The building of this OB5 reminded me of building a musical instrument, you spend hours, days, months and even years building something beautiful, and then the day finally comes to hear how it sounds. In anticipation of something wonderful you lovingly string it up, slowly tune each string and then play a few cords, twang, twang, twrong? What the %!#*! that sounds terrible!
Well, the same thing has happened to my OB5s. After they were pushed into place and Kimber Kable connected I powered back up the system, slid a
Norah Jones cd in the Oppo, carefully adjusted the volume knobs, rolled back in my chair and closed my eyes to listen. "Hum, okay, maybe they just need to break-in, lets try another cd". So cd after cd after cd, I kept wanting to say these sound nice but what came out was, they just need more hours to break-in. As much as I wanted to say these sound nice, I just couldn't. After a few days of breaking in I invited a friend over to listen to them and asked him to bring some cds. He had previously listened to some of his jazz cds on the Magnaplanars and knew how wonderful my system could play jazz. We sat through several cd selections and just could not understand what we were hearing. What has gone wrong, what happened to the cymbals, is this the same Neo3 that people have had such wonderful things to say about? And the mid-range, what's up with that? So after hours of listening and talking. . . and more listening and talking, we both agreed there was something definitely wrong.
This is the break down of what we heard.
Low-End : A bit fat and mushy.
Mid-Range : Loud and forward, very unruly.
High-End : Reedy and hollow, very subdued, very little imaging and not much air.
So the first thing I thought was, did I wire something wrong? I very much doubted this since I was so careful and meticulous with this part, but perhaps I did do something wrong. My friend, who was formerly an electrical engineer, and I went through one of the crossovers and everything looked fine. I pulled out the crossovers and drivers twice and went through the entire circuit, and it was all proper. I should say that through all this I had been in contact with Danny and we were both puzzled as to why it wasn't sounding good.
There was one thing with the circuit that I did different from the schematic, and that was how I ran the return ground. The schematic has the grounds from the drivers returning to their respective filter components. Since the drivers were so far away from the crossover, I wanted to cut down on the amount of wire the signal would have to travel, so I just daisy-chained the grounds from the drivers to crossover. My friend, the former electrical engineer, looked over the path and agreed that it was fine. I even drew up the schematic for this and sent it to Danny, who also agreed that it was fine.
I knew that everything was wired up correctly, so the only thing I could point to was the way I ran the ground. So this is what I became suspicious of. So according to popular electrical theory, the positive path is the important path, and the negative path is simply the return to ground. It has been a long long time since I was in electrical school, so if I have something wrong here, please, someone straighten me out. I do remember one teacher who said that there are some theories that say the negative path is the main path to follow and just as important. I kept thinking about what this teacher had said and the way I ran the ground. Since everything else was wired up correctly the daisy-chain grounds were the only things left to look at. Technically, when you look at the schematic for the way I ran the circuit everything is fine, but then, technically speaker wire should all be the same, power cables should all be the same, et cetera, et cetera.
Needless to say, I became very deflated for a few days over all this, but there was one last thing to do. So again I pulled the crossovers and speakers and undid the daisy-chain path and ran the grounds to their respective filters, closed everything up, hooked up the Kimber Kable, loaded a cd in the Oppo and sat in my captain's chair. "Oh, that's nice", I couldn't believe what a difference I heard just from changing the ground run. Fundamentally it shouldn't have made any difference, but there it was. I went through cd after cd just trying to find something to fault and I couldn't. And the sound just got better as the hours went by. There came a point when I forgot that I was critiquing these speakers and just got into moving with the music. That's a good sign, I like a speaker that you can forget to analyze and just get into the music. A speaker needs to be musical above all else.
So I have a theory now, maybe the way a ground is run has more to do with the sound than was previously thought. I think audio electrical designers should start to play around with this. I clearly heard a difference. In the past, who would have thought that different speaker wire made a difference, or that 3 feet of power cable could have such an effect, or even how one ran their grounds would make a difference.
So, what was it I was hearing and how do they compare to the Magnaplanar MGIIIa. These are very different speaker designs. Well, I can tell you that what I was hearing was wonderful, truly, very enjoyable. I will not be moving the Maggies back into place. These OB5s are going to stay in the main listening spot, not only are they delicious to look at but just as delicious to experience. My listening area is certainly not ideal, the back wall of my left speaker has an air-pocket blind covering a double pane window and the right has solid wall for a few feet that then drops back about 4 feet. I've temporarily covered the solid wall portion with some 1/2 inch solid foam insulation to dampen it. Also the left speaker has a side wall about 4.5 feet away, while the right speaker has none. This is not an ideal situation but the OBs have done very well regardless. Just like the Maggies, the OBs have easily been able to throw out a phantom speaker 4 to 5 feet to the left and right, with lots of spaciousness and air.
The first cd I used was
Norah Jones-Come Away With Me, this is a delicate sound with clear differentiation between the players. I could hear Norah's voice placement just slightly higher than the instruments, just like the Maggies did and there was solid placement of her voice in the center and a wide and deep soundstage. I liked the piano much better on the OBs than the Maggies.
Next cd is
Robbie Robertson's-Storyville, many of the tracks on this cd start off with dynamic drums and drum/bass lead-ins with lots of various rattles and percussions in the back field. The kick drum is tight and low in the soundstage where it should be. The crack of the drumstick on the edge of the snare is just that. CRACK! And the slap of the brushes is just that as well. Whack! Ssshhhhh.
The Blue Nile-A Walk Across The Rooftops: This cd is one of my all-time favorites and dates back to 1983. When Linn, the Audio Manufacture wanted to get into the recording/record making business, this is the band they wanted for their first recording. The LP is just as wonderful. This recording just oozes volumes and volumes of spaciousness. The sound is, as if you are in a huge cavern, with all sorts of occasional rattles, bells, dongs, clanks and things floating in space. This is where I would have to say the Maggies throw a better illusion at this. The OBs do a good job, but then I think only another Panel or Electrostatic could really compete with such a huge illusion.
Another cd I use for illusion is
Prefab Spout's-Jordan The Comeback. This was produced by Thomas Dolby. And again has all sorts of sounds coming from various areas of an expansive soundstage.
Jackson Browne-Late For The Sky: The quintessential angst album for a kid growing up in Los Angeles in the 50s and 60s. I would have to give this one to the Maggies, but only by a slim hair, there are a lot of group harmonies in these songs and the Maggies do a wonderful job of filling the room with them. Their voices come from about 5 to 6 feet up in the air, while the OBs are producing them at tweeter height. I am thinking that if I tilt the OBs back a little more, it might raise the voices. I already have them just slightly tilting back.
Some other cds I'm currently listening to on the OBs:
Abdelli-Among Brothers: Although many might think this is Arabic, in fact it is not, it is Algerian. This is a wonderful album that is very well recorded and one that would make a good introduction if someone wanted to explore that sound. It's filled with mandolas, guitars, darbukka, bells, percussions et cetera. The wood flute is downright ghostly. If, while listening to this, you don't find yourself dancing or even just clapping your hands, than you must be in a coma. Go have some good hummus. Here, the OB5s win out with their superb mid-range and low-end.
