Roberto's ET-7S2

[roberto]

All the sixth concertos demands the player to have a pristine ability and execution of the violin where you find a lot of tricks. The third movements are the best for me on them all. There are so many good musicians on these days, that out there are incredible players. The 24 caprices by Him too, are also very demanding for the player.

A Russian player, Alexander Markov, is a proof of the technique necessary to play these works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ307sM0t-0

Jasha plays them here too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCqv5vm2iz4

[AnotherJohnson]

Maxim Vengerov has been my favorite violinist for some some. Here is an example of his Paganini interpretation.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hsJdLv38fy8

[roberto]

Oh yes, he is very good too. As I said before, there are many great violin players, including women.

Thanks for sharing Aj!

[AnotherJohnson]

Accardo’s interpretation of Paganini may be the final word.

I wondered why Vengerov didn't have more Paganni recordings extant. After listening to Accardo play several Concertos and all 24 Capricci, I can see why. Accardo is a very tough act to follow.

[roberto]

AJ. I am in a safe stage now. Good to now that you liked him too. He is not the best but he is a very good violin player!
Happy listening!

[AnotherJohnson]

One of the unusual characteristics of Vengerov is that he has the heart of a teacher. There are quite a few instructional videos where he unpacks his interpretation. It is not focused on the mechanics of play, but instead focused on the heart of the player. He is playful, never having dismissed the awestruck little boy inside. He was a child prodigy (as most of the best are). His play is inspiring on many levels.

Obviously from the video link above, he is very skilled. But if you watch his attack, facial expressions, and body language, the complete player emerges and is visible.

[AnotherJohnson]

https://maximvengerov.com/

I’ve always liked him. He seems to be trying to give back even more than he takes.

[AnotherJohnson]

https://www.amazon.com/Maxim-Vengerov-P ... B0015U0QQ2

This is a good one.

Several on YouTube at no apparent cost.

[roberto]

He is very good too. The good thing is to have for our ears those magnificent musicians available. I can’t say that Mr Accardo is the only who can play Paganini. And no, he is not alone! He was the one that I had that really got me into the difficulties of playing exquisitely those works.

Alexander Marcov in another Paganini player. Playing the 24 caprices is a master work. Hilary Hahn also plays Paganini. She’s another good musician.

[AnotherJohnson]

What do you think about the audio quality? I was looking at offerings from Octave Records and Paul the owner makes a big fuss on how imoprtant audio quality is to them. He is a big believer in DSD. Do you find the recording quality far superior to other typical "audiophile recordings?" They charge $30 per CD so there is a hefty premium (and I'm sure shipping is not free)?

Short answer … it did not sound good in my system before warm up. Many SACDs and CDs sound good within a few minutes of turn on. This one required a full 30 minute warmup.

After the warmup, it sounded very good. Good spectral balance. Good detail. Good image. Good definition of both time and space.

But it was not better than many other SACDs or CDs in my collection. Part of this could be the difficulties associated with recording a piano-centric group, but who knows.

You should realize too that it is a hybrid disc, so it will play on both CD and SACD gear. I had to reinsert it three times before the Levinson 5101 recognized it. It was clean. I suspect the 5101 had trouble finding the SACD layer, but eventually it was successful.

And you get two disks. One is the CD/SACD. The other appears to be duplication of material in formats useful to someone like admin, but not so useful for me.

The packaging is good quality with good supporting “liner notes.”

Shipping probably wasn’t free … but it never is really free, even when they say it is. The buyer pays in the form of a higher price.

As for the price, I thought it was consistent with other SACDs by relatively obscure performers in the current market. Some SACDs by famous artists are offered for prices north of $100.

I am not going to run out and collect them all. But I don’t regret buying this one. The compositions were engaging. The performers were solid. The arrangements worked well. And the sound quality would be easily defended as above average.

I wanted to revisit this Carmin Sandim SACD.

With the system changes that I’ve made since this earlier post, the SACD now sounds (from a recording point of view) exceptionally good. I would move it into the system demo worthy category of recordings. It will be one of the disks I use to evaluate how well the AQ Wind series interconnects replace the McKenzies when the Wind interconnects come (probably next week).

[roberto]

Hola Chicos,

I have to apologise to Conrad Johnson. My ET7V2 did not make the horrible transient. I just found the problem. Part of the song that I was playing was deleted. The beginning of the first half second of the dead part of the song has this terrible odd noise, and about 25 seconds of the track is a dead silence. This is the only track that I have with this problem. I thought it was the preamp, because the track started to play the song nicely.

Oh my God, how I did that! Please excuse me Conrad Johnson. Because I had the same horrible noise, I stop the music, and play another track, and perfect. Then went back to the horrible noise track, no sound, and then suddenly started to play, went back 10 seconds, dead sound. It is the track!

I made a big mistake!...the preamp is not the culprit! Sorry, sorry, sorry!

