Author Topic: DDDAC 1794-NOS 24-192  (Read 416690 times)

Offline rhlauranna

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1386
  • Liked: 198
Re: DDDAC 1794-NOS 24-192
« Reply #380 on: May 27, 2015, 03:07:42 AM »
Meeting in Paris, entering Japan…

Well, after arriving at Paris, staying the night at the hotel, the gang met at around 8:30 at the airport CDG (Charles de Gaulle)…



(from left to right: Jean Hiraga, André Klein, Dr. Jean-Laurent Veys)

…and because after some heavy body control and finally checking-in there was nothing left to do but waiting for the flight itself Jean-Laurent invited us for a dozen oysters and a fresh glass of Chablis…







aaahhh, what a start in the morning heading to Moscow…



…finally after some four hours flght arriving at Moscow…





...the intercontinental culinary trip was not yet over… it went on with an original selected bottle of Vodka..



...we were so euphoric that we were not aware that it is forbidden to officially consume alcoholics within the airport, but we had good luck, a sensible waitress helped us out with a cover to hide the bottle so that we were able to continue with “nasdarowje”…



(see the "hidden" bottle of vodka in the middle of the table)

...and – of course – no less than original duty free caviar to combine with...





…so, the afternoon was already another superb highlight…



...and on goes the trip to Japan...



leaving Moskow...



flying over snow-covered mountains...



via Tokyo...



facing the first real rice fields in my life...



...trying to learn some basic japanese words...



...after landing Jean explains the Metro of Tokyo to André...



...and it becomes immediately clear: we are in another land...



...arriving in Asakusa, in the north-east of Tokyo for our hotels...



..seeing for the first time the new famous landmark of Tokyo: the television tower with some 680 meters in height...

























...and slowly but steadily we got in the mood for the things to come...


« Last Edit: May 27, 2015, 05:36:02 AM by rhlauranna »

Offline rhlauranna

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1386
  • Liked: 198
Re: DDDAC 1794-NOS 24-192
« Reply #381 on: May 27, 2015, 07:37:56 AM »
Visiting Mr. Odagi and Mr. Ishii...



(from left to right: Mr. Odagi, Mr. Ishii)

It is very well known that space is very limited and expensive, not only in Japan in general, but especially in Tokyo. Japan is completely surrounded by the sea, and the land in wide ranges is covered with rather high mountains and valleys in between to live, the view reminded me immediately of Switzerland. Most of these parts cannot be used for building purposes, neither other parts because of being marshy and/or not earthquake-proof…

…from what I could see nearly every square-centimeter is “full” and in use, and there is hardly any more space which may be further used for civilization or whatever building processes…

…well, after driving with the Metro through Tokyo for about an hour or so, we reached our destination, Mr. Odagi’s house. But one must not think that we had already “left” the city and entered some suburbs or so, no, still busy city, nearly the same as in the center, just a little lower the skyscrapers and a little more sky…





Mr. Odagi’s house is quite a “normal” one in the area and somewhat comparable to mine regarding the construction on the earth, not below (all expensive enough, but in Tokyo even much much more)…



…and so I was expecting a listening room with some 12 till 15 square meters like usually shown in german HiFi-magazines when being reported about Japanese music lovers and their systems in narrow rooms…

..but oh, how wrong I was… after entering and pulling off our shoes and slipping into some comfortable house-shoes, Mr. Odagi led us, as it turned out, to the entry of an elevator, which drove us some - estimated - 10-15 meters down into the earth, and when leaving there was an entrance door, that thick and stable and massive and safe, that it reminded me of special security doors with no unallowed entry possible when doing military service with weapons long time ago, leading into a some 30 square meters large only HiFi listening-room with some 3,50 meters in height…

...inside Mr. Ishii was already waiting for us. After practising typical repeated Japanese bowings all around, heartily shaking hands for us Europeans, exchanging some small guest presents...



(from left to right: Mr. Ishii, Jean-Laurent Veys, Mr. Odagi)

...sipping a glass of champaign at exactly the perfect temperature (there were some 28-30 °C outside) and after having been at some original French Camembert, the happening began…

…to make it short, Mr. Odagi is a very ambitious HiFi-aficionado able to afford quite a lot far above average, he is very well equipped with the best money can buy. The electronic components of Mr. Odagi’s system consist of a turntable with two tonearms and different cartridges…







the amplification chain including pre-amp, power amps and DAC driven with batteries...









...is all handmade in a very limited edition by Prof. Kaneda. Jean Hiraga takes the circuits of Prof. Kaneda for the best and he makes use of them in his own constructions…the speaker in use are professional JBL studio monitors...



...these are some brand new JBL studio monitors, as I’ve been told for some 50.000 € a pair, a limited edition in Japan as well of course, sold out within days…







…Mr. Odagi has a superbly and finely tuned acoustic environment...



...temperature and humidity controlled... planned, calculated and executed by Mr. Ishii. That what makes his system that very special is indeed the additional room treatment done by Mr. Ishii...

if you might want to contact him, here is his e-mail address: ishii-audio-lab@hi-ho.nr.jp

...Mr. Ishii is a very polite and restraint and knowledgeable scientific electronic engineer, having worked for decades in the development department of japanese “Technics” society, for quite some time retired now, but privately still busy regarding room treatment and optimizing sound within…

…Mr. Ishio is a famous and very well respected man in Japan. He has two books out regarding these specific topics, full of pictures of systems that he has already worked upon accompanied with detailed scientific measurements and treatments of all kinds and sizes of listening rooms throughout Japan…













…unfortunately both the books are only in japanese language, there is a translation into English in the making, but not yet available, so I did not acquire the originals at the moment because I definitely want to read and understand what that man has to tell in detail…

…I got some detailed listening impressions of what was achieved regarding the amelioration of the sound as a complement to the electronic equipment... Mr. Odagi tried to "torture" us for example with this record...

Richard Strauss – Also Sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30, The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Zubin Metha, Solo Violin David Frisina...



...which also exists as FIM/LIM K2HD 035, K2-HD Audiophile Remastered CD, quoted for being sourced from the “Original Master Tape”, which gets highest praise...



...or with Zaondekoza's drumming, Viktor ST 100 68 Stereo...



...or Stockhausen's Sirius on Deutsche Grammophon which indeed has some very mean and dirty and exciting musical passages for testing rooms, loudspeakers and systems as a whole...



…to illustrate precisely the significance of Mr. Ishii’s active and so far reached research results, let me quote Jean Hiraga: “He is my teacher, my mentor, my guru regarding room treatment during the last 30 years…”

…and when Mr. Ishii started to optimize Mr. Odagi’s home soundwise he cared for a thick platform out of concrete in the listening room, the walls and the ceiling, not only as a protection against possible earthquakes but to stabilize the floor to get it free of resonances and vibrations... and to further "warming" the sound he used a special floor coating which enhences the reduction of reflections...



And as the walls are some 3,50 in height – please remember, we are some 10-15 meters deep down in the earth – they received a treatment with alternately about one meter broad multilayered wood-boards and blue “wholes” filled with some sort of indulgent foam covered with some silk-carpets to avoid resonances, reflections and standing waves…





…as we were told by Mr. Ishii that what we listen to is reflections in any given room, so that we never ever listen to just one single instrument but “two”, and even if the deviation and time delay is very very small, the reflections have an influence on our sound which is not only measurable but as well listenable… and the delay gets bigger and bigger the bigger the room gets…



…the ambitions of Mr. Ishii tend to reduce or even better mostly reduce these unwanted reflections and all those things that do not belong to the “original” sound, and that clearly can be heard ! The sound gets very dry and precise and nowhere “steril” of “clinical” as I tended to presume…

…the treatment of the ceiling in 3,50 m height was executed according to the measurements done by Mr. Ishii, the same is valid for the floor having been covered with some special wood treatment…

…we were shown some magazines – in Japanese only as well – which impressively demonstrated the research and the work and the creations of Mr. Ishii in quite a lot of extraordinary highest end system throughout Japan…





what a lucky man, Mr. Odagi ! and rightly so...

thank you very much for this extraordinary and outstanding listening experience !!!


