ODIN now on CD player, ELROD on Ongaku integrated
More or less same quality added to system as ODIN on amp except: guess that only 50% as good for music as putting ODIN on amp. Guess about 90% as good for voices as putting ODIN on amp.
Swap: ELROD on CDSA, ODIN on Ongaku
Slightly smoother? Slightly more body? Less separation. Less precise.
Changed interconnect between CDSA and Ongaku to ODIN from Jorma Design PRIME
The voice! Elton John\'s voice was magnificent. Big. Present. Real. Quite an indelible impression was made by the voice. I thought, however, the piano has less body. However, Kevin thought [uninfluenced by my opinion. I write my notes and then ask everyone else’s opinion before I say anything] that the piano was more beautiful.
In any case, we want to congratulate Elton John. Neli and I aren\'t big fans like Kevin is - and that is largely because we have seemingly only heard his music on inferior equipment. He is quite skilled.
Swap: Valhalla on CDSA [ODIN still on Ongaku and between CDSA and Ongaku]
Piano is more delicate, more separation. More real. Voice a little less body. Less real? Or just less spectacular?
As a farewell to the shootout, we played Dire Straits. So open. So much separation. So much fun to listen to.
Synthesis
We learned a lot of things during this shootout.
We learned to hear the telltale signature of the ELROD PC in a system. We like and use ELROD quite a bit here. And listening to those systems, we can now hear the slight emphasis on the bass frequencies and the slight overhang of each note as its decay lasts the tiniest bit too long. This slight overhang causes there to be a correspondingly slight lack of separation and the perception of a, again, slightly higher noise floor.
We learned that, in a partially ODIN-power-corded system, the Valhalla power cord\'s telltale signature was much harder to detect - that it sounds like a dynamically compressed ODIN, and it\'s specific sound does not call attention to itself.
We learned to hear the AcroLink\'s telltales - a highlighting of the upper midrange, which we knew, but now also the corresponding lack of emphasis everywhere else.
We learned that the ODIN helped the Ongaku sound a lot more like the Lamm ML3 in terms of linearity and the revealing of many subtleties in the sound. Linearity in terms of the dynamic, harmonic and timing responses being much more even across the frequency band. Subtleties in terms of a lot of information present at a live show were now evident - not because certain frequencies were spotlit, like some speakers do, but because there is a blacker background. A lower noise floor not because information, subtleties are removed, like most conditioners and vibration controls and other tweaks, but because - well, I am not sure why. Apparently power cords impart their own noise to the system.
We learned to wonder, if the ODIN made the Ongaku sound more like the ML3, what would the ODIN on the ML3 sound like?
More or less same quality added to system as ODIN on amp except: guess that only 50% as
good for music as putting ODIN on amp. Guess about 90% as good for voices as putting ODIN
on amp.
The voice! Elton John's voice was magnificent. Big. Present. Real. Quite an indelible impression
was made by the voice. I thought, however, the piano has less body. However, Kevin thought
[uninfluenced by my opinion. I write my notes and then ask everyone else’s opinion before I
say anything] that the piano was more beautiful.
In any case, we want to congratulate Elton John. Neli and I aren't big fans like Kevin is - and
that is largely because we have seemingly only heard his music on inferior equipment. He is
quite skilled.
Piano is more delicate, more separation. More real. Voice a little less body. Less real? Or just
less spectacular?
As a farewell to the shootout, we played Dire Straits. So open. So much separation. So much
fun to listen to.
