It sounds unbelievably fast, natural and just beautiful in ALL kind of music. I am particularly impressed by the volume of the bass alongside the sheer speed of 16" woofer must heard to be believed. The integration is top notched. And you know what the Lizst is capable of, right? Frankly I don't think the Brahms is a smaller package. It is big. It produces big sound and presence like the Lizst. It is wider than the Lizst but not deeper. It is also shorter. It is still a big speakers.
The horny camp is dominating the scene now, which is not difficult to understand given the unprecedented listening experience at AE. There will always be criticisms but I have to agree I don't know anyone ever in my life can reproduce the realism of piano akin to AE.
What is the secret of PT's audio management? I speculate it is the enormous investment in ground cables. He did an experiment of swapping a silver signature ground cable from the Durand Telos arm to the Troy Signature with the THOR ground cable. The improvement is dramatic on all fronts from a level that I have never experienced before. But who is going to spend so much to squeeze that unquantifiable extra bits and pieces? Imagine the level of ground cables in this system was downgraded to what we are using, the magic is all gone. This system is completely wired by either Tripoint THOR ground cables or Dalby U1000 ground cables.
I also think PT has taken Danny's suggestion to remove all the diffusors in the right context. The soundstage is simply seamless and continuous. With respect to the volume of bass, it really depends on recording. I do not see any apparent major issues. If you can get piano so right, others cannot be so wrong.
Great job! Anyone who has not visited AE lately from wherever should pay a visit. It is very worthwhile. It is a learning experience.
The importance of ground cables at AE is more important than AC power cords. I was told that PT is using Argento Olympic 2012 on power amp, FMR SE power cords on Flow center. These are not radically expensive power cords. In comparison, the Thor and Dalby ground cables cost much more and he is using all flagship ground cables instead of flagship AC cords.
Wow, the Brahms look real sexy! I reckon it may be as large as the Alpha One. And what is the difference between Brahms and Alpha One II? What does field coil do to the sound?
With high efficiency horn speakers, the ground noises are damn apparent. The improvement as a result of elimination of ground noises by the same token is thus dramatic! I invested in ground cables way away than anyone. I even advocated this should be the damn way to go but nobody listens to the old ass. Audiophiles have many ideas, and sorry most of them are damn silly and fucking stupid. Some of the systems can't even tell the differences, right? And they conclude that's fucking voodoo. Go back to the drawing board and asks your damn goodself why you can't tell the differences but we do?!?!?
Field coil high efficiency horn, troy signature, SRA and the indigo in a dedicate listening room, it must perform right at the beginning!
Ralph told me for a very long time that he designed the Beethoven, Brahms and Lizst with Zanden 7000-300B stereo single end amplifier with only 8 watts. I am a power freak and did not take his words seriously until last month. I installed this wonderful SET amp with some of Chouku's circuit elements to drive the Lizst at AE.
My conclusion is that I had not understood the Cessaro concept until now. I listened to my customer's Brahms with another SET amp with only 3 watts and was truly impressed. But now I am even sure this amp could well be even a better match given the design synergies from day one and the close friendship between Ralph and Yamada.
Mr Zanden was so high as though he was drugged today after listening to his favorite LP recordings via the Takumi K15/Zanden 7000-3000B stereo amp today!
I am glad that I had a chance to listen to this Zanden 8W SET and Cessaro combo in AE yesterday. PT played the same cuts which I listened previously with Da Vinci power amp. Thus, I could make comparison easily. I listened to jazz as the first cut. Every note was played with ease but no feeling of insufficient "strength" with only 8W output. I liked the musicality brought out by SET. It was a very engaging experience. The feeling was that the whole system become young (not immature) and energetic (not coarse nor uncontrollable). The music was richer and fuller as compared to the previous set up. I listened to a number of cuts more including piano, violet, vocal, orchestra, etc. I could only say "wow" for the performance. As the power amp is SET, the control of the whole system lies on the pre-amp. This demonstrates Robert K15's capability. One more thing we did was that PT changed the power cable of the turntable to two different ones and compared. This let me know the "class" of Dably cable and how it could improve the entire sound. PT later told me that Mr Zanden has also endorsed the setup. It is big achievement as it is so difficult to get his thumb up.
Comments
It sounds unbelievably fast, natural and just beautiful in ALL kind of music. I am particularly impressed by the volume of the bass alongside the sheer speed of 16" woofer must heard to be believed. The integration is top notched. And you know what the Lizst is capable of, right? Frankly I don't think the Brahms is a smaller package. It is big. It produces big sound and presence like the Lizst. It is wider than the Lizst but not deeper. It is also shorter. It is still a big speakers.
What is the secret of PT's audio management? I speculate it is the enormous investment in ground cables. He did an experiment of swapping a silver signature ground cable from the Durand Telos arm to the Troy Signature with the THOR ground cable. The improvement is dramatic on all fronts from a level that I have never experienced before. But who is going to spend so much to squeeze that unquantifiable extra bits and pieces? Imagine the level of ground cables in this system was downgraded to what we are using, the magic is all gone. This system is completely wired by either Tripoint THOR ground cables or Dalby U1000 ground cables.
I also think PT has taken Danny's suggestion to remove all the diffusors in the right context. The soundstage is simply seamless and continuous. With respect to the volume of bass, it really depends on recording. I do not see any apparent major issues. If you can get piano so right, others cannot be so wrong.
Great job! Anyone who has not visited AE lately from wherever should pay a visit. It is very worthwhile. It is a learning experience.
With high efficiency horn speakers, the ground noises are damn apparent. The improvement as a result of elimination of ground noises by the same token is thus dramatic! I invested in ground cables way away than anyone. I even advocated this should be the damn way to go but nobody listens to the old ass. Audiophiles have many ideas, and sorry most of them are damn silly and fucking stupid. Some of the systems can't even tell the differences, right? And they conclude that's fucking voodoo. Go back to the drawing board and asks your damn goodself why you can't tell the differences but we do?!?!?
Field coil high efficiency horn, troy signature, SRA and the indigo in a dedicate listening room, it must perform right at the beginning!
My conclusion is that I had not understood the Cessaro concept until now. I listened to my customer's Brahms with another SET amp with only 3 watts and was truly impressed. But now I am even sure this amp could well be even a better match given the design synergies from day one and the close friendship between Ralph and Yamada.