« Last Edit: June 05, 2015, 08:18:09 PM by rhlauranna »

Offline rhlauranna

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1386
  • Liked: 198
Re: DDDAC 1794-NOS 24-192
« Reply #382 on: May 27, 2015, 06:06:40 PM »
Visiting Tokyo City in the afternoon

Because one planned date in the early afternoon for some reason didn’t happen we shortly decided to visit Tokyo city...



If one is not used to the Metro-system in Tokyo at first sight one simply is lost as a stranger… plans and maps are mostly in Japanese and in addition driving is on the left, so everything for us was upside down… and most the time, day is night, and night is day for us...

...so we strictly walked behind (there is hardly ever the possibility given to walk side by side) our “leading duck”, Jean, and so all went quick and well and fine… thank you “mother”…

...well, from german television I had already an “impression” of the “total” center of Tokyo, but being live there, nothing helps, being in between there simply has to be experienced to be believed… crowds and crowds and crowds and crowds of people of all kind, mostly natives, businessmen, but as well rather many tourists, standing, watching, walking… totally impressed, amazed, marveled… like us…

















…as we felt slighty hungry we were looking for something to eat… so, what better then entering a Sushi-bar right in the middle of Tokyo ? If it should be not good here, where else ?



...entering was still o.k. for us, but the menu made us sigh…





…but we had still our eyes, and everything was top !









…everything is in absolutely top notch fresh condition, and one can see that…



…there is always some broth/soup to start with, to accompany the meal...



...and it partly looked like that… and it tasted like it looked, absolutely gorgeous… the raw “material” is soaked into soja-sauce enriched with – according to taste – green solved wasabi… I could eat these seemingly endless varietes without ending…



Having finished our meal we walked out…





And Jean led us to something very very special just around the corner…



..the Shibuya’s old and unique Lion café from 1926… Wow!

Tokyo has a endlessly number of big chain coffee shops where the coffee is only average, the prices high and the atmosphere so so... but there are fortunately many alternatives, for example this one…

http://lion.main.jp/

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2003/03/09/general/kissaten-culture-still-on-the-boil/#.VWWowkZDksI

The Lion café first opened in 1926, it burned down during the war, but in 1950 it was rebuilt in the same location, using the original design. A look and feel that thankfully still remains today...

,,,in fact the only changes have been made outside the Lion’s doors, as it has now become one of a very rare breed: a "meikyoku kissa", a classical music cafe. Somewhere people go to sit silently, sip coffee or tea, and soak up the rich sounds… speaking is strictly forbidden, just whispering is allowed, and the coffee is of highest quality…

…as Jean told me, there are more than 200 of these “establishments” within the Tokyo-area, perfect places to escape and simply relax…

...and of course the Lion café has an enormous collection of old vinyl records and CDs which are partly played in a daily fixed program, but it is as well possible to ask for special recordings being played…

...as it is strictly forbidden to take pictures I had to surf the net for some, so credit to the original uploaders…



…view from our place sipping delicious coffee…












I wish we had just one of these over here in Cologne !



« Last Edit: May 29, 2015, 04:47:58 PM by rhlauranna »

Offline rhlauranna

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1386
  • Liked: 198
Re: DDDAC 1794-NOS 24-192
« Reply #383 on: May 28, 2015, 01:53:49 AM »
Visiting Mr. Yoshihara and his system

The specialities regarding Mr. Yoshihara’s system do not start inside his listening room, but outside his house. He has not one single power line entering from the street, but two: one for the normal purposes within the house like television, washing machine, light and so on, and the other one solely for his HiFi-system…

...so, to get it right, his HiFi-system is supplied by a power station on its own… the outside view looks like this:



The system consists of double Goto membrane basses (SG38WNS if memory serves me well), ALE drivers for the mid- and mid-high range, and a pair of YL-Berillyum tweeters on each side...



...one playing to the front, and one to the rear side (i.e. two on each side)…



…of these only a hundred pairs have been made, and Mr. Yoshihara only has gotten these pairs because of personal knowledge. To get all the components just right no less than Seiya Goto himself has cared for a fortnight for the installing, the measurement and the fine tuning of the system…



...as digital source Mr. Yoshihara uses a VRDS NEO SACD-player in combination with a rubidium clock which works in billionth seconds, and I am strongly convinced that it is at least for me no fantasy to hear this…it definitely sounds… quicker, more precise, just the right way...

…wow, has he good ears… a very clean sound, very coherently, very harmonic, very well balanced, nothing tiresome or troublesome, with a very fine and pronounced reduction of the faults of the membrane basses, which they generally produce, by doubling the amount to two on each side… and to my ears Goto membrane basses are best in reducing these nasty faults...





...for strenthening and stabilisation purposes Mr. Yoshihara uses some 3 cm in diameter and 3-4 mm thick long hard rubber "tube-pieces" adheasively fixed all over the bass and mid range chassis in order to calm down and reduce own frequency resonances...

Mr. Yoshihara is a classic-music lover. And he plays his system within the “best” loudness area, indeed… and to my ears, he is on the “right” way… if he would be able to play that what he has 10 dB louder he would be there where every HiFi-lover wants to be: in HiFi-heaven… he surely is able to play “louder”, but I don’t know if then the “perfect” balance remains kept as is… nevertheless, a really superb system…







Mr. Yoshihara is a very courteous and polite man, a true connoisseur with an extensive collection of finely selected classical music on vinyl, CD and SACD…



…although he meanwhile has given up listening to vinyl - a reaction that I definitely can understand given that result - he owns several different turntables and pickups…

…and he hosted us like kings, spoiled us with wonderful food, really superb sushi...









...well tempered drinks, cold beer (Suntori) and Japanese sweets…



...not only that he very hospitable fetched us from the station, he even brought us back there as well, so we felt very very much as welcomed guests, and all around I could learn a lot and it was much more than fun to listen to his system… thanks a ton Mr. Yoshihara!!!



(from left to right: Mr. Yoshihara, Jean-Laurent Veys, Jean Hiraga, André Klein)

…Jean Hiraga has already intensively reported about the system of Mr. Yoshihara in No. 67 of Stereo Prestige & Image





...and last not least a recording I enjoyed very much (sorry for the poor quality):



Christian Gentet - L'Orchestre de Contrebasses, Best of L'Orchestre de Contrebasses, KINGRECORDS KICC 393. Japan, Import, 2003

« Last Edit: June 03, 2015, 06:03:50 PM by rhlauranna »

Offline rhlauranna

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1386
  • Liked: 198
Re: DDDAC 1794-NOS 24-192
« Reply #384 on: May 28, 2015, 09:13:32 PM »
..on with the show…

During the whole trip there has been played a lot of music of all kinds, mostly classical and jazz from vinyl old and new, CDs, SACDs, 78 shellacs, originals and covers, too much to refer to all, but please allow me to sprinkle in here and there some of those recordings that indeed caught my attention, soundwise and musicwise…



Isao Suzuki Trio-Quartet - Blow Up, 1973, Vinyl, Three Blind Mice, TBM 15



Peggy Lee - Black Coffee With Peggy Lee, 1956, Vinyl, Ace Of Hearts – AH 5 (Mono pressing 1961) Orig. US Label (10'')

Just to point out: wherever we had the fun to listen to music, it was no question at all that the very originals were played, and nothing but the originals, always first pressings, the costs for these didn’t seem to matter at all…

…the most “expensive” records that I got to listen to were originals from 1926, three vinyls in top condition, costing some 2.000.000. yen… I leave it up to you to calculate into your currency… pictures will follow of course…

...so, Peggy Lee and Louis Armstrong for example were all played from the original vinyl dating back to 1956, from the original US Label (10'')… what else? might one ask, when money does not play a role…



