Full Limited Edition Aries Cerat System Build and World Exclusive LEGEND Series!

Hello and good afternoon to you Gentlemen. Can we steer this thread back to it's topic and lose the off topic posts please?

Thank you.

Tom

Agreed. Disagreements on audio does occasionally lead to so very entertaining banter, but this is a celebration and lets move back to that focus shall we?
 
Agreed. Disagreements on audio does occasionally lead to so very entertaining banter, but this is a celebration and lets move back to that focus shall we?

Agree. This is a passionate subject / hobby, it is not surprising any of these discussions to me. It gets much more hairy on other forums. Here it is fairly polite IMO.

But I would say, there are quite a bit of expensive audio gear that is, well, poor quality IMO. There I have said it. You can agree or not. But price does not always make performance, it is a fact. And there are some great products out there, enough room for those to not bang heads. Lets face it guys, this is why we have a forum, you compare, share experiences, avoid the lemon's or endless buy - selling thing. That is my thoughts on it, and why I use forums. :rolleyes:
 
I've heard countless systems (though still nowhere near as many as I'd like to), and the percentage is in the upper 90's of the ones which didn't sound particularly good at all. Flat images and flat soundstages seem to be ok with most audiophiles. Resolution up the wazoo, but boring to listen to because of the flat images.

I really believe this system will be different than most though, and I'm so very excited to hear it. Particularly the digital. I'm very excited to hear what that DAC can do!
 
Recently, on a trip to the movies with my eldest child to see Avengers: Infinity War, we saw two Huracán Performantes, one in black and one in matt blue. The cinema is in an area in which Ferraris and Bentleys are frequently seen. Porsches and S-Class Mercs are commonplace. It evoked an excited response:

“Wow, Dad, those guys must be super rich.”

It was a response that was both completely understandable, and at the same time, unfortunately, a faulty generalisation. I asked why the drivers in question had to be rich. My eldest responded it was surely somewhat obvious: They were driving Lamborghini’s, had stylish blue tinted Aviators and some form of wristwatch in which the complexity of manufacture of the case exceeded the complexity of the manufacture of the mechanical mechanism inside (though my eldest of course only mentioned the first variable, I’ve added the latter ones here for dramatic effect).

I then asked whether if it’s true a person can be seen to be driving a Lamborghini, it must therefore be true that that person has a lot of money relative to any debts they may have, or whether it was possible they may had enough money to be seen to be driving a Lamborghini in one instance in time, but in reality had no money, had recently been declared bankrupt via the accumulation of millions in debt they were unable to pay back, and would be returning said Lamborghini the next day to avoid the humiliation of having it impounded.

It lead to a brief but informative discussion on the notion that appearances can be deceiving, and that one should never judge a book by its cover. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but that has nothing to do with how many of those words may be half-truths, or even outright lies.

(I avoided delving into pigs with lispstick and rolling turds in glitter - we were after all about to watch twenty superheroes smash a bunch of CGI lifeforms into CGI pulp because when the stakes are low more must always be better, right? Spoiler alert: Someone does actually die in this who is not A) an antagonist; and B) a nameless faceless extra. Or do they? Duhn-duhn-duhhhhhhnnn.)

Pictures of someone’s stereo system located within their room can be informative, but not with respect to how it sounds. Even in cases in which I’m somewhat familiar with the gear (as I am with several of the components of the AC system of this thread), none of the pictures of this system tell me anything about how it plays back music relative to my own preferences. Mostly, pictures of someone’s hi-fi system and room tells me only what the photography skills are like of the individual who took the pictures apropos framing, composition, exposure, focus and whether their lenses produce any degree of bokeh.

Best,

853guy
 
Reminds me of the movie IT
 
I completely agree pics mean nothing especially with unfamiliar gear. With familiar gear best you can know is if speaker is over sized for the room or too close to the wall for speakers that shouldn't be. Maybe some mismatched components if you are familiar with the gear but you doubt need pics for that. Rest is patting yourself on the back that you have figured out the sound long distance
 
I completely agree pics mean nothing especially with unfamiliar gear. With familiar gear best you can know is if speaker is over sized for the room or too close to the wall for speakers that shouldn't be. Maybe some mismatched components if you are familiar with the gear but you doubt need pics for that. Rest is patting yourself on the back that you have figured out the sound long distance

I was thinking on this subject the other day. Room acoustics is really important as well. Possibly why we hear the 'show conditions not perfect' so much. I had some ups and downs with my smaller room setting, bass nodes, speaker placement, reflections, different speaker supports, to name a few. It is a bit of a nightmare. I ref the many posters on here that have spent years 'fixing' or tweaking their rooms. I think real sound upgrades are there for the taking if you can accept a flexible layout and can mess with the room a bit. Even acoustic panels and furniture placement helps.

My problem with my own setting, is the room won't take 'more' in the way of bigger speakers. It is already loaded. So I major on the first watt, getting that right, and then address the rest as secondary. Having said that, if I want a wild ride, it can play loud with ease, and pressurise the room, and is addictive actually - in a kind of insane way. I like it. I wonder how many enjoy this, let it rip now and then?:rolleyes:
 
Pics aren't totally worthless. They may not be able to convey what someone's system sounds like, but they can give you an idea of what they might be hearing.

From pictures I can tell if your speakers are close to the front wall or if they're more out into the room, which might give me an idea of the potential of the soundstage. Toe in can tell you something about image focus, outlines, and soundstage. Is your equipment in between the speakers, possibly adding reflection points. Is your equipment off to the side, right in the path of the first reflection on one side. How far is your chair. How far is the back wall.

There are definitely things you can glean from pictures. Again, it won't tell you what the system sounds like, but it can give you an idea of the presentation.
 
Pics mean very little; and opinions...

That said, this is a thread about someone digging Aries Cerat. Cool.
 
Let's get back on topic: I'm sure it's all awesome. The speakers use a smaller bass driver than I would expect, given the transition from the mid horn and thinking of matching dispersion. But hey, if the ViV Float tonearm can break literally every rule and have ardent fans then...
 
Let's get back on topic: I'm sure it's all awesome. The speakers use a smaller bass driver than I would expect, given the transition from the mid horn and thinking of matching dispersion. But hey, if the ViV Float tonearm can break literally every rule and have ardent fans then...

The driver size on a horn is not as important as the design of the horn itself. The depth of bass comes from the horn length and the design determines the degree (or lack) of coloration from that horn (smooth exponential obviously better than a stepped approximation. You are right that a smaller driver has better dispersion but the crossover is low enough that a 10 or 12 inch driver would have similar dispersion at the frequency in question. I leave it to Stavros to explain why this exact Foxtex driver was selected.
 
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