The sound coming from this Affascinate SE is damn so live and open, the music can easily fill up the whole room without any sense of distortion or tense. I never experience this before and don't know how many wow factor I should give. I will spend some more time with this amazing speaker and share more with you guys later.
PT,
Next time if you want to scare me like that, please make sure I am ready for it.
Voy, hard for me to tell because that will not be an apple to apple comparison because two systems are completely different. But I have to say the Affasciate SE is indeed a dramatic improvement over the already impressive non-SE version due to the presence of the TAD supertweeter and a supravox bass with even faster speed
Danny, I am happy for you. AE will never fail to satisfy you. The limit is always the skills. PT told me that he is under pressure too because all of you are advancing so fast with better and better listening skills with each passing day. That is the real force behind the advancement of the community always to the next level.
The following you will see the Beta system with two subwoofer just installed in Thomas (Designer of the world renonwned turntable Raven AC) of TW Acustic's place last week by Ralph.
Who will be the first to house the Beta system in HK, Asia?
Mr.Zanden, we are all waiting for you to open our eyes/ears again.
What is he doing? PT's father is helping to drill a hole in the empty structure that is storing resonance energy. Because the structure is sealed and there is no way I can put resonator inside. Where to determine the hole position? We take turn to use bare hand to knock on the different location of the empty structure to determine where has the most resonances. Then we all agree that is it and then drill it! We learn smartly from Franck of Acoustic System Int'l. Size of the hole is about 1/8 inch. Why are we doing this? Because we strive for the best out of the best.
I am more of a musician than an audiophile. I dare say the reproduction of piano in the AE showroom despite the small room size "challenges" any mega system that I have listened hitherto. This system consists of Zanden 2000p/5000s going into Tidal Preos Reference via SMR SE old version, and SMR SE new version into the Zanden 300b PP mono amp, then passed through the EE spk cable to the Cessaro Alpha One. Other than everything is sitting on the craze rack plus a few Ohio XL+2, another Ohio XL+2 must be used under the aluminium power supply (very noise chassis) of the Zanden 5000s to get the achieved result.
ccn, it cleans up the residual noises attached on all frequencies. The empty structure is like another speaker cabinet. Resonances are trapped with no way out. These energy then circulate within the structure creating noises. You won't notice it until they are gone. According to PT, you have the same situation in the place where the air conditioner is placed. I told him to treat it because I could not stand the noises there, muddying your high frequencies and degrades the bassline. if there are no noises there, you will not hear the improvment. But you are lucky that you don't need to drill a hole there because you can open up the closet.
PT also told me that he really wants to drill a hole in Danny's ceiling which is also an empty structure. He says one 1/8 inch on the ceiling nd another 1/8 inch on the floor will automatically put Danny in a noise free environment on the right hand side of the speakers. But he was not absolutely certain until he tried this on AE showroom. I told him to go ahead.
How do I know whether this change is equivalent to improvement. It is very easy on my book. When I turn on the volume on the Preos, I can always turn on louder without distortion. Well, Danny just experienced this but what's more is now the more volume I put up, the larger and fuller the room has become. I know it's there. The cessaro can reproduce all frequency range without compression, that's the nature but can your room take all this compression free energy is perhaps the tougher challenge. When you increase the volume, the resonances in the empty structure echoes proportional (even more) to the increase in loudness. Unless I destroy the empty structure, it is a self defeating game. A little hole, don't underestimate it because it provides a place for the reonance to leave.
In my experience, the ebony most of the time overdamps important harmonic information at all frequncies. It works well to clean up bass obesity at the expense of fine overtunes from mid level upward. When you become more familiar of the horn, the sound of the ebony will start haunting you.
Drilling a hole in empty structure sounds like crazy idea. Try it and let us now. i support hole drilling.
Can you share what is the difference between your speaker and Marvel's version? The price differences are not small, I want to know what I am getting for the extra buck.
PT's judgment is scary and I know he is always right and frank to the point. I still want to listen to owner's perspective.
