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In Reply to: Recent adventure into HT posted by Andy Hung on January 03, 2000 at 11:23:01:
I bought a pair (need 2 to actively solve room acoustics) of refurbished FSR18 for $1250/ea. When I listen to some music at conversational volumes & a note slowly goes down the scale into the subsonic, a grin is glued to my face as my gut is shaken. I just can't seem to help it (not that I've tried).I bought the Krell KAV-500 to in a sense servo my mains via their patented current-mode feeedback circuitry. At least to voice match the Velodynes.
As far as wire is concerned, I haven't tried Harmonic Technology but keep hearing it's name. Care to tell me more? Like what it did on different systems. FWIW, I liked what the Goertz:Sapphire as a digital conduit & am considering the MI-2 speaker cables but haven't heard them yet. It's either Cardas:Oval, AudioMagic:Sorcerer or them.
I must've listened to a pair of broken SonusFabers:Concertos because the ones I heard had the image was painted on the grill cloth & sounded just as thin. Gorgeously flat frequency response, though. Unfortunately, so was the dynamic response flat & not in a good way, either. I thought it may've been the set up & switched amps from a McIntosh to a Bryston. Unfortunately, the store only had XLO cables. So, I couldn't swap them. It occured to me that they may be broken (since I just left a broken KEF RDM2 tweeter). So, I put in my music Test CDR & the pair matched. They must've both broken.
In the same store, I did like the ViennaAcoustic:Beethovens matched with a REL:Storm II. That was cool! Great match! Albeit, small sweet spot.
BTW, I was equally surprised at your appaisal of the DM302s. They are abismally shy of even midbass but I found them clean unlike most Paradigm speakers (studio & actives are better) I've heard. I wonder if the ones you listened to were broken in, because they are my budget recommendations (4 DM302s & 1 CC3 & 2 Velodyne CT-80).
I'm envious of your twin subwoofer combination of FSR18's. Judging from the tremendous output from my F1800XR, which has a smaller amp, your setup must be a real treat on Starship Troopers, Fifth Element, and the Professional. I had considered buying another subwoofer to balance left and right, but alas my room size simply does not allow it. To compensate for the lack of subwoofer fun, I now have a Paradigm X-30 active crossover with variable phase (!) on order for $120 that I want to play around with.About wires, I'm not much of a wire zealot. In my youth, I knew wires were different, now that I am older and stupider, I actually bought those expensive wires, and when I'm truly cash-flush and senile, you'll see me sporting some biwire Goertz AG-3. To give you a frame of reference, about 8 years ago, I purchased some Tara Labs Analog Standard and some Kimber brand that they probably don't make anymore, along with some Monster Interlink. I found that the Tara Labs was the darkest and quietest of the cables, the Kimber seemed neutral, and the Monster Interlink was dark, thin and awkward. Cables out of the box were sometimes better than those Interlinks (though with worse shielding). That was my wire experience until 6 months ago.
When I was shopping around, I heard all the great things about the Harmonic Tech cables, so I decide to check out the Precision Links, which are the polyethylene version of the Truth Links. I found that the sound was smooth and the overall balance was neutral - not rich, not thin, and certainly not dynamic range "whitened". Another cable, the Monster 550I, also had great reviews. The 550I has strands individually insulated with MicroFiber dielectric. The 550I was rich in harmonics. Neutral, no, precise, no, but pleasurable, yes. If I had to reoutfit my entire system with Monster 550I, I wouldn't mind, but I think I would care if I bought tube amps. For me, I would like a cable with the Monster 550I richness and the Harmonic Tech pureness.
Speaker cables caused a larger difference in sound for me. The Monster speaker cables that I had tried were the low end non-MicroFiber cables. They had big bloated bass and smeared highs, causing integration problems with the Concertos and the F1800XR. The well regarded Tara Klara sounds thinner and more clear than the Monsters. The Goertz MI2 was remarkably different - very clear, very transparent. The bass bloat was gone, along with the subwoofer integration problems. I now have the MI2 biwiring my front & center.
I don't understand why the Concertos performed so poorly in your audition, perhaps it was the source or broken speakers. I've always found the Concertos cast significant air and space with good amplification (they can sound flat on a receiver). On rock and HT, the Concertos can sound muted, perhaps that's the flat effect that you heard.
I am familiar with the B&W 302s, having heard them for 2 weeks on my old audio system including a Magnavox CDB650/PS-Audio 4.6/Proton D1200 amp. They sounded reasonable at the store, but when I brought them back home in a near field setup, I started noticing a vague coarseness to the timbre, much like my Accord stock stereo, something not present in my JBL L20Ts. I called up the B&W dealer and he told me to break it in for 2 weeks. I did. But even after that time, the timbre was nowhere near as smooth and as pleasant as the L20Ts. The highs didn't have the purity of the L20T titanium tweeters. I suspect the paper cones were not well made (and lest you think I'm a polypro bigot, the Concertos have a paper cone based driver made by Vifa). Maybe I had a bad batch of 302s. Disillusioned, I returned them and raised my $2K HT budget to $10K. Later that year, I bought a demo Classe SSP25 from the same dealer.
Anyhow, these are some neophyte opinions... I really haven't been looking at audio equipment that long. Happy listening for the new year!
Yours,--andy
Audio Magic: has a sound which is fast (a tad faster than Kimber but slower than Goertz) but very tame. All the details are there (more extended HFs & LFs beyond Kimber), but like virtually no more?! [I'm bad at these discriptions. Please, bare with me.] The sound is almost tube like in its lack of grain. You can get this on the Excaliber IIs for cheap. Spell Caster II's drop the noise floor to reveal more details. Sorcerer focuses the detailed image with extraordinary holographic depth.I tried a Monster Cable M950. I found the cable was very neutral, but sounded like it processed the sound. It rendered a "this is recorded" type feel to it. The details lost all of their spontaneous impact.
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