Audio lows and highs 2023.

[JohnVF]

It's time for the end of year threads!

In this one, what was the low point of your audio year, and what was your high point? I think its good to end on a win so highs go last.

My audio low-point was the premature destruction of m Hana ML cartridge in some sort of unseen cueing disaster involving my wife and her loose sleeves. My guess is the cantilever got pushed back by her big bell sleeve while lifting the arm on my manual table after I left an album playing while I went off to do something in another room. To her credit, she's expressed an interest in automatic tables (and her's is a Mitsubishi LT-30 full-auto linear tracker where you never have to touch the arm). She didn't even know she'd done it, but when I went to play a record the next down it sounded...really strange. And when I looked the cantilever was pointing straight down. As understanding as she's been with my audio adventures, no harm nor foul. The cost of living with fragile things. And it opened the door for replacing it, and buying a Cello/Miyabi cart here. Which...well...honestly it sounds almost exactly like the Hana but its cooler looking and harder to set up, so I get a sense of accomplishment from figuring out its finicky needs. The Hana was an easy-going sweetheart, so of course, not the type of thing you fall madly in love with after learning to deal with its problems and pickiness. In all seriousness the Hana ML is just a lovely cart, a sort of Goldilocks cart that may not be the best of any one thing but ends up being the best overall. There will hopefully be another one in my future.

My audio high-point was the purchase of a Pass Labs XP-10 preamp. I'm admittedly a bit obsessed with preamps and this is the one I've chosen to marry (there's a lot of love metaphors going on here). I was running the Slagle TVC for eight years? Seven? And quite happy with it but over time I just wanted something else with a bit more scale/oomph behind it and that was a tall order, as the TVC is no slouch. It bested quite a few $$ preamps in its time here. But I'd always wanted to try a Pass preamp and this one was just at the edge of my budget. So I stretched a bit and took a blind swing and.... home run. It's everything I wanted and more. The kind of thing that has you reaching for every recording you love to hear it all over again for the first time.

 

[Rudy]

Lows? Thems come from woofahs. Highs come from them tweeter thangs.

Lows:

• Despite liking my carts, none come anywhere near close the V15VMR. Debating selling one of them for a NOS stylus I found for the V15 but that's a gamble with the suspensions known to harden in storage.
• Going back and forth between two phono stages, and debating selling one since funds are tight now. (Wanted to sell both to upgrade but buying nothing new is in the cards for a couple of years now.)
• New phono interconnect has been frustrating due to break-in, or something.
• Steely Dan UHQRs sound like ass for the money. (But as a "high," I can resell these for 2x or more than I paid once they're out of print...and still have the SACDs which sound nearly identical. Some other suckers can own these instead. I don't need pristine pressings of tired, worn-out master tapes.)

High(s):

• I didn't ruin anything.
• Periphery ring.
• Got rid of a makeshift streamer and replaced with end game streamer. Done, done, and done.
• Debating a new audio rack but that's for 2025.

 

[JohnVF]

I'll add another high since there's no rules and we can have more than one. And that high was buying fewer things and instead experimenting with what I have to figure out better synergies. Towards that end, the Miyabi cart ended up LOVING a phono stage that I had previously not been enthralled with, the Lehmann Decade (which also worked much better with the Pass Labs pre than it did the TVC). And it loved it more running in high gain than it did with a SUT, which was surprising. Another matchup that worked was putting my Leben CS300 with my JBL L82 Classics. I wouldn't have guessed they were a match but you never know.

 

[Rudy]

If it's a "philosophical" high, then I guess that earlier in the year, I knew I was near my "end game" for the main system and I only had some accessories and maybe a change of audio rack to look for in the future.

And on those same notes, I also realized a couple of years ago that I will likely never have a second system in the house ever again so, aside from a few special pieces, most of the rest has to leave the house. The sooner, the better. I have gone from "I really need to get rid of most everything I have in the basement" to my 2023 sentiment of "send a dumpster--I'm tired of looking at all this crap."

I'm at the maximum frustration level, so while the "low" will be parting with most of this stuff, it will also be a "high" because we have relocation looming in the future, and I can finally get rid of most everything I don't need in life.

 

[RDSChicago]

My high was acquiring a fantastic streamer-DAC for little money, namely the Eversolo DMP-A6. What a bargain in audio. Tomorrow my Wiim Pro Plus is arriving for a bedroom-headphone system which for $175 I‘m certain will also be huge bang for the buck.

