Spent a very pleasant Sunday afternoon visiting Jackman and his extraordinarily beautiful and gracious wife, Michelle, listening to some gear along with Jack's friend, Ron. Jack and Michelle are terrific hosts, and I'm sure anyone who has spent time with them would have nothing but the warmest regards for them.
I had the opportunity to hear first hand Jack's upgraded AVA T7 pre and Fetvalve 550EX amp, Solar Hifi's new H1 digital amp, and a revisit of Jack's Ellis 1801's and GR Research Criterion demos. As a bonus, I also had a chance to listen to a pair of Ron's Maple Audio interconnects. I am not posting reviews in the Critic's Circle because I did not spend nearly enough time with any single component under controlled enough conditions to qualify my listening as a critical review. I do feel I was able to get a reasonable sampling of what each is capable. As I describe each component, it is strictly my own views and not necessarily those of Jack or Ron, although we all verbally agreed with each other on a lot of comments that were made as we listened.
First up is Jack's AVA gear. I had heard them several months ago in my home prior to the upgrade, and I was very impressed. This time, I was even more impressed. As a pair, they have great synergy and strike me as being very powerful with unlimited head room. I'm fairly certain that the 550EX could easily drive just about any loudspeaker. The bass was authoritative, and music was conveyed with a sense of weight with full bodied images. The sound possessed much of the tubelike character that I am partial to, similar to my Audio Research amp. Top to bottom, there were no weaknesses that I could identify. My only gripe is the lack of a remote control for the T7. Listening was done with both his Ellis 1801 and my Dynaudio Special 25 monitors. We later listened to the same setup with the GR Research Criterions.
My experience with the Solar was very interesting. It was the main event for me on this visit, and Jack's AVA amp provided an excellent benchmark for judging the Solar's capabilities, since both are rated at 250wpc. After reading the early reviews - most recently Hantra's experience with this very unit, I was intrigued to find out for myself if a digital amp built for audiophiles could meet those expectations. I became even more curious after Jack warned me that he found some issues with it prior to my visit. With everything set up the way Jack auditioned it with his Ellis 1801, I immediately understood what Jack meant. The sound was anemic, dull, and closed in. Leaving everything else the same, we then switched to the Dynaudio's. Jack told me he believes the 1801 is rated at 6 ohm nominal, while the Dynaudio's are rated at 4 ohm.
The change for me was a revelation. It was as if the sun had just emerged from a cloudy day.
The Solar burst instantly to life. I found it to be extremely dynamic and lightning fast with transients, as well as open and transparent. Highs were clean and extended, and power was not an issue. In direct comparison to the AVA, the AVA seemed to be more authoritative with a fuller midrange, while the Solar seemed to excel at being agile and transparent.
It did not have a solid state or tubelike sonic signature. It does have its own sonic character, but I have a feeling that after spending more time with it it's something that I could get accustomed to. I now think I understand why Kevin is developing a tubed gainstage as an option. As favorably impressed as I was, I still felt one aspect that was missing to the sound was the organic tube bloom that I'm accustomed to.
An issue that might be of concern to Kevin, though, is how differently the amp behaved with the different loudspeakers. It's amazing how the Solar liked the Dynaudio as much as it disliked the Ellis. With the AVA amp, both the Ellis and Dynaudio sounded great. Could this be why Hantra may have had issues with the Solar as well?
Next up are my impressions of the Ellis 1801. I had listened to Jack's 1801 previously at his house and at mine. On both occassions, I felt that they had some very positive qualities, but they sounded lean, lacking midrange body and bass heft. Since then, Jack consulted with Dave and revised the crossover to try to achieve better balance. This time around, I retract any previous reservations I had with the Ellis. The bass was deep and punchy, and the midrange was full. Its strength in the past was its open and airy treble, and now it blended more coherently with the mid and low frequencies. Jack said that he installed a 2 ohm pad, I believe, on the tweeter to subdue the the hf output, but after listening to it with his latest AVA upgrades, I think we both agreed that the resistor may no longer be needed. It had a similar sonic signature to the Dynaudio Special 25's, but the 1801 was more limited in headroom and a little less extended at the frequency extremes. IMHO, this is a high compliment to the 1801 because it compared very favorably to a $5k speaker that I regard as my all time favorite.
Later, we set the AVA back up with the GR Research Criterions. I'm very familiar with the Criterions since I was the first to audition them when they were first released. Since then, Danny has revised the crossover, and may have added Black Hole dampening to them, but I could be wrong on that. I had high praise for them back then, and others' reviews followed suit, but there have been a few reviewers who did not concur. I thought it would be interesting to find out if my earlier views still held water, and to find out if I could identify some of the shortcomings that others reported hearing. Jack's speaker stands are only 20" high, and his normal listening position is about 8' from the speakers with the speakers about 6' apart. Jack, if you are reading this, please correct my approximations. With this configuration, the Criterions did not sound as good as I remembered them. They seemed a bit rolled off, the soundstage was collapsed, and imaging was a bit diffuse. When I auditioned them, I listened in a much more exaggerated nearfield arrangement on taller stands. So, as an experiment, Jack allowed me to move away his end table, pull the speakers in closer to the sofa by about 2', put the speakers closer together to about 4 1/2' apart, toe them in severely so they pointed pretty much straight at the ears, and tilted the face of the speakers slightly upward. We them sat down on the floor to lower our ears to a plain more in line with the tweeters. This changed the way the Criterions sounded dramatically in my view. All the shortcomings I mentioned were erased, and the music became much more engaging. The speakers seemed to almost disappear, the soundstage expanded, became deeper, and the imaging was more solid. Obviously, this was not an ideal to listen to speakers. I believe the Criterions are capable of singing and of offering a very involving and satisfying musical experience, but they require an intimate and extreme nearfield arrangement with severe toe-in, tall and solid speaker stands, and powerful amplification. With the 250wpc AVA amp, these little speakers had powerful bass and played to very high spl's without break-up.
Lastly, I wanted to comment on Ron's Maple Audio interconnect. I don't know anything about this wire or the company. It's a very stiff and heavily insulated wire with really beefy rca connectors. It looks like a very sturdy and well built cable. We replaced Jack's personal wire, which I will let Jack identify, with Ron's Maple, and the difference was enormous. This wire elevated the sound of Jack's system to another level, and was easily as signifcant as upgrading speakers or an amp. I have real difficulty believing that anyone who continues to advocate the use of generic, basic types of wire similar to the Belden designs that others have promoted on the AC, could not hear the dramatic difference a really well designed wire like the Maple audio can make. It was a no brainer and the shorcomings of Jack's wire, particularly in the home brewed wire Jack had were painfully obvious.
I would strongly recommend an audition of any of the components I discussed: AVA, GR Research, Ellis Audio, Maple Audio, and Solar Hifi. For myself I am putting the Solar on my short list. I want to become more intimately familiar with this new design and see how it compare with my Audio Research VT200. I'd put the AVA on my list also, but I don't think Frank would want to sell to me since we don't see eye to eye on some other aspects of audio.
I think I heard some outstanding gear this weekend. Thanks Jack and Michelle for a great time. Nice meeting Ron, too, another great audio friend.
