Preliminary results; we're running another longer showdown on Sunday, as one of my taper buds couldn't make it tonight, and a few of my hifi friends had other commitments.
First off, I need to throw a huge shout out for Will Bernard and Motherbug. Holy sh|t these guys were good! Kinda like a movie where you go in expecting nothing, maybe? Dunno, I was way impressed. And whaddya know, they're coming to my hometown (sorta) for Hookahville. I wasn't planning on going, but I might change my mind just to see these guys live!
I have 2 pages of notes to comb through, but both of our impressions were pretty much spot on, so I'll summarize a bit:
warm mod stengths:
1. mids! The mids are lush and gorgeous. Very pleasing. The mids run the show with the wmod
2. soundstaging is king with wmod. Consistently, through every recording, the soundstage was both wider and deeper; but the biggest improvement besides size was placement. Wmod places the performers back a bit; for instance, for the wbm set, everyone was set at or behind the wall behind my speakers, and the main soundstage extended to the outside and behind the speakers. Very very nice. With pmod, this jumped forward a few feet, almost level with the front of the speakers, and collapsed in to the point no main staging info was to the outside of the speaks.
3. highs. Contrary to what I thought, the wmod wasn't rolled off in the highs like I thought. It extended up about the same as the pmod; but the general bulk of the frequency was more mids, so this tamed the highs a bit.
4. coherency. Perhaps because of the soundstaging, but other factors are at work I couldn't put my finger on in this relatively short listening session... But the wmod is just more musically coherent. Everything's "there" with the pmod, but the wmod just sounds more "whole" and you get a better feel of musicians interacting with each other.
wmod negatives:
1. bass. The bass is slightly softened and loses some of it's initial attack; and the decay is a bit extended. The end result is it is "softer" feeling than the pmod.
2. instrumental attack. The wmod softens and slows things a bit, much like a harmonically rich tube amp, so you lose a little bit of attack and the decays hand a bit unnaturally at times. This has the effect of sounding harmonically pleasing, but can remove a bit too much bite at times... In some hifi rigs this could be a killer.
pmod strengths:
1. bass. Pmod bass is much tauter and has more drive. This gives a better rythmic presentation.
2. detail. The pmod pulls more detail than the wmod, this is fairly clear when switching back and forth. The wmod has crowd chatter, but with the pmod you can hear what they're saying more clearly. Inner detail of instrumental parts is more apparent.
3. vocals. The pmod really has better vocal sound. Whether this is accurate or not, I don't know; but the wmod has a more "at the show vocal" feel, the pmod is clearer and you can hear vocals better. If you like bands with lots and lots of indeterminate vocals, this is the one to buy, IMO
pmod negatives:
1. soundstaging. pmod recordings bring everything forward into the room, and much less width to the stage. This brings the musicians closer in an unnatural and somewhat distracting manner.
2. lean mids. pmod really leans out the mids, which IMO tips up the highs. I don't feel that the highs are more extended in frequency, but they just become more prevalent in the sound, so the general feeling is one of more brightness. But the mids are lean and not nearly as enjoyable.
All in all, both of us preferred the wmod so far. It just presented a more coherent, lush, relaxed experience. When the 24/48 wmod will bernard came on, my whole body relaxed into the music. When the pmod set came up, I instantly experienced a less involving, less relaxing picture. I am very interested to hear some more recordings on Sunday, with a few more folks present, to see if a longer listening session presents the same results...
Our sonic chain for the evening:
EMI 2|6 > dCS Delius > McCormack RLD-1 > McCormack DNA-125 > B&W N805 / Velodyne VLF-810
Topic: UA5 mod comparison ("warm" vs. "presence/clarity") (Read 13735 times)