Zero Distortion: Analog Shootout at Anamighty Sound, Paris

bonzo75

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Compare notes of:

  • Thrax Phono (17,500 Eur), with Anamighty Sound’s own 4000 Eur Le Phono, and Phasemation EA 5000 (7,000 Eur)
  • STST Motus II (suspended DD, 7000 Euro), PTP Lenco (2800 Eur), Doehmann Helix 2 (24,000 Eur), Technics SP10r in Schick Plinth
  • Schroeder CB and Schick tonearms
  • Allaerts boron mk2 to Finish Gold.
  • Allaerts, Top Wing Red Sparrow, MSL Ultra Eminent, Art 1000
 

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bonzo75

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Swapping carts, phonos, etc
 

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bonzo75

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Very cool room. Did you do the comparisons on Joachim Gerhard's speakers?

No I didn't get the time to do with the biggest. But like I said in my report, I will go by room size
 

Folsom

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I read about it on your webpage. How did you like the speakers by Gerhard? He posts a fair bit on another forum.
 

leyenda

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Great write-up, I had a brief look, will do a more detailed read afterwards. Saw a mention of the SP10R, can you elaborate more about what you did not like or felt was not working well? Thanks.
 

bonzo75

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bonzo75

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Great write-up, I had a brief look, will do a more detailed read afterwards. Saw a mention of the SP10R, can you elaborate more about what you did not like or felt was not working well? Thanks.

Hi I have heard the sp10mk2 in two incarnations. It sounded like a decent TT. While it can be bettered, it did not sound wrong. This sounded wrong - flat, etchy...I will try to listen to a sp10r in the integrated plinth/ar sometime, and a sp10 mk3. From what I understand, the old and the new are different and a couple who know both preferred the older. I have no experience with the older mk3.
 

bonzo75

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I read about it on your webpage. How did you like the speakers by Gerhard? He posts a fair bit on another forum.

I was never a fan of audio physics, but these were really good. Good in what sense? They are not at all like Wilsons, Magicos, Rockports, etc...they don't try to provide you a midrange, lots of bass, or a big sound. They create a big soundstage by disappearing. Their linear bass, though less than say, a Wilson, would be more tuneful because it does not distract you. They are small, so I don't hear violins at the top and cellos at the bottom like I do with most cones. They don't impart a constant conal colour.

Does their midrange sound sophisticated like stats and ribbon planars? No. Does their bass sound as powerful as the regular cones? No. But once I adjusted to their characteristics with the first couple of tracks, after that I was only listening to the LPs. As I changed LPs, the sound changed dramatically with each LP allowing me to listen to some great performances. So, I think they have to be part of a system with such a philosophy. It is quite possible that if I had been evaluating speakers alone with a constant streaming source, I might have preferred speakers with better mids, more powerful bass, etc. Also, I do not know how such speakers would sound in a smaller room

The truth is big cone speakers take a lot of work around the room, which most do not manage, and underestimate. They are also heavily colored in their presentation style - I think this works best with digital, and not with vinyl. Frankly if I was Anamighty I would store there a pair of big speakers of a regular brand. This would attract more footfalls, and those guys would then be the big budget ones so would easily buy the Dohmann, Thrax, their set up services, etc.
 

Cala

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Thank you Kedar for your kind words and appreciation(s) about our work ! We are above all analog (addicts) dedicated, speakers well... this is really a tough subject for us. One of the things we kept in mind for our Parisian showroom is that this place had to keep the spirit of a Parisian home listening experience. Most of our customers were Parisians at first, and as you know most Parisians have small rooms and (French) partners who are keen about design (or should I say room with no huge speakers and electronics inside ?).

Coming back to Süsskind Audio, I discovered Joachim Gerhard about 5 years ago. I think it was during an ETF or a German show and music was playing in a huge hotel hall all made of (white) marble and I was wondering where were displayed those huge speakers able to feel in the space with such ease. Instead of huge speakers, I found Joachim playing these tiny Phenomenon speakers. A very curious experience which lead me to change a lot of my listening habits but also to have more open ears after all I do come from building up PA systems and I had a lot of fun turning into audiophile by playing with Voice of the Theaters home made speakers (and electronics) with various woofers, horn drivers and tweeters (I ended up stuck with the wonderful Vitavox S2 among other things).

The Süsskind Audio Progress and Progress Lx are amazing speakers and you can really get quickly hooked on them. I use a pair of Progress in my own house with a Thrax Ares integrated amp and whatever analog set-up comes in, well actually it is my desk room. It is a small room of about 20 sqm, with books and records on every available walls spaces available. Sitting on the couch, in this particular environment gives me a lot of musical pleasure and also is an excellent analog set-up observation equipment. Of course some of the larger speakers might be able to provide more of everything but as you wrote it Kedar : these speakers have the ability to be versatile and non monotonous. And I guess these are important factors for obtaining a discriminant listening experience.

Anyways, it is also true that we know welcome more and more remote Parisians, or even French coming from "the wilderness" (anything outside of Paris of course), and of course people from all around the world and we do need some big(ger) speakers. If any of you have any suggestions on any "big" speakers please let us know about your opinion as we are quite struggling to find something adequate for our Parisian showroom, even though we have pair of Thrax Bassus + Lyra speakers that are going to be set-up in an upcoming showroom somewhere in France in a near near future...

