hemster
Global Moderator 
Particle Manufacturer
...still listening... still watching
Posts: 51,950
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Post by hemster on Oct 27, 2013 23:34:18 GMT -5
I have only had a short listen, about half and hour during lunch, to my Airmotive 4's in my office at work. Which is not a super great environment, small and highly reflective and they were simply plugged into my iPhone (via an Emotiva MSR 1 metre interconnect) playing some lossless tracks. So far I'm impressed, Michael Buble in particular sounds very natural. I had several requests to turn it up, so even in the greater office area they sounded pretty good. More reviewing when I get home. Cheers Gary You may be in the minority using Michael Buble as test material... just sayin'!   |
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Post by Gary Cook on Oct 27, 2013 23:42:39 GMT -5
I have only had a short listen, about half and hour during lunch, to my Airmotive 4's in my office at work. Which is not a super great environment, small and highly reflective and they were simply plugged into my iPhone (via an Emotiva MSR 1 metre interconnect) playing some lossless tracks. So far I'm impressed, Michael Buble in particular sounds very natural. I had several requests to turn it up, so even in the greater office area they sounded pretty good. More reviewing when I get home. You may be in the minority using Michael Buble as test material... just sayin'! I didn't think ACDC (at my usual volume) would go over very well in the office  Cheers Gary |
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Post by Gary Cook on Oct 28, 2013 4:12:07 GMT -5
I arrived home had dinner and then set the AM4's up on the MacMini in my home office, using the headphones output. That's how they will stay connected until the Behringer UCA202 DAC arrives, hopefully only a week. I do like the rubber insulators in the kit, the larger ones when placed at the front give an nice tilt upwards, they are also toed in to meet just behind my head in the normal listening position. Almost enough as the AM4's are sitting on my screen shelf which is 100 mm or so off the desk top. So far I have listened to The Eagles Hell Freezes Over all the way through and it's already plainly obvious that they are easily the best computer monitors I have ever heard.
I can reiterate Boom's Norah Jones comments, it's just like she is right here in the room, breathing, altogether a very up close and personal sound. For a change of pace I tried the SACD version of DSOM, Time is tick tick boom, an amazing sound from something so small. On Money, they throw a sound stage which is way wider than their placement, something I didn't expect. There is some height to the sound stage as well ,with a little depth. Saxophones in particular sound so life like and pianos are grand.
These are all tracks that I know extremely well, what I am not used to is listening to them in such a close environment and at the same time experiencing such great sound. I'll do some more listening and then come back with a further review when the DAC is in place. What I will say is if you spend any time at your computer and listening to music then you just have to have a pair of AM's. You are insulting your ears if you don't.
Cheers
Gary
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Post by jmilton on Oct 28, 2013 9:14:23 GMT -5
"...pianos are grand."
Yuck, yuck...I like what you did there.
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Post by Boomzilla on Oct 28, 2013 10:37:31 GMT -5
Garbulky comes today to tomorrow to pick up my AM4s. He'll be writing about them too. Although the AM4 speakers won't be "keepers" for me, it's ONLY because I have so many other world-class speakers available.
I have reinforced (repeatedly) the notion that without 15 minutes of warm-up play, the AM4s just don't sound their best. Once warmed up, they continue to astonish.
This has to be the best "value speaker" of all time!
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Post by Gary Cook on Nov 1, 2013 0:24:33 GMT -5
Spent a long time last night working in the home office, made much more pleasant listening to the AM4's. They seem to have loosened up a little bit and are sounding sweat. Ever so easy to listen to for hours on end, no fatigue there. What amazes me still is their ability to produce quality localised sound, that is quite solid at my desk, but doesn't intrude out into other areas of the house. They are especially killer on female vocals, I listened to DK twice through, very nice.
I think I've locked in their sound now so it will interesting when the Behringer UCA202 DAC arrives, hopefully early next week, to see what sort of difference it makes.
