OK,
I am sitting here in the DUKE Hospital Chemo Center with my wonderful wife as she is getting miracle drugs applied to her that helps in her battle with cancer.
The good news is the drugs seem to be helping! So while I am sitting her for half a day I thought I would start sharing my impressions to date with my new SongTowers QWT's.
I have only had these bad boys for 2 days and only one short session for an hour or so, but already I have formed some opinions.
Normally one seems to go thru listening to music one knows fairly well, and try to make comparisons of of 'hopefully' how much better the new transducers sound, and explain the positive differences. Like I listen to track 4 of cd "ABC" and I hear more detail, more bass, crisper highs etc...
Over the years there is a lot of baggage built up in our craniums based on audio experiences from past speakers and music.
I spent the last few weeks really listening to my existing speakers to get familiar with the music I would eventually make some critical analysis of in comparing the old vs the new.
(NOTE: This is a really good way to past the time by waiting for your Salk speakers to arrive!
).
Many thanks to the Demo suggestions (another thread we started) I discovered several new great artist/cd's that I have and will use to do my analysis.
Before we get into the part 2 where I will hopefully compare media/cd and artist/track I have these first impressions:
1. A pain to set up with the bases and spikes attached. Imagine that. This is true of any large, heavy object with spikes on a thick carpet. You might want some help in moving them around and be careful when you grab them not to put a finger/hand into or on a speaker itself!!
2. The initial setup position is on either side of a 58" plasma display, with the speaker fronts 10-12 inches in front of the display. Being an old 2ch audio person I have always hated the HT display when listening to 2 CH for obvious reasons..like the impact on the soundstage. So its important in a HT environment to get the fronts of the speakers ahead of the huge displays out there. They were angled in towards the center of the listening position approx 20" from the rear walls and 20" from the side walls. My listening room is the one over the garage, its about 16 feet wide and 20 feet deep. This side walls are 5 feet tall and then angle up at 45 degrees to the ceiling which is 8 ft. So the room is not really small, but not overtly large. The geometry is indeed different and you would think very challenging.
3. The speakers are bi wired and connected to a Onkyo 805 receiver and the source CD player is Toshiba A35 HD player. Everything is played in Onkyo's Pure Audio mode....so there is no soundstge or DSP processing going on. The only possible impacts on the source would be the sound of the electronics ie amp. The connection is HDMI. I will try the audio out as well, and I do have another 'high' end cd deck coming!
4. So like many I placed Jims Demo CD in and started listening. The first impression was 'WOW' these are different in a good way. The first set of adjectives were: Clear, Accurate, Revealing, Smooth, Sweet....I had Jennifer Warens Hunter CD and never really thought that much of it, and when I listened to Somewhere, Somebody I really was floored at how wonderful her voice sounded and when the male vocalist started in it was clear and articulate....I never recall reacting to this cut in this manner. I listened to 3 other tracks and had to stop for the evening.
5. The next day I had the chance to go thru several CD's of mine. But this time things were different. The speakers did not seem to have the bass I expected from several cd's and I noticed that if i changed seats that the Soundstage/imaging was 'different'. So I got out the measure and found that the speakers were not placed as symmetrically as I thought, they were off 2 inches on one side from the side wall and 2 inches from the back wall. so much for eyeball placement. So we repositioned them so they were exactly in the same place and towed them out to Jim's recommended imaginary spot just behind the listening position. In my case I have two leather recliners in the sweet spot. Having two chairs is good and bad, I am always conflicted as to which one to sit it!!!
So with the speakers reset I started over with the same cd's. Well I was really astonished. The bass was back, the soundstage and imaging were back and they were back in a better way. As I went down thru 5 cd's of all types of music I was really floored at what I was now hearing.
I thought the night before was good, but now it was even better.
6. Playing Jennifer Warnes, The Hunter and Cowboy Junkies, Trinity Session (the 1987 recording) I was floored at how well the SongTowers were performing....I was going nuts trying to listen to the speakers, trying to find any faults but being torn to listening to the music itself and all the intricacies of the material. So did the speakers do their job, I would say YES, in short order.
First Impression here was in this speaker positioning, the soundstage was very large, it filled across the entire front of the room, no holes, it was also 'thick', meaning the depth of the soundstage was several feet 'wide'....several times I got up to make sure the 5.1 HT speakers were indeed off. what an illusion, I kept getting up to see if my wife downstairs was calling to me
....I had to double check that we were indeed in 2 ch mode. I liked this a lot.
It felt at times like the speakers were NOT there. This is good. Yes of course this is only with recordings that are well done, mic'd and recorded. But when the combination is right its close to magic.
If you play a CD with only sound coming out of one speaker / channel this illusion is broken, but when / if the other channel kicks in the soundstage is made complete and away you go.
7. Compared to my Dahlquist QX10's the sound is just different. I would say the SongTowers are more tonally accurate and less colored. When listening to the Cowboy Junkies the low end bass sounds are just different, with the QX10;s there was a decided 'boom, boom" the speakers were trying to reveal some really low stuff...(sorry for the poor example) but with the QWT's it was more of I feel the low end stuff here but I hear it less...this is strange to me and I will play with the placement somewhat to see what happens with this low end stuff. Its like the SongTowers maybe rolling off here in frequency response. I would like to hear from others who have listened to CJ on their ST's.
The imaging is wonderful due to the soundstage being as wide as it is..some may say soundstage and imaging are the same but they are different to me.
8. If the recording is well made and mic'd well its easier to hear instruments and their placement. The SongTowers make picking out instruments an easy task when playing such material.
9. All this discussion on soundstage and imaging leads me to the word: Revealing. I am hearing things those missing things again!!
Its been awhile since I had my full range Mirage M1's and the experience here is similar....you have a speaker that allows you to hear all the stuff in the recording in its frequency range, good or bad.
10. I did play James Newton Howard and Friends and I had to crank up the volume to the SPL's I was used to in listening to this CD on my Mirages. So I came away with the impression that these speakers do not play as loud as the old M1's. In my relatively small room this is not an issue, but again thats why there are larger FULL range speakers. This cd is brutally 'brutal' if you play this the dynamics are full off to full on , like DMP's Tunnel and TriCycle...be careful.
Several tracks have sounds that are airy, light and shimmering transparent...this is where I thought the dome tweeters would fall down...they did NOT disappoint, they are soo, soo sweet! Play Track 6 "Borealis"..AMAZING...but if you crank it up watch out for the ending...play this once thru to make sure now where the transitions are.
Ok this is a lot for now and I will repost stuff as I learn and listen.
The one overall riding thing that comes out of this short time with the SongTowers is you will want to take your time and go back and re-listen to your 'entire' collection of audio material.....the ability of these speakers to image and accurately reproduce sound is really very good. Listening to vocals and unamplified instruments is a joy. The worry about not getting the ribbon tweeter is not an issue with me, although I was concerned.
Its time to slow down, spend some time just listening and enjoying the music again!!
All the Best
Alex
PS: Specail thanks to Jim and Dennis and all the gang that signed the Birth Certificate!! You make a wonderful product!!
