Why tube amps?

[ajay124]

"The name of the game is to meet & listen together."

Most of the time,I prefer listening to music alone....
Don't know many people who like the same music as I do.
Don't know many people who have an attention span of more than 10 minutes for music.
Most people listen 'casually' while chatting and doing other things.
I tend to get absorbed and prefer not to talk or be doing anything.
But I love music+cooking+drinking together.
For a classical listening session (currently) romantic/modern composers
Mahler
Chopin
Brahms
Schumann
Shostakovich
Khachaturian
Prokofiev
Bartok
Stravinsky
Rachmaninov
Mussorgsky
Messiaen

For jazz
Duke Ellington
Charlie Parker
Dizzy Gillespie
Louis Armstrong
Billie Holiday
Ella Fitzgerald
Nina Simone
Sonny Rollins
Thelonious Monk
Miles Davis
John Coltrane
Charles Mingus
Eric Dolphy
Ornette Coleman
George Benson
Django Reinhardt
Paco De Lucia
Oscar Peterson
For folk/soul/funk/gospel
Phil Ochs
Ray Charles
Aretha Franklin
Sam Cooke
Otis Redding
James Brown
Mahalia Jackson
*Always keep planning to spend more time with hindustani classical/carnatic but am never able to do it consistently.But this music is world class and IMO the real Indian music.Not Bollywood which since the 50's has been largely borrowed from whatever happens to be popular in the west.But I do like RD/SD,Vishal Bhardwaj,Kishore,Hemant,Bhupender.

 

[malvai]

Well, I like to listen to a lot of this and that from the 80s... But, that is when I'm in the mood for it.

Otherwise, (read mostly) I listen to a lot blues ranging from the Delta Blues to the more modern electric blues and jazz (old and new)...

a short sampler in no particular order:
BB King
Son House
John Coltrane
Sister Rosetta Tharpe (If you haven't heard her - she was just too AWESOME)
JJ Cale
Roy Hargrove
Al Kooper
Robert Johnson
Muddy Waters
Bessie Smith
Duke Ellignton
Count Basie
Ella Fritzgerald (Have almost the entire catalogue on Vinyl)


this list is by no means comprehensive but should give you all an idea

 

[hifiashok]

well, when it comes to music, i try not to slot.

i listen to whatever feels and sounds good.

so, it could be kalpana zokarkarji and/or pt. bhimsen joshi with hindustani classical, m s subhalakshmiji and/or L. Subramaniam for carnatic, kishoreda, mohd. rafi, talat mehmood, manna da, hemant da, yesudas, bhupender, shailender, etc., on the male side and lata mangeshkar, asha bhosle, vaani jayaram, geeta dutt, usha uthup/iyer on the female side of hindi film oldies, kk, shreya, sonu, sinidhi, udit, alka, james, zubeen, shankar mahadevan, javed ali, etc., on the current crop for hindi films. it could also be pankaj udhas, ghulam ali, jagjit singh, anup jalota, chandan das, farida khanum, etc., for ghazals. on indi pop, shaswati phukan, poornima, alisha, kailash kher, hariharan, bombay vikings, anand shankar, shubha mudgal, abida parveen (sufi), etc. on instrumental, zakir hussain, pt. shivkumar sharma, amjad ali khan, ravi shankar, hariprasad chourasia, etc.

on the other hand, there are times for def leppard, scorpions, dire straits, floyd, app, deep purple for hard rock (maybe an odd dio, megadeath, black sabbath, porcupine tree, daugherty, AC/DC, jetro tull, led zep, nazareth, rainbow, van halen, metallica, etc., for heavy metal), madonna, PSB, MJ, gordon sumner, kylie, duran duran, george michael, starship, billy joel, MLTR, yello, cerrone, roxette, ace of base, bryan adams, etc., for pop, sarah mclachlan, rebecca pidgeon, renee olstead, diana krall, mary black, sarah k, gloria estefan, barbara striesand, k d lang, etc., for female vocal, david roth, clapton, jim reeves, neil diamond, richard marx, john farnam, etc., on the male, on the jazz front clarence gatemouth brown, ed thigpen, ray barretto, b b king, john coltrane, j j cale, duke ellignton, Nina Simone, Sonny Rollins, etc., there are so many....

and the western classical list may be as long as ajay's..... mostly rachmaninoff, bach, beethoven, etc.

also, i'm certain i am missing a few genres.... the list is not exhaustive.

lastly, when speaking to listening to music, and not specifically from an audiophile perspective, i like to follow the many reality shows around, mostly sa re ga ma (or sa re ga ma pa, as it is now called).

but, i am a solitary listener. very rarely have i been able to dwell upon music when in a group, unless it is a very small group with very similar interests. this is a realisation i have come to over the last couple of years. but yes, exposure to new kinds/genres of music is thanx to forums like this and also the AP socials we have been having.

