[Danny Richie]

I don't have much time to spend on this so will have to keep in short.

I just wanted to give you guys some info about our room and the performance that we were able to achieve over the coarse of the show.

We got a really late start due to the transmission on the Suburban giving out and us arriving late. Dave and others got there late as well. So our set up time was limited. And we had a list of problems to overcome.

First off the Reference Line amp that Eric brought wasn't playing well with the buffer. That amp must have had an odd input impedance or something. It could be that sharing the load with a pair of servo amps for the Super-V was causing a problem. This thing was a massive solid state amp that sounds great, but it just wasn't working out.

So we dropped in my little 15 watt battery powered tube amp from Dodd Audio. It didn't have a lot of power or dynamics but sounded beautiful. It was what we had and we went with it.

We had great sound the first day, but the huge bass suck out caused by a big hole in the wall leading into the kitchen area and with only 15 watts of power to driver the upper ranges with, we clearly weren't showing the bass capabilities of the speakers.

The first night (after hours) we built a wall in the room to block off the hole to the kitchen area. Yes, a trip to Lowe's for lumber and tools. This gave us back some missing bass response.

We also got the hard drive off the wall wart and plugged into a batter buss. We didn't have the cabling for that the first day. Yes, we were making cables that night. Plugging the hard drive into a battery buss made a big difference and sounded much better.

We then added a pair of sealed box servo subs to the back corners of the room and ran them out of phase from the front of the room in a "swarm" configuration. We had them set for 25Hz and down. So really they were just filling in the foundation in the lower end. It wasn't really too present on most music, but with anything that had really low bass it really help pick up that bottom end loss that the room was still giving us. Now we had the low end response that the Super-V's alone give me in my own home.

So day two was not bad at all. The system was completely off the grid except for the servo amps. Imaging was really good and layered. The vocals were smooth. Highs were clean and not harsh at all. The Jupiter cap upgrade on the Super-V is a real winner. I could listen to those speakers all day, and I think I did. There was no noise floor to speak of. The system was dead quite.

The whole system was exceptional and now several levels above where we were last year with a similar set up. Part of that also had to do with the new Mach 2 Audio modified Mac Mini that was now off the grid as well. And part of it had to do with the new DAC from db Audio Labs that is a new high res model that was also off the grid. And the whole system was just under $10k. It might have been one of the least expensive rooms that was there.

First thing day three the power supply in the little tube amp gave out. 

So back in went the big Reference Line amp. This time we drove it with Gary's new pre-amp (battery powered of coarse). The new pre-amp drove the the Reference Line amp really well plus the four servo amps that were also hooked up to it. Now we really had dynamics out the wazoo. It was a great sounding amp giving up very little to the tube amp. I felt a small amount of lushness in the mids were missing and the top end was a little sharper or a little more aggressive but only by very small amounts. Over all it was a great amp.

So our sound changed from day to day, but over all it was pretty good across the board. Our attention to the room acoustics and treatment via curtains and PI Audio diffusers really make a big difference and put us a leg up on most of the others there at the show. So listeners got to hear more of our system and less of the room issues.

This year more than any other I heard more people tell me and the guys in our room that this was the best sounding room at the show. Some even came back over and over or from day to day to hear it all over again.

And again Steven Stone of the Absolute Sound picked our room as Best Sound (for the money).   

[Danny Richie]

Link to Steven's show report: http://www.avguide.com/blog/rmaf-2011-report-digital?page=2

[dBe]

It is great fun being in the room with all of Da Boyz.  There is always the "What do we do to get the BEST sound that we can?" mentality and then we go for it.  If we had to build a room within a room we would do so, I think.

I was very, very happy with the room sound.  The Jupiter cap is THE deal on the p-Audio driver.  Highs are bell like.  NO ONE believed that it was a compression driver and I asked a lot of people if they could tell.  Great job, my man.

