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Well-Known Member
I was lucky enough to attend the VMP + Linn event that took place in Dallas this past week, and I wanted to share the experience with everyone. I realized after the event I didn't even take a photo of the system... rookie mistake!
First and foremost, this was an excellent event and if you have a chance to attend one in your area I highly suggest going. It's more of a Linn demo event with music provided by VMP - which I think was part of what made it a success. In Dallas the event was hosted at Audio Concepts, which is one of the nicest high end audio stores in town. This is a true audio shop, TV, projection, home theater, and single speakers need not apply. They carry most of the big name stuff you'd want to see from Stereophile reviews; Focal, Wilson, Rogue, ProAc, Devore, Rega, Audio Research, and of course Linn. The staff was very friendly, and were kind enough to serve drinks along with hosting. For anyone ready to buy some gear, they offered 10% of any of the Linn gear being demoed... which doesn't happen often. I know at least one guy moved on an LP12 after the event. They also giveaway brand new copies of all 7 albums to one lucky winner at the end of the night (which I won!).
During the event they played tracks from 7 VMP albums, all record of the month selections from Essentials or Classics. I'll break this review into a couple sections: Music Review and Gear Review. Our MC for the evening was Micheal from Linn. He first walked us through the system in use, and then gave us a little history about each artist/album before playing the selected track. He did a good job with his script, had some solid jokes and cleaver tie in to transitions from track to track. If you want to build your own reference test tracks, this list would be a great place to start.
The Music
Al Green - Call Me (Come Back Home): No surprise here, but this pressing sounded very clean and had nice solid bass on the low notes. It was easy to get lost in Al's voice. This isn't my first choice on music selection so it's hard to give it too much judgement overall since I wasn't familiar with the track, but the quality of the recording and the pressing is undeniable.
Moses Sumney - Don't Bother Calling: This was positioned as the direct opposite of the Al Green track, both in music and lyrics. I was a little more familiar with this track, and I was very curious to hear it played here because I remember some people reporting issues with their pressing having a woosh with the color split. Happy to report that this was not the case during this session. This copy sounded exquisite, and this track really allowed the system to show off some spacial qualities. The vocals floated well centered, with an atmosphere that was larger than the room we were in. This was a great demo choice, and seemed to really catch a lot of people's attention.
Nils Frahm - Hammers: Another track that was fairly new to me, but this allowed the system to show off it's top to bottom frequency range. The recording has great imaging that makes the piano feel as wide as the room. As Nils moves up and down the scale on the keys, you can hear the music move from left to right as if you were sitting right behind Nils looking at his back as his moves the full range of the keys. Very fun recording that I'm looking forward to listening to more. I believe this was another one that some people had production issues with, but again, this pressing was clean as a whistle.
Glass Animals - Poplar St: This was another crowd pleaser, everyone was bobbing their heads and tapping their feet. Not only was the pressing excellent, but it was enough so that I'm still considering purchasing the VMP version to replace my standard pressing. Dead quite, great imaging, and really a great display of what a mix of modern recording can do with synths, effects, and a mix of real instruments... and how well that can be reproduced on vinyl.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Jericho: To me, this was the show stopper. I had not heard this before, the quality of the recording of this 1950s track blew me away. This is one of those songs where it doesn't matter if you don't care for this style of music, because the pure quality of every element overrides your preferences and captivates you. Very excited to dive into this album later.
Flying Lotus - Galaxy in Janaki: Obviously this was the biggest music shift we made all night. Dark, depressing, and chaotic. The pressing and recording do a good job of sorting out all the elements. Do to the amount of laying it remains chaotic, but each element of the mix has it's own place in space, and you pick out each piece as Thundercat's bass lines trails around the sound stage. This is one recording/pressing where I wish more depth was present, but honestly just being able to sort everything out shows a lot of the quality of the pressing and gear in use.