…and you should have heard all the discussions about different recordings, second pressings, later re-editions (even from other countries), re-masterings, CD- and SACD-versions… I simply was overtaxed, but I was told and I had to “learn” that there are two levels of “informations” when music is being played from such original shellacs (78) and vinyl sources (33 and yes 45), the music and the mostly heavy combined suface-noise…

…when listening to music they manage to abstract from the not to the music belonging “noise”, they simply fade it out and just listen to the music and nothing else…well, of course I understand what they are looking for: the original artists, the original sound, the naturalness with which it has been recorded at the time, and I had my fun…

…but to be honest, being used to more or less crystal clear sound of the digital area, I had my difficulties… the thing that nearly everybody very strongly pointed out is the “three dimensionality” of the original analogue "mono" recording (I still have my problems to "find" out what that exactly is), the warmth, the naturalness in comparison to CD and SACD, exactly this is – according to their conviction - lacking… (well, please don’t expect me to comment on this topic here, I will save my personal impressions regarding digital streaming and how it is mostly used exactly in that country, where it has been invented, till the end of the story…)

(off topic here, right, but regarding specifally “naturalness” just let me hint you to the following discussion that is going to happen… Korg and Sony are introducing DSD live streaming technology…

http://dsd.st/en/

…so far it works for Korg and Sony DSD DACs and not much music is available at the moment for testing, but quality is rather reasonable…)

« Last Edit: May 29, 2015, 07:22:53 AM by rhlauranna »

Offline rhlauranna

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1386
  • Liked: 198
Re: DDDAC 1794-NOS 24-192
« Reply #385 on: May 29, 2015, 02:20:54 AM »
Next day our first meeting was with Mr. Saburo Degawa, one of those HiFi-aficionados who has been at the ETF in Berlin at the end of last year...

http://www.jacmusic.com/html/diversen/ETF/2014/index-ETF-2014.htm

..and who has accompanied us on several occasions during our trip. What a very friendly, polite and knowledgable man!

Mr. Degawa lives outside of Tokyo. He is an electronic engineer. He was the chief of a development-department for resistors and special circuits. He owns more than a dozen patents. Now he is retired. And you may imagine how Jean and André, our DIYers, acquired lots of his latest developments encapsulated in black opaque resin which are not yet on the market but heavily discussed among those who understand what’s going on inside (I have to admit: I do not that much)…

...after leaving the society he worked for he was allowed to make use of his patents outside and develop them further… (I am sorry not to be able to present pictures of these, but my supplies for the camera went out of power, and they are made only for European use… André has made quite a lot and I am sure that we will get them later on…)







Mr. Degawa has a very nice listening room, fully equipped with highest end turntable + pickups, CD + SACD player, a superb amplification chain and of course superb speakers and drivers….



...handmade power transformers...



...former YL-Beryllium drivers...





..just to name a few: different turntables and pickups, pre-amp, Accuphase channel devider, tube power amps, CD- and SACD-player...































So, for all the DIYers among us, here is the technical stuff illustrated:



















There is much more technical stuff, but I leave you with this. Regarding this domain you understand much more than me. You may try it out. It looks very promising. Just let me quote the last sentence of the research results:

“Converting all power supplies for audio system (CD, amplifier, main amplifier) to the second generation series power supplies enables to improve high frequency distortions in power supply circuit and to reproduce all of the lost audio-frequency signals, and also it enables to reproduce the harmonics of a fundamental tone (natural tone) and Hall tone.
Using for digital circuit power supply such as DA converter enables to reproduce accurate digital waveform and to improve brightness and resolution of digital image.”

Just in case that you want more information you might contact Mr. Degawa directly:

Saburo Degawa

A&R Lab

3-10-23 Tsuromati-kita, Hadona-shi, Kanagawa-ken, 257-0001 Japan

Phone: 0463-76-9606

e-mail: sdegwa@mvd.biglobe.ne.jp

« Last Edit: May 29, 2015, 05:04:20 PM by rhlauranna »

Offline rhlauranna

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1386
  • Liked: 198
Re: DDDAC 1794-NOS 24-192
« Reply #386 on: May 29, 2015, 05:30:03 PM »
It is very nice to experience that the internet gets people together, no matter what country, as to be seen with our Japanese HiFi-friends at the ETF in Germany and their mother country, and that “borders” at least on the human side, in the non-political area, seam to disappear…

…and I am very glad to hear that Stefano from the “TwoGoodEars”-Site...

http://twogoodears.blogspot.de/2015/05/wjaas-japanese-adventure.html

...has followed us during the whole trip on Facebook and already has posted some pictures as well, which will take me still quite some time till their turn has come being commented… so please enjoy in the meantime and be patient… I do my very best…

« Last Edit: May 29, 2015, 06:03:40 PM by rhlauranna »

Offline rhlauranna

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1386
  • Liked: 198
Re: DDDAC 1794-NOS 24-192
« Reply #387 on: May 29, 2015, 05:57:56 PM »
In between our very inspiring session with Mr. Degawa we had lunch. He was very generous and so very hospitable that he invited us to a special japanese restaurant completely outside any tourist paths, which has to be experienced to be believed...



...although it has primarily nothing to do with HiFi per se, the meal fitted so well into the whole “show of the day” that I simply cannot resist and leave it out. That highlight it was…

...you may contact their homepage, because there are much more pictures and of better quality. The site is in english as well, so you may enjoy even better…

www.jinya-inn.com

let me just add those who are personally and related to us…



..nothing but... of course...



















and of course our menu...







...it's all the details that make such fun...











...and just exactly perfect tempered Lager...



you may imagine with some 28 °C outside how delicious let alone that was !!! aaahhh...















...and as superb as the menu was as superb was original japanese Taiko drumming afterwards which of course I immediately tried out to get the "real" sound into my ears...

...and hey, how light and dry and easy and dynamic is that sound !!! no bass at all in the sense of boom-boom... wonderful, simply wonderful !!!!




« Last Edit: May 29, 2015, 08:28:48 PM by rhlauranna »

Offline rhlauranna

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1386
  • Liked: 198
Re: DDDAC 1794-NOS 24-192
« Reply #388 on: May 29, 2015, 06:44:31 PM »
...after lunch we got back to Mr. Degawa's home and continued our listening session...



front view of Mr. Degawa's system...

...not to forget, Mr. Degawa makes use of a studio loudness attenuator that I like very much:



frontside (the pic should be vertical, but for some reason I do not manage that)



...and flip side...



view on Mr. Degawa's superb and extensive record collection in which Jean Laurent Veys got lost regarding his favorite music...









..and on his tube amplification armada...





...and some recordings that we enjoyed very much...



Eiji Yamamoto - Green Sleeves - Bechstein Piano Solo, 1997, YPM-005



TBM - Three Blind Mice Records Inc.  - Super Analog Sound of Three Blind Mice (1989) (2004) TBM XR 9002, XRCD 24



« Last Edit: May 29, 2015, 08:37:30 PM by rhlauranna »

Offline rhlauranna

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1386
  • Liked: 198
Re: DDDAC 1794-NOS 24-192
« Reply #389 on: May 30, 2015, 01:51:58 AM »
The next day we visited Mr. Kobayashi in Kamagene. We started by bus early in the morning, because we had to ride several hours to get there… the area where he lives is so inaccessible that there is no train connection...



Very friendly and sympathic and hospitable Mr. Kobayashi, a man of taste, and his super kind and super nice and super pretty wife fetched us from the bus station.



(Mr. Kobayashi, Jean Hiraga)



(Mrs. Kobayashi)

Before they drove us to their home we had a menu at a local restaurant with Japanese self service. Very interesting. Very unusual. But very tasty. I enjoyed it very much, especially the diversity on offer...











As we were in Japan we said we wanted to eat like real Japanese. And so we were all more than surprised when for the first time in our lives we tasted grilled grass hoppers and bees… after having overcome first hesitations we tasted, and indeed, to our surprise it was really delicious, that delicious that we voluntarily asked for more…





...arriving at Mr. Kobayahi's house...



..entering a HiFi-museum...





with Western Electric WE15...







...and the bass chassis beneeth them, rear and front...