[admin]

You are not the only one to fall into the trap. Last week I was listening to an album and I heard this faint crackling noise on some tracks. I was completely panicked as I thought that the preamp (as it was apparent in both channels) was going bad. I played the song on some good headphones on a separate system and I was relieved to hear it on the same tracks. It was the recording. Have no idea if it was a bad recording job that missed the noise or the artist's intention to put that in?

We can all breath a sigh of relief.

My ET7S2 has been flawless, glad your is as well. Such a great unit.

[AnotherJohnson]

I’m glad to hear that the transient was on the recording.

Note that the ET7s2 presented it with such accuracy that you mistook it for a real electronic snafu.

[roberto]

Well, my ears tricked me with it. I never had such noise coming from a bad recording. I'm going to try to describe the problem. First, this horrible loud transient for less than a second, having low frequency and mid range, and then silence...when the music came back, there is a little snap and the music continue well. So, it was like a self protection the silence part and then came back with another transient not as heavy as it was at the beginning.

Because the preamp signal to noise ratio is so good, that when I increased the level up to point where if I were using another preamp, there should be noise like hiss, and it was crystal clear, no hiss. I brought the level back to a normal level and stop the virtual player. Here at this point, the deleted part of the track is about the half. Then I played on again, checking and trying to figure it out what is the problem...then suddenly another less heavy transient and the music came back. This heavy tracking noise was like if the noise is located at the input of the first amplification where there is not any signal attenuation. That's my error. I thought wrong.

I was bashing and bulling the wrong item...

[AnotherJohnson]

All’s well that ends well.

And, although not overly common, there are errors on recordings.

I think this thread is the one with reference to Accardo’s Paganini series. You may recall that my vinyl copy is mastered very differently compared to the CD version. The vinyl is less than mediocre. The cd is quite good.

But it is unusual for a recording to be mastered as you’ve experienced here. No wonder you suspected the gear instead of the program.

I never doubted that the ET7s2 would prove to delight you. It is a beauty, inside AND out.

[roberto]

Ay AJ,

I feel like if I was knocked down by a train. The terrible transient was like taking out a RCA cable connector from the input of the amp being it on...horrible right? And then, followed by a dead silence. I thought that the preamp was muted by the protection circuit. And it was not. It played the transient as a part of the program material. The pre is perfect. It did not have any failure. Who had a failure was my ears .

The sound of the ET7-V2 is far better of what I was thinking it would. Now fully broken in, the naturalness is more present, and how it resolves the difficult passages, like listening to Anna Netrebko in: O Mio Babbino Caro, in the loudest parts, is like having her there...and I am pointing where she is...here in my own place...fantastic! Overwhelming!

Yes, I am very happy with it and enjoying every minute with it! Again, thank you so much for encouraging me to do the improvement. You were right! It is a much better product overall.

Happy listening!

[Big Dog RJ]

Nice one Robbo mate!

Very glad to hear that it wasn't the preamp afterall... and it was a silly track...!
I was also wondering at one point about the same, and if your ET7S2 had suddenly boomed into full break-in, which shouldn't be in the form of a loud transient. Rather it should be a nice open and smooth process into more 3D holographic imaging and a superb combination in soundstage depth and presence. Now, you're getting all that! Hooray!

Cheers mate, have a good one
Woof! RJ

[roberto]

Hola RJ,

Yes, my ears tricked me...I though it was the ET7V2, because having dead silence, really dead, also thought that the preamp was in the "mute" state. The problem is a bad track. I don't know how this happened, or perhaps the track came this way. Doing a little investigation, this particular recording was given to me by a dear friend. He also gave me more of good DSD recordings. I just copy them to my hard drive. We exchanged music.

Exactly what you are describing is what I am getting now. To be honest, I never believe that the difference between the model 1 vs model 2 was this much. The bass is controlled in a way that I had to set up again my sub, and also had to bring down a little bit the level. Also the 25Hz knob, now is at -4dB, with the model 1 the setting was at -2dB. So I am thinking the possibility that the model 2 has stronger bass performance. The transparency is breath taking, and also haver a wider stage. I have a lot of little tweaks here, and I had to touch all of them and I am listening things that I never heard before this way. The truth is, it is a lovely preamplifier full of good surprises.

Also, I hear less the clicks of the relays that controls the level. Also, I feel that the volume adjustment is better, it is easier to set the level that you want to listen to the music.

Listening to the guitar of David Gilmore, you can tell when it the Strat (Fender) and when he is playing the Less Paul (Gibson). This is a fantastic feature. Resolving things with a discerning capability is the clue. I really love this thing, The soul of the musicians are granted...their feeling is not apparent, it's real.

Happy listening!

[Big Dog RJ]

Sounds like only now those Teflons and Vishays are starting to settle in... once those Vishays have reached their potential burn-in, along with the Teflons, things really shift onto another dimension.

Good stuff Robbo mate! Enjoy those very fine tunes!
Cheers, RJ