlike anything previously experienced. This is what I mean by lack of compression.

My customer's system consists of Wilson Alexx speakers, SMc Custom amplifiers and Preamplifier, dCS DAC, Clock and upsampler, Aurender 20+ Server with Pranawire Nirvana and Sukhavati cables throughout with three PranaWire Sovereign Linebackers and one PranaWire Cloud9 Power Conditioner, and other tweeks too numerous to mention.

There are a handful of systems where I have heard this vanishing level of compression, they include my own reference system and this customer’s, both with the PranaWire Emerald Super Enhanced Ground plane and the Annapurna Collector/Platform in place. Let  me say from the outset that this listening session was  among the peak listening events of my life! The notes should be taken in the context that all comments are on the very things that are different and better, increased or enhanced. This system now has vanishingly low dynamic compression from micro to macro dynamics. The images are not as large as in our reference system, but  the quality is beyond reproach. I have heard this same digital front end dozens of times, but now the way it presents, from the softest whisper to the loudest crescendo, is more deeply satisfying than anything I have ever heard. This digital based system rivals the best analog I have heard and in some significant ways surpasses it.  I can only speculate as to why, with the Annapurna under the pre-amplifier that this should be so, but it is the case.

Haydn Trumpet Concerto in E flat major. Rolf Smedvig: When the space between musicians is clarified to this extent the sense of ensemble is deeply reinforced. You can feel the power of the interaction between the musicians along with their interaction with hall and audience. The delicacy of Smedvig's trumpet outshines any previous hearing by many miles. It is larger, silkier more richly sonorous and expresses more subtle shadings of tones.

La Sonnambula, Bellini, Southerland and Pavorati: You can’t assume that glare is a fault of the recording. Glare is often seen as a highlight at a particular frequency or range, but when the system is able to handle it, as in this case with the introduction of the Annapurna, that highlight is unpacked, becoming a further enhancement and clarification of the information that is reaching your ears, such as the precise distances between musicians, and and a new freshness and immediacy of the voices. This results in a much deeper emotional connection with the performance.

Concerto for Flute Harp and Orchestra in C major, Mozart K299, Jean Francois Paillard: burnished and floating, everything is richer causing the listener to sit up and give his complete and undivided attention. Zero harshness, yet notes that naturally want to sear and pierce do so with absolute musicality. You’ve never heard the recorded plucking of a harp until you have heard this. Breathtaking!

Kendra Shank ‘Left Alone’: Utter realism. Uncanny tightness and roundness of bass. Her vibrato floats in the air like ribbons on a gentle breeze. More present and full that at any previous listening.

Piano Concerto 24 Mozart, Piotr Anderszewski: Never have I heard such perfect resonance from an orchestra. This is conveyed by the sheer beauty of each section and instrument. From the softest pillow-like pianissimo to intensely musical swells, each sound caresses the ears. This is deeply pleasurable.

La Traviata, Di Sprezzo Se Stresso Rende Anna Mongolia, Richard Tucker, Robert Merrill: How to describe such an organic whole? The orchestra is one beast with myriad colors and highlights. The chorus is utterly coherent from ppp to fff. Utterly free of glare. At their loudest the sense of the hall is not obscured like before. Harmonies take on more focus with greater connection to the intense emotions from the singers. Zero compression. Zero. At the ending: The timpani lends its weight in its precise location on the stage. Part of a whole and distinct at the same time. Astonishing.

Don Giovanni :. This shows how nimble an orchestra can be. Staging is uncanny. Violins: utter delicacy with an edge. They nest at the top of the orchestra with woodwinds and horns layered perfectly below. Vocal interjections are startling. The space of the venue is in the room in a way it has never been. Vocal counterpoint floats in three dimensions. Fabulous weight. Zero compression. Layering in this sense can be seen as something new altogether.

Don Giovani 2: Delicious horns. Baritones from heaven. angry sopranos - phenomenal. Everything is (phenomenal) actually! The soprano shout - are you kidding me?

Beethoven 5th, Chailly, 3rd & 4th movements: Speechless. There are no words to convey the beauty and the grandeur, absolutely staggering - perhaps the peak moment of my listening life! All this from one Annapurna in the system. We are building more for the customer and one for the reference system. Stay tuned.