...and here it comes: the ultra rare and ultra expensive (I was told some ten times more than the corresponding WE Tweeter !!! ):

 "Northern Electric Company Limited 596A Loud Speaking Telephone, 1929, 1930 patented, Made in Canada"

which Mr. Kobayashi very friendly made loose to better show us and fixed it afterwards and of which Jean Hiraga said: "I have never ever seen any of these in my life, neither listened to" !!! wow, wow, wow, what a priviledge to experience... thanks a ton Mr. Kobayashi !!!













..and the gang, walking, watching, discussing, demonstrationg, shooting pictures... quite nervous and excited busy with everything all around, in front and behind...







... and for the first time in my life in all its glory exactly as it was at the time: Klangfilm Europa... for cinemas with 1.500 - 2.500 seats...

... " t h e " pure sound of the past...







...the right part of the folded bass horn...



...mid-high range...



..the sensational original 70 kg in weight (in words: seventy kilogram) driver



















...well, it is understood that all antique HiFi-parts, system-components, amps, drivers and speakers play with nothing but their original equipment of their time...



(picture should be vertical, but I do not manage that...)

there is nothing "tuned" with modern parts and/or modern know-how... Mr. Kobayashi simply likes to listen to music as it was custom at the time nearly 100 years ago...

...if memory serves me well Mr. Kobayashi and André knew each other already from the ETF in Berlin (André is a Western Electric collector as well), and Mr. Kobayashi has visited him already at his home in Metz, in France, so they immediately spoke the "same language" again... what a delight for the both of them and for us to see...





the same is valid for the vinyls... EMT-turntable, and nothing but original vinyls from the corresponding time...



...pre-amp and CD-player...



...some of the music being played...









…and… smiling on all their/our faces…

Mr. Kobayashi’s aim here is definitely not to tune and tweak up a given system to its possible limits (from today’s point of view), but to “reconstruct” and to “preserve" the most of the sound from its original time. A completely different approach than mine, but after getting “used” to it after a certain time, this approach surely and without a doubt has its own legitimacy…

The big bass horn was used in big cinemas and theatres with some 1.500 till 2.500 people from1935 onwards, and regarding the general sound pressure this is the first system to some sort of match Klaus’s sound in bass. The fact is not to confirm that we now - after nearly 100 years - manage to reproduce perhaps a “better” sound but to experience how indeed very very high the possibilities in sound reproduction had already been then. 70 kg in weight for a single driver. My respect…

This driver with its weight easily creates exactly that level in bass that nearly all other systems seem to lack, and it is that easy, that sublime, that light, that it has no problems at all to reproduce a thunder as is in nature…Take cover! It is that realistic…

The sound of that insane and big bass horn is simply sensational, mighty, sublime, huge and massive… we could watch Mr. Kobayashi move the right part of the mouth of the horn open to separate it from the rest getting access to show us the back side of this monster horn with rather narrow bandwidth from 30-400 cycles, but very impressive regarding general sound reproduction taking some 80 years in HiFi historiy to be “re-reached” again with our systems…

The construction of specifically this horn reminded me of some later “creations” and “imitations” of other societies, for example JBL, who took this obviously as a basis wanting to create some sort a “me-too” product, o.k., o.k., but the origin remains german…

...and, who would have thought that, Mr. Kobayashi belongs to the very few users of highest end vintage systems in Japan that I got to know to make use of digital streaming so far at all... ultra-antique HiFi components combined with PC and ultra modern self-built DSD-DAC made by a friend of his to play not only high resolution music from hard drive but as well his own transcriptions from vinyl !!!!...

...and what ? you might ask, does that fit, does that work, does that sound ? Yes, yes, yes, yes, wonderful, really superb, fantastic, it seems as if the "oldtimers" had just been waiting for the digital to come... (... hey, get me right, that is not to make vinyl bad at all...)... but this is indeed a very big surprise...

...regarding DACs Mr. Kobayashi actually has two in use, both self made, one for 16 and 24 Bit, and a brand-new one for DSD. And he is very passionate with these, he likes to listen “through” them with his antique systems with Foobar and Winamp… how progressive is that?









Some more pixes regarding the self-built DSD DAC from Mr. Kabayashi










« Last Edit: June 13, 2015, 08:54:05 PM by rhlauranna »

Offline rhlauranna

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1386
  • Liked: 198
Re: DDDAC 1794-NOS 24-192
« Reply #390 on: May 31, 2015, 12:07:33 AM »
…sorry, but we are not yet quite “done” with Mr. Kobayashi and his vintage collection of antique speakers and amps and drivers… the biggest surprise of all of them is still to come…

…presumably everybody of us high enders has already seen a picture of the one and only legendary Klangfilm Euronor !! ? “Yes” or “yes” ?

For those who might not and/or are interested in more information regarding all the different stuff made by Klangfilm GmbH over the years you might go here and surf the very interesting site created by Franck Joncheray:

http://www.klangfilm.org/index.php?lng=0&music=&type=0&frame=0&item=&title=&dir=&num=

there are as well some systems from very well known persons like tone arm producer Thomas Schick and other HiFi-aficionados…

http://www.klangfilm.org/index.php?lng=0&music=&type=0&frame=1&item=&title=&dir=&num

…and then “systems…

…and for the nearly endless varieties of speakers and drivers from Klangfilm you may go here (I have to admit that I have my difficulties to name all things just right, so if I’m wrong, please pardon!)

http://www.klangfilm.org/index.php?lng=0&music=&type=0&frame=1&item=&title=&dir=&num

and then “pictures”…

…but I am rather convinced that hardly anybody has seen or listened to an original Euronor !! in reality… neither did I. So, the only pleasure so far was watching pictures…

…to get an impression of what “Euronor !!” is, Mr. Kobayashi showed us this an the net:



…and I surfed the net for some more pixes:











…as we were told, Mr. Kobayashi is the proud owner of one of three world wide known existing original drivers of the Klangfilm Euronor. Two are in Korea, not playing, and one at his home, playing, but not installed...

…fasten your seat belts. This one driver has a size of some 70 centimetres in diameter and a weight of 250 kg (in words: two hundred and fifty kilograms). Man, was that impressive alone to see the driver just lying on the floor, what a size, what a volume lying there under a carpet, now getting reveiled for us by Mr. Kobayahi…

…I became speechless, motionless, was struck in awe, totally perplex !!! Definitely, and for quite some time…











…just to see what german engineers already have achieved in the 1930ies is simply not comparable with anything else that has been produced in HiFi since then and at any time, neither then nor today with any new stuff…

If I only think of the millions and millions of smallest earphones used today by nearly everybody all around and no matter what country, the variability indeed could not be bigger !!! What a degrading from then till today !!! simply incredible…

« Last Edit: June 02, 2015, 08:03:10 PM by rhlauranna »

Offline rhlauranna

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1386
  • Liked: 198
Re: DDDAC 1794-NOS 24-192
« Reply #391 on: June 02, 2015, 06:11:23 PM »
…but not enough with this, Mr. Kobayashi owns and makes use as well of all the original tubes of the time, Siemens, Telefunken, Klangfilm... for example these ones:

















…and then Mr. Kobayashi rummaged through his treasure box…



…showed us and made us listen to some of the very first recordings ever msde, from the year 1900:









…and those originals were some 1 cm thick at the time !…



…and of course Mr. Kabayashi played those rarities with a corresponding turntable of that time:











…and we finished that fantastic and simply unique evening with a very tasteful meal in a local restaurant…




…but don’t you think that this is already all the stuff of Mr. Kobayashi, there is much much more in connected rooms… I leave you with some pictures…



…all vintage horns, drivers, electronics, turntables, channel deviders, tubes… everywhere till the ceiling…































…some original Western Electric 555 drivers wanted ?



..or turntables ?





…or some tubes ?



..or some more drivers/speakers ?






