Showroom 4 Archives - Page 5 of 9

November 24, 2006 by Michael

Thanksgiving Day Workout

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’….

November 12, 2006 by Michael

Retubing the Audio Note M8 phono preamplifier

I was going to call this “Tubey Tubey Do” or “Tu be or not Tu be” but then I remembered how irritating all those cutsey chapter titles can be in those “So You’re an Idiot” books – so I refrained. No thanks are necessary.

The Audio Note M8 Phono preamplifier.

The location of the two output tubes in the M8. You can also see them both in the above picture on the left, side, glowing hot orange.

We have heard three different sets of output tubes (a matched pair is required, one for each channel) in the M8 here lately. The current system is the following:

Marten Coltrane loduspekaers, Audio Note Kegon amps, Audio Note M8 preamplifier, Audio Aero Capitole CD player all on Acoustic Dreams rack and stands with Nordost Tyr speaker cable and Valhalla interconnect, lots of Shunyata power cables.

The tubes had a larger than expected impact on the sound of the M8. Much larger than our experience swapping out the various tubes on the Audio Note Kegon amps:

The Audio Note Kegon 300B tube-based high-gain 20 watt SET amplifier

The Phillips EGG 5687 tube

In The First Corner

Phillips ECG – very laid back, a little syrupy, lots of harmonic content, some details are missing from the mix.
For me, personally, the Phillips was a little too laid back and there was too much information missing with respect to details in the music.

In The Second Corner :

A perfectly matched pair of GE “five star” 5687’s. [Thanks so much, Mark!] – cleaner sounding than the Phillips , more transparent, more dynamic. Quite romantic.
The GE tubes were quite nice, well-balanced, rich harmonics and I liked the pre when it was in this configuration.

The two Tungsol 5687’s Glowing in Action.

In The Third Corner:

Tungsols 5687 – Amazingly transparent. Images SNAP into focus. Lots more rhythm. Lots more detailed than the other two sets of tubes. MUCH more engaging.
I told Neli “Now the M8 sounds as good as the M10!” She gave me that old sour “Are you NUTS?” look – and I WAS exaggerating in that way that men do around women they like to annoy – but seriously, it was kick ass transparent, by which we mean not just good imaging but excellent convincability.

BAMM! Musicians were … musicianing… in the room.

There was oodles of suspense and anticipation as the music started building to major and minor climaxes.

There was good continuousness, by which is meant in this instance that the notes all seemed to come from the same stage and same instruments – and were not just appearing out there alone, in space, willynilly, strangers to each other.

Very engaging -by which we mean we were drawn to listen to the system at the expense of things we really ought to be doing instead.

A little less romantic and harmonic color than the other two tubes – so the Tung-sol may not be right for everyone. But WE liked it….

But what would be really optimal would be if we could swap tubes in and out, depending on if we are in a deeply romantic mood, flirtatious mood, or sight-seeing mood. Oh. Wait. We can. 🙂

Except that…

… Unfortunately the M8 has to leave us for awhile … sucks.

A special thanks to Peter and Mark for setting it up so we got to hear what we heard. What can be better fun than this on a snowy Sunday? I mean besides THAT.

in Audio Note / High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Showroom 4 0 comments

November 7, 2006 by Michael

Showroom 4 – the Marten Coltrane loudspeakers…

… in a small room.

The Marten Design Coltrane loudspeakers, Audio Note Kegon amplifiers and Audio Aero Capitole CD player.

This room is 10.5 x 20 x 9 feet tall.

The sound very much reflects the sound of the Capitole, ultimately musical, a little sweet, a touch of raspberry and tobacco – oh, wait, I mean a little round and luscious.

It sounds quite good – though the room can be overloaded at about, I would guess to be 90dB or so, unlike our larger rooms. In other respects the system interacts very little with the room, so little in fact that it was a little surprising.

We know that the Coltranes were designed to be able to work well in small spaces – but were still unprepared for the results. Very much like the Audio Note speakers, which were designed to use the room’s acoustical properties to best advantage.

I mean, most of us play our systems, our speakers, in a room, right? And most if not all speaker manufacturers know this, right? And only some manufacturers expect audiophiles to live in a padded cell… [unlike society at large 🙂 which is probably quite happy yet mystified to see us building our own padded cells. Self-incarcerating lunatics. How conveeeeenient.]

We are currently running with Nordost Tyr speaker cable, which is very good but not quite as good as Valhalla – lacking some finesse and truth in comparison. We hope to optimize this system quite a bit before we are through.

The Acoustic Dreams equipment rack with… yes, the Kharma MP150 amps.

We were only able to try the Kharma amps for a few minutes, while a pair of balanced interconnects flew in and out of here.

You see, the MP150 only come with Single-ended OR Balanced connections. This one has balanced. We do not have any balanced cables here (long story, suffice it to say that very little of the equipment here is balanced).

So, when our 2m Valhalla balanced interconnects arrive (we sell a lot of Nordost here – might as well have a balanced cable around) we will get to hear these little big amps again.

Two questions:

1. Is it improper for us to put these amps on the Marten Coltrane loudspeakers (there is something of a friendly rivelry between Kharma and Marten)

2. How many people besides us and Steve want to see pictures of the Elrod Statement power cords – the LARGE Elrod statement power cords hooked up to these guys? Power cords that are about the same width as the amplifiers?

Thought so.

Kharma MP150 amp with smaller Elrod power cord and Nordost Valkryja speaker cable

This last picture was hastily taken with the smaller, one might even say reasonably sized, Elrod power cable attached to the amplifier.

Finally, this system will have the Audio Note M8 phono on it for a few days this week, and with the Brinkmann Balance turntable running through it. THAT should be interesting. Hopefully we will get time to put the Audio Note cartridge on the Brinkmann, and with the Audio Note S4 stepup transformer, see what THAT sounds like.

This is what they call F-U-N.

in Audio Aero / Audio Note / High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Marten Design / Showroom 4 1 comments

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