Listened for almost non-stop 7 hours after the first installation with my family joining me for about an hour listening to Peter, Paul and Mary and Eason Chan...this is a rather unusual family gathering. Family members were so attracted by the sound produced and they both said it is much real than before.
Whilst I am waiting for Ralph to do the fine tuning and adding of the speaker 'feet', my initial impression on the speaker is like doubling the pixels of a digital photo. Frequency bandwidth extended deeply into the two ends with much more textures and lyric.
With Ralph's great help and meticulously fine adjustment on the speaker positioning, I am now in great enjoyment of the music coming out from this pair of marvelous speakers. Although due to some technical reason, the feet for the speakers have yet to be installed and obviously the burning in has just started, the overall performance is already stunning. Pairing with AudioValve Conductor preamp and Baldur power amp at an impedance setting of 8ohm (minimum 8 ohm according to Ralph), the music produced is: Without stress!! Music is full of dynamics at all frequencies. Although treble frequency should be traversing much faster than bass, the propagation of these frequencies are so homogenous and in synchronous that I could hear a much clearer and complete music reproduction without any muddying on the harmonics.
PT and myself would spend some more effort in the room acoustics to transform it from Neo era into Cessaro dynasty.
I will continue to report more when the speakers have got more time on burning in.
Ralph showed some sign of relieve after 2-3 hours wrestling with the speakers in order to fit them into my place. He used a variety of music including vocal, chamber and orchestra to ensure the speakers are well positioned to suit all scale of music that I played.
marvel bro, i am totally turned on by your serious horny action over the fast few days. can you share more indepth sonic report of this horn? I am quite concerned about your acoustics. On the picture, the horn seems to beam into one direction. You may need some absorber at the rear wall.
As all of you know, I am heavily relied upon the use of the resonators, diffusors and high frequency filters for the room acoustics adjustment. I have treatments both on the front wall and rear wall and last night PT has helped me in fine tuning those in order to accommodate the new speakers. I find the result very positive and to a great extent, Voy, your comment on the toe-in angle has been addressed by these tools.
To further report on the sonical performance of this horn, I have been listening to various LPs/CDs that I have familiar with and would like to covers a few key areas:
1. Orchestral - Dvorak New World conducted by Fricsay, DG (LP)
Copland, Fanfare of Common Man, Telarc (LP)
2. Vocals - Federica Von Stade - Mozart/Rossini Opera arias, Philips
Eva Cassidy, Live at the Blue Elley (CD)
3. Chambers - Mario Joao Pires, Mozart Piano sonatas
- Schubert Arpeggione Cello Sonatas, Maisky/Argerich
Philips (LP and CD)
4. Others - Kenny G Live (LP)
New Dawn, Naim guitar CD
On Orchestral music, I find the speaker has a cavity and capacity to deliver huge bass mass and motion with great depth and height of soundstage. Drums are so impactful with harmonics and reverbration clearly distinguished from each other and at the same time, giving out a clear contrast with the other instruments groups predonminantly on the mid to treble compartments like violin, horn, etc. Speed of propagation is much more in synchronous compared to my previous speakers thus making a much more contiguous tonal picture with everything in less of a time phase difference. I cannot say this speaker has an absolute correctness in ensuring all frequencies are traversing in exactly the time phase as in the original recording, but it is a very very high standard that I am hearing in terms of phase correctness without which one can feel sluggishnes and slowness normally on the bass compartment.
Although my room is still the same room with the same phsical constraints, PT has helped me in putting some more high frequency filters thus making the entire room much quieter and reflection on the high frequency noise has been reduced. This helps tremendously in providing a wider virtual space to house 'the orchestra' and allow me to visualise a more complete and steady soundstage even at the climax of the performance and in many cases in the past, noise due to high frequency reflections would occur at high volume thus limited the enjoyment of the orchestral music. Like the title of the Dvorak SymNo.9, it is a 'New World' to me and my heart really feels the same when I played this LP in the past few days with this new horn.
On vocals, it is simply more live hearing Von Stade singing out 'loud' with a lyrical control on the breath in and out though the lung, nose and mouth. I could hear more slight exchange of breath in order to push out the keynotes. Eva Cassidy's voice has more liveliness and fresh intermingled seamlessly well with the surrounding atmosphere of the jazz band and her own guitar. The kind of non-stress and non-compression on how a human sound could surge up to is really amazing to me especially on CD which I used to have a feeling that it is more discrete and compressed compared to LP (although this may be an issue for me to address to boost further up the performance of my LP setup...another story)...