 

[bhagwan]

well, when it comes to music, i try not to slot.

i listen to whatever feels and sounds good.

so, it could be m s subhalakshmiji and kishoreda, mohd. rafi, talat mehmood, manna da, hemant da, yesudas, bhupender, shailender, etc., on the male side
hindi film oldies, kk, shreya, sonu, sinidhi, udit, alka, james, zubeen, shankar mahadevan, javed ali, etc.,

Sir,

How do you manage this software ?

Where do you get 'good' recordings from ?

I have never succeeded to get nice recordings / pressing of the above mentioned artists...
Please do shed some light...

I just cannot listen tot hem on my set up. It is unbearable... 20 seconds & it is over... I want to get up and do very nasty things to the mix engineer & the mastering engineer....
:sad:

 

[ajay124]

"I want to get up and do very nasty things to the mix engineer & the mastering engineer...."

Precisely why I don't get around to buying too much Indian Classical.Recording quality hovers between appalling to average.

 

[gobble]

"I want to get up and do very nasty things to the mix engineer & the mastering engineer...."

Precisely why I don't get around to buying too much Indian Classical.Recording quality hovers between appalling to average.

Which is why you need a "lo-fi" radio type valve sound gear with all its tube colorations - for daily listening ...

Exactly what my first tube DIY project will be. hyeah:

This way you can stop obsessing with the expensive gear and switch it on only once a week.

Cheers

 

[Hiten]

I just cannot listen tot hem on my set up. It is unbearable... 20 seconds & it is over... I want to get up and do very nasty things to the mix engineer & the mastering engineer....
:sad:

I don't have high end setup so don't know but what about Indian Classical Vinyls ? Is their recording/pressing good ?

 

[hifiashok]

"I want to get up and do very nasty things to the mix engineer & the mastering engineer...."

Precisely why I don't get around to buying too much Indian Classical.Recording quality hovers between appalling to average.

would request you to pick up Hidden Gems - Kalpana Zokarkar on Mystica Music Download Music - Mystica Music and if possible give me your opinion/a feedback please (btw, i have no business/comml. interests with Mystica). if not available in your local music shop, you can order direct from their site.

 

[Asit]

There are many CDs available of all top Indian classical musicians with recording, mastering and pressing all done in countries like Germany, Japan, US etc. I have many of these CDs and most of them have quite good quality. I have bought a large part of these abroad (in Europe and the US), but some are procured in India too.

Recently I find that some of these are now available in India with Indian pressings, obviously they are not good quality.

As an example of the second variety, let me mention a LP recording by an American company called Apple Records. We used to have this at home when I was a child. This was a duet by Ravi Shankar (Sitar) and Ali Akbar Khan (Sarode) with Alla Rakha accompanying them on tabla. This was a live performance done somewhere in California (I Believe) a few days after Baba Allahuddin Khan (Ali Akbar's father and Guru and Ravi Shankar's Guru and also his father-in-law) passed away. It contained raga Hem Bihag (one of Allahuddin's creation), Raga Manjh Khamaj, Raga Sindhi Bhairavi and one more piece perhaps. The performance and the recording both were top-notch. It was actually one of the highlights of my listening experience at home in my childhood, playing it again and again. Recently I found at a friend's place a CD of it (I suppose pressed in India) and the quality is nothing to talk about. There are some other examples of this kind.

But if you make sure that not only the recording and mastering but also the pressing is done abroad (especially if pressed in Japan), it would be of a decent (if not excellent) quality.

Regards.

PS: Very occasionally some Indian made CDs also sound good. One example is Prabha Atre's Maru Bihag. The vocal part has come out quite marvelously in my opinion, but somehow the recordist could not manage the tabla. The tabla sounds thin devoid of any body and extension.

 

[hifiashok]

Sir,

How do you manage this software ?

Where do you get 'good' recordings from ?

I have never succeeded to get nice recordings / pressing of the above mentioned artists...
Please do shed some light...

