new home for my Magico Q1

stereo

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Sep 1, 2012
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Hallo, my first post here.

Congratulation to your new acoustical treatment and a very nice room you got there.

You made the right choice using SMT way in treating a room acoustically. He seems to be the only one who can tame those modal resonaces and alter the peaks and deeps to flat freq response below 100Hz.

I myself, (with my twinbrother) have a dedicated litening room with SMT treatment. Those Helmholtz resonator is great and effecient when properly tuned.

Just sit back and enjoy your room.

thanks. I have read a lot about your room on gearslutz if I remember well. Thanks for having spent the time to write about it
 

Bobecca

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Feb 1, 2013
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Hallo, my first post here.

Congratulation to your new acoustical treatment and a very nice room you got there.

You made the right choice using SMT way in treating a room acoustically. He seems to be the only one who can tame those modal resonaces and alter the peaks and deeps to flat freq response below 100Hz.

I myself, (with my twinbrother) have a dedicated litening room with SMT treatment. Those Helmholtz resonator is great and effecient when properly tuned.

Just sit back and enjoy your room.

Hello bro, and I totally agree. Congrats to you stereo.
 

Elberoth

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Stereo - how did you manage to solve the doors problem ? Did you install double doors ? If so, how did you decouple the door 'frames' ?

I have double doors on a single, common frame, which unfortunately 'shortens' the walls and decreases the sounproofing.
 

stereo

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Sep 1, 2012
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Stereo - how did you manage to solve the doors problem ? Did you install double doors ? If so, how did you decouple the door 'frames' ?

I have double doors on a single, common frame, which unfortunately 'shortens' the walls and decreases the sounproofing.

Yes, double doors and double windows.... The windows have different thickness of glass to have different resonance frequencies.
Each of the doors are rated at 54dB, and I asked for a custom design for better sound insulation in the bass (added mass and filled in frame with concrete).
A common frame would completely kill the box in box. The frame of the door and window is floating. See below a pic of door frame attachment to outside wall.
door frame isolation.JPG

I spent 3hrs listening to the Q1 last night with my Dartzeel 108 back from upgrade. Amazed at what so small speakers can achieve.
 
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stereo

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Sep 1, 2012
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Did you notice a difference with the SCNP upgrade? Did you have the Q1 before you had it upgraded?

I had the Q1 before the upgrade, but it was in a different room. It sounds better now for sure, but difficult to know if explained by SCNP upgrade or better room and completion of burn in of my Q1.
I have been on the road for past month, haven't even had the time to make a real comparison of my 3 amps: Dartzeel, Devialet and APL...
 

stereo

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Sep 1, 2012
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This will be interesting......:
DSC01897.jpg DSC01898.jpg

S1 has just arrived, I have started to burn them in. Will be an interesting comparison, then S1 will move to the back of the room as surround channel
Picture doesn't give them justice: the finish of the M-cast in Pewter color (=dark grey) is gorgeous. Find it even more beautiful than the anodized Q1
 

stereo

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Sep 1, 2012
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stereo,

Any thoughts on the S1s vs the Q1s yet?

Hi,
not any time soon... I need to complete burn in first. The sound of Magico speakers change a LOT over the first few hundred hours. Will be traveling until end of May, I can do a proper comparison at this point of time.
 

astro

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Apr 10, 2013
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Hi everyone ,

Just wanna to share my thoughts after visiting Stereo room. Hope this will give useful for someone doing his sound room.


I not a reviewer , just love music. 6 years listening. travel to CES ,Munich show hong kong show tawain show. Still very new. in search of most natural, ideal sound room. Pardon for my English I really was hoping I can have more power English to share more on this experience.

After reading about Stereo"s room. I decide to contact Stereo to find out if he would allow me to visit him and listen . Despite the short notice, I was lucky!!! cause stereo was flying back to Europe, I manage to change my flight dates too.

I fly to Tawain drop the bags in the hotel , straight away took a cad go to Stereo house. Worth the while ? Every mins was enjoying once there. ( like a experiencing 3 star Michelle Jap food )

Stereo welcome my visit with warmest hospitality and was the most friendly guy we can meet, while walking up his house , he walking down fast to welcome me. He share his vast knowledge on everything, no holding back.

Regards the sound ( timber, focus , layering , tone etc is all there. Below are my own words )

Box in a box , No air con sound ,(Quiet )As I entered the room for the very first time , It gave me the feeling of being in a sound proof room, but without hearing the eerie buzzing in my ears.

No coloration from the room acoustics. True

The Energy of the same piece of music that I was used to , felt completely different , it give me a sense of reality I never felt before.

No over hang of any extra sound ( Well decay )

No need to picture ,no need to imagine , the music coming out ! The singer is there, the guitars is all just right there in front of you.

String have a life like impact and immediacy.

The engaging Micro & macro dynamics is beyond description.

Yes you can be not at the sweet spot but the focus is great too.

Just sit back and enjoy the Music.

Regards the construction,

Love the design of the room, is like a home not a sound room, love the grey, hopefully most wife now should be able to accept. Minimalist look,simple clean !

Stereo ideal of keeping the View is really good idea.Though not what city view but is a very quiet serene feel. Homely enjoyment.

I close the door while music is playing inside, totally no sound once I'm just right outside the room, what"s inside stay inside.

