Sagen om de forsvundne hovedtelefoner

Som Arthur Conan Doyle ville have ladet Dr Watson benævne den - eller hvorfor jeg elsker mine Denons.

Jeg har netop hørt Händels oratorium Athalia gennem den digitale kæde (FLAC file - Squeezebox - DacMagic - Argon HA-1 - Denon AH-D2000) og hovedtelefonerne lavede deres fornemste trick - de forsvandt og efterlod mig midt i den rene musik. Andre hovedtelefoner skaber al musikken inden i ens hoved, men rigtigt gode hovedtelefoner som disse Denons skaber et stort lydbillede omkring en.

Sidst skrev jeg at vokal musik ikke havde været på den digitale menu endnu, men den gamle vokal mester sørgede for at ændre dette og gjorde et fornemt indtryk. Både solo passager og store komplekse kor bliver leveret med en skøn klarhed, luft og krop. Der er ingen antydning af skarpe S-lyde eller andre begrænsninger. Jeg ser bestemt frem til at høre noget Mozart. Solo arier, duetter og de utroligt skønne og komplekse kvartetter, kvintetter og sekstetter i nogle af operaerne må være fantastiske på dette grej! 

The case of the disappearing headphones

As Arthur Conan Doyle would have let Dr. Watson title it - or why I love my Denons. 

I have just heard Händels oratorium Athalia thru the digital chain (FLAC file - Squeezebox - DacMagic - Argon HA-1 - Denon AH-D2000) and the headphones did their eminent trick - they disappeared and just left me in the middle of pure music. Other headphones create the music inside your head but really good headphones like the Denons create a large soundscape all arround you.

Last time I wrote that vocal music had not been on the digital menu yet but the old master of vocals saw to this and made a very good impression. Both solo parts and large complicated choruses are delivered with wonderful clarity, air and body. No sibilance or any form of constraints. I certainly look forward to some Mozart. Solo arias, duets and the unbelievable beautiful and complicated quartets, quintets and sextets of some of the operas must be stunning on this rig! 

Head-Fi and DacMagic

The chain from FLAC files thru the Squeezebox - DacMagic - Argon HA-1 - Denon AH-D2000 is just getting better and better. The Cambridge DacMagic has opened a lot since it got out of the box less than two week ago, and I still expect even more from it. The sound of the full chain is now very open and precise, without any harsh edges. The soundstage is broad and deep with a good definition of both instrument placement and room accoustics. It is a genuine pleasure with both chamber music (I just heard Pianosonate no 2 by Beethoven with the Danish pianist Anne Øland), medium size orchestras (Pianoconcerto no 22 by Mozart) and large orchestras (Symphony no 8 by Dvorak). I haven't heard much vocal thru the digital chain yet - that must be next (after the first string quartet by Beethoven that is ready on the Squeezebox right now).

Substituting the Exposure 2010 amplifier and the Fostex equipped TQWT's for the Argon and headphones gives equally good results. A soundstage reaching outside the position of the speakers and far behind. A lean and deep bass, detailed middle and clean treble - pure bliss. I have experimented with connecting the digital output of the CD-player thru the DacMagic to compare the upsampled 24/192 DAC's and solid state analog output stage of the DacMagic with the more normal DAC's but tube output stage of the Njoe Tjoeb 4000. Well, I must admit that I haven't found the difference yet! It might be there, but masked by the slight niveau differences of the two analog stages. Or it might be masked by the solid state amplification later in the chain. Until now I have only compared thru the Exposure and speakers, maybe the headphones will be more revealing?

Talking of tubes (an old and never realized dream of mine) the other day I stumbled upon the chinese brand Xindak (and a couple of Danish dealers! for example Now-in-Stereo). Xindak is producing several interesting tube amplifiers - and that to a quite reasonable (OK - low!) price. For example the MT1 can be had for just arround 4000,- DKR. With 12,5 W it could be a fine match to my TQWT's with their quite good sensitivity of 94 dB. Another interesting model is the V15 ( 5999,- DKR). This one has got EL34 power tubes and can either run in triode mode - giving 18 W - or in linear mode giving 40 W per channel. Both will give the genuine tube sound (and hopefully tame the top end of the Fostex units just a trifle) and also be a lot easier to adjust the volume with. Due to the sensitivity of the speakers the volume control of the Exposure must be handled with great care today - a turn of a few degrees give a large variation in the sound level. That might be the project for the fall?

Der er magi i luften

Min DacMagic ankom i dag og blev sluttet til så snart jeg kom hjem fra arbejde. Den har endnu kun været brugt med Squeezeboxen her i aften. Selv nu - efter kun få timer med strøm på - er det et glimrende match. Kammermusik er stadig lidt skarpt i toppen (jeg har hørt Pastorale sonaten af Beethoven og den første klaver trio af Brahms over højttalerne), men det forventer jeg falder på plads over de næste dage eller måske uger.

