Bravo to Yamada of Zanden! The 7000-300B stereo is one hell of a SET amp. It is damn lightning fast with textural tonality across the whole frequency band. It is a total magical experience of it driving the Cessaro Lizst. I have never experienced the Cessaro in totality and entirety until now.
I got mine! This 7000-300b with Chouku's circuitry rocks the Cessaro chopin to uncharted territory! The amp and speskwes disappear together. The Cessaro never sounds so fast and damn detailed. What separates Zanden from other tube amps in driving Cessaro are the speed and transient resolution. Musicality is unique, not created by artificial warmth.
I should have listened to the advice of Ralph long time ago. PT, damn you!
This is my Brahms to be used at my home. I ask Ralph to build me a pair of Lamborgini Orange horn pairing with creamy white cabinet. It looks real cool!
The review of Cessaro Brahm is written by David Roger.
CESSARO BRAHMS REVIEW
It’s been just over two months since Ralph installed the Brahms and now they’ve settled in, I thought it was time to give my impressions.
Coming from the Chopin & Sub, which already sounded very nice in my room, I wasn’t quite prepared for just how big a step up the Brahms would be. And they are an enormous step up!
Ralph designed the Brahms as the Liszt just would not fit in my room. The Liszt was too tall at more than 2 metres, and also too deep. The Brahms is about 1.8m tall, 90cm deep and fit (very) snugly in my 4.5m x 3.5m room. My only real input into the design was that I didn’t want subwoofers - mid 30s Hz bass would be fine. And also that if we could, I’d like to experiment with some field coil drivers. Ralph is very clear that the field coil, in itself, doesn’t make a driver special, and that it’s the overall design of the driver that counts, not whether it has a field coil or not. But it was agreed that if Ralph could find field coil drivers that met or exceeded his expectations then we would use them.
In the end Ralph found some wonderful field-coil drivers, the standout to my ears is the astonishingly beautiful GIP Labs 594A, a replica of the WE 594A from the 1930s. It really is the most amazing thing in Ralph’s just as beautiful big red (60kg!) mid horn.
So the sound…First the immediacy or “jump factor”. Literally I have jumped out of my listening seat at the sound of a trumpet. The sound is incredibly dynamic, but not artificially so. The impression is not just of realism, but literally lifelike. Acoustic guitars and vocals are stunningly real and present. I’ve heard quite a few friends say “it sounds like the musicians are in the room”.
Live recordings are incredibly visceral. The Brahms transports you to the concert hall. It’s not so much the illusion of reality, more like being there – a personal time machine! Jimi Hendrix is one of my musical favourites; 1967 Jimi Plays Monterey, 1969 Woodstock, 1970 Isle of Wight; the Brahms makes it incredibly special to listen to these old concerts.
To me, talking about transients, attack and decay makes music sound mechanical – with the Brahms instruments just play totally naturally, whether guitar, piano, brass, woodwind or synthesizer. Instruments don’t just sound real, they feel real. Tone colours are really vivid.
I really want to emphasize once more the gorgeousness of the sound that the Brahms produces. They are intensely, mouthwateringly satisfying to listen to. Music is incredibly rich, but not dark. It is crystal, mountain spring clear. You can hear everything contained in a recording but not in an analytical way, it’s totally natural.
The Brahms have really given me my musical freedom. I find I worry a lot less about the quality of recordings, or whether I have 44.1 kHz or Hi-Res files. Good recordings will always sound better than poor recordings but pretty much everything sounds fantastic. I find I’m digging deeper into my collection listening to and enjoying music that I previously wasn’t. I’m much more likely to put on an entire album and just sit back and listen rather than jump around playing one track here and one track there as I sometimes used to.
The only limitation I have found is that particularly loud, dense music, such as a large classical crescendo can be a bit too much for my little 1.5watt 45s. Maybe time to try a 300B… or a 211…Then field coil tweeter…Then tri-amping… As awesome as they are currently, the fact that there are still upgrades that can be made, that we can iterate towards an even better sound, really appeals to the compulsive tweaker/upgrader in me.
To summarize, when I first discussed this project with Ralph, the word I used to describe what I wanted from the speakers was EMOTION. I have to say Ralph has delivered in spades! The Brahms are a just a wonderful, wonderful speaker, and I feel privileged to have been a (small) part of bringing them into the world!
Thanks for the excellent writeup. I am waiting for a Lizst with field coil drivers from Ralph as well inspired by your "field coil" passion whom PT shared with me.
Are you using Zanden amp to drive the Cessaro? I have tried all combination of any top tube brands amp you can imagine. But the Zanden 7000-300B is the the most ideal match ever. And it is much cheaper than Kondo, Audio Note UK, Wavac etc. You should at least get one for spare play. My experience with Cessaro is that they like both 300B and 211. Always to for single ended design!
At the moment i'm using a Thomas Mayer 45/2A3 amp with the Brahms. I will be trying the Zanden 300B as soon as PT can arrange audition. I have to say as much as i love the little 45 amp, i think you are right, they need a little more power.
I am extremely pleased with Brahms. Ralph has done a tremendous job again. I and Azzurri spent two hours to find the right spot at my home. This was an interesting day. Shall report more later. I am using complete trinity solid state amplification to drive it.