Marvel bro is yet to receive the right amp, most likely the 805V2, to drive his Affascinate. I don't think it's a fair judgment to compare the two versions now. My SE is one of the best speaker I've ever heard regardless of the price, its speed, dynamic, details, soundstage, transparency, openness and liveliness can shock you within a few minutes of listening. This is the speaker to make you turn on the music louder and louder. Without the SE, you really don't know the strength and weakness of your system. Once you step into the Cessaro world, there will be no way out.
Marvel bro will come to my place for an audition on Saturday, you can ask him for more comments later.
Voy,
I totally agree on the disadvantages of Ebony, the reason I built this rack is for appearance only. With the help of the SE, it won't be difficult to find the right rack for my system.
Drilling two 1/8 inch holes? Unfortunately the dinning area is not my territory, I have to convince my boss at home to accept this crazy idea before taking any action.
Comments
PT,
Next time if you want to scare me like that, please make sure I am ready for it.
Danny
The following you will see the Beta system with two subwoofer just installed in Thomas (Designer of the world renonwned turntable Raven AC) of TW Acustic's place last week by Ralph.
Who will be the first to house the Beta system in HK, Asia?
Mr.Zanden, we are all waiting for you to open our eyes/ears again.
Danny, enjoy the horn. May I know what is the material of your hi fi rack?
I am more of a musician than an audiophile. I dare say the reproduction of piano in the AE showroom despite the small room size "challenges" any mega system that I have listened hitherto. This system consists of Zanden 2000p/5000s going into Tidal Preos Reference via SMR SE old version, and SMR SE new version into the Zanden 300b PP mono amp, then passed through the EE spk cable to the Cessaro Alpha One. Other than everything is sitting on the craze rack plus a few Ohio XL+2, another Ohio XL+2 must be used under the aluminium power supply (very noise chassis) of the Zanden 5000s to get the achieved result.
My reference is live, not any other system.
Jlam,PT,
hope you come check up after all cable here again.
c.c.n
PT also told me that he really wants to drill a hole in Danny's ceiling which is also an empty structure. He says one 1/8 inch on the ceiling nd another 1/8 inch on the floor will automatically put Danny in a noise free environment on the right hand side of the speakers. But he was not absolutely certain until he tried this on AE showroom. I told him to go ahead.
How do I know whether this change is equivalent to improvement. It is very easy on my book. When I turn on the volume on the Preos, I can always turn on louder without distortion. Well, Danny just experienced this but what's more is now the more volume I put up, the larger and fuller the room has become. I know it's there. The cessaro can reproduce all frequency range without compression, that's the nature but can your room take all this compression free energy is perhaps the tougher challenge. When you increase the volume, the resonances in the empty structure echoes proportional (even more) to the increase in loudness. Unless I destroy the empty structure, it is a self defeating game. A little hole, don't underestimate it because it provides a place for the reonance to leave.
It's made of solid Ebony supported by S.S. post.
Danny
Drilling a hole in empty structure sounds like crazy idea. Try it and let us now. i support hole drilling.
Can you share what is the difference between your speaker and Marvel's version? The price differences are not small, I want to know what I am getting for the extra buck.
PT's judgment is scary and I know he is always right and frank to the point. I still want to listen to owner's perspective.
Hung (Taipei)
Marvel bro is yet to receive the right amp, most likely the 805V2, to drive his Affascinate. I don't think it's a fair judgment to compare the two versions now. My SE is one of the best speaker I've ever heard regardless of the price, its speed, dynamic, details, soundstage, transparency, openness and liveliness can shock you within a few minutes of listening. This is the speaker to make you turn on the music louder and louder. Without the SE, you really don't know the strength and weakness of your system. Once you step into the Cessaro world, there will be no way out.
Marvel bro will come to my place for an audition on Saturday, you can ask him for more comments later.
Voy,
I totally agree on the disadvantages of Ebony, the reason I built this rack is for appearance only. With the help of the SE, it won't be difficult to find the right rack for my system.
Drilling two 1/8 inch holes? Unfortunately the dinning area is not my territory, I have to convince my boss at home to accept this crazy idea before taking any action.
Danny