Reviewer's Music

[fas42]

Potholes are the right thing to test a suspension and the highway is not as you say. By the same token, the right audio sample needs to be picked which makes it easy to find characteristics of audio gear. Music that is so full of distortion/degradation itself will make it hard to find the distortion in gear.

But you go ahead and play that music on your system and report back as to whether it becomes one of your top diagnostic tracks for hardware.

Recording with 'problems' emphasise the distortion of the playback - consider it something like, compound distortion. Ever notice how a "bad" recording sounds very different, on different systems? Now, if each system was doing the right thing, and perfectly replicating the recording, then that poor sound would be the identical poor sound, on each - AB testing should show them almost indistinguishable ... so, if they sound very different, one system is possibly more accurate to the recording than the other - okay, now which one is "better"?

 

[amirm]

Recording with 'problems' emphasise the distortion of the playback - consider it something like, compound distortion. Ever notice how a "bad" recording sounds very different, on different systems? Now, if each system was doing the right thing, and perfectly replicating the recording, then that poor sound would be the identical poor sound, on each - AB testing should show them almost indistinguishable ... so, if they sound very different, one system is possibly more accurate to the recording than the other - okay, now which one is "better"?

How did it sound on your system? Did you find distortions in your system with it?

 

[fas42]

How did it sound on your system? Did you find distortions in your system with it?

No easy way to do that at the moment ... I just listened to the YouTube clip, again, over the laptop speakers, close up - and I'm really impressed with this track, more so than the first time when I quickly listened! No distortions in the recording from where I'm coming from, lots of individual "spaces" in the mix: the spacey guitar work, the vocalist, bass guitar, drums - all nicely captured, with lots of depth, reverb. Should come across extremely well on a sorted system ...

 

[watchnerd]

I just listened to the YouTube clip, again, over the laptop speakers, close up - and I'm really impressed with this track, more so than the first time when I quickly listened! No distortions in the recording from where I'm coming from

I literally spat coffee at my screen....

Thanks, @fas42.

 

[fas42]

I literally spat coffee at my screen....

Thanks, @fas42.

Like me to come over and clean it up ... ? ... I listen in a way which mimics the "headphone experience" - imagine taking a good pair of headphones off your head, while playing, spreading out the band forcibly, so the drivers end up aligned to each other - voila, laptop drivers! In fact, better than headphones - no clamped to your skull sensation ...

 

[amirm]

I just listened to the YouTube clip, again, over the laptop speakers, close up - and I'm really impressed with this track, more so than the first time when I quickly listened! No distortions in the recording from where I'm coming from, lots of individual "spaces" in the mix: the spacey guitar work, the vocalist, bass guitar, drums - all nicely captured, with lots of depth, reverb. Should come across extremely well on a sorted system ...

Wait a sec. You said that this track was good for finding system distortion. Now you say you found none in your laptop sound? Why do you need a sorted system to test then?

 

[fas42]

Wait a sec. You said that this track was good for finding system distortion. Now you say you found none in your laptop sound? Why do you need a sorted system to test then?

The laptop sound is reasonable, good enough to pick obvious problems with the recording itself. And by my standards that recording is fine, as assessed via the laptop. That's not the same thing as deficiencies in the laptop playback chain, which are pretty obvious: obviously no low bass, and strong bass notes cause the speaker grief, lots of distortion if you do a frequency sweep at the low end; the surroundings in the laptop resonate at certain frequencies, and it doesn't go very loud.

The point is that the Hawkwind track would be good for checking if a 'proper' audio rig was "sorted", by pumping up the volume and seeing whether all the elements which are clearly reproduced on the laptop at low levels, can be as "transparent" at normal and above speaker SPLs: are the instruments and voice in the mix clearly separated, do the drum sounds come through cleanly, etc?

 

[amirm]

OK, let's move on.

 

[amirm]

Another review picked at random, this time from JA:

"Piano is always good at revealing midrange problems, but when I played Daniel Barenboim's recent solo recording of Liszt's arrangement of "Solemn March to the Holy Grail," from Wagner's Parsifal, from Barenboim's On My New Piano (16/44.1 Tidal stream, Deutsche Grammophon 289 479 6724), I could hear nothing amiss. And the tolling in the left-hand register of Barenboim's unique straight-strung piano, developed in collaboration with instrument maker Chris Maene, sounded suitably majestic with the MBL Corona C15 monoblocks driving the Aerials.
Read more at http://www.stereophile.com/content/aerial-acoustics-5t-loudspeaker#KxtwT1soez81D8bW.99"

Great to see Tidal being used for reviews now which assures a hit when I look for it there .

The nearly 8 minute track mentioned is very well done. It has a warm tone which I like and good resolution in how you can feel the strings in lower notes. There is also good bit of reverb/ambience.

Definitely recommended.

 

[amirm]

"The bass guitar in "Black Magic Woman," from MoFi's "One-Step" reissue of Santana's Abraxas (2 45rpm LPs, Columbia/Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab MFSL-2-45013), spoke with authority in its lower register. This track segues into "Gypsy Queen"; when it did, Michael Shrieve's kick drum had the necessary impact.
Read more at http://www.stereophile.com/content/aerial-acoustics-5t-loudspeaker#KxtwT1soez81D8bW.99"

This is obviously not the LP but still, it has very good fidelity and as most know, very nice music.