I was surprised that a brand new speaker without run-in could procedure such an excellent sound. That's why I give a thumb up to Brahms after listening to it. It is definitely a master piece and it is more suitable for ordinary home users who may not have a large listening environment like AE showroom. With a smaller listening area, Brahms could give me the sense of "closeness" better than in Liszt in AE. I like the speed of Brahms very much and its tender vocal output (according to PT, it is because its Brahms is using pure silver capacitor ... hmmm, I am considering to upgrade it to my own speakers as well). After all, when I listened to Brahms, it has just been set up. The soundstage was still a bit packed and the bass was to be improved. As a caveat, PT called me this morning saying that Brahms is having too much bass after burning in for one night. Definitely, the actual power of Brahms is unleashing and I must visit PT's home again after the speaker has fully burnt in.
Comments
I should have listened to the advice of Ralph long time ago. PT, damn you!
CESSARO BRAHMS REVIEW
It’s been just over two months since Ralph installed the Brahms and now they’ve settled in, I thought it was time to give my impressions.
Coming from the Chopin & Sub, which already sounded very nice in my room, I wasn’t quite prepared for just how big a step up the Brahms would be. And they are an enormous step up!
Ralph designed the Brahms as the Liszt just would not fit in my room. The Liszt was too tall at more than 2 metres, and also too deep. The Brahms is about 1.8m tall, 90cm deep and fit (very) snugly in my 4.5m x 3.5m room. My only real input into the design was that I didn’t want subwoofers - mid 30s Hz bass would be fine. And also that if we could, I’d like to experiment with some field coil drivers. Ralph is very clear that the field coil, in itself, doesn’t make a driver special, and that it’s the overall design of the driver that counts, not whether it has a field coil or not. But it was agreed that if Ralph could find field coil drivers that met or exceeded his expectations then we would use them.
In the end Ralph found some wonderful field-coil drivers, the standout to my ears is the astonishingly beautiful GIP Labs 594A, a replica of the WE 594A from the 1930s. It really is the most amazing thing in Ralph’s just as beautiful big red (60kg!) mid horn.
So the sound…First the immediacy or “jump factor”. Literally I have jumped out of my listening seat at the sound of a trumpet. The sound is incredibly dynamic, but not artificially so. The impression is not just of realism, but literally lifelike. Acoustic guitars and vocals are stunningly real and present. I’ve heard quite a few friends say “it sounds like the musicians are in the room”.
Live recordings are incredibly visceral. The Brahms transports you to the concert hall. It’s not so much the illusion of reality, more like being there – a personal time machine! Jimi Hendrix is one of my musical favourites; 1967 Jimi Plays Monterey, 1969 Woodstock, 1970 Isle of Wight; the Brahms makes it incredibly special to listen to these old concerts.
To me, talking about transients, attack and decay makes music sound mechanical – with the Brahms instruments just play totally naturally, whether guitar, piano, brass, woodwind or synthesizer. Instruments don’t just sound real, they feel real. Tone colours are really vivid.
I really want to emphasize once more the gorgeousness of the sound that the Brahms produces. They are intensely, mouthwateringly satisfying to listen to. Music is incredibly rich, but not dark. It is crystal, mountain spring clear. You can hear everything contained in a recording but not in an analytical way, it’s totally natural.
The Brahms have really given me my musical freedom. I find I worry a lot less about the quality of recordings, or whether I have 44.1 kHz or Hi-Res files. Good recordings will always sound better than poor recordings but pretty much everything sounds fantastic. I find I’m digging deeper into my collection listening to and enjoying music that I previously wasn’t. I’m much more likely to put on an entire album and just sit back and listen rather than jump around playing one track here and one track there as I sometimes used to.
The only limitation I have found is that particularly loud, dense music, such as a large classical crescendo can be a bit too much for my little 1.5watt 45s. Maybe time to try a 300B… or a 211…Then field coil tweeter…Then tri-amping… As awesome as they are currently, the fact that there are still upgrades that can be made, that we can iterate towards an even better sound, really appeals to the compulsive tweaker/upgrader in me.
To summarize, when I first discussed this project with Ralph, the word I used to describe what I wanted from the speakers was EMOTION. I have to say Ralph has delivered in spades! The Brahms are a just a wonderful, wonderful speaker, and I feel privileged to have been a (small) part of bringing them into the world!
Thanks for the excellent writeup. I am waiting for a Lizst with field coil drivers from Ralph as well inspired by your "field coil" passion whom PT shared with me.
Are you using Zanden amp to drive the Cessaro? I have tried all combination of any top tube brands amp you can imagine. But the Zanden 7000-300B is the the most ideal match ever. And it is much cheaper than Kondo, Audio Note UK, Wavac etc. You should at least get one for spare play. My experience with Cessaro is that they like both 300B and 211. Always to for single ended design!
At the moment i'm using a Thomas Mayer 45/2A3 amp with the Brahms. I will be trying the Zanden 300B as soon as PT can arrange audition. I have to say as much as i love the little 45 amp, i think you are right, they need a little more power.