To my favourite chamber musics, I chose Denon PCM recording on Pires Mozart sonata which was recorded long time ago in Japan when Pires was still very young. I like this box set very much not just for its superb recording but also the flare and youthfulness exhibited by Pires at the time of such performance. Listening under Affasionate speaker gives me a new perspective on Pires' skill in interpreting the joyfulness and cheerfulness of Mozart's composition. All the keystrokes are more vivid with a stronger sense of different pressure exerted by the human fingers. The scale and weight of the piano can be clearly reconstructed through the darker virtual space and a more complete the bass harmonics. I can hear a 'deeper intrusion' into the both frequency ends creating a studio like soundstage with myself sitting in the same room as Pires on her performance. A big 'wow' for me when listening to it last night.
Another favourite chamber music that I listen frequently recently is the Schubert Arpeggione by Maisky and Argerich. I know there are better performance out there like Fournier, Rostropovich and Gendron. This Maisky version is the only one that I have got both on LP and CD. I like to contrast my CD setup vs LP setup by playing this piece in order to help me understand more on my LP setup (using CD as a control obviously). The application of the bow on the cello by Maisky was indeed full of variations and skills which was unheard of. Size and reverbration of the cello chamber can be heard clearer with the horn speaker. This cannot be achieved without a change on the impedance level setting in my Wavac phono to match with my Dynavector cartridge last night. To cut a long story short, PT has recently experimented and experienced a lot on the matching between the cartridge and the input impedance of the phono after he has got an impedance adjustable phono by Tidal (the Proes Reference phono preamp which may be found in some other threads of this forum). When listening to the cello performance by Gendron, PT kept saying the impedance was not right in my Wavac setup and after we changed it, all the movements on the cello become more vivid and distinctive and the background piano also came out further to sing for itself!
On the last category when I listened to the guitar CD and Kenny G LIve, I am deeply impressed by the ambience produced by the saxophone and guitar, again a new height compared to my previous speaker. The metallic feel of the saxophone and the elasticity of the guitar strings are two extremes in terms of physical nature and sonic behvaviour. I could hear a more transparent tonal picture producing clear timbre of each. There is so much air surrounding the performer defining the space and timbre to a level which seems to be 'touchable' and for the guitar CD, it is like having the guitarist playing in my room. I am quite surprised that CD playback could reach such level and PT concurred with some further push for me to further improve my LP system !!
In short, horn speaker is not a ground breaking technology but the deployment of such technology by Cessaro is extremely advanced by carefully choosing the drivers and integration requires much research and repeated testings. I am extremely pleased with the invention of such speaker which brings me much closer to music and at the same time, doesn't demand huge space to make it sing.
I know some fellow audiophiles in this forum are already planning to have the bigger model of Eufrodite or tempted to try the Tidal. For me, this horn speaker has put a period in the category of speaker for Marvel.
Julian, indeed Ralph and myself (as a customer) discussed about the wood panel, gloss black panel, etc...I am sure they are willing to make it to your taste provided that it does violate their design architecture. Give your spec to AE and they will follow up (I guess??)
Voy, affirmative with confidence as no glass was broken when I played the Von Stade LP. Treble has been 'tamed' although we can still working better for the rear wall absorbent that you suggested.
Comments
Whilst I am waiting for Ralph to do the fine tuning and adding of the speaker 'feet', my initial impression on the speaker is like doubling the pixels of a digital photo. Frequency bandwidth extended deeply into the two ends with much more textures and lyric.
Will report more in the next few days.
Marvel
PT and myself would spend some more effort in the room acoustics to transform it from Neo era into Cessaro dynasty.
I will continue to report more when the speakers have got more time on burning in.
Marvel
To further report on the sonical performance of this horn, I have been listening to various LPs/CDs that I have familiar with and would like to covers a few key areas:
1. Orchestral - Dvorak New World conducted by Fricsay, DG (LP)
Copland, Fanfare of Common Man, Telarc (LP)
2. Vocals - Federica Von Stade - Mozart/Rossini Opera arias, Philips
Eva Cassidy, Live at the Blue Elley (CD)
3. Chambers - Mario Joao Pires, Mozart Piano sonatas
- Schubert Arpeggione Cello Sonatas, Maisky/Argerich
Philips (LP and CD)
4. Others - Kenny G Live (LP)
New Dawn, Naim guitar CD
On Orchestral music, I find the speaker has a cavity and capacity to deliver huge bass mass and motion with great depth and height of soundstage. Drums are so impactful with harmonics and reverbration clearly distinguished from each other and at the same time, giving out a clear contrast with the other instruments groups predonminantly on the mid to treble compartments like violin, horn, etc. Speed of propagation is much more in synchronous compared to my previous speakers thus making a much more contiguous tonal picture with everything in less of a time phase difference. I cannot say this speaker has an absolute correctness in ensuring all frequencies are traversing in exactly the time phase as in the original recording, but it is a very very high standard that I am hearing in terms of phase correctness without which one can feel sluggishnes and slowness normally on the bass compartment.
