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Sense and Sensibility - the arrival of the Da Vinci Intonation

Here we introduce the Da Vinci Intonation
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Comments

  • A speaker system consists of two full range driver units and two active subwoofer system (a pair of 98 db sensitivty bass drivers driven by a pair of mono amplifier made in France to ensure speed and control).
  • The Cabinet is made of moon wood at the alps of switzerland. The same type of wood chosen for making classical instruments such as violin and cello. The lacquering work is also performed by a real violin maker not only for aesthetical reasons but purely for musicality reasons.
  • No fancy technology on the cabinet - just pure open baffle design
  • Mounting of the 16 inch bass driver. Mr.Zanden's latest thoughtful essay mentioned about the use of solid state to control the subbass region. Da Vinci does applies a solid state amplifier on each channel to control the subbass despite an efficiency of 98db. It is by no means an easy task for a 16inch bass driver to catch up the speed of an 8inch full range driver above. But they do!
  • The source: Heritage DAC and Zero transport by Orpheus - also comes from the Switzerland. Digital cable: Argento SMR Extreme Edition XLR. All the interconnects and speaker cables are Da Vinci's own offering: the Grandezza Reference.
  • The Ohio XL Plus square amp stands under the Grandezza system are purely vibration control instrument. We can't wait to deliver them to Kondo's Ongaku users. MattthewC, yours should arrive this month.

    The Intonation will go through a burn-in period of at least 10 hours each day starting tomorrow from two consecutive weeks. One customer could not wait and would like to bring in his Nagra CDT transport to compare with the Orpehus Zero transport using the Intonation speaker as the reference. We welcome.

    Initial impression of the Intonation will be posted shortly as we need to understand the subwoofer's setting a little bit before we can say anything meaningful. All we can share at this point is the speed of the 16 inch bass integrates well with the full range driver. Upon a full week of run-in, maybe Studiogrey should come in and have a listen as he is one of the guys who heard the peak performance of the Kharma Midi Exquisite inside this small room driven by the same Grandezza system 1 month ago.
  • More Photos. Even the passive unit is served by the Ohio XL+2 from SRA.
  • I love this bass driver - super fast.
  • An Army of Grandezza - 2 mono block line drivers - 2 mono block 300B SET parallel 10 watt amplifiers
  • In the past, I rate Zanden 2000p/5000s with/without superclock a notch higher than the Orpheus Zero/Heritage. They excel in different areas. They are in the same league. I have changed my perspective ever since when the combo in conjunction with the Grandezza system rocks the Kharma midi Exquisite before departure. It could be the best solid state dac at the moment now. Just a reminder not to be betrayed by the look of the Orpheus zero transport. We have heard many many but this little guy here knows what he is doing. If the Heritage is in the chain, you can throw in whatever difficult recordings to challenge the zero.
  • The Full Picture
  • 今天是我第二次上去uncle的家, 有幸聽了最新的da vinci speaker, 我開始的時候, 我覺得這對speaker很大, 之後我走到speaker後看一看, 真的嚇了我一下, 不可想像, 這麼貴的speaker, 原來後面什麼都沒有, 是空心的, 下面有一個很少的類似amplier的樣子的東西, 接駁了電源, 用argento power cord. Uncle叫我坐下聽一聽, 給些意見, 我真的不可以給任何意見, 我是音響初哥, 我跟uncle 說, 我想聽二年前uncle介紹britten的羅亞方舟, 我聽了其中的一個track, 我真的不知用什麼形容詞 可以在這裡表達, 人聲好真, 真的好真, 音樂好震撼, 再聽carmen歌劇的cd 其中的表演者用他的鞋踏著地板, uncle叫我合上雙眼聽, 鞋踏著地板的聲音, 真的好真, 難以想像, 另一個track, 歌者在前面唱著他們的歌, 整個台表現了出來, 好像我坐在劇院的前坐, 看著他們, 但我想因為什麼這麼一對什麼都沒有的speaker, 會給我這樣的感覺. 我想所有前輩們應該去聽一聽, 看一看我在這裡所說的話有沒有錯
  • I have listened to the DaVinci suite (technically it is not a complete suite as PT should move his DV LP + phono system across to make a whole suite. PT also briefly talked about his intention to buy the DV turntable and the flagship Granddezza phono and his current limitation is physical space (not money!!)

    The Intonation speaker is a 'laugh' as before everything I went to the rear and found that it is an open cabinet at the back. The wood at the back is just like maple wood although in actual fact, it is called moon wood. My laugh stopped the second when PT pressed the play key on the Orpheus combo. What is this?? Am I sitting inside a big big stereophile headphone? I actually closed my eyes when I listen to Carmen suite and Noyes's Fludde. The sound is so coherent and real that I thought I was sitting in the 2nd row on the stage!! DV is not just about big picture, it is about a complete and seamless tonal picture that I have never heard other speaker system could reproduce. For such wallrobe type of cabinet, how can it disappear all of a sudden the first second music comes in? No cable game, no power conditioning, just room tweaking and the kind of 'virtual reality' is unparallelled!!

    There is simply no need for me to critically evaluate base on any hi-fi attributes, I just sat there and relax and enjoy music. I think this is the ultimate purpose for any component/system. PT told me he has not yet replaced any of the stock tube by his other exotic WE tubes, he just felt the current level is already very very rewarding to him. I totally agree with him.

    I laugh at the end about this 'thinking out of the box' thing, both physically and conceptually.

    Marvel
  • Marvel, I and Dr.Bradely were speechless this afternoon after your morning session. As a pride owner of ongaku, the musical experience today put my pride in a recession. This is a total full range enveloping experience, as you said, not heard anywhere. I am curious even more about cessaro horn but PT says the system is not ready, not recommend for audition now. He also comments only Mr.Zanden can conquer it with his passion and huge breathing physical space. The limitation of physical space and the newborn baby prevents him from exploring into the "horny" world.
  • This system is profoundly musical.
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