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Photo Gallery of Setting up Cessaro Alpha One for Mr.Zanden (Part 2)
Photo cannot do justice to the quality of the wood finish. There is no breakup in the wood texture because it comes as completely ONE PIECE, not just for one side but for ALL 8 sides (inside and outside)
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Nice to know you have been keeping track of what's going on here in H.K., I have been conspicuous by my absence from this forum in last several days as I have been too busy playing with my new toy.
I will post my close encounter with these new horns in this forum later tonite, pls bear with me for another 120 minutes.
Mr. Zanden
Power is essential. But you may want to taste different stuff at different time, perhaps not now.
I also recommend the TRON 211 power amp for your super horn. It will be fast and powerful with ultra quality component. Get a stereo before your custom Zanden 211 arrive. I talked with some techmanics and we ain't sure how double 211 push pull can be done due to extremely high voltage. We are all crazy audio fanatic here. Nothing is impossible.
The Tron amp is crazy enough for you.
Even though you have not really written anything in detail in this forum, I can feel you are a very nice person who wishes everyone's system is sounding at their best, I & others appreciate that.
For me, my occassional inputs in the forum is to share with my experience with fellow audiophiles, however, my primary intent is to inspire more TYPE C+ converts after reading my notes.
My horns are really sounding better day by day, not through break-in but my continuous effort to make them sing better in my room. After re-adjusting the sugar cubes & bass resonators (previously tuned for the bass heavy Hornings), not only the bass improves but the entire specturm too as well as the overall transparancy, I have NEVER heard such clear high frequencies in my life, these TAD super tweeters are really good as they do not draw attention of what they do. The many small tweaks I have done to these big horns really improved its performance compared to its 1st day behaviour - lack of highs & slight bass resonance on certain frequencies.
Talking about 211 amps, I have heard some of them but I am very skeptical if they can deliver the dynamic power I require when I listen to Gladiator (track 3), Carmina Burana (final tracks) & Mahler # 2 (Allegro maestoso - 3rd passage (Schnell movement) at aorund 105-110 dB. Yamada-san heard these tracks driven by his 845 tubes during his 4 day visit here last week and suggested his latest invention's double push/pull will deliver the power to satisfy my taste
(I listen to everything now), he told me he first made a 211 amp over 20 years ago and has some ideas to make a special one for me - I guess or trust he knows what he is talking about.
For the time being, I am reluctant to use other 211 amp to play certain music at full blast as if you read one of my previous article, I had a very embarrassing experience on this kind of design.
Below is a para taken fm one of my wirting in " The Flow of Music " :
" I still remember several years back when my H.K. super-fi crowd and I visited a very nice chap in Penang who used full Kondo Audio Note gear (M100 + Ongaku) driving the Grand Slam, the gentleman listens to chamber/soft music but one of sinister H.K. chaps asked him to turn up his system to full and played the Zoro’s soundtrack, after 60 seconds (or thereabouts), we heard the left side speaker popped and the owner immediately rushed to turn down the volume, he tried to play one of his own CDs and noticed the sound level from on left channel was gone – we quickly left his home as a result of our embarrassing & obnoxious act. "
Anyway, I am very happy and busy at the moment, happy becos through minor tweaks, the sound of my system is getting better every day since last Thursday and I am busy in experimenting with room acoustics adjustment and minor tweaks to my horns.
Mr. Zanden
Now I understand why you weren't too keen on trying the Ongaku with your Cessaro :-)
But honestly, coupling SET amp to Wilsons are indeed begging for disaster. The Wilsons impedance goes to about 2 ohm, entirely the wrong load for SET amps (actually for most amps).
I wonder how the Alpha One's impedance curve looks like.......
Contrary to popular belief, the best sound Kondo pre & power amps I had listened to was driving the Grand Slam or I can put it the other way, the Wilsons sounded its best (to my ears) when they were driven by the M100 or M1000 + Onkagu but at relatively normal sound level and not loud.
Everyday when I listen to music, ocassionally I play some records at full blast (100+ dB), so I feel the normal 211 may not give me the extra juice I need. See PT's comment about my horns when he listened to them on Thursday :
" The 9600 has almost 60watt in pure class A. It is really really really dynamic. Everything you heard after his Alpha One driven by the Zanden sounds compress. "
So you know what I mean. My room somehow is very well matched to these big horns, so no matter how loud (as much as your ears can tolerate) you play, there is no hardness or compression, therefore, I want to listen to the horns at louder levels than before, however, for PT, his room unfortunately is not long enough, he can't play too loud, so he is going into 300Bs which I understand & agree. Your room really determines whether you can play certain designs. When I tried to play the Hornings loud on those 3 tracks I mentioned above during their short stay here in my place, they gave up on me as they could not handle such high sound pressure level, Ralph of Cessaro later explained to me because of the paper cone designed Lowther driver on the Hornings really vibrate when play too loud, so they could not satisfy my everyday's desire to play several CDs really loud.
I hope you & other well wishers now understand my listening bias.
Cheers,
Mr. Zanden
Did I mention I was fortunate enough to hear Ralph's big system at his home, that was a very enjoyable experience! Keith.