Cheers
Gary
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Post by garbulky on Nov 1, 2013 1:45:11 GMT -5
Spent a long time last night working in the home office, made much more pleasant listening to the AM4's. They seem to have loosened up a little bit and are sounding sweat. Ever so easy to listen to for hours on end, no fatigue there. What amazes me still is their ability to produce quality localised sound, that is quite solid at my desk, but doesn't intrude out into other areas of the house. They are especially killer on female vocals, I listened to DK twice through, very nice. I think I've locked in their sound now so it will interesting when the Behringer UCA202 DAC arrives, hopefully early next week, to see what sort of difference it makes. Cheers Gary I haven't had time to hook up those airmotiv's yet but you can bet a review is coming! I would be interested to hear your thoughts with it coupled to the UCA 202 gary as I have the same DAC too. Maybe I can do a UCA vs XDA-1 + passive pre comparison. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2013 6:56:24 GMT -5
as garbulky knows in my experience with the a202 and AM4's...its just a GREAT match for such a low price...cant wait for mine to be back up and running (should be soon the adjuster is coming today) makes work go by so much more quickly with high qulaity sound playing
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Post by Gary Cook on Nov 1, 2013 16:53:33 GMT -5
as garbulky knows in my experience with the a202 and AM4's...its just a GREAT match for such a low price...cant wait for mine to be back up and running (should be soon the adjuster is coming today) makes work go by so much more quickly with high qulaity sound playing It was based on your recommendation that I decided to try the UCA202 with the AM4's. So it's on your head if it doesn't work out Cheers Gary |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2013 16:56:41 GMT -5
Well since it was cheap. Ill give you the 30$ if you hate it. But i highly doubt you will |
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Post by Gary Cook on Nov 11, 2013 22:13:15 GMT -5
Well the UCA202 finally arrived today, can't wait to give it solid try out. Should be interesting to see (hear) the difference to the internal DAC in the MacMini. Review later tonight when I get home from work.
Cheers
Gary
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Post by Gary Cook on Nov 12, 2013 3:52:24 GMT -5
Home, quick dinner and then plug in the UCA202 after playing a few tracks via the MacMini headphones output to the Airmotive 4's. Establish a base line, which does sound pretty good I must say. Then swap the wiring over to the UCA202, adjust the volume to match and line up my usual selection of test tracks. Wow that's a noticeable difference, particularly the highs and the noise floor is a lot lower. Clarity is up a notch as well, imaging is much the same, still great. must be a feature of the AM4's. That's a very worthwhile $A27 well spent, thanks for the recommendation
Cheers
Gary
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Post by garbulky on Nov 12, 2013 5:06:01 GMT -5
Home, quick dinner and then plug in the UCA202 after playing a few tracks via the MacMini headphones output to the Airmotive 4's. Establish a base line, which does sound pretty good I must say. Then swap the wiring over to the UCA202, adjust the volume to match and line up my usual selection of test tracks. Wow that's a noticeable difference, particularly the highs and the noise floor is a lot lower. Clarity is up a notch as well, imaging is much the same, still great. must be a feature of the AM4's. That's a very worthwhile $A27 well spent, thanks for the recommendation Cheers Gary Hi Gary! Glad you liked it! I think it's one of the easiest $30 I ever had to spend. And for recording, it didn't let me down either. I bought it solely for that and then was surprised at its DAC quality. |
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Post by Gary Cook on Nov 12, 2013 15:19:54 GMT -5
Home, quick dinner and then plug in the UCA202 after playing a few tracks via the MacMini headphones output to the Airmotive 4's. Establish a base line, which does sound pretty good I must say. Then swap the wiring over to the UCA202, adjust the volume to match and line up my usual selection of test tracks. Wow that's a noticeable difference, particularly the highs and the noise floor is a lot lower. Clarity is up a notch as well, imaging is much the same, still great. must be a feature of the AM4's. That's a very worthwhile $A27 well spent, thanks for the recommendation Hi Gary! Glad you liked it! I think it's one of the easiest $30 I ever had to spend. And for recording, it didn't let me down either. I bought it solely for that and then was surprised at its DAC quality. For people who spend any time at their computer listing to music the Airmotive's (4's, 5's or 6's) have to be on their list of must haves. For me the fact is I will spend more time there than I do in the lounge listing to the main system. The UCA202 just adds a little icing. Cheers Gary |
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Post by Boomzilla on Nov 27, 2013 7:09:02 GMT -5
After Thanksgiving, Garbulky has promised me that he will take some time to listen to the Airmotiv 4s and post his comments. I'm VERY eager to hear those comments because I respect Garbulky's ears. In the mean time, I'm down to the fewest speakers that I've had in house for months, so maybe it's time to look at some Stealths for Christmas? For anyone who has heard both the Airmotiv and Stealth lines, could you comment briefly on the similarities and differences between the two?
Thanks & Happy Thanksgiving - Boomzilla
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