Bh the way, we will be playing our own cartridges and Le Phono SE at Rocky Mountain Audio Fest once again this year with Frank Schröder Tiny Giant and CB tonearm. Speakers will be from Troy Audio, electronics from Thrax (the wonderful 300B Spartactus mono amplifiers will be played and they are spectacular amps to listen to). We will also have everything needed for cartridge analysis if you think something is wrong with your MC cartridge, because as Kedar said on of our focus is repairing cartridges and this maybe helps us in the choices we make with the brands we import or deal with. It could be an opportunity for some of you to come and visit us.

This might be also the good opportunity to thank you all for your welcome on this forum and please pardon my French. ;)

François Saint-Gérand, Ana Mighty Sound
 
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leyenda

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Hi I have heard the sp10mk2 in two incarnations. It sounded like a decent TT. While it can be bettered, it did not sound wrong. This sounded wrong - flat, etchy...I will try to listen to a sp10r in the integrated plinth/ar sometime, and a sp10 mk3. From what I understand, the old and the new are different and a couple who know both preferred the older. I have no experience with the older mk3.

Thanks. I doubt if the plinth (Schick?) plays that much of a role in the flat, etchy sound. Anyhow, I am happy to learn that the mk2 and mk3 remains relevant =)
 

carolus

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(@) Salut François.
Beautiful & extensive vinyl-analoge exhibition (with a Paris regale joviality ) ... top.
One quid: in démo, why not use the famous Schroëder LT ?

@ Kedar: your "zero distortion" reporting with clever expressions & perso musical impressions .... nice & instructive. I like it.

Allez, salukes.
Karel
 

bonzo75

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Karel... Many thanks... Coming from you that means a lot.

Francois wants me to visit again, so he is holding back the LT demo
 

Cala

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(@) Salut François.
Beautiful & extensive vinyl-analoge exhibition (with a Paris regale joviality ) ... top.
One quid: in démo, why not use the famous Schroëder LT ?

@ Kedar: your "zero distortion" reporting with clever expressions & perso musical impressions .... nice & instructive. I like it.

Allez, salukes.
Karel

@ Karel : it is just an evolution of our first Ana Mighty Vinyl Show that we held in Paris a few years ago and... that you attended !

Some tonearms are more easy to set up quickly than others. The Schick is good example with removable head shells and headshells previously prepared. The Schröder CB and CB-L are also good examples. In fact with the CB you can easily get 90-95% of the maximum performance easily. Than of course little improvements can be done practically on the fly in order to get into the direction of what the listener wants to obtain.

The Schick tonearm is much more versatile that what it is supposed to be. It is an excellent tonearm in order to assess a wide variety of cartridges and you be surprised about how well it copes with the Audio Technica Art-1000 (but at the same AT uses ATP12T, AT-1503 tonearms in order to assess there own cartridges including the Art-1000), or the Phasemation range of cartridges.

The LT tonearm is another beast. It is not the easiest tonearm to set-up. But once precisely adjusted : it is extremely stable in terms of setting stability and of course it is an excellent tonearm. Our main issue is that LT tonearm (like Helix Two) have the strange ability to never stay long in our Parisian showroom... Anyway we are expecting two other LT tonearms in a reasonable future and hopefully one of them will stay for longer this time.
 

Cala

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May 2, 2018
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Karel... Many thanks... Coming from you that means a lot.

Francois wants me to visit again, so he is holding back the LT demo

I thought it was only for French food. ;)

You are always warmly welcome Kedar.
 

asiufy

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Thanks. I doubt if the plinth (Schick?) plays that much of a role in the flat, etchy sound. Anyhow, I am happy to learn that the mk2 and mk3 remains relevant =)

The SL-1000R sounds anything but "flat, etchy". There's something obviously wrong with that setup, not the table.
 

bonzo75

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Thanks. I doubt if the plinth (Schick?) plays that much of a role in the flat, etchy sound. Anyhow, I am happy to learn that the mk2 and mk3 remains relevant =)

The Schick plinth Garrards and commonwealths have been in the most musical set up by far at Munich, in the western electric room, just fantastic analog combined with the vdh strad over the last two years. Whether it is a good fit or not for the technics I cannot say without listening to another one. But something was sounding wrong tough to say what. Tbh the low priced 1200s have been quite nice for the price - they might have shortcomings we audiophiles will spot, but definitely don't sound wrong.

Regarding difference between mk2 and mk3, ask XV-1. Also, you can read this
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussi...st?highlight=Slagle+emia&postid=355767#355767
 

carolus

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.... The LT tonearm is another beast. It is not the easiest tonearm to set-up. But once precisely adjusted : it is extremely stable in terms of setting stability and of course it is an excellent tonearm. Our main issue is that LT tonearm (like Helix Two) have the strange ability to never stay long in our Parisian showroom... Anyway we are expecting two other LT tonearms in a reasonable future and hopefully one of them will stay for longer this time......

François, thanks for sharing your practical TA-tuning-art to tame "the beast".....
I follow your wild-horse-dressure throughout the pen of Ked ...
Karel
 

tima

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... The truth is big cone speakers take a lot of work around the room, which most do not manage, and underestimate. They are also heavily colored in their presentation style - I think this works best with digital, and not with vinyl. ...

A grand generalization - it's okay, that is your style - but what are you saying? And who/what is the referent of "most"? Please say more.


... I found some of the narrow baffle APs were quite nice in a near field configuration, out into the room, particularly with smaller scale works. I haven't heard his latest work.
 

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