Esprit cable design has a total of 8 product categories, Gaia is the latest flagship series. There are several designs incorporated in their cables that I can highlight:
1. Progressive shielding: the level of shielding is doubled in the first 1/3 of the cable run, then single layered in the middle 1/3 run. Towards the 1/3 end of the cable, there is no shielding. Such shielding framework would ensure a perfect balance between noise prevention at the beginning and freedom of signal transmission towards the end.
2. Battery controlled polarisation and filtering ring. In the higher end categories, such technology is deployed to ensure purity of the signal transmission and technically augmenting (1) above.
3. Multiple strands of pure copper conductors with thick silver plated in-house designed connectors. In Gaia/Eureka, there are 1620 strands of conductors per cable with tubing made of 2 different kinds of insulating materials. This enhances the speed of transmission and minimise the energy loss along the path.
The brand has been continuously winning international awards and that tells a lot!
I only knew you have become part of the AE crew a short while ago. Phew! It must be very exciting.
Will you consider adding a subwoofer at ae central to reach the highest performance? The Airblade is a no brainer, even on video by iPhone.
PT’s very innovative way of marketing is excellent. Let customers run to him. I think such approach on the French cables is excellent. His work is primarily research and development on what to bring on board, next spent time to integrate them to his systems, then DEMO to SHOCK. The rest let the customers ask question. This approach is very time consuming requiring lots of knowhow, whereas the norm is to marketing first, reliant on conspiracy to cradle widespread acknowledgement without adequate stress test on field.
Marvel, why is PT using Stravinsky AES/EBU but not GAIA? The comparisons between GAIA and the rest from your friends to me are meaningless. I always know the standard of PT. You got to tell me is GAIA up to the challenge of Stravinsky!
Life has changed for better or for worse to all of us after the Covid-19 outbreak. For me, working from home means more time to pursue my interests, hi-fi and home cooking but I would only dwell on the former as this is a hi-fi forum.
I have been actively tweaking my home acoustics to reproduce the sound I want by adjusting tonal balance, soundstage and dynamics of my beloved system. Several AE's old timers have visited my place in last few months and I guessed they were happy with the sound.
I have been inspired by reading the AE forum as well as the evolution in sound of Marvel's professional den - AE Central showroom. In fact, I have paid several visits to this studio when the Arteluthe speakers made its debut there several months ago.
I don't know about you, whenever I visit a showroom or someone's listening area, I would discern the room acoustics first before making my preliminary impression of the system's sound there. A quick confession first, I have never been impressed with the acoustics of the Central showroom since day one as although the dimension is something every audiophile would long for, the sound to me is a bit dull and I would later move next door to listen to Master Chik's lively system as he always spins good-sounding LPs.
Many months have gone past since Marvel took helm of the Central showroom and I have been impressed by his relentless effort to improve the sound there. I have auditioned Arteluthe twice and the current Divin Marquis speakers three times. Each visit rewarded me with improvement in sound from previous experience, this is a testament to Marvel's love/passion in hi-fi.
Last Saturday, I went to Marvel's den again to check the sound after knowing he had added the Arya feet together with Well Float under the Marquis. He first played "The Favourite Opera Arias" (Cisco label) , track 4 (normal polarity) n & 7 (reverse). The sound was transparent with a wide and deep soundstage free of any harshness and the tympani on track 7 had good transient attack and went pretty deep. I then requested him to play my reference CD - Araon Neville's "Everyone Plays The Fool" , the impression was same as above but my overall impression was, to use the analogy of watching James Bond movies (hope you are a long-term fan too like me to understand what I mean). The system is showcasing Pierce Brosnan instead of Daniel Craig as 007, in other words, it was very pleasing to the ears but not completely winning you over.
Let me make things clearer in case you are confused by my analogy. Although hi-fi reproduction is a very subjective discipline and I won't spend a great length of time arguing with audiophile who disagrees with me, I finally discerned what was not quite right with the sound using my stringent criteria when Marvel played the Decca "The Three Cornered Hat" LP. The sound of trumpets at the beginning was harsh and thin even though he had his phono amp EQ setting on Decca and in reverse polarity........
To cut the long story short, I quickly singled out who the culprit was...the PSI active bass trap. As usual, Marvel bro had its setting/filtering to "FULL" in order to achieve a clean bass (but this usually accompanies with a somewhat leaner sound - incorrect tonality in the mid n upper mid-range). I requested him to reduce the filtering, he then switched it to two thirds, lo and behold, everything improved. Harshness from the trumpets was removed and the orchestra sounded fuller with authority. This shows your ears should be the guide and judge in hi-fi.