I just cannot listen tot hem on my set up. It is unbearable... 20 seconds & it is over... I want to get up and do very nasty things to the mix engineer & the mastering engineer....
:sad:

my approach has been a little different (let me clarify, at the outset, there are no rights or wrongs), compared to a lot of what we see on most forums, where, for lack of a better word, upgraditis seems prevalent (even in software, like start with car radio, then to regular cassette, then move to CrO2, then metal, then CD, then XRCD, then SACD and MAY BE settle for DVD-A!!! i know i am missing the all imp. vinyl step here). also, to my mind, to a large extent, this is driven by marketing gimmickery. i used my 'first' 'proper' setup for a fairly long time (from AP and/or forum perspectives/standards). the plan was to then (eventually, when age caught up, the rig's; not mine) upgrade to whatever is considered like 'the current best' (of course, now this is the most debatable part), within one's means. and then forget it for yet another long span. during all of this, just enjoy the music, w/o getting too clinical, tweaky, finicky, etc., not that these are wrong or that no small changes here and there do/could not improve things, but just not what i (may want to) do, drastically. so, to a very large extent i agree with what virenji has said somewhere on this thread.

to answer your question directly, yes, a lot of recordings are quite appalling, technically and audibly speaking. however, i am looking for just the melody that, in most cases, remains evergreen. btw, have got a few albums where manna da's stuff is very well recorded, ditto for yesudas. and, if all goes well, i should soon be getting a ton of software that has been digitally cleaned up (which of course could go either way but will definitely be better from a pure listenability perspective).

 

[hifiashok]

PS: Very occasionally some Indian made CDs also sound good. One example is Prabha Atre's Maru Bihag. The vocal part has come out quite marvelously in my opinion, but somehow the recordist could not manage the tabla. The tabla sounds thin devoid of any body and extension.

have been hunting for Night Melodies by Dr. Prabha Atre, unsuccessfully :sad:

 

[Asit]

have been hunting for Night Melodies by Dr. Prabha Atre, unsuccessfully :sad:

Ashok, order it from Rhythm House Bombay. Manoj (member mksharan) tells me that Rhythm House mail-order is very good. Perhaps you already have used it. They must be having this CD, their collection on Indian classical is quite extensive.

Regards

 

[mksharan]

have been hunting for Night Melodies by Dr. Prabha Atre, unsuccessfully :sad:

I purchased the CD from Rhythm House, Mumbai few months back. The site is
Rhythm House Product Details
Currently it is not available, but u can register for stock alert and get it online.

Manoj

 

[gobble]

have been hunting for Night Melodies by Dr. Prabha Atre, unsuccessfully :sad:

I have it. Very nice the way she sings "kaun gali gayee shyaam ..." and the rendition of Kalavati is also very good!

Cheers

 

[ajay124]

Rhythm House has a huge collection.Recently I've bought a dozen odd cd's of Indian Classical from them-Bhimsen Johi,Ravi Shankar,Ali Akbar Khan,Amjad Ali Khan,Bismillah Khan,Hari Prasad Chaurasia.Labels-Sony Nad,Music Today.Reasonably good sound.As long as I don't compare them to the immaculate western classical recordings or even the remastered jazz ones.
A few years back Martin Scorsese (I think) and a few other Hollywood directors had started a project to restore old cinema classics,including the Apu Trilogy.There are plenty of businessmen and showmen in India who could help in the restoration and remastering of Indian music and films.Unfortunately Indian art and sculpture lies in ruins all over the nation with hardly any work being done to preserve anything.

 

[arj]

A few years back Martin Scorsese (I think) and a few other Hollywood directors had started a project to restore old cinema classics,including the Apu Trilogy.There are plenty of businessmen and showmen in India who could help in the restoration and remastering of Indian music and films.Unfortunately Indian art and sculpture lies in ruins all over the nation with hardly any work being done to preserve anything.

true..and when someone tries it misplaced (political) nationalism rears its head ans scuttles it.

 

[hifiashok]

thanx all, for the info on the CD i was looking for.

 

[AMITNOIDA]

Night melodies was there in Rhythm House few days ago. But day before yesterday when I have checked, this CD was out of stock. In fact I tried to purchase this CD day before yesterday but was unsuccessful.

Ashok, you may send an e-mail to Rhythm House and they will intimate you as soon as fresh lot comes.

 

[ajay124]

I'm sure that folks who have a tube set up must have posted their impressions on the forum at some point,but to bring it together,it would be nice if they could all post a brief review here along with a pic.

 

[bhagwan]

I'm sure that folks who have a tube set up must have posted their impressions on the forum at some point,but to bring it together,it would be nice if they could all post a brief review here along with a pic.

Ajay my review is on no use;
The set up is mine so I will like it. There is a bias.
The better thing is to visit & listen.
That to me is important.
The only way to understand different cuisine is to 'taste' it.
The option exist;
Come & listen.
This is an open invitation to you & to any other forum member. My doors are open. Do pm me & come any day - post 6 p.m. on week days & between 11 & 5 on week ends.
The best is to experience for yourself..
Just mho.