Feist - Mushaboom: Another crowd pleaser. Several people commented about hearing elements in this track that they hadn't heard before. This has been one of my favorite VMP pressings recently, so it fun to hear it on other systems. Anyone that has this pressing knows just how good this really is. The best showcase part of this track was how smooth Feist vocals remain when she hits the high notes. I think the claps and the high notes are the best elements to watch for when using this song as a reference test track.
The System/Gear
The system in use was Linn's current "entry level" vinyl system: Linn Majik LP12 Turntable (Stock Majik arm and Adikt cart), Linn Majik DSM integrated/streamer, Linn Majik 140 speakers. They said the whole system comes in just over $10K. Obviously not cheap, but considering it's a high end TT, quality speakers, room correction DSP, and network streamer, it is a true all in one hifi system. For the price, you could certainly do much worse.
If you're not familiar with Linn's current line up, they are all in on DSP... a hot topic for some. This means all the music is digitized, including the single from the turntable. But judge the system on the sound. The table was dead quite, very impressive. I certainly see the value in the suspension table, but I probably still wouldn't own one. If I did, I would need to move up in the line. I personally do not want to remove the platter to change to 45rpm. For some people this isn't a big deal though. The build quality is also beautiful. The integrated also impressed me. I was expecting a more compressed sound coming out of a single box solution, but the synergy of the system was obvious. It held it's own on dynamics and imaging, the first things I normally see drop off with lesser integrated units. The top end of the Linn speakers was really nice. A little laid back, and the soundstage is generally pushed back, but still has some forward attack when it's called for. Not the widest soundstage I've heard, but it did have pretty impressive depth for the price point. The system also dug deep, but the bass was my main critique. I'm not sure if it was the speakers or the DSP, but there was a crossover point on the bottom end that sounded very unnatural to my ears. It didn't stand out on all the tracks, but when a note moved down the crossover scale, or lingered in that range it stood out to me. I think it was more apparent on Al Green's track.
As I mentioned earlier, they also gave away brand new copies of all 7 albums to one winner via a drawing. I was lucky enough to win, and I kept the 4 albums I did not have and gave the rest to anyone that wanted them. A little cherry on top of a great evening of audio and getting to know others in the hobby. Again, I cannot recommend these events enough if you have a chance to go.
First and foremost, this was an excellent event and if you have a chance to attend one in your area I highly suggest going. It's more of a Linn demo event with music provided by VMP - which I think was part of what made it a success. In Dallas the event was hosted at Audio Concepts, which is one of the nicest high end audio stores in town. This is a true audio shop, TV, projection, home theater, and single speakers need not apply. They carry most of the big name stuff you'd want to see from Stereophile reviews; Focal, Wilson, Rogue, ProAc, Devore, Rega, Audio Research, and of course Linn. The staff was very friendly, and were kind enough to serve drinks along with hosting. For anyone ready to buy some gear, they offered 10% of any of the Linn gear being demoed... which doesn't happen often. I know at least one guy moved on an LP12 after the event. They also giveaway brand new copies of all 7 albums to one lucky winner at the end of the night (which I won!).
During the event they played tracks from 7 VMP albums, all record of the month selections from Essentials or Classics. I'll break this review into a couple sections: Music Review and Gear Review. Our MC for the evening was Micheal from Linn. He first walked us through the system in use, and then gave us a little history about each artist/album before playing the selected track. He did a good job with his script, had some solid jokes and cleaver tie in to transitions from track to track. If you want to build your own reference test tracks, this list would be a great place to start.
The Music
Al Green - Call Me (Come Back Home): No surprise here, but this pressing sounded very clean and had nice solid bass on the low notes. It was easy to get lost in Al's voice. This isn't my first choice on music selection so it's hard to give it too much judgement overall since I wasn't familiar with the track, but the quality of the recording and the pressing is undeniable.
Moses Sumney - Don't Bother Calling: This was positioned as the direct opposite of the Al Green track, both in music and lyrics. I was a little more familiar with this track, and I was very curious to hear it played here because I remember some people reporting issues with their pressing having a woosh with the color split. Happy to report that this was not the case during this session. This copy sounded exquisite, and this track really allowed the system to show off some spacial qualities. The vocals floated well centered, with an atmosphere that was larger than the room we were in. This was a great demo choice, and seemed to really catch a lot of people's attention.