Marvel bro later discussed recording polarity with me and I said many audiophiles do not pay attention to this very critical area because they all wish to achieve the widest soundstage but be careful what you wish for as if one plays a reverse recording on normal polarity, they will hear a wider soundstage (basically the image is blurred with lack of harmonic decay) as well as harsher sound due to loss of bass reproduction. Play your Stokowski (Living Stereo) Hungarian Rhapsody (actually The Moldau sounds the best to me) first in normal phase and then in reverse polarity and see if you can discern the difference. Finally, he asked me to listen to I think a Japanese Ondekoza track to check what polarity it is. After hearing for 15 seconds or so, I said the skin of the drum sound too thin, it had the wrong polarity and should be reversed. After the polarity was changed, it sounded with the correct tonality. So I asked him to keep switching the polarity and we could discern the difference easily. I said to him my hi-fi mentor Yamada-san could discern incorrect polarity of any system in one or two seconds.
Anyway, that's all about my last visit to Marvel's professional den. The improvements in soundstage, imaging and clean mid to low bass regions have excited me and I quickly tweaked my system after reaching home. This is what I call a 'win win' situation. By visiting one's system with improved sound, you pay attention to its merits and then try to employ some of them on yours with improvisation.
Keep up the good work Marvel bro and hope you will "invite" me back in the not too distant future as it's boring staying at home all day long.
Indeed it is a big encouragement for me to ascertain the direction I am pursuing. In all the James Bond movies, I am more inclined to the artistry of Pierce Brosnan and Sean Connery. Mr. Zanden really catches the gist in his analogy! So grateful to have Mr. Zanden’s mentoring and a ‘pass’ marginally meeting his expectation.
More work to be done! Do drop by next time when you are in HK.
I am the faked one. But like you, I love Zanden electronics so much especially the Zanden 1200S phono stage. But I am not as experienced as you. I always hear Chris complimenting your listening skills.
Audionec EVO2 speaker from France is on active display at AE Central (Studio 1). This dipole speakers from France houses a super tweeter and an active subwoofer to offer a total panorama perspective of any music. It is simply picturesque. The presence of an active subwoofer is crucial in elevating the scale of the sound field.
When they are driven by Zanden or JMF electronics, the speakers consistently demonstrates passion, agility and color.
Whilst it is indisputable that ground wiring the tonearm and armband would yield much sonical improvement in many dimensions, it is always troublesome to find the right spot to securely hook up the ground wire without tilting the balance of the otherwise delicate vinyl setup.
I worked with Master Chik to implement this solution in order to ensure the ground wire is fully secured!
I have to admit a loosely hooked ground wire can only function in a very limited basis. We are just wasting our valuable resource.
Such ground wire from the arm board is eventually connected to the ground post of the Synaestec Igniculus phono. I am currently using a Dalby Ode Grande from armboard to phono and Argento FMR EE into the Tripoint Elite. Result is both rewarding and enchanting! Next step is to use the Argento FMR phono ground which should be the end game for my vinyl setup!
This Flamenco music is played with unprecedented flare and clarity of each stepping and hand clapping. Master Chik walked by and asked me what had been changed.
Comments
1. Progressive shielding: the level of shielding is doubled in the first 1/3 of the cable run, then single layered in the middle 1/3 run. Towards the 1/3 end of the cable, there is no shielding. Such shielding framework would ensure a perfect balance between noise prevention at the beginning and freedom of signal transmission towards the end.
2. Battery controlled polarisation and filtering ring. In the higher end categories, such technology is deployed to ensure purity of the signal transmission and technically augmenting (1) above.
3. Multiple strands of pure copper conductors with thick silver plated in-house designed connectors. In Gaia/Eureka, there are 1620 strands of conductors per cable with tubing made of 2 different kinds of insulating materials. This enhances the speed of transmission and minimise the energy loss along the path.
The brand has been continuously winning international awards and that tells a lot!
I only knew you have become part of the AE crew a short while ago. Phew! It must be very exciting.
你説得對，我在中環一早已用上了一對Esprit Gaia訊號線和電源線，增益亦是立杆見影！
Indeed it is a big encouragement for me to ascertain the direction I am pursuing. In all the James Bond movies, I am more inclined to the artistry of Pierce Brosnan and Sean Connery. Mr. Zanden really catches the gist in his analogy! So grateful to have Mr. Zanden’s mentoring and a ‘pass’ marginally meeting his expectation.
More work to be done! Do drop by next time when you are in HK.
Marvel
I am the faked one. But like you, I love Zanden electronics so much especially the Zanden 1200S phono stage. But I am not as experienced as you. I always hear Chris complimenting your listening skills.
The sound is both open and musical!
I worked with Master Chik to implement this solution in order to ensure the ground wire is fully secured!
I have to admit a loosely hooked ground wire can only function in a very limited basis. We are just wasting our valuable resource.
This Flamenco music is played with unprecedented flare and clarity of each stepping and hand clapping. Master Chik walked by and asked me what had been changed.