Post by simpleman68 on Jul 22, 2016 20:39:15 GMT -5
Picked up one of audiobill's custom tube amps and just finished an hours worth of listening. Not much but wanted to post my impressions while they are fresh.
The unit:
The Room:
Equipment used for test:
Oppo 105
XSP-1
Xilica 4080 DSP (comes with Whisper XDs)
ST70 tube amp ( modded/custom)
Legacy Whisper XDs
A few relevant disclaimers:
I am not anywhere near a pro; I don't hold an audio engineering degree although I've learned a bit from Bob Harley.
I've been a fan of clean/clear music since the mid 80s when I installed mobile audio to pay my way through college.
This review is just my best attempt at describing what I heard as a result of putting this amp into my existing rig.
I'm sure I will establish more opinions as I get to log more listening sessions with this piece.
I'm using older tubes that may not be optimal for this unit. New ones arriving Monday. ( Thanks Bill )
The power output paired better with my Legacy Whisper XDs. Mr. Duddleston utilized a solid state amp in each speaker to handle the 4 - 15" and 1 - 12" driver per speaker.
The existing Parasound JC1 was actually not as powerful (at lower volumes anyway) and the bass amps with no gain control ( other than an edit to the DSP )
Bill was such a nice guy I was hoping to have great things to say. heh heh
Samples used:
Pieces I'm very familiar with. Some of them since they were originally recorded.
Initial impressions:
This amp was substantially louder at lower volumes. At -30 on the XSP1 my meter showed 80 dB average. Whoa ( gobs of power )
Very little noise floor. I had to be a few feet to hear anything from the tweets/super tweets. I have very good hearing and these were very quiet; certainly not enough to adversely affect sound IMO.
You can hear the slightly rolled off highs that are often mentioned. For these speakers it was a very comfortable/natural fit. The folded ribbon tweet and super tweet can be VERY forward.
Bass was not affected as again, it is handled by the built in solid state amps in the Whispers.
The bass was more pronounced and detailed. I later realized this was partly because the amps outputs were more optimally matched so the bass wasn't overpowering.
The other side to the above is the mids were much more prominent. Not harsh or overly bright, just properly balanced.
This allowed a LOT more detail to come through the music.
To be fair I don't think this was a direct result of the amp but rather the pairing with the amps in the Whispers.
Upper Range:
Percussion like cymbals, bells etc were much smoother and almost "fuzzy" sounding but in a good way.
Hard to quantify with words but it took the "edge" off the highs which was a very different sound that took a bit of getting used to.
I think here is the start of that dividing line that separates those that like tubes or not. This "distortion" worked very well with the Whispers and had a very relaxing yet natural sound to my ears.
Brass in big band pieces had a nice metallic rasp to them with a bit of added depth of stage. Not sure why and I have no tech answers for this but the horn players
sounded like they were a bit farther back in the room.
Cymbals, while a bit muted over the JC1, were very accurate and tinny sounding. Not a bad tinny, but a proper metallic quality that I'm growing to favor I think. Time will reveal more I think.
Mid Range:
Vocals were very different sounding with most being improved substantially. James Taylor's vocals sounded a bit compressed and nasally but that may be a bit of production as well.
Female vocals was the clincher. HUGE difference with a more natural sound. I could hear the breaths Diana Krall took MUCH more clearly than previous and the sound was much more "convincing"
My wife who was in the kitchen said, "wow, she sounds better; that's Diana Krall right?"
Snare drums were typically more natural sounding depending on the recording/production. For the most part I preferred the tube amp as it seemed to capture the rattle of the snare skin better.
You could hear the metal bands vibrating on the bottom more clearly.
Guitars sounded wonderful with a more natural timbre. I expected the improved sound on electric guitars particularly where reverb and distortion pedals are used but the
acoustic guitars in all the recordings sounded more like they were supposed to. Same with all piano tracks I sampled.
This and the cymbals were the biggest differences to me in sound accuracy/timbre.
With solid state I could hear the string plucks with perfect clarity but the following sound wasn't quite as natural.
In the lower mid range the bass guitar in many tracks was more audible. I credit this to the improved level matching. Tony Levin's bass in "Don't Give Up" were very clean. I was hearing a nice split between the bass
drivers ( powered by the Legacy amps ) and the 4 - 6" drivers that captured the higher end of his bass playing.
Final Thoughts:
I think this amp/speaker pairing is optimal. Legacy does reference this on their website. Recommended power is 10-600 watts.
I can't speak to what this amp would sound like driving a pair of speakers full range. Again, I'm sure that also depends on listener preference.
I'm anxiously awaiting Nick's review with his Studio 100 V5s as I have owned them and am familiar with their sound.
This amp appears to be well built, nice to look at, and does a wonderful job matched with these Whisper XDs.
