… have seen us iterate through a lot of different systems…

Main room with Acoustic Zen Adagio and Audio Note AN-E SEC Signature speakers and Ongaku amplifier, driven by Audio Aero Capitole

Listening room 2 with Marten Coltrane Supreme loudspeakers driven by Audio Note Ongaku amplifier and EmmLabs digital front end.

A close up of the components. This is the whole system, these 4 components. Nice and tidy for a change…

However, though this system reached a level of musicality and approached the sound that we are looking for this system have - it was too bizarre having two preamps in the loop, the preamp in the Ongaku serving to try and match the SPLs of the midrange to that of the bass amplifiers. It worked, but…. We might try this again - but for now….

… we changed this, we now have the Lamm ML1.1 push-pull amplifers on the Supremes.

… which will chaneg for an audition tomorrow, assuming they can get up the driveway and up the stairs - which is not a given anymore with this Monther of all Winters the world has on its hands.

Back upstairs again, after the unphotograhed step with the Acoustic Zen Adagios being driven by the Audio Aero Capitole amplifier…

We got the Audio Note Ongaku amplifier driving the Audio Note AN-E SEC Signature speakers, with the Audio Aero Prestige as front end this time. We spread the speakers wider apart also, to see just how wide a soundstage we could get and possibly get some reinforcement from the nearby wall and horns

But in either position, the Audio Note speakers filled the room nicely. The midrange even approached the capability of the big horns to fill the room, and the bass - once the horns are gone we can try to position the little guys much closer to the wall - the bass is decent and satisfying but does not match the 4 x 10 inch woofers in a sealed cabinet… yet.

In fact, we will likely have 3 kinds of bass in this room: the big relaxed bass of the horns [no we will not mention their brand name - they can do their own marketing for a change], the ultra accurate and ultra powerful bass of the Marten Coltrane Supremes, and the very natural sounding, horn-like bass of the Audio Notes. How cool is that!!!

We’re going to have to post sometime about how it is not about what is ‘best’, but about is most ‘insidious’, and particulary, the number of ways it can be configured to be ‘insidious’. Insidious in that it produces a sound that gets into your head and just takes over.

The Audio Note U.K. Kegons amplifiers are on the Kharma Mini Exquisites, with the Lamm L2 preamplifier and Audio Note digital front end (and Audio Aero Capitole as well, in shootout formation). We then put the Kegons on top of HRS platforms, which is how it sits tonight.

Tomorrow we may get a chance to put the Mini Exquisite speakers over on the Supreme system in an all Audio Note configuration - with the Kegons to start, and Ongaku later if our snow shoveling arms hold out.

Finally, we have the system in listening room 3, area #4, with the little Audio Note speakers with the Kharma MP150 amps driving them, the Audio Aero Capitole serving as CD player and preamp.

Kind of a hodge podge system as we are in the process of breaking in the speakers - but it sounds darn good….! Neli likes it and her office is across the way. These are high-efficiency speakers and they reveal that the 1st watt of the Kharma amps is really quite good sounding, regardless of it being solid-state, digital in fact.

Everything is currently unplugged, of course, in response to last nights storm and the storm expected tonight…

But there have been a few changes in the last few weeks…

Acoustic Zen Adagio loudspeakers, driven by Audio Areo Capitole amp and Audio Aero Captole Reference CD player

Kharma Mini Exquisite loudspeakers (with Soundlab Ultimate 1 speakers looming in the background), Lamm ML1.1 amps, Lamm L2 Linestage and Emm Labs CD / SACD CDSD SE transport and DCC2 SE DAC

Closer… That is a HRS MXR equipment rack.

Marten Coltrane Supreme loudspeakers, Audio Note Kegon amplifiers, …

…Audio Note M10 linestage, Audio Note DAC 4.1x Balanced DAC and CDT3 transport. Walker Proscenium Gold Signature turntable. That is a Rix Rax Grand Hoodoo equipment rack.

Marten Design Coltrane loudspeakers, Lamm ML2.1 amplifiers, Audio Aero Prestige CD / SACD player and linestage, Brinkmann Balance turntable and Lamm LP2 phono preamplifier. Acoustic Dreams equipment rack.

The gym was closed so….

Moved seven 60 lb or so HRS platforms, two 120 lb Edge Signature One amps, two 90 lb Lamm ML2.1 and two 90 lb. ML1.1 amps, two 20 lb. M10 Galahad power supplies downstairs… but it seemed like a lot more.

The Showroom 2 Coltrane Supreme system

The Audio Note equipment that was upstairs is now on this system: CDT-Three transport running into a DAC 4.1x Balanced into the M10 linestage into the Kegon 300B SET amps.

