When I first stepped into Marvel's living room, by law of Physics I was kind of worry about the performance of the Mosquito. After listening to several pieces of chamber music, Marvel's favorite, all my worries just went away. I was deeply impressed by the depth of the soundstage, you can feel the 3D separation between each string and the piano yet they talk to each other very well. The sound was so clear, dynamic, airy and real, thus making you feel like sitting on the front row of a small recital hall. Any weaknesses? If the bass have a bit more harmonics, the sound will become even more full and smooth. I guess the damping factor of the German tank is too high for the bass driver. Marvel, please try to replace some of the small tubes from your German combo by NOS Mullard tubes, long tube square ring type. They are very difficult to find, but you will be amazed by what they can do to your system. Anyway, the overall sound is very rewarding and enjoyable, you and PT did an excellent job to the room acoustic treatment by using those tiny resonators, diffusors and phase corrector.
Though orchestral piece is not Marvel's cup of tea, I still asked him to play the Mahler Symphony 2 CD because I wanted to know how the system behaved for a big piece like this. When the music started, the German combo still delivered a very deep and dynamic soundstage, however the image of the double bass shifted to the left hand side and mixed with the viola and cello. We suspected some low end resonances occurred inside the open room next to the listening area. With your and Marvel's expertise, the problem should be easily solved by putting some magic cubes inside the room. I would love to revisit Marvel's place after the treatment, I am still missing the macro and micro dynamics reproduced by the Raven/Zanden plus German combo.
LP vs CD? Raven vs Zanden? I still prefer the LP which sound richer and more airy hence more musical though Zanden provides better resolution. With some fine tuning to the Raven, I strongly believe the Raven will outperform Zanden in all aspect. Unfortunately I did not have a chance to listen the Heritage Dac, wish I could compare it with Zanden during next visit.
Marvel,
Thanks so much for your hospitality and it is quite a fruitful experience for me. You and PT are always welcome to visit my place, I would love to exchange more ideas with you two.
Marvel bro, the reunion of the German does bang bang bang. I am thrilled for you. Remember, the German was not happy with the French. Swiss is neutral. Japan was German's partner. Got me? You got everything in order except the French intrusion.
Danny, many thanks for your comments. I do agree some more acoustics adjustment is required especially on the right hand side. It had not occurred to me in the past that the problem is that big until we played those large scale orchestral music like Mahler on the Zanden. PT and myself used to use smaller chamber music to gauge the tuning.
Voy, French will go and you will see a bigger German re-union in 2008. I may even have a bigger German continent by intaking another exotic German gear. However, such will not happen before the speaker upgrade as this is on the top of the priority list at the moment, even higher than the reunion between the DV cartridge and tonearm.
Of course not...J is my good friend and he mentioned this to me already because my listening space is too small which I agree. Ralph reassured me on the placement of the Cessaro last time when he visited HK.
My question was physics really demands a longer length to allow the bass wavelength to propagate and in order to capitalise the full potential of the speaker upgrade, I might need to give it a bigger breathing space which at this moment I cannot fulfill...
Frankly, hearing Cessaro in PT's place give me a lot of comfort that this issue is not insurmountable as long as I have the patience and will to do so...I see this is a very positive challenge indeed....
Of course just the pipe organ is not good enough for your room acoustic tunning, we always play different kind of music to verify our treatment. Understood your room cannot produce 20 hz, but is worth to find out what will happen when this instrument sing inside your room. Many good things are coming from trial and error, right?
Cannot agree more! Trial and Err is the rule of the game as I need to explore more...so far I have been a relaxed user but with all the skills developed in this forum and community, I think I need to boost up my technical skills and experiment more going forward. Happy to learn together with so many veterans around, yourself included.
Comments
Sorry, I am quite busy today and please allow me to feed back to you tomorrow or Wednesday.
Danny
When I first stepped into Marvel's living room, by law of Physics I was kind of worry about the performance of the Mosquito. After listening to several pieces of chamber music, Marvel's favorite, all my worries just went away. I was deeply impressed by the depth of the soundstage, you can feel the 3D separation between each string and the piano yet they talk to each other very well. The sound was so clear, dynamic, airy and real, thus making you feel like sitting on the front row of a small recital hall. Any weaknesses? If the bass have a bit more harmonics, the sound will become even more full and smooth. I guess the damping factor of the German tank is too high for the bass driver. Marvel, please try to replace some of the small tubes from your German combo by NOS Mullard tubes, long tube square ring type. They are very difficult to find, but you will be amazed by what they can do to your system. Anyway, the overall sound is very rewarding and enjoyable, you and PT did an excellent job to the room acoustic treatment by using those tiny resonators, diffusors and phase corrector.
Though orchestral piece is not Marvel's cup of tea, I still asked him to play the Mahler Symphony 2 CD because I wanted to know how the system behaved for a big piece like this. When the music started, the German combo still delivered a very deep and dynamic soundstage, however the image of the double bass shifted to the left hand side and mixed with the viola and cello. We suspected some low end resonances occurred inside the open room next to the listening area. With your and Marvel's expertise, the problem should be easily solved by putting some magic cubes inside the room. I would love to revisit Marvel's place after the treatment, I am still missing the macro and micro dynamics reproduced by the Raven/Zanden plus German combo.
LP vs CD? Raven vs Zanden? I still prefer the LP which sound richer and more airy hence more musical though Zanden provides better resolution. With some fine tuning to the Raven, I strongly believe the Raven will outperform Zanden in all aspect. Unfortunately I did not have a chance to listen the Heritage Dac, wish I could compare it with Zanden during next visit.
Marvel,
Thanks so much for your hospitality and it is quite a fruitful experience for me. You and PT are always welcome to visit my place, I would love to exchange more ideas with you two.
Best regards,
Danny
Voy, French will go and you will see a bigger German re-union in 2008. I may even have a bigger German continent by intaking another exotic German gear. However, such will not happen before the speaker upgrade as this is on the top of the priority list at the moment, even higher than the reunion between the DV cartridge and tonearm.
Marvel
You may consider to play some music with pipe organ during the tunning, this instrument can really sing down to 20 HZ.
Danny
yes, I recall seeing the formula when Ralph was in HK. What is the implication? Do I need to change home before I change my speaker?
Of course not...J is my good friend and he mentioned this to me already because my listening space is too small which I agree. Ralph reassured me on the placement of the Cessaro last time when he visited HK.
My question was physics really demands a longer length to allow the bass wavelength to propagate and in order to capitalise the full potential of the speaker upgrade, I might need to give it a bigger breathing space which at this moment I cannot fulfill...
Frankly, hearing Cessaro in PT's place give me a lot of comfort that this issue is not insurmountable as long as I have the patience and will to do so...I see this is a very positive challenge indeed....
Marvel
Of course just the pipe organ is not good enough for your room acoustic tunning, we always play different kind of music to verify our treatment. Understood your room cannot produce 20 hz, but is worth to find out what will happen when this instrument sing inside your room. Many good things are coming from trial and error, right?
Danny
Cannot agree more! Trial and Err is the rule of the game as I need to explore more...so far I have been a relaxed user but with all the skills developed in this forum and community, I think I need to boost up my technical skills and experiment more going forward. Happy to learn together with so many veterans around, yourself included.
Marvel