I will do a follow up when the new tubes are installed with some break in time.
Scott
The unit:
The Room:
Equipment used for test:
Oppo 105
XSP-1
Xilica 4080 DSP (comes with Whisper XDs)
ST70 tube amp ( modded/custom)
Legacy Whisper XDs
A few relevant disclaimers:
I am not anywhere near a pro; I don't hold an audio engineering degree although I've learned a bit from Bob Harley.
I've been a fan of clean/clear music since the mid 80s when I installed mobile audio to pay my way through college.
This review is just my best attempt at describing what I heard as a result of putting this amp into my existing rig.
I'm sure I will establish more opinions as I get to log more listening sessions with this piece.
I'm using older tubes that may not be optimal for this unit. New ones arriving Monday. ( Thanks Bill )
The power output paired better with my Legacy Whisper XDs. Mr. Duddleston utilized a solid state amp in each speaker to handle the 4 - 15" and 1 - 12" driver per speaker.
The existing Parasound JC1 was actually not as powerful (at lower volumes anyway) and the bass amps with no gain control ( other than an edit to the DSP )
Bill was such a nice guy I was hoping to have great things to say. heh heh
Samples used:
Pieces I'm very familiar with. Some of them since they were originally recorded.
Initial impressions:
This amp was substantially louder at lower volumes. At -30 on the XSP1 my meter showed 80 dB average. Whoa ( gobs of power )
Very little noise floor. I had to be a few feet to hear anything from the tweets/super tweets. I have very good hearing and these were very quiet; certainly not enough to adversely affect sound IMO.
You can hear the slightly rolled off highs that are often mentioned. For these speakers it was a very comfortable/natural fit. The folded ribbon tweet and super tweet can be VERY forward.
Bass was not affected as again, it is handled by the built in solid state amps in the Whispers.
The bass was more pronounced and detailed. I later realized this was partly because the amps outputs were more optimally matched so the bass wasn't overpowering.
The other side to the above is the mids were much more prominent. Not harsh or overly bright, just properly balanced.
This allowed a LOT more detail to come through the music.
To be fair I don't think this was a direct result of the amp but rather the pairing with the amps in the Whispers.
Upper Range:
Percussion like cymbals, bells etc were much smoother and almost "fuzzy" sounding but in a good way.
Hard to quantify with words but it took the "edge" off the highs which was a very different sound that took a bit of getting used to.
I think here is the start of that dividing line that separates those that like tubes or not. This "distortion" worked very well with the Whispers and had a very relaxing yet natural sound to my ears.
Brass in big band pieces had a nice metallic rasp to them with a bit of added depth of stage. Not sure why and I have no tech answers for this but the horn players
sounded like they were a bit farther back in the room.
Cymbals, while a bit muted over the JC1, were very accurate and tinny sounding. Not a bad tinny, but a proper metallic quality that I'm growing to favor I think. Time will reveal more I think.
Mid Range:
Vocals were very different sounding with most being improved substantially. James Taylor's vocals sounded a bit compressed and nasally but that may be a bit of production as well.
Female vocals was the clincher. HUGE difference with a more natural sound. I could hear the breaths Diana Krall took MUCH more clearly than previous and the sound was much more "convincing"
My wife who was in the kitchen said, "wow, she sounds better; that's Diana Krall right?"
Snare drums were typically more natural sounding depending on the recording/production. For the most part I preferred the tube amp as it seemed to capture the rattle of the snare skin better.
You could hear the metal bands vibrating on the bottom more clearly.
Guitars sounded wonderful with a more natural timbre. I expected the improved sound on electric guitars particularly where reverb and distortion pedals are used but the
acoustic guitars in all the recordings sounded more like they were supposed to. Same with all piano tracks I sampled.
This and the cymbals were the biggest differences to me in sound accuracy/timbre.
With solid state I could hear the string plucks with perfect clarity but the following sound wasn't quite as natural.
In the lower mid range the bass guitar in many tracks was more audible. I credit this to the improved level matching. Tony Levin's bass in "Don't Give Up" were very clean. I was hearing a nice split between the bass
drivers ( powered by the Legacy amps ) and the 4 - 6" drivers that captured the higher end of his bass playing.
Final Thoughts:
I think this amp/speaker pairing is optimal. Legacy does reference this on their website. Recommended power is 10-600 watts.
I can't speak to what this amp would sound like driving a pair of speakers full range. Again, I'm sure that also depends on listener preference.
I'm anxiously awaiting Nick's review with his Studio 100 V5s as I have owned them and am familiar with their sound.
This amp appears to be well built, nice to look at, and does a wonderful job matched with these Whisper XDs.
I will do a follow up when the new tubes are installed with some break in time.
Scott