Rightness cannot be gauged as an outward phenomenon. What I mean by that is that the multiple feedback systems that comprise our awareness easily let us know when things are on the right track. In Tai Chi practice when we are engaged with our opponent, the energy we receive from him flows through us into the floor, is compressed and then uncoils outward back into him through our point of contact. Allowing the full natural trajectory of the movement insures the appropriateness of the response. In the most advanced forms this practice goes back-and-forth like a long, thrilling tennis rally. When the movement is executed as a perfect response there is a feeling of elation borne out of the effortlessness of it all. This sense of rightness is an internal phenomenon. It is not something that can be imposed from without. It must be felt.

In the same manner, the rightness of a Hifi system is gauged by our own personal, physical relationship with it. The system is playing us. When there is no truncation of the roundness (or saw-toothy-ness), decay and direction of a recorded event, we enter into a relationship of ease, which gives rise to feelings of awe, wonder and elation. And, like the “long boxing” of Tai Chi masters, this phenomenon only occurs at the very highest levels. There are no shortcuts to mastery. 

Here, a new balance has been achieved, the result of every single step we have taken on the way. Our job is to continually polish, applying principles we have learned and uncovered. Knowing that the system is at its very highest level of evolution in this moment, I see the steps that still need to be taken. And, as I have said on many occasions, I can never know in advance what the sound of the next breakthrough will be as it is always a venture into the unknown.  But each time I experience something I have never heard before, I can recognize its rightness instantly.

Today marks another breakthrough in my understanding of the Granada loudspeaker and its ability to show us every last thing that is behind it. It is an actively crossed over, open baffle loudspeaker with real time DSP crossover and room calibration functions. Having taken it to many shows and having set it up in many circumstances I have been able to understand that the character of a given cabinet and set of drivers is very largely variable, and that slight changes to the crossover network can emphasize one side or another revealing a rainbow of equally valid variations in demeanor (and some not so valid).

As I have discussed before, I view calibration as an art, but it is only recently that I have learned to execute it myself, and while my initial attempts at refining the calibration were on the right track, there has still been some distance to cover. Behind each new step is a voice telling me where we need to go next, be it the insertion of a footer or the application of TA102 to electrolytic capacitors (see my previous blog, 'Mishap Equals Opportunity') or to an adjustment of the calibration. I’m sure this is just the sum total of years of experience, but it feels like I don’t know how I know what I know. I just do.

What precipitated today’s certainty for the need to re-calibrate was the insertion into the system of a Linebacker Sovereign that we have just completed building for a customer.  While we do have two prototype Linebacker XEs in the system, I’ve never had the opportunity until now, to listen to a Sovereign here. Each time we completed building one in the past it had to be immediately shipped off to the customer. (I have, of course, auditioned them in my customers’ systems). This new level of clarity was simply stunning, and once again the system spoke to me. I have been aware for quite some time that adjustments were in order; however, it became an urgent matter upon hearing this newest breakthrough.

With the re-calibration the system snapped into balance in such a way as to nearly give me whiplash. Recovering from the shock I saw a room filled with treasure. Individual and massed sounds fairly leapt into the room, each part shining like a diamond, each event quenching a deep thirst.

Once the Sovereign is shipped, there is no question that we have to bite the bullet and build at least one, if not two for here.

This system in its entirety is the manifestation of a way of thinking that can be rightly called ‘The PranaWire Method’. New products are on the way that are part of the ecology we are developing in our attempt to refine every possible aspect of our reference system, our laboratory. This includes but is not limited to, new cables, power conditioning (both at the wall outlet and at the entrance to each piece of equipment), our Super enhanced Ground Plane Boxes, collectors and noise collecting/vibration absorbing platforms. These last three when connected together form a network of noise absorbing and shunting devices that substantially shield each piece of equipment, working in concert to keep them as free from environmental noise as possible. I include the Granada and G2 loudspeakers as central to our efforts, but customers with other speakers will nevertheless reap profound benefits if they opt to employ any or all of the peripheral equipment we provide. 

Shown below is our latest creation, the Cloud9, purely passive power conditioner. This was a heroic undertaking. It uses massively oversized Bocchino Elektra outlets (choice of either two or three) and the equally massive Bocchino Mariner10 IEC inlet, pure silver internal wiring and pure silver oversized Super Enhanced Ground Plane with Duelund Cast Silver Capacitor tuning. The box is 18.75” X 11.5” X 11.5” and weighs approximately 60 lbs. A smaller, more affordable version, the Apsara, is in the works and will be available in 2020. 

