Musicality vs. Fidelity

[Daniel Quinn]

By the sound of it a bag of cocaine sounds more fun than a levinson amp

[wallace]

I would say yes,but i ain't heard a levinson,so what do i know...

[Fretless]

I've seen what cocaine does to people and stay as far away from it as I can.

[Lindsayt]

Sometimes I wonder if there's psycho-acoustic tricks going on with kit like the Mark Levinson combo?

Lean out the bass a bit or push the midrange forward, add a bit of compression and you'll get a sound that may be initially impressive for the amount of midrange detail you can hear. IE filter out some aspects of the music and the mind is left to concentrate on what's left.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Different markets are different. There are some markets the NVA Black Box Range just didn't sell in as Hi-Fi in those emerging markets was only rich mens toys, and NVA didn't have the perceived appeal. Those market were catered for by the USA companies and lately by German companies. Back in the 90's when I was almost entirely export having been frozen out of the UK market by the Linn / Naim axis of evil and the flat earth stupidity, I had to try and compete in that market.

It was my Australian distributor who was a crooked Malaysian who convinced me of that, and out of that came the Statement designs to meet that market.

From the archive website.

With the Black Box Range we aim for a niche market of people who don't have a lot of money but are enthusiasts for music, whose Hi Fi is one of their major enjoyments in life, and I am trying to produce the best sound that they can afford. With the Statement Range we aim for the Mark Levinson or High End type customer and for this we can cost in far more costly improvements.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Sometimes I wonder if there's psycho-acoustic tricks going on with kit like the Mark Levinson combo?

Lean out the bass a bit or push the midrange forward, add a bit of compression and you'll get a sound that may be initially impressive for the amount of midrange detail you can hear. IE filter out some aspects of the music and the mind is left to concentrate on what's left.

The American way is BIG, big houses, big rooms, big hi-fi. They love cinema type sound images, 2m long violins and all that. Reality is not part of it, it is designed to impress the simple minded.

[Fretless]

Maybe I should have called this thread 'Marketing vs. Musicality'.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Your original title had validity, but the concept has been corrupted in so many ways. A specific aspect of music can be highlighted and the marketing focused on that, that is what the flat earth was. It has always been done in this industry even way back. One of the first was Tannoy in the late 50's early 60's, and once brainwashed to think it is right then it is very hard to break away from it, especially if you have professionally attached your reputation to it, or individually attached your ego to it.

I try very hard not to do it, and I try hard for NVA not to be a specific type sound, I aim for just more music.

[Fretless]

If you had stuck your standard amps into big shiny silver boxes with huge heatsinks and pricetags you would probably have made a fortune.
Integrity has its price - but it keep you away from unhealthy cocaine habits if that's any comfort.

I really did prefer my modest NVA A40 over the Levinson which, I confess, I hung onto mainly to impress others. Pathetic eh?

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

It is the law of diminishing returns per usual but the Statement Range products are better that the Black Box Range. Though at the moment the Statement stuff is just special order for people I know.

Though Paul Messenger has decided to buy (and finally pay for) applemarcs ex TSS, but insists on using it with a Naim pre-amp I hope this wont become a new trend as he is reviewing it.