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Many of the 10 Years numbers like this one pit percussion and lead guitar against each other. Spontaneous time changes and surprise drum fills add spice and the vocals hover ethereally above the complex weave of the composition. With such Metal and/or Rock a hifi component’s main challenge is to make sense of the sonic mash so often compacted by dynamic compression such that the highly interesting inner structures become (or remain) intelligible.
The Vincent was up to the task. It cleverly divided different layers to clearly differentiate between the e-bass runs transcribed an octave lower to add badness and the lead guitar with its power chords and hall decays. It also showed how the drummer executed 16th work on his hi hat during the central instrumental passages. Such detail is vital to fully enjoy ambitious Rock material.
A complete counterpoint was singing cabaretist Rainald Grebe with his Kapelle der Versöhnung on 1968, a live album of a performance in the Tipi tent right adjacent to the Berlin prosecutor’s office. This smaller venue creates a dense but direct atmosphere which is captured as though one stood right on front of the stage.
Grebe’s vocalizing on "Die 90iger" starts with whippingly loud triple action of percussion, e-bass and apparently deliberately mistuned e-guitar. This should ideally completely separate from the system and take shape in the room, with the vocals deliberately sharp due to an extremely close-placed microphone.
Once again the Vincent obeyed, retaining the comedian’s hissy sibilants and locating the band members at realistic distances, meaning quite close together as is true for the original venue. Apropos staging and not as much with this album but many others, I noted a peculiarity with this amp. While it maintains rigorous sorting and is capable of good depth layering, stage width tends to be limited. While I wasn’t disturbed, lovers of grand orchestral ought to evaluate this aspect during a sufficiently long audition to insure it meets their requirements.
Back on Grebe’s live cut, the Vincent showed a minor midband emphasis which added vocal presence and amplitude. My Yamaha A-S 1000 for example rendered Grebe less weighty and more neutral. The Vincent came more from the diaphragm and its slightly elevated presence region seemed more flavoured and energetic. This was apparent also on Lenny Kravitz’s "Bring it on" from It’s a Time for a Love Revolution. With the Yamaha the whippersnapper snare drums and gnarly e-bass felt strangely held back though on amplitude this frequency range was properly positioned. The Vincent applied a small ‘effect’ which might bother purists but which I found quite sympathetic. It was fun on a gut level.
