[poseidonsvoice]

Hi fellas,

Just finished listening to Keith's AV123 Strata Mini's here in Austin. Keith is an excellent host, and makes great coffee as well! His system is composed of an SB3 with a DIY PS, Paradisea DAC w/NOS WE396a, and a Harmon Kardon receiver. Cables are an assortment of AudioArt interconnects and Speltz speaker cable. The room is a very decent size, about 15 feet wide, and at least 20 feet deep with adjoining dining room and kitchen all connected together. Beautiful house, ranch style. There was a decent sized flat screen tv in between the Stratas along with some other speakers from Onix/AV123 for a full 5 channel home theatre setup.

Most of the tunes were jazz pieces that I am familiar with, Dave Grusin, GRP Big Band, etc...Keith had told me that he felt the Strata's had a little too much tizzle on the top. Well, I thought, they were pretty damn smooth! Bass was a little ripe, but most of the time it was decently tight and I didn't think it was boomy except when turned up real loud. Typical for most ported systems I have heard. The midrange was glorious. Female voice especially was tantalizing with most of the sound coming from that planar magnetic (which I'm sure is quite similar to the Neo8's). Dynamics can be startling as well, but the room reminds you its there when you turn it up too loud (100 dB peaks I would imagine). Definitely a pretty shocking speaker for under $2K. Be that as it may, the soundstage was triangular and smaller than an open baffle setup like OB5's or NaO II's I've heard. The depth can go on forever with those loudspeakers. However, with some room treatment I'm sure the Strata's can compete as well. Very hard to find a full range speaker that does so much at $2K, makes you wonder why you would want more, until you hear a linesource or OB loudspeaker. The bass on the Strata's do kick the jams, but loses out on fine detail on the most complex passages. On home theatre, I was of course, bowled over by the sound. I don't think I would want more! Keith did have a DIY sealed sub with a 15 inch SoundSplinter woofer powered by a 750 watt amp! The entire house was shaking!

My visit was graciously welcomed by Keith's dog, Samson who is of the Weimaraner breed. He also has two cats who looked at me all coy but were very friendly as well.

Thanks again Keith!

Anand.

[emac]

Glad to hear that you liked the Strata Mini's.  The Skiing Ninja also offers a higher quality crossover (better parts) as well as No Rez for the Mini's, and IMO, it's a very nice improvement over the stock Mini's.  My guess is that the Ninja mods would address some of the problems that you were hearing. 

[poseidonsvoice]

Glad to hear that you liked the Strata Mini's.  The Skiing Ninja also offers a higher quality crossover (better parts) as well as No Rez for the Mini's, and IMO, it's a very nice improvement over the stock Mini's.  My guess is that the Ninja mods would address some of the problems that you were hearing. 

Exactly  Besides the room, Keith and I were discussing that crossover upgrades and NoRez would be the next best tweak. Thanks again for your impressions.

Anand.

[Nick77]

Anand
Thanks for the review, its was nice having you. I learned a bunch of stuff. Hope you enjoy your stay in Austin.

[jn316]

Ninja Masters/No-Rez/BH5 do take it up a notch. Here's my mod thread on AV123.

http://av123forum.com/showthread.php?t=26758

[pbrstreetgang]

Well Danny doesn't earn "Mr. Midrange" for nothing. All his speakers that I have heard have that midrange majic! Glad you enjoyed Austin and please let me know when you are here again. Sorry we couldnt hook up.

BTW how was Hanks?

[Nick77]

Ninja Masters/No-Rez/BH5 do take it up a notch. Here's my mod thread on AV123.

http://av123forum.com/showthread.php?t=26758

I upgraded my Rockets with Ninja boards for a huge improvment, but the million dollar question:
Should I invest additional funds into the Mini's or build the OB-7's like Trader? I cant wait to listen to the OB-7 and hopefully arrive at a solid decision.

[emac]

I upgraded my Rockets with Ninja boards for a huge improvment, but the million dollar question:
Should I invest additional funds into the Mini's or build the OB-7's like Trader? I cant wait to listen to the OB-7 and hopefully arrive at a solid decision.

My feeling is that you should invest in the Ninja mods for the Mini's and see what you think.  They're only about $650 and do make a big difference.  It may quell your desire for the OB-7's.  My guess is that the Ninja modded Mini's are on about the same level as the OB-7's.  Just different presentations. 

But the other nice thing is that if you wanted to sell the Ninja modded Mini's, you could likely make back most of what you've spent.  While used Mini's are not difficult to get for a good price, I've never seen Ninja modded Mini's available used.  So, it likely wouldn't be difficult for you to sell them if you wanted to move up to the OB-7's.  Though if you like the Mini's now, you likely wouldn't want to part with them with the Ninja mods.