Today I had some real fun together with Azzurrii and William in testing various speaker positions @ AE2. We had a nice session @ AE1 first before venturing to the mysterious place. My son, Frank, was present at both places fir the whole afternoon too.
Because my gallery is located near AE2. I can always just walk over after making an appointment with PT. This is my 2nd visit in a month as I am eager to know what had he done after my last visit.
The voice of "Ellie Goulding" singing Elton John's "Your Song" via the Cessaro Chopin melts me down. Her voice was in the room singing vividly. It's not the resolution but the feeling of "flesh" that got me. I listened to the same song for a total of 3 times. It is so pure. For this kind of young singer, I am not looking for technical masteries but rather a candid delivery of her emotion. I can understand why so many people were touched after "Janet Devlin", 16 year old girl from the countryside in the UK, sang the same song on X- factor. Sometimes, some voice just captures your soul without legitimate reasons. I strongly recommend Ellie's latest recording if Adele is too strong. For me, I bought this album just because of she singing "your song". Recording quality of this track is particularly good.
The bulky diffusors were all absent today and so are the physical walls during audition. The speakers also disappear. Even the depth of the sound field is there. This is a very good place to showcase how much a high end system can achieve in a room size that is more familiar in ordinary HK homes. And I have to say, in less than a month, this "modest" system has achieved a yardstick that may take others a decade to achieve without proper guidance.
I don't speak this lightly, as this is a room with true audio educational value. The electronics are more accessible financially relatively speaking. Yet, the musicality is natural. The notes are flowing. I am sure there will always be room for improvement. I am sure PT will keep on pushing the envelope. I notice him changing a lot. He is not keen to use flagship cables all thru nowadays. He may begin with one, then slowly he changes to a better one. I can see from the cables perspective, there are tremendous room for upgrade. The Argento flow power, after almost 4 years, is still serving the system well.
This small room is beautiful. The sonics are excellent. Room acoustics is such an amazing branch of sciences. I agree all the walls basically disappear. The amps match so well with the Cessaro Chopin. I don't have a feeling of the speaker requiring more burn in. It just sings. This is a room that requires diffusion and PT got it right at the beginning. The big Tidal room on the other hand is more of an absoption game. There is no fix formula. Field expereinces are the most important.
The recent mentioning of Adele and Ellie Goulding in this group was a pleasant surprise. These are the artists admired by the teens mostly. Even Uncle Ray jumped on the bandwagon! I watched Janet Devlin on X-factor singing "Your Song". All I can say, well, she's cool but nowhere to the point of melting me down!
The market is damn bored. And where the hell is our Marvel bro? We need some "audio pornography" from you! And where is Mr.Zanden? Had he already swallowed by the big Beta horn mouth?
I will visit the small room at the end of this month. And I need some surprises after going through a bloodbath.
I am crazily occupied with the moving to a new home for the past few weeks and right now I am out of town...expect to be able to tidy up the ground in the next 2-3 weeks then connect up the super power amp: Analog Domain which are sitting in my new place on top of the SRA Virginia. I dare not to power it up without Jlam or PT's presence as I am well known to be a killer of electronic and things that can go wrong will go wrong in my place. Jlam and PT can quote you many past examples so I was warned not to power these amps without them. PT has actually written an instruction to me via SMS to make sure I follow the step...come on, just to power up an electroic device...that is how they care about their customers, especially those who have a 'track record'...
I am waiting patiently for the DaVinci Virtu arm which I have received an email from Mr.Peter Brem of DV explaining on why it takes so much time to make to perfection of this masterpiece. I have very high expectation on this as it has been months since my Gabriel has stopped spinning....
I went to AE2 the second time last Sat morning and the first time was two weeks ago. I was amazed to experience how the system and the settings of AE2 had improved in such a short time. I was an advocate of Shindo and owned a full Shindo amplifier and speakers suite and right now I am using Robert Koda suite with Cessaro. Thus the changes and improvement of AE2 are also a reflection of my path in hi-fi and give me greater impact. The period of the audition was short as it was an ad-hoc arrangement. Several CDs were played including Jazz, vocal and some Latin music. The bass delivered by Chopin driven by the Robert Koda suite impressed me a lot. I could not image that the energy emitted was from a "small" speakers and yet the sound was still so controlled and detailed. As compared with my K70 G1, the improvement in control in the G2 version is apparent. PT mentioned the speed was also improved but I need more audition to verify this area. I observed an issue that the system was a bit unbalanced with the treble a bit sharp. The sound quality was excellent but I thought I could not have the feeling of "sitting back with a glass of good red wine, relaxed, listen and enjoy music". PT said the cause may be that there was a tuning of 1db higher in the treble as there was no super-treble in Chopin. To address this issue, PT changed the power cord of K70 to a better one. The situation was improved but it was still not 100% resolved. It was good to learn that the issue was resolved by reducing the separation between the speakers. The K70G2 still needs time to run in and thus it still can't give me the feeling of "relax. Also, the system is still not yet running in full balanced mode. I hope next time I can listen to a fully run-in and well tuned system which can drive Chopin to deliver its full potential. PT disclosed that a subwoofer is on the way and will be added to the system within short time. The subwoofer will be different from what I listened before as it will be a horn subwoofer. I anticipate very much this final piece of puzzle which I believe will push the system in AE2 to another level.
