Aries Cerat + Taiko Extreme + AlsyVox + Primary Control in one single system at DAE

[flyer]

Hi all,

I have the pleasure to announce that during the Dutch Audio Event on October 30/31 near Eindhoven in the Netherlands, the following brands will be exhibiting together in a 50 m² room (see Ultisone – DUTCH AUDIO EVENT) .

Effectively, equipment will include the following:

- The full and latest Aries Cerat line of electronics including the Helene (DAC), Talos Signature (phono), Ageto (preamp) and Essentia amplifiers. The Ageto is a new preamp to match the Ianus line of amplifiers (being higher gain) and will be presented to the world during the DAE !

- The sources will include the Taiko Audio Extreme server on the digital side and the Primary Control Kinea turntable using a DAVA Reference cartridge.

- Speakers will be the magnificent Botticelli X that have been burning in for two months now in my demo room. (I actually think they are burnt in since quite a while but i find it difficult to remove them from my main system)

- All cabling is from Signal Projects of course and Stacore to be used as equipment platforms

- And if you have been following me longer, you will know that i am very loyal to the SMT acoustic panels which will treat the - otherwise very poorly sounding - room.


People present there will include Emile Bok from Taiko Audio, Daniele Coen from AlsyVox, Bernd Hemmen from Primary Control and myself as mc

Hope to welcome many of you there. Tickets here: Tickets – DUTCH AUDIO EVENT


For the love of music!

 

[dcc]

Hi Michel,

All the best with the upcoming show.

Kind regards,

Denis

 

[EuroDriver]

Hi all,

I have the pleasure to announce that during the Dutch Audio Event on October 30/31 near Eindhoven in the Netherlands, the following brands will be exhibiting together in a 50 m² room (see Ultisone – DUTCH AUDIO EVENT) .

Effectively, equipment will include the following:

- The full and latest Aries Cerat line of electronics including the Helene (DAC), Talos Signature (phono), Ageto (preamp) and Essentia amplifiers. The Ageto is a new preamp to match the Ianus line of amplifiers (being higher gain) and will be presented to the world during the DAE !

- The sources will include the Taiko Audio Extreme server on the digital side and the Primary Control Kinea turntable using a DAVA Reference cartridge.

- Speakers will be the magnificent Botticelli X that have been burning in for two months now in my demo room. (I actually think they are burnt in since quite a while but i find it difficult to remove them from my main system)

- All cabling is from Signal Projects of course and Stacore to be used as equipment platforms

- And if you have been following me longer, you will know that i am very loyal to the SMT acoustic panels which will treat the - otherwise very poorly sounding - room.


People present there will include Emile Bok from Taiko Audio, Daniele Coen from AlsyVox, Bernd Hemmen from Primary Control and myself as mc

Hope to welcome many of you there. Tickets here: Tickets – DUTCH AUDIO EVENT


For the love of music!

I have booked my flights and Hotel and will be there too !

 

[Sebastian_N]

For me this was the best sound of the show!
Very impressive.

 

[EuroDriver]

For me this was the best sound of the show!
Very impressive.

The Ultisone room was a real joy for me, the first time I have heard an Audio Show demo room achieve sound quality at a level comparable to a top level home system.

Bravo to all of the Manufacturers and their key persons, Michael really pulled off a superb system and demonstration of SOTA Analog and Digital.

Michael’s leadership style made it a joy to participate

 

[flyer]

The Ultisone room was a real joy for me, the first time I have heard an Audio Show demo room achieve sound quality at a level comparable to a top level home system.

Bravo to all of the Manufacturers and their key persons, Michael really pulled off a superb system and demonstration of SOTA Analog and Digital.

Michael’s leadership style made it a joy to participate

Thank you so much Edward and Sebastian, the co-exhibitors, the organizers and all the visitors to our room!

We effectively achieved what we had planned to, and more. A stellar sound that was widely appreciated and kudos were abundant for two days ;-).

 

[flyer]

Meet the team, including Emile Bok, Ted, Bernd Hemmen, Toon and Johannes.
Unfortunately, Daniele Coen and Edward Hsu had left already.

 

[EuroDriver]

Primary Control - I was really impressed !

