Daniele Cohen from Alsyvox visits Rhapsody.Audio

Zero000

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I have posted this before but in case people missed it:)

I shot this on a OnePlus 6 mobile phone at Munich Hi-Fi Deluxe.

This was my fave speaker of the entire show.

 

Rhapsody

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A little Ella on the Botticelli X.....


The "Duke".....

 
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kswanson27

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Installed external Xovers on a customer's Tintorettos today. Now they are Tintoretto X's.
20200630_143049.jpg 20200630_143038.jpg 20200630_143027.jpg
 

LL21

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Great photos! Did the owner put the Alsyvox's on Stillpoints Ultra 5s? I see that Alsyvox's normally come with their own black, round, thick footers. Presume those are by the manufacturer (not Stillpoints). If this is correct, any thoughts on the change to Stillpoints?

Installed external Xovers on a customer's Tintorettos today. Now they are Tintoretto X's.
View attachment 66758 View attachment 66759
 

Rhapsody

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Great photos! Did the owner put the Alsyvox's on Stillpoints Ultra 5s? I see that Alsyvox's normally come with their own black, round, thick footers. Presume those are by the manufacturer (not Stillpoints). If this is correct, any thoughts on the change to Stillpoints?

All Alsyvox come now with silver cups/balls as the footers standard. They used to be black.

I have Ultra 5's on my Botticelli X's as they make it easier for me to move them around vs. with the balls/cups.

Sonically the Ultra 5's clean up the sound a bit, more transparent, a bit more clear, with a bit less full bodied bass. It's a personal preference type thing and has a LOT to do with what the speakers are sitting on, ie, light carpet, thick carpet, wood etc.

If one wants the flexibility to move the speakers around the Ultra 5s work really well vs. the balls/cups.
 

LL21

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All Alsyvox come now with silver cups/balls as the footers standard. They used to be black.

I have Ultra 5's on my Botticelli X's as they make it easier for me to move them around vs. with the balls/cups.

Sonically the Ultra 5's clean up the sound a bit, more transparent, a bit more clear, with a bit less full bodied bass. It's a personal preference type thing and has a LOT to do with what the speakers are sitting on, ie, light carpet, thick carpet, wood etc.

If one wants the flexibility to move the speakers around the Ultra 5s work really well vs. the balls/cups.
Good to know. Thanks.
 

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caesar

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They are 4' from the back wall. They can be 2' from the back wall and sound fine. This is what this room permits, which is a normal living room with other things in the room. Of course if the room permits it then further out from the back wall can be preferable. I have my Alsyvox 10' from the back wall.

The Alsyvox can almost touch the side walls as there is ZERO energy emitted sideways from the speaker, just front and rear energy.

Hi Bob,
Thanks for sharing experiences of all of your cool toys. So just to clarify, how does the sound change as you move them from 2 feet from the wall to 4 feet from the wall to 10 feet from the wall?
 

caesar

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Installed external Xovers on a customer's Tintorettos today. Now they are Tintoretto X's.
View attachment 66758 View attachment 66759 View attachment 66760

What is the value add of having 2 external passive crossovers? How are these crossovers different than what is in the standard model? Why is there such a cost difference?

What does one gain sonically with external passive crossovers?

If one orders a standard model initially, is there flexibility to upgrade to the external passive crossovers later?
 

caesar

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And a couple more questions: can Alsyvox rock with the best of the speakers that excel at rock? How close do they get to the state of the art "rock speakers"?

Do all models in the product line up sound identical, just scaled for different-sized rooms? Or do the larger, more expensive models provide more realism?
 

caesar

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Do actual owners of these use tubes or SS amplification with these speakers?
 

Tango

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What is the value add of having 2 external passive crossovers? How are these crossovers different than what is in the standard model? Why is there such a cost difference?

What does one gain sonically with external passive crossovers?

If one orders a standard model initially, is there flexibility to upgrade to the external passive crossovers later?
Must be like a sport exhaust option in Porsche.
 

Rhapsody

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Hi Bob,
Thanks for sharing experiences of all of your cool toys. So just to clarify, how does the sound change as you move them from 2 feet from the wall to 4 feet from the wall to 10 feet from the wall?

>>>>Totally room and listener preference dependent. The further out you move out into the room the more layering on the soundstage with more air and space around each instrument and performer.

The further back you would get more bass and more solidity to the sound.


What is the value add of having 2 external passive crossovers? How are these crossovers different than what is in the standard model? Why is there such a cost difference?

