NSW

[Bob Neill]

Mine is due here late this week or early next. Will be paired with an NSC on a pair of the new JMR Orféo Jubilees. Will report out on both as soon as I feel break-in is pretty far in. Why am I posting this now? Because I'm sick of seeing nothing here. I guess everybody is just happy with their BC gear and would rather listen than talk. Fair enough. But...

[Clave]

This is funny. Unfortunately for life on this forum, Gilbert's gear is too good. There's nothing to complain about and no steady stream of "upgrades" to discuss, and there's no need for tweaks. So what's to talk about?

[Bob Neill]

Sometimes we write for BC folk who want an impression of what the new gear sounds like, sometimes to be overheard by non BC folk who listen in to hear what Blue Circle is all about. Our job is to describe what we hear, comparing where we can, but mainly with 'live' music as a reference. Blue Circle electronics used to sound more domestic than they do now, more comforting, even more beautiful, in a pleasing, indulgent sort of way. You can hear that in the new 002i integrated when it's without the EPS. New BC gear, an 002i WITH an EPS for example, seems to be going after a truer, more 'live' sound, one that, in my house with Jean Claude Reynaud's new Jubilee speakers (which are going in the same direction), is beautiful in a way that has more to do with getting instruments and voices more completely. I find the only problem it poses is making not so not music sound fascinating because it's so sonically there. I've decided that's a good problem to have!

[Raven]

Fortunately the "culture" of this forum and that of Gilbert and Blue Circle has ensured that members are only posting information worthy of discussion whether it is about gear, personal preferences, music or humour.

Go through any posting on the popular equipment sales forums and the % of posts on any given topic that are non value added is very high. If these could be magically filtered out of crap there would be very little to read. Fortunately what we do read on this forum is of premium quality.

Then there is the simple fact that BC gear actually sounds like music. Sadly the industry "HiFi Sound" has drifted farther and farther to the ultra detailed end of the spectrum. Several major manufacturers I spoke to about this trend said it was a side effect of having only a few minutes in a less than ideal setting of a showroom to impress a customer with the sparkle. This is always easy to hear at first listen. It takes 4-8 hours of listening to really get a true sense of what any system can deliver performance wise. Where I'm going with this is that consumers will complain or argue about performance if they measure by unrealistic expectations. With BC gear, anyone I've interacted with that owns BC just stated they were very happy. Then they go off to listen and enjoy. Everyone else spends hours on the computer bitching full time.

Obviously there is more to it than what I just stated but when you include some very good forum members that set the standard that made this site a pleasant, inviting and informative destination you end up with the uncluttered and infrequent postings.

But if you're bored, poke Bob Neill with a stick. Bob likes to write. That's why we love Bob.