 

[amirm]

"I have no memory of downloading "#thatPower," by will.i.am and Justin Bieber (16/44.1 FLAC, from #willpower, Interscope), but there it was on the Aurender server. The kick drum and bass synth are mixed so high in this track that I had to get up from my chair and dance, but even as I did, I was impressed with the Aerials' superb bass control.
Read more at http://www.stereophile.com/content/aerial-acoustics-5t-loudspeaker#KxtwT1soez81D8bW.99"

Oh no! Justin Bieber? Tell me it ain't so JA. Tell me it ain't....

No, I can't add it to my library. If anyone ever sees that I will be booted out of all audiophile circles!

It is a horrible track musically but yes it has very tight and deep synthesized bass.

 

[amirm]

My doing so, however, gave rise to trouble when I then played "Vultures," from the John Mayer Trio's Where the Light Is: John Mayer Live in Los Angeles (16/48 ALAC file ripped from DVD-V, Sony 8697-722727-9): At the level this old rocker like to play this track, Steve Jordan's kick drum in the opening drum pattern drove the 5Ts' woofers against their end stops. But up to that point, there had been no hint that the 5T was running out of bass headroom.
Read more at http://www.stereophile.com/content/aerial-acoustics-5t-loudspeaker#KxtwT1soez81D8bW.99

JA, you redeemed yourself quickly with this album! John Mayer's video concerts have some of the best sounds and this is no exception.

"Vultures" has pounding bass with lots of ambiance. The highs are a bit lispy/hissy though. I like some of the other tracks better.

 

[amirm]

In Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, from the Trondheim Soloists' Reflections (MQA-encoded 24/352.8 FLAC file, 2L 2L-125), the clarity with which the tune is handed off from one member of the solo quartet to another, each solidly and stably defined in the space between and behind the speakers, was close to being as good as I've heard in my room.
Read more at http://www.stereophile.com/content/aerial-acoustics-5t-loudspeaker#KxtwT1soez81D8bW.99

Wow, wow, wow! This is a seriously well recorded album. Easily reference quality. Amazing dynamics and detail. And lovely music to boot.

Would be interesting to get the high-res version to compare to this Tidal stream. I might do that. MQA comparison would also be interesting.

 

[amirm]

A recent purchase as 24/96 Apple Lossless files from HDtracks is Water Night (Decca 001663602), an album of the composer conducting his own works. The performance for double choir by the Eric Whitacre Singers of When David Heard, the Hebrew king's lamentation on the death of his son Absalom, is definitive. From simple scale passages, Whitacre builds tone clusters that might be thought dissonant but are instead delicious. Aided by the clarity and solid stereo imaging of the 5Ts, I could readily hear how, at the first adagio, the staggered entries of the singers on the words my son under a held A-natural in the sopranos built a climactic atonal block chord expressing David's anguish. And when each singer subsequently re-enters across the stage, beginning with a solo tenor on the right, the vocal fragments paint the reverberant acoustic with the spatial equivalent of that block chord (footnote 1).
Read more at http://www.stereophile.com/content/aerial-acoustics-5t-loudspeaker#KxtwT1soez81D8bW.99

Really enjoyable music and well recorded album. Recording level is too low though forcing me to turn the volume up fair bit which also amplified background noise. I am being picky here though. It is definitely recommended album.

 

[amirm]

I ended my final listening session with the Aerial 5Ts with "Shipbuilding," from The Very Best of Elvis Costello (16/44.1 ALAC file ripped from CD, Universal Music). [...] With suck-and-blow compression on the piano, Chet Baker's solo trumpet treated with repeat echo, Costello's voice balanced preternaturally forward in the mix, and strings, organ, and drums all presented in different acoustics, there is nothing natural about the sound of this track. But through the Aerial 5Ts it sounded simply magnificent, Costello palpably hanging in space in front of me, the sound pulling me into the irony of the lyrics, which contrast the sinking of warships and the drowning deaths of sailors in the South Atlantic with the concomitant prosperity brought to shipyards back home. Magnificent.
Read more at http://www.stereophile.com/content/aerial-acoustics-5t-loudspeaker#KxtwT1soez81D8bW.99

Very nice sounding track. Being a collection the fidelity of course varies a ton from track to track.

 

[astr0b0y]

These are great, thanks Amir. Easily my favourite fora thread this week.
Did you know can "share" albums directly from Roon? Current options are not hat great but might be a nice workflow for you?
Use the three dots menu to choose Share.
Here's the result of sharing via imugr

 

[amirm]

Thanks for the kind words. Yes, I know I can share them that way and post a few using that method. Alas as you notice, they are very bare and takes more steps to create them. Notice for example that it doesn't say it is a Tidal track or the sampling rate/bit depth of track.

 

[astr0b0y]

So true. Wouldn't it also be nice if it created a hyperlink to the track within Roon? Would save us using the awful search function.

 

[amirm]

For sure.

 

[amirm]

OK, let's hit the 6moon review of Giya G4 speaker: Andy Narell, Dis 1. 4. Raf

Be it the clangour of Andy Narell's steel drum Jazz, the dark-hued virility of Son de la Frontera's Cuban très offset against flamenco guitar, the melancholy reediness of Merujan Sargsyan's Armenian duduk, the wistful harpishness of Aytak Doğan's Turkish zither or the wispy flageolet-dithered kemanche of Cafer Nazlibaş - they all had greater intensity of harmonic uniqueness. Wrapped up in this were expanded dynamics. This wasn't the macro of orchestral tutti or cannon blasts but the sound-pressure flickers of modulated emphasis.

I can't understand what he is saying . That aside, this is an above average recording (on some tracks) but falls short of reference quality. The track above is one of the better ones. I would have liked better clarity on the island instruments (steel drums?).