[audiojerry]

Lastly, I don't remember anything about making propositions to a Deer

Interesting - two horny entities in the same photo?

Thanks for your insights, Eric.
The Superphon must be special. I want a shootout between the Superphon and the SAS 10A.

[Marbles]

Lastly, I don't remember anything about making propositions to a Deer

Interesting - two horny entities in the same photo?

Thanks for your insights, Eric.
The Superphon must be special. I want a shootout between the Superphon and the SAS 10A.

Jerry, I spoke to Steve today as I wanted to hear the SAS 10a as well.  I had forgotten that I had looked at his pre previously (only on his website) and had turned it down because a lack of remote control.  In our conversation today, Steve made it seem like there might be the possibility of a remote in the future, but certainly no promises were made.  If he can get a remote, then I will look forward to listening to his pre.

Eric, thanks for your thoughts....um no...the picture was not "doctored" that was you making those "doe" eyes  

[drphoto]

I would concour with everything Eric said, especially regarding Mr & Mrs Marbles' hospitality and their great kids.

In regard to audio....I was especially pleased to find out that the Straley wire could stand up to the big dollar stuff, particularly as I had talked my friend into buying a set! It worked wonders in her setup....the little entry level Onix SP3/Ref1 combo. Really opened up the sound stage and detail. Guess this proves that even modest systems benefit from decent cables. Nice that there is a low cost solution. It was weird how bad the Straley IC sounded w/ the Schultz speaker cable. And I could swear there was a drop in level. Maybe it wasn't an absolute SPL drop, but just compression?

The Salk speakers were beautifully crafted and sounded great, but I really liked the Sasson speakers. Totally cool design.(but boy were they (literally) a pain to move. I mean each one weighs nearly as much as me!) They couldn't play as low as the Salks in the fairly large room, but did everything else right in my book. Tonally spot on, completely cohesive, and fast, fast...fast! Even though there may have been a lack of deep extension...the bass sound really accurate, not just resolving the bass guitar from the kick drum, but allowing you to really hear the character of the bass instrument. The mids were wonderful. Very neutral. Overall very relaxed sound, in the sense that the music just flowed out w/ no sense of strain or edginess.

Anyway, great time as usual. Good to see Eric again, meet Tom, Steve and Robert and of course, play kickball!

[nancy]

I was a "newby" to the process.  I knew that I loved great music and Dr.Photo taught me how to love (and spend money on) great sound.  While I thought I would probably have a pretty good time sitting around and listening to good music played on a couple of great systems, I was really quite pleasantly surprised by the whole event!  Mr./Mrs. Marbles were perfect hosts, their children some of the nicest kids I've been around, and all of the folks I met were simply pretty awesome.  While some of the technical language is new to me and in many ways resembled Greek,  I certainly enjoyed the various comparisons and could absolutely appreciate the difference in sound.  Just for the record, the little system that I have (Onix SP3/Ref1) in combination with the Straley wire sounds incredibly good for the money.

Thanks to Marbles for hosting the event, to Dr.Photo for including me, and to all who were there for making me feel so welcome!

Nancy

[audiojerry]

Hey Marbles,
Sorry for not responding sooner, but for some reason, I no longer receive notifications when a post is made to a thread I'm following.

I can't believe Steve is looking into a remote - he's such a purist. Besides, how would you implement a remote with two manual volume controls? I hated the idea of going to two separate volume controls, but I had to bite the bullet because I couldn't give up the sonic benefits. Steve initially modified my 10A to use only a single volume control, but this noticeably compromised the sonics. I wasn't positive that it made a difference until I compared mine side-by-side with a dual volume control version. I immediately demanded that Steve convert mine back to a dual version.

I'm always open-minded - that's why I was willing to audition the 10A in the first place when I was very happy with my MiniMax. The 10A easily exceeds anything I've heard including pre's listing for $10k. A friend and fellow AC member has upgraded his system in a big way moving to $16k Dynaudio C4's, and $27k Atmasphere OTL's. That's $43k. Guess what - his pre is the 10A.

But the dual volume controls are a real PITA. I've adapted my listening habits to listen at lower volume settings and accept the fact that I can't crank easliy it up when the mood hits me. It's also a challenge to get a precise left/right balance.

[Marbles]

Jerry, he was going to look into the single volume control again...

I don't think he has found the answer he is looking for yet.


To all attendee's, thank you for the kind words regarding my family.

Nancy, it was a pleasure to meet you.  The Good Doc has overachieved  

[Steve]

Hi Audiojerry,

     Yes, I have looked, a little, for a remote but no luck so far. If I find one that fits my needs, I can have it as an option. Any links would be appreciated from anyone. But the design can't hurt the sonics. As Audiojerry said, I am a purist.

     I am again testing a single volume/balance control design again, but it will take some time.  

[JoshK]

try dantimax.dk iirc...mikkel offers a really nice solution for a very reasonable price.  If you want a similar but much more pricey solution, welborne labs offers a similar kit.  Then there is Bent which offers a killer mechanical solution to a stepped attenuator.

[Robert C. Schult]

hi.

[Jay S]

Sounds like you guys had a great time!  

I had read a bit about APL's SS mod to a Marantz cdp.  Alex has suggested to try it but have been way too busy lately and I'm still tweaking the setup of my TRL/Marantz SA14... which is *very* sensitive to power cord changes.

[Marbles]

The Salk speakers were beautifully crafted and sounded great, but I really liked the Sasson speakers. Totally cool design.(but boy were they (literally) a pain to move. I mean each one weighs nearly as much as me!) They couldn't play as low as the Salks in the fairly large room, but did everything else right in my book. Tonally spot on, completely cohesive, and fast, fast...fast! Even though there may have been a lack of deep extension...the bass sound really accurate, not just resolving the bass guitar from the kick drum, but allowing you to really hear the character of the bass instrument. The mids were wonderful. Very neutral. Overall very relaxed sound, in the sense that the music just flowed out w/ no sense of strain or edginess.  ...

I concur with a lot of what the Doc says about this speaker.

I would also add they imaged better than almost every other speaker I have ever heard.  I can't think of one that images better.  If Steve ever gets a bass module (sub module) for these to sit on, I think he will have an incredible speaker that would be hard to beat.

[Robert C. Schult]

Marbles,

Great time at your place. The kickball game was a fun break from all the evaluating of gear. I always look forward to your get-togethers!

NICE JOB ON THE ROOM TREATMENTS. What a change from the last MarbleFest! I was apprehensive on what kind of sound I would be getting from the Ridge Street Sasons without that acoustically balanced left-versus-right setting as compared to before your room treatments. I felt the Sasons were giving about 90 percent of full capability and could have listened all day.

The Salks are beautiful speakers and very smooth sounding. Very nice improvement over the last set of speaks, all around.

Didn't do much critical evaluating between cables and I/C's, instead just enjoying the company and watching Eric try to club Robert with a chair...these audio events are dicey affairs.

A subwoofer for the Sason is in the works.  It will be configured as a stand for each Sason Ltd (as a stereo pair) and powerful to 20 Hz. The Sasons will give the option (as now) of plugging the ports and using them as sealed boxes in this configuration.

Steve Rothermel
_________________
Associate
Ridge Street Audio