Showroom 1 Archives - Page 8 of 11

February 2, 2007 by Michael

The Last Few Weeks…

… 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.

December 29, 2006 by Michael

Current Showroom Setup

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.

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

December 20, 2006 by Michael

Acoustic Zen Adagio and Audio Aero

Acoustic Zen Agagio loudspeakers powered by Audio Aero Capitole 50 watt amplifier in main listening room

We wanted to test a theory of ours – that the Acoustic Zen Adagio speaker worked better with amplifiers that were more ’round’ and less detailed sounding.

We also wanted to see if the Adagios could fill a room that is 15 feet by 35 feet by 24 feet tall, which is more or less open on one side, with sound.

Not to mention whether the 50 watt Audio Aero amplifier at 50 push-pull KT88 into EL34-based amp could drive the speakers…

Finally, almost finally, we are looking at building some lower cost systems out of the Audio Note and Adagio / Audio Aero lines and this system, at roughly $24K + cables and rack, is definitely on the inexpensive side here at Audio Federation. Whether we continue in this direction or not depends on the response from our customers – but eventually we would like to have a system, in some as yet imaginary showroom, that is based on, say, Audio Aero Prima CD player and intergrated amplifier and Adagio which comes in at say $10K + cables and rack, tuned by Mike and Neli with special cables and isolation gear. Similary for a comparably-priced Audio Note system.

And, besides all that, we are running out of room and so why not put the Adagios in the least likely place? 🙂

Audio Aero Capitole Reference CD player on Rix Rax equipment rack.

Hey, it sounded pretty darn good!

Technically, and I have not listened all that critically yet but, it did not sound as accomplished as the system with the $70K Audio Note M10 and Emm labs CDSD / DCC2 driving Edge Signature One amplifiers, coming in at $130K, but this less expensive system captured more of the character of what these speakers do well: which is to create a satisfying, room-filling sound in a musical and very competant, balanced fashion. No tipped up mids and bass here, no collapse into mush at the first sign of complexity… not that we are point fingers at the, oh, I don’t know… perhaps the five most popular speaker brand’s speakers that cost less than, say, $40K? Nahhhhhh….

Yeah, there is a hump at the port frequency and a dip above it, like most ported speakers. But it is not overly prominent or distracting.

Listening from my office, which is off of the main listening room, it sounded different, but as enjoyable and nearly as emotional, as the much larger, soon to be shipped, system looming behind there in the photos. Considering the difference in cost and pain-in-the-ass factors, for casual listening one can’t help wondering why someone would want something more than this. But we are a store, so we do not wonder too awfully long. 🙂

Which brings us to in-room, critical listening.

Nordost Tyr speaker cable.

Next step is to put some vibration mitigation underneath the Capitole Amplifier, which is just sitting on its BDR cones on the carpet: most of the notes from, say, 1600Hz on down are muddied on the decay as their deliterious effects feedback upon themselves. I would like to go with a full out HRS Isolation Base and Nimbus Couplers – just to be able to get rid of these effects and be able to start probing for other weaknesses – but they are all on active duty here, so it would pain us to have to steal one from another system….We’ll see.

There is also a question about whether the less expensive Acoustic Zen cables would mate better with these speakers than the Nordost Tyr. If so, that will be a clear win in improving overall price performance.

Anyway…. This system is kind of fun to have up in this listening room, a room which is usually reserved for the big mutha systems we have here. Kind of nice to ‘travel light’ for a change.

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

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