Best Amp - Speaker Combination you've ever Heard.

Esotar

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Mar 27, 2016
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www.digituslabs.kr
Esotar, what speaker go with your Dart recommendations?

I'm Korean.

So I didn't test many speakers with NHB-458.

As my thought, DarTZeel's co-worker Evolution Acoustics speakers are perfect.

I'll import EA speakers, but Korean audiophiles don't like the masterpirces designs.

So I gave up importing EA.

DarTZeel amps has all super fast response, GREAT texture, and beautiful sound.

NHB-458 can make almost speakers much more beautiful sounds I think.

The problem is DarTZeel has no Korean distributor. Ha Ha
 

caesar

Well-Known Member
May 30, 2010
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I think at the highest levels different technologies present the music differently - so nothing completely dominates everything else completely at the top echelons

For box speakers the best I've heard are Von Schweikert with VAC and Vivid with CAT. Zellaton is pretty awesome also

Avantgarde trios with bass horns have the most startling dynamics and immediacy. Insane experience. Walk away from that system at a show and 60 seconds later listen to a wilson or rockport or magico or any hyped up box speaker, and they sound slow as hell and lacking all realism.

But the avantgarde setups I've heard are not as 3d, smooth, and coherent as MBL Extreme, which may be the best all around system I've heard.

And 99% of systems in existence today don't come close in EMOTIONAL SATISFACTION as Zu Audio Loudspeakers with Audion SET. Others may be more accurate and detailed - in an analytical way, but the Zu Audio brand OWNS "Transparency to Emotion".

So it's fake news that one system can do it all. We really need to own 3-4 systems to take in all of the emotional interpretations of the recordings.
 

JackD201

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
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Ocean Way actively Tri-amped with Viola Labs was great too.

This thread just reminds me of how little I've heard :)
 
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Geert1962

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Apr 18, 2014
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For me one of the speaker combinations I've ever heard are:

In the first place Zellaton Reference Mark 2 speakers and Trafomatic Lara pre, Trafomatic Elysium poweramp and Merging + Nadac player and power and clock trio and second

Zellaton Stage speakers and Spectral 30SV pre, Spectral DMA 280 power amp, Spectral 4000 SV cd player, Naim ND 555 streamer and double power (Naim DR 555). Only live music sounds better according to my ears.:) Both combinations are expensive (for me too expensive) but they sound live like.
 

Imperial

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Mar 6, 2012
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You know.
I once heard the Snail. That is the original B&W Nautilus.
It was driven by Classe best amplifiers at the time.
OMEGA was it? Dont remember But it was maxed out. About a cool million setup..
Insane!
It sounded correct... went hella deep and almost broke my eardrums on transients.
No distortion, no deviation. It was perfect.
But it did not convey soul or heart....
Go figure..

And then in another room there was playing Celestion A3's om Electrocompaniet AW120 DMB.
That was better. Not as resolved... You pickup the quality.. it was somewhat less...
But there was soul, life and emotion.
Price? 5% of the Nautilus setup? About that...

Who of you ever heard the Celestion A3? What a perfect compromise of a design !!!

Imperial
 
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morricab

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Apr 25, 2014
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Price no object:

Living Voice Vox Olympian/Elyssium with Kondo amps

All Aries Cerat with Symphonia speaker/Erebus subs and AC electronics

Unobtanium WE systems with Silbatone electronics

Acapella Triolon Excalibur with Einstein.

Price slightly an object

Aries Cerat system (lower end components and base Symphonia)

Odeon 32s with Einstein electronics (OTL monos, The Tube Pre and Einstein CD player)

Odeon 38 with AC amps and Lampi Pacific DAC

Live Act Audio Ref 408s with MFE tube amps

WE replica with Line Magnetic and Acousticplan amps.

Horns Universum III with KR, AC and Lsmpi electronics

Diesis Audio open Baffle Horns (Roma Triode model) and Kondo or own make of amps.

“Affordable”
Odeon 32 with AC Diana and lampi dac
Odeon La Boheme with AC Genus and Kassandra (my system)

Acoustat Spectra 2200 + Spectra 4400 crossed at 100hz by Accuphase F25 and driven by two KR Audio VA350is.