Although my room is still the same room with the same phsical constraints, PT has helped me in putting some more high frequency filters thus making the entire room much quieter and reflection on the high frequency noise has been reduced. This helps tremendously in providing a wider virtual space to house 'the orchestra' and allow me to visualise a more complete and steady soundstage even at the climax of the performance and in many cases in the past, noise due to high frequency reflections would occur at high volume thus limited the enjoyment of the orchestral music. Like the title of the Dvorak SymNo.9, it is a 'New World' to me and my heart really feels the same when I played this LP in the past few days with this new horn.
On vocals, it is simply more live hearing Von Stade singing out 'loud' with a lyrical control on the breath in and out though the lung, nose and mouth. I could hear more slight exchange of breath in order to push out the keynotes. Eva Cassidy's voice has more liveliness and fresh intermingled seamlessly well with the surrounding atmosphere of the jazz band and her own guitar. The kind of non-stress and non-compression on how a human sound could surge up to is really amazing to me especially on CD which I used to have a feeling that it is more discrete and compressed compared to LP (although this may be an issue for me to address to boost further up the performance of my LP setup...another story)...
To my favourite chamber musics, I chose Denon PCM recording on Pires Mozart sonata which was recorded long time ago in Japan when Pires was still very young. I like this box set very much not just for its superb recording but also the flare and youthfulness exhibited by Pires at the time of such performance. Listening under Affasionate speaker gives me a new perspective on Pires' skill in interpreting the joyfulness and cheerfulness of Mozart's composition. All the keystrokes are more vivid with a stronger sense of different pressure exerted by the human fingers. The scale and weight of the piano can be clearly reconstructed through the darker virtual space and a more complete the bass harmonics. I can hear a 'deeper intrusion' into the both frequency ends creating a studio like soundstage with myself sitting in the same room as Pires on her performance. A big 'wow' for me when listening to it last night.
Another favourite chamber music that I listen frequently recently is the Schubert Arpeggione by Maisky and Argerich. I know there are better performance out there like Fournier, Rostropovich and Gendron. This Maisky version is the only one that I have got both on LP and CD. I like to contrast my CD setup vs LP setup by playing this piece in order to help me understand more on my LP setup (using CD as a control obviously). The application of the bow on the cello by Maisky was indeed full of variations and skills which was unheard of. Size and reverbration of the cello chamber can be heard clearer with the horn speaker. This cannot be achieved without a change on the impedance level setting in my Wavac phono to match with my Dynavector cartridge last night. To cut a long story short, PT has recently experimented and experienced a lot on the matching between the cartridge and the input impedance of the phono after he has got an impedance adjustable phono by Tidal (the Proes Reference phono preamp which may be found in some other threads of this forum). When listening to the cello performance by Gendron, PT kept saying the impedance was not right in my Wavac setup and after we changed it, all the movements on the cello become more vivid and distinctive and the background piano also came out further to sing for itself!
On the last category when I listened to the guitar CD and Kenny G LIve, I am deeply impressed by the ambience produced by the saxophone and guitar, again a new height compared to my previous speaker. The metallic feel of the saxophone and the elasticity of the guitar strings are two extremes in terms of physical nature and sonic behvaviour. I could hear a more transparent tonal picture producing clear timbre of each. There is so much air surrounding the performer defining the space and timbre to a level which seems to be 'touchable' and for the guitar CD, it is like having the guitarist playing in my room. I am quite surprised that CD playback could reach such level and PT concurred with some further push for me to further improve my LP system !!
In short, horn speaker is not a ground breaking technology but the deployment of such technology by Cessaro is extremely advanced by carefully choosing the drivers and integration requires much research and repeated testings. I am extremely pleased with the invention of such speaker which brings me much closer to music and at the same time, doesn't demand huge space to make it sing.
I know some fellow audiophiles in this forum are already planning to have the bigger model of Eufrodite or tempted to try the Tidal. For me, this horn speaker has put a period in the category of speaker for Marvel.
Marvel
Voy, affirmative with confidence as no glass was broken when I played the Von Stade LP. Treble has been 'tamed' although we can still working better for the rear wall absorbent that you suggested.