« Last Edit: June 02, 2015, 09:19:20 PM by rhlauranna »

Offline rhlauranna

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1386
  • Liked: 198
Re: DDDAC 1794-NOS 24-192
« Reply #392 on: June 02, 2015, 07:26:38 PM »
…next morning leaving for Kyoto…



…Mr. Kobayashi was so kind to drive us there and stay with us till the evening…



…on the road…





…entering some autoroad restaurant to choose from the menu wall…



…you choose according to pictures with prepared meals, pay, get a number, sit down, wait till you are called, and then receive your meal… I really was quite astonished regarding not only the fantastic organization but also the fine quality of all the meals that we got, superbly fresh and tasty…













..entering Kyoto Mr. Kobayashi accompanied us viewing the city and the former emperor residence with uncountable temples around….















...in the evening we had a very nice meal with for me – the first time in my life – real Kobe-beef...



...prepared and eaten like the locals do, soaked in boiling vegetable broth till stewed, then stirred in slightly whipped raw egg-white with yellow and then eaten...

...there is no seasoning needed at all, that tasty is the meat, and delicious, simply delicious… I simply do not know why we here in Europe do not manage to create such a tasteful meat… It is available in thin slices (not as a steak) in nearly every grocery, and it looks very specially and homogeniously marbled…

...thanks a ton Mr. Kobayashi, to your wife as well, for your kindness, friendliness, openness, knowledge and generosity in being our guide, sharing your life with us and that what is closest to our hearts: High Fidelity...

...heading for the next HiFi-adventure the weather forecast for the next day was like this: No tsunamis, just natural sound waves…



« Last Edit: June 09, 2015, 05:34:24 AM by rhlauranna »

Offline kajak12

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2468
  • Liked: 78
    • http://killerdac.com/forum/index.php
Re: DDDAC 1794-NOS 24-192
« Reply #393 on: June 02, 2015, 10:11:22 PM »
Dear Hifi-friends,

just returned from “the” HiFi-trip through Japan from north to south and east to west with André Klein (you know the DIYer from Metz in France with the self-built WE15 system), Dr. Jean-Laurent Veys (the owner of the Lencoheaven-site and great EMT and vinyl-lover), and of course our unique leader and infinitely inspirational source: Jean Hiraga who indeed absolutely perfectly planned, organized and executed our marathon-trip with some twenty extraordinary systems from the last century, including nearly every brand that ever has been written about and that mostly only can be read about but not listened to…

Jean Hiraga opened exactly those doors for us in Japan which presumably for normal HiFi-visitors ever will remain closed. For half a century Jean is a very well known and highly respected man over there, and those HiFi-aficionados, that we visited, gladly had their magazines and books from Jean, dating back till the 1960ies, signed by him with autographs…

Before reporting in detail – I do not know if this is the right place, so you might better put it elsewhere - I have to come back on my own regarding jet-lag… you understand…

For the moment just one picture which I got from Mr. Katou (personally I made more than 2.000), to get you inspired and your mouth watering… there is more to come…



Top: James Wallbridge (you may remember the australian astro-physician who has been already here with us at Cologne, becoming a professor in Japan), André Klein, me, Dr. Jean Veys, mid-range: Jean Hiraga, active musicians and singers of which Mr. Katou has made recordings on CDs), low: two Goto-system owners, Shinichi Tanaka from Goto-society (who planned and executed for Mr. Katou the installation of the whole Goto-system in the back), Toshihisa Katou (owner of the system and professional recording engineer chasing for “the” sound - like me), his wife, and another Goto-system owner)


Anyway: the whole trip was “the” HiFi-lesson in my life…
Where is MR.Miyagi?
still discovering the link between electronics and audio reproduction.so much to learn and so little time

Offline rhlauranna

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1386
  • Liked: 198
Re: DDDAC 1794-NOS 24-192
« Reply #394 on: June 02, 2015, 10:16:35 PM »
...leaving Kyoto to Kokura, changing trains in Shin-Osaka, Hakata, for our meeting with Mr. Sugano from Kanno Labs and listening to his Western Electric System WE12A…



…facing and riding for the first time with real “Shinkansens"… the speciality regarding these trains is not only their velocity with some 200 m/h but that the leaders of the riding service as well on the platform as within the trains deeply bow when the train enters the station and keep bowed till the train stands still… the same is valid for the departure and when entering and leaving every wagon !!!

... we were indeed deeply impressed as if for the japanese this was the most natural thing in the world… this is some incredible sort of respect and politeness that I completely missed just having returned to Paris or elsewhere in Europe later on...





...the Shinkansens are very comfortable and spacy... have a look at the space for the knees and feet alone... not nearly as narrow as in the aeroplanes...



... while being on trains Jean kindly introduced exactly those systems to us that were to come and that he just recently had reported about in different editions of his magazine "Stereo Prestige & Image" and of which he some has brought with him as a gift for those who we were to visit...



... we left train in Kokura...



...and were very heartily and friendly welcomed and fetched by Eitsu Kiyohara...



...who - I told already - was a very qualified member of the European Triode Festival (ETF) in Berlin in november last year...

http://www.jacmusic.com/html/diversen/ETF/2014/index-ETF-2014.htm



...very kindly transporting us with his new Alphard Hybrid car...



...to Kanno Labs...



...and after some stairways to heaven we entered the historic listening room...





...which exists already - if memory serves me well - since the beginning of the 1960ies...



...equipped with some of the best venerable vintage HiFi-stuff ever produced in history, especially the Western Electric WE 12A...



(I'm sorry, I still have not yet found out how an originally stored vertical picture stays vertical after being uploaded in tiny.pic and gets not turned around for 90°)





...and some very refined and sophisticated (modern styled and tuned) surrounding equipment like this...











...the whole room full of equipment (one can immediately see that they are chasing very hard for the sound), old and anew...















...with numerous Ortofon pickups...





...Mr. Sugano adjusting everything just right...







...and of course immediately a heavy conversation and discussing started regarding all kinds of HiFi-things in general and particular...







(Mr. Sugano and Mr. Eitsu Kiyohara)



(and Jean Hiraga and Mr. Sugano discussing some former high end system in an older magazine, but already with mouth openings for the bass horns in the ceiling, see below...)



...and showing, discussing, learning, enjoying...



Jean Veys inspecting some professional broadcast CD-player from Philips...





...in between our hosts offered us some coffee and very nice and tasty sweets...





...some 2 track Ampex analogue recording machine covered beneath some cloth for which at the time I would have given my right arm, but could not afford...



...and some historical pictures of the LAB from the 1960/70ies...



...superb stuff treasured all around, open and in cupboards...



...Kanno Labs own tweeter "Kanno K597"...





...with own attenuator from Kanno Labs...

...and some very much admired and discussed toy...





...all to suit the superb Western Electric speakers...



...and a little history of Kanno Lab...











...the connoisseurs looking for the "right" vinyls...

as I told already, wherever we were in HiFi-Japan, only the very first original pressings were played, and nothing but these, from quite a large stock...





...for example...







...and please have a look at Jean how happy he is showing me such originals from the 1950ies from Satchmo...







...or this original dating from the 1920/30ies...



..it is indeed not that easy to bring such an "old fox" in HiFi like Jean Hiraga to such a satisfying smile deep down from the heart like this, but these recordings simply manage to do...



...thanks a ton Mr. Sugano for your hospitality, your friendship and your generosity having us welcomed and letting us experience such a fantastic listening...


« Last Edit: June 06, 2015, 06:24:21 AM by rhlauranna »

Offline rhlauranna

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1386
  • Liked: 198
Re: DDDAC 1794-NOS 24-192
« Reply #395 on: June 03, 2015, 08:22:06 PM »
Leaving Kanno Labs completely impressed for our next HiFi-adventure…



…but what is to come is indeed a chapter on its own, unbelievable, unique, unforgettable…

...now the moment has come to point out that from here on we were totally guests of our Japanese hosts, primarily Jean Hiraga was guest - and we as “followers”, a gesture to be invited at all that he for years refused but now could no longer hold on (Jean told me already way before we started our journey…), not only that we were invited being driven all the time, our hosts payed as well all hotel costs, meals in restaurants, picknicks and drinks in between…

…what an hospitality is this, please ? I am used to the german proverb (jokingly): “Every guest has to be honored, as nasty as he may be…” and we practice it like that (jokingly as well), but this ? This simply blows up every frame…

...we all felt deeply honored and welcomed and cared for, and I feel rather small with my tiny guest presents that I gave to everybody (but perfectly ripped music played via PC or Mac was at least new (!) for the most of them)… but this is simply another dimension….

