AudioCircle
Other Stuff => Archived Manufacturer Circles => AudioKinesis Loudspeakers => Topic started by: Brian Walsh on 2 Mar 2016, 01:57 am
-
I'm honored to say that Duke's latest tour de force, the Bienville Suite, will be introduced at the AXPONA show here in Chicago in mid April. The Duke himself will be here to meet and greet and answer your questions and play your music you bring -- records, CDs, and USB sticks. And as the ad below suggests, we'll have kind of a Mardi Gras theme going, including bead necklaces everyone is invited to take and wear around the show.
The AudioKinesis Bienville Suite offers true 20 Hz to 20 kHz bandwidth in a relaxing, tube-friendly 98 dB loudspeaker system. It consists of two floorstanding main speakers and the acclaimed Swarm subwoofer system.
Here is our ad to be published in the show guide, including a photo of the Bienville main speaker. The ad on the adjacent page of our 2-page spread will be by Resonessence Labs who will be debuting their new VERITAS DAC which features the SABRE 9028 Pro series chip from ESS Technology. Resonessence Labs is the first company to feature this latest chip design. The VERITAS will be part of our demo system, fed by an Aurender N100 music server.
(http://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=138304)
-
98dB and, I'm imagining, a relative immunity to thermal compression suggests really satisfying dynamic potential especially in combination with a swarm sub system.
I'd really like to hear these and look forward to reviews.
I always regret not getting a pair of Jazz Modules when they first came out.
-
Kewl :thumb:
Plan on being there Sunday, hopefully I'll catch Duke this time (last year we made the mistake of trying to visit every room on Saturday). This year we'd like to concentrate on the vendors that interest us.
-
I'm honored to say that Duke's latest tour de force, the Bienville Suite, will be introduced at the AXPONA show here in Chicago in mid April.
Thank you very much, Brian. It is an honor to show with you and to work with you.
98dB and, I'm imagining, a relative immunity to thermal compression suggests really satisfying dynamic potential especially in combination with a swarm sub system.
I think that utter lack of thermal compression goes a long ways towards recreating the feel of a live performance, Of course it's not the only thing, but imo it's a good idea to start out with drivers able to deliver that because it's not something you can add later on down the road.
plan on being there Sunday, hopefully I'll catch Duke this time (last year we made the mistake of trying to visit every room on Saturday). This year we'd like to concentrate on the vendors that interest us.
Sounds great - looking forward to seeing you there!
The Bienville mains incorporate a variation on the reverberant-field tweeter technique that you found to be useful with the Quads, tailored of course to the specifics of this application. I think that will be the icing on the cake that sets this system apart from most other large, high-output loudspeaker systems.
Crossover to the Swarm will be in the 70-80 Hz ballpark, as the Swarm (properly set up) does a better job in that region than a pair of mains can do.
-
Here's another photo Duke took.
(http://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=138753)
More photos, possibly including what's on the back side, when the weather breaks :)
-
Duke or Brian, what are the dimensions of the mains? I assume they're sealed?
Thanks!
-
Duke or Brian, what are the dimensions of the mains? I assume they're sealed?
Thanks!
The mains are 45 inches tall. Their footprint looks like we started with a 15" square, and then lopped off one corner to created a 45 degree beveled surface (the front baffle) that is about 15 inches across. So measuring "tip to tip" across the widest dimension we get a little over 21 inches, and measuring bafflecenter-to-opposite-point the depth is a little under 14 inches. When set up with 45 degrees of toe-in, such that the axes criss-cross in front of the listening area for widest sweet spot and minimal early sidewall reflections, the width is 15 inches and the depth is 15 inches.
The 12" mid woofers are in separate internal chambers of different internal volumes (so that their resonances do not coincide), each with two pluggable ports, giving each chamber three different tuning options (both ports open, one port open, sealed box) to tailor the midbass region to different room acoustic situations. There is no reason why you can't run one chamber ported and the other sealed, nor any reason why you can't tune the left speaker different from the right speaker if their room acoustic situations are significantly different. Like if the left speaker is in a corner and the right speaker has no side wall, you might seal all the ports on the left and open some or even all on the right.