The Tranquility Hi-Rez DAC is amazing!  This was its' first time out and I was won over by the transparency and extension of the DAC.  The design team did a fabulous job on that baby.  I'm going to be out more $$$ very soon.  I don't mind at all.

The Mach2 is stellar at supplying the ones and zeroes.  Being on battery power takes it to new heights of performance and lows in noise floor.

I love battery power.

Thanks again for allowing me to be part of an exceptional experience, Danny.  Ya'll ROCK!   

Steven, thanks again.  I love to watch you bob your head to the toons.

Dave

[S Clark]

Congrats for the kudo's from TAS!  Best Sound for the money is sort of what GR-Research is all about, so winning this category back to back is no surprise.  You guys really put a great room together, and it was fun to hang out in there.

[TrungT]

Congratulations - Best Sound (for the money)
 

[LarryB]

I reach a similar conclusion in my own show report, which I hope to finish tomorrow.

Larry

[Vapor Audio]

Congrats Danny!  Didn't realize you had all those problems to deal with ... nothing brings out unexpected problems like a show.

You definately had the best bass of the show, it was rich, powerful, and full of tone without any noticable peaks or dips.  I've always loved OB bass, and yours was just perfect.

[Hank]

Danny:  congratulations on the Absolute Sound award!
And, thanks to the guys who helped you out.

[SoCalWJS]

Congratulations to Danny and all who helped! This pretty much was the conclusion that I came to myself. There were some other rooms that had as good of sound for a whole lot more money, and there were some rooms with sound that was as good down to about 35-40 Hz (guesstimate), but not both for anywhere near the price.

Any chance you'll list the complete configuration at some point? (cables, software, how the crossover to the "swarmed" subs was managed [and what the heck is a "swarmed" sub?- just out of pahse? what is the thinking behind that], power conditioning/regulation/BUSS, etc.)

Curious how the music server was handled. I saw an Amarra screen as well as iTunes.

Any guidelines on how the diffraction panel positioning was decided upon would be nice. I talked with Dave about it a little bit, but details (read: memory) are lacking.

Any other tweaks you used?

[Tyson]

The Super V's are literally an order of magnitude less expensive than the other speakers I heard at the show that were in the same performance level. 

Of course I run Super V2's (haha, I just made that name up!), so I'm probably a tiny bit biased

The thing that really impressed me this year with the Super V's (over last year) is the tone.  They sounded much warmer and emotionally involving. 

Congrats on the TAS recognition!

[jtwrace]

The thing that really impressed me this year with the Super V's (over last year) is the tone.  They sounded much warmer and emotionally involving. 

In your opinion is that tone more accurate to the real thing?

[rollo]

In your opinion is that tone more accurate to the real thing?

  Sorry but I must add some facts here. Accurate to what ? as a Trumpet player the room I'm playing in has a lot to do with the tone. I perfer a warm room room as opposed to a bright room. Why ? because I do not care for the sound. It is real and accurate but not to my taste. It is still a live trumpet but sounds shrill, bright and over the top.
   Same for Halls. Much perfer Carnegie Hall to Lincoln center. Again both live events but different acoustics. Same piano different sound.
   So back to Tysons comment. It sounded warmer. Possiblly closer to Tyson's perception of the real thing.  Thats it . There is no true live reference othr than the one "one" perfers.
   Hey maybe this new "Qol" technology will finally bring us all closer to real.



charles
SMA

[Tyson]

Jason,
It all comes back to mic placement and audience seating.  Personally, I prefer dead neutral, but if a speaker is gonna err, I prefer it err on the side of warm rather than the side of cold when it comes to tone.  Last year I thought the SuperV's leaned to the side of cold, this year they leaned on the side of warm.  That's a good thing, IMO.

Here's why - as a listener, I sit in the audience for live performances.  The type of sound I hear from that location is tonally different than what I'd hear sitting on stage next to the musicians.  But, where are the mic's usually placed?  Right, pretty darn close to the musicians.  To me, this tips the tone of the recordings toward cold, and using a cold speaker in playback exacerbates this problem.  Again, dead neutral is best, IMO, but almost no speakers are dead neutral.  So given that choice, I'd lean toward a slightly warm sounding speaker, than a slightly cold sounding speaker.