 

[prime minister]

Low? Finding out my Fisher 500c is dead.

 

[JohnVF]

Low? Finding out my Fisher 500c is dead.

Ok the only rule is, you also need a high! Or was it getting the Fisher (high) then finding out its dead (low).

I still retain hope for it. There's so much to go wrong in those things but usually they come back.

 

[prime minister]

Ok the only rule is, you also need a high! Or was it getting the Fisher (high) then finding out its dead (low).

I still retain hope for it. There's so much to go wrong in those things but usually they come back.

The high will be when I get it fixed. But that's a 2024 high.

I guess one should start by reading the rules?

 

[JohnVF]

The high will be when I get it fixed. But that's a 2024 high.

I guess one should start by reading the rules?

Rule number 1 is that the rules are made up as we go.

 

[JoeThePop]

Low point: my new role at work has seriously hampered my work time music listening as I have Teams meetings all morning and more in the afternoon.

High point: purchased a WiiM Pro for my main system. What a delightful device for streaming music. No hassle setup and App use. Much better than the Play-Fi App my desktop speakers use.

 

[mfrench]

Low point: Very few recordings in 2023, due to helping my wife thru three surgeries, and the need to assist her in recovery (both hips replaced, and thyroid surgery).

High point,...
After nearly 10 years of recording these folk, I guess I'm in?
They gave me my new hang-tag this past sunday afternoon, when I arrived for my recording effort. I even got to use the fancy backstage bathroom, and, drinking fountain, as well as a cup of 5 gallon urn coffee.

 

[rusomon]

My high point has been the substantial pile of stuff I got rid of this year.

Can't really think of a low point.

 

[Redboy]

Low point is probably the fact that I did less listening this year than ever before. And fewer projects were finished than ever before, despite my best intentions. Where does the time go?? There are a few people out there, including HFH members, that have been waiting... patiently... for way too long. For that, I am sorry.

But on a high note, I was able to acquire a couple of very special components that will be key to finishing a "lofty goals" project. And I'm feeling blessed by some wonderful relationships that I've formed over the years with the people in this hobby.

 

[TEA FOR ONE]

I’ve been blessed another year. After this week, I have 20 working days until I deliver my final letter! Audio wise, is a plus also. I will have upgraded the power supply in both Nodes, and I have added used,but very good power cords to the mix.

 

[mpholland]

Low points...I haven't really listened to much besides background music all year as I leave for work at 4am and get home around 6pm.

High points...Not really audio related, but I have a lot of 3 day weekends and was able to put over 17K on the Road Glide. Guess that damn bike has put a damper on my listening also.

 

[Rudy]

Software highs and lows?

Highs:

• Qobuz never fails to amaze, amuse or otherwise occupy me. (And I guess a low side to this is that it cost me in buying more downloads. 😁)
• I rarely visit used record stores (especially locally--they all suck) but made that great haul during my afternoon record crawl in Colorado Springs back in July. A large used store was going out of business and I scored 14 or 15 titles (including one new, sealed Craft Recordings reissue) for $90-ish. And a handful from the other stores I visited. Only maybe two of the used records were worn...and they were cheap!
• So many good reissues via the Acoustic Sounds series with Verve, Contemporary, etc., as well as a couple of nice ones via Craft Recordings. Not much of a Blue Note fan but found a small number of excellent reissues in Classic Vinyl and Tone Poet series as well. (Or in other words, I kept Kevin Gray gainfully employed all year. 😁) Finding out Gerald Wilson's Moment of Truth was one highlight among the few Tone Poets I bought (didn't realize they also covered the Pacific Jazz label).

Lows, just a few disappointments:

• Yes, again, the Steely Dan UHQRs (up for sale soon). Overpriced, pristine, beautifully-packed versions of tired old master tapes. 🙄 At least the SACDs are more economically disappointing. And maybe Bernie is getting deaf in his advancing years; I'd love to hear Kevin Gray take a shot at the entire catalog. Any of these I've heard just sound distant and muffled; how can a cheap Classic Vinyl Blue Note reissue I buy for $22 sound so much better than these turds??
• Had a couple of records new or used that had flaws. But in new releases, flaws have nearly disappeared; it's rare I get a bad one now.
• Thankfully didn't buy the MoFi Thriller. Was excited for it, but borrowed the OneStep and SACD versions and all the punch and life is gone from the music. MoFi made it all pretty and audiophile-ey. It's not the record I bought the week of release and listened to for years. Legacy (Columbia) SACD is the closest I've heard to the original vinyl. If I were Quincy Jones, I'd be pissed at how they ruined the sound of this album.