The size of the midwoofer was chosen for radiation pattern control, but one side-effect is that the mains can be used without a protective high-pass filter at fairly high SPLs, like 116 dB vented and 124 dB sealed. So you would have the option of not adding a high-pass filter to the mains' signal path.
-
The size of the midwoofer was chosen for radiation pattern control, but one side-effect is that the mains can be used without a protective high-pass filter at fairly high SPLs, like 116 dB vented and 124 dB sealed. So you would have the option of not adding a high-pass filter to the mains' signal path.
Aside from the fact that AXPONA has rules about maximum allowable SPLs, those are insane SPLs! We won't be giving out earplugs, but we will be giving out Mardi Gras beads, and having a helluva lot of fun doing it!
Thanks, Duke!
-
Duke just sent this photo of the rear of the Bienville.
Tweeter up high, woofer down low, two pluggable ports for front firing drivers, two for the rear drivers. The two pairs of binding posts up high are for the load resistors for the front and rear tweeters. A level control for the rear drivers below that. Twin pairs of binding posts down low for the front and rear drivers.
Whew! That's a lot.
(http://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=139760)
-
What's the price on this system?
George
-
...two pluggable ports for front firing drivers, two for the rear drivers.
Sorry I wasn't clear Brian... the pluggable ports are all for the front-firing woofers, which are each in their own separate chambers of different sizs to stagger the resonances and provide more tuning flexibility. The rear-firing woofer is in its own separate sealed chamber.
The front-firing array is a 16 ohm load, and the rear-firing array is likewise a 16 ohm load. So driving both arrays in parallel, we have an 8 ohm load.
The level control on the rear-firing array improves the adjustability for room acoustics and speaker placement.
What's the price on this system?
Twelve grand for the system, consisting to two Bienville mains, four-piece Swarm, and amplifier for the Swarm.
For a while I thought that this was the first speaker to incorporate a level-adjustable array of rear-firing drivers, but such is not the case. Sonus Faber's two top models, "The Sonus Faber" and the "Aida" (two hundred grand and one hundred twenty grand respectively) did it before me. Obviously I think the best way to implement the concept is with well-controlled radiation patterns.
The Sonus Faber Aida has been at Axpona in the past, and I hope it will be there this year, as it would be interesting to compare the different approaches.
-
The Sonus Faber Aida has been at Axpona in the past, and I hope it will be there this year, as it would be interesting to compare the different approaches.
Hard to know whether it will be, since who is a SF dealer in the area appears to have changed not long ago.
-
The Mardi Gras beads have arrived! Lots of 'em, for AXPONA. Visit us at the show, help yourself to a few, and win a prize if one of us picks you wearing them around the show.
(http://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=140016)
-
Brian and Duke,
Hope you guys kill it at AXPONA!
Duke,
You got at least 70-80 square inches of empty real estate on the rear panel. Hurry up and stuff something in their. It looks so, so.....BARREN!!!!!!!
-
Duke,
You got at least 70-80 square inches of empty real estate on the rear panel. Hurry up and stuff something in their. It looks so, so.....BARREN!!!!!!!
Omigosh, you're absolutely right. What was I thinking??
-
BTW
Garth Brian, Re. those wonderful beads: "Party on!"
-
The dual bass loading system is interesting: reflex-loaded front-firing dual mid-bass, sealed rear-firing single mid-bass.
Years ago I built a similar array: sealed 10" mid bass above reflex-loaded 15" bass, both front-firing (reflex-loading was via side-firing 15" passive radiator mounted inches above the floor). It performed very well. I'm surprised this approach is not more common.
I suspect exceptional results, especially considering Bienville Suite splits the mid-bass above 70 Hz among three drivers.
Do the rear drivers comprise a "Vertical Offset Bipolar" Array? Duke assigned this name to his 2008 TAS Golden Ear Award Winning original Dream Maker. In this case "Vertical Offset" refers to the disparity in the height of the front and rear mid bass drivers.
-
I look forward to hearing this at Axpona. :thumb:
-
BTW Garth Brian, Re. those wonderful beads: "Party on!"
