Finally with a few free moments...
Here is some of my feedback from the get together.
First off, the people were great and socializing was great. I don't get out much you know.
Comparing gear is a blast for me even in the limited time we had.
I'll cover electronics first.
First off Gary Dodd brought in a pair of those bad ass 120 watt, tube mono-blocks that I have now heard many times. I love those amps. Hooked up and playing things still didn't sound right.
Switching to the tube output on the Cary CD player instead of the solid state output helped a bunch, but everything still seamed congested in the middle of the speakers with no real layering.
The problem seamed to be the Cary pre-amp. So we then dropped in one of Dodd Audio tube pre-amps and the system then came alive. This was a big difference for the better. I think Aurthur didn't let Gary Dodd out of there before ordering one of those pre-amps. His wife will get over it.
Dropping in different gear was pretty cool and very revealing.
The big Cary, 500 watt, solid state amps didn't sound bad at all.
The Halcro all digital, five channel amp, sounded really nice as well. In fact I really liked it. It was a smooth sound with great balance. It was very non-fatiguing too. It didn't have the lushness of the tubes but it was nice. No harshness at all
I really think this is the future for all entree level and mid-fi level amps. They are simple and inexpensive to build, are very efficient, cool running, and sound good too.
The Halcro unit was a little pricey though. There is going to be some stiff competition out there for them soon. I'd be looking at ways to get the cost down on the consumer end pretty quick.
I heard the Blue Circle integrated briefly on several speakers and it sounded pretty nice from what I heard. I would have liked more time with it.
My real fun though is comparing speakers. As a loudspeaker designer I actually spend a lot of time comparing speakers and doing lots of listening.
We had some interesting speakers to compare and there was a few good notes (not music notes) that I left out of there with too. As a designer myself, I am very critical so bare with me as I give you my feedback from my perspective and what stood out to me.
Near the end of the day we drug in the little speakers one pair at a time and had a brief comparison using only a couple of tracks. We didn't spend the time needed to let each pair really grow on us nor did we have the time to. But it was pretty easy to spot lots of subtle differences and not so subtle differences within just a few tracks. Some were noted in a few seconds.
First up was the Focus Audio speakers. I had heard earlier versions of this speaker and a few buddies of mine cloned a pair of them and brought them over for me to measure and test. I remember making a few tweaks to get the drivers more in phase and balance them out for them. Later the same speaker was built using the Usher 9950 tweeter instead and it was the second pair of speakers up.
The Focus audio speakers seamed a little hot in the top end and they had a little bite to them. They boarded on fatiguing to me as well. I also noticed this in the other room that they were in. Imaging was great. Vocals were not bad. Beautiful finish!
By comparison the next speakers up, called the DMG, and using the Usher tweeter and Eton 5" woofer sounded much smoother and better balanced. Nice detail level. Great imaging as well. These speakers belonged to Mark Nash.
Both of these speakers were in very small boxes that will yield a -3db at a little lower than 70Hz.
Next up was a pair of Criterion's that Gary Dodd brought with him. This was an older design that we used to offer. It was inspired by the previous speakers. It used the same 5" Eton woofer but an Aurum Cantus G-2 ribbon tweeter. It was also in a slightly larger and lower tuned box that would hit a -3db down point at 55hz. As noticed my myself and others it had a fuller sound to it. The added bottom end filled it out and gave it a bigger sound. The ribbon added a slight amount of detail not present in the domes as well. Cleaner, and clearer upper end... Tough to beat those ribbons.
Next up was the Salk HT1. It used the same G-2 ribbon tweeter but used the Seas Excel, 7" Woofer. It sounded not unsurprisingly a lot like the Criterion, but it was noted that the larger Seas woofer (in a larger box and likely tuned lower) had a fuller sound to it. Lower vocals had a little bit more warmth to them or presence. Nice sounding speaker! Dennis did a nice job with the crossover design.
Next we set up the RA8 since it too used a similar ribbon tweeter built also by Aurum Cantus, but is a custom version built just of Raw Acoustics. This was a much larger speaker but is about the same price as the Salk HT1. What was really interesting was the added clarity in the top end. It had a sense of air and detail about it that exceeded the Salk HT1 and the Criterion. Capacitor quality would be a consideration as there are Sonicaps in the RA8, but there were also Sonicaps used in the Criterion. What I really feel was making the difference here was the fact that all the small speakers fell into the 85 to 86db range and the ribbon on the Salk HT1 and the Criterion were padded down about 10 to 12db to match the woofer level. The RA8 has 95db sensitivity and the ribbon only had a really small value, in line resistor used on it.
Could it really make that much difference? I suspected that it might could but was really surprised at just how much difference it made. It was not hard to tell at all.
As for the rest of the speaker, the RA8 was more of a full range speaker as well, compared to the stand mounted speakers. It had a top to bottom fullness to it that surpassed the others while still imaging like a mini-monitor. Even the vocal range was cleaner and exceeded the others. I am excited about this one. It has a huge performance level for this price range.
Someone also brought in a solid state pre-amp that we dropped in at the tail end of this session. It was built into a Legacy Audio chassis. I forget the name of the guy that brought it and the name of the gentleman that built it, but it was really nice sounding. This is the best sounding solid state pre-amp that I have heard in a long time. It was a close comparison in some ways to the Dodd pre-amp that we were using and I rarely hear anything that can hold its own against that pre-amp. The Dodd still had a more airy and more detailed top end to it but in many other areas it was really close. I wonder if it was using any DC coupling caps in the output and if so what they were?
Aurthur's Dunlavy's sounded good too. I always liked those speakers and John Dunlavy too. He was a really nice guy to visit with, and a brilliant man.
Thanks again to Aurthur and to his wife for letting us all come over.
