Mr Fire4, this is in line with the 'cost no object' principle of AE as far as room tuning and gear matching are concerned. Your listening experience yesterday was as a result of many nights of in-depth and vigorous listening and tweaking by Jlam, PT and PT Senior...they are really no joking per se! The Neo Dio is really something! I like it very much indeed!
I went there tonight after the room was put into action 2 weeks ago. The AE Showroom II is about 1/3 of the AE Showroom I, around 150sq ft. This is a place which I would describe as 'killing field'. It sounds horrifying at the outset but if one goes into this room expecting heavy bass booming, resonance, life-less quietness, close in sounding....the room really put all these kinds of thinking into the shredder when PT presses the play button and upon close eyes listening.
All walls disappear together with the gears. The wall at my back, to my listening preference, absorbs too much without re-bouncing back. It is a bit 'dead' to simply say. On the first 15mins listening, I felt the sound was quite enclosed in the speaker cabinet not freeing itself out to fill the space. We then toe in the speaker for about 10mm and put a diffusor at the back of my listening position. Everything went back to
normal. Whilst both PT and myself believe that the speaker will require more burning in before it could sing at ease, the 'close in' sounding was not actually caused by the insufficient burning in. Instead, it was caused by the room especially the wall at my back absorbing too much of the direct sound from the speaker. Room acoustics is really amazing and even at the experience of PT, we do agree tonight that this room
together with the horn speaker is a different animal to tame compared with AE Showroom 1.
One of the music we listened was Mahler and on close eyes listening, the soundstage is enormous and I feel I was put in the concert hall in around 6-8rows facing off a full team orchestra performing the symphony!! PT played back a few CD which I am sure will 'kill' right on spot anyone who has a slight suspicion on the performance of this modest system set up in a building probably built at the time of World War II !!
Did I survive? I think I need to talk to Jlam on the Troy later....Nevertheless it is the skills of PT in the room acoustics that I am lacking in. Getting all the hardware is just a matter of how much I prepare to invest...without the skills it would only lead to wrong conclusion....the more I know, the less I know !!
An audiophiles friend of mine wrote from the States shedding skepticism on my comments below on how such a tiny room can house Mahler 2 with the walls disappeared. To the American standard, the room is not even as big as their restroom. Ironically, the price of the size of this tiny room in an exclusive area in hk would cost even more than a hous e in the States!
What ae has achieved in this tiny room are (1) an ultra low noise platform (2) speed of signal propagation ihroughout the system is fast and synchronized across the frequency spe,ctrum. (3) reflection and absorption material are applied based on their experience in the larger showroom. (4) maximizing the strength of the horn speaker sized appropriately to fit the room.
The end result is the creation of an illusion on the size and sound staging beyond the four physical walls. No doubt PT will further excel in pushing the performance to the peak, but at this level, it is adequate to smash many mega system in megabrooms into pieces, hands on heart!
I think the壓迫感 will be disappear after more fine tune. I felt the room does sound very good, I m quite enjoy during an hours listening. The accoustic does not like those deadly sound record studio, This is a low Noise floor but sound lively and not over absorb, actually, even much better than I expect.
I personally felt this is very interesting experience to study the room acoustic. Looking forward how will the sound in 2nd visit after you guys help setting up.
Comments
Neodio NR 22 CDT/ DAC
More to come....
All walls disappear together with the gears. The wall at my back, to my listening preference, absorbs too much without re-bouncing back. It is a bit 'dead' to simply say. On the first 15mins listening, I felt the sound was quite enclosed in the speaker cabinet not freeing itself out to fill the space. We then toe in the speaker for about 10mm and put a diffusor at the back of my listening position. Everything went back to
normal. Whilst both PT and myself believe that the speaker will require more burning in before it could sing at ease, the 'close in' sounding was not actually caused by the insufficient burning in. Instead, it was caused by the room especially the wall at my back absorbing too much of the direct sound from the speaker. Room acoustics is really amazing and even at the experience of PT, we do agree tonight that this room
together with the horn speaker is a different animal to tame compared with AE Showroom 1.
One of the music we listened was Mahler and on close eyes listening, the soundstage is enormous and I feel I was put in the concert hall in around 6-8rows facing off a full team orchestra performing the symphony!! PT played back a few CD which I am sure will 'kill' right on spot anyone who has a slight suspicion on the performance of this modest system set up in a building probably built at the time of World War II !!
Did I survive? I think I need to talk to Jlam on the Troy later....Nevertheless it is the skills of PT in the room acoustics that I am lacking in. Getting all the hardware is just a matter of how much I prepare to invest...without the skills it would only lead to wrong conclusion....the more I know, the less I know !!
Marvel
中午時份由我的Gallery行去文武廟等PT, 我發夢也想不到原來AE-2竟在戰前建造的唐樓上, 就算升降機也沒有. 好不容易行到四樓, 一開門就立即有似曾相識的感覺. 裝修水準極高, 但最想不到是此糸统的穿牆能力.
呢間细房唔簡單, 我也有聽你昨晚聽的Mahler 2, 我十分同意你的聽感. 合上眼後, 間房隱型了. 音符在寧靜上漂浮. 至於diffusor的位置, 我較起歡Mr.DV所建議的左牆第2反射點, 音色更柔軟和暢順. 放在皇帝位後, 高音資訊更多. 但在較大音壓時, 我喜歡後牆較死. 如有兩支diffusor的話可以試得更清楚.
呢對Cessaro簽名版Chopin喇叭完成度極高, 我不覺得它需要超高因為高音已十分明诤和亮麗, 二次諧波在播放古代小提琴錄音也十分足夠. Robert Koda部K10前有料到.
最後也不能不提"绝對創造"線材的绝對貢獻 - 添哥真係技驚四座!
What ae has achieved in this tiny room are (1) an ultra low noise platform (2) speed of signal propagation ihroughout the system is fast and synchronized across the frequency spe,ctrum. (3) reflection and absorption material are applied based on their experience in the larger showroom. (4) maximizing the strength of the horn speaker sized appropriately to fit the room.
The end result is the creation of an illusion on the size and sound staging beyond the four physical walls. No doubt PT will further excel in pushing the performance to the peak, but at this level, it is adequate to smash many mega system in megabrooms into pieces, hands on heart!
Marvel
I personally felt this is very interesting experience to study the room acoustic. Looking forward how will the sound in 2nd visit after you guys help setting up.