TWO.2 listening impressions

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eclein

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Re: TWO.2 listening impressions
« Reply #80 on: 15 Aug 2010, 10:49 pm »
dvenardos- Thanks for the update...decisions, decisions...

bummrush- If at all possible, try a Virtue unit, I'm very happy with my TWO.2, I got lucky and found a great company and a great guy in Seth right from the get go--saved me a ton of wasted time finding the right combination, its all about the music and its very apparent when you do business with them that the music is number #1 :dance:

bummrush

Re: TWO.2 listening impressions
« Reply #81 on: 15 Aug 2010, 11:21 pm »
 I will see what happens,i've been very lucky to get exceptional buys on some stuff,so i will see what happens there and go from there.

dvenardos

Re: TWO.2 listening impressions
« Reply #82 on: 16 Aug 2010, 04:00 pm »
If you already have the auricaps in the Two hang on for when I install the Sonicap Gen 2 bypass caps. I think that will make a nice combination and would be a very cheap upgrade. I will be able to get back with that next week.

dvenardos- Thanks for the update...decisions, decisions...

eclein

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Re: TWO.2 listening impressions
« Reply #83 on: 16 Aug 2010, 04:16 pm »
Cool!!! I got the Auricaps, will wait for your thoughts..it'll be a ways off anyway until I do anything, I like to make lists of possible upgrade/additions/tweaks etc..
TY

klipschophile

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Re: TWO.2 listening impressions
« Reply #84 on: 18 Oct 2010, 01:06 am »
This is my listening impression I mailed to Seth and he wanted me to post it here.


Hi Seth,

I have had the Virtue (the one with virtue caps and single input) for
the last 20 odd days. It has been broken in for about 60 hours.

For comparison I have had
Conrad Johnson MV 60 SE--  Virtue sounds much cleaner, nuances are
much better presented. The cj is much more tubey sounding but
definitely coloured. Much more so than I liked over long listening
sessions. The difference is more apparent in movie watching.

McIntosh MC275 -- they had a more heavy handed approach to music. The
nuances are even more subdued. The major sounds like treble, midrange
and bass are robustly presented but the intermixing small details are
subdued.

First Watt F5-  Here the presentations were different but not better.
The bass was more pronounced in F5 but details are as prevalent as
Virtue audio. In movie watching this means more slam in explosions,
more rumble, more visceral impact.

I have returned Mcintosh and cj and am left with Virtue and F5. The
battery power supply is great and brings it on par with anything else
I have heard.
Is there any way I can bring the bass more slam.
My speakers are klipschorns. I really want to keep the virtue as they
have tremendous WAF (never underestimate it). It allows me to keep my
living room looking tidy.

 Can you think of a way in which this can be achieved?
Can you break in the equipment before shipping it out?
Will the sound change much more (it has not changed much in the last
20 hours or so)?

Thanks for your help.


He replied back on Sunday within few hours. Great guy, great company policy.
They have a great product on their hands. I have also heard  Marantz reference amplifier with their own pre amplifier with these klipschorns and they were good in their own way but more traditional sounding ( great sounding bass, mids but airiness was missing, more like Mcintosh MC 275).
I have not heard red wine audio or the other british integrated amps. 
Still looking for the bass slam in these amps though.

eclein

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Re: TWO.2 listening impressions
« Reply #85 on: 18 Oct 2010, 01:30 am »
Are you using a sub?

klipschophile

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Re: TWO.2 listening impressions
« Reply #86 on: 18 Oct 2010, 02:27 am »
No sub. Just full range speaker.

eclein

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Re: TWO.2 listening impressions
« Reply #87 on: 18 Oct 2010, 02:37 am »
I use a sub and get that slam if I want it with movies, cut it back a bit for music if need be.... Subs are a good thing in my opinion. If you have a preamp bypass the volume pot on the 2, that'll get ya some slam

Nuuk

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Re: TWO.2 listening impressions
« Reply #88 on: 18 Oct 2010, 07:52 am »
You won't get your 'slam' with batteries. Try a good mains supply.  :wink:

JLM

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Re: TWO.2 listening impressions
« Reply #89 on: 18 Oct 2010, 12:55 pm »
While the K-horns are big, they are horns and as such have to be huge in order to do deep bass.  The K-horns are only rated down to 40 Hz.  Additionally note that they fell out of favor with the early/harsh solid state amps and with stereo as so few rooms have two adjoining corners with the recommended 9 feet of solid wall from the corners where they must be installed.  Like so many speakers from the mid 20th century they were bass weak as the available tube amps were tiny and had loose/exagerated bass.  So big speakers without deep bass were perfect matches.

It speaks well for the Virtue amps that they are smooth enough to mate well with the K-horns.

klipschophile

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Re: TWO.2 listening impressions
« Reply #90 on: 18 Oct 2010, 03:02 pm »
This makes perfect sense then. The bass was plentiful with cj so i holds to reason that it needs a tube amp with flabby bass. The virtue is good bass only not as much as others.

I would hate to put a subwoofer in a room with 2 gigantic speakers.

Without the batteries they sounded pretty harsh. In fact until I had the batteries on (break in was contributing to it too) the system sounded very harsh, top end was brittle, mids were recessed and there was not much bass to speak of. Almost with in few hours of putting on the battery supply the sound became much more relaxed. I was never sure that a battery power supply makes so much of difference but by jove does it. Probably because the Khorns are 105 db/watt sensitive.
I also have the Miniwatt (the four tube version) and the original T amp- sonic impact. Not a close competition. Again, until I but the batteries on the Miniwatt was clearly more refined but just too quick. I have not tried using the battery power on the sonic impact T amp.

Thanks for all your input. I guess I wanted to post my impressions as I did not see a comparison to cj or Mc275 and like on this thread.