Cellist88

With few exceptions, such as Hindemith, I listen to very little classical later than Brahms. But I used to. The first composers I listened to a lot were Mahler and Bruckner.

Some months ago, I listened to a dozen versions of the 2d I hadn’t heard before (including Kapell), and concluded that I still prefer the Richter.

Richter has that classy, not gonna get personally involved, but do everything. I miss the restraint of the old masters. Seeing you don't listen past Brahms, I guess we both are structure/counterpoint lovers.

@Claritas https://youtu.be/IX198THgIu8?si=69TnOBFvh-yCOLJ1 . Very unique hands, but amazing structure and voicing.

I’ve long accepted the fact that the great art is currently lost. I don’t know if the cause was the stagnation of the Austrian Empire, the Great War, or National Socialism. There isn’t a pianist alive who can play Chopin like Rosenthal (tho’ Perahia and Kissin working together *might* be able to reverse engineer it). The musical world is in a coma. But a coma doesn’t always lead to death.

@Claritas, I don't necessarily agree with Perahia, and not a fan of his tone, but I do have to respect his knowledge of harmonic structure(albiet its always schenkarian), and he does develop bass lines(Great in Brahms Intermezzi) instead of fidgetting around randomly calling for attention like Yuja Wang when she doesn't know what she's doing. Her Brahms intermezzo 117 is atrocious.

My favorite Perahia records are his Kreisleriana (1996), Mozart no. 18 (1981), Schubert Impromptus (1980 & ’82), and 32 Variations in C Minor (live 1989). So, yeah, nothing recent. His Bach is an also-ran, at best.

Any updates on GS2 NOS?

Sounds loaner worthy... and if the streamer is up to par, not a bad price at all. Hope to hear some trusted ears compare w/ the ESS driven Weiss.

@JK47 I’ll post them soon. Not really much extended listening so much as I’m lazy to write lol

I'm super curious about using NOS with OG/A2. What differences have you noticed between NOS and Schiit's OS?

Please share when you've had a good listen, maybe even add to your excellent A2 comparo

Agree with MLegend. I've batted around the idea of doing the Yggdrasil case upgrade. Let us know the impressions

Oyaide as a whole is legit. Their marketing just looks ridiculous, like iFi but Japanese. I use their DJ-marketed interconnects as part of my monitor set up.

You could do a lot worse

sure np!

"but 900 bucks for a sidegrade doesn't seem good value for me yet." This, too, was my exact conundrum, and I usually try to refrain from wading into value proposition for most gear I review, aside from outliers in the exceptional low-value/high-value spaces. If MIB boards were $400-ish, I may be more inclined to buy and hold, and tweak the 2-ch rig to find sympathies/synergies.

Done!
https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/yggdrasil-refined-new-schiit-yggdrasil-analog-2-yggdrasil-a2-sound-impressions.5665/page-53

2541 sounded much better to me after some warmup and a tiny bit of playing with the filters. With that being said, I can see how some people just wouldn't like it.

It's not my favorite DAC but I still found it engaging and enjoyed it.

its not bad, but once you hear the deficiencies, you can't unhear it. You can spot them even when a/bing with the motu ultralite. It sounds better using the Vertigo-vsm3 plugin to add more body, bass and high end, but at that point you are adding distortion. I guess its wandla, weiss, or Schiit MiB.

Saw your post on Azimuth's Yggdrasil FS thread. Replying here to not clog his listing.

IMO, the most "does not reinterpret" DAC I've heard before would be most of the Bricasti stuff. It didn't excite me in any way and I wouldn't pay MSRP for it, but off the top of my head I can't think of a single fault it had or any weirdness it did to any one part of the music.

Whereas on other DACs, most things may sound colored or otherwise interpreted in some ways, and one or two things may sound off to vary degrees and at varying times, but I say the Bricasti had no faults or weirdness because I distinctly remember it sounded like if I took the "correct" part of every DAC I've heard before and put it together into 1 DAC.

Otherwise, if I were to choose a DAC around $1-2k for a few minutes of daily listening to scratch a sound quality itch, I would pick the Holo Spring 2 (shameless plug - I may decide to sell mine again later this year - I withdrew the listing last year) or the Soekris 2541. Relatively little coloring of the sound, but I wouldn't call either one uncolored.

Summer can't get here fast enough.

Not much bothered about either of them, but tried Rebel Moon Pt1 the other week, out of a vague desire to see something with spaceships, and was actually surprised how bad it was. Or, not even bad, really, but just a giant... nothing. So many resources, so little effect. I half-watched up to the "climatic" last battle, then turned it off out of boredom.

Watch the second one…it’s even worse

One can argue that Taylor can tell a better story

Been hearing nice things about the tech, but yeah it's all rarefied stuff. The iFi GO blu uses MEMS for its mic, and as far as I'm concerned it sound grand relative to the BTR5 or BTR7 which I think use standard electrets.

MEMS broke into mics first because you don't need any xmax with sound capture. Speakers are harder because all piezos struggle to move air.

Lot of IEM manufacturers are coming out of Singapore like Subtonic, Nighjar, FatFreq etc and they are quite good actually but ya pricing needs to be relooked.

I think the east takes conspicuous consumption to a whole nother level than the west. At least that seems true in my experience as a Korean raised in the US. We play different honor/shame games, but there's good reason why Singapore has long been the most expensive city in the world... apparently with IEM audio jewelry to match.

Got to admit that it's pretty. But hey, $6k can buy a lot of pretty.

I bought one directly from modhouse recently, no problems and shipped promptly. Are they sold out or something?

I think you got the last one. Will wait patiently.

Are they soft and supple or stiff or somewhere in-between?

Ewww, a lot of subbass.

They are soft but the shape is unique and meant for deep insertion. I don’t feel pressure inside the ear. They do recommend you buy a size down for it to work as intended

It's good if you like the AKM sound. Though I'm sure in a Cavalli design, its better implemented than many AKM dacs.

It's not clear to me it actually is one of his designs; the language used seems to not quite say that it is.

@Wilewarer i'm sure he was involved at some point. he was well aware of the dac being stand alone for the LP and being included in the LauX and understanding the design constraints for both products. https://www.head-fi.org/threads/monoprice-monolith-liquid-gold-x.914828/page-2#post-15190323

Focal users need not apply?

We need @rhythmdevils planar help