(http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/1d/3d/4f/1d3d4f6b3226cbdcadb4fadcc60cb041.jpg)
-
Back when men were men, and SNL was funny. Very funny.
Now, not so much.
-
Press release (PDF): http://goo.gl/ZIKwNK (http://goo.gl/ZIKwNK)
-
A very easy and informative read.
It's called a six piece system, and it's seven pieces if you count the 1kW sub amp/active xo/parametric EQ/bass curve EQ.
Duke's preferred "Two Streams" label is descriptive. One highly directional on-axis line of sight array (front firing) + a discreet, totally separate, late-arriving, full range system (rear firing) for reverberant field.
The following just occurred to me in the last week, and I'm surprised it took so long for the light to come on (or should I be not surprised?).
Another long-held architecture exists for exactly the same "Two Streams" paradigm, and one in which I have hundreds of hours of listening experience: The Live End/Dead End acoustically treated sound room (LEDE). The general design of such room is for the front third (speaker end) to be treated to be as acoustically "dead" as possible: all boundary surfaces are treated to be as anechoic as possible. Conversely, all remaining two-thirds of boundary surface is untreated, for a "live" acoustically reflective effect. The front third has thick carpet and pad, the rear two-thirds of the floor is hard and reflective.
The point of an LEDE sound room is to damp as much as possible all early reflections, followed by high level of properly delayed reverberant field w/spectral curve similar to on-axis output. "Sound" familiar? (No pun intended.)
Over about three decades, in VMPS' LEDE sound room, I heard the best and largest VMPS speaker models, from the VMPS True Ribbon (British Strathearn mid array), to the 5 foot BG ribbon, to the RM-60 Wing, and everything in between. I modified a large living room into a quasi-LEDE sound room, the difference being the entire floor was carpeted.
I prefer hearing Duke's speakers w/his "Two Streams" architecture (four models prior to Bienville Suite) in regular listening rooms more than any LEDE experience. The stage is significantly deeper and wider, and I believe pitch sensitivity is greatly enhanced. Greater pitch sensitivity shall make you enjoy musical experiences you currently find boring. This happened to me many times. Bring a complex classical music disc to this room and check for yourself. Image specificity might be a toss up, but something about the imaging seems more natural w/Duke's architecture. One other item favoring the TS architecture is much higher sense of being enveloped in the musical experience, and more pleasurable involvement.
In both cases there is simply more of the original recording venue (whether real or synthetic or parts of both), and less constant "thumbprint" of the playback sound room. When changing discs, you are bound to notice a greater difference in the acoustic effect.
-
In addition to Duke's new speaker system, we're also debuting the new Resonessence Labs VERITAS DAC at AXPONA. This case of this little guy is milled out of a solid billet, so it could serve double duty as a weapon :lol: Yes, that's a volume control on the right.
(http://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=141043)
-
Parasound's $4500 CD1 is well established as one of the best stand alone CD players. In AB tests at home, my modified Sony CDP was different but comparable to the CD1.
Just prior to tearing down at 2013 RMAF, I swapped from:
A: My CDP RCA > Preamp RCA output > Atma Sphere S30 OTL > AK Dream Maker LCS to
B: My CDP SPDIF high grade IC > Resonessence then-best $5k DAC (sorry, forgot the name) XLR > XLR Atma Sphere S30 OTL > AK Dream Maker LCS
"B" made "A" sound like "A" was broke, like the system was replaced, likely the biggest difference I ever heard in such AB test.
A reliable industry pro known to Brian and myself said that DAC was the best he'd heard. He had it at home for long term, and he has sampled a lot of gear and DACs.
One presumes this new tuxedo shod model has improved performance. The one I heard was a plain tiny black box.
-
The Parasound Halo CD1 was discontinued a while ago.
The $5k Resonessence DAC referred to is the Invicta or more likely the Invicat Mirus. I'd put the Veritas up against it, and we have a Mirus on hand for the show which could be used, although it may not happen unless there are numerous requests.
For those who are less sensitive to price I have the Bricasti M1 DAC which was recently upgraded to the SE version and was the first to have the SyncWide/SyncFine feature which takes the performance up another notch. In approximate terms it's twice the performance of the original M1. Scary. But it's ten grand.
-
Brian,
Someone I know owns the Bricasti M1. Would love to hear your opinion of any Resonessence DAC vs. the M1, especially direct to the power amp, no preamp, the way my friend uses the M1.
-
Brian,
Someone I know owns the Bricasti M1. Would love to hear your opinion of any Resonessence DAC vs. the M1, especially direct to the power amp, no preamp, the way my friend uses the M1.
Going balanced direct from the M1, it's hard to beat if the amp is true balanced differential. The SE upgrade is a no-brainer now that I've heard the difference. Maybe the best $1000 upgrade, ever. The improvement cold out of the box was shocking. Then when I found out how to go from SyncWide to SyncFine, "another Valin was lifted" :lol:
I haven't had a chance to compare the Veritas against the M1 and won't for another week or more. I am, however, sure that the Veritas will hold its own, and for $2850, what more could you want? It has great slam and weight, very fleshed out and organic sounding. It reveals natural detail very well -- just played some MA Recordings 24/96 tracks, and oh my. But bright stuff like a Deadmaus track I played is awful.
-
Sorry if I missed the price earlier. Are you saying that Resonessence Veritas DAC is only $2850? I thought it was at least $8k, no kidding. Oh, I looked at the image again. I was wrong first glance. I thought it was full width, but see now it's much smaller.
When did Bricasti release the SE upgrade for the M1? Not sure whether or not my friend/M1 owner knows about it.
-
The SE upgrade for the M1 has been out for several months. Mine was the first one with the new software with the Sync options.
Resonessence now has the Concero HD at $850, the Veritas at $2850, and the Invicta and Invicta Mirus at $4995.
Now back to our regularly scheduled (speaker) program...
-
"Biker Duke" LeJeune posing on my 2WD off road Rokon Trailbreaker, just before heading home after a successful AXPONA showing. Unseasonably warm day here today.
(https://scontent.ford1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/12985400_1372287342797846_8477293500533707090_n.jpg?oh=71e1edc88776c52416256ce19f84bc31&oe=57A88B9A)
(https://scontent.ford1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xft1/v/t1.0-9/12998475_1372288866131027_3510443056119289118_n.jpg?oh=6ede8eac9a7037d50e906ec5f50323da&oe=57AF9321)
-
Brian,
Is that a bike or a tractor? :lol:
AC
-
Brian,
Is that a bike or a tractor? :lol:
AC
It's a mototractor. Google that word. It's not a joke. It's not about speed, it's about being able to go anywhere.
-
NASA model for the first inter-planetary 2-wheel exploratory vehicle?
Or zombie Apocalypse escape vehicle?
Can it wheelie in reverse gear?
Remember to toss a chain saw in the luggage basket.
Very, very nice!
Did they offer optional rear wheel steering?
-
NASA model for the first inter-planetary 2-wheel exploratory vehicle?
Or Armageddon escape vehicle?
They see duty in many areas. Forestry, search and rescue, farming, etc. Some survivalists are interested in them.
Can it wheelie in reverse gear?
No reverse. 3 speed manual, straight cut gears, no clutch (centrifugal belt clutch). A quirky imperfect beast. Put the front wheel up against a tree and give it the gas, and it will start to climb it and throw you off.
Remember to toss a chain saw in the luggage basket.
Or carry the carcass of the deer you just shot. Note the tow bar on the rear. It can tow up to 3000 lbs. Combination mule and mountain goat. Some amazing online videos are to be found.
15" ground clearance to climb over logs and rocks, ford up to 24" deep water, and if it gets too deep put it on its side and float it across, thanks to the air tight welded aluminum hubs which can optionally store water or extra fuel.
My bike is a '71, and those are the original Goodyear Sure Grip tires. Nowadays people tend to put ATV tires on them that provide a better ride and better traction.
-
My bike is a '71, and those are the original Goodyear Sure Grip tires. Nowadays people tend to put ATV tires on them that provide a better ride and better traction.
