cc Mid Atlantic Audio Group
My sympathies for anyone in the area with Flooding from the rain. I left early Sunday morning before the really heavy stuff came down...
I had the opportunity to have a nice listening session at the store. I believe it was Gregg who I talked to on the phone and Mike who I demoed with. Somewhat Highbrow store where he really wants you to layout some serious $ to distinguish yourself from the lesser mid price products.
Slight self admitted high end snob factor, but extrodinarily serious about 2 Channel Audio and the quest to hear things at there best. Very nice gentleman, it was just he and I. We had a lot of fun together.
With that said I did hear some very nice pieces. The Joilda ??? Model # new Integrated Amp saw some serious duty. I wanted to hear the MBL mono blocks but this was the workhorse. I like seperates but I must say that something I could not figure out what produce a nice balanced sound with good dynamics,headroom,strong grip on the bass and a typical glorious midrange. I have not heard many Jolida products but I pleasantly surprised.
We listened to the Eggleston 10K floor standers: Very articulate and almost monitor type sound and accuracy, albeit light bass. Good soundstage,clear and clean treble. Extremely fast in transients.
Dali Helicon 4K floor standers: Beautiful finish, but it appeared to be easliy chipped on the sides or corners if miss handled. Nice full bodied almost woodsie sound. Very full sound with a slight Midbass bloat, I thought better dynamics and soundstage. Nice upper end but not alot of air around the highs.Smooth easy to listen to for hours speaker. Not as fast in transients. Different emphasis of dynamics and decay vs leading edge attack.
I wanted to listen to my speakers the Gallo Ref 3's of which they carry but did not have in stock. Mike was not impressed with them? So he has moved on to other brands. I really wanted to hear the Heil's but we were running out of time. They look cool though.
We listened to the Jolida tube CD Player 1k: Glorious midrange, but wooly in the lower regions. Nice high end.
Then we switched to the player I came to hear. The new Audio Aero Prima CD Player. It really took the clarity and detail to another level. Very clean sound. Hard to place the nuance or signature of the player. Mike said that he would put it in any system. He is impressed by there engineering and components.
I really wanted to compare the Big boy "Blue Note" Stibbert. Mike said that it was not his cup of tea and that was that he never turned it on
For the finale we listened to the MBL speakers. The model# again escapes me because of there nomenclature but they were priced at 36K. The top portion uses the same as the model I came in to listen to the MBL 121's.
I really like a huge sound stage and the 360 degree sound is impressive. This was driven by an MBL SS amp and Jolida dual PreAmp's with the AA Prima. Individual notes and decay were evident as well as an accurate portrayal in the Midrange. The speakers do need some big power though as they were turned up a little more but simply no audible distortion. I found the MBL's to be exciting but something was missing for me. On some tracks they sounded good others too sterile or too clinical. Maybe another combination of equipment would make them sing?
Nice time had and still contemplating the Audio Aero CD player. Good High end shop with nice people