His ways of why the air con is silent , is a 3 silencers ( He shared, i saw one silencer ) have been very well thought. As for how it work it engineering , I not very sure but I must say it should be done if possible, It will help so much on the sound.

Direct power line from the main and a generator if I didn"t hear wrongly .Very honor to be there, and my head keep thinking the sound, ( dreaming ) . Honestly a lot of technique stuff , could have be discuss and i believe stereo will love to discuss the detail which i didn't consult him :-( cause the music is just too good .I believe anyone else who have more experience in engineering will enjoy and appreciate how he build his room.

The Door very well build, solid !!! His double glaze window cool :)

Last thoughts,

I'm using quite a bit of absorption and diffusion stuff for my room . After hearing this room, I will go with SMT. I read a few thread regards SMT theory but really after hearing it, is really the way to go. The transparent diffuser, thump up !!! Simple design but totally logic ( personal thought )

Thanks Stereo & Sophie for sharing his room and spending time to write on the forum his experience, he really set a whole new benchmark.

It has been awhile being so excited ( example: bring the first upgrade equipment you brought home and test it out on your own system, that feeling !!! ) Is already 19 days but my brain is still thinking of the sound that day.

Stereo list of song , cool just name it. He have it !

Enjoy music !!! thanks everyone for sharing their building room experience & ESP Stereo thanks for having me that night, if wasn't late will love to stay whole night to listen :) . I really can't express how thankfully . Thank you !!
 
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MylesBAstor

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Apr 20, 2010
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Welcome Astro!
 

mauidan

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Aug 2, 2010
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Hi,
not any time soon... I need to complete burn in first. The sound of Magico speakers change a LOT over the first few hundred hours. Will be traveling until end of May, I can do a proper comparison at this point of time.

Hopefully, you're now back from your travels.

Any thoughts on the S1s vs the Q1s?
 

stereo

Well-Known Member
Sep 1, 2012
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Finally had a chance to stay long enough in Taipei to make an extensive listening of S1 vs. Q1 vs. my APL Gravitas NB1 speakers, in my fully treated room. Both speakers were fully burned in, more than 800hrs of playing on each.
Did it in two configurations:
Option 1) Streaming music to Devialet amp using APL speaker cables
Option 2) APL NWO-Master as a source, Dartzeel as an amp, MIT Oracle Super HD120 as speaker cables
On the sources, both are working great, but the Dartzeel - NWO Master combination brings more transparency, a sense of richer tones, a warmer sound while remaining very transparent. Of course the $$$ cables play also a role....

The S1 is an excellent pair of speaker. It beats hands on my APL speakers which are similarly priced: much less coloration, more transparency, more precise tri-dimensional imaging. Voices and the whole mid range are in particular gorgeous. Tweeter is both very extended and sweet at the same time - when the speakers were completely new there were traces of harshness to my ears, but after a few hundreds of hours of burn in the sound is very sweet, transparent and relaxed at the same time. Bass is more controlled than my bass reflex APL. I believe that once you have gotten used to closed bass, it is difficult to go back, everything else sounds bloated. The S1 doesn't sound like a small two way, at least not on the music I typically listen to (mainly jazz, voices, acoustic instruments, no symphonic orchestra). I had friends at home who didn't want to believe me that my two Fathom subwoofer were not on.... By moving from option 1 to option 2 on the upstream components, transparency goes again to the next level, which indicates that the speaker are not the limiting factor.
While the S1 are very difficult to beat for 13k (two friends already ordered a pair after hearing them at my home), moving to the twice as expensive Q1, you get a very different animal: transparency goes up by at least 2 or 3 notches (and keep in mind that the S1 was already performing much better than my APL speakers with its D'Appolito configuration of Scan Speak Revelator drivers). Both speaker share similar attributes, a "Magico sound". But the "no cost limit" approach of the Q1 leads to an even more silent enclosure, a faster mid driver, a more transparent crossover. Of course, it has a price (twice S1 price), but for the ones like me who want the ultimate transparency, a very realistic sense of having musicians in the room, I have not heard better so far.... Only limitation would be bass slam: people with different music taste than me may prefer a speaker like the Q3. Last, Q1 being even more neutral and transparent than S1, differences you hear playing with various upstream components are even higher.

Hope it helps. If anybody stops overs in Taiwan you are welcome to judge by yourself....
 

stereo

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Sep 1, 2012
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A few people asked me how the back of the room is treated. Here a pic: diffusion at the center, helmholtz resonators in the corners (movable) and at the junction between back wall and floor. Behind the diffusers back wall, there is a custom made big bass trap, tuned to 26Hz. See also the S1 on the sides for HT.
backwall small.jpg
 
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nirodha

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Aug 11, 2010
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A few people asked me how the back of the room is treated. Here a pic: diffusion at the center, helmholtz resonators in the corners (movable) and at the junction between back wall and floor. Behind the diffusers back wall, there is a custom made big bass trap, tuned to 26Hz. See also the S1 on the sides for HT.
View attachment 10954

Nice! Enjoy!!!
Wim
 

Elberoth

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Dec 15, 2012
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How deep is the resonator behind your listening chair ?
 

Elberoth

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That is a lot. It made you sit really close to the diffusers. I remember I read once that diffusers are effective from the minimum distance of some 80cm or so (don't remember the exact number). Maybe the SMT diffusers are different though.

What is your distance to the front speakers ? Did you try to move closer to the front speakers ?
 

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