Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2009 12:49:07 GMT -5
Having been in the wine business for five years I was afforded some of the finest meals one could imagine, on a daily basis if I wanted to. A signature jokes originated during one of these memorable meals. When I tried something that was just out of this world, something magical, phenomenal that sent the senses soaring, I'd quip: “Don’t try this. It’s horrible.” More for me is the joke; that is, I want more of this meal or wine for myself.
I would like to say the same thing about the Emotiva 8.3 ERTs. “Don’t buy these. They suck.” More for me. Yay.
Well, I can’t say that. This isn’t a meal and I really don’t need to fill my house with the 8.3s. Oh . . and they don’t suck. That was a joke. Easy, Leonard. Lay down your pitchforks and put out those torches.
The ERTs arrived at my office this past Thursday much to the chagrin of the AA answering the phones and the Fed Ex delivery guy, I presume. One of the boxes had a chunk taken out of it but a later inspection revealed no damage. I was so excited to take possession of them that even though I was wrapping up an interview and driving the candidate back to the airport to catch his flight, I asked him if he minded we pop into the office to pick something up. As we walked into the office I turned to see his reaction and I dare say he did not expect to see two hulking boxes and a third companion piece (the ERM 6.3). This guy was almost as excited as me (there really isn’t anything like seeing delivery boxes for you in their glorious industrial tan color, is there?). It took three trips but we got them down in my automobile (where’s Long Duck Dong when you need him?). It was a sight to see this diminutive physician, originally from China, help me load these bulky boxes in the back of my car with glee.
Because of house guests I could not open the boxes until Friday evening. Since I had a friend coming over Saturday morning for a HT calibration, I decided to concentrate on two channel listening first and opted to leave the 6.3 in its box until Saturday. On Friday I got maybe four tracks into my listening session before my mother-in-law plopped down on the living room couch to send telepathic messages to turn the music down. That’s how mother’s-in-law communicate, by the way. Oh well, since I cut my deal with the wife to get her and her mom and my two boys out of the house the next day, I knew I had at least three hours of balls to the wall, window rattling fun ahead of me.
By 11am Saturday morning I had my wish.
SET UP
I used a basic set up for this test in my room (16 x 18 x 12). It didn’t take long for the ideal configuration to materialize which ended up placing the 8.3s eight feet apart on either side of my stand and about 12 inches away from the back wall ever so slightly toed in.
EQUIPMENT
For this evaluation, I used the equipment listed below in my signature: the Yamaha DSP A1 as the head unit in tandem with the beefy XPA 5 driving the channels and my source component was the Denon 2200. My interconnects are Blue Jean Cable, the Denon is connected via optical cable from Monoprice and the speaker cables are Tara Labs Prism Klara with Monoprice banana plugs.
A short series of raps to the top and sides of the 8.3s were indicative of a superb fit and finish. These speakers are not flashy, just your basic black rectangles (although the feet are a nice visual contrast). The grills are magnetically mounted on the cabinet and I installed the feet on their widest setting for maximum stability on my carpeted floor. I left the switches in the neutral position. Once I had them set up and in the proper listening position I stepped back. The 8.3s were big, at least bigger than I initially expected. Perhaps that was because I was used to my Polk’s being four inches shorter, but still, there was a presence here I had not anticipated. I had no idea how right I was.
AND SO IT BEGINS . . .
I have to say it up front: from top to bottom the 8.3s exhibit a full spectrum of sonic excellence. The bass was taught, in control and responsive, never boomy. I feel that thump in my chest. The midrange was sweet - pure joy - encroaching on the magical and highly coveted liquid quality. No matter what I threw at it, the midrange never quit. The highs sparkled and never became tiresome. They were crisp and clean, utterly clear and free of muddiness that plagues many tweeters of this type.
The first CD I loaded was Supertramp’s “School” from Crime of the Century. This is a great track with which to start in that I use it to assess a speaker’s ability to convey a sense of space and dynamics, and since it has several well known transient passages, I also use it to measure responsiveness. The 8.3s were able to produce subtle notes with clarity and decisiveness that all I could say is, “Wow!” It was uncanny how they were able to reveal details in such a refined way and still deliver an enormous sound stage. I was 40 feet back in the kitchen at one point during the song and I was still impressed.
Next up was the vocals. For this I had two volunteers: Rebecca Pidgeon’s “Kalerka” from The Raven and Chris Whitley’s title track from Living with the Law. We expect David Chesky to produce uncompromising high resolution music but even so, I was astonished at the 8.3s effort on female vocals. Pidgeon’s voice is spellbinding, graceful, reproduced to a seemingly effortless level of clarity and subtleness that made me think she was in the living room. Hey Becky, how are you? Gee, you can really sing.
In sharp contrast, Whitley’s voice exudes a sense of longing and is surprisingly powerful. His impressive range on "Living with the Law" is offered as proof. I am haunted by his voice. The title track, as with most of the songs on the album, is gritty and brooding and the towers delivered in spades. Half way through the song builds up slowly, without you realizing it. At one point I could hear Whitley’s boot scooch across the floor. I think I could taste dirt.