Stort orkester lyder fremragende. Jeg hørte Symfoni nr 1 af den danske komponist Ludolf Nielsen (nej, ikke Carl Nielsen og de er heller ikke i familie - Ludolf er en sen-romantiker der stadig venter i skyggerne på sit brede gennembrud) på Denon AH-D2000 hovedtelefonerne og det var fantastisk. Rent, klart, flot definerede instrumenter præcist placeret i et stort lydbillede. Dyb og slank bas uden noget boom, luftig diskant. Squeezeboxen har aldrig lydt så godt før.

Det analoge system har fået konkurrence - nå, nok om det, der skal mere musik til!

Magic is in the air

There is magic in the air. The DacMagic arrived today and went straight into action as soon as I got home from work. It has only been playing with the Squeezebox as source this evening. Even now - after a few hours of power - it is a great match. Chamber music is still a little sharp in the top (I heard the Pastorale sonata by Beethoven and the first piano trio by Brahms thru the loudspeakers), but I expect that to settle in the next days or maybe weeks.

The large orchestra is just marvelous. I heard Symphoni no 1 by the Danish composer Ludolf Nielsen (no, not Carl Nielsen and they are not family - Ludolf is a late romantic composer waiting in the shadows for a broader acclaim) on the Denon AH-D2000 headphones and that was fantastic. Clean, clear, finely defined instruments precisely placed on a large soundstage. Deep slender bass without any boom, airy treble. The Squeezebox never sounded anything near this good.

The analog rig certainly got competition - enough of this and on with the music!

Analogue is still here

The Cambridge 640P phono pre-amplifier has now been powered up for more than 96 hours and I have heard 23 LP sides thru it. It is just getting better and better - now it is marvelous. The definition of the single instruments, their placement, the total soundstage and the dynamics are far above anything I have ever heard on vinyl before - and much better than my digital rig (which is no slouch at all).

By coincidence it has become a small Barbirolli revival. Yesterday I heard A London Symphony by Vaughan Williams with the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Sir John Barbirolli. As far as I can see this pressing is from 1968 (HMV Concert Classics on EMI SXLP 30180), but the recording is from 1958. And you can't hear that age at all! This recording is so clear, clean and dynamic that few modern recordings can stand up to it.

Today I have just heard Sibelius Symphony no 2 in D major, Opus 43 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - also conducted by Sir John. This recording is on RCA Gold Seal GL25011 produced 1976 (but could be a reissue of an older recording?). Again - clean, powerfull, dynamic - a perfect reproduction of the large orchestra and the ambience of the concerthall.

Another wonderfull record that got a spin today was the Waldstein piano sonata by Beethoven played by Vladimir Ashkenazy from the "Favourite Piano Sonatas" box set on Decca London. The grand piano has never been better and more natural on any of my stereo setups thru the last nearly 40 years. Neither on CD. It is just marvelous. The two symphonies where bought many years ago but I found the Beethoven set at a (now sadly closed) record shop in Copenhagen a few years ago.

A couple of days ago I got a mail from my dealer that they will get a large load of Cambridge DacMagic's mid April. I ordered mine January 1. It has been a long wait. I realy look forward to hear what the DAC can do to both my Squeezebox and the CD player - maybe the grammophone will get some competition? ;-)

Well the gramophone has got one area where it surpasses the CD-player (and any other digital media) - it can play the 500 LP's on my shelves. And the CD player certainly wins for playing the 6 shelf meters of CD's!

Head-Fi - Denon AH-D2000 (english)

This is a translation of a posting in Danish from February 21. 2009.

It had been simmering for a while. Since I got the Argon HA-1 headphone amplifier - or soon after. Maybe the old Sennheiser HD-570's was growing to old? They had a lot of loose - boomy? - bass and missed something in the high end. That inspired a lot of searching and reading on the net.

I quite soon found two decent candidates for a major improvement. One is a true classic – Sennheiser HD-650. They get rave reviews everywhere. But several mention that they first really sing with a good tube amplifier. For example the Little Dot MK III or IV. Well, I have just bought an amplifier? The other candidate that came more and more into focus was the Denon AH-D2000 (the greater siblings are also very tempting but with prices 2 and 3 times higher they are way out of reach).

The Sennheiser can be found at reasonable prices around the net, although is not that easy to get to listen to in this corner of the world. But they have got the Denon at the HiFi-Klubben stores – also in Holbæk, so I dropped in to listen today.



The sound is terrific – and as you can se in the picture they had to come home with me. They didn't have a boxed sample in Holbæk and the demo kit had a scratch, so I had to go to Roskilde to fetch it. It was definitely worth the ride. The good people told me to let them play for a couple of hours before I even listened to them. I could not wait! Right from the beginning they sound really good. If they will get much better in a few hours and perfect after 100 or more then great things are coming.

