As Pete suggested, I am starting a new thread to continue the headphone discussion that erupted and corrupted here.
I just got off the phone with Danny McKinney (the US RAAL reps) discussing the Immanis. The possibility of real bass with all the benefits of a proper ribbon transducer is very tempting.
Ever since I sold my MSB Select stack, and consolidated the headphones and amps with my speaker system, Iāve been very, very happy with the Vivaldi Apex stack feeding them. Iād probably be very happy never upgrading again. (And at my age, I doubt I have the aural acuity to appreciate what the Varese has to offer.)
But for headphones, something like the Immanis is very intriguing. Danny tells me my Trafomatic Primavera should drive them just fine. Apparently, the latest version of the Primavera has direct ribbon capabilities, which is cool, but Iām not interested in a new amp. So theyāll send me an Immanis demo, probably next month, and weāll see how it does against the Stax 9000/T2 and the Susvara/Primavera.
I disagree. And interestingly that is one of the points I am thinking of exploring in a presentation I am working on, about how we listen, whatās important and what isnāt.
My friend Torgny, variously a former concert pianist, lector at the Royal Academy of Music, recording engineer and piano tuner/renovator, is probably the most accomplished listener I know. His musical ear is beyond anything I have experienced and I have learnt more from him about listening to and appreciating music than I have from just about all my other influences combined.
Torgny is 71 years old, so I very much doubt his high frequency hearing hasnāt started rolling off. IMHO it doesnāt make a blind bit of difference. Listening may happen via the ear, but analysing and appreciating music happens in the brain. Those faculties are governed by things like musical education and above all listening experience. Just like wine appreciation, where at least 75% of folkās taste buds work similarly. Aural acuity, even in extreme cases, has little to do with ability to appreciate.
Torgny can easily hear and characterise small changes in my system (of which he has no understanding, he is not an audiophile and has no interest or insight into equipment, brands or price tags). He is my sanity check for all system upgrades and changes.
So I am in no way encouraging you towards a VarĆØse. That is entirely up to you, your budget and your priorities. But please donāt believe for a minute that you wouldnāt hear the difference compared to your Vivaldi. I would venture to suggest you would hear it clearer than most! What, if anything, that difference is worth to you is of course a different question entirely.
Actually not Erno. Based on my own extensive experience as a customer I am of the very decided opinion that such desires/decisions need no encouragement whatsoever. But as well as just wanting to offer my opinion in the discussion, I donāt want to see such assertions, especially from tenured and respected forum members like Greg (even if offered slightly tongue-in-cheek?), pass unchallenged. In an era where AI is digesting and amplifying everything we write it could well become a new audiophile truism.
Andrew, I meant it in a positive way. How you described your experience with Torgny in relation with ageing ears, acquired hearing skills and developed taste, all point to getting the best available, when you can and if you want. Nothing wrong with that!
Ah, then I missed your point, sorry. But in point of fact Torgny, whose system is considerbaly more modest than anyoneās on this forum, said my own system was more than good enough long ago, and that further improvements were completely unnecessary. I am still chasing the end of the rainbow while he, with his infinitely more discriminating listening brain, is sitting pretty. Go figure!
Almost all musicians I have ever worked with were using equipment for listening at home that made me laugh. Nevertheless, they did not need more. Go figure indeed
Andrew, I appreciate those insights but weāre talking about two different things. I actually agree with you; Even at this age, I can readily distinguish between quality sources and components, such as the differences between my Vivaldi and MSB stacks. So, I was a bit vague in my characterization; my case is specific to me, and itās not really about my age. Ever since my cancer therapy in ā08, Iāve had medically induced tinnitus that is fairly severe 24/7. And itās getting worse. Iāve learned to work around and through it, but it does represent something of a ceiling for me. And it affects my calculus of the marginal utility of changes to my system.
I remain genuinely entranced whenever I get to listen to music on either my speaker or headphone system. And the recordings donāt even have to be audiophile quality. I just love listening to music on my system. This is why I bought Vivaldi and kept it, choosing it over my MSB. I love the Vivaldi more.
Even if I could and did hear the Varese difference, the costs of transitionānot so much the dollars, but importantly the time and disruption of replacing my systemāI have assessed would likely outweigh the marginal gains over a system I thoroughly love right now. I would see the process of achieving these gains as competitive to other sources of joy in my life.
As I mentioned in the previous thread, the Immanis might well be the exception to my sense that I have reached the āEnd Of Search,ā but thatās only because Iāve been a ribbon slut ever since I built my first Strathearn-based speaker system.
Really sorry to hear about your tinnitus Greg. Given how important music is to you that is an awful curse, but as you say you just have to work through it. I thought you were saying something else in your post, but actually it seems weāre in violent agreement!
Danny is a great guy to talk with. Two questions. Are they even available, i had one on Order for months? Did the magnets ever get released? Also Will the Arus Headonia 800B drive them? They Drive Susvara Unvailed great so my assumption is they will?
I think you are absolutely right . It is for this reason that many people appreciate listening to music with horrible stereo , starting with my wife who listen to music with her MacBook Proā¦.And I remember a friend of mine who is a pianist concertiste, when she was fascinated at hearing recordings from Rachmaninov playing himself his concertos. I gave her the cd box set because for me it was painful to listen to because the recording was awful. Obviously, it was the very beginning of the recording industry, but she didnāt hear the extremely poor quality of the recording, she was hearing Sergei Rachmaninov playing pianoā¦
This is why I believe audiophiles and musicians donāt have similar brain structures.
I have (or had - long time I havenāt seen her) a friend who was pianist. She always had among the worst music reproduction systems I ever heard.
Every time she visited my place, she was amazed by the SQ of my system. But no more than that. āYou donāt need to have all that to listen to the playerās execution she always saidā.
Actually I think weāre not seeking for the same things.
Very often I surprise myself to wish to listen to a track I know for a very few seconds of a specific sound or sound progression/arrangement I like rather than for the whole composition - Iāll nevertheless listen to the entire track but my brain and ears are searching for this very moment that will please them eventually.
This is why I proclaim myself as a āmusic lover AND sound seekerā.
Most of musicians donāt seem interested in the quality of sound reproduction at all as long as they can listen to the āmusicāā¦
And even worse for the rest of people just interested in decoding ānoisesā.
BTW, I do hate being in noisy environments: I quickly feel tired and need to escape rapidly on places other persons can stand easily (loudly public places, noisy restaurantsā¦)
As if I was missing a ānoise filterā many people haveā¦ but have instead a capability to decode and appreciate sound structures most people donāt.
So, if music is the best, what is music? Anything can be music, but it doesnāt become music until someone wills it to be music, and the audience listening to it decides to perceive it as music.
Most people canāt deal with that abstraction ā or donāt want to. They say: "Gimme the tune. Do I like this tune? Does it sound like another tune that I like? The more familiar it is, the better I like it. Hear those three notes there? Those are the three notes I can sing along with. I like those notes very, very much. Give me a beat. Not a fancy one. Give me a GOOD BEAT ā something I can dance to. It has to go boom-bap, boom-boom-BAP. If it doesnāt, I will hate it very, very much. Also, I want it right away ā and then, write me some more songs like that ā over and over and over again, because Iām really into music.
ā Frank Zappa : The Real Frank Zappa Book (1989)
I think you just did.