>>>>The Xovers take any of the Alsyvox to a different sonic level. They sound great without the external Xovers, but it's like night and day when you insert the external Xovers. MORE of everything. Better separation of instruments (transparency) better midrange, better bass, etc.

The circuit of the Xover is similar to the internal Xovers but the parts are all Mundorf and are large components and laid out differently.

When you pick one you realize that they are basically like buying a high level preamp. $15K each once you see what they do to the speaker seems VERY reasonable.

What does one gain sonically with external passive crossovers?

>>>>Answered above. EVERYTHING the speaker does with internal Xover is heightened in performance with the addition of the external Xover.

If one orders a standard model initially, is there flexibility to upgrade to the external passive crossovers later?

>>>Many people do this. There is an external switch on all the models. You just flip the switch to use either the internal or external Xovers.

Do actual owners of these use tubes or SS amplification with these speakers?

>>>>It's a mix, from a pair of Kondo Kaguras, to a Diesis Hybrid (tube pre/SS amp) to all SS. I like both SS and tubes on them, they are different, not one better. I don't prescribe to better, usually just different to me.

Both Emile and I have used tubes on Alsyvox and as Emile said "they sound like a different speaker" with tubes. Total personal preference. I like at least 100 Watt of Tube power.

When we were going to present the Alsyvox Botticelli X at Axpona we were going to use a 90 Watt Jadis integrated as it sounded so good.
 

Taiko Audio

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And a couple more questions: can Alsyvox rock with the best of the speakers that excel at rock? How close do they get to the state of the art "rock speakers"?

Do all models in the product line up sound identical, just scaled for different-sized rooms? Or do the larger, more expensive models provide more realism?

I have been in the luxury position to compare the standard Botticelli, the Botticelli X (external crossovers), the Caravaggio Single and the Caravaggio full in my room.

The difference between the Botticelli and the Botticelli X was competently described by Bob, nothing to add there. Moving up the range the most apparent is a reduction in distortion, an increase in dynamic reach and soundstage expansion. Interestingly even the standard Botticelli sounds lower in distortion, significantly more transparent, images larger and is more dynamic and room encompassing then the Focal Utopias I have on hand here. It is also considerably more powerful in the sub bass, say below 60Hz and low frequency organ sounds really shakes the room, it very obviously moves more air then the dual 11" woofers of the Focal. Perception of loudness is different, with the dB meter showing 95dB it's playing very loud, to have a similar perception of loudness from the Focals the dB meter is showing about 100dB. Do note that this is REALLY loud in my perception, measured at the listening position, calibrated meter, C-weighted. I do not normally play at those levels. This may be part of why they sound less distorted and cleaner as they just sound much louder at lower SPLs but I'm just guessing there.

The Caravaggio Single is a significant step up imho, it does not come with a more (apparent) powerful low bass, but it is better defined. What it does add to a significant degree is upper bass/lower midrange impact. The whole midrange is a significant step up in performance in all aspects, 3 dimensionality, detail, colour saturation, transparency, quite a difference. I'd say for Bass and top end it is about 20% better, not really warranting the 40% up price, but the midrange is more then worth every penny. I was not expecting that as listening to the Botticellis my line of thought was it was so good in the midrange because of the wide range of the mid ribbon (750-5000Hz) and was somewhat expecting the Caravaggio to lose some points there with an additional crossover point at 1500Hz. But in reality it is undetectable/seamless and the added dual 37mm low-mid ribbons make a seemingly HUGE difference.

Moving to the Caravaggio Full, it is again more of a qualitative improvement, it does again not sound much more powerful in the low bass, BUT, my room size is likely holding their potential in that area back, 5.65 meters wide and 11.8 meters long does not allow the freedom of placement you'd like with 4 panels. It does again sound bigger and still even less restrained, and again lower distortion. This is with configuring them as a 5 way, subwoofer panel to 70Hz, Caravaggio single bass panel from 70-500Hz. Running the Caravaggio Single bass panel full range, so not high passed at 70Hz, completely overpowers my room, using them that way definitely requires a larger room. It's fun for a few minutes of techno tracks, probably awesome for movies, but not for me, at least not in my current space. I will revisit that option when we move to a larger space though in the next few months and will report back.

An interesting discovery was how large of a difference grounding the external crossovers make, it's kind of huge. Daniele supplies shorting plugs which connects the aluminium crossover boxes to the amplifier ground (speaker cable -), the effect of that is borderline shocking. Need to explore that further.
 

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