I am glad you accepted my recommendation of re-arranging the diffusors. Let the back wall behind you do the job of absorption. Don't confuse it's primary job by putting diffusor panels there. Given your speaker positions are much more correct than before, there was no thinning of mid range at all. The absorption at the back wall also helps taming the highly directive tweeter energy from the horn mouth. The length of the room is small and hence you do need the back wall to absorb in order to alleviate the energy. The diffusors were then moved to both 1st and 2nd reflection points on both sides. And the result is a total engulfing experience. I feel as though I am inside the spatial domain within the recording. The listening experience did not render me a feeling of congestion. Adding the subwoofer is a dangerous but interesting idea.
The Takumi K70 Generation 2 is like flamboyant fireworks sparkling with total freedom to deliver a colorful message.
I was there on Wednesday. I went there right after I landed HK. This small room, to my surprise, does not sound small at all. I do agree the walls generally disappeared. The room neither sounds dead nor bright. Just like the room acoustics of AE1 but better because the speakers at AE2 have symmetrical distance to the side walls. I quite enjoyed my 1.5hrs there. And the difference between K70-G1 and K70-G2 is not subtle. The demo between balance operation bypassing input transformer and non-balance operation was poisoning. The character of the amp has become much more dynamically expressive. Control is excellent and driving power of the lower mid range is obviously stronger. How can I not upgrade to the G2? though the first Takumi is already such a masterpiece. Martin Collin's review is such a good read.
Back to this small horn speaker that Voy R and so many others are using. I somewhat feel it sounds more coherent than my Affascinate SE though I have fuller body with much much top end details. What if the Chopin is complemented by a subwoofer? It will be a killer horn system.
Comments
The voice of "Ellie Goulding" singing Elton John's "Your Song" via the Cessaro Chopin melts me down. Her voice was in the room singing vividly. It's not the resolution but the feeling of "flesh" that got me. I listened to the same song for a total of 3 times. It is so pure. For this kind of young singer, I am not looking for technical masteries but rather a candid delivery of her emotion. I can understand why so many people were touched after "Janet Devlin", 16 year old girl from the countryside in the UK, sang the same song on X- factor. Sometimes, some voice just captures your soul without legitimate reasons. I strongly recommend Ellie's latest recording if Adele is too strong. For me, I bought this album just because of she singing "your song". Recording quality of this track is particularly good.
The bulky diffusors were all absent today and so are the physical walls during audition. The speakers also disappear. Even the depth of the sound field is there. This is a very good place to showcase how much a high end system can achieve in a room size that is more familiar in ordinary HK homes. And I have to say, in less than a month, this "modest" system has achieved a yardstick that may take others a decade to achieve without proper guidance.
I don't speak this lightly, as this is a room with true audio educational value. The electronics are more accessible financially relatively speaking. Yet, the musicality is natural. The notes are flowing. I am sure there will always be room for improvement. I am sure PT will keep on pushing the envelope. I notice him changing a lot. He is not keen to use flagship cables all thru nowadays. He may begin with one, then slowly he changes to a better one. I can see from the cables perspective, there are tremendous room for upgrade. The Argento flow power, after almost 4 years, is still serving the system well.
Did you watch Janet Devlin singing Coldplay's FIX YOU on X factor?
The market is damn bored. And where the hell is our Marvel bro? We need some "audio pornography" from you! And where is Mr.Zanden? Had he already swallowed by the big Beta horn mouth?
I will visit the small room at the end of this month. And I need some surprises after going through a bloodbath.
VR
I am crazily occupied with the moving to a new home for the past few weeks and right now I am out of town...expect to be able to tidy up the ground in the next 2-3 weeks then connect up the super power amp: Analog Domain which are sitting in my new place on top of the SRA Virginia. I dare not to power it up without Jlam or PT's presence as I am well known to be a killer of electronic and things that can go wrong will go wrong in my place. Jlam and PT can quote you many past examples so I was warned not to power these amps without them. PT has actually written an instruction to me via SMS to make sure I follow the step...come on, just to power up an electroic device...that is how they care about their customers, especially those who have a 'track record'...
I am waiting patiently for the DaVinci Virtu arm which I have received an email from Mr.Peter Brem of DV explaining on why it takes so much time to make to perfection of this masterpiece. I have very high expectation on this as it has been months since my Gabriel has stopped spinning....
Marvel
Do you understand the word "pornography"? Please shoot some sexy pictures of your super toys with expensive camera to cheer us up.
We need them.
VR
I am glad you accepted my recommendation of re-arranging the diffusors. Let the back wall behind you do the job of absorption. Don't confuse it's primary job by putting diffusor panels there. Given your speaker positions are much more correct than before, there was no thinning of mid range at all. The absorption at the back wall also helps taming the highly directive tweeter energy from the horn mouth. The length of the room is small and hence you do need the back wall to absorb in order to alleviate the energy. The diffusors were then moved to both 1st and 2nd reflection points on both sides. And the result is a total engulfing experience. I feel as though I am inside the spatial domain within the recording. The listening experience did not render me a feeling of congestion. Adding the subwoofer is a dangerous but interesting idea.
The Takumi K70 Generation 2 is like flamboyant fireworks sparkling with total freedom to deliver a colorful message.
Back to this small horn speaker that Voy R and so many others are using. I somewhat feel it sounds more coherent than my Affascinate SE though I have fuller body with much much top end details. What if the Chopin is complemented by a subwoofer? It will be a killer horn system.