[Neli is helping me here with this post. Hope it gets done this year… well, we have 6 hours, should be enough?]

We have two rooms again this year. One has a modest system and one… does not.

The Modest, Down-to-Earth System

AN/E SPe HE speakers (98dB High efficiency with the hemp drivers - the ones that were brand new at CES last year, now much more broken in)
Oto Phone SE integrated amplifier
CD 2.1x/II CD player
TT2 turntable with ARM Three arm and S4 stepup transformer IO1 cartridge
AN/Vx interconnects, Lexus XL speaker cable

The Over The Top System

AN/E SEC Signature loudspeakers in Madrone with external crossovers - high efficiency with the new tweeters. [uh. brand spanking new. Well, we have the weekend to break them in, Whoo Hoo.]
Kegon Balanced [Brand spanking new. Detecting a pattern here?]
M9 Phono preamplifier [graciously on loan]
DAC 4.1x Balanced DAC
CDT-Three transport
TT3 Reference turntable with AN1S arm, IO Gold cartridge and AN-S9 step-up transformer.
SOTTO interconnects and the new SOGON [50] interconnects and speaker [96] cables
HRS (Harmonic Resolution Systems) SXR 3-shelf equipment rack and 8 M3 Isolation Bases [i.e. 5 on the floor as they say]

We just put the Valhalla power cables on the equipment: Audio Note Ongaku integrated amp and DAC 4.1x Balanced DAC and CDTThree transport.

Still evaluating. The equipment was off for several hours, so our listening must continue… but, so far, on some tracks the performance was improved and on some, not. Pretty much like any top-notch power cord.

So far we’ve tried Shunyata and now Valhalla. Elrod is next, and then Acrolink.

But can’t help but think what Odin power cords are going to sound like. And how much they are going to cost… *whine*.

This testing of the Odin with different power cords, then different components, will be necessary, I think, to get a feel for the overall performance curve of the Odin.

But, as a sneak preview, it is my impression that the Odin interconnect is the bargain [I know, I’ve gone from $7K bargain Jorma Prime interconnect to $16K Odin interconnects… but…] For some reason interconnects, perhaps because they carry the most delicate part of the signal chain, seem to have the most impact.

And the Odin interconnect is in the spirit of Ultimate harmonic detail, perfection and cleanliness personified. The Odin speaker cable is all about ease, dynamics and the darkest blackest background you can imagine personified.

It is strange… people who did not like Valhalla are going to LOVE the Odin speaker cable, I think.

And everyone is going to love the interconnect.

I guess, in a nutshell, not much to complain about

It is hard to capture in a photo, but the Valhalla power cords, they, uh, don’t behave. They go this-a-way and that-a-way.

And with the white carpet and silver cables, it is actually kind of attractive to look at during the listening.

Kind of looks like a madman’s roller coaster

….

Hope everybody is setup for a nice Holiday!

The Audio Note M10, the no holds barred, can’t catch this, state-of-the-art line-stage moved on [no, we’re not happy about this. I mean, we ARE, but,…. we’re not. If you know what I mean.] to a new home, Audio Note’s latest U.S. dealer, HiFiAV Supplies in New York City. They are Audio Note dealers from way back and we are happy to have them back again. They also happen to be fluent in Chinese [Mandarin and/or Cantonese, I don’t know] - kinda makes me feel that maybe I should be fluent in a language someday, like English maybe? Nahhh….

The main system this morning.

The main system this evening.

At least no components are in front of the speakers…. at the present time.

Day 5 of the Odin burn-in, got 3 more days to go…. tickety tock tickety tock

Well, moving the equipment back about 3 or 4 inches away from in front of the speakers solved most of the sibilance problem [note to Mike: do not put equipment in front of speakers] … could probably move it back further… but too impatient and went on to the next experiment and put the Audio Note M10 3 box linestage in the system replacing the 2 box Lamm L2.

Oops, the CDSA is back in front of the speakers again. Well, what can I do? In the short term I mean. Eventually we could put up high rises (racks), overpasses (elevators), bypasses (longer runs of cables, especially power cords in this case), etc. But for now, we just listen.

Emm Labs CDSA CD/SACD player in front, Audio Note M10 line stage (center) and its power supplies (flanking) in the second row, Marten crossover and bass tower amp with Edge Signature One amps flanking.

Neli wants me to remind people that she is not inn favor of the CDSA player being in front of the left channel bass tower that way.

The system sounds bigger, stronger, more forceful with the M10 linestage. This is more of a ‘room pressurizing’ big overwhelming sound than the more measured stately sound of the Lamm L2 linestage.

The Marten Coltrane Supremes at morning

The Marten Coltrane Supremes at morning. The redishness is the sun reflecting off of our bright red leather couch.

