Analog Domain
Just move into my new home with 11ft headroom which is unprecedented in my previous apartments. Although it is just the first 2 weeks since I moved in and only a few days since I have connected back my system, I can feel there is much more breathing space for the system. Sound is progressive and open with Analog Domain driven by its specially designed power cords. Music flows out with rhythmic speed and control. With more acoustics adjustment, I believe the system would even sound better.
New space opens up more opportunities but at the same time posts new challenges in terms of acoustics treatment just like AE2.
Marvel
New space opens up more opportunities but at the same time posts new challenges in terms of acoustics treatment just like AE2.
Marvel
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Though my prime objective of the new home is for better living, I have also taken serious consideration on the room acoustics and positioning of my system. This is already one of the best that I could find and I know there is also imperfection which I cannot resolve immediately. I shall work together with PT and Jlam to overcome / mitigate this.
Marvel
Da Vinci支Virtu臂亦是萬眾期待, 玩黑膠的真正樂趣就是等了又等....我都係聽Opus樂也融融吧!
If you guys are talking about Durand arm in Chinese, I hope you don't mind me jumping in. Your analog experience is simply not completed without a Durand arm. I had one mounted on the Da Vinci Unison. The noise floor of the entire system is reduced dramatically. A complete analog experience is not just about zero tracking error which Micha's Thales has done this exceedingly well. It is also not solely about rich tonality in the case of Da Vinci. These two arms represent the best modern arm indisputably so to speak.
But Durand is another class. Imagine there is some kind of SRA virginia board invisibly attached underneath it. The Talea 2 is great in every musical and audiophile aspect. My friends over on the west coast mount the Ortofon A90 on it with breath-taking result. Who is the luck owner of Durand's groundbreaking telos?
Don't say you are any sort of serious vinyl-phile if you don't have a Durand arm. I am fucking serious.
I certainly miss the new upgrade of Takumi K70 to Generation 2 as I heard from PT that this upgrade is revolutionary rather than evoluationary. This I can faithfully understand given the fact that the K10 which was created 2 years after the K70 has managed to addressed or at least covered many of the shortcomings of the Gen 1 K10, such as speed and dynamics.
Analog Domain put me away from the grieve of missing K70 Gen 2 mating with very well with K10 via the balanced connection. It delivers extremely refined details with softness and musicality not resembling any solid state amplifiers that I have listened or used. Vitus was the last pair of SS power amp that I used and my pale recollection of Vitus was its glorious treble and resolution in the midrange. It is not easy to compare now with Analog Domain although in my current setup, what I can tell is the body and scale are more adequately represented without compromising on the quality of the treble performance. One obvious observation between AD and Vitus is at low volume of listening, the microdynamics and rhythm depicted by AD is obviously much more organic and lively than Vitus which at that time, I commented already that Vitus is doing a very very good job in this attribute compared to other amps. Again, I wish to use the analogy of a muscular man, it is easy to have him jumping up and down, moving heavy things around, but when it comes to picking up a small needle and sew a button on a shirt, this is not going to be easy. I can feel AD is delivering music like a very skilful woman sewing rhythmically and transforming into a giant when it needs to handle orchestral type. Most importantly the transformation is much quicker, smoother and seamless that what you have seen in the computer grapics of the movie Transformer !!
The new space opens up more opportunities for me to capitalise the outstanding quality of my system and at the same time it is equally challenging and interesting for me to make this system sounds right in this space before I consider further changes on my system components. I learnt this from PT when going through with him the various tuning stages ever since he had their Showroom 1 and now Showroom 2 established. Without addressing the fundamentals such as noise, mechanical vibration, electricity contamination, speaker positioning and acoustics, all assessment and therefore decision to change components could be inaccurate.
Marvel
A simple song by Jacky Cheung - 你的名字, 我的姓氏 - 清唱 version - when it was played through the OPUS source, Tidal prescenio and the Analog Domain Artemis, I dare say probably only Jacky Cheung himself can verify the remaining shortcomings. The human flesh feelings are just mesmerizing. The calmness brought from the Artemis to my system is magical. It is so much more relaxed. A walk-thru expereince into the "soundstage" is not an exaggeration. The ability to control power with ease anytime is given but to deliver it with style and finesse in accord with musicians' original intention put the amp in another ballpark.
I am still speechless.
PT
This is tour-de-force in solid state amplification engineering. The jump from Calysto to Artemis is an revolutionary step rather than evolution. It seems this brand can deliver the magic of higher the power, higher the resolution, and the lower the noise floor. Nobody would dispute the ultra silence of AE1 with two Troys and one Spartan cleaning up all ground and AC noises. The installation of the Artemis drops the overall system noise notably further. The deepest octave is well controlled with recoil/elasticity. To compare, my Calysto's control on the lowest octave is not as stable as the Artemis. The dual presence of doubel bass and horn is articulated with protruding horn energy with metallic color whilst the wooden double bass is pitched with full woody resonances and elasticity. The image of both are very stable. They just stay there, and the energy progressively increase with distance. That remain true in the reproduction of Mahler symphonies.