I’ve always been a fan of Yo Yo Ma. There is something soulful about the cello – his cello in particular – that can elicit emotions like no other instrument. In Simply Baroque, I concentrated on the J.S. Bach portion of the CD. The magic begins with the first track, “Sei Lob und Preis mit Ehren”. I closed my eyes for most of the performance and was blown away by the sound: soothing and sad from Ma’s cello, weaving a certain tapestry of emotion that only classical music can give you. Your ears leave you to your thoughts, and your thoughts take you far, far away. Those of you who are fans of this genre know what I am talking about. I know I’m writing more about the song rather than the 8.3s performance but I have nothing else to say other than I heard a sense of space and clarity that was wonderfully defined. It was pure. It was clean. And it was riveting. I will never forget that.
Another test came from the venerable masterpiece from Pink Floyd’s SACD Dark Side of the Moon. I ended up listening to almost the whole album but my experience with “Time” encapsulated the entire CD. The dynamic range was marvelous. Twice I had to get up from the listening position to make sure the center channel was not on. That type of spatial resolution is impressive, most especially on a speaker of this price point. Even after this experience, later on in the track, I got up to answer the door. Only there wasn’t anyone there, it was the damn CD. I encourage Emotiva, if they don’t have this work already on their short list, to showcase the 8.3s with the CD on trade shows. Do it, and watch people congregate in stop by and listen . . . for a long time. Play it loud, boys, play it loud. Watch their faces when the background singer appears on “The Great Gig in the Sky.”
Finally, I had to sample the timeless work Time Out by the Dave Brubeck Quartet on SACD. For those of you who don’t know (is there anyone left?) this is one of the must haves in your collection, jazz fan or not. At least take it for a test drive. I listened to the entire album before I knew it, which is almost the only way you should listen to this seminal, transcendental work. It’s about going somewhere, transporting yourself away from where you currently are. Isn’t that what music is all about? Time Out is one of those special recordings, and the 8.3s pull up to your house and say, ‘hop in, slim.” They deliver the goods, with piano, drums and bass forming a synergistic relationship where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Although recorded in 1959, it sounds as fresh as ever on the towers.
CONCLUSION
To my ears, the Emotiva 8.3 towers offer an exceptional value even in this emerging age of the internet dealer. The towers have an open, clean transparent sound that is very revealing. The speakers let the music shine uncolored yet exhibit the subtle dynamics and a well-defined sound stage well above its price point. The towers signature sound is big and bold and they want to be played loud. The type of music does not seem to matter: it plays them all quite well, and even better, nay stunning, when the source is well recorded. This neutral nature of the 8.3s make them even more appealing. A bonafide hit. ;D ;D ;D
I would like to say the same thing about the Emotiva 8.3 ERTs. “Don’t buy these. They suck.” More for me. Yay.
Well, I can’t say that. This isn’t a meal and I really don’t need to fill my house with the 8.3s. Oh . . and they don’t suck. That was a joke. Easy, Leonard. Lay down your pitchforks and put out those torches.
The ERTs arrived at my office this past Thursday much to the chagrin of the AA answering the phones and the Fed Ex delivery guy, I presume. One of the boxes had a chunk taken out of it but a later inspection revealed no damage. I was so excited to take possession of them that even though I was wrapping up an interview and driving the candidate back to the airport to catch his flight, I asked him if he minded we pop into the office to pick something up. As we walked into the office I turned to see his reaction and I dare say he did not expect to see two hulking boxes and a third companion piece (the ERM 6.3). This guy was almost as excited as me (there really isn’t anything like seeing delivery boxes for you in their glorious industrial tan color, is there?). It took three trips but we got them down in my automobile (where’s Long Duck Dong when you need him?). It was a sight to see this diminutive physician, originally from China, help me load these bulky boxes in the back of my car with glee.
Because of house guests I could not open the boxes until Friday evening. Since I had a friend coming over Saturday morning for a HT calibration, I decided to concentrate on two channel listening first and opted to leave the 6.3 in its box until Saturday. On Friday I got maybe four tracks into my listening session before my mother-in-law plopped down on the living room couch to send telepathic messages to turn the music down. That’s how mother’s-in-law communicate, by the way. Oh well, since I cut my deal with the wife to get her and her mom and my two boys out of the house the next day, I knew I had at least three hours of balls to the wall, window rattling fun ahead of me.
By 11am Saturday morning I had my wish.
SET UP
I used a basic set up for this test in my room (16 x 18 x 12). It didn’t take long for the ideal configuration to materialize which ended up placing the 8.3s eight feet apart on either side of my stand and about 12 inches away from the back wall ever so slightly toed in.
EQUIPMENT
For this evaluation, I used the equipment listed below in my signature: the Yamaha DSP A1 as the head unit in tandem with the beefy XPA 5 driving the channels and my source component was the Denon 2200. My interconnects are Blue Jean Cable, the Denon is connected via optical cable from Monoprice and the speaker cables are Tara Labs Prism Klara with Monoprice banana plugs.
