Alex Yoon / Wave Touch Audio

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virtue

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Re: Alex Yoon / Wave Touch Audio
« Reply #20 on: 26 Jun 2014, 01:53 am »
Send me a PM to sign up.  I'll ask you to pay-pal shipping fees before it's your turn.  Currently we have 2 more in queue before you.

virtue

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Re: Alex Yoon / Wave Touch Audio
« Reply #21 on: 26 Jun 2014, 01:54 am »
Here's some candid feedback from one of the initial tour members:

I like them alright. My only issue is with the treble, too much for me. Not shrill but too much. I feel like the woofer can't keep up.  But, I'll chalk that up to personnel preference and builder voicing choices.

Good feedback!

Wavetouch

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Re: Alex Yoon / Wave Touch Audio
« Reply #22 on: 28 Jun 2014, 05:21 am »
Everyone has a different taste in an audio sound. I guess that there is no perfect sounding speaker for everyone. I remember when I bought Avalon Eclipse about 10 years ago, I was deeply disappointed when the sound was soft and too warm. I tried to break it in for days and weeks just hoping for improvement. Removing the grille didn't help. I knew already then it wouldn't going to be better. Simply, there is no potential. We can tame what is too much. We can't make what is not even exist.

Some people have an extra sensitive ears with high frequency. To make perfect balance between high and low frequencies, the SPL of individual drivers on Grand Teton can be easily increase or decrease. To reduce SPL of tweeter, attach a larger supplied foam ball on the tip of center plug. This will not degrade the quality of the sound.



Most Grand Teton buyers are happy with the foam ball comes with GTs.
Thank you!
Alex/ http://www.wavetouchaudio.com/
 
« Last Edit: 1 Jul 2014, 12:12 am by Wavetouch »

virtue

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Re: Alex Yoon / Wave Touch Audio
« Reply #23 on: 22 Jul 2014, 04:03 am »
Had the great Donny D. over for Sunday brunch with his amazing kids.  That guy can eat a pancake! 

Of course, there was a 1 hour listening test during which time we learned that I'd blown out 2 pairs of speakers.

Donny could give more color.  Here's my 2 cents:

Audience ONE - Best vocals most neutral
KEF Q300 - Crowd-pleaser, very balanced
Wave Touch Audio - Me and Donny liked these, with guilty pleasure.  Led Zeppelin crushed.
Virtue MMtMM - Don's daughter's favorite

Seth

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Re: Alex Yoon / Wave Touch Audio
« Reply #24 on: 25 Jul 2014, 10:32 pm »
Blew out my Tannoy 601P speakers.  That should not have been possible... none-the-less.

Really having a great team with Golden Ear Aon2 speakers.  They are detailed and extremely neutral.  Probably the most revealing of the "laid-back" bookshelf speaker's I've tried. 

But with batman back on my desk, I'm drawn to them. Tweeters on these things are just amazing.  Hot, yes.  Exciting, yes. 

oskar

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Re: Alex Yoon / Wave Touch Audio
« Reply #25 on: 27 Jul 2014, 02:13 pm »
"Blew out my Tannoy 601P speakers.  That should not have been possible... none-the-less."

Well sir it's a good thing you have so many speakers .
Somehow I've yet to blow up anything and I've 'crushed' a few tunes.
What was the sens of those ex Tannoy's?

jonbee

Re: Alex Yoon / Wave Touch Audio
« Reply #26 on: 6 Aug 2014, 02:08 am »
Got the tour pair of Grand Teton GT gen 2 today. Right off the bat in my 10x12 office system, it is clear that these are very good small speakers. Tight, clear bass to below 50 hz., open, clear un-boxy mids, very detailed and clean highs. Really excellent imaging and overall excellent balance. Very fast and dynamic- they remind me of a good horn system, which they obviously resemble.
Highs are very extended and a touch strong in the near field. I suspect a bright system may find them too hot on top, but  Alex supplies the means to reduce the top end, which I will experiment with. I'll try them in my larger systems/rooms in the next few days.
There is a lot of different thinking that has gone into these speakers which has brought out a lot of sniping from those who have not actually heard them. I applaud Alex for trying some new things here. I'll give a more detailed appraisal in a few days.
« Last Edit: 7 Aug 2014, 02:04 pm by jonbee »

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Re: Alex Yoon / Wave Touch Audio
« Reply #27 on: 7 Aug 2014, 04:27 am »
Great little update, Jon.

There are a lot of dynamics going on with this speaker.  Reminds me of Zu a bit.

I remember leaving a Zu listening session at Rocky Mountain a few years ago.  I was totally fired up.

My friend, who's opinion I value, said something like ... "they suck."

Anyway, I stand by Zu as I do Wave Touch.  Love 'em!

jonbee

Re: Alex Yoon / Wave Touch Audio
« Reply #28 on: 9 Aug 2014, 06:14 pm »
OK. Here's my take on the Wavetouch Audio Grand Teton GT gen 2 speakers.