…we were pampered with everything one only can desire, day and night, with food and drinks, uncomparable and unique hospitality which leaves me speechless even now… I am really deeply and continuously impressed…

…to be invited by our hosts meant not only to be driven to and fro between the next listening sessions on different locations but starting on the road after Kanno Labs with a picnic after some time (keep in mind that wherever all the listening sessions took place they only lasted just some one till two hours, not more)…

...please have a look for yourself… a picnic in a road restaurant… but what a picnic….



…the “normal” menu card of the road restaurant looked like this…



…but of course our hosts had prepared something else, something special and quite different…

















...and we all enjoyed it very much...



...driven by car by Mr. Onimaru, accompanied by Mr. Moriyama and Mr Machida, both within (systems later on), and Mr. Eitsu Kiyohara (system later on), who drove the others in his own car...



...passing seemingly endless rice fields (there is practically no meal, even breakfast, without rice in Japan)...



...entering the fairy-tale-like area of "The 100 Forest Giants of Japan"...











..entering world famous pottery of Mr. Onimaru, third generation, our kind and friendly "driver"...



...having already exhibited his products in New York and Paris, being crazy about Porsche, of which he drives one: "I like german cars..."









even building pottery cabinets for speakers...



...inviting us for a real japanese "green tea"-ceremony in his private rooms (which is according to Jean something very special)...



.....


Unfortunately I have to make a break here because my camera went out of power… but I will report later on, when I will have gotten some pixes from the other members of the gang… it is the systems of Mr. Moriyama and Mr. Akinaga we visited in the afternoon and in the evening…

...here is what I have at the moment, the WE-system of Mr. Akinaga, Western Electric WE15A + WE597A with amplification from Mr. Machida (system to come)…



...very friendly and hospitable and lucky Mr. Akinaga with a superb system...



« Last Edit: June 06, 2015, 06:35:35 PM by rhlauranna »

Offline rhlauranna

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1386
  • Liked: 198
Re: DDDAC 1794-NOS 24-192
« Reply #396 on: June 04, 2015, 08:10:38 PM »
...on thursday morning we were leaving Yufuin to Ukihamachi... heading Mr. Eitsu Kiyohara, to visit and listen to his Western Electric system WE 16A (which is in fact four times mono) with amplification of Mr. Machida (system to come) and Mr. Atarashi...

...and this was entering (HiFi)-Nirvana...

...well, I always knew about the word Nirvana per se, but never ever had an imagination of what this ultimately could be... as it turned out it was good that I had this gap, so reality could fill it...

...not enough to have a house, a villa, a large property with big buildings, superbly established garden(s) all around... but a temple on its own, and all in gold, with a son in law, a monk, to care for and practise religion....

...please have a look for yourself... let me start with these...







...a "personal" gong, not only to welcome the New Year...









...entering the own temple...





























...and in between us, me and Jean Veys...

...leaving the temple, entering the rooms for HiFi...





...with lots and lots and lots of vinyls, CDs, SACDs...



...turning round, and then this...









...this is, as I said before: Western Electric system WE 16A, double driver stereo, which is in fact four times mono...



...WE16A - WE555 x 2...



...woofer WE4181A x 1 + Eltus4181 x 1...



...Kanno K597 Tweeter x 1 + WE KS12025 + WE555 x 1...



...WE KS12025 + WE555...









...with children...



...accompanied by an armada of self-built amplification and turntable-constructions made by Mr. Machida and Mr. Atarashi, countless pickups from Denon, Ortofon mono, stereo... nothing but the very best...













...and more music on the wall...





...and the amplification chain...

































...and of course something like a Telefunken M15A stands shy and hidden around the corner...



...with even more vinyls...



...and yes, all HiFi-Fans all around, walking, watching, shooting pictures, discussing... what a joy... what fun... what inspiration...







...being very hospitable and kindly served with green tea and all sorts of japanese sweets which tasted very fine indeed...







...all sorts of music, classical, jazz... being played... but two records stood out, the first a Columbia pressing from 1910 or so with 1 cm thickness in size...



...and, as far as I know one of the most expensive records, original pressings in the world, dating from 1926 - in mint condition of course, for some 2.000.000 yen... (I told already...)

"RCA Victor, Red Seal Records, Bach, Suite No. 2 in D Minor, Suite No. 3 in C, Pablo Casals, 'Cellist, Unaccompanied"



...the whole trio of recordings...





...Jean and Eitsu discussing the quality of the recording...



...Jean presenting the original vinyl and André the "modern" CD-version of this very recording, which - I was told - "does not sound"...

....and our host and the proud owner of the whole property and the system is Mr. Eitsu Kiyohara adjusting everything just exactly perfect...





...what a lucky man !!! congratulations on your system, and thanks a million, Mr. Kiyohara, for all your hospitality, generosity, natural modesty, inspiration and great kindness to host us like kings...

...and Jean gladly signing a very old HiFi-book of Mr. Kiyohara from the 1960ies in which is a picture of Jean as a young man...








...well, although unfortunately all days more or less heavily plagued by tinnitus during our whole journey through Japan Dr. Jean Veys stated: "This is the best system in the world!"...
« Last Edit: June 19, 2015, 06:54:24 AM by rhlauranna »

Offline rhlauranna

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1386
  • Liked: 198
Re: DDDAC 1794-NOS 24-192
« Reply #397 on: June 06, 2015, 06:32:00 AM »
…well, after a nice lunch in a local restaurant with a menu like this, which by the way was very tasty…







…we arrived at Mr. Kazuaki Machida’s home and listened to his system, another superb Western Electric system, but this one on smallest room possible, my respect… Mr. Machida is a very nice and kind and extremely modest and savvy guy bringing things really to the point... I admire this very much...



...he has also been at the European Triode Festival (ETF) in Berlin last year (I linked already)…

http://www.jacmusic.com/html/diversen/ETF/2014/index-ETF-2014.htm



...ETF's own T-shirt...

…with estimated 14 - 16 square meters Mr. Machida has exactly the size of room that normaly in german HiFi-magazines is talked about when generally being reported about the Japanese and their HiFi-music-habits when listening....

...but that doesn't matter at all... neither the size of the room nor the "volume" of the system... it is not necessary that he would have to hide somewhere in comparison to other systems visited, just the opposite... it is all best elements, all Western Electric as well, and this construction (or something like that) indeed could be a superb solution for those who do not have that much space...

...Mr. Machida has his system so very well composed and balanced and – to my ears – very finely tuned, that the size of the room simply does not play that much a role except for the deepest frequencies, it is a real joy to listen here, to music, and not to a system… it is relaxing...

...sometimes High-Enders are talking about "synergy" or "synergy-effects" within a HiFi-system, and I know what they mean...  well, to be honest, this system has it for me, and in quite an abundant way...













...a view of the system from the rear side, the entrance is that small that one hardly gets in, but the real HiFi-fans do everything, that's understood...















...André and Mr. Machida checking if everything is just alright...







...and these ones just to illustrate to you the "narrowness" of the room... but do not be alarmed, this is the proof that absolute superb HiFi is possible even in the smallest "corners"...





...the home-made amplification in front of the speakers...









...hhhmmmhhh, not to be unfair, contrarily to most or most parts of other systems we have visited we do enter here the infinite creative area of DIY, and Mr. Machida has created most of his system and system-parts himself... and that simply sounds...



...Mr. Machida's pre-amplifier...



...and with CD-player...

...and in addition he has very good ears, and he knows where to go, and he knows what to do, and he knows how to do it... so when comparing this system with any other one has to keep in mind that he has quite a lot of advantages that the others simply do not have or at least not to this extent...