The Showroom 2 Coltrane Supreme system equipment rack

The Showroom 4 Coltrane / Lamm / Brinkmann system

We are pretty familiar with this system - but not in a small room like this. Also would prefer it on an HRS MXR rack but, oh well, this is Thanksgiving, not Christmas, and we are happily trying to figure out what to play on what system as we roll from room to room after yesterday’s feast (after which Neli is still very fit and thin - but Mike? Mike thought he would never need to eat again, … at least until breakfast anyway ).

The Showroom 3 Soundlab / Kharma system

OK, it was getting close to (past) time to eat so we didn’t get this setup yet. After dinner tummy sizes were interfering with the ability to move…

We plan on using this system to hear the Emm Labs running direct into the Edge Signature One amps into the Kharma Mini Exquisites - we haven’t heard this before.

Old location of Showroom 1 equipment rack

Oh, and we moved a bookcase full of CDs upstairs. This was piled sky high with CDs and DVDs in front of the Coltrane Supreme loudspeakers. Now it is upstairs where the old Showroom 1 Rix Rax equipment rack used to go (although it only had the Emm Labs CDSD transport on it, connected by 10 meter long optical cables to its DCC2 DAC in the front of the room).

Where will the little Rix Rax equipment rack that was here go now? Geez, it is always somethin’….

Oh! What hard work! Whew!

Please, no more!

Well, maybe just a little….

This is the first post with our new Category scheme - This is what we are calling “Showroom 2″ although it is really the South side of listening room #2 (it shares listening room #2 with showroom #3, which is on the North side).

The intention is that people can click on this Category (or on the photo of the room at the top of this window) and see what we, or the people who come up here for auditions, have been up to vis-a-vis each of the systems we have here.

We have a tendency - like most people who really enjoy this hobby - to keep messing around with a system until it is sounding its very best given the room it must live in and the equipment at hand. And we have a realtively large number of very high-quality, some might say extremely high-quality, equipment at hand.

There is also two of us - so, because the sound must please us both, we are unlikely to construct something that sounds great for one person and gawd-awful to everyone else.

We are also not so stuck up or pretentious [at least not yet … I hope] that we don’t listen carefully to what our visitors have to say about the sound - which, more than fine tuning the sound of the systems, helps us understand whole new perspectives on what people’s different sonic priorities are. What this means is that sometimes a system here will be setup, for example, to be more in-your-face, room-pressurizing, withn the soundstage at or in front of the speakers and sometimes it will be setup to be a more laid back, 10th row, kind of presentation - and sometimes in between, based on a particular visitor’s preference. At these times this Blog will point out the type of sound we were trying to achieve - and you can match that against what you personally prefer.

[Me? I am agnostic, I personally do not care where the soundstage is - I just want the sound to be good. Often in-your-face means strident and agressive sound, and I do not like that, but it really does not have to be like this. Neli likes a little more laid back sound than I - but we both have, with the Audio Note M10, heard some great front-row-center sound].

South side of listening room two - the Marten Coltrane Supreme loudspeakers and Lamm ML2.1 amps

Speaking of which, I have been listening near field a lot on this system? Why? Who knows. I guess because that was where the chair was and I didn’t feel like moving it. For a week now.

Rix Rax equipment rack with Walker turntable, Audio Note CDT3 transport and DAC 4.1x Balanced DAC and Lamm L2 preamp

Marten Design Coltrane Supreme loudspeaker with Coltrane Supreme bass towers’ amp in background

Marten Design Coltrane Supreme loudspeaker with Lamm ML2.1 amp in background

Rear of one channel of the Marten Coltrane Supreme loudspeakers

Breaking in with a couple of classical CDs from IsoMike (thanks Ray!) on infinite repeat, and, well, you see the ports on the back of the bass towers? That is there so that the bass towers can handle VERY loud SPLs - so loud that the bass twoers cannot be harmed no matter how loud the music is played.

It is a mystery to me why people would listen to it so loud —-

So we are playing the IsoMike CDs and The Who, Who’s Next. With the Lamm L2 set on between 9 and 10 oclock (the volume starts at about 7 and we have turned it up to 1 to 2 oclock at times on different systems) the 18 watt ML2.1 -driven Coltrane Supreme system was NOT so loud that we couldn’t shout in each others ears to be heard… but…

This is of course a great CD. A great CD. Not so sure about some of the ‘extra’ tracks but a capital ‘G’ Great CD. Mastered on 1995, if I remember correctly, it also sounds pretty good sound quality wise, too… Reeeeeal good in fact.

