My good buddy Bernie came by Friday (250 mile trip one way) to join me on a trip to the local hi-end dealer here in Indy and later for a 2-man rave at my house. First about the visit to the local audio salon:
On the floor of the spacious listening room was a pair of Magico Q5s driven by Chord electronics monoblocks ($49K) and what appeared to be very exotic cabling. The Q5s have been on the floor playing for several weeks now so they must be very close to fully broken in. I had heard this same setup before and was anxious to get Bernie's take. Bernie is not a casual listener by any means. He sits in the sweet spot with PURPOSE...trust me...and he has a very discerning ear having listened to many, many different systems over the years. We played "Cannonesque" from Kirk Whalum's "Colors" cd with its demanding treble and bass information. We also played a vocal track from a Norah Jones cd. The Q5s, even though positioned a good 10 ft. from the front wall, did a respectable job on the low end with decent slam and control. But both of us noticed a slightly etched treble on Whalum's sax as well as on Jones' vocal. It was nothing terrible but seemed like enough of a problem that it could eventually lead to listening fatigue. Sitting against the front wall were the new McIntosh MC601 monoblocks that have replaced the venerable MC501s. The salon owner was kind enough to swap the 601s with the Chord monoblocks and then left us to our own devices. With the 601s it was immediately obvious that the "etchiness" was lessened on both the sax and the vocals. The low end was at least as good and perhaps slightly more controlled. That's something of a revelation when you consider that the McIntosh monoblocks at $12.5K are about 1/4 the price of the Chords....the admittedly aesthetically stunning Chords. If this whole hobby truly is "all about the music" then the choice between the MAC and Chord monoblocks becomes a no-brainer.
Now fast forward to my house. For some perspective here is my system top to bottom:
McIntosh MCD500 cd/sacd player
McIntosh C500 controller/preamp
Rega P3-24 with RB300/Exact 2
McIntosh MC501 monoblocks
Von Schweikert VR5 Anniversaries
Velodyne Optimum 12 Subwoofer (2)
MIT CVT Terminator 1 Pro XLR interconnects
Verbatim biwire speaker cables
Combination of Lessloss and DIY power cords
Bernie and I played the same two tracks on my system with the volume at roughly the same level as it was at the salon. I didn't express my opinion but rather opted to let Bernie, sitting in the sweet spot (the Capt. Kirk chair) go first. The first thing out of his mouth was "has the owner of the audio store ever heard your system?"...to which I replied "no". He said "well this sounds better than anything we heard up there today". Bernie went on to say that the etched nature of the sax and vocals was completely gone and that the soundstage depth was much greater with instruments more realistically placed in space. I agree with his assessment 100% and would add that the bass on the Whalum track seemed better controlled and more apparent. No doubt the bass being more apparent was due to the subwoofers but we're not talking about a one-note bass here. It was very controlled and articulate.
I probably should share that Bernie also owns the VR5 Anniversaries and is familiar with their sound and in some respects the VSA "house sound". Anyone familiar with Albert's speakers will tell you that they are a forgiving speaker...a musical speaker, whatever that really means. What it means for me is that you can sit and listen to them for hours (just ask my wife) and never experience any sort of listener's fatigue. But what is remarkable about VSA speakers is that the lack of fatigue doesn't come at the expense of resolution. I own ML electrostatics and Albert's speakers are similarly capable of incredible resolution.
OK I can hear your thoughts at this point..."so Gavin, you're saying that a $28K pair of VSA speakers can go toe-to-toe with the big bad Magico Q5s?" Well not really. What I'm saying is, based on what Bernie and I heard today, they kicked their aluminum butts. No crossed fingers here guys and if you have a stack of family Bibles you'd like me to swear upon I'd be more than happy to do so.
