Showroom 2 Archives - Page 8 of 9

November 5, 2006 by Michael

Breaking in the Coltrane Supreme loudspeakers

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…

October 31, 2006 by Michael

All four systems are up and running….

… 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.

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

October 25, 2006 by Michael

We are a mess

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.

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / RMAF 2006 / Show Reports / Showroom 1 / Showroom 2 / Showroom 3 / Showroom 4 3 comments

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