I have heard a lot of very good SOTA turntable systems, but I was blown away by beautiful and fluid sonics of the Primary Control Turntable and Arm system. I had the opportunity over the dinner and breakfast table to talk a lot of shop with Bernd, and found out that there is lot of cool engineering in his system

I highly recommend anyone wanting to have a state of the sonic art vinyl system to investigate and audition Primary Control

 

[Taiko Audio]

Thank you so much Edward and Sebastian, the co-exhibitors, the organizers and all the visitors to our room!

We effectively achieved what we had planned to, and more. A stellar sound that was widely appreciated and kudos were abundant for two days ;-).

Thank you for the wonderful time we had this weekend @flyer .

A few more photos:













And missing on the team photo:

 

[spiritofmusic]

Only one glass?

 

[Taiko Audio]

Only one glass?

I did not take that many beer shots but found one for you!

 

[spiritofmusic]

Emile, now you're talking <hiccup>!
Cheers!

 

[amadeus]

Primary Control - I was really impressed !

I have heard a lot of very good SOTA turntable systems, but I was blown away by beautiful and fluid sonics of the Primary Control Turntable and Arm system. I had the opportunity over the dinner and breakfast table to talk a lot of shop with Bernd, and found out that there is lot of cool engineering in his system

I highly recommend anyone wanting to have a state of the sonic art vinyl system to investigate and audition Primary Control

Yesterdy i have heard the Primary Control TT whit the highest model arm i think the arm belongs to the best....

 

[PrimaryControl]

Primary Control - I was really impressed !

I have heard a lot of very good SOTA turntable systems, but I was blown away by beautiful and fluid sonics of the Primary Control Turntable and Arm system. I had the opportunity over the dinner and breakfast table to talk a lot of shop with Bernd, and found out that there is lot of cool engineering in his system

I highly recommend anyone wanting to have a state of the sonic art vinyl system to investigate and audition Primary Control

Thank you EuroDriver and amadeus for your comments!

Just to mention a few model names of the analog front-end you've listening to during the show.
Kinea DD Turntable with mid torque setting.
(During shows, I'm too lazy to change torque settings for every song ;-)
FCL (Field Coil Loaded) Tonearm with Lyra Atlas cartridge.

Always nice to have a setup to let the front-end shine (analog as well as digital).
Michel from Ultisone did a great job, not only by moving more than 1000kg of equipment.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Berndt, I thought the DaVa cart was in the mix, but you're saying the Lyra?

 

[PrimaryControl]

Berndt, I thought the DaVa cart was in the mix, but you're saying the Lyra?

We installed the DaVa cartridge at Friday and everything was fine.
After a break and also changing the power extension blocks, we had a hum problem.
I couldn't find the cause right away and time was very limited so we settled on our back-up cartridge, which solved the problem.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Berndt, hopefully you heard the DaVa singing, albeit temporarily. How would you compare the presentation versus the Atlas?
Is there a technical issue running a FC cart on a FC arm? By definition, that's as unique a combination as you can get in audio.

 

[PrimaryControl]

Berndt, hopefully you heard the DaVa singing, albeit temporarily. How would you compare the presentation versus the Atlas?
Is there a technical issue running a FC cart on a FC arm? By definition, that's as unique a combination as you can get in audio.

Welcome to phono grounding!
The DaVa was singing!
As I said, the problem started after changing other things in the setup.
There is no technical problem with combining a FC cartridge with a FC tonearm, except that two additional power supplies are involved, which takes a little longer to find the cause in the case of hum problems. And time was the limiting factor.

Voicing of cartridges are so different that I stopped comparing them years ago.

 

[flyer]

The complete analog system was comprised of:

- Primary Control Kinea direct drive TT
- Primary Control FCL tonearm
- Lyra Atlas
- Aries Cerat Talos Signature phono stage


The digital system was comprised of:

- Taiko Audio Extreme music server
- Aries Cerat Heléne DAC


The rest of the system was:

- Aries Cerat Ageto preamplifier
- Aries Cerat Ianus Essentia monoblocks
- AlsyVox Botticelli X
- All cabling from Signal Projects
- Vibration control by Stacore (Advanced under TT, Basic under DAC and Extreme)

 

[orfeo_monteverdi]

[Please excuse my poor English]

I was very happy to attend that demo at the Dutch Audio Show last weekend.

In my opinion, it the was (by far) the Best Sound Of The Show (though some other demo were not without virtues).

