Well the Denon/Wilson/BAT show was today.
First I want to thank Keith for a great listening session.
I have been looking forward to hearing the Wilson Sophias, ever since I heard he had ordered some after moving into his new "digs".
Some time ago I heard the Puppies and while they sounded good, I wasn't raving about how good they were for $24K. Many have said that the Sophia's sounded better.
Did they?
I was first to arrive, luggin my BPT Signature 3.5 which must weigh 85# if it weighs an ounce
Keith's new place is great.
I would guess about 25' x 25' x 9' as a general space, but with many openings that don't presurize it as a closed room would.
The Wilsons are just sitting there about 7-8 feet apart (I am totally guessing) and about 5-6 feet out from the wall. They are an "Arctic Silver" and still had the protective plastic on them. They were sitting on the floor unspiked, and slightly toed in.
Between then lies the big 75 wpc BAT tubed power amp which I think was pushing them through Acoustic Zen Cables.
The Front End was the Denon 3910 and the BAT preamp.
So I deposit the freakin BPT on the floor and hand Keith a recently burned Reference Disc, to get things rolling.
On comes Hugh Masekela doing Coal Train (Stimela) and I'm thinking they "do" sound a lot like the Puppies I heard at Brooks Berdan.
Now I have my reference system set up to basically make all the room boundaries disappear and detail and resolution are pristine.
Keith's room on the other hand has beautiful hardwood floors and nery a treatment of any kind so I wasn't expecting the quite the same imaging and detail I was used to, and that is about how it was.
Masekela's voice was more distant and the instruments were spead out and also more distant, than my Reference.
I was thinking to myself that in this untreated room it was certainly very enjoyable. It had adequate highs, great smooth midrange, and fairly good bass.
We listened to a couple more cuts, and I found the performance of the system very good, but I had to say that it was a little fuzzy in the imaging and the intruments, while tonally correct, were slightly soft in the edges. I put this down to two things. 1) The room was very live and everything was being reflected all over the place. 2) This was a "tubed" system and that generally softens edges a bit.
Then Hajime arrived, and we played a few more cuts. I have to say that at this point the Puppies (as I remembered them were running "neck and neck" with Keith's Sophias, with an ever so slight lead in the bass department. Tough to make that call since "NONE" of the music was the same.
On top of that, the rooms were entirely different. Keith's was a good example of a very nice Home room. while the Watt Puppies were in a professionally designed commercial environment, so even considering the price difference ($13K vs $24K) these Sophias were keeping up quite well.
OK, as it was, Keith wanted to hear if the BP 3.5 Signature made a difference in his system, so we unplugged it all, and placed the 3.5 in the PowerLine.
We fired everything back up and I warned Keith that it might take a while for the transformer in the 3.5 to "fully charge" back up and it might take a while for it to sound it's best.
We decided to go through some of the same cuts again, starting with Hugh Masekela again.....Holy freakin Beejesus
The difference took me only 15 seconds to hear. It was quite evident that "Things Had Changed".
NOW we had clear "solid" images and soundstage. The sonic fog was now gone and the instruments and voices were ever so much more clear and resolved. Each sound had edges (borders) as it came out of basic blackness.
This was my kind of sound. I like imaging, resolution, clairity and 3-D depth. Well here it was. Oh Yeah
Cut after cut, and song after song, it was there, and as I mentioned about the transformer charging up, it was getting better every cut we played.
I won't say the difference was "startling" but it certainly was clearly evident.
Keith, Hajime, and myself just kept looking at each other somewhat amazed at just how good things were begining to sound.
So Keith asks if we would mind helping him "spike" the Sophias. Each Sophia weighs 160# with a very slick featureless finish, which means no hand holds, making spiking a speaker on a wooden floor a real adventure for a single person.
So we spiked them one at a time and decided to fire them up for anothe listen to see if even the spiking might make a difference.
Well hold on to your horses, it DID, with a capital D!!!
Hello Bass quality all over again. They now reached lower, and played tighter than before, by a good margin.
Dynamics (even in the mids) was now improved to a clear and noticable degree. Those two simple changes made this a different system, than what I heard when I walked through the door.
Keith was all smiles
as well he should have been. This system had transformed itself, inspite of the room acoustic limitations.
That is one way I measure how good a system sounds. If it makes me smile, then I know I am listening to something special. We were all smiling by now
It was sounding much like the way I know I like a system to sound.
Did it sound as good as the Puppies in the Pro Room? Are you kidding? It spanked that much more expensive system all over the place.
On top of that, even at loud levels it was relaxed, and quite good tone wise.
I have to admit it was sounding very good. I was pleased to hear it because even though I was impressed from the very begining, it now sounded as good as only a handful of systems, I have heard in private residences.
And the good thing is, Keith has several things he can do acoustically that will move it up even another notch.
This was one great listen, and I look forward to hearing where it might go from here.
I think Hajime also was very impressed, but I'll let him speak for himself.
We did most of our listening in the sweet seat, each spending time there and then switching off.
Definately a fun time.
Thanks Keith, . . and Hajime nice seeing you again.
So in conclusion, the Denon/BAT/Wilson show turned out to be a very nice session indeed.