Nils Frahm - Hammers: Another track that was fairly new to me, but this allowed the system to show off it's top to bottom frequency range. The recording has great imaging that makes the piano feel as wide as the room. As Nils moves up and down the scale on the keys, you can hear the music move from left to right as if you were sitting right behind Nils looking at his back as his moves the full range of the keys. Very fun recording that I'm looking forward to listening to more. I believe this was another one that some people had production issues with, but again, this pressing was clean as a whistle.
Glass Animals - Poplar St: This was another crowd pleaser, everyone was bobbing their heads and tapping their feet. Not only was the pressing excellent, but it was enough so that I'm still considering purchasing the VMP version to replace my standard pressing. Dead quite, great imaging, and really a great display of what a mix of modern recording can do with synths, effects, and a mix of real instruments... and how well that can be reproduced on vinyl.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Jericho: To me, this was the show stopper. I had not heard this before, the quality of the recording of this 1950s track blew me away. This is one of those songs where it doesn't matter if you don't care for this style of music, because the pure quality of every element overrides your preferences and captivates you. Very excited to dive into this album later.
Flying Lotus - Galaxy in Janaki: Obviously this was the biggest music shift we made all night. Dark, depressing, and chaotic. The pressing and recording do a good job of sorting out all the elements. Do to the amount of laying it remains chaotic, but each element of the mix has it's own place in space, and you pick out each piece as Thundercat's bass lines trails around the sound stage. This is one recording/pressing where I wish more depth was present, but honestly just being able to sort everything out shows a lot of the quality of the pressing and gear in use.
Feist - Mushaboom: Another crowd pleaser. Several people commented about hearing elements in this track that they hadn't heard before. This has been one of my favorite VMP pressings recently, so it fun to hear it on other systems. Anyone that has this pressing knows just how good this really is. The best showcase part of this track was how smooth Feist vocals remain when she hits the high notes. I think the claps and the high notes are the best elements to watch for when using this song as a reference test track.
The System/Gear
The system in use was Linn's current "entry level" vinyl system: Linn Majik LP12 Turntable (Stock Majik arm and Adikt cart), Linn Majik DSM integrated/streamer, Linn Majik 140 speakers. They said the whole system comes in just over $10K. Obviously not cheap, but considering it's a high end TT, quality speakers, room correction DSP, and network streamer, it is a true all in one hifi system. For the price, you could certainly do much worse.
If you're not familiar with Linn's current line up, they are all in on DSP... a hot topic for some. This means all the music is digitized, including the single from the turntable. But judge the system on the sound. The table was dead quite, very impressive. I certainly see the value in the suspension table, but I probably still wouldn't own one. If I did, I would need to move up in the line. I personally do not want to remove the platter to change to 45rpm. For some people this isn't a big deal though. The build quality is also beautiful. The integrated also impressed me. I was expecting a more compressed sound coming out of a single box solution, but the synergy of the system was obvious. It held it's own on dynamics and imaging, the first things I normally see drop off with lesser integrated units. The top end of the Linn speakers was really nice. A little laid back, and the soundstage is generally pushed back, but still has some forward attack when it's called for. Not the widest soundstage I've heard, but it did have pretty impressive depth for the price point. The system also dug deep, but the bass was my main critique. I'm not sure if it was the speakers or the DSP, but there was a crossover point on the bottom end that sounded very unnatural to my ears. It didn't stand out on all the tracks, but when a note moved down the crossover scale, or lingered in that range it stood out to me. I think it was more apparent on Al Green's track.
As I mentioned earlier, they also gave away brand new copies of all 7 albums to one winner via a drawing. I was lucky enough to win, and I kept the 4 albums I did not have and gave the rest to anyone that wanted them. A little cherry on top of a great evening of audio and getting to know others in the hobby. Again, I cannot recommend these events enough if you have a chance to go.
