[SoCalWJS]

Well, we decided we were going to have another small GTG to do a mini Amp shootout after Soundofrockets (Sunil) purchased a new set of Klaus’ Odyssey Khartago Mono Amps to hook up to his LS 9’s where the big Emotiva XPA-1 Mono Blocks have resided for awhile.
We got the whole thing started just before noon by giving a quick listen to the System, but decided to let everything warm up a bit more. The Khartago’s just don’t have as many hours on them yet, and since it was about lunchtime, we decided to start out by doing a bit of cooking and socializing first.


MichaelHiFi (Michael), Cheeseboy (Steve), and Shotoons (Cliff)



There may have been some wine involved.



Lena and Anne with the afore mentioned.

After we all got a fair share of the food (bleeping good food by the way. Cliff’s hot sauce/dips made my lips smack and raise my desire to quench my thirst quickly), we returned to the room and tried to reach an agreement on how to proceed with this very informal comparison. We quickly came to a consensus that there just hadn’t been enough time on the new Amps to do them justice, so we decided to approach it differently and see what would happen with all of the various new toys that were available to us.

First step was to ensure the speakers were relatively well set up since they get moved around a bit doing to it being a dual use room. Sunil keeps them set very wide apart so that they don’t block the screen for HT. We slid them a bit closer together and measured to make sure it was even, then I set the toe in using a laser (I later learned that I had them toed in unevenly as I was using an aiming point that wasn’t actually in the middle of the room). We inserted Michael (HiFi)’s BMC Amp into the system and began the debate about what to listen to.



Cliff brought along a hard drive full of some great Hi Rez files and I brought some of my favorite SACD’s and Redbooks. These were fed into Sunil’s ModWright 105, then to the MW LS100 and onto the BMC to the LS9’s. While we listened to a bunch of stuff, the regulars were Dire Straits Brothers in Arm: Brother’s in Arms from the Anniversary SACD, Lyle Lovett’s Joshua Judges Ruth: She’s already Made up her Mind and South Dakota (Redbook) and Jennifer Warnes famousblueraincoat : Bird on a Wire and Joan of Arc (20th Anniversary 24k Gold).
There is quite a bit of Room treatment in this room in the form of various Absorption panels on the side walls and the ceiling as well as fairly heavy curtains on the front wall to conceal the HT screen.
In other words, this is not a very “live” room, yet the initial impression of the whole setup was fairly positive. It was well balanced with good tone and focus and a pretty decent soundstage. Air and Ambiance were lacking.

Where to start? What should we do next? Time to take a little vote and we decided to get a bit more scientific. Michael pulled out his AntiMode, a calibration microphone, and let the DualCore begin doing it’s thing. We left the room for awhile and discussed what we were hearing and giving feedback.

We may have had a bit more wine.

Now the MW Oppo 105 was feeding the AntiMode and the MW LS100 was out of the loop. We figured that there were a couple of room nodes which we now knew where they were and they had reduced a bit.
This is getting a bit wordy, so a break is in order.

[Nick77]

Looks like a good time, love an audio GTG. Look forward to full report, thanks for sharing. 

[Hugh]

Keep it coming John.

[SoCalWJS]

OK, let’s see – where was I?

I think we drank some wine at this point.

How to describe the difference in sound at this point….. words fail me. There was definitely a smoother frequency response at this point. It was much easier to pick out narrowly separated bass notes (Lyle Lovett pieces). A bit of detail that was missing before was now starting to show up.

Oh, Bruce from VooDoo showed up at about this time. I was out of the room and I think some things were switched that I missed. Maybe somebody else can pitch in with some details here.



I think I slipped out briefly to refill my wine glass.

We started getting a little quick in changing things around. I had brought my Uber along and we plugged the 105 and the Anti mode into it. Bruce had brought along some very impressive looking AC Power cords and replaced what had been supplying the Oppo and the AntiMode.

This is when magical things began to happen. Cumulative effect was making some very impressive improvements. This is where all I wanted to do was listen to the system as much as possible. We were playing many different things. The favored reference pieces were soooo good. Smooth. Detailed. Presence. Every buzz word you could think of was coming into play. I can’t think of any time where I have listened to Brothers in Arms and had it sound better. We even put in a Concert video (Jeff Beck at Ronnie Scotts) that was mesmerizing (with Imogen Heap singing “Blanket” and the Joss Stone piece).




It was getting late and time for everybody to head out.

Did I mention we may have had some wine?




When I got home, I threw my SACD DS BiA in and gave a quick listen. Sigh………I’ve got quite a bit of room to improve.
Thanks to all for everything contributed to this wonderful day.
Hoping the others will pitch in with photos they took and give some impressions. I‘ll try to add in other things as I recall them.

The wine………. – did I mention the wine?

[Folsom]

Power conditioning... The real cornerstone as I say.

[Nick77]

That or the wine. 

[Captainhemo]

Looks like a lot of fun.... did yo uguys happen to sample any wine  ? 

-jay

[Vapor Audio]

I see a lot of familiar faces in that crowd 

Sounds like a fun time, thanks for sharing.

[soundofrockets]

Thanks everyone for coming and making it fun for us.  I was warned by Klaus but the burn in time for the monoblocks and I cautioned averybody about them.  With more time I think they will shine much much better- but will they out perform the BMC amp -  I am not sure.  The anti-mode was for sure a big hit and I will have to look into it a little more.  The cables provided by Bruce from Voodoo certainly added another layer of clarity and smoothness. 

Thanks john for taking charge of the remote and keeping everybody on plan.  Thanks Steve for all the cooking and grilling.  Cliff for being the digital master.  Michael for the anti mode.

The Klaus special cables also needed some more burn time.

The wine was good. 

[bdp24]

By saying the following, I assure you it is not a case of mere semantics: "The cables provided.....added another layer of clarity and smoothness"? You didn't mean that literally, I hope! Cables should not ADD anything; the best they can aspire to is to not LOSE anything, the clarity and smoothness of the signal they receive included. An elevated response in certain frequency bands can give the impression of increased clarity, but it would be false clarity. Besides, a cable which can be described as smooth would not, by definition, have bands of frequency-elevated response. At least, that is, if by smooth you mean in terms of the almighty frequency-response (Gordon Holt's number one parameter for judging the accuracy of a component, though not Art Dudley's) . Smoothness is also used by some to mean a slightly subdued upper-mid to high-end frequency response, or at least the absence of even a hint of brightness.

[Early B.]

By saying the following, I assure you it is not a case of mere semantics: "The cables provided.....added another layer of clarity and smoothness"? You didn't mean that literally, I hope! Cables should not ADD anything; the best they can aspire to is to not LOSE anything, the clarity and smoothness of the signal they receive included. An elevated response in certain frequency bands can give the impression of increased clarity, but it would be false clarity. Besides, a cable which can be described as smooth would not, by definition, have bands of frequency-elevated response. At least, that is, if by smooth you mean in terms of the almighty frequency-response (Gordon Holt's number one parameter for judging the accuracy of a component, though not Art Dudley's) . Smoothness is also used by some to mean a slightly subdued upper-mid to high-end frequency response, or at least the absence of even a hint of brightness.

It's probably prudent not to bring the cable semantic issues up in this thread. These comments always travel down a path that leads nowhere.

[bdp24]

The point I raised is not specific to cables, but rather to the question of whether ANY component, cable or otherwise, adds something to the sound of a system, rather than merely passes on the signal it receives. I brought it up only because soundofrockets stated that the cables inserted into the system "added another layer of detail and smoothness". I would have raised the same concern no matter what class of component that statement had been said about.

[nickd]

If my room was that big I would still have my LS-9's.
Sounds like a fun afternoon.

[soundofrockets]

the point i was trying to make was that addition of certain components enhanced our listening experience.  we all fully understand that you cannot add anything physical elements to the original recording.  but the setup we had with various additional components surely made our listening experience greater.  so maybe i should have said that the cables were "revealing".

you should have been there to hear the sound we had.  it was terrific. 

[Hugh]

Wish I was there.

[soundofrockets]

You had your chance Hugh.  U r welcome anytime to come.  We had lots of fun.

[Hugh]

I was just kidding.

