I'm not anti-specs. I fully admit to taking specs into consideration when evaluating potential purchases (and its weird to me that some are vehemently against it...its all just information, weight it however you want). BUT... there's only one spec that, to me, has been flawless in its efficacy.
Do I listen to the thing? Or do I not listen to the thing.
And so...what is that spec? What is that...thing that glues me to the thing? That keeps me coming back?
I was thinking about this while listening for the umpteenth hour to my turntable with the Stanton Epoch cart and low-mass AT tonearm that I put on it last week. Prior to this, my listening time had gone stale. There were full weeks that had gone by where I didn't listen more than 20 minutes total. I've put in multiple hours a day, when I've been home, this last week.
Prior to this, this same table had a Jelco TK-850s tonearm and Cello Chorale LOMC. For about a year I've been trying to get a handle on this Cello cartridge. It sounds good. It looks cool. It has a suitably snooty cult following and backstory, being a Miyabi-built and designed cart. And yet... I DON'T LISTEN TO IT. It didn't have...that thing. It didn't have 'it'.
This all reminds me of something in dealing with people out in the world. Charisma. I can't explain charisma... some people have it, some people don't. But I like being around charismatic people. Even if I can't describe it. I enjoy their company. I would say its subjective but... generally people can sense the same charisma in the same people. The kids even have a slang term for it: rizz.
So I guess the AT/Stanton combo has it. It has "rizz".
And thinking back through all of my gear, generally speaking I've kept the gear with rizz and ditched the gear without it. My giant Levinson 432? Awesome amplifier, sounded fantastic...had no rizz.
My Marantz Reference SC-11s2 preamplifier. Lovely champaign finish, detailed and smooth sound. Impressive build quality. And? No rizz. I quickly grew bored when hanging out with it.
Klyne SK6 preamp? Amazing phono stage, esoteric-audiophile-approved- no rizz.
Pass Labs XP-10 preamp? Rizz galore. The T+A a1530r amp its matched to? It's rizz was, in a rare feat, obvious from the first song in the first audition in a store.
Even with phono stages... My Lehmann Decade sounds wonderful. In a back to back comparison, it was 'better' than the Primare I'm listening to as I type. Bigger, more detailed, wider soundstage and...less rizz. The Primare just draws me in and keeps me listening. The Lehmann brags about how awesome it is and pretty soon I'm wondering off to the snack table digging through the shard-like remains of the Ruffles potato chips rather than hear anything more about how great it is.
So there it is. My little rambling thought piece on "it". That "it" that describes what stays and what goes.
Frustratingly, I've found absolutely NO way to measure whether gear has charisma or not without living with it. Hence why I've bought and sold so much gear over the years. Happily, I've been doing this long enough that what remains here, for the most part, all has the rizz.
Gratuitous shot of a charismatic turntable. I like hanging out with it so much that I applied two coats of tung oil to it yesterday out of adoration:
Do I listen to the thing? Or do I not listen to the thing.
And so...what is that spec? What is that...thing that glues me to the thing? That keeps me coming back?
I was thinking about this while listening for the umpteenth hour to my turntable with the Stanton Epoch cart and low-mass AT tonearm that I put on it last week. Prior to this, my listening time had gone stale. There were full weeks that had gone by where I didn't listen more than 20 minutes total. I've put in multiple hours a day, when I've been home, this last week.
Prior to this, this same table had a Jelco TK-850s tonearm and Cello Chorale LOMC. For about a year I've been trying to get a handle on this Cello cartridge. It sounds good. It looks cool. It has a suitably snooty cult following and backstory, being a Miyabi-built and designed cart. And yet... I DON'T LISTEN TO IT. It didn't have...that thing. It didn't have 'it'.
This all reminds me of something in dealing with people out in the world. Charisma. I can't explain charisma... some people have it, some people don't. But I like being around charismatic people. Even if I can't describe it. I enjoy their company. I would say its subjective but... generally people can sense the same charisma in the same people. The kids even have a slang term for it: rizz.
So I guess the AT/Stanton combo has it. It has "rizz".
And thinking back through all of my gear, generally speaking I've kept the gear with rizz and ditched the gear without it. My giant Levinson 432? Awesome amplifier, sounded fantastic...had no rizz.
My Marantz Reference SC-11s2 preamplifier. Lovely champaign finish, detailed and smooth sound. Impressive build quality. And? No rizz. I quickly grew bored when hanging out with it.
Klyne SK6 preamp? Amazing phono stage, esoteric-audiophile-approved- no rizz.
Pass Labs XP-10 preamp? Rizz galore. The T+A a1530r amp its matched to? It's rizz was, in a rare feat, obvious from the first song in the first audition in a store.
Even with phono stages... My Lehmann Decade sounds wonderful. In a back to back comparison, it was 'better' than the Primare I'm listening to as I type. Bigger, more detailed, wider soundstage and...less rizz. The Primare just draws me in and keeps me listening. The Lehmann brags about how awesome it is and pretty soon I'm wondering off to the snack table digging through the shard-like remains of the Ruffles potato chips rather than hear anything more about how great it is.
So there it is. My little rambling thought piece on "it". That "it" that describes what stays and what goes.
Frustratingly, I've found absolutely NO way to measure whether gear has charisma or not without living with it. Hence why I've bought and sold so much gear over the years. Happily, I've been doing this long enough that what remains here, for the most part, all has the rizz.
Gratuitous shot of a charismatic turntable. I like hanging out with it so much that I applied two coats of tung oil to it yesterday out of adoration:
