Yeah I heard about the moon gel trick probably about 8 years ago and tried it on some bookshelf speakers I had at the time and really noticed a huge difference and since then I always keep some on hand. They're so cheap and really it does such a great job of isolating the speaker and making for just a better sound, I couldn't imagine using bookshelf speakers without them

@@MrNicks-gn8jc no it was not that at all, it was the cartridge. As soon as I swapped it out the issue went away. On my hynews test disc with a new cartridge as well as the old I could get anti-skate perfect so it wasn't an anti-skate issue, by the way I typically use lower anti-skate anyway, I feel that it sounds better. That aside it wasn't that. Again it was the cartridge.

@@Audiorevue Glad you got the fix. Best wishes for decades of listening enjoyment.

@@bikeman7982 Yes technically it is, however some modern players don't follow the standard. Just Google it it's a well-known phenomena that is crept up more and more over the last few years. I read in one forum that a big part of it is the fact that you obviously have multiple components inside of a CD player. Well one of those components is the chip that takes the disk information and feeds it to the DAC or spits it out of the digital outputs. Apparently quite a few manufacturers use the same chip in their machines, and that chip is from the same manufacturer. Now let's pretend for a minute that you're building a CD player, you have your disk drive and you have your power supply and you've gotten together everything you need to build a CD player except for that chip that takes the information off the disk. So you approach this manufacturer and say I want the chip. Well that chip can be loaded with different software depending upon what it is you require, and apparently the issue is that that chip can be loaded with software that supports gapless playback or does not. The forum post basically said that a lot of manufacturers are getting this chip without the gapless turned on, and in the case of a few manufacturers they've released firmware updates to their machines to enable gapless playback. Obviously turntables and cassette decks and reel-to-reels and eight tracks are all gapless because it's a nature of the medium, digital music on the other hand doesn't necessarily have to be gapless although most people myself included prefer it to be because a lot of albums and music that we enjoy listening to is inherently gapless. Hope this helps

@@Audiorevue Thanks, I didn't know that aspect about CD players. Gapless playback is absolutely essential for concept albums like Pink Floyd's The Wall and certain classical compositions with rapid transitions between movements, e.g., 3rd to 4th movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Any gap is super annoying and ruins the listening experience. In addition to CD players, certain playback software, audio players,, streaming apps, etc., have failed to implement gapless properly. I think this might be because modern music doesn't take advantage of gapless like the classics.

@@bikeman7982 Bear in mind everything I've Said about the whole chip thing is just something I read on a forum so kind of take it with a grain of salt. I will say that it sounds plausible And logical which is why I repeated it here and I've said it in other places too but you know how the internet is, don't believe everything you read. Yeah if that is the situation either way though it does suck that big Hi-Fi companies are putting out products that don't conform to the red book standard. Yamaha for example on their most budget level CD player the CD S303 does not come gapless out of the box. What you have to do is you have to go on their website and download the firmware And put it on a thumb drive and then stick that in the USB port on the CD player to enable gapless playback. And it's sort of ridiculous obviously.

@@davidmorrissey8699 My favorite Chicago album has to be number one, there's something sort of almost futuristic in the way it sounds compared to other stuff at the time. You got sort of this grandiose sound particularly with the inclusion of orchestral instruments

@@davidmorrissey8699 A classic truly, you really can't beat the stones

One of the best-selling band of the '70s, every album was good, which to me always has that tinge of meaning that they're a great band. Don Henley of course and my man Joe Walsh and got that hard rock sound, definitely in my top five of the '70s.

@@davidmorrissey8699 you don't hear that much about the Bay City rollers anymore, and you don't hear them on the radio anymore either, all I ever remember was Saturday night but I know they made a hell of a lot more music than that.

Yes I tried it heavier lighter you name it I tried it, matter of fact I think I mentioned that in the first 45 seconds of the video. I've got a different cartridge on the way we'll see how that works Sorry I didn't mean to sound like a dick, thanks for watching.

@@Audiorevue I had a lot of problems with my Ortofon when I first got it and even with appropriate setup I was having issues and had my simple solution was to increase the weight. You provided a lot of information in your video within that first 45 seconds, I must have missed it. Best of Luck!

@@xtraflo well the recommended tracking force for the vm95e is 2 g, I put it up to two and a half which is the maximum threshold that Audio Technica recommends for that particular cartridge, I don't feel comfortable raising it any higher, and I even tried to lowering it cuz sometimes that can work. I've had cartridges in the past that work better and sound better at a slightly higher tracking weight than what is recommended however I don't think that's the case here. As I said I've got a cartridge coming in to throw on there to experiment, and also like I said thanks for watch

Well that was kind of the point, if you could pick one what would it be?

@@kvetcha yeah I've got a ton of carts but almost all of them have bad styluses on them, I've ordered a cheap cart to throw on there and do some experimenting, I'll make a follow-up and let everybody know Yeah I guess it's kind of funny because I've been in this hobby long enough now and turntables are not complicated machines, this should be a pretty easy solution but like I said the only thing that I could come up with was something's wrong with the cartridge. Thanks for commenting

@@johnadair6108 Yes I didn't mention that in the video, I just assumed it was obvious but of course with every record I have it displays this behavior.

@@TheBTG88 it really is a stellar preamp no doubt about it, pun intended.😂

No doubt!

@@jasonbrown4239 no they were two distinct companies.

Well all right I guess, and truthfully mine's kind of right there, but I know a lot of people who struggle with their credit and that was kind of the point of the video.

@@AudiorevueI agree, I’m kind of surprised a rental requirement would be a 700 score or higher, too.

Yeah I've heard similar stories, but if at the time you enjoyed using it, then I would argue it was worth it. Also some of that realistic gear that radio shack was pedaling back in the '70s and '80s but mostly the '70s was actually pretty good

No, at least I wouldn't. If you like the Marantz CD player, and as far as I understand and reviews I've read, it's a great CD player, then I don't see any reason to change to the c538. At most it's going to be a lateral move and at worst it might actually have a lower sound quality than The Marantz. That's not to say that the NAD sounds bad but from every review I've ever read of the Marantz 6007 CD player, it's a fantastic machine and top of the heap in terms of sound quality for budget CD players. Only logical reason to switch would be that you want a matching set, like your amp and your CD player to match.

@@Audiorevue thank you👍

9 times out of 10 I would agree, but some reason with the Lumin, in my system it just sounds better with the optical.

@@Audiorevue Yeah probably good implementation for once! In my Wiim example, I found I liked the optical coming out of my spdif converter (from the coax output) better than the optical directly out of the unit, so a case of piss poor implementation. YMMV always.

@@kirkjohnson6638 well that's absolutely true, there are so many budget components that cost no more than a couple hundred or a few hundred dollar that are absolutely phenomenal in terms of sound quality Now bear in mind that's not to take away from expensive components because I have those too, and in my opinion they are worth their price tag, but budget components now offer some of the best bang for buck in terms of letting you simply enjoy music instead of having to think about how terrible your equipment sounds, it's unreal.

Yes but which one

@@Audiorevue Model 2600

@@CyrilYeru-ud7wf ding ding ding, you are the 1 millionth customer And you have won absolutely nothing

@@Audiorevue lol just want to be right, I don’t want to win nothing 😎

I suppose that's a relevant question as well, but no I was talking about the ripeness or lack thereof of a banana

If I'm eating it by itself or in a sandwich, I like it when it's just starting to get a few spots, but if it goes brown, and starts to get mushy, then I freeze it and use it in smoothies or in banana bread. When I was a kid I liked them green though

Gotta have some green, and no brown

Well I think what they tried to do is replicate the look of a glass bottle with the plastic.

@@michaelvincent8306 no I disagree, I think Rega turntables strike a great balance between emphasizing poor recordings or not emphasizing poor recordings. This Marantz on the other hand is an example of emphasizing pull recordings, I don't mind it, because my associated equipment is more warm and forgiving sounding so it kind of offsets it a little. But honestly I'd rather have a turntable that's does emphasize it because then you have the possibility of either having it or not you know what I mean. Where with something like your Technics it's something you can't turn off. That's not a criticism of the Technics, I think they make fine turntables and I've heard a number of their newer higher end models

No it doesn't, it has a balance control like left to right but no tone.

@@Audiorevue well damn, that's a problem ... was just about ready to get the A25 lol

@@0M9H4X_Neckbeard yeah sorry about that unfortunately none of them have tone controls it looks like.

Perhaps

​@@Audiorevue What?

Well I sort of agree about project, in the sense that I think at a certain budget it's a decent turntable however above A few hundred dollars I would definitely go with something else. You know to be honest with you technics makes a great deck, and they make a very worthwhile machine in the sense that it's an item that is effectively going to last forever almost and continue to work. That said I would make the claim that I'm kind of in the reverse of your opinion, with the idea of belt drive versus direct. Some of the best sound I've ever heard out of a turntable has been with belt drives, and I've heard high-end direct drive turntables. There's a reason companies like VPI and others will offer a direct drive model but their top models are always belt drive. Getting to the Marantz while the nitpicking aspect of the motor getting hot could theoretically be an issue, I haven't noticed any problems with it so far. Plus the fact that it comes from clear audio a German company makes me think that with the legendary status of German engineering that they know what they're doing. That said over something like a project or a Rega, the Marantz is far and away a more higher end product and you can tell when you use it that it's a more higher-end product. There's no chintzy cheap tone arm lift or anti-skate or anything, literally everything you touch and use from the platter to the belt to the motor pulley to the tone arm, hell even the power switch, everything feels like a premium product, and it makes you feel like you got your money's worth and that this is a product that's going to withstand the test of time. And that plays out too, the tt15 has been out for a while now and if you go on the forums and look around the internet and look at what people have to say after having it for years, theirs are still working and theirs are still going and they're playing records on them everyday. Anyway thanks for the comment I appreciate it and thanks for watching

@@Audiorevue The beltdrive VS. Direct drive war has always been there, and it will always be. Anyway during the last 25 years in this hobby I have seen and heard many tables. I agree Rega and Marantz being superior to Pro-Ject. I have had turntables like Yamaha P-500 and Marantz TT-2200 and never had problems with noises from Plinth or platter, and wow and flutter being very low. Thought what's common with these old Japan made direct drive decks is the cold and sterile sound compared to Rega, Pro-ject, Marantz, etc. When looking the specs of belt driven tables wow and flutter are almost always higher. Thought some say that anything under 0.1% is ok. And I kinda agree that specs are not everything when it comes to good sound. When it comes to tuning turntable plinth, it is kinda a higher art. The laws of physics say the vibration is always there, but what you can do is you can tune it to be, on a higher or lower frequency, and if you use higher you get a colder sound and the other way. This cold sound is usually considered to be the neutral and analytical one when the warmer sound is the more ''Musical'' one. I in no way meaned to Mock the Marantz table, it is a nice one, must be a very analytical sounding table being made from very dense acrylic having a higher frequency of vibration than more cheap and popular MDF. I kinda think this kind of audiophile jargon is fun Have fun with your Turntable.

@@whittiertennyson6297 I wouldn't use the word analytical when describing the sound, it certainly isn't a warm sounding table but I would use the word neutral. To me analytical insinuates this sense of a piece of gear picking apart the music to the point where you lose its cohesiveness and what you're left with is just individual parts, you kind of lose the musical intent and you can't see the forest through the trees kind of thing. And by the way Marantz doesn't make this turntable, there's absolutely nothing about this turntable that is manufactured by the company we know as Marantz. This turntable was made in Germany by a company called clearaudio. If you're unfamiliar with that company then I suggest you go looking them up because they make very very lovely turntables and some very expensive ones as well, but that's beside the point. Essentially Marantz contacted clearaudio to have them produce this turntable for them, and if you dig deeper you'll see that clearaudio used to make a model called the emotion which is basically the exact same design as the tt15. It's just simply been rebranded with slightly different aesthetics.

@@Audiorevue Analytical neutral whatever these words are often used in wrong places like with AKG 701 headphones neutral was same as no bass hahahaha But without being neutral there cannot be enough detail. Of course too much of anything is always too much, too much bass, too much treble it always spoils the sound. Yes I know Clearaudio, Marantz has also been produced by CEC and Micro Seiki in the past, Marantz TT1000 made by Micro Seiki is a true audiophile classic. CEC mostly made basic but good consumer players for many different brands during late 70's to mid 80's. I also have to make clear I'm not here to compete who is wrong and who is right. Most people settle for much less than the small group of audiophiles anyway.

