Today’s audio gathering and equipment comparison, January 10, 2004
Associated equipment:
Ikea Rack
Skylan 28” stands, sand filled
Pioneer DV-656A w/ Dan Wright level 1 mods and bybee on digital out
Museatex DAC*
Eastern Electric Minimax preamp*
AKSA 100-Nirvana
Audience Conductor interconnects
Audience Maestro speaker cables
Equipment to test:
*Preamp’s:
Eastern Electric Minimax
Dodd Audio basic preamp
*DAC’s:
Museatex w/ Data II mods by John Wright
Scott Nixon tube DAC w/ upgraded PS, ERS lined case
Speakers:
Von Schweikert VR-1 small 2-way monitors
6.5” woofers, 1” tweeter
Vented box
90db?
GR-Research Diluceo’s
2 5.25” woofers, MTM configuration, Ribbon tweeter
Rear ported
Onix Ref 1, small 2-way monitors
5.25” woofers, 1” tweeter
Rear ported
Music:
Diana Krall, Live in Paris, track 11
Bjork Gling Glo, track 10
Peter Gabriel Up, track 2
Briefly (from Carl’s collection)
Bob Schneider: Lonelyland
Dave Matthews: Some Devil
Also, we listened to Yo La Tengo? And a great classical piece with loads of bass from Bruno as well as a violin solo. If you could both comment as to the exact titles, it would be appreciated.
Room:
11’ x 13’ hardwood floors, bay windows covering the entire wall behind the speakers; double door opening into a large foyer on one of the long walls.
Treatments:
8th Nerve corners and a ‘floorstander’ in the doorway opening
8th Nerve ‘homemade’ seams covering all 4 corners from floor to ceiling
Dense floor pads on the walls behind the listening position and at primary reflection points to speakers
1 large Yucca plant next to couch
Here’s the room photos:
Room Treatments:
The Speaker Comparisons:
We decided to first compare the speakers since that was the primary purpose of this gathering. We played the VR1’s first with Diana Krall, Bjork, Bob Schneider, and Yo La Tengo. I’m going to focus mainly on my own reactions and let Andy, Bruno and Todd chime in with their own comments.
[On a side note, at one point during testing, we connected Andy’s TACT room response correction device and saw that I had a dip and a peak in my room. I had a bass peak at about 40Hz and a dip at about 110Hz IIRC. Andy did a correction and we re-listened and I found it to be a little different but, not mind-blowing. I think using a TACT is a long-term solution that can only be appreciated after living with it for a while. We did this while using the Diluceo’s.]
The listening position was about 9 feet from speaker to the listener’s ear.
The VR1’s:
These were placed on 28” Skylan stands, about 2’ from the sidewall and 1’ from the rear wall, about 9’ apart. The tweeter was just about level with my ear but, a tad bit higher.. maybe an inch. An important note is that the VR1’s were not fully broken-in. They had about 50 hours on them. The manual says they need 100 hours before the highs relax.
Imaging:
The overall imaging from these speakers was pretty good. Vocals were centered and instruments were 3 dimensional… I could tell the guitar was to the left, piano to the right, etc. However, the speakers didn’t completely disappear or create distinct positions of the instruments.
Specifics about the highs and lows:
The highs and mids were forward but, warm. I didn’t find the highs fatiguing but, not exceptionally accurate either. I don’t know if this due to break-in or my room but, the demo pair I heard were better in the highs and not as hard sounding.
The bass was also very good, clean and articulate. It wasn’t exceptional, but very good. The Bjork track had a lot of dynamics and a stand-up bass. The VR1 didn’t quite get it. The bass suffered a little and the highs were a little odd in a way that they couldn’t accurately reproduce that bass. It was really close, though.
Overall, the speaker gave a good presentation that was a little midrange-heavy but, not bad. I will follow-up after these speakers have had another couple of weeks to fully break in.
Next up was the GR-Research Diluceo.
The Diluceo’s were placed on some 24” ‘stands’ initially but we moved them to the Skylan stands, which were a perfect height. We positioned them closer to each other than the VR1’s, about 7’ apart instead of 9’ apart.
The Diluceo picked up the 2 missing pieces of the VR1… tighter bass and smoother highs. With these 2 elements covered, the Diluceo’s sounded more accurate on the Bjork track.
The other thing the Diluceo’s accomplished was the separation of instruments within the soundstage. Listening to Diana Krall’s 1st and 11th tracks, I could definitely hear the piano’s size and location. This was a bit vague on the VR1’s but, was much more apparent with the Diluceo.
The Diluceo’s had nice, tight bass that added depth and realism to the music. I was very surprised at how well they made instruments sound like themselves.
So, overall, smoother highs and better instrument separation from the Diluceo’s is what I heard.
In some small cases, I thought they may have been a little too smooth or laid back for my tastes but, more often than not, I found myself enjoying them a little more than the VR1’s.
Lastly, the Onix Ref 1’s.
We placed the Ref 1’s on the Skylan stands in the same position as the Diluceo’s. The Ref 1’s first song was the Bjork track and the Onix’s provided a bright but smooth sound to her voice and the horns. The bass was punchy as well. The midrange was good but was overpowered by the highs.
The imaging was a bit thin; the stage didn’t have the depth of the 2 previous speakers. The Ref 1’s didn’t have the realism of the Diluceo’s because of their tipped up sound. Some of Bjork’s vocals were screechy to me and just made me cringe. Conversely, the Diana Krall tracks had more depth and weight to them and the Ref 1’s sounded very respectable reproducing Diana’s voice and capturing the impact of small changes… such as moving from pedal to pedal on the piano.
So, the detail is there, and somewhat ‘in-your-face’ to me but, it’s not overly harsh… there is a smoothness to it. If I had to keep these speakers, I’d probably want to rework the crossover.
Next… mini preamp comparisons:
Here’s the pre’s:
I call it ‘mini’ because this is the first time I’ve ever compared pre’s back to back and plan on doing another comparison later.
All this time we had been listening to the Eastern Electric Minimax. I chose to use this one because it’s dead quiet and very neutral. In fact, it’s so neutral and quiet, it pretty much sounds like solid state. Also, the Dodd has a bad hum and will be getting fixed when Gary is back from CES. We used Andy’s Diluceo’s for comparing the 2 pre’s….
There is nothing the Minimax preamp does wrong. However, where’s the romance of tubes? I would really like to experiment with different tubes, to get the warmth and life I know tubes can have. Otherwise, all I can say is that this preamp sounded very good, had no particular coloration. Ask me specifics and I’ll provide answers on this one…
Next up was the Dodd. The Dodd was livelier and more ‘tubey’ and had to me, a more musical character. I was very impressed with the sound (other than that #!%@ hum). If it weren’t for the hum, I’d say I prefer the Dodd to the Eastern for the livelier, warmer sound. Imaging seemed about the same. I’d say the highs are slightly more extended with the Dodd as well. The bass sounded about the same.
Lastly, we did some quick comparisons of the Scott Nixon tube DAC to my Museatex DAC that’s been modded by its creator to a much higher level.
This comparison was unique in many regards.
My DAC is of course my reference so, I’ll comment what the SN DAC did differently first:
SN seems to provide more bass and better imaging. However, the upper midrange and highs are not as forward as I like. Also, there was a ‘nasal’ quality to some sounds that I couldn’t understand. Some vocals that sounded open and clear on my DAC sounded a little more restrained on the SN dac.
Another thing I noted was that sounds seemed to end quicker and not linger… As in when a note stops, it stops, the decay doesn’t last as long as my DAC.
