[Jay S]

Guan and I hatched up a last-minute listening session at his place to see how the eAR Two would match up with his new Tyler Linbrook speakers.  We ended up trying several different combos, with interesting results.  I'll quickly recap the highlights here.  

Before that, here's a quick rundown of the equipment:

Sources:
- Sony NS-900V (modded with MXO2 clock and Furutech rhodium IEC socket)
- Sony XA777ES
- Cambridge Audio transport
- Custom pencil tube dac with DACT attenuator

Preamps:
- The DACT of the pencil tube dac (see above)
- Custom tube preamp

Amps:
- Acoustic Reality eAR Two
- Custom tube amp

Speakers:
- Tyler Linbrook (monitor + bass module)

Power filters:
- DeZorel Audio Reference Senior
- Quantum Symphony
- Quantum Qbar


Key Observations:

- The modded Sony NS900V was a better transport than the Sony XA777ES, with noticeably better details, treble extension, bass depth/tightness, air, imaging.  The XA777ES had a more "tubey" sound - fuller, rounder, less treble extension and slightly tubby bass.  We switched back and forth several between these 2 as transports

- The Cambridge Audio transport sounded pleasant but had a heaviness to the sound and had less detail than either Sony.  We didn't listen to it long.

- In spite of the clock, the Sony 900V is quite poor as a standalone redbook cd player.  Sound was quite veiled and sounded distinctly hollow.  As a result, we didn't listen to it much as a standalone redbook player.  

- Tyler Linbrook monitors sound superb - transparent, musical, balanced.  A bit more toe in added warmth and helped imaging to snap into focus.  These speakers are sensitive to toe-in and the image can be quite diffuse without enough toe in.  

- We were quite surprised, but connecting the Linbrook monitors to the bass module (via supplied DH Lab jumper cables) introduced grain and harshness to the sound from the midrange up that made listening somewhat uncomfortable.  While the bass module added bass extension and impact plus a bit of warmth overall, the bass was not as well integrated.  We suspect that the DH Lab jumpers are a severe limiting factor.  We actually started off running the monitors with the bass modules and were somewhat frustrated that the sound was bright and edgy.  Guan had the great idea to try the monitors alone.  

- The Linbrook monitors, along with the pencil tube dac and the eAR amp were very transparent.  We heard every small change quite distinctly.  This combo (minus the bass modules/jumper cables) produced the best sound of the day, by far.  It was very satisfying, detailed and musical sound that was very balanced from top to bottom (minus the last octave provided by the bass module).  Natalie Merchant sounded warm and relaxed, The Corrs MTV album sounded like there were performers in the room (Andrea Corr is 5'3").  Guan can tell you more about his CDs - they sounded good with this combo but I can't remember the names of the singers/songs.  

- The tube pre amp and amp added some tubiness to the sound when we tried them out.  The tube preamp in particular helped when we were still using the bass modules (and those suspect DH Lab jumpers...) but the music lost the transparency that we enjoyed with the passive pre.  As noted above, the best sound was without the tube preamp and tube amp.  

- The eAR amp can be paired with a resistive passive pre, in spite of its very low 8k ohm input impedance.  But the source plays an important role.  Running the analog outputs of the XA777ES (2v), we had the DACT opened up almost all the way (to 5 o'clock, 1 click short of unity gain) to get the loudness we were after.  Using the pencil tube dac (3.3v output voltage) gave us the option to play louder since we only had to open up the DACT to the 9 o'clock position.  I imagine that a transformer based pre would be an even more successful match since it would be more tolerant of low impedance loads.

- The Quantum Symphony made a clear and immediately noticeable improvement when switched on, and was even more apparent when switched off.  Literally, 1 second after Guan switched it off I yelled out "turn it on, please!"


Ok, its past 2am over here and that's what I can remember off the top of my head.

[TheeeChosenOne]

Great Review.

Can you please tell me what speakers have you compared the Linbrooks to.  

They are widely regarded as exceptional speakers.  I'm just trying to get a frame of reference as to where these speakers stand among the "Gods."   ..........

[icefox]

Oh what a shame, it looks like I missed a great party.  

[Guan]

Thanks for the great summary of our listening session, Jay.

For me, the biggest lessons learnt were:

simple + synergistic = better
The simpler the signal path, the more important it is that the various components synergise. The best sounding configuration only had one pair of interconnects, a digital cable and a single pair of speaker cable.

Tube pre's are not a universal panacea
The tube pre initially helped the system sound fuller and bigger but eventually when we got the right combination, the tube pre acted more like a 'band-aid' and actually detracted from tranparency and the impression of a live performance.