[dmccombs]

Curious how the music server was handled. I saw an Amarra screen as well as iTunes.

Amarra and Pure Music both use iTunes to manage the music library and to provide the user interface where songs/albums/playlists are selected.

In addition Amarra and Pure Music have a window for their program that is actually playing the music, so you can select playback options (i.e. Memory Play).

So when using Amarra or Pure Music you will see two windows.  One being the Music Player and one for iTunes (Music Library).

Darrell
Mach2 Music

[alienderivative]

Rollo and Tyson make excellent points and on top of those is the individual differences of our auditory system, something rarely discussed.

[nickd]

Congrats on a good showing Danny, Gary & Dave.

I heard the room Sunday and thought it was quite good indeed. As good or better than anything I heard walking room to room. I too am biased (I am a Super V owner) I thought the Reference Line amp sounded amazing using Gary's pre.

I do get better low bass (and deeper) in my room with the Super V's than Danny had at the show. But my room is smaller and has a better shape. It was also nice to finally meet Gary. I have a project for him now. and can't wait to see what Danny is working on with the new drivers on display.

can't wait to get back again next year!

[dbarnet]

Danny,
Thank you for your synopsis on the 2011 RMAF. I only wish that I could have attended the show. I do have a few questions though.  Day two, “The system was completely off the grid except for the servo amps. “ I would assume that these are the Direct Servo Subwoofer Amp’s A370PEQ, provided in the kit. What can be done to improve the amps performance? Given the fact that these amps are included with the kit I would consider them a bargain.  Day three “so back in went the big Reference Line amp”. I assume that the Reference line amp was driving the top end and the bass was being driven by the Servo Subwoofer Amps. Is this the case? I just wanted to make sure.
The Best to you………. David

[nickd]

Hi David,
No need to improve on the A370PEQ amps. They are quite good
I suppose you could put a nice powercord on them but the bass on the Super V is really as good as it gets if you have 3+ feet behind them to let them hook up to the room. There are many tweeks that can be done up stream from the Super V that will add to enjoyment. I have used a Krell 403E on mine and the Speaker was not limiting the resolution. They play what you put in. Front end, amp, cables and room are where to "hot rod" if you own the Super V's.

And yes the Reference Line amp only drove the Mid / Tweeter of the  Super V at the show. The woofers need the servo control and eq provided by the A370PEQ amps to play as deep and low in distortion as Danny intended.

[dbarnet]

Hi David,
No need to improve on the A370PEQ amps. They are quite good
I suppose you could put a nice powercord on them but the bass on the Super V is really as good as it gets if you have 3+ feet behind them to let them hook up to the room. There are many tweeks that can be done up stream from the Super V that will add to enjoyment. I have used a Krell 403E on mine and the Speaker was not limiting the resolution. They play what you put in. Front end, amp, cables and room are where to "hot rod" if you own the Super V's.

And yes the Reference Line amp only drove the Mid / Tweeter of the  Super V at the show. The woofers need the servo control and eq provided by the A370PEQ amps to play as deep and low in distortion as Danny intended.

Nickd,
Thanks for the clarification. I am in the process of building the Super-V’s right now. I started with the cabinets and I hope to purchase the kit in a couple of months. I am also working on my room acoustics. I will be driving the Super-V’s Mid / Tweeter with a pair of ASL Hurricane 200 DT’s in triode mode. The amps are driven by a Manley Steelhead Phono preamp. I am using a nice English made turntable the Nottingham Analogue Hyperspace with a Shelter 90X cartridge as my front end. I lost my CD collection and my old system in a divorce so I am starting over. I got to keep my record collection though.
The Best to you…..David

[xsb7244]

What is this Eric Reference Line amp?  Pictures please.