Even now the bass is more tight and the mids and treble are silky and precise at the same time. As the Denon's are closed they also isolate much better for the sound – both inward and outward – than the totally open Sennheisers. At the same time they are perfectly comfortable to wear. The thick cable is very convincing. It's also nice that it won't tangle and twist every time you get them on or off.

But I am still waiting (not at all patiently) for my DacMagic...

Head-Fi - Denon AH-D2000

Det har rumlet et stykke tid. Siden jeg anskaffede Argon HA-1 hovedtelefonforstærkeren - eller i hvert fald kort efter. Måske var de gamle Sennheiser HD-570 efterhånden for gamle? De havde masser af rigelig løs bas og manglede noget i toppen. Det gav inspiration til en masse læsen på nettet.

Jeg fandt hurtigt frem til at der var to rimelige kandidater til en kraftig forbedring. Den ene er en klassiker - Sennheiser HD-650. De får fremragende omtale over alt. Men flere skriver også at de først for alvor viser hvad de kan med en god rør-forstærker - f.eks en Little Dot MK III eller IV. Nå, nu har jeg jo netop købt forstærker? Den anden kandidat der tegnede sig mere og mere tydeligt er Denon AH-D2000 (dens større brødre lyder også meget fristende, men priser på 4500,- og noget over 6000,- var en hel del udenfor det realistiske).

Sennheiseren kan fås til en rimelig pris mange steder på nettet, men er ikke lige til at komme til at høre. Denon'en derimod har de hos HiFi-Klubben - også i Holbæk, så der var jeg forbi i dag for at lytte.

De lyder fremragende - og som det kan ses af billedet måtte de også med hjem. Nu havde de ikke et sæt tilbage i Holbæk og demo eksemplaret havde en ridse, så jeg måtte forbi Roskilde for at hente dem. Det var afgjort turen værd. Selvom de gode mennesker anbefalede at lade dem ligge og spille et par timer før jeg overhovedet tog dem på, kunne jeg naturligvis ikke vente. Lige fra starten lyder de rigtigt godt, og hvis det bliver meget bedre på nogle få timer, og først helt perfekt efter omkring 100 så er der store ting i vente.

Allerede nu er bassen strammere og mellemtone og diskant er silkeblød og samtidigt præcis. Da Denon'en er lukket isolerer de også langt bedre for lyden - både udefra og indefra - end de fuldtstændigt åbne Sennheiser. Samtidigt er de fantastisk behagelige at have på og det tykke kabel virker meget overbevisende, og det er rart at det ikke snor sig hver gang man tager dem af og på.

Men jeg går stadig og venter (meget lidt tålmodigt) på min DacMagic...

DacMagic mysteriet

Det første - og måske største? - mysterie ved DacMagic ser ud til at være hvornår den bliver leveret. Da jeg bestilte den for mere end en måned siden hed leveringstiden februar.

Nu - hvor vi netop er kommet ind i februar - skriver de gode mennesker juli!

Forhåbentligt er det ved bestilling nu, det må da hjælpe lidt at jeg har ventet i mere end en måned allerede?

Problemet ser ud til at være at Cambridge overhovedet ikke kan følge med til at producere lige så hurtigt som bestillingerne ruller ind. Spændingen stiger unægteligt.

Jeg nåede det!

I går fik jeg lige akkurat bestilt en Cambridge Audio DacMagic hos HiFi-Klubben til gammel pris. Selvom de først kan levere engang i februar fik jeg den til gammel pris - 1499,-, hvor prisen fra i dag er 1999,-.

Hvad det er? - en digital til analog konverter af glimrende kvalitet hvis man skal tro de mange tråde på nettet der har prist den i høje toner siden sidste sommer. Humlen er at den skal hæve kvaliteten af musik fra Squeezebox'en ganske meget, så det fulde udbytte af de store FLAC filer rigtigt får lov at vise sig. Samtidigt bliver det også spændende at høre om den kan gøre noget positivt for CD-afspilleren. CD-afspilleren er i forvejen ikke helt almindelig, den startede sit liv på samlebåndet som en ret ordinær Marantz CD4000 maskine, men var derefter en tur rundt om nogle gale/geniale hollændere der byggede den om til en AH! Njoe Tjoeb 4000. Det vil blandt andet sige at den har fået et analog udgangstrin bygget over rør. Den blev købt for en del år siden, efter jeg havde læst den meget positive anmeldelse på TNT-Audio. CD-spilleren lyder stadig rigtigt godt, men det bliver interessant at høre hvad en helt moderne DAC kan give af forskelle.

Det er jo et stykke tid til februar endnu, så i mellemtiden kan jeg jo overveje om jeg vil bruge coax eller optiske kabler mellem signalkilder og DAC? - Da afstandende bliver minimale (alt samlet i samme møbel) så tyder det for tiden på at coax er den rigtige løsning. Jeg lover at vende tilbage med både første og mere vedvarende indtryk når tiden kommer.