You had your chance Hugh.  U r welcome anytime to come.  We had lots of fun.

[Cheeseboy]

Sunil hosted an absolutely wonderful event.  His lovely wife Shobna was a great help getting all of those hungry audiophiles fed and watered.  The grill was always full.  As a pair they made us all feel very welcome.  Anyone that would open their home up as well as turn their beautiful media room over to us to tear apart and rebuild three to four times with new gear I would have to vote as a pair of patient cool headed people.  I would say Sunil has the one of the best rooms in all of Napa County.  They also have a very nice wine cellar but that's just a minor reason to make the trip.

The system is set up primarily for Home Theater.  Sunil and his family watch a lot of movies together.  Can you say Frozen?  He has some great energetic young children and a young college man that has recently caught on to what a good system is capable of delivering.  We have all been after Sunil to upgrade and set the system to do both HT and 2 Channel in a competent manner.  This GTG was all about 2 channel audio.  I'll start by saying that as a foundation the room sounds great.  Just a little dead and he has LS9's.  Just a kick ass speaker. 

I'll say more but the Giants are playing in Pittsburg tonight in the Wildcard Game.  Go Giants!!!!!!

[dBe]

Well, we decided we were going to have another small GTG to do a mini Amp shootout after Soundofrockets (Sunil) purchased a new set of Klaus’ Odyssey Khartago Mono Amps to hook up to his LS 9’s where the big Emotiva XPA-1 Mono Blocks have resided for awhile.


MichaelHiFi (Michael), Cheeseboy (Steve), and Shotoons (Cliff)



There may have been some wine involved.



Lena and Anne with the afore mentioned.

Looks like way too much fun.  Sharing the joy is what brings music lovers into the audio fold.  Of course all of you guys were well folded before the get together and I am sure that the wine helped, too    Sunil is a real gentleman and a great host it seems.  Good onya, Sunil!!!  Good to see Steve there (Cheeseboy).

Parts and pieces for Sunil's room are on the way to me to get them on the way to him.  I would venture to say that things are gonna get even better. 

Thanks for the great write-up John.  Say hi to Anne for me.  I'll miss you guys at RMAF this year.  I don't think I will be there.  Too much work and too much life.

D

[Cheeseboy]

Thanks Dave!  Slaving over a hot grill full of chicken, sausage and peppers as usual.   But the music and friends were all worth it.  It was great as we progressed into the program every upgrade showed its ability to let the music flow and sound better.  The Voodoo digital AC cables and the Uber shined like bright glowing warm stars.  You would have been smiling ear to ear. 

And now a special announcement!  Giants won!!!!!!!  Look out Washington.  See ya Friday. 

John did such a great job being the MC and guiding and directing the demos.  It was a democratic music selection at the beginning from the great high rez sampling that Cliff brought.  Everything was well picked but I'm not a big fan of Lyle Lovette.   The selections were audiophile and revealing but something about his voice just grates on me.  I digress.  John invested an enormous experience and knowledge in these demos.  A hearty thank you to John.  I thought his decisions as to what to change and when were spot on the money.  We were exposed to some very great leaps in musicality.  I know he would be just worthless and weak without Anne the great woman behind the man.    She really wears the ears in the family. 

The first upgrades had us listening to the Symphonic Mono Amps with all of Klaus Secret sauce in each one.  You could tell they are something special.  However we all had to give them a "get out of jail free card" as they truly never got the hours on them to really break in and boogey.    It think Sunil indicated that he got 50 hours on them.  I'm really looking forward to the next audio meet at Cliffs house and perhaps they will be done cooking by then.  After a good listen we moved to the BMC that Michael had brought.  The air missing in the Klaus Wonderkinds was all there in the BMC.   Not a fair fight the Symphonics had to duel with one arm tied behind their backs.  But the BMC is something special.   Detail, tight bass and presence was there for all to hear.  As someone pointed out earlier they got out of the way and let the music be heard.  I could have stopped right there and been very happy.  But just just got better. 

At this time I'd like to nominate the Matrix Winery 2012 new release Petite Syrah as the wine of the session.   Yummy! 

We missed you Hugh.   Your contribution to the last GTG was invaluable.  Thank you see you next time.