A short series of raps to the top and sides of the 8.3s were indicative of a superb fit and finish. These speakers are not flashy, just your basic black rectangles (although the feet are a nice visual contrast). The grills are magnetically mounted on the cabinet and I installed the feet on their widest setting for maximum stability on my carpeted floor. I left the switches in the neutral position. Once I had them set up and in the proper listening position I stepped back. The 8.3s were big, at least bigger than I initially expected. Perhaps that was because I was used to my Polk’s being four inches shorter, but still, there was a presence here I had not anticipated. I had no idea how right I was.
AND SO IT BEGINS . . .
I have to say it up front: from top to bottom the 8.3s exhibit a full spectrum of sonic excellence. The bass was taught, in control and responsive, never boomy. I feel that thump in my chest. The midrange was sweet - pure joy - encroaching on the magical and highly coveted liquid quality. No matter what I threw at it, the midrange never quit. The highs sparkled and never became tiresome. They were crisp and clean, utterly clear and free of muddiness that plagues many tweeters of this type.
The first CD I loaded was Supertramp’s “School” from Crime of the Century. This is a great track with which to start in that I use it to assess a speaker’s ability to convey a sense of space and dynamics, and since it has several well known transient passages, I also use it to measure responsiveness. The 8.3s were able to produce subtle notes with clarity and decisiveness that all I could say is, “Wow!” It was uncanny how they were able to reveal details in such a refined way and still deliver an enormous sound stage. I was 40 feet back in the kitchen at one point during the song and I was still impressed.
Next up was the vocals. For this I had two volunteers: Rebecca Pidgeon’s “Kalerka” from The Raven and Chris Whitley’s title track from Living with the Law. We expect David Chesky to produce uncompromising high resolution music but even so, I was astonished at the 8.3s effort on female vocals. Pidgeon’s voice is spellbinding, graceful, reproduced to a seemingly effortless level of clarity and subtleness that made me think she was in the living room. Hey Becky, how are you? Gee, you can really sing.
In sharp contrast, Whitley’s voice exudes a sense of longing and is surprisingly powerful. His impressive range on "Living with the Law" is offered as proof. I am haunted by his voice. The title track, as with most of the songs on the album, is gritty and brooding and the towers delivered in spades. Half way through the song builds up slowly, without you realizing it. At one point I could hear Whitley’s boot scooch across the floor. I think I could taste dirt.
I’ve always been a fan of Yo Yo Ma. There is something soulful about the cello – his cello in particular – that can elicit emotions like no other instrument. In Simply Baroque, I concentrated on the J.S. Bach portion of the CD. The magic begins with the first track, “Sei Lob und Preis mit Ehren”. I closed my eyes for most of the performance and was blown away by the sound: soothing and sad from Ma’s cello, weaving a certain tapestry of emotion that only classical music can give you. Your ears leave you to your thoughts, and your thoughts take you far, far away. Those of you who are fans of this genre know what I am talking about. I know I’m writing more about the song rather than the 8.3s performance but I have nothing else to say other than I heard a sense of space and clarity that was wonderfully defined. It was pure. It was clean. And it was riveting. I will never forget that.
Another test came from the venerable masterpiece from Pink Floyd’s SACD Dark Side of the Moon. I ended up listening to almost the whole album but my experience with “Time” encapsulated the entire CD. The dynamic range was marvelous. Twice I had to get up from the listening position to make sure the center channel was not on. That type of spatial resolution is impressive, most especially on a speaker of this price point. Even after this experience, later on in the track, I got up to answer the door. Only there wasn’t anyone there, it was the damn CD. I encourage Emotiva, if they don’t have this work already on their short list, to showcase the 8.3s with the CD on trade shows. Do it, and watch people congregate in stop by and listen . . . for a long time. Play it loud, boys, play it loud. Watch their faces when the background singer appears on “The Great Gig in the Sky.”
Finally, I had to sample the timeless work Time Out by the Dave Brubeck Quartet on SACD. For those of you who don’t know (is there anyone left?) this is one of the must haves in your collection, jazz fan or not. At least take it for a test drive. I listened to the entire album before I knew it, which is almost the only way you should listen to this seminal, transcendental work. It’s about going somewhere, transporting yourself away from where you currently are. Isn’t that what music is all about? Time Out is one of those special recordings, and the 8.3s pull up to your house and say, ‘hop in, slim.” They deliver the goods, with piano, drums and bass forming a synergistic relationship where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Although recorded in 1959, it sounds as fresh as ever on the towers.
CONCLUSION
To my ears, the Emotiva 8.3 towers offer an exceptional value even in this emerging age of the internet dealer. The towers have an open, clean transparent sound that is very revealing. The speakers let the music shine uncolored yet exhibit the subtle dynamics and a well-defined sound stage well above its price point. The towers signature sound is big and bold and they want to be played loud. The type of music does not seem to matter: it plays them all quite well, and even better, nay stunning, when the source is well recorded. This neutral nature of the 8.3s make them even more appealing. A bonafide hit. ;D ;D ;D
