I took these photos yesterday - and already things have changed quite a bit, with a few pieces going out on audition and Thursday another shootout will mix things up some more

We have had the Audio Note Kegon Balanced amps on the Marten Coltrane Supremes for a few months now. It is very nice and for some reason produces more bass than any amp we have had on these speakers [so we just turn down the bass on the crossover. We also can move the speakers out from the wall a wee bit more if we decide we are missing something. Haven’t felt that way so far though…]

We are running the Brinkmann Balance turntable and EMM Labs CDSD and DCC2 digital through the Audio Note M9 Phono preamplifier.

We are using the little S4 step-up for the Titan cartridge on the M9. Works pretty dang good, considering it wasn’t really made for this kind of thing. Heck, running the Titan direct sounded pretty dang good, although very quiet. The point being that the Phono in this preamp has a qualitative depth that is really fun to explore - it is very open, very harmonically complex, with very good dynamic resolution.

Downstairs…

This is the exact same system that we took to CES: Audio Note everything: Ongaku integrated, SEC Signature speakers, SOOTTO interconnects and SOGON speaker cables, with Nordost ODIN and AcroLink power cords.

Except the placement is kind of … different. A future post will talk about this weird placement that really works very very well … for octagonal rooms anyway.

A couple of turntables share the Lamm LP2 phono.

The Kharma Mini Exquisite speakers are being driven by the big EDGE reference amps. We swap between these and the Lamm ML2.1 amps, which A. underdrives the speakers something awful, but B. sounds very very wonderful in the midrange. About half the people only care about A and half only care about B. I think Neli and I are both B - because B is so gooood - but we understand the A point of view too

The EDGE from above. ODIN speaker cables and interconnects.

The 3rd room. We take new visitors to our store/home/showroom here first. I’d say about 60% convince us it is the best sound they ever heard.

Then we take them to hear the other systems.

This system is good enough that we tend to spend way longer here than we probably should - given that there are 3 systems to go we often spend 30 - 40% of our visitor’s time here.

The inside of one of the Audio Note Kegon Balance 300B amplifiers. The Kegon Balance is essentially a 300B Gaku-on. The Gaku-on is Audio Note’s best amplifier which is based on the 211 tube.

The sound?

Very dynamic and controlled. The signature reticence of the speaker’s ceramic drivers is no longer audible. It is hard to over-state this aspect of these amps. A lot of the time is just spent thinking ‘I didn’t know amps could DO that’.

In comparison, solid-state amps just smack the notes out with a sledge-hammer - they [currently seem to] have no ability to control the shape of the notes as it they are supposed to be - if they are to sound like music [or even just musical] that is.

And in comparison, most tube amps just sound anemic, where they, overall, can generated notes shaped more naturally, more real, than solid-state, but lack that SMACK that most musicians often apply to their piano or guitar or drum.

Just the right amount of harmonics. Which is to say more than the Lamm ML2.1 6C33C tube-based amplifier, and less than your other 300B-based amplifiers [that we have heard]. Presumably all of our readers know how bad too little harmonics affects the enjoyability of music. And for too much harmonics, too much harmonics and the primary tone washes out the lesser tones - and it is the lessor tones that make a person hear deep into the richness and playfulness and… I don’t know - that thing that happens when you go into a toy store and bang on some chimes - or into a Tibetan store [we have a dozen here in Boulder] and bang on the gongs or use the Bhuddist bowls - or to a piano store and bang on the keys of their best piano — JUST to listen to the sound and the undertones [and the lovely decades-long decay].

Anyway - more on this system after RMAF.

It has been foggy and rainy here - I took these yesterday - but today is much the same.

The latest change upstairs is the Audio Note Kegon Balanced 300B-based amplifiers on the Marten Coltrane Supremes. In comparison to the Lamm ML2.1 amplifiers that have been there for about 6 months, the albeit 3X more expensive KB’s are:

1. more dynamic, removing most if not all [that I can hear] of the reticence ceramic drivers have at the peak [most dynamic part] of the notes
2. More bass [we think we have to move the bass towers away from the way - hopefully just an inch or so]
3. More ‘macro’ separation - the instruments are more separated in sound and on the soundstage, micro separation is actually less than with the ML2.1, but this seems more natural [to me] and less artificially ‘etched’
4. More harmonically rich.

So, all in all, the Lamm ML2.1 held up quite well, considering the price differential - but at the same time we were very happy with the improvements we got with the KB’s.

