Kevin and Jonathan Tinn, his partner with Evolution Acoustics, arrived at my home Monday night and with the planned technical set-up for the MM7's starting Tuesday morning we listened to 'mostly' vinyl until almost 2 am to get a base line for where things were before the work.
Kevin started in on the set-up process Tuesday morning around 9am or so; first setting up his tools for his measuring protocol, and then measuring things. he spent all day with this process of measurements and listening. moving the speakers and repeating the process. 4-5 years prior, when i had my MM3's, i had supplied Kevin with room plans and room measurements, and at that time he plotted out 12 potential speaker positions for the room. so he had already crunched the numbers before for the room. he did meticulously measure the actual dimensions of the room......which for my room with all the bumps and built in diffusion is difficult since almost no parallel walls exist.
i came home for lunch to see what was going on, and mostly it was white noise and grimacing.
i returned after work and they were still hard at it. then Jonathan, my wife, a friend and myself went to dinner and Kevin kept going with the process. we returned about 9pm (with some food for Kevin) and Kevin had just sat down to start listening.....he was done. Kevin went in the house to eat his food and we sat down and started listening. we ended up listening until 12:30pm.
before i get into my initial perceptions i want to mention that I'm not going to get into details on Kevin's methodology. first; i don't sufficiently comprehend it to properly explain it. second; it is his personal process and not mine to share. I'm not saying there are secrets about it, but that is for Kevin to deal with. if one gets ahold of the owner's manual for the Evolution Acoustics MM2/MM3 there are explanations there for some of his design philosophy and detail on how the speaker adjustments work.
it's now Wednesday evening; Kevin got on his plane.....Jonathan on his train, and i have been listening for 4 hours tonight in a relaxed way with my go-to records and enjoying myself.
i was already pretty stoked at what i had been hearing prior to this visit; but we have gone to another level now. the speakers have ended up in essentially the same place they were to begin with, although tweaked in exact positioning, as was my listening position essentially in the same place. that original position was based on Kevin's original spot for the MM3's.....so that is not any accident.
what's different? and by what degree?
it's rounder, like music.....less hifi. the music projects further into the room....more holographic. there is more impact and articulation both in the bass and simply more energy behind each note. there is greater tonal weight and tonal richness. there is more detail and textural nuance. there is better delineation of musical threads in the soundstage.....so easy to follow the flow. harmonic complexity is more life like. the music stands up and moves me with greater forward thrust, flows better. things are tighter and more focused. every improvement is in an area where i had previously considered it already superior. so this is about increased degrees of goodness.
the emotional content of the music has risen perceptibly. it's more alive and real. it gets into your body and moves you. the increased musical connection really hit me on a few of the cuts, one in particular is the Beethoven Later Quartets (Philips Lp) by Quartetto Italiano. that increase in the tonal richness, roundness and energy just pushed all my buttons