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...