We have been using Nordost ODIN for the crossover-to-amp connection for awhile - although in this case we are using a Cardas single-ended to balanced doohickey that likely degrades the sound - but it will have to do until we get a balanced ODIN interconnect.

We are also using ELROD power cords and Jorma Design PRIME speaker calbe on the main towers and their No.1 [bi-wire… the double run helps improve the bass noticeably] on the bass towers.

Here you can see the fog outside, as well as the KB’s in their enclosures. They look better [I think ] with the tops off of the chassis - but we have been picking up radio frequencies lately - and this seemed to help? [We haven’t heard anything for a day or so].

We are running the Emm Labs CDSA CD player through the Lamm L2 Reference preamplifier. We had out other ODIN interconnect between these two - and it KILLED - but now I think it is back on the back of the Brinkmann Balance turntable - where it also KILLS [though I think as soon as we get our Audio Note PALLAS interconnect back - we will put it on the turntable instead because, although it is not as good when you total up all aspects of the sound as the 4X more expensive ODIN, it is a lot closer to the ODIN - in the turntable spot - than the other cables were to the ODIN on the CDSA -> L2 link].

I am not completely sure that cabling this system with all ODIN [should we be able to afford it - we got that 8 meter run of Valhalla that also needs replacing] would be the best possible sound we could get on this [any] system [although we have lots of evidence that supports this hyposthesis] - but it sure would be nice to try it - and to be able to add in other cables when, if and where necessary for any flavoring that might be required.

The cool-looking equipment racks are the (HRS) Harmonic Resolution System’s SXR [left] and MXR [right]. The SXR is very flexible - and sounds 80-90% as good as the MXR - but the MXR just feels like quality - it is such as pleasure to touch it and be around it [and that extra 10% of performance is definitely worth the higher price in over the top systems - focusing on the turntable first].

The Edge Electronics amps on the Audio Note AN/E SEC Signature speakers actually sounds pretty good [and the AN SOGON bi-wire speaker cable helps some too ] - but the real achievement for us, here, is that we found a positioning of the speakers -in this octagon room - that actually seems to work. Finally. Still needs tweaking - none of the walls are symmetrical, nor are the beams located directly across from each other - so one speaker still seems more forward than the other … but only on certain frequencies! What a pain.

The front-end is Audio Note: the CDT Three transport and DAC 4.1x Balanced. They are running into the baby AN M1 preamplifier which, when our M9 gets here a-n-y d-a-y n-o-w, I want to snarf for my office system to use instead of the Lexicon DC-1 I am using now [for TV and computer]. I anticipate a vast improvement in musicality. Lexicon - phooey. After my $6500 MC-1 died, and it cost more to repair than to buy a used one - and the fact that it did not work right to start with [DTS], and there is no digital in [hello?] - I am happy that I have learned enough about this industry to know what is good value. It does make me spend a lot of time wondering about and analyzing what motivates people [like me] to buy X instead of Y.

Oh, I digress.

The rack is the Rix Rax Grand Hoodoo. The turntables, the Walker and the Audio Note, are not hooked up for some reason. It is always something that needs doing with 4 systems. And we are always running out of what seems like would be the Purrfect power cords and cables for a given situation. ODIN cables seems especially hard to free up around here

The Marten Coltranes loudspeakers, on consignment, on the Lamm ML2.1 amplifiers driven by the Audio Aero Prestige CD/preamplifier. A nice system - but it needs a little optimization - A HRS platform for the Prestige would work wonders, I think, but all 12 are in use elsewhere. The Kharma Mini Exquisites speakers are taking a breather - but can be easily swapped into either of these two systems in this room.

The small system room. We are going to eventually move this system a little higher in the rainbow of high-end audio. Not that we [especially me] do not like this system - but people come here expecting the stars - and they are not [usually] all that interested in the moon.

… here is how they look, well, how they looked a couplea days ago, anyway.

The Lamm ML2.1 are still driving the Marten Coltrane Supremes loudspeakers. That is Nordost ODIN interconnect connecting the amps to the Marten crossover box. We have the Jorma Design PRIME speaker cables on the main towers, and a bi-wire [i.e. double run] of Jorma Design No. 1 speaker cables on the bass towers. The bi-wire run sounds much beefier than the single wire run on the bass towers.