...just simply have a look at what Mr. Machida has created... and be assured, it sounds like it looks, unusual perhaps at first sight, but absolutely first rate... well, of course you have seen his amps and turntables already in other systems here in this journey before... yes, these are all his superb creations...







...answering my question why all his creations are made out of those tiny wooden cubes and cuboids and put together in a way that they exactly fit to the wanted or needed form and size, he just shortly looked into my eyes, then jumped as close to the spinning turntable as high into the air as he could, landed on the floor with both his feet with a crash... but nothing happened at all, nothing moved at all, neither the spinning turntable nor the pickup grabbing music...

...o.k. I was immediately convinced... earthquake-proof... a criterion of performance that until now I did not yet had taken into account at all neither having ever even thought of it... but I liked it !!! and it would be nice to have anyway....

have a look what works of precision and practical use this man creates... I am impressed, and they have an appeal to me...









...as we all know wood is "warm" and a non-guiding conductor, and one can work quite well with it, but above all it has an advantage which is not to top... we had that often in the past, when we combined several elements of wood we got no difficulties with the ground/earth-hum-loop, just the opposite was mostly the case in comparison to the connections of several metallic components...

...I am not an expert regarding these things, but the hum I could ever hear!... and it was not always that easy to get completely rid of that nasty hum... and with wooden elements these phenomenons simply do not appear... but that does not mean, that the earthing problems within wooden constructions are all correctly solved... this is just a hint that you already know of and not a fact that I do presume here at all...

..from what I got to know - get me right, as it happened most of the discussion was held in japanese, then Jean translated a little into french for André and Jean-Laurant, and when this was done as a matter of fact even less to me in englisch, so, as you might presume, I did not get "everything", so please pardon if I am nowhere "complete" - Mr. Machida is very deeply involved into development... for example he builds up his own transformers... have a look at some single parts...











...and of course tubes, tubes, tubes...



...and at least getting "nervous" with DSD...



...from what I got to hear Mr. Machida is a very ambitious music lover, he "needs" a system like this to make his dreams come true... have a look at his vast collection...







...when I told Mr. Machida how much I admired his system as a whole and his sound in detail and how much work and labour of love he had invested in (all kindly translated by Jean), he knew that I understood him and his creations, and he took my hand and shook it and kept it for some seconds - in some sort of way like fiances do - and I let it happen… we couldn’t speak a single word together, no german, no french, no englisch, no Japanese… but we understood each other… and yes, it was “more than a feeling...”

...thanks a zillion Mr. Machida...

a man with no computer, with no mobile, with no "modern" connections to this world... but nevertheless  I gave him an USB-stick with my best music on... at the moment he does not yet seem to know what is going on with this, but I have an imagination of how his system might sound, when digital stream is properly installed within his system...

...and not to forget, I owe him the discovery of that what has become "the" recording of the whole trip for me, very unsusual, very avantgarde, right, but an orchestra with 29 musicians doing exactly that what we want to listen to and test with, all that "nasty" little things that we like to tickle our ears with... a must have...



"Yann Robin - Vulcano; Art of Metal, Billard, Ensemble intercontemporain, Malkki (2012) Kairos 0013262KAI"



...and the last time that I saw someone sitting in the sweet spot being struck in awe, here Dr. Jean Veys, when listening...



...was Shinichi Tanaka from Goto Society when listening to Klaus's system... (Mr. Shinichi Tanaka's system is to come later on...)

http://killerdac.com/forum/index.php/topic,900.0.html

« Last Edit: June 09, 2015, 07:12:20 PM by rhlauranna »

Offline PingPing

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 119
  • Liked: 6
Re: DDDAC 1794-NOS 24-192
« Reply #398 on: June 06, 2015, 08:05:21 AM »
Fantastic  :) :) :)

Offline rhlauranna

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1386
  • Liked: 198
Re: DDDAC 1794-NOS 24-192
« Reply #399 on: June 07, 2015, 04:35:28 AM »
Next day, on Saturday, we went from Hakata to Toyama with changing Shinkansens in Osaka...



...waiting on our train... start was very early on, because we had a 6 hours 30 ride by train, and then 1 hour ride by car... to Mr. Toshihisa Katou’s full-Goto system, meeting there Shinichi Tanaka from Goto Society, James Wallbridge and quite a lot of HiFi-aficionados…











...while changing trains in Osaka we became witnesses of the "kissing" of two Shinkansens on another platform, which within minutes were on tour again, everyone in its own direction…



…by the way it is very admirable watching the planning and organisation of how precisely all the Shinkansens come to a stop within the stations, within exact borders set in advance, so that every passenger definitely knows where to wait and queue up... there are defined markings on the platform... and it works very well...



...but not only for the ones who can see, also for the blind within the trains already markings on the handrails can be touched, and outside the trains there are yellow guidelines for sticks (initially I was wondering what's the use of all these) which can be used by the blind on the floor...





...and for those who esteem streamlinings and aerodynamics and are able to see... the actual fashion for the ladies is something like this...



...hot pants without stockings, just high heeled sandals, some blouse with jacket and mouth- and nose-protection... this is to be found everywhere...

...on our way to Toyama we had one break, we had to change Shinkansens and we had a very nice meal, prepared by some very nice and friendly girls, fried curry chicken with rice, within the station in a quality I would not have believed, simple, yes, but very tasty (a choice by Jean of course)...







...and within the station of Osaka...



..for example new cars are presented with new forms and sizes that are reserved only for the japanese market...



..the Shinkansens are very comfortable and quiet, but that quick on the rails that it is hardly possible to shoot some valuable pictures from the outside, and as we passed one of the world's heritages quick like a flash of lightning, so, that it was impossible to take a picture, Jean at least showed it to us on his japanese mobile...





...as the area was mostly flat, we passed seemingly endless rice fields and rice fields and rice fields...





..but finally we were not in for a sightseeing, were we ?...

...arriving at Toyama at last...



...kindly and personally getting fetched by Mr. Katou, and after another hour's ride in his car we arrived at his home, the place where I - regarding our purposes - mostly wanted to be of all in Japan...





(a Goto-fan, Mr. Katou in the middle, Jean Hiraga to the right)

...to introduce Mr. Katou to you: he is a professional... a professional recording engineer... he produces CDs and SACDs... although very well equipped with all kinds of different turntables and pickups - like everybody else we visited on our trip through Japan...



...for quite some time Mr. Katou - you may remember like some pages before Mr. Yoshihara - has already completely given up playing vinyls... you may ask why?... well, not to tap on anyone's toes, but experiencing such a listening result with his system (as was with Mr. Yoshihara's) you will immediately understand why... perhaps I might add that Mr. Katou for more than a year now is using a 60 chip DDDAC1543 from Doede Douma kindly introduced to him by Jean Hiraga...



...Accuphase CD/SACD player, Goto pre-amp and DDDAC1543 with 60 chips below with the blue light on...

http://www.dddac.com/

...of which and about whose development I talked already quite a lot... you may remember: Jean Hiraga and me are using the DDDAC1543 with 120 chips)...

...to make it short: Mr. Katou is chasing for "the" sound, like me... and as he told me, there is no alternative for him but playing digital stream, as well with other very sophisticated DACs, but ultimately not with that degree of satisfaction... (well, not only my presumption but my conviction is that it is the power supply, though good, but not delivering that what it should - you may read Chanh lately for specifically that matter with his extraordinary results...)

...during our meeting Mr. Katou and some of the attending solo singers and pianists kindly honered me with some of their CDs, produced by Mr. Katou, for example these...



Atsuko Yamaguchi - Bewitched



Teruo Goto & Jun Satsuma - But Beautiful



...sorry, not yet listened to, and all in japanese only...

...and of course Mr. Katou played for us some of his own newly made DSD-recordings... which were very much admired... "...the cello..." (I will try to get this from Mr. Katou...)

...as a professional recording engineer Mr. Katou has quite a lot of professional equipment, like microphones...