Teck, from Singapore, played a female vocals CD in our room, and likely a few lucky other rooms as well, at RMAF, and kindly and generously sent us a copy of it:

And, uh, it is surprisingly difficult to render well. The second track, specially, the singer has lotssssssss of sssssss’s in her ssssssinging that can caussssssse ssssssibliance when played back [i.e. sharp S sounds instead of delicate, sweet s sounds]. Luckily, the completely optimized system we took to the show played everything perfect, but some of our experimental systems, that otherwise play flawlessly [more or less] have difficulty here, and truth to tell, the playback in general on this CD could be better.

I think the answer will turn out to be a combination of the fact that we are playing it LOUD [what? L-O-U-D!!! Anybody else have these strange conversations when the music is loud? That usually end in “Forget it. I’ll Tell!… You!… Later!…”. “WHAAAAT!?”], the equipment is sitting very nearly right in front of the speakers, and the bass needs adjusting because the room is so large - we got used to using an integrated, and I do not think we have used solid-state on the main towers for over a year.

So we struggle, changing power cords, cleaning the CD, changing cables etc. to try and figure out what thing[s] are responsible. Everything to avoid having to move things or put a rack between the speakers [on the other hand, Neli is happy as a clam to have Mike move things, including racks, to and fro, fro and to].

System 1

Lamm L2 linestage’s power supply

Lamm L2 linestage. Just about everything is on HRS M3 Isolation Bases.

Emm Labs CDSA CD / SACD Player.

Anyway, that is what’s happening here. The Vidar has not yet arrived so we are not burning in anything that needs to be burned in. So, we are circling the field waiting to land.

System 2

Audio Note Ongaku integrated amplifier

Audio Note DAC 4.1x Balanced

Audio Note CDT Three transport

And, yes, Teck, your other CD arrived to [Thanks SO much!]. But, uh, I accidentally left it in the Emm Labs CDSD SE which, uh, is unplugged and at the moment away from an outlet, and I need to find a power cord for it somewhere [can I use a stock $2 Belden power cord? Of Course Not ] and plug it back in so I can eject the CD [See, I TOLD you all that I do this ALL THE TIME. Don’t know what it is… some kind of curse because I ‘let’ Neli clean all the CDs (and records, too) or something… ]

We like the CDs. We are certainly playing them a lot. The soundtrack is a little like the Gladiator soundtrack… I mean, doesn’t it seem like soundtracks have their own genre -they’re not classical and they’re not pop. Cool depth of field though, and amazing drums.

Been moving things around some.

We are trying to setup things so that we have two systems we can wire with all Nordost ODIN cables [hopefully here next week], with 2 interconnects and one speaker cable [we are ignoring the Coltrane Surpreme’s bass tower speaker cables, at our own ear’s risk, of course - but our pocketbooks and wallets thank us].

Edge Signature One solid-state amps driven directly by Audio Aero Prestige, with Brinkmann Balance turntable and Lamm LP2 phono plugged in to one of the inputs on the Prestige.

Unfortunately, the limitations of the $14K Prestige’s built-in preamp [linestage] is evident, things being a little muddier than what we are looking for [especially in comparison to the pre in the $85K Audio Note Ongaku we were using before ]. The Prestige’s built-in pre is fine for things up to, say, $40-50K speakers, at which point the decision on whether to get an outboard preamp has to be made on a speaker by speaker basis - and the size of one’s wallet. The Kharma Mini Exquisites like a little more oomph of the extra pre, the Marten Coltrane speakers do well with either.

I’m sure the Audio Note M10 linestage on the Kegons would be great, as well as the Lamm L2 linestage on their ML2.1 amps, but then we are talking about 3 interconnects for digital instead of 2, and so no 100% ODIN setup.

Downstairs, we have the Emm Labs CDSA driving the Lamm L2 linestage into the Audio Note Kegon amplifiers. Interesting mix of brands, I know, but it sounds re-e-e-e-al good - and it allows us to swap in different amps for demos.

But, since that demo has been postponed, and in the interest of limiting this system to just 2 interconnects as well, we will setup the Emm Labs CDSA player [and/or Audio Note CDT3 transport and 4.1x Balanced DAC] connected to the Audio Note Ongaku integrated into the Kharma Mini Exquisite loudspeakers.

If we just had ONE more pair of ODIN interconnects… and another speaker cable for the bass towers on the Supremes [probably open up their bass something wonderful], … but, no, we can’t go there. That way lies madness.

A final shot of the Audio Note amps.

We hope to have an 100% Audio Note Sogon cabled system - with some of their SOTTO thrown in as well before too long. I anticipate completely different sounds from these systems using these different cables And we already did the 100% Jorma Design Prime system [at the RMAF show].

It will be so much fun hearing all the differences.

This is what life is all about: enjoying the differences this world has to offer, and experiencing the fruits of expert craftspeople in the pursuit of excellence.