The rack : HRS MXR on the right and SXR on the left. Lots of good good black things here. The Nordost THOR power distributor being the silver outlier [oh, and the Meitner CDSA. That’s what I get for not looking at the photo while I type]

We put the Nordost ODIN on the back of the Brinkmann Balance turntable, connecting it to the Lamm LP2 Deluxe phono stage. In a quick test of the Audio Note PALLAS cables in place of the ODIN - the musicality was very ‘right’ and the soundstaging was more evenly laid out, I thought, but the uber-resolution and detail [I have a hard time writing about details without clarification after that last post ] and uber separation of the ODIN was really awesome. Neil Young sounded edgy AND emotional AND listenable - and if you are a Neil fan [we we are] you know this is the promised land.

That said, at 1/4 the price, the PALLAS is a contender with the big boys hangin’ out in the $10K+ category and these need to be heard if your cables play in these leagues. Good deals in this business don’t stay around for long….

After some optimization, we ended up with a real potpourri of power cords. We got the big ELROD supplying power to the THOR. This really opened up the soundstage and at the same time made the sound more forward [in a good way] and immediate.

Then we have the old Acrolink 7..N.. something [how are we supposed to remember all of these numbers? Kind of like the Acura cars these days. Anybody remember the Legend? That was a name I could remember] running into the Lamm L2 Reference line stage power supply. This added a level of refinement that was juuuuust right.

Let’s see, we have the Valhalla power cord on the Lamm LP2 phono stage and the smaller ELROD on the Emmlabs CDSA. I forget how we got to these and what they contributed. Something good no doubt

Downstairs we have the Kharma Mini Exquisite speakers on the Edge, driven by the Audio Aero Prestige CD/SACD player using Nordost ODIN speaker cables and the Audio Note system at the other end of the room [that was yesterday. Today we moved the Kharma back to the other side of the room for an audition because we are still playing too much with the AN speaker placement in this here non-symmetric octagonal room. Actually we are still struggling with the Kharmas placement too We have just been struggling longer with the Kharmas and are more confident that we are much nearer perfection].

These are our Audio Note SEC Signature speakers on the Audio Note Kegon Balanced amps and Sogon speaker cable.

We still have our little AN M1 Phono preamp in the loop - so sounds are a little muted, and we can’t use balanced cables to the Kegons… but it sounds pretty good and in some ways nothing here sounds better. But… lots of work to do on this system p the upstairs system has been scarfing up all the good power cords and cables and vibration control too, the stingy thing ].

Always one system looks like we are snubbing it… but, hey, we got to face one way or the other - so we will always be treating one of the systems with No Respect… I think all of our systems have a Rodney Dangerfield attitude sometimes….

Closeup of the Edge / Audio Areo.

Finally the smaller system. The system that it is just fun to sit and listen to. We slipped in some SOGON interconnects (about $3K on a system that is about a $15K system) and it sure makes it easy to just hang out and chat. Sometimes we forget that we can chat in the other rooms too

Well, we finally decided our experiment of having the bass towers INSIDE the main towers had gone on long enough.

The speakers were fairly easy to move, though both of us participated in a you push you pull fashion. The Black Diamond Racing Cone pucks slide pretty easily across the carpet - but, especially in the case of the heavier bass units, the relatively high friction of the plush wool carpet sometimes causes the cone feet fall off of the pucks and the speaker tips a little bit and Neli accuses me of reckless driving [it IS kind of dangerous when the towers are close to each other, we really, really (add more reallys as you see fit) wouldn’t want the two titans to tip one into the other!].

The main towers are about 6 inches closer together.

The original reason the main towers were positioned on the outside of the bass units was to try and get a wider sound stage than what we had before. And it worked.-
But over time we worried that we were loosing some coherence, solidity and stability in the imaging and soundstaging. It was really pretty darn goooood, don’t get me wrong, but we felt we had reached a limit as to what we could do. We want more, MORE!

So, the initial impressions? Well, we have more positioning to do… BUT… the soundstage is perhaps even wider than before - so we are good to go on that front. But solidity etc. was perhaps a little worse than before.

Darn! The just-plopping-them-down-somewhere-near-where-we-thought-they-should-go technique failed us once again [you know, it DOES sometimes work, and, seriously, rolling the dice this way does lead to some discoveries about specific room-speaker interactions that the strict-placement methodologists would never discover].

Anyway, I am hopeful that having nothing between the main towers will improve imaging. Makes sense, right, because the bass towers were acting like some kind of really strangely configured equipment rack between the speakers that are generating all the music’s location cue frequencies.