We conceive of, design and build devices that can become part of the arsenal that you may wish to employ in your own personal assault on the upper end. I am happy to answer any questions you may have. Please get in touch. Thank you.

Mishaps can end up providing unexpected opportunity. Last week I managed to blow a fuse in my amplifier. Since the fuse is in line in the interior of the amp, I had to open it up. When I glanced inside I noticed just how many electrolytic capacitors were staring me in the face with their circles of shiny metal exposed on top. The thought crossed my mind,  “What would happen if I put a circle of fo.Q TA-102 on each one?” Looking more closely, I counted eight large, four medium and two smaller caps. There were more that were smaller even. I decided to treat  just the 14 larger ones. I have a set of circular punches that I bought on Amazon for about $22. I used them to punch out three different sizes of circles of TA-102 and stuck them on the top of each one.

 When customers ask me about burn in times for PranaWire Cables. I tell them my rule of twos:

the most significant changes seem to happen after two hours, then two days, then two weeks and finally two months.  Is this hard and fast? Not really, since I have never had a timer on to gauge these things exactly, but the approximation is useful and seems to be borne out by a recent email from my customer, A.M.

"It is now been five months since I received the Nataraja cables and I thought I should report on how I have found them. They have been in the system approximately 34 days. … I don't know the actual playing time but I would guess it is something like 600 + hours.
 
… I am very impressed. It took a couple of days for the sound to open up and since then it's never been anything but good. It has taken a long time however for everything to come together. The bass in particular took 450 hours (perhaps 350 hours actual) to become focused with extension, weight, scale and texture coming together… Since then bass quality has gone up another level every hundred hours or so and it appears to be still evolving. This has had a beneficial effect on the whole frequency range. The center of gravity seems a little lower and everything somehow seems more solid and powerful. I have had to turn the volume knob down 3-4 clicks to achieve an equivalent volume. The sound is tonally richer without any apparent loss of clarity or darkening.
 
“the soundstage noticeably increased in depth and height to be positively cavernous on some recordings and with a stronger sense of musicians being in the room.”
 
The Nataraja cables have a similar sonic signature to what I described about the Vajras – spacious (the soundstage noticeably increased in depth and height to be positively cavernous on some recordings and with a stronger sense of musicians being in the room) resolved, dynamic and utterly beautiful. In particular the sound is noticeably more dynamic. The impact of the Nataraja cables is like introducing a good preamplifier with increased drive and in room presence, tighter timing and a more full-bodied sound. Classic rock has been a bit of revelation, rediscovering old Wishbone Ash records, Cowboy Junkies, Dylan, Humble Pie, Rolling Stones, Flaming Grovies, JJ Cale, Robin Trower …. and Miles’ electric Jazz  J
 
Compared to the system with just the Vajras, the sound with the Nataraja ICs has more of everything. The sound is significantly better, which is what I had hoped for, but how much better is surprising. As I've said, the cables still seem to be evolving and there was a noticeable improvement in SQ between 700 and 800 hours (nominal). Last night I was glued to my seat for eight hours totally absorbed in the music. I'm still feeling the afterglow. There is another 26 days before the two month mark is reached so I will be interested to hear what further improvement there is still to come.
 
You have made me very happy. Thank you so much!!!"

Bold and italics are mine.

There is a very simple explanation for why this topic is so important​. It comes via my technician when I asked him why he thought the PranaWire Linebacker was so effective. Earlier I wrote that when he measured its effectiveness he was expecting to find no greater than 10db or perhaps, at the extreme, 15db of reduction. What we found instead was that the attenuation we were able to measure was at the noise floor of the measuring equipment. In other words we were only able to measure to 60db of attenuation before the noise generated by the equipment itself masked further results. Though measuring equipment with higher resolution exists, and I would be very happy to see those results, I am content with being able to say that the attenuation is at minimum 60db.
 
If you are familiar with how a piano is tuned you will understand immediately, but for those who do not, let me digress into what is happening with “just” verses “tempered” intonation which will have bearing on my explanation:

​The intervals in just intonation are derived from the physics of a string. When you allow your finger to lightly touch a string at exact fractional distances between the bridge and the nut you will hear different tones.  The table below explains:

​Thepoint is that there is a physical basis for the derivation of each note based on the actual subdivisions of a vibrating string. This is what happens naturally on any single string of an instrument whether on a Bosendorfer or a one string Indian Ektar. When viewing a video of a vibrating string in slow motion, you can actually see these nodes at work.