FYI, this custom tube pre is a simple but quite transparent design acting like a tube buffer with two 12AX7s in the signal path and only one pair of inputs. My other tube pre is a large CR Developments Kastor with balanced inputs/outputs, 12 tubes and 400watt separate power supply. This preamp is more transparent but I can still hear the pre-amps signature compared to the passive DACT.

Equipment:

eAR Two
Initially, I heard a little edginess and glare to the overall sound. So I thought, 'Aha!' it must be the digital amp as it was the new addition to the system. But that was certainly a premature comment. The amp just sounded better and better the more we played about with system configuration and speaker positioning. This amp is as close to a musical 'straight wire with gain' as I've heard. Very transparent, fast and coherent. Its performance is probably only limited by matching electronics and speakers.

Tyler Linbrook System
The Monitors by themselves sound great. Coherent, smooth, musical and transparent. I believe that they are voiced to sound a touch softer and more forgiving than other more 'hifi' sounding speakers. This is probably a good thing with bright or lean sounding recordings and equipment. The treble is not as exposed sounding or prominent as my nOrh mini-9.0 and PMC LB-1.

But, I do think the Monitors have some integration problems with the matching Bass Modules. With the Bass Modules, the system gains depth, foundation and scale but loses inner detail (cymbal decay, emotion in voices, image height) and bass quality and texture. Jay played a Sting track (can't remember which) that had very deep bass... the deep bass rumbles were there but at one point the bass line was supposed to push and retract like a slow heatbeat. The push was ok but the 'pull back' was missing! The output of the Bass Modules also feels subjectively less than that of the Monitors.

I consulted my friend who is a studio engineer and he said there must be some problems with phase, xo frequencies etc. He told me that it's not easy to make such a big speaker integrate properly using a purely passive xo. His solution was to have at least 4 amps and active xo's!

So more fun ahead with getting the best out of the Linbrook system. For those considering just the Linbrook Monitor. I recommend it highly

Quantum Symphony Pro
Being a little embarrassed, I deliberately didn't draw Jay's attention to the small black box sitting on top of my DeZorel AR Senior ac filter. But his eagle eyes spotted it anyway and he queried me about it. I told him it uses QRT technology that was supposed to "enhance" the ac power and make it more "efficient". The manual doesn't tell you much more either. But I will say that it certainly does something very postive and pleasant to the sound. I'm glad Jay noticed it too. This 'black box' also improved the picture of my 29" flat screen tv and home laptop monitor...    

Icefox: Sorry we didn't manage to include you but it was a very ad-hoc session. We'll arrange another get together soon and perhaps we can try your Symphonic Line mono's with the Linbrooks!

[Jay S]

Thanks for the added comments, Guan!  

I can't forget the beautiful and delicate shimmering cymbals that we heard (when we didn't have the tube preamp in the system).  The cymbals sounded appropriately like metal.  Each strike (even those closely spaced to each other) were distinct and clear, with wonderfully delicate decay.  This is not to detract from the rest of the frequency spectrum.  There was a wonderful sense of transparency, great nuanced voices and tight/fast/deep bass.  I am going to try Guan's passive pre in my system.  Maybe a tube pre does not produce the best synergy in my system...

[icefox]

Cool! It looks like you guys have acquired a lot of toys. Lets plan for a get together session. My humble contribution would be the taste of vinyl..... my CDP does not have too much work these days.

Your proposal of trying out the Tyler speaker at my place is also very welcome but I wonder we need a proper speaker stand to do it justice. BTW, Jay asked about my speaker. I am using the Harbeth Super HL5 on a 20" Fundation Designer 4 pole stand.

[Guan]

Yes, the cymbals were very telling! This was on the 2nd track of Silje Nergaarde's 'At First Light' album.

I'm just running in the new beeswax caps in my Mesa Baron but at the moment I don't hear the level of treble purity/detail provided by the eAR Two  The eAR is a stunning amp, folks!

I'm quite pleased that the Linbrook's Seas Excel Millenium tweeter is capable of such resolution. We must try the same track on your nOrh's. The Revelator tweeter should be just as impressive!  

Icefox: I would love to bring the Linbrook over to your place but just the Monitors are 55 lbs each and we'd need a relocation expert for the bass modules at 100 lbs per side   But what's a few pounds for the sake of trying out new combinations eh?

[soundguy3]

I can certainly concur with your sonic observations on the EAR MKII....I had the same experience, very transparent, very real sounding, like you are there.   It's too bad you did not have his pre amp, the Front EAR....it is right up there sonically with the EAR MKII.

Soundguy3

[kennethlhc]

I too, have a Symphony Pro, along with a ElectroClear and 2 BlueCircle BC86 MK II.  You may try the ElectroClear (also from Quantum) which also uses the same QRT technology but selling at a cheaper price.