Many thanks to Flyer (Ultisone) for such a huge (physical) effort: the AlsyVox Botticelli ribbon panels weight 115Kg each, and the whole Aries Cerat set even much more.

The final result was very, very impressive (unlike many high-end demos).
Like Flyer, I attend live concerts quite regularly (acoustic, unamplified instruments, mainly classical music). Sadly, I also heard countless of so-called ultra-high systems (home systems, not demo-ed) which pathetically failed to make any music at all, I regret to say.
But I found that this system mimics the live performance like no other (except the Aries Cerat Symphonia horn speaker).

First of all, the Primary Control turntable (and its arm & cartridge).
I am relatively new to vinyl, and I know nearly nothing about it, honestly. I attended a few very good high-end vinyl demos previously (made with the big TechDAS, Reed, Kuzma, ...). When the engineer of Primary Control played Die Sau (live), of Rosset Meyer Geiger, I was litterally gobsmacked. It's simple: I thought what I heard was ways beyond the reach of vinyl (the piano's right hand!! The percussion !!). Yet, it was indeed the Primary Control that was playing, I had to check twice to believe it. Impressive. Very impressive.

Then, the Aries Cerat electronics.
No surprise here, I knew what these STELLAR electronics were capable of. My (little) system had been transformed the day the quite outstanding (though "affordable") Aries Cerat Incito preamplifier (basic version, embedded power supply) easily replaced my YBA 1 preamp (which had a separate power supply), which itself could easily replace many "high-end" preamps of today... I realized then that, in an audiophile's life, there is a before and an after Aries Cerat "turning point". And saying this, I do not like (mainstream high-end) tube gear: I much prefer concerts to hi-fi.

Finally, the 94dB (!) sensitivity, flat-impedance AlsyVox ribbon panels. Geeeeee... !!!!!!
Those things are not of this world. As far as I could hear, they free themselves from all the usual shortcomings of the genre.
I like panels (I own Analysis ribbon panels in my main system in town, and dynamic speakers in my 2nd system in the countryside). But compared to those incredible AlsyVox, I think that, with all my respect, even an Apogee Diva would sound nothing short of ridiculous...
I was sitting in some kind of sweet spot, as I do in concert halls (here or there). Some aspects of the AlsyVox rendition nearly reach the sheer emotion of the live performance:
-high sound pressure level, without the slightest hint of compression or distortion. I sat at min. 4 meters from the speakers plane (so, further from the panels themselves). I checked with a sonometer: the average sound pressure level was 73dB at that distance, and peaked at 88dB approx. The music flew (nearly?) like in a live performance.
-Bass and deep bass in spades. The Botticelli model reaches 22Hz (with 0dB attenuation) !!
-Breathtaking expressiveness (94dB), AND naturalness (panels), delivering an delightful unboxy sound, with body and flesh.
-Impact! Those panels have/do *impact* (no other I heard has/does). The AlsyVox are nearly as much "impactful" as a conventional dynamic speaker, which is a real tour de force for a panel. Very physical on percussion and percussion strings, delightful and delicate on bowed string instruments.
By "impact", I do not mean just bass. I mean the ability of the transducer to convey the physical impact of percussive instruments, for instance a piano's hammer hitting a string. On some piano mechanics, the hammer can reach 90m/sec (so a mid-size piano can peak at 115dB). With such a momentum, the hammer hits the string so violently that one can hear/feel the physical impact at the base of the note's nascence, even in the medium, even in the treble (impact has nothing to do with bass actually; many people mix up those two things - dynamic speakers, naturally, have impact; panels do not, be they electrostatics or ribbon; the AlsyVox seem to be a remarkable exception).

Those panels play like horns (yes, they do! Unbelievable), deliver bass like the best dynamic speakers, and have the delicacy and the speed of the finest panels.

Though I could not listen to any of the discs or records I had brought, I can testify that the demo, depending on the disc played, was constantly somewhere between gobsmacking² and gobsmacking³.
(except on Sade: the recording dramatically sucks; I guess it was a wish of an attendee).

Unbelievable panels. Unforgettable demo, really.

As Flyer offered me afterwards to listen again to the whole system in his (acoustically treated) room later some day, I hope I will be able to investigate deeper in the future. Stay tuned ;-)

Orfeo.





PS: I requested a change of my pseudo [pending].