...see the armada of cases on the wall, filled with all kinds of recording stuff and professional recording microphones from Sony and others, of which Jean shows us some of Mr. Katou's favorites...













Mr. Katou’s system…



...well, this indeed has been long time planned... from what I got to know from Mr. Shinichi Tanaka this was an ongoing process which took more than one and a half year to be fully executed, and just for some months the system is that completely installed that it is "playable"...

…to fit his new complete Goto-system into the new listening room Mr. Katou had to convert most parts of his house... out of six rooms, three in the basement and three in the first floor, he had to make just one reaching up to the roof, leaving only the originally elementary beams to save the static equilibrium… this to the great advantage of the large waves to be able to expand just the right way…

...to give you an impression of the size...









...bass horn from the side...



...bass horn from the front...



...mid-low and bass horn from the side...



...mid-low horn from the front...

,,,for the visitors of Mr. Katou's system Mr. Shinichi Tanaka had prepared a presentation which was thrown on the wall and of which he gladly gave me a CD...



...let me extract the content and show it here to you...


















































…does anybody recognize any difference regarding the arrangement of the bass chassis between Klaus's and Mr. Katou's?



















...so, the actual system of Mr. Katou consists of the following elements (per side)…

...well, for better understanding of the whole system let me add, that for the realisation of this system Mr. Shinichi Tanaka has tried to adopt the construction principles regarding bass from Klaus’s system to which he had been listening here with us some 2 ½ years ago and because of the spectacular results was asking if this construction principle was already “patented”, i.e. doubling the lowest bass, and putting the SG146LD4 driver instead of the deepest bass into the mid-low bass (a criterion on which - to my opinion - should be discussed and of course listened again), and enriched with this "knowledge" he developed his “own” bass constructions/systems, here quadroupled for the lowest bass and doubled for the low-mid bass…

…so… deepest bass, running till 80 cycles: 4 Goto SGWNSSPH (the newest bass chassis from Goto, their highest actual level regarding membrane basses, not yet on the official market)



Mid-high bass, 80 - 350 cycles: 2 Goto SG146LD4 (top of the line regarding bass compression driver)









Mid-range, 350 - 1.500 cycles: 2 Goto SG5880BL (i.e. beryllium-version, highest end)







(low)

Tweeter, 1.500 – 6.000 cycles: 1 Goto SG3880BL(i.e. beryllium-version, highest end)



(middle)

Supertweeter, 6000 cycles - infinite: 1 Goto SG188BL (i.e. beryllium-version, highest end)

(top)



...and this is the amplification chain, all Goto, all solid state, with channel devider on top...



...and for time alignment Mr. Katou has some Accuphase in use...

..during the listening session there was of course always much ado...











...with Shinichi Tanaka and Jean Hiraga explaining what is all about the system and reflections and standing waves and resonances...

...which led to - urged by Jean according to Mr. Ishii's research results - some covering of the floor with carpets...





...and this to some more "satisfying" listening results...











...obviously...


…for those who might not be that familiar with the development of bass horns started by Mr. Seiya Goto already in 1970 and “continued” by Klaus from 1976 onwards (in the very beginning he started actually in a room of a size of 15 square meters with massive folded horns... construction was as with Klangfilm Europe, just a little smaller (one was seated hardly one meter away), but two of them…) here is some more information and pictures…

…regarding Klaus’s bass you may allow me to link you to my report regarding his ongoing researching results for more than 30 years now constructing, building and of course as well intensively listening to all kinds of bass horns with all – according to physical laws – precisely calculated length up to 6,30 meters and mouth opening to 2,70 meters, exponential, tractrix, hyperbolic… angled, curved, straight…

http://twogoodears.blogspot.de/2009/12/goto-from-japan-drivers-and-horns.html

… and as it came out there was indeed no escape at all for Klaus when chasing for “the” sound: but to build “all” these horns and listen to all of them by himself, one after another or even better – related to the size in the room - side by side…

…and this was the only way for him to find out that the “pure”, the “ideal”, the “perfect” horn according to physics, i.e. a 20 cycle horn with 6,30 meter length and a mouth opening of 2,70 meter, admittedly does sound good, but on the long run was not pleasing to our ears as expected… neither with different approaches of time-alignment, naturally and electronically…

…Klaus came to other results with his bass horns, and regarding specifically this topic hardly anybody can – as a german proverb says: “make him an X for a U”…

…so now, as to be seen on Mr. Tanaka’s Power-Point-projection for the deepest bass in Mr. Katou's system he chose the construction of the former Takajo horn which dates back to 1970 and which I got aware for the first time in 1978 in a german living-magazine…

...according to what they say it is some 230 cm long, situated on top of the corner of the ceiling, and it goes down to 28 Hz, using the angles of the room corners as natural prolonging for the mouth openings for both of the horns…a clever idea if space is really limited and one does not wish to do without a bass like this… later on appeared exactly this construction coming out of the rear walls...

...anyway, the original from 1970 was this one here…



...and here is a copy of a drawing of some papers of this very system, of Mr. Takajo’s system, with ballons from 1970, which I kindly got from Mr. Shinichi Tanaka…





...and the top view... already in 1970 with two Goto SG38WNS basses on each side, sitting on concrete horns !!! ...

…to better understand: Mr. Takajo was a famous pianist in Japan with some 100 and more vinyls and CDs out at the time when living… he had a small listening room, but with a Steinway Grand Piano in it reaching from one wall exactly to the other…

...above several stereo microphones were installed, so Mr. Takajo played on his piano, recorded himself, and afterwards he played his recordings back through his Goto-system just above his head and on the wall…



…and Mr. Seiya Goto was very often there, and they both experienced the listening results, and Mr. Goto ameliorated his speakers and drivers according to these results and Mr. Takajo’s wishes…

...what I happened to read at that time in 1978 in that german magazine (not in any HiFi-magazine, they were by far not that far at that time...) from the reporter was: “The differences between original and recording are neglectable…” …this was – if I count right – in 1978, so some 37 years ago… and I was down on the floor, deep down on the floor, only very very very slowly recovering because of this result in comparison to my own ones...

…so, from what is to be seen on Shinichi Tanaka’s Power-Point-presentation is the adaptation of exactly this type of horn for the deepest bass in Mr. Katou's system running up till 80 Hz, but with different input, not only two but four meanwhile newly developed highest end Goto membrane basses SG38WNSSPH...

...and in doing so, he tried to adopt the constructions principle that Klaus found out best for his system, the V-position of the chassis…

…such a big construction could hardly be realised without models, and so did Shinichi…







...and the execution in the origin done by Klaus with two bass chassis...



...and adapated by Shinichi Tanaka for four bass chassis...



...and so the bass horn was built...







..when watching the two pictures with two and four bass chassis I leave you with the theory of interferences regarding the results in sound reaching performances from doubling the impulses of frequencies till their complete exclusion... especially when the theme is: "What is the problem with the current system?"..." ..."not satisfied with bass..." ..."Where is the solution against slow sound?"...

...building "a space shuttle" (not only) in bass doing everything "just right" in imagination is rather easy, but practically ? ...well...

…as Mr. Katou’s system obviously had to be a five-way system like Klaus’s that he had listened to Mr. Shinichi Tanaka had to think about a construction regarding mid-low-bass-horn with SG-146LD4, like Klaus had with a single SG-146LD…

…and regarding the frequency band width he decided to adopt a hyperbolic horn, a 60 Hz horn… in length close to the one of the deep bass horn, considering synchronization of phase…

…in theory the thoughts were oriented on this…



,,,and so the practical result looked like that…



...with these drivers, the SG-146LD4s, with 50 kg in weight each...

...by the way, regarding the whole description and discussion of all the systems here, just to give you an impression, of "where" this is, just in comparison to the world famous WE555 driver, you may have a look here... this one is just the SG-146LD with some modest 40 kgs...



...and in the end Mr. Katou gave me two prospects for regular listening of music...



« Last Edit: June 10, 2015, 09:34:08 AM by rhlauranna »