I've never seen one of those in person, but the first time I saw a picture of one was in a motorcycle book by Floyd Clymer that I had in the late '60s or early '70s. The book also showed other odd bikes like the Tote Gote and the Allstate Twingle haha. Here's a picture of Floyd. He used to actually ride bikes backward like that apparently.
(http://www.jockeyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/leader.jpg)
-
Herb Reichert of Stereophile had some very nice things to say about our system at AXPONA (http://www.stereophile.com/content/herbs-final-rooms).
-
Brian and Duke,
Congrats on great feedback for your hard work!
By merely swapping L/R positions, Bienville Suite allows "reverberant field" drivers to energize/fire toward either the front or side walls.
Did you audition both choices? Which was employed for the show?
Brian,
Re. the superb looking Resonessence Veritas DAC:
Is PS on-board or outboard? If the latter, is it a wall wart, separate chassis, or brick ala laptop? Approximate dimensions? Does it accept coax and TOSLINK?
-
Brian and Duke,
Congrats on great feedback for your hard work!
By merely swapping L/R positions, Bienville Suite allows "reverberant field" drivers to energize/fire toward either the front or side walls.
Did you audition both choices? Which was employed for the show?
Standard configuration only.
Brian,
Re. the superb looking Resonessence Veritas DAC:
Is PS on-board or outboard? If the latter, is it a wall wart, separate chassis, or brick ala laptop? Approximate dimensions? Does it accept coax and TOSLINK?
The power supply is built in. It's small, I'd estimate about 7 inches or so square. It's a hefty brick. People marveled at the massive, nonresonant empty case.
Digital inputs include USB, AES (XLR), two SPDIF coax (RCA), and optical (TOSLINK).
Outputs are single ended RCA and balanced XLR. It's truly balanced internally.
Volume control.
-
Do the rear drivers comprise a "Vertical Offset Bipolar" Array? Duke assigned this name to his 2008 TAS Golden Ear Award Winning original Dream Maker. In this case "Vertical Offset" refers to the disparity in the height of the front and rear mid bass drivers.
I'd probably call it a "shaded bipole", emphasizing the fact that the rear-firing drivers are lower in level than the front-firing ones, and borrowing the term "shaded" in this context from the prosound world, wherein a "shaded line array" is one in which some of the elements are playing at a reduced SPL as a means of pattern control.
Or we could call it a "shaded offset twisted bipole", as all three would arguably apply.
Duke's preferred "Two Streams" label is descriptive. One highly directional on-axis line of sight array (front firing) + a discreet, totally separate, late-arriving, full range system (rear firing) for reverberant field.
The following just occurred to me in the last week, and I'm surprised it took so long for the light to come on (or should I be not surprised?).
Another long-held architecture exists for exactly the same "Two Streams" paradigm, and one in which I have hundreds of hours of listening experience: The Live End/Dead End acoustically treated sound room (LEDE). The general design of such room is for the front third (speaker end) to be treated to be as acoustically "dead" as possible: all boundary surfaces are treated to be as anechoic as possible. Conversely, all remaining two-thirds of boundary surface is untreated, for a "live" acoustically reflective effect. The front third has thick carpet and pad, the rear two-thirds of the floor is hard and reflective.
The point of an LEDE sound room is to damp as much as possible all early reflections, followed by high level of properly delayed reverberant field w/spectral curve similar to on-axis output. "Sound" familiar? (No pun intended.)
Over about three decades, in VMPS' LEDE sound room, I heard the best and largest VMPS speaker models, from the VMPS True Ribbon (British Strathearn mid array), to the 5 foot BG ribbon, to the RM-60 Wing, and everything in between. I modified a large living room into a quasi-LEDE sound room, the difference being the entire floor was carpeted.
I prefer hearing Duke's speakers w/his "Two Streams" architecture (four models prior to Bienville Suite) in regular listening rooms more than any LEDE experience. The stage is significantly deeper and wider, and I believe pitch sensitivity is greatly enhanced. Greater pitch sensitivity shall make you enjoy musical experiences you currently find boring. This happened to me many times. Bring a complex classical music disc to this room and check for yourself. Image specificity might be a toss up, but something about the imaging seems more natural w/Duke's architecture. One other item favoring the TS architecture is much higher sense of being enveloped in the musical experience, and more pleasurable involvement.