As far as breaking in - the bass towers already sound great, but the midrange ceramic drivers still need losing up, so I can only imagine that the bass towers are also going to improve over time, as well.

The 2 inch diamond midrange is spooky. Instruments and voices just ‘appear’ THERE and then slip away back into the sound stage. The whole speaker can be thought of as a supporting cast to this one driver (and maybe the lower midrange driver with the two round black spots). I guess it probably will break in more as well… what in heck will that mean I wonder? Kind of scary…

… but tomorrow’s systems configuration may not be the same as today’s configurations.

Acapella Triolon Excalibur loudspeakers, Edge Reference amps, Audio Aero Prestige CD / SACD player / linestage.

In a few months the Marten Design Coltrane Supreme loudspeaker system will be moved here. But for now we get to learn about how the Supremes sound in a mostly enclosed room with a 8 foot ceiling.

Marten Coltrane Supreme loudspeakers, Lamm ML2.1 amps, Lamm L2 preamp and Audio Note CDT Three transprt and 4.1x Balanced DAC.

Eventually, this is where the Marten Coltrane and larger Kharma loudspeakers will live.

Soundlab Ultimate loudspeakers, Edge Signature One amps, Audio Note M10 preamp, Emmlabs Signature Edtions CDSD transport and DCC2 DAC.

The Soundlab Ultimate loudspeakers will live here for awhile. It is good to put these big guys somewhere where they do not block the Winter-time sun. They kick butt being driven by the Audio Note M10 preamp in this system at this time, but then again, so does everything else.

The Acoustic Zen Adagio speakers are here getting ready for a number of auditions for people who want to hear them in a large room. Wish we had another room here - and we are trying to think of ways….

Marten Coltrane loudspeakers , Audio Note Kegonn amps, Audio Aero Capitole CD player / linestage

The Marten Coltrane loudspeakers are here for both us and customers who want to hear how they do in a small 10.5 x 20 x 9 foot tall room. This is where the Audio Note speakers, smaller Kharma and Marten speakers and Adagio will live.

We appologize that it is taking us so long to get up and running (and finish the show report). We’ve had a few industry reps over (we don’t care if THEY don’t get the full impact of hearing all four of our systems running on all cylindars - the Acapella Triolon speaker, Edge reference ‘pyramid’ amp and Audio Aero Prestige CD / SACD player system IS, however, up and running), but, well, here is Mike & Neli’s October exercise program:

Step One: carry 2000 lbs of equipment down the stairs
Step Two: carry 3000 lbs of equipment up the stairs
Step Three: survive step one and step two

Listening room number three’s mess

Listening room number two South side mess.

Look Ma, no TV! Yes, it is true, no video with high-end audio for Mike until we get a front projector (90% chance it will be the Sony Ruby).

This is where the Marten Coltrane Supremes will go. You can’t tell it from this picture, but the view out the windows is very nice - the same view as our main room, but a little more intimate because it is closer to the ground and the trees block more of the view.

Putting the Coltane Supreme loudspeakers here will allow us to learn about how to setup these puppies in a more-or-less reasonably sized room (15 x 27 x 8 feet tall). The SoundLab Ultimate loudspeakers you see here are going to be moved to the North side of listening room #2.

Listening room number two’s North side mess. These crates are the crates for the Coltrane Supremes. Yay, we got them up the 30+ steps up from the garage to this lower level - and by just the two of us (with an extra push from an industry rep who shall remain namesless for the time being - it was great seeing you guys!).

Now comes the hard part, picking which racks to put where and which components to set things up with initially.

I want to put the double-wide RixRax here on the North side, but instead of in the normal configuration (which would trap a lot of space behind the rack because it is a doublewide and the wall is shapped like the end of a octagon) I want to position it so that it sticks out into the room - so that there is easy access to both the front (i.e. what would not be the left side) and the back (which would now be the right side). But Neli thinks I am crazy - especially now that I have proposed this non-standard orientation for the rack.

Anyone else think this is a good idea? All of you who do not post an opinion, I will try and convince Neli that you all think it is a good idea too……

…..yeah, I know, she won’t believe me even for a second…

As of last night, the proposed allocation of components to speakers goes like this:

Coltrane Supremes:
—————————
Audio Note CDT Three transport and DAC 4.1x Balanced
Lamm L2 linestage
Lamm LP2 phono stage
Walker Proscenium Gold Signature turntable
Lamm ML2.1 amplifiers
[This system sounded so AWESOME on the smaller Coltrane loudspeakers - we are hoping this awesomeness transfers to the big boys].