However, that said, we sure are tempted to at least put SOME of the equipment on a rack between the speakers sometimes - so that [most likely the digital] part of the system can be cabled with pure, 100%, high-octane cables like the Jorma Design PRIME [who needs to imbibe anymore?], Audio Note PALLAS [who needs Carnegie Hall anymore?], and Nordost Odin [who needs components anymore?].

Well, I exaggerate [a little ], but hopefully have also communicated why we are tempted to put a rack up front sometime - the heck with imaging [well, the rack WOULD be pretty far back from the main towers …so its impact WOULD be really minor, right?].

But the 2nd-rack-in-the-center would probably be turntable less, and have us still run the turntable from the side of the room. Why? Because stepping over maps and around cables and power cords is annoying at best, and with turntables, it just makes putting on an LP more about tip-toeing through the equipment than ‘Oh! Let’s hear THIS!’. I guess CDs are just so Slam Bam Play that it is not quite as perverted of an experience. Maybe it is because everyone has their preferred position to stand in when putting on an LP, and we just feel more comfortable when a $30K (or $80K) amp is not bogarting in our fav-o-rite location. Anybody else feel that the usability of centrally located racks is a little less than desirable?

Anyway, time for the speaker location tweaking process - which usually takes awhile… argh.

Just an update as we finally, for the first time since the lightning strike, have all 4 systems powered up at the same time. A little worrisome… but it is a good feeling.

The main system, with Lamm ML2 amplifiers, Nordost ODIN and Jorma Design Prime and ELROD doing the cabling

Digital for the front end, Audio Note and Lamm.

The Brinkmann Balance turntable is not hooked up, no phono preamp and no shelves, we purloined them for a system downstairs for a bit.

The Kharma system with the Audio Note Ongaku integrated and EMM Labs CDSA SE Upgraded.

The Walker Proscenium Gold Signature turntable - also for sale up on Audiogon. The Audio Note TT3 Reference turntable and Lamm LP2 phono preamplifier.

The Soundlab system driven by the EDGE Signature One amps and Audio Aero Prestige CD/SACD player with linestage.

The little Audio Note system with OTO integrated amp.

We’ve been spending most of our time downstairs.

We set up the Audio Note TT3 Reference turntable next to the Walker Proscenium Gold Signature turntable.

It has been back-and-forth, Walker –> TT3 –> Walker –> TT3 ….. both through the Lamm LP2 phono stage into the Ongaku integrated amp and the Kharma Mini Exquisite loudspeakers.

How do they compare, you may ask? In raw terms, the Walker is an audiophile’s dream come true and the TT3 is a music lover’s dream come true. Since we are music loving audiophiles, we can’t really talk about one being the ‘winner’. The TT3 is more dynamic, more lively, more engaging… more youthful. The Walker has a lower noise floor, is more accurate top-to-bottom, a more mature sound.

In fact, the idea would be for us to make them sound a lot more alike [which we have to some extent already] - to get a more musical cartridge for the Walker [we are using the Blue Magic Diamond - not so bad obviously, but there are better, unfortunately more expensive ones out there that are generally considered better]. And conversely, to dress up the TT3 with a rack with more vibration control, to correspond to the Walker’s air suspensions [even though the RixRax with HRS platforms comes close, HRS’s MXR rack still laughs at this setup].

Upstairs we still have the EDGE amps on the Coltrane Supreme loudspeakers, with the Lamm ML2.1 amps waiting for us to get our act together and replace the EDGE.

We have our new HRS SXR 3-shelf rack next to our HRS MXR 4-shelf rack.

Look at all that black!

Neli cleaned everything up, but this is two days later and already some Rocky Mountain dust has found its home on our stuff again.

We’ve appropriated some platforms / shelves for our playtime downstairs.

The Brinkmann Balance turntable.

Right now, we only have one phono stage, which the TT3 and Walker share. Even after our Audio Note M9 Phono arrives, we will only have two phono stages. But we have THREE turntables [well, four, but the little TT2 uses the little Audio Note Oto integrated’s phono stage].

We also do not have rack space for digital on the RixRax equipment rack in listening room 2.

What this means is that our Walker is up for sale on Audiogon [Neli is still glaring at me, because this was really my decision]. If anyone is interested…. be sure to think it over… it is not like they appear on Audiogon everyday [in fact, almost never. And for a good reason].

Next : Audio Note SOGON interconnect versus Audio Note SOOTTO interconnect versus Audio Note PALLAS interconnect. And a CES 2008 retrospective.

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.