In both cases there is simply more of the original recording venue (whether real or synthetic or parts of both), and less constant "thumbprint" of the playback sound room. When changing discs, you are bound to notice a greater difference in the acoustic effect.
Thanks for going into detail drawing on your experience with high-end LEDE rooms!
Yup, the basic elements of the "Two-Stream Paradigm" date back at least to the LEDE rooms, which was my first encounter with the idea of creating a relatively reflection-free interval between the first arrival sound and the beneficial late-arrival reverberant energy. I never heard a professionally done LEDE room, but my amateur attempt sounded lifeless to me. This was back in the 80's, when I was a SpeakerBuilder Magazine junkie.
When we did rooms at recent audio shows with your switch to toggle the LCS sections off and on, whenever I remembered to, I'd ask people whether they felt like they were hearing "more of the recording" or "more hotel room" with it on. Everyone that I heard voice an opinion said "more of the recording". So it's a bit counter-intuitive, but I think the ear/brain system can pick out the reverberant cues from the recording when they are presented in a more natural manner via the LCS sections rather than coming only from a pair of speakers. The recent comment (http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=142537.msg1521087#msg1521087) by Andy Quint from Axpona 2016 in another thread seems to support this.
-
Our room was very well received by Dagogo reviewer Doug Schroeder in his show report (http://www.dagogo.com/2016-axpona-show-report-part-1/2):
Aurender N100 Music Server, Resonessence Labs Veritas DAC, Atmasphere UV-1 Tube Preamp, Atmasphere M60 MKIII Tube Amp, Audiokenesis Bienville Suite speakers and Clarity Cables.
I have many times heard the paring of the Classic Audio speakers with Atmasphere Amps. The Audiokenesis speakers reacted as well with these more affordable quality tube components. I might have fought Duke LeJune of Audiokinesis over the positioning of the speakers, but there was inherent beauty in the matching of Clarity Cables, Atmasphere and the Audiokinesis Bienville Suite speakers with Swarm Subwoofer System.
Doug's comments farther down the page on the Paragon Sight and Sound room caught my eye as well.
Words cannot express my gratitude to Duke for managing to get here on time for the show in the face of diversity (car breakdown in Oklahoma due to alternator failure, necessitating an overnight stay there) and being able to deftly pull this one out of the fire and put on a world class performance to the delight of all who visited our room.
-
Bravo :thumb: Brian and Duke:
https://www.audioholics.com/tower-speaker-reviews/audiokinesis-bienville-speakers
Anand.
-
Congratulations, Brian and Duke, for setting the bar higher and higher!
Brian's story about Duke making it to the show, and getting such great sound, even after the car incident, reminds me of this assessment about Duke: If you were stuck in a foxhole, Duke would be a great comrade for survival. And he'd still crack some great jokes about the ironies of your shared predicament!
"Left...left...you had a good home and you left...left...you had a good home and you left...left......."
-
Good coverage of our room at AXPONA (https://parttimeaudiophile.com/2016/05/21/axpona-2016-essential-audio-goes-audiokinesis-with-resonessence-labs/) by Scot Hull of Part Time Audiophile.
(https://audiograb.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/axpona-audiokinesis-kuzma-atma-clarity-01534.jpg?w=860&h=645)
-
Thank you Brian for catching Scott's coverage and posting the link. Yeah Scott "gets it", always has. And wow what a great photo, he managed to really capture as much of the whole setup as possible (the two unseen Swarm units being along the left and right side walls).
-
Hey Brian, what was that album you played that you said, "the bass comes up from the earth."
-
Hey Brian, what was that album you played that you said, "the bass comes up from the earth."
No idea unless you can give me a hint or two.
-
It was really awesome with the swarm subs... Vinyl.
That's all I recall is you saying, "the bass really comes up from the earth on this one." And then when it slowly came in, you were right, and it was awesome!