Soundlab Ultimate 1 (with guest stars: the Kharma Mini Exquisites and Acoustic Zen Adagio loudspekaers)
—————————
Emmlabs CDSD Signature transport and DCC2 Signature DAC digital source
Audio Note M10 preamplifier
Edge Signature One amplifiers

[We used this system to break in the M10, but it sounded so wonderful - the Soundlabs really sounding organic and warm enough to compete with speakers costing a heckuva lot more than the $31K that these go for].

Audio Note AN/E SEC Silver Signature (with guest star the Marten Coltrane loudspeakers):
————————————————-

Brinkmann Balance turntable
Audio Note M8 full-function preamp
Audio Aero Capitole CD player
Audio Note Kegon amplifiers

[We want to try a turntable on the Audio Note spekaers and we want to hear how the Coltranes sound in this small, 10.5 x 20 x 9 feet tall room]

Of course, all this could change today as we move stuff around.

or “Round ‘em up, Head ‘em out”

or “We’re just going to pieces”

or “Break in Two Systems, Two Systems, Two Systems in one”

Breaking in Sound Lab Ultimate loudspeakers and Audio Note M10 preamplifier together - using the EDGE Signature One amps and Audio Aero Capitole CD player driving them over on the floor to the right [Oh, you can’t see it in this picture, but you can see the Nordost Valhalla interconnects snaking across the floor there].

This is all just a temporary setup. We are breaking in each notch on the M10 volume control. We got up to ‘5′ yesterday, but that was driving the little Kegons pretty hard - and the Coltranes were getting pretty loud.

But over here, on the still somewhat inefficient Sound Lab speakers - with a solid state amp… we are doing ‘6′ today and will do notch ‘7′ tomorrow. That ’should’ be enough, the Marten Coltrane Supremes (which made it through customs, yay!) are much more efficient than even the Coltranes, so notch ‘7′ should be plenty loud enough for the show…?

Every time we up the volume a notch, the M10 sound is bright and annoying for several hours and the pre lets off another waft of New Electronic Component Smell [Yummmmmm. Is this the only reason we buy TVs and computers and $50K preamps, to be able to experience this smell? Nahhhhhh].

This M10 + Sound Lab speaker-centered system sounds surprisingly good. The Sound Labs really like upstream equipment that errs on the warm side (as opposed to the more icey Parasound or Pass Labs soild-state amps, the former is usually shown witht eh SoundLabs at CES and the latter is to be at this RMAF show in the IsoMike room), and even warmish cables help - like the Pranawire Cosmos speaker cables.

The latest Sound Lab upgrade did seem to tighten the bass quite a bit and increase the midrange dynamics as well - adding perhaps 3dB? of efficiency. Still breaking in, but I noticed that the unfamiliar bluring of images in the soundstage that I heard when we first starting playing the SoundLabs after their upgrade has almost completely gone away.

The old Marten Coltrane system, going to pieces Time to box up most of this system, and move the Marten Design Coltrane loudspeakers to listening room 3. The Sound Labs are going to go over here, next, after the show - and how we get around them when we go up and down the steps is still to be determined.

The current state of listening room 3. Most of the system proper is going to the show, including the Acoustic Dreams rack.

We want to put the Marten Coltranes in here after the show - but they sound best with the Lamm ML2.1 amps and the HRS MXR rack. But the Kharma Mini Exquisites sound best with the EDGE amps… it will be hard to build a system that is optimized for two different speakers like this… not to mention the Acoustic Zen Adagio speakers.

And then there is the HRS MXR equipment rack problem, or rather lack of problem: we want a double wide on the Coltrane Supreme speaker system in listening room #2,and another one upstairs so we can play a turntable in listening room #1 (it is the only thing that will work on our very bouncy floor) - but we currently only have one rack….

So little time (and money) and such a long Wish List.

or… “Running Out of Room Here at Audio Federation”.

or… “The Beauty and the Beast”

or… “It really sounds pretty darn good, considering…”

or… “So, we keep stacking speakers choo-choo style like this and we are going to find ourselves to be sitting nearfield”

These pictures were taken right before a demo of the U1 electrostatics moved the Kharma loudspeakers to the side.

The Mini Exquisites sounded really good with the EDGE Signtaure One amplifiers - even though the Sound Lab loudspeakers were right behind them… more or less.

But we have no choice; we’re running out of room here unless we do something radical.

And Neli has her eye on getting in some MORE speakers…..?

I liked it better when she was collecting amplifiers….

Wide angle view of Listening room #2 - with the Sound Lab U1 loudspeakers behind the Kharma Mini Exquisite loudspeakers in a demonstartion of the 27th kind of positioning hell.