Hi

I was intrigued by your mention of a laser aimer with the speakers. Can you give me some more detail on this please? I thought I was the only one who likes to sit in the sweet spot with both speakers lined up by eye in my direction. If you have a better technique I would like to know what you use and how you use it.

Cheers

Hi Nigel,

It's a cheap laser spirit level with a bit of wood screwed n glued at right-angles on the back (all very high-tech!). Nearly every speaker I have ever tried has a parallel flat bit on the back so it's dead easy to push the wood against the back (with the laser level on the top) and aim the speakers exactly where you like (where you like being an important factor).

I'm thinking of making one that can be gently rested against the front if I ever line up speakers such as some of the Cabasse models and Eclipse units etc.

Marky

Fair point Gerald, though not everyone has got into SACD and of course there's a very limited number of titles available.

Marky

Thanks for that fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of your high tech setup. More evidence of the level of detail you go into during a test. I have a pair of B&W 805S on Partington stands and find that toeing them in (they're in the corners) so that I can see both sides of the cabinet and measuring the distance from back and side walls gives me pretty much the same feeling of satisfaction on the well known Heath Robinson Index Of Bodging (HRIOB). I'm thinking of making a stick with a screw at each end and some flashlights to carry out the improved version of line up, like the bomb aimer in the Dambusters in true Barnes Wallis style, which could increase the HRIOB due to the Coefficient of BW.

Cheers

Gerald, I've worked in hi-fi media for around a decade now, and I know that their apparent lack of support for SACD hasn't been for want of trying. Too many times I've called record labels to find out about new SACD titles and been shunted around with no-one having a clue what I'm talking about. I think the fault lies with the record labels who have

1. Overcharged for it in the first place

2. Didn't support it with any degree of consistency

3. Got themselves into a costly format war with DVD-Audio (remember that?) which did no-one any favours

Hi-fi magazines and websites have been singing the praises of SACD for years (I still review them for Hi-Fi Choice magazine, when I can get them) but the fact remains that at present you're still very limited by what's available - you're buying the format rather than the music.

Nigel, I like your sense of humour!

Your BW-HRIOB gadget would have been just the thing for setting up my projector screen

I ought to mention that I did write under a psuedonym for contractural reasons but I am now free to use my actual name, Martyn Williams - I will be re-logging shortly!

Good news Gerald (you don’t work for Sony do you?), the Yamaha reviewed in the CD player group you mentioned has an optical output which means that it will play Surround SACDs. Personally, I prefer DTS Audio surround but I think they only made a couple of CDs in that format and they are not backward-compatible. I played one once without a decoder and got a hissing noise!

I love surround sound at its best and SACD has been rather upstaged, notably by DTS-HD MA which supports variable bit rates up to 24.5 Mbps on a Blu-ray Disc whereas I think SACD is less than half that figure?

regards, Martyn Williams

PS - Have you read the AVReview feature, published in 2007 entitled, Whatever happened to SACD and DVD-A? by Alvin Gold

I agree with you there Gerald, especially since they cost half that in the US. I forget who gave the press address at the end of the Bristol Show a couple of years ago but I do remember their quote about the format war between SACD and DVD-Audio - 'MP3 won'. Sad, but in terms of volume, I suppose he was probably right.

This is the reply spot for the article actually - the author gets a nod if their article generates a forum post and they're free to respond. So can anyone else of course...

Hi Gerald

I was only pulling your leg when I said that about Sony. I will have a word with them about your receiver - can you describe exactly what you mean by 'tripped out' so I can get the message across to them.

I hate the scenario of buying something and discovering it doesnt perform properly. I've got an AV receiver which is one of the most inscrutible bits of kit I have ever used. I've recently discovered that it needs a firmware update to make the internet link work properly but I hear that updating it is fraught with problems and quite frankly, I resent the time involved making these things work. I've had similar probs with a remote control where you ask the helpline to solve a 'double-click off' problem and they dont even bother to reply. You are not alone!

Oh yes, and while I'm having a bit of a rant, will a massive Blu-ray catalogue ever arrive? Methinks it might be overtaken by events?

rgds Martyn

Hi Gerald, I know Eric. I will ask the question (which part of your query is the aggressive bit?).

I need to get the question framed as succinctly as possible, are you saying that if you select a certain mode or connection it trips out (or rather, turns itself off and needs resetting to fire it up again..)

Could you bear with me and send me the question in its most succinct form? I will then put it to Eric.

rgds Martyn

So I take it that the shutting down is nothing to do with the DSD conversion - that is a service issue?

The DSD conversion is following a different path to the one stated by Sony is your beef.

How do you know this for sure?

I presume you have heard the direct DSD to analogue and the sound is better?

If you got a grovelling apology from Sony saying that they lied and they will give you your money back, what would be your next plan of equipment action?

It sounds like you need something identical to the 5400 with the exception of being able to convert DSD properly.. it's typical really - most of my imaginery favourite bits of kit combine the features of several items of component audio

It's quite possible that they lied but I think it was much more likely to be some sort of communication problem - it must be a bit like buying a car for its V8 engine and discovering a four-cylinder inside a box shaped like a V8 under the bonnet