My NVA Amp Returns

[Lotus Seven S]

@DSJR
I am not into "honest reproduction" as such. I just want a sound that pleases me. Honest reproduction would imply just one sound, whilst my pleasure allows several (though it also rejects many). So I don't want to say that one amp is better than the other, but I do want to say that these amps please me a lot though in different ways.

[George Hincapie]

I disagree; honest reproduction implies the sound as it was recorded. Each recording is different as you know. No egg sucking intended.

[Lotus Seven S]

I disagree; honest reproduction implies the sound as it was recorded. Each recording is different as you know. No egg sucking intended.

Some people are like you. Some people are like me.

I just think that we can never know, what the sound was as it was recorded; so I don't really bother about it.

But what I hear as "unpleasant" bothers me a lot. Sometimes it is the music that is unpleasant (and that can really mess up my listening session) and sometimes it is my equipment, and that can mess up my sleep and bank account.

[savvypaul]

I disagree; honest reproduction implies the sound as it was recorded. Each recording is different as you know. No egg sucking intended.

It rather depends if you judge 'honesty' through measurements or from your emotional response.

If it is the latter, then you do not disagree...

[southall-1998]

I disagree; honest reproduction implies the sound as it was recorded. Each recording is different as you know. No egg sucking intended.

Some people are like you. Some people are like me.

I just think that we can never know, what the sound was as it was recorded; so I don't really bother about it.

But what I hear as "unpleasant" bothers me a lot. Sometimes it is the music that is unpleasant (and that can really mess up my listening session) and sometimes it is my equipment, and that can mess up my sleep and bank account.

Sounds to me you like amps that give the blue pill sound

S.

[Lotus Seven S]

Sounds to me you like amps that give the blue pill sound

I don't think we have any blue pills in Denmark, so what is the blue pill sound - viagra-like or valium-like or placebo-like? Or something completely different?

[southall-1998]

Sounds to me you like amps that give the blue pill sound

I don't think we have any blue pills in Denmark, so what is the blue pill sound - viagra-like or valium-like or placebo-like? Or something completely different?

I'm just making up nonsense!

Blue Pill in the world of Hi-Fi, is like a sugar-coated sound. Lacking in brutal honesty and sheer transparency.

Can't beat a good ole ''feel-good'' listen!

each to his own is king.

S.

[_D_S_J_R_]

The original point of audio 'High Fidelity' was supposed to get the sound on playback as close as possible to the mastering event (we can't go back further) in the hope the recording and mixing captures the original sound as well as possible. These days and with higher resolution sound systems, it seems we can't get 'everything' so just maybe 'we' select the aspects that do the job for us, otherwise we'd all be using digital sources and active professional monitors of different sizes at home - been there and done it twenty odd years ago and came out the other end. I've been trying to learn and accept that this style of sound isn't for everyone, but all I can ask is that 'we' go into it with knowledge of what we're doing.

[SteveTheShadow]

I've been attacked from all directions for my own hi-fi adage that there are no lousy recordings, only lousy systems.
I still hold that view because no-one has ever been able to prove otherwise, and this philosophy was one of the reasons I ended up banned from AoS after clashing repeatedly with Arkwright among others, who took umbrage at being told that their "revealing" systems were actually piles of shite
A top music system should be able to get the best out of any recording. NVA amps seem to be some of the most capable in that respect.

Here's a secret: achieving this magical state of affairs is to do with adequate headroom from all parts of the system and some of the biggest tests of headroom are historical recordings on 78s and not so called audiophile recordings. Get your historical recordings sounding good and the audiophile stuff will blow you away. If your historical recordings sound unpleasant, you will never know how good your audiophile records can sound.

The headroom bottleneck is IMO why no hi-fi, no matter how good, will ever approach the sound of live music. We can however make a damned fine smaller facsimile with the right attitude to what actually matters, when trying to put a good system together.

[Lotus Seven S]

The original point of audio 'High Fidelity' was supposed to get the sound on playback as close as possible to the mastering

Yes - but I think the most important part of that sentence is the word "original". This was a noble endeavour at that time, because things were rough and ready in the technical department, so this was a good objective to have. Getting ever closer to the original sound was a good way of measuring progress.

But today I think it is an option, which I at least chose not give high priority, as I sort of assume there is a goodly amount of fidelity already in the package, and it doesn't have to be teased out.

Also there are lots of high fidelity systems that sound quite different. That should not be possible if they are all trying to achieve the same fidelity to the original event.

So my own private definition of "fidelity" is, that I do not wish for there to be anything that disturbs me. And lots of things can disturb me (hunger, extraneous noise, ugly aesthetics, sharp tones etc etc etc. When these things are absent, I have a high fidelity experience.

my own hi-fi adage ... that there are no lousy recordings, only lousy systems

That's a radical stance to take! There are lousy recordings. But on the other hand one of my favourite lousy recordings - the Live recording of Led Zeppelin: Celebration Day (and yes I am able to like lousy recordings if the music is significant) actually doesn't sound lousy through the P20/A20 system. But that is the first time I have ever heard it not being lousy.

So does that mean that the P20/A20 is a High Fidelity system or a Lo-Fidelity system????