|
Post by bluemeanies on Oct 26, 2017 19:56:46 GMT -5
Show you had to show the sopa. What am I going to do have to come down there's and make some homemade pasta and 🍷 You really hurt with soup...mmmm...mmmm..good
|
|
hemster
Global Moderator
Particle Manufacturer
...still listening... still watching
Posts: 51,920
|
Post by hemster on Oct 26, 2017 20:35:43 GMT -5
You mean Sopa del Mar? Regardless, an appetizing soup indeed!
|
|
|
Post by Boomzilla on Oct 26, 2017 20:40:09 GMT -5
It ain't grammatical - but that's what the restaurant calls it.
|
|
hemster
Global Moderator
Particle Manufacturer
...still listening... still watching
Posts: 51,920
|
Post by hemster on Oct 26, 2017 21:11:25 GMT -5
It ain't grammatical - but that's what the restaurant calls it. And here I thought you made it! Well, as long as it tasted good. That's what matters in the end.
|
|
|
Post by Loop 7 on Oct 26, 2017 23:03:03 GMT -5
What we had today was the Yamaha A-S2000... I find the A-S2000 just visually stunning. Yamaha really outdid themselves on the design.
|
|
|
Post by Boomzilla on Oct 27, 2017 6:08:30 GMT -5
Don't sound too shabby either!
|
|
|
Post by vneal on Oct 27, 2017 7:51:42 GMT -5
Back in the late 70s I had a Yamaha CA810 Integrated amp with matching tuner. The units still work at one of my brother in laws. I like the look but the upper end Yamahas are quite costly
|
|
|
Post by garbulky on Oct 27, 2017 9:18:14 GMT -5
Show you had to show the sopa. What am I going to do have to come down there's and make some homemade pasta and 🍷 You really hurt with soup...mmmm...mmmm..good It would be amazing if you gave Emosouth a visit!!
|
|
|
Post by Boomzilla on Oct 27, 2017 11:07:39 GMT -5
Back in the late 70s I had a Yamaha CA810 Integrated amp with matching tuner. The units still work at one of my brother in laws. I like the look but the upper end Yamahas are quite costly And they didn't used to be... But considering all the stuff you get (fully balanced from pre-in to speaker outputs, tone controls that switch themselves out of the circuit completely at their "flat" detente, high quality transformers and power supply, etc.) I can see how the prices got to where they are.
|
|
|
Post by Boomzilla on Oct 27, 2017 11:08:48 GMT -5
Show you had to show the sopa. What am I going to do have to come down there's and make some homemade pasta and 🍷 You really hurt with soup...mmmm...mmmm..good It would be amazing if you gave Emosouth a visit!! And the garbulky family will host! LOL
|
|
|
Post by garbulky on Nov 28, 2017 10:55:07 GMT -5
Once again, I got the pleasure of visiting mr and Mrs Bzilla for a lovely if impromptu visit! He had a set of Dynaco A25 speakers and I was interested in hearing them. The Dynacos are a set of unassuming old speakers. You will not look at them today and go “now there’s a looker!”. It’s a box, albeit with a nice wood polish to it and that’s about it. He turned on the system to some classical music and headed out to fix a watch I brought in – of which he’s something of an expert at doing. To be honest I was not expecting much. If you’ve been reading B’zilla’s Journey thread his impressions pretty much mirrored mine. Except I told him that perhaps he was being a bit harsh on them! He said that the tweeter was not extended and airy or in your face treble like more modern tweeters. And this was true. However, just like I thought when I listened to his vividly beautiful sounding but somewhat colored modded Heathkit tube monoblock amplifiers, “who cares?! These are fantastic!” No doubt, these are fantastic speakers! It produced a wide soundstage whose defining characteristic was that it was not short in height. It was actually unusually tall like that of a floor stander. mgbpuff mentioned he thought these units were strident when driven with a Marantz tube unit. But driven by the gorgeous Yamaha AS-2000 balanced integrated amp, the sound was the opposite. audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?media/yamaha-a-s2000-integrated-amplifier.8418/full&d=1477908673[/img] images.cdn.whathifi.com/sites/whathifi.com/files/styles/big-image/public/YamahaA2000side.jpg?itok=To2Mwv-E[/img]Look at that! The nice large soundstage also had a natural sense of space. I’ve heard speakers where you can produce a wide soundstage – like the Dahlquist DQ10’s, axiom m80’s, Tektion Pendragons. But sometimes the soundstage is wide, but not necessarily 100% natural feeling. These felt just right in the sense of space. The whole sensation of the sound was that it was relaxed, laidback, large and inviting. It was like visiting an old friend, sitting down and having a cuppa. No sense of urgency. Just a nice comfortable sound that is quite enjoyable. Sounds just appeared warm, fully found, and lifelike. Also the bass and upper mid range was sufficiently full compared to some of the speakers I’ve heard where the lower mid range tends to lack a bit of weight. I was about to ask him to turn the PSA S1500 dual 18 inch subwoofer OFF when he said it was off and I was hearing the speakers. Golly! Now they didn’t get as low as the lowest speakers, some of the low mid range/bass had a bit of cabinet chestiness (very little) compared to say the Pendragons. Though they have large drivers, the bass loses a bit of composure when pushed hard. But it didn’t really matter at all. Because when you listen to a speaker you have to listen to the sound as a whole not just to different parts. And this was an eminently natural sound. It’s not for rocking out at loud levels. It’s for realistic sound and realistic levels. For instance, I preferred these to the KEF LS50’s by a decent margin. I thought the tweeter though laid back had a slightly more natural tone than the Thiel tweeter did though it wasn’t as capable. It had a bit more coherence and naturalness than the Dahlquist DQ10 though the DQ 10 tweeter was a bit more extended. In fact in terms of natural sound, this ranks very high up in the speakers I’ve heard. The designer knew what he was doing – just like Thiel did when he did the 1.6. I loved it. When I heard how much he paid for it, I about fell out of my chair. Another deal of the century for B’zilla! Well done.
|
|
|
Post by garbulky on Feb 12, 2018 12:41:04 GMT -5
BoomzillaOnce again I had a very pleasant visit to the B'zilla's casa. This time our resident maestro has been hard at work at tweaking speaker positioning. He has custom rigged caster wheels on to his Tekton Pendragons. This allows him to dance things around MUCH easier. He had pulled the speakers forward and also pulled the seat forward. The result was impressive soundstaging with that reach out and touch you feel to it. Most improved was the center which was no longer muddy. I heard some flamenco music where I could clearly hear a guitar closer to me than the other in the living room. It also had impressive integration of the subwoofer providing some nice punch to things but not too much where it felt loose. The Oppo 205's DAC was the weak link leaving a little to be desired in tonal presentation being a bit too bright. It was as usual, a very enjoyable experience. Thanks again for having me.
|
|
|
Post by garbulky on Mar 18, 2018 22:32:25 GMT -5
Boomzilla And once again, I was guest to these two great folk This time, he had got two Klipsch 8 inch subs that he'd used underneat the Theil 1.6. Some new additions were ATS diffusors, And also The Schiit Saga He also had a RBH center speaker that's larger than you'd expect from the pictures. After some troubleshooting to correct a weird software glitch on the Oppo causing a channel imbalance, we got back to some great sound. It was my first experience with a diffusor. And personally I thought it wouldn't be that good. But I did feel that it contributed something different that I wasn't expecting. So diffusors are an interesting experience. We ended up having a very clear sounding soundfield that felt very clear in the mid range and treble. I felt some speaker and room treatment dancing around may help increasee the front to back depth of the image and overall envelop. This was the clearest that I've heard the mid range and treble. Previously room effects caused a more noticeable veil in the mid range that produced recessed vocals and slight muddiness which seemed to have been treated to a great extent. Norah Jones voice came through very clearly. I was quite impressed. The real surprise of the show was the Schiit Saga preamp. I expected it to sound grainy, and producing treble issues like some previous tube experiences . In this setup, I felt that the Saga actually felt very clear and didn't have that tube veil I'm used to from tube products. Engaging the tube buffer is like tunring on a "vivid" filter is the best way I can describe it. The effect is slight but noticeable. I found the effect pleasant and surprisingly clear. This tube must have some surprisingly low distortion characteristics. It would be interesting to see how the Freya performs. I've never heard a balanced tube device. The Klipsch subs were no competition for B'zilla's PSA dual 18 inch dynamo (or the dual basx 12 inch subwoofers) which was more articulate, extended lower, and coupled to the room better. But the Klipsch still were able to provide some sense of reasonable foundation for the bass at modest volumes. But what they did well was get the Theil's off the floor which apparently removed some room resonance issues and also got the tweeters at a better level to the ear. A surprisingly neutral coherent clear and pleasing sound was had. The tweeter did better than the last time I heard it and felt more neutral. Yamah S-2000 Once again thanks for the visit!
|
|
KeithL
Administrator
Posts: 9,945
|
Post by KeithL on Mar 19, 2018 10:06:55 GMT -5
Just a quick comment on the Schiit Saga..... Your experience with it is not at all surprising. While tube power amps add a variety of different colorations, for a variety of different reasons, the audible effect of a tube buffer or preamp should be a lot more subtle. The main effect should be a moderate amount of added second harmonic distortion. Adding second harmonic distortion is actually known to "increase perceived intelligibility" and "render voices more clearly audible above a complex mix". That's how most "sonic exciters", a few devices designed to improve intelligibility for the hard of hearing, and some "sound enhancers" for public address systems work. Many people find the sound pleasing - when applied in moderation (Remember the "Aphex Aural Exciter" used on the old Linda Ronstadt recording of Blue Bayou.... that's how it works.... although in that song it was rather over-applied). You will find a plugin that does it as part of the Izotope Ozone mastering plugin suite (among many others). And, if you want that effect in a hardware device, with a control for how much of it you apply.... you can get it here... (You also get another effect for "punching up the bass".) www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Exciter--aphex-exciter?gclid=Cj0KCQjwv73VBRCdARIsAOnG8u1ccuU1xkmbGibkztxifDZ9w33WJr2h4rd6ijrqxORgl3nHHCe0_74aAikEEALw_wcB
|
|
|
Post by audiobill on Mar 19, 2018 11:20:32 GMT -5
Boom -
Better yank that Saga out - all that "distortion and coloration" are impairing your musical satisfaction!!
|
|
|
Post by drtrey3 on Mar 19, 2018 12:09:10 GMT -5
Eh, I love a little tube distortion in my guitar amp. Heck, sometimes, I love a LOT.
Trey
|
|
|
Post by Boomzilla on Mar 19, 2018 20:51:10 GMT -5
The Saga isn't exactly "tube sound," to be specific... Yes, it does make the midrange bloom a bit, and yes, one can sometimes (not always, but sometimes) hear some tonal change to the bass - but the Saga (in its tube-buffer mode) is at least an order of magnitude less "tube-sounding" than a stock Dynaco PAS preamp. The closest thing I've heard to the Saga's tube sound are the Audio Research tube preamps that I've owned. The McIntosh C-220, even with its least-tube-sounding tube set, still announced its tube heritage far, far more than does the Saga.
What I like most about the Saga is that one can remotely switch between passive and tube buffer modes on the fly. The tube buffer mode is slightly louder than the passive mode (I'm suspecting that the paralleled impedances of the power amp and the subwoofer on each channel drag the voltage slightly down on the Oppo's outputs), but two volume clicks down on the tube buffer output (2dB per the Saga's calibrated ladder volume control) match the levels perfectly.
I'm suspecting that when the Mytek Liberty comes back for its second try, that the more robust buffer amps in the Mytek will completely do away with the volume difference of the Saga (passive to tube-buffer modes) - or not. We'll see...
But on certain music, that tube buffer can be magic. On other music, not so much. But it's fun to have the option.
|
|
|
Post by garbulky on Apr 3, 2018 10:36:20 GMT -5
|
|
novisnick
EmoPhile
CEO Secret Monoblock Society
Posts: 27,230
|
Post by novisnick on Apr 3, 2018 11:15:55 GMT -5
Thanks for posting the pictures garbulky ! The speaker looks as if the sides are wrapped in fine leather, wouldnt that be nice! 👍😁
|
|
|
Post by Boomzilla on Apr 3, 2018 18:21:59 GMT -5
Yeah, but all that black is just utt-bugley!
|
|