by Michael

Musical Chairs or Hot Potato?

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.

in Audio Note / High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Nordost / Showroom 1 / Showroom 2 0 comments
 by Michael

Our Listening Rooms Today

[… previously on Audio Federation…]

[… as we return to our story…]

🙂


The Kharma Mini Exquisite speakers [the Lamm ML2.1 amps are out on audition]. At reasonable volumes, this combo is SO seductive.

Sometime we should all have a sit down and talk about what is a reasonable volume. This is probably the area of most divergence among audiophiles, by which I mean some people like it always around 80 – 85 dB and some like it always around 110 dB, and lots like it in between these SPLs. This is a WIDE range, and a system optimized for one level may not necessarily do so great at the other extreme.


The equipment driving the Lamm ML2.1s [The Walker has been moved so that work can be done on the light switches that melted during the lightning strike]


The room from the Kharma’s eye view. Those are the soundlabs in the back there and the red leather command chair in the front.


The equipment driving the Ultimate Soundlabs. Neli set up three digital on this systems: Audio Note, Emm Labs, and Audio Aero for people who want to do a digital player taste test. It is somewhat compromised, everything running through the Audio Aero Capitole CD Player’s built-in preamp, but it does help people understand the CHARACTER of the different player’s sounds.


And the main system upstairs. Still not positioned 100%, as Neli annoyingly reminds me. We just need to play a few dozen records and start the speaker positioning rumba: play, listen, move, listen, move, play something else, repeat.

The 3rd listening room is still a mess: Adagios, our RMAF Audio Note system and rack, trade-in Nolas, DeHavilans, cables galore,…. it is a very expensive Mess.

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Showroom 1 / Showroom 2 / Showroom 3 / Showroom 4 0 comments
 by Michael

Post Show Setup

[Yes, still working on the show report. Taking a break here tho…whew!]


We setup the show system back in our living room with a few changes:

* Using a 2 meter Valhalla instead of a 1.5 meter Jorma Prime interconnect which we had borrowed for the show (thanks Dan!).
* Putting the bass towers inside of the main towers.

We wanted a wider soundstage than what we were getting here, in our room which is narrower than the room at the show. As long as we keep the bass towers back far enough, and close enough to the main towers, it shouldn’t mess up the imaging… much. And it doesn’t, at least with the 1/2 hour of modest volume testing we have had time to do so far. Did make the soundstage quite a bit wider 🙂

And, no, before anyone asks, the vacuum cleaner is NOT a secret tweak of ours. Really. It’s not.


We also have, finally!, got the MXR rack and Brinkmann Balance turntable upstairs in the main listening room. Looks awesome there. Seems to sound pretty good too, but, like we said above, we have only just started optimizing this setup.


Another photo of the system.

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Showroom 1 0 comments