@@whittiertennyson6297 you know the more and more I hear you talk the more I can't help but feel reminded of someone who just has to be right. Someone who's made a choice about something and they'll use any sort of logic to internalize and rationalize that choice regardless of whether it's right or wrong or true or false. A person who can't see past their own logic and instead wield it as a weapon, as a blunt-edged device designed to bludgeoned any who dare claim otherwise. Furthermore those people use that logic as a means to hold themselves to a higher standard, to a better standard, one in which they are always right and regardless of the validity and evidence of differing statements and opinions, their rightness is paramount and unimpeachable. I'll say it again thanks For the comment and thanks for watching have a good day.

Great, you win the $50 prize 🥴 I was talking about what the amplifier is not what was playing on it

For me I'd take the luxman, I've heard luxman and Mcintosh back to back of a similar price point and to me the luxman just had a more involving sound. Although at that level don't get me wrong they are both fantastic products and absolutely tremendous and you truly couldn't go wrong either way

Yeah it's definitely a different look but I think most importantly is it's well made, the only thing that I didn't mention in the video that's kind of funky is the fact that the spindle for the record hole is a little bit fatter than on a lot of turntables I've used. So that means when you put a record on a lot of times you've got to force that thing on there which truthfully I don't like doing, that's probably why clear audio sell a tool that will enlarge record spindle holes

@@Audiorevue Having to push the record on there like that? I've never heard of that one lol.

Well it's either the spindles a little bigger than normal or records are coming with smaller holes

@@Audiorevue Yea, I'm pretty sure you're right with the spindle being a bit bigger. Must be a bit of a non-standard size. Tough to say. Or they just want that record super tight on there.

@@brydon10 yeah and you get a sense of that when you stick a record on and by the way it's not with every record, cuz you know I'm sure you know that not every record has the same size hole even though they're supposed to

Thank you! Cheers!

So I read a thing online that said that it's a software issue. Basically the majority of modern CD players made by any number of companies get their software from a particular Chinese vendor. The Chinese vendor makes the software that basically takes the data from the disk and moves it either into the digital converter or outputs it via digital. Anyway apparently from what I read you can get that software without gapless enabled and apparently that's what a lot of manufacturers are doing. It kind of sucks obviously but I'm obviously happy to report that the NAD is gapless as well as quite a few other players on the market so it's really not an issue.

@@Audiorevue Progress… lol

They're good, it's a very warm sounding DAC, very easy listening without really anything etched or overemphasized. I hesitate to call it neutral because of its kind of warmth that it has but regardless it just sounds freaking great

And I'm unfamiliar with the brand but I did look it up and it's quite a high-end piece of gear for sure. Whether or not the U2 would be sufficient it's hard to say. I guess that a lot of that depends on your other associated gear and how willing or not you are to spend money. I know my experience with the u1 was very promising and I could definitely see how that streamer would scale into a more expensive system. That said I think you would get to a point where when you're pairing it with $15,000 Dac perhaps might be reaching its limit. Now lumin themselves make higher end products beyond the U2, although at that point if I'm spending $5,000 or $6,000 or possibly more I don't think I would go with Lumin at all. The main reason being is just the application, personally I don't think spending that amount of money on a piece of gear should come with such a bad application in terms of design and just the old school feel of it. At that point for me I would go for something from Auralic, not only are you getting an equally great sounding piece of gear but it has a much better application with better ergonomics and usability and much better everything. Plus with something like the g 2.2 you're also getting way more features plus a built-in screen which allows you to see album art and that type of stuff and just way more usability. Now bear in mind this is not a criticism of lumen, it's more just that I think at 2,000 bucks having to deal with the antiquated app is fine and not a problem, but when we're talking $5,000 or $6,000 then for that money I want something more polished. I hope this helps and thanks for watching and for the comment.

thx...someone else said that the Lumin U2 mini would sound its best paired with a high quality dac...since Lumin 2 mini has no dac...also I just read that my Tidal app can control this streamer without the need for as you say the buggy Lumin app❓

Well of you watch so in my older videos you'll see that I have three different tape machines actually four now that I do use from time to time. Another option that people sometimes have for tape loops nowadays is they won't really use the loop aspect but having the output go to another piece of gear. Like for example on your NAD The amplifier might be everything you could want however maybe the headphone amplifier built in isn't so good, so you could run the tape output to a separate headphone amplifier and use the NAD for input switching and then just run your headphones off the external headphone amp.

