Noulakaz

The blog of Avinash, Christina, Anya and Kyan Meetoo.

Archives for May 2017

Depeche Mode over the years

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I have been a fan of Depeche Mode for more than 30 years now. I discovered them thanks to a friend in 1985 when I was in Form I and I have been addicted to their music and lyrics since then. Depeche Mode released their first album, Speak & Spell, in 1981 and the 14th, Spirit, was released only a few weeks ago.

Below are the different eras of Depeche Mode. For me, the best era was from 1984 to 1990 with four mythical albums Some Great Reward, Black Celebration, Music for the Masses and Violator. What about you?

The formative years

The albums are:

  • Speak & Spell (1981)
  • A Broken Frame (1982)
  • Construction Time Again (1983)

Characterised by the presence of Vince Clarke (of Yazoo and Erasure fame) at the beginning and, following his departure in 1981, the recruitment of Alan Wilder in 1982. Here are all the songs of this era sorted by popularity on Last.fm:

The world domination era

According to me, this is when Depeche Mode created their best ever albums:

  • Some Great Reward (1984)
  • Black Celebration (1986)
  • Music for the Masses (1987)
  • Violator (1990)

The music of Martin Gore and the vocals of Dave Gahan were at their top. And the production skills of Alan Wilder as well as the managerial skills of Andrew Fletcher. During these six years, Depeche Mode became the most popular electronic group in the world, sold millions and millions of albums and even, in 1987, conquered the USA.

Here are all the songs of this era sorted by popularity on Last.fm:

The drug addiction era

Following the phenomenal success of Violator in 1990, things started to go very wrong. Dave Gahan fell into drug addiction and the various members of the group started drifting apart. During this difficult era, two albums were released, one with Alan Wilder and one without his musical and production skills as he left Depeche Mode in 1995. The albums are:

  • Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993)
  • Ultra (1997)

Here are all the songs of this era sorted by popularity on Last.fm:

The new millenium

This period is characterised by a number of elements: Dave Gahan stops taking drugs but, according to a lot of people, his voice seems strained when singing live, the music, while good, gets a bit less inspired (even though Playing the Angel is very well regarded) and, most importantly, a lot of filler tracks are inserted in the albums which are:

  • Exciter (2001)
  • Playing the Angel (2005)
  • Sounds of the Universe (2008)
  • Delta Machine (2013)

Here are all the songs of this era sorted by popularity on Last.fm:

The revival?

Spirit was released two months ago and, dare I say, it is a very good album. Some say that it is as good as Playing the Angel released in 2005 but, personally, I like it better. The album is:

  • Spirit (2017)

and here are all the songs from this album sorted by popularity on Last.fm:

Not bad at all for a bunch of oldies born in the 60s :-)

For posterity, here are our top 20 Depeche Mode songs since we started tracking our listening patterns on Last.fm in 2005:

Precious, Suffer Well and John the Revelator were personal favourites of Kyan and Anya when they were little kids. We have cute videos of them singing and dancing to those songs in their nappies but they’ll kill us if we put those online…

Dream HiFi setup: NAD and Dynaudio

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When I was studying in France from 1993 to 1998, I discovered high-end stereo HiFi components for listening to music, with esoteric brands such as McIntosh, B&W and Linn. With our limited budget, Christina and I couldn’t buy our dream setup at that time: a NAD 310 stereo amplifier, a Philips CD 721 CD player and a pair of Mission 731 Pro speakers. This is something that I still regret. We should have taken the plunge then and get those three components. But we didn’t.

That’s fine I guess because, after twenty years, I have a new dream stereo setup. It starts with the NAD C 338 which is an amplifier with a Chromecast built-in (as well as Bluetooth which I don’t like using):

The C 338 is a hell of an improvement over the 310 of twenty years ago: the sound quality is top-notch, can handle speakers of any impedance and, most importantly in 2017, is fully compatible with digital sources by having a Chromecast built-in. This means, for example, that it’s easy to listen to music (using Plex, Google Play Music, Subsonic, Spotify (which is not available in Mauritius unfortunately), etc.) and also radio, podcasts and audiobooks. One only needs an Android or iOS device and the relevant apps installed. As all our music resides in a Plex Media Server, the C 338 would be awesome for us.

No other audio source is needed. No CD player, no radio tuner, nothing. Only the C 338 and its built-in Chromecast.

An amplifier is useless without a pair of good speakers and I have settled on the Dynaudio Emit M10, which has been obtaining rave reviews online:

The Emit M10, while being small, has an excellent frequency response of 50Hz to 23kHz (± 3 dB). It is a two-way speaker with a 2.8cm soft dome tweeter and a 14cm woofer and the sound quality is top-notch.

The price for the setup on 4 May 2017 is:

  • NAD C 338 amplifier = £599.00 on Amazon.co.uk.
  • A pair of Dynaudio Emit M10 = £499.00 on Amazon.co.uk.

I have chosen Amazon.co.uk because (1) NAD is English and Dynaudio Danish and (2) for making sure voltages / plugs would be fine for Mauritius. The total price becomes £1,098.00 (which, as far as I know, include British VAT, etc.) which is Rs 49,000.

Is it expensive?

You bet. But a dream setup does not come cheaply.

High-End Hi-Fi Audio Companies

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I have always been an audio and music buff and, over the years, I have managed to acquire a very good HiFi system, mainly built using Yamaha components. There are two reasons why I chose Yamaha. First, Mauritius being Mauritius, Yamaha is one of the few brands which can be bought in the island. In particular, it is practically impossible to find high-end components and brands in Mauritius. The second reason is, of course, that Yahama components are of high quality and offer excellent value for money.

Here are some of the high-end audio companies in the world:

How many do you personally know?