The Nightingales arrived in the early afternoon to my wife’s surprise
. She had opened the front door to discover a large brown box left by the UPS man. The box had obviously been mistreated as indicated by the huge split seam down the side. After rustling the large package into the house she proceeded to unwrap the box and was expecting to see some type of damage. Nothing found she called me at work to explain the above and articulated how nice looking these were going to be
.
Upon my arrival home I at once put on Diana Krall (Live In Paris) CD and went to assembling the bases. This involves attaching the bases using 4 screws and spacers so the cabinet actually floats above the bases. This permits room for the down firing ports to function properly.
Before I detached the old speakers I put in a little Eagles and Toby Keith to aid for listening evaluation. Hooking up the Nightingales was quick and easy as the new binding posts are large with simple access. I turned off my HSU V-2 subwoofer.
With the Eagles, Hotel California (Hell Freezes Over) cued and anticipation high the play button was pressed………
Ok????????? Not impressed
. Yes, they were by some means better sounding than my old speakers but they sounded smaller and thin. I turned up the volume control past my typical listening position and they seemed to improve but still not inspiring. After switching Eagles to Toby Keith I soon become conscious that the bells on the background of the Angry American tract that are very distinct on the old speakers were now almost missing. I switched the sub on but no change. Next I played the Diana Krall album. Listening with the volume control at an elevated level more than normal... Diana’s voice was nice but boy did the “S” sounds shriek though the highs on the tweeters
.
One and a half weeks into break in I had to notify Klaus of my dissatisfaction. Klaus was very nice and knew from my descriptions that something wasn’t right. With my Tempest preamp soon to arrive I decided to not send the Nightingales back until I could judge against preamps. The new Tempest did not make it intact but that’s a different story
. Klaus was as confounded as I was. We settled to return both the Nightingales and Tempest for repairs. Klaus requested that I hold off on the returns till He got back from NY.
Now I am not sure what has happened to the Nightingales… call it “ break-in” or did I have the poles crossed
? In order to validate that something was wrong with the Tempest
I had hooked up the previous speakers and eventually switched back to the Nightingales. But Now the Nightingales are sounding first-rate. I mean REALLY GOOD!
To verify that something had changed I did the speaker assessment again. OH YEAH, Diana Krall is engaging again and so silky in the highs
, The Eagles can crank
and make you nearly believe you are at the concert to the point you can tell the difference between the clap of hands and the cheering of the crowd. It doesn’t sound like waves roaring at the ocean anymore. Toby Keith bells are still a slight thin but so are the previous speakers when perched on top of the Nightingales. This tells me the placement of the speakers may be more at fault than the speaker it self.
My wife absolutely loves the Nightingales
. She can’t get over how nice they look and how wonderful her favorite CDs sound. I must concur to both. Klaus knows the Nightingales are staying (at least till the next upgrade, Hehehe
). The stereo now plays
all day long when we are home. Each and every CD in our collection is new again and that tells me I have made the right decision to stick with Odyssey and Klaus
!