Apogee Grand driven by two Sphinx project 14s, passive Diva xover on panel and Audio Research active xover to subs. Kind of a Frankenstein but sounded amazing and better than a fully active Grsnd.
 

calloway

Well-Known Member
Nov 3, 2011
57
49
925
danville,va
Here goes.....my Chalice Audio 'Grail' mono block SET amps and my Tidal 'Contriva Dicera-SE' combo is the best i have heard. The other Grail owner, who also has Tidal speakers...T1 Sunrays...says the same thing.
 

roundhead

Well-Known Member
Oct 31, 2018
42
18
88
Between 2015 and 2017, I spent weekends visiting dealers around the UK. I was open-minded to all and everything. Was lucky enough to listen to a wide variety of gear and met so many dealers and personalities. I heard Sonus Faber, Audio Research, Tron, Kondo, Magico, Focal, Naim, Devialet, DCS, Cessaro, Acoustic Plan, McIntosh, Esoteric, TAD, Bosendorfer, Puresound, Belles, Bel Canto... Some stuff cost a few thousand, all the way up to a million. Many different flavours of sound. I’m now unbelievably satisfied and have had the same gear for the last 3 years. Sends a shiver down my spine every week without fail. I feel very lucky indeed. Can’t think of any gear I want to try except perhaps a new CD player because I’m struggling with not having physical media but that’s a different tale.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/bang-olufsen-beolab-90-loudspeaker
 

Genkifd

Member
Apr 20, 2019
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51
Hi. Which of the Audio GD amps do you have? I've been interested in them for some time now.

i actually dont have my system as of yet as we are renovating our home and we didnt want the system in our current place.

However, a friend's system is the DI-20HE to HE9 to Master 2H.

mine will be HE1 in lieu of the HE9
 
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Kingrex

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Feb 3, 2019
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Heard a few.
Audio Research Ref 250 on Magnepan 20.7

Found Music Blade on Daedalus Ulysses

Altec 1570 and 1569 biamped on large theate style speakers with 15 cell wood horns and duel 15" horn bass.
 
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advanced101

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May 3, 2017
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Found Music Blade on Daedalus Ulysses
I had to google those amps, and came up with Jazdoc's system. Is this where you heard this combo?
 

Alrainbow

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Dec 11, 2013
3,189
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Price no object:

Living Voice Vox Olympian/Elyssium with Kondo amps

All Aries Cerat with Symphonia speaker/Erebus subs and AC electronics

Unobtanium WE systems with Silbatone electronics

Acapella Triolon Excalibur with Einstein.

Price slightly an object

Aries Cerat system (lower end components and base Symphonia)

Odeon 32s with Einstein electronics (OTL monos, The Tube Pre and Einstein CD player)

Odeon 38 with AC amps and Lampi Pacific DAC

Live Act Audio Ref 408s with MFE tube amps

WE replica with Line Magnetic and Acousticplan amps.

Horns Universum III with KR, AC and Lsmpi electronics

Diesis Audio open Baffle Horns (Roma Triode model) and Kondo or own make of amps.

“Affordable”
Odeon 32 with AC Diana and lampi dac
Odeon La Boheme with AC Genus and Kassandra (my system)

Acoustat Spectra 2200 + Spectra 4400 crossed at 100hz by Accuphase F25 and driven by two KR Audio VA350is.

Apogee Grand driven by two Sphinx project 14s, passive Diva xover on panel and Audio Research active xover to subs. Kind of a Frankenstein but sounded amazing and better than a fully active Grsnd.

Thought the custom Apogee Grand would beat the LV horns setup


:)
 

morricab

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Apr 25, 2014
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Thought the custom Apogee Grand would beat the LV horns setup


:)

I thought they would too but with the original Apogee electronic crossover you can hear the degradation from this on the overall sound...The lack of synthetic sound in the LV system allows deeper connection with the music.
 

bonzo75

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Feb 26, 2014
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Henk's grands are quite superior to the LV in Munich, as are some other horns. That one woofer LV with TAD tweeters, and lab subs (that normally cost less than 2k) in a posh frock with gold and colored electronics :rolleyes:
 

morricab

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Apr 25, 2014
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Henk's grands are quite superior to the LV in Munich, as are some other horns. That one woofer LV with TAD tweeters, and lab subs (that normally cost less than 2k) in a posh frock with gold and colored electronics :rolleyes:

As I haven't heard Henk's latest version I will not comment on the difference in sound; however, compared to what he had before the LV is laughably better.