 

[Rudy]

Guess that damn bike has put a damper on my listening also.

I could start a thread about how I've ignored my bike for the past few years. I just don't have time to ride anymore. First two years, I was really into it. But back then I had a much more flexible schedule and could afford 4-5 hours out of a day to drive out to a trail to ride. That's half a workday. And with all my health issues now, I will probably need a pedal-assist e-bike if I want to continue riding. (Our area is too bike-hostile to ride one on the streets.)

Hiking shoes and a road trip out west are more my speed lately...

 

[JohnVF]

• Thankfully didn't buy the MoFi Thriller. Was excited for it, but borrowed the OneStep and SACD versions and all the punch and life is gone from the music. MoFi made it all pretty and audiophile-ey. It's not the record I bought the week of release and listened to for years. Legacy (Columbia) SACD is the closest I've heard to the original vinyl. If I were Quincy Jones, I'd be pissed at how they ruined the sound of this album.

As much as I've defended their inclusion of DSD (hey, maybe a tweaked digital master is why the cheap Steely Dan's sound better? Runs for cover) I've found most MOFI releases to be too "audiophile-ey." They just take the spark out of things, 'til they sound all smooth and gooey (though some of the early early ones are too bright because the owner was severely limited in top-end hearing response).

 

[Rudy]

As much as I've defended their inclusion of DSD (hey, maybe a tweaked digital master is why the cheap Steely Dan's sound better? Runs for cover) I've found most MOFI releases to be too "audiophile-ey."

I have some of their records that sound absolutely fantastic. I don't even like Santana, yet the first Santana album at 45 RPM on MoFi sounds like we're plunked down right in the studio with the band, and they just let loose and jam. (All the bleed-through of the studio mics makes it all that much better, and I like the extended jams.) The one Dean Martin title I have (This Time I'm Swingin') is also fantastic sounding--an excellent rendition of that Capitol studio sound. There was a silver series of the KC & The Sunshine Band album that was unfortunately way too bright, and the B-52s is only slightly too bright (still a blast to listen to though!), but another title like Seeds of Love (Tears for Fears) is another one I'd use to demo a system with as it is a very full-bodied and lush recording, better than the used Fontana copy I found years ago. The stereo Kind of Blue 45 RPM set is one you'll have to pry out of my cold, dead hands.

Hit or miss, in other words. And based on the excellent sound of some of their recent releases, the DSD part is irrelevant in my view.

As for Steely Dan, let's face it--the original ABC pressings on vinyl with the "AB" matrix were cut from a brand spanking new master tape. MoFi messed up their cutting of it in the 80s with some incorrect EQ choices. To be fair, there were massive complaints about the UHQR of Pretzel Logic but if you go back to the recent SHM-CD, it is similarly dull and lifeless--that's just the state of the tape these days, so it's no fault of Bernie Grundman or Analogue Productions that it came out the way it did. The Citizen Steely Dan box set, and the separate CD releases spawned from that mastering, were indeed "goosed" by Masterfonics--I was told that they used the CEDAR digital noise reduction on those titles (as they were fond of doing with reissues they handled) with the participation of Walt and Don during the remastering, under the assumption that these would be the only "official" versions available from that point forward. Whether or not EQ was applied is only known between Masterfonics' engineers, and Walt/Don.

I do hear some flaws on the Citizen masterings that make them sound a little bit "processed" but superficially they do have a little more life to them on the top end.

On the UHQR of Aja, what bothers me is that Steve Gadd's cymbals on the title track don't sound like they should. He is doing some unusual things throughout the song and I feel as though they are buried on this recent release. I can't say I hate it--it's just a disappointment and, for the cost, I feel ripped off. And don't get me started on the very wasteful packaging--what a waste of trees. And it's just more clutter I need to store somewhere.

 

[adaug]

Lows: finding out (quickly) that some gear i had high hopes for, just did not cut it for me in my system. not all too low tho, as i do most of my buying thru TMR these days and they have a really great return policy.

Highs: finding possibly end-game pieces at turntable (1200g), dac (terminator) and ss preamp (holo serene). oh, and the Nait 50!

Middle: realizing that am pretty much out of the vintage gear scene (without really trying to).