Richard works at Audio Note and does many things including the website and, apparently, playing guitar through the Audio Note U.K. Ongaku integrated amplifier and Audio Note speakers.

If the video maker does not allow embedding, and there is no video above, clicking on the link below will take you take you to the video on YouTube.

The Video

Cool huh? And not a bad job playing the guitar either.

[Hopefully, some of these techniques apply to other speakers as well, but regardless, perhaps you might find them interesting as a study in What is Possible with the right design and tools].

This setup in our main listening room is more or less the setup we used at the show [well, the bass towers are on the inside, and there are a few cable changes, but….yeah, the same. Kind of.]

This is part of the Marten ‘Coltrane Supreme’ speaker system. It contains the amp, for the bass towers, and, most important for this current discussion today, the active crossover.

On the back of the active crossover there are controls for the phase and the bass level (volume).

Because we were / are using an integrated amplifier (the Audio Note Ongaku) to drive the main towers, and no preamp in the system, we are forced to change the bass volume every time we change the main volume on the Ongaku.

Turn up the volume on the Ongaku, then turn up the volume on the bass amp. [For some reason, I always think about turning UP the volume, but it is the same when turning down the volume, when and if that ever happens].

So, that is the situation, we are forced to keep adjusting the bass when changing the volume because of this particular system setup we are using.

We keep having to judge what is the EXACT right amount of bass… for a particular volume, and sometimes for a particular song (have to turn it up the bass for reggae, Mon).

OK, here’s the thing. With one person adjusting the bass and others listening to the result, certain behaviors are noticeable.

* The resulting sound is linear, by which we mean that it smoothly changes in response to the change in bass volume… EXCEPT at a particular point

* At this particular point in bass volume, the sound suddenly ‘fills in’. It reminds me of something like an old TV / CRT - like the beginning of Outer Limits - the ‘picture’(i.e. sound) suddenly grows from nothing to fill up the entire soundstage (room?).

* At this particular point, and this is weird [well, it is weird to me, along with being an awesome side-effect] certain in-room distortions disappear.

At this particular point, where the bass level is just so, we could increase the volume to our (my) pain threshold and every note was clear and separated and positioned perfectly - whereas at a lower volume, when the bass was not just so, it was a little bit confused and not completely enchanting, shall we say.

Well, that is all we have to report to this date - we have not tried this here yet, we still have a way to go to position the speakers correctly [ Yeah, we’ve been busy here, which is good, but…]. And we only learned this the last few hours of the show when we felt that it was OK to get a little wild and experiment a little.

Hey I think one lucky room visitor did to hear all this… Perfect Circle, perfectly rendered at 110 - 120dB and something else which I always forget the name of…. But I imagine people outside in the hallway, and in the nearby stairwell between floors, well, not sure WHAT they thought…

Maybe this has to do more with the ears and not room interactions. Maybe we are just nuts. We’ll let you know when we try the same thing here, in a vastly different space.

We got this player in a few months ago. Its only about $3500, but… for my money, this is all the player you need unless you want to go up to the $9+K range of the Audio Aero Capitole / Prestige and Emm Labs CDSA and the other Audio Note players. [Yes, I know there are others, but pay attention to what I am saying, not my memory-challenged brain… ]

So much music!

Here are a few photos….

In this price range you just don’t get soul-rendering detail and finesse and harmonic structure. Sorry. [So many people believe that if they just buy enough of the players in this price range, they will find THE ONE that is as good as the $10K+ crowd but sells for 1/4 the price it could bring in a market economy. And they are not just looking for stupid manufacturers who make wonderful CD players either - but wonderful stupid amp manufacturers and speaker manufactures and … ]

But what you do want at this price range is livability, enjoyability, musicality, harmonic insight, everything a person needs who wants to listen to music and is not obsessed with having the BEST they can afford (or not afford as the case may be for all of us pushing the limits of fiscal responsibility),

This player. This is what I would have if I weren’t crazy.

In the Audio Note room this year we are planning on a modest system comprised of pieces totally about $15K + turntable cartridge step-up transformer and cables and rack.

Audio Note AN/E Spe HE
Audio Note OTO Phono SE
Audio Note TT2 turntable with Arm Three
Audio Note AN-S4 moving coil step up transformer
Audio Note IO1 moving coil cartridge
Interconnect: Audio Note AN-Vx
Speaker cable: Audio Note Lexus XL
Acoustic Dreams 4-shelf equipment rack
Audio Note CD 2.1X/II CD Player

Anyone else using the new MS Word? It comes with your new PC (remember, ours got fried by lightning, so we both got a new one), even if you do not get Vista (which I didn’t). There is no ‘Save As’ option so I had to go out and into Windows Explorer and manually copy and rename the file. Geez.