Brand X

[Haselsh1]

Back in 1979 I knew this gorgeous little cracker called Julie Isaac who worked for W H Smith and therefore got a certain discount from their products. She treated me to a 10% discount from my first ever Brand X purchase which was Moroccan Roll. I played this gorgeous piece of vinyl with some trepidation not fully understanding what was about to happen but it became one of those albums that shaped my future. At the time I was a major prog rock fan and since 1973 and the presentation of 'Selling England by the Pound' had been a massive Genesis fan. Peter Gabriel had since decided he was extremely ****ed off with the way things were going and Genesis had become a very poor threesome. I had to face a future with no more Genesis.

For me, Moroccan Roll was a turning point. It was so radically different from anything I had ever heard before yet it still maintained that Genesis connection with Phil Collins as a drummer. I went on to buy the whole catalogue on vinyl but now in 2009, I am toying with the idea of purchasing them all on CD. I may concentrate on buying at first the Phil Collins related CD's that are: Unorthodox Behaviour, Product and Do They Hurt as I already have Moroccan Roll on CD but then again, I may buy them all.

Why am I thinking of doing this...? Well, I recently bought a pair of Audiolab 8000M monoblocks to use with my Creek Audio OBH-22 preamp and am now finding that CD sounds much better than vinyl. Could it be that the Audiolab's are providing a much better digital sound...? I think that they are. So where to now...? A much better quality SACD player would be nice so that I can get all of those Genesis early recordings when Peter Gabriel finally makes up his mind. Now that would be nice.

[pre65]

What phono pre amp are you using ?

[Haselsh1]

Pre65 I'm using a Project Phonobox SE II with 100pf and 100 Ohms loading.

[Andrew]

I think you could probably do much better than that.

-- Andrew

[JerryT]

Originally Posted by Andrew

I think you could probably do much better than that.

-- Andrew

Masterful understatement, but as a fully recovered and reformed long term Audiolab addict I can understand where Shaun is coming from, particularly with the type of music he describes. The thrust, timing and apparently detailed soundstage are highly enticing.

Long term it was the applause and Audience noise on the 'Unplugged' CD by Clapton that illustrated to me where the Audiolab failed. Applause on assorted LPs also helped but it was this one CD that pushed me over the edge!


I think Shaun will find the same eventually as his brain struggles to match what he is hearing to what he would expect to hear in the real world. Meanwhile he should get on with enjoying and exploring it.


Jerry
Our soultion may not address his problem!

[Haselsh1]

If you are referring to me making amazing discoveries via 'live' albums then I have to say that I NEVER listen to 'live' albums on CD or otherwise. If I wish to wrap myself in live music I go to a live music concert, I never listen to faux live music on a hi-fi. In addition to that, most, if not all of the music I see live is acoustic music from various World artists.

My immediate impressions of the 8000M's is their ability to make the music sound as though it has been speeded up and portrays a serious foot tapping ability. I love their needle sharp treble and finely etched reproduction but was a little disappointed with their bass reproduction. I felt that the bass was just a tad valve like and slightly soft and loose.

I am very quickly coming to the conclusion that the 8000M's really do suit a digital front end and play this kind of music better than they do a vinyl front end.

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by JerryT

Our soultion may not address his problem!

Fair enough, and a point well made....

[Haselsh1]

Mmmm... maybe what I really need is a Michell Orbe fitted with an SME tonearm and an Ortofon Kontrapunkt b cartridge...!!! OK, so I'm dreaming. Would be nice though.

[Haselsh1]

Right, let's drop the ridiculous Comic Sans font.
I think I should point out right now that my vinyl front end is very 'budget' compared to most of you out there and this could be responsible for my lack of faith in what I am hearing. As I am self employed and therefore only have a very small amount of money to spend on hi-fi I have to pick wisely. I really do not want to go the route of a plastic DJ deck like the SL1210 which seems to be so prevalent on other forums but in the real world can't afford anything better. Even if I look at buying secondhand the price of these units is excessive and beyond me.

I do have an Alphason Xenon MCS tonearm and Denon DL160 cartridge that I would wish to keep but find that a good turntable is just way beyond my meagre budget. I have checked the likes of Linn's old Axis deck but know very little about it. What do you think...?

[DSJR]

It's unlikely the brand X masteres have ever been remastered from the original CD issues of the late eighties, but the chap at Nimbus who did many of the early albums didn't seem to do much in the way of eq or "enhancements." Good deal you think, but I'm not sure...

The recordings sound fine on LP, the lush sweetness of the format working fine. We used a couple of these as dem discs back in the day.

When the CD's came out, I pre-ordered them and was profoundly disappointed with them. The sound is small, thin toned and has no real expansiveness at all. It would appear that the mid-boost applied to many masters for LP cutting wasn't removed or corrected in these discs.

I can readily comment on mid-boost because I've actually heard one of the masters (I think from "Product"). The sound was crisp and lively but had little weight (the owner was a pal of one of the main band members).

I wish the same people who re-did the first Steve Hackett release could have a look at the Brand X discs, but it's so small a concern I doubt it will ever be done. A shame, as the music is superb; Masques being the best overall IMO.