I was of course kidding, although if somebody truly wanted to send me some I wouldn't turn them down.

No I don't necessarily care but in regards to the Ayre stereophile reviewed it and said it measured at the state of the art for solid state and all without negative feedback of any kind, which John Atkinson was impressed with.

So the Amir pissed on the PS Audio Directstream DAC Sr. 's measurments a few years ago. That said, it's been in my rig for over 4.5 years. Understand that measurements ARE NOT the be all and end all regarding performance/sound quality. I don't care who you are ! They have said many times on many of their products. They start out with an excellent measuring piece of 'Kit" (as the English say) and then start tuning it to not just what they think or know sounds good but also to their community to either Beta test or test while in Prototype stage. I honestly agree that verifying manufacturer's claim's is a good thing but ASR very rarely comments on the sound quality because of its fear that something that measures "bad" sctually sounds good. Rant over !

@@joeygsaudiochannel3972 truthfully whenever I get on that website and read anything which I do occasionally, I feel like screaming at my computer. Not because they're wrong or I disagree with a objectivist approach to audio But I disagree with the idea that measurements and objectivism should be and is the final arbiter of what constitutes something that sounds good or not. In some ways I think amir is doing a service to the hi-fi community by measuring products in the way that he does. I mean at least from an objective measurement-based standpoint people can have a yardstick to gauge products and that sort of thing. Like I said what is maddening to me is their approach and a lot of the members of that website's approach in the sense that if it doesn't measure well then it's crap, when you and I both know that that is far from the case. Literally the best sounding amplifier or piece of Hi-Fi gear I have ever heard and let me repeat I have ever heard ever, was the decware zen triode. And I'm pretty sure if that were to be measured it would probably measure like trash, and it would be disregarded by the audio science website. Besides the whole premise to me of audio science is almost a misnomer, audio and the enjoyment of listening to music and the associated gear and equipment that we use is very much an emotion based activity and emotions are illogical, to quote Spock. Because of that and their unquantifiableness it becomes necessary to disregard that aspect of logical thinking and measurement based assumption and simply go with what feels right and what sounds right. Oh and by the way if you're wondering why I don't have a Zen triode even though I said it was literally the best thing I've ever heard, that's because they've got like a 4-year waiting list and it's been a 4-year waiting list forever and it just keeps getting longer and I've actually got a couple of eBay searches saved in case used ones come up.

Yeah and as I said in the video I don't think it's necessarily bad I think it's good, I just think AYRE is better from a preamplifier standpoint. A good analogy would be the PS audio is like a Porsche 911, it's a great high performance sports car that has great handling and acceleration and it's fun to drive and is everything you could want, however the ayre by comparison is more like a mclaren F1. Certainly more of a purist car but equally fun to drive and way more visceral in its experience

It's important to note that I never said that it sounded bad, never once did I say it sounded bad. What I said was with my emotiva power amplifier and several sets of speakers that I use that rotate in and out, the ayre just sounded better to me in this system and with my taste. I like the sound of the stellar, And it's a great fully featured product truly. And it's also important to note that for all intents and purposes of both of these preamps are sort of like high performance sports cars. You really can't go wrong either way whichever one you would choose but for me I just prefer the sound of the ayre. Thanks for watching and commenting

Yeah I think the vast majority of soundsmith designs are moving iron, although I think I'm correct in saying that they do make a couple moving coil or did anyway. Actually a little trivia, they will rebuild old bang and Olufsen cartridges, and I'm pretty sure they're the only ones that are able to do it. Yeah I appreciate the comment for sure, it's nice to be back and making content again, although my wallet isn't forgiving me.

Yeah me too totally, actually I haven't set it up yet because I'm waiting on a replacement stylus for a cartridge I've had forever. Supposed to be here in the next couple of days once I set it up I'll do an initial video and then do kind of a long-term video a few weeks later