Last but not least is the contribution of Dalby wooden feet at the margin is "exponential" in terms of unveiling even more subtle tone color across whole frequency, especially the bass. This is unusual in my expereince of feet. I just have to grab a set.
The Silvery AD logo is different from the black logo of Calysto. That's cool.
Ray
Had you got a chance to audition Goldmund Telos 3500 before? This amp is about EUR300,000. This amp is good and the bass performance of them is similar to your description of the Artemis. Anyway, the justifications to spend EUR300,000 on Goldmund amp may be strong for mainland Chinese but not for me.
Unlike Patek Philippe watch, the brand premium on hi end audio is meaningless because they will never appreciate in value or be sold in auction houses. The brand premium rather helps the used dealer to sell them quicker. But do they offer good buy of these brand in the first place?
PT spent actually 3 hours listening, moving things around, removing and adding WaveKinetics around....I was shameful not to be able to help him much because I was too tied up with an urgentp piece of work required by end of today...anyway, I was still able to 'split' my ears from my mind and eyes to allow me multi-tasking between the room tuning and my work.
In summary, what PT has done leading to positive contribution to the overall performance are:
1. adjusting the speaker position with an attempt to offset the imbalance between the left hand and right side. I am ordering 2 piece of reflection board which would hopefully further improve the imbalance by putting them on the right hand side blocking the small corridor and staircase.
2. setting the Analog Domain 6db more on the output gain which in AE showroom, PT said it is not possible because of the relative breathing space and the speaker in my space compared to AE showroom. In a nutshell, my speaker is now regarded as a bit too small to fill up the space necessitating AD to work harder.
3. moving around the Tidal diffusor and some other absorbent boards to yield the best composition. This is not final yet, PT will bring the 'Wings' to my place as he reckons that the Wings can diffuse a wider frequency range than the Tidal which may help in my room. Again, this is a question for both of us at the moment.
4. Last but not the least, the installation of the Troy 2, separating the source and the amps.
The overall improvement is from a hollow sound commented by PT when he first came in to something PT called 'listen-able'. This is hopefully a 'marginal pass' to PT's standard. To me, the bass details and quality would still need to be improved in order to reconstruct a more complete sound stage with the right dimensionality and richness in the texture. As PT said in one of the music we listened, he can feel the lux and lust of the horn but not the scale! Still some room for improvements.
At the end of the 3 hours, both PT and myself felt quite contented on the achievements today and we started talking about the difference between Calysto and Artemis. The more PT described about Artemis, the more I was tempted to listen to it so I suggested we go to the showroom rightaway. It is a bit crazy to me to go from my home in Tung Chung to Central in the midst of a late afternoon, but we are audiophiles and some times when the 'fever' comes, one just cannot resist not to seek the cure....
In about 40mins later, we were already sitting in the AE showroom starting to switch on the Artemis and the others. Communing between Tung Chung and Central is just 30mins which is much shorter than many people's perception....
3 changes have been made since I last visited: addition of 5 sets of Wings as diffusors, Dalby feet and the Artemis. This does not include the fine adjustment on the speakers, etc.
We listened to a few more CDs and the CDs that we have heard in my place. I must say the level of performance attained after the addition of the above 3 items have been phenomenal. Artemis, compared to Calysto is much much more resourceful and in control forming a even stronger couple with the Sunray. Noise platform is a record low rendering a more transparent soundstage. IN listening to the Eason live concert that we have heard countless times, I can feel somebody was screaming at Eason at the far end of the Hung Hom Stadium, which in the past, it is just a small voice on the right top corner in the AE showroom, now, it is exactly Row Z (just to show how far it is from the stage) about 60m from my listening position !!
Jacky Cheung was another CD that we have repeatedly listen in my place and in the showroom...the track: 'Your First Name, My Last Name'...I told PT that now I understand why the showroom has impressed so many people...it is just cannot be more 'real' than bringing the whole studio and Jacky into the virtual space in front of us. Jacky's breathing inter alia the singing, the silence of the pause, the integration with the background music, all are vividly presented with the right spatial separation with solid color and texture. Is it a real voice or just a recording reproduced in a virtual space? I can assure you that on blind test, such difference is getting blurred in the new and latest setup in this showroom which I now wish to call it as 'The Killing Field'...Almost no one can survive without a re-think of what they can further improve after listening to the level of performance the showroom can attain.
Marvel