Collective Wisdom: The Case of Cessaro

Unknown

In the past few weeks, there were many audio activities going within the AE community. What contributes a fruitful gathering, in my opinion, is the process of identifying the problems and the subsequent discussions/debates leading to the final solutions to the problem.

The enormous dynamic capability of the Vekian made Charles feel there is something wrong with the bass. It seems the bass was trapped inside trying to breakaway from the cabinet. DSo's explanation was not enough run in as he only spend 1.5 days in HK every week. But Charles does not think so because (1) DSo plays the system quite loud (2) The tremendous power of the 833 should squeeze the last drop of bass juice out. Then DSo called me the day after and suggested to me that Ralph may put too much damping material inside the bass cabinet. 6 months ago, the acoustic deficiency prompted Ralph to put more damping material inside the bass cabinet to control room resonances. At that time, the amp was 805, definitely not in the same league as the 833.

This afternoon, PTsang and Mr.DV came to AE for "happy hour". PTsang immediately said the bass driver has not run in at all. Mr.DV also agreed. Peter went on to say the Cello does not have enough breathing space in the lower mid register. We tried several LPs and the results were the same. I even told them that is the same type of bass despite the presence of the unique Zanden 211 push pull amp. I told them DSo' hypothesis - maybe too much damping material inside the bass cabinet. PTsang' face turned serious. We wanted to disconnect the bass driver immediately.

Then our savior Master Wai came at 930pm, took the bass driver out and take away ALL THE FOAM material inside the bass cabinet. We played the same Cello Recording again. I could not express how happy I am now.

I recommend ALL OF YOU to take out the foam material inside the bass driver especially if your power amplifiers have changed for the better in the past year or so.

Thank you Charles, DSo, and PTsang. This is a very good example of the brotherhood of collective wisdom within this community.

Unknown

PTsang was over the phone offering instructions with respect to how much stuff we got to take out.

Unknown

Thank DSo for the solution triggered by the enormous dynamic capability of the Vekian DAC.

Unknown

Two "deep blue" solve the problem of the back wall. Charles is very satisfied this time. He said no problem at all from midrange and above. But he pointed out the issue of bass definition. We changed the interconnects from the dac to the preamp from SMR SE to SMR EE - indeed there is even more bass energy. Some of the bass details and punch seemingly not there before had become present. But Charles does not believe SMR SE would miss so much - although the improvement brought from the EE was tremendous. He began to suspect the bass.

Unknown

Brother Fat, be ready for the Vekian Challenge. You need wider placement of the speakers. You probably need to pull it out farther from the wall.

Unknown

Mr.DV, Ptsang, I feel like it is a new pair of speaker. I only left the sheep skin inside.

Unknown

I had numerous discussions with Charles on the sound of Cello for many months. Charles tried hard to squeeze more lower mid bass out. DSo pointed out quite a few times that the Horning lacks lower mid-bass. After yesterday, I believe the judgment is "incorrect".

When I played Cello LP yesterday, PTsang told me the Cello sounds strange. It seems that the "hole" of the Cello is stuffed. The develop of the lower register harmonic is missing, thereby artifically reinforcing the "richness" of the frequency section under the mid-range. It is true that the resonance of certain section (mid-range and above) can still be heard but what is lacking is the resonances/harmonic development from the lower mid bass to bass.
My Cello yesterday sounded more or less the same at DSo's place. Once the damping material is removed, the lower mid will develop further down below. The fatness of the lower-mid range is trimmed and extension down below starts developing.

PTsang

Its unusual that the cabinet housing the 15" bass driver is so small, may be the X'over is big which makes a much larger box looking from the outside. Hope that the external X'over version has a larger cabinet which virtuely makes the damping material inside less dependent.
I have to apologise to PT, Dso and Marvel, Ralph as well of course, what I have said about the Affascinate is incorrect, particularly the driving requirements of preamp and amps. I'm sure after taking away the excessive damping material from the bass box, the Cessario family should now sound in its own right. Afterall you all have the ability to make a 'handicap' spk system sound good, true AE guys.

KenChiu

I have a question for DSo as I am considering the Affascinate SE. What is the biggest improvement after taking out the damping material from the bass? Do you feel the speaker is now easier to drive?

I will be using Tron 211 stereo single end later this month. I like the TAD supertweeter very much. The fostex supertweeter in the Non-SE version sounds too dark and rusty to my liking.

DSo

The result is more or less the same as what PT mentioned, but I still feel the SE is quite power demanding.