What do you do when you wake up at 2:30 a.m. with your mind working overtime about all the possibilities in life?
My approach this morning was to fire up the espresso machine, have a double shot, and then continue with the Lefson resistor adventure!
10R Lefson Premium silver/carbon resistor at R5.
I listened again this morning to the 10R Lefson Premium silver/carbon resistor in R5, and compared it to the 10R Ohmite Brown Devil, with Getz/Gilberto and Chester & Lester, a couple of wonderful albums!
That reminds me, it is a mystery to me why no one has reissued Chester & Lester on a 45RPM disc set yet, as it is superbly recorded, with the superb guitar playing of Chet Atkins & Les Paul, and it is just an incredibly fun
The 10R Ohmite Brown Devil wirewound resistors sounded richer, warmer, and darker than the 10R Lefson Premium silver/carbon resisters in the R5 position.
However, the 10R Lefson Premium silver/carbon resistors are much more transparent, detailed, and nuanced, which under the right circumstances can be quite nice.
The Lefson's made both recordings sound dramatically more spacious, and imaging was much more vivid & detailed, than with the Ohmite Brown Devils.
Lots more guitar timbral details came through on Chester & Lester with the Lefson's than with the Ohmite Brown Devils.
The Lefson's are more forward than the Brown Devils, and I hear more edge on Getz's tenor sax on Getz/Gilberto than I would prefer, although not to an intolerable level.
I thought the Brown Devils were tonally more rounded, relaxed, and 'real' sounding on Getz's tenor sax, but I need to listen to lot more well-recorded horn albums to get a handle on Lefson's in that regard.
I suspect that like most wire, capacitors, and resistors, after the Lefson's run-in for a 100 hours or so, they'll settle down and smooth out, which is one of the reasons it takes so bloody long to do reviews of these sorts of components. It just takes a while for things to settle down & run-in in order to get an accurate take on the full measure of their musical & sonic performance.
One interesting listening tidbit is that usually when horns sound a little edgy, vocal sibilants will also sound overly spitty, but that didn't happen with the Lefson's, and the vocal sibilants sounded breathy and natural.
In the lower left of the photo you can see the 100R Ohmite Brown Devil wirewound resistor.
I wanted to try the 100R Lefson Supra silver/carbon resistors this morning, with their double-wound silver leads, in the R4 position of the Altec A5's high-frequency crossovers.
The 100R Lefson Supra carbon resistor with double-wound silver leads.
Like the Lefson 10R Premium, the Lefson 100R Supra measures very well, and well within its ±5% rating.
Like the 10R Premium, the 100R Supra measures very well.
Following the rule of 'change only one thing at a time so you don't get confused' I put the 10R Ohmite Brown Devils back in at R5, and then put the 100R Lefson Supra silver/carbon resistors in at R4 in place of the 100R Ohmite Brown Devils.
The 100R Lefson Supra silver/carbon resistor at R4 in the A5's left crossover.
The 100R Lefson Supra silver/carbon resistor at R4 in the A5's right crossover.
After letting the system warm up for a bit, I gave it a listen with the 100R Lefson Supra silver/carbon resistors at R4.
It was an interesting comparison, as the 100R Lefson Supra silver/carbon resistors in R4 exhibited all the good qualities of the 10R Lefson Premium silver/carbon resistors at R5, but lost most of the edge I was hearing from Getz's tenor sax on Getz/Gilberto.
I don't really know if that's just the sonic difference in positions between R4 and R5, or if it's a difference in the nature of the voicing between the Lefson Premium and Lefson Supra resistors, but I should get greater insight into those questions as I try the 10R Lefson Premium in the R3-1 and R3-2 positions.
100R Lefson Supra silver/copper resistor in the right-channel high-frequency A5 crossover.
As I kept listening to Chester & Lester, Getz/Gilberto, then Everybody Digs Bill Evans, and then Johnny Smith's and Stan Getz's Moonlight in Vermont, I became more & more impressed with what I was hearing musically, and after a couple of hours the edginess I was hearing on Getz's tenor sax went missing with the 100R Lefson Supra's, which was good news. I suspect the same will be true of 10R Premium when I get some more time on them.
From a tempo, melody, beat, rhythm, and, dynamics standpoint, I think the 100R Lefson Supra's are a little more 'real' sounding than the Ohmite Brown Devils, and I got a very good feel for tempos, changes in tempos, the nuance & 'touch' of melody lines, and beat & rhythm from them, a little more so than I did from the Brown Devils, which are themselves very good in their musical performance aspects.
Lefson 10R Ultra silver/carbon resistor with gold-plated silver leads.
Ok, that's it for now.
Next up I'll try the 10R Lefson Ultra silver/carbon resistors with their gold-plated, doubled gold-plated silver leads (above).
As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!
