Site does not have a review section. You have to scroll a lot of other stuff I have no interest. I'll pass.
Try his YouTube channel, hit “playlists” and you’ll see reviews grouped by the year …… https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnHDarko/playlists
Darko is ok and I hope his health improves. I rarely listen to anyone's video reviews. They always take 20 minutes to say something I could read in 5 minutes. They all need major editing. Thanks, barondla
True... I have to admit the purity of the sound is out of this world on some tracks, just not melodic to my ears and too repetitive.
Site needs a review index. Otherwise a waste of too much time finding the articles you might want to read.
I find his reviews have improved recently, a bit less smug. But I much prefer his podcasts on his own site and he is a really good in depth interviewer. Recent interviews include Paul Barton, Peter Comeau and the Dac designer from Chord whose name escapes me.
That's a fair comment mate. That said, I've always seen that exact quality is an essential part of the genre - a game of tension and release if you will - but only in the correct context. My lifelong love of electronica goes back to many years of DJ'ing in my (misspent) youth. When I think of more dancefloor oriented house and techno (the more repetitive stuff) in that context I see individual tracks as "strands" to be woven and overlayed in and out of a DJ set and less as individual pieces of music to be played beginning to end? And in that context that repetitive quality can be manipulated to create the tension that heightens the release of either playing a "big" tune that you know the crowd will enjoy or something more tuneful or melodic they can mentally re-latch onto before you "dive deep" again. Out of that context though, it doesn't always translate so I hear ya. Unless... like me you've developed an understanding (or is that a tolerance? ) of how a skillful artist can create that tension and release even within a single track or over the course of an entire album?
I know what you mean, but I've always seen him less as smug and more as someone trying to undermine or subtly be dismissive of the precious pretensions that can be associated with audiophilia - hence that air of mildly sarcastic aloofness? As if he's constantly inferring "hey... you should care much more about how you like your favourite music on this gear than get hung up on the gear itself". I ought to thank you for introducing me to his podcast. That Peter Comeau interview you linked in the Mission 770 thread got me into some of the other episodes too. And I agree... good, long form discussion makes a nice change from the typical "attention span of a sugar-high toddler" presentation of the average YouTube clip... not that I'd ever accuse even his YouTube stuff of coming across that way
That's quite beautiful, thanks for sharing that. Reminds me a bit of this one... have you heard it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwS9YmF22Po Recorded over a single evening - as they like to say "over some beers and pizza" it starts off acoustic, more contemporary classical than anything and as the evening progresses the electronic overtones become more pronounced until eventually by the time you reach tracks like "00:26" it's pure, almost meditative techno. This one's real good too... https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kQ8CLi7MEKBgCtPpEp9D9XXA_VgS_WIPc
Listening to it now, great stuff. Love the way the bass kicks in on 23:17. I smiled right away when I saw Nils Frahm. I’ve got a little collection of his albums that I love. Thanks, this is perfect right now.
That composition style of having the music build tension and then release is also a big part of classical music. I enjoy classical music and my brain has been trained on classical long before I started listening to electronic music like Tangerine Dream or other electronica and the more recent stuff like Shpongle or Infected Mushroom or the more ambient electronic music like The Orb and such. And I notice that composition technique of building tension and then release being used in the electronic music similar to how I hear that technique being used in classical music. The ability of the music to build sonic tension and a sense of drive building to that tension then the release does happen better with better gear. It takes good gear to bring out the subtle things in the sound and playing that help build up that tension. If someone is very familiar with electronic music and is using electronic music when evaluating gear and they're listening to electronic music that has those qualities of tension and release and moments where there is more subtle drive and energy to build up that tension then it's perfectly fine by me if they use that sort of electronic music when evaluating gear instead of classical music. Cause in the end, the gear that gets electronic music to have a special degree of ebb and flow and tension and release and drive is going to do the same similarly with classical music and other music.
Shpongle is awesome on headphones. They compose and mix some of their music to deliver a sort of musical drug experience. The soundscape and the sounds swilling around take you to a different place. It's a trip. One of the neat things Shpongle and some other psytrance groups do is sub-bass stereo effects. Where the bass and sub-bass pans around or has sub-bass with slightly different tuning on the left and right to create a beat effect. It's an effect that is very trippy and very noticeable on headphones that have good bass down to 20 Hz (like my Audeze headphones). I'm not sure how well these bass effects transfer to speakers, especially speaker systems using a single sub-woofer. It's really trippy on headphones. The Orb also has music with that sort of stereo bass going on.
Yes he constantly dismisses the sonic improvements that higher end components can offer and pokes fun at the whole audiophile scene. He seems to think he's being clever but actually comes across as an ignoramus.
I’ve wasted tons of money and usually got worse sound thanks to reviewers. All decades in the past, thankfully. You may as well toss a coin as believe a review from someone else in a different system. A far better way to get something you like is to buy used and try at home. You can always move on at zero cost until you find what you like.
I’m guessing you probably have, but have you heard the remaster of Are You Shpongled? It a wee bit louder than the original, but it’s certainly not crazy loud like so many remasters… it’s got good bass grunt where it counts still, and is pretty dynamic! Sound has better clarity overall, with little lost…I think all the Shpongle remasters are well done fwiw… Also noticed that newer Orb albums are far more dynamic, more like their earlier albums, but with better production. Good to hear this happening in the electronic genre - very good production in this genre almost gives bad mastering a bit of a pass (looking at you Trentemoller!) but if the mastering is good as well, it can take ‘sound’ quality to a whole new place, especially if you like the music! That’s even true on my very modest kit, it’s very noticeable…
I haven't listened to any of the Shpongle remasters. I've just got the original releases. I'll get the remaster of "Are You Shpongled?" and find out what the sound quality is like. It's one of the albums that has the trippy bass thing going on.
Tales, Nothing Lasts, and Ineffable have been done as well. To my ears they all sound a little better, but music wise Are You and Tales are my favourites of these, and I like the second half of Nothing Lasts…not keen on Ineffable tbh. They’re available to stream on Apple Music, so presumably elsewhere. Enjoy! Anyway I’m off topic again… apologies to the OP!
It's important to find reviewers and other audiophiles who have similar sonic tastes in gear as you do. And then focus on those reviewers and fellow audiophiles for reviews and trends and suggestions for what gear to try. Otherwise you'll be wasting time and money trying gear that is unlikely to be something you'll actually like or find better in your system. The gear, like a DAC or amp, could be very good and get positive reviews from multiple reviewers. But if the sound qualities of that gear doesn't mesh with your own preferences and your system it's going to end up as something that wastes your time and money.