Actually the Vitavox woofer, Vitavox S2 mid driver, Vitavox derived horn are very expensive drivers/horns. The TAD tweeters are probably the least expensive drivers in the speaker. I won't argue if it is overpriced or not because it could be argued either way. You cannot use the speaker really without the subs and I am not sure what drivers are in there but they certainly aren't cheap.
 

bonzo75

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As I haven't heard Henk's latest version I will not comment on the difference in sound; however, compared to what he had before the LV is laughably better.

Actually the Vitavox woofer, Vitavox S2 mid driver, Vitavox derived horn are very expensive drivers/horns. The TAD tweeters are probably the least expensive drivers in the speaker. I won't argue if it is overpriced or not because it could be argued either way. You cannot use the speaker really without the subs and I am not sure what drivers are in there but they certainly aren't cheap.

The vitavox s2 is 7000 retail for the pair, 3500 used and possibly to the trade.

He uses two TAD drivers for the upper ranges, the 2002 and the ET 703, similar to Tang's Cessaro (2001 plus the 703).

Both 2002 and 703 are not available now, but to buy them used together, is around 5k.

I don't what the vitavox woofer cost is, but one woofer is for suckers.

Not to mention to me and Bill, at least at Munich, the sound sounds disjoint between the different drivers and overly sweet. No weight or Midbass.

I have two friends in the UK with horns DIYed with the S2. No one knew S2 till Romy put it on the map, and I am not saying it is not good, it is as recent as any driver that works for your design. And this is the new S2, different from the old S2. Like with reproductions of vintage, how good or bad is debatable on whom you ask.
 
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morricab

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Apr 25, 2014
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The vitavox s2 is 7000 retail for the pair, 3500 used and possibly to the trade.

He uses two TAD drivers for the upper ranges, the 2002 and the ET 703, similar to Tang's Cessaro (2001 plus the 703).

Both 2002 and 703 are not available now, but to buy them used together, is around 5k.

I don't what the vitavox woofer cost is, but one woofer is for suckers.

Not to mention to me and Bill, at least at Munich, the sound sounds disjoint between the different drivers and overly sweet. No weight or Midbass.

I have two friends in the UK with horns DIYed with the S2. No one knew S2 till Romy put it on the map, and I am not saying it is not good, it is as recent as any driver that works for your design. And this is the new S2, different from the old S2. Like with reproductions of vintage, how good or bad is debatable on whom you ask.

Why are you talking about used drivers? LV is not using used drivers I would assume. The Vitavox woofers were 3500 each, new price. The horns in a standard finish (not the fancy one...god knows what that costs) was also > 3K per horn. One woofer for suckers?? What a silly comment given that: a) Its 15 inches and b) it is loaded in a horn. You can compare direct radiation to horn...the horn magnifies what that woofer can do by a huge factor.

Regardless of what you or Bill think about the sound, to me it is easily one of the most realistic sounding systems and this is a consensus among my audiophile circle. It is not sweet, it is realistic. Same comment regarding weight and midbass...realistic. Some years it is better than others but the standard Olympian/Elyssian is something special
 

bonzo75

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Why are you talking about used drivers? LV is not using used drivers I would assume. The Vitavox woofers were 3500 each, new price. The horns in a standard finish (not the fancy one...god knows what that costs) was also > 3K per horn. One woofer for suckers?? What a silly comment given that: a) Its 15 inches and b) it is loaded in a horn. You can compare direct radiation to horn...the horn magnifies what that woofer can do by a huge factor.

Regardless of what you or Bill think about the sound, to me it is easily one of the most realistic sounding systems and this is a consensus among my audiophile circle. It is not sweet, it is realistic. Same comment regarding weight and midbass...realistic. Some years it is better than others but the standard Olympian/Elyssian is something special

I gave you quotes of both retail and used

I am well aware of horn loaded woofers, but I prefer dual 15s or 18s. I also know that the horn loading amplifies by 6db.
 
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LL21

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Dec 26, 2010
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I gave you quotes of both retail and used

I am well aware of horn loaded woofers, but I prefer dual 15s or 18s. I also know that the horn loading amplifies by 6db.
Sorry...not always following your adventures...are you saying dual 18" cone subs (ie, pure cone no horn)?
 

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