Info here:
http://www.wavetouchaudio.com/G2.html
This is a complicated speaker to cover simply. Just looking at these speakers gives you the idea that there are some very different elements at work here, but my first take on them suggested that these warranted a serious analysis.
As context, in the past decade I've owned nearly 3 dozen "quality" (meaning- list price from $1500 to $5000) standmount speakers (of my 250+ total), and I've heard many more. I've owned many more cheaper models as well. Among this quality group are PSB Platinum M2, Volent paragon VL-2, VMPS 626R, Totem Model 1 signature, Thiel PCS, Talon Khite, Spendor LS3/5a, Silverline SR11, Sequerra met 7.7 mk V, Selah Tempesta, Selah SSR, Selah RAAL/revelator monitor, Revel M20, Paradigm Active 20, Paradigm ref 40, Onix Ref 1 MK 2 ninja, Nohr 9.0 Mini w/ dennis murphy xover, Morel Renaissance, Monitor audio GR10, merlin tsm-m and MME,  Joseph audio RM7si mkii, GMA Rio, Event opal studio monitor, Escalante juniper, Buggtussel Cingulate, Aerial Acoustics 5, ACI sapphire III, AAD silver 1, and AAD 2001.
FWIW, my fave 5 are, in order: Selah Tempesta (by a comfortable margin), Volent VL-2, Selah RAAL monitors, Event Opal, Merlin TSM-MME.
I have 3 systems- office, bedroom, and living room, and I usually try all my speakers in all 3 systems with the "losers" in these comparisons going on to new homes.
To begin with, the 13" tall cabinets of the GTs are very well constructed; stacked plywood makes for a very stiff structure; the resonance when struck is at quite a high frequency and obviously well damped.  I think this contributes to the very open, clear lower mids and bass which they display. They remind me of the bamboo cabinets of the Ascend Sierra 1 (which I owned) in this respect.
The 5.5" woofer is of high quality construction, and the "AMT" planar tweeter is very similar to those showing up lately in a lot of speakers such as Martin-Logan, Adam, Emotiva and Evolution Acoustics. So- there is no doubt there are quality elements in these speakers.
To begin, I removed the "horns" from the woofer, to see what the basic speaker sounded like. It was very detailed in the highs, with decent midrange clarity, but a very thin and bright overall sound. An interesting sound, but not very listenable by my standards.
Attaching the woofer horn and center "guide" really changed the sound. The region from the lower mids through the bass got much stronger, now with very nice body and punch. Dynamics and midrange focus improved greatly. In my 10x12' office they sounded very nice. In comparison with my Selah RAAL monitors, which are currently my all time favorite speaker for that room, the highs were as detailed and clear as the RAAL, but stronger and not quite as smooth. The mids and bass were also quite good, with great instrumental separation, dynamics, width, and depth. Once again, the Selah was a bit better balanced throughout.
Next I moved them to my big system- the room is ~17x20, amp is a tweaked N-Core NC400, PRE/DAC is NAD M51. Everything in this system is carefully balanced around my Daedalus DA-RMA v2 speakers.
In direct comparison to the 5x the size and price Daedalus, the bass and midbass is much reduced, so a lot of the warmth is lost. However, the detail presentation, imaging and soundstaging is reasonably close, not as natural and well integrated, but impressive nonetheless. The high end is still 1-2 db. too strong for my taste, and there is a trace of "cupped hands" coloration in the mids, but only a trace.
So- sonically, we have a very fast, clean and open speaker, with good overall balance and great imaging, few annoying colorations, and good, solid bass in small to medium rooms. I do think the highs could be pulled back a bit more to improve the balance further, but the highs are detailed and clean otherwise.
UPDATE: Alex has informed me that he will pad the tweeter down a bit.
Alex supplies a variety of tweakes to adjust the sound of the speakers; I won't go into them but they can be good use to fit the sound to the needs of the user.
So- sonically, I do think these are competitive with most of the best speakers in my above list, and pretty close to cracking my top 5. That's pretty good for a new effort at this price.
Now- to the non-sonic aspects. I'm a bit troubled by the physical delicacy of the horns and guides assemblies that adds so much to the sound of this speaker. Paying $2k for a speaker is still a lot of $, and I like to think durability should be part of the package. I'd like to see Alex re-think the structural elements of the front assemblies with that in mind.
Again, I'd like to applaud Alex's creative thinking on display here. These are very good speakers for the $, and well worth a listen. I've enjoyed my time with them.

 
« Last Edit: 9 Aug 2014, 09:00 pm by jonbee »

Wavetouch

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Re: Alex Yoon / Wave Touch Audio
« Reply #29 on: 9 Aug 2014, 09:31 pm »
Dear Jonbee,
Thank you very much for your honest and detailed review!

I take your advice. GTs' high frequency output will be lowered. It is a simple replacement of a part.
I appreciate for the feedback!

Alex/ Wavetouch Audio
« Last Edit: 10 Aug 2014, 04:01 am by Wavetouch »

RodMCV

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Re: Alex Yoon / Wave Touch Audio
« Reply #30 on: 15 Aug 2014, 03:35 am »
OK. Here's my take on the Wavetouch Audio Grand Teton GT gen 2 speakers.

Info here:
http://www.wavetouchaudio.com/G2.html
This is a complicated speaker to cover simply. Just looking at these speakers gives you the idea that there are some very different elements at work here, but my first take on them suggested that these warranted a serious analysis.
As context, in the past decade I've owned nearly 3 dozen "quality" (meaning- list price from $1500 to $5000) standmount speakers (of my 250+ total), and I've heard many more. I've owned many more cheaper models as well. Among this quality group are PSB Platinum M2, Volent paragon VL-2, VMPS 626R, Totem Model 1 signature, Thiel PCS, Talon Khite, Spendor LS3/5a, Silverline SR11, Sequerra met 7.7 mk V, Selah Tempesta, Selah SSR, Selah RAAL/revelator monitor, Revel M20, Paradigm Active 20, Paradigm ref 40, Onix Ref 1 MK 2 ninja, Nohr 9.0 Mini w/ dennis murphy xover, Morel Renaissance, Monitor audio GR10, merlin tsm-m and MME,  Joseph audio RM7si mkii, GMA Rio, Event opal studio monitor, Escalante juniper, Buggtussel Cingulate, Aerial Acoustics 5, ACI sapphire III, AAD silver 1, and AAD 2001.
FWIW, my fave 5 are, in order: Selah Tempesta (by a comfortable margin), Volent VL-2, Selah RAAL monitors, Event Opal, Merlin TSM-MME.
I have 3 systems- office, bedroom, and living room, and I usually try all my speakers in all 3 systems with the "losers" in these comparisons going on to new homes.
To begin with, the 13" tall cabinets of the GTs are very well constructed; stacked plywood makes for a very stiff structure; the resonance when struck is at quite a high frequency and obviously well damped.  I think this contributes to the very open, clear lower mids and bass which they display. They remind me of the bamboo cabinets of the Ascend Sierra 1 (which I owned) in this respect.
The 5.5" woofer is of high quality construction, and the "AMT" planar tweeter is very similar to those showing up lately in a lot of speakers such as Martin-Logan, Adam, Emotiva and Evolution Acoustics. So- there is no doubt there are quality elements in these speakers.
To begin, I removed the "horns" from the woofer, to see what the basic speaker sounded like. It was very detailed in the highs, with decent midrange clarity, but a very thin and bright overall sound. An interesting sound, but not very listenable by my standards.
Attaching the woofer horn and center "guide" really changed the sound. The region from the lower mids through the bass got much stronger, now with very nice body and punch. Dynamics and midrange focus improved greatly. In my 10x12' office they sounded very nice. In comparison with my Selah RAAL monitors, which are currently my all time favorite speaker for that room, the highs were as detailed and clear as the RAAL, but stronger and not quite as smooth. The mids and bass were also quite good, with great instrumental separation, dynamics, width, and depth. Once again, the Selah was a bit better balanced throughout.
Next I moved them to my big system- the room is ~17x20, amp is a tweaked N-Core NC400, PRE/DAC is NAD M51. Everything in this system is carefully balanced around my Daedalus DA-RMA v2 speakers.
In direct comparison to the 5x the size and price Daedalus, the bass and midbass is much reduced, so a lot of the warmth is lost. However, the detail presentation, imaging and soundstaging is reasonably close, not as natural and well integrated, but impressive nonetheless. The high end is still 1-2 db. too strong for my taste, and there is a trace of "cupped hands" coloration in the mids, but only a trace.
So- sonically, we have a very fast, clean and open speaker, with good overall balance and great imaging, few annoying colorations, and good, solid bass in small to medium rooms. I do think the highs could be pulled back a bit more to improve the balance further, but the highs are detailed and clean otherwise.
UPDATE: Alex has informed me that he will pad the tweeter down a bit.
Alex supplies a variety of tweakes to adjust the sound of the speakers; I won't go into them but they can be good use to fit the sound to the needs of the user.
So- sonically, I do think these are competitive with most of the best speakers in my above list, and pretty close to cracking my top 5. That's pretty good for a new effort at this price.
Now- to the non-sonic aspects. I'm a bit troubled by the physical delicacy of the horns and guides assemblies that adds so much to the sound of this speaker. Paying $2k for a speaker is still a lot of $, and I like to think durability should be part of the package. I'd like to see Alex re-think the structural elements of the front assemblies with that in mind.
Again, I'd like to applaud Alex's creative thinking on display here. These are very good speakers for the $, and well worth a listen. I've enjoyed my time with them.

Any thoughts of comparison to the SpTech MiniTimePiece Monitor?

jonbee

Re: Alex Yoon / Wave Touch Audio
« Reply #31 on: 17 Aug 2014, 04:25 pm »
Sorry, I've not heard the SPTech.

virtue

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Re: Alex Yoon / Wave Touch Audio
« Reply #32 on: 25 Aug 2014, 09:45 pm »
Please email me.  Seth at virtue audio dot com

You'll need to pay for shipping one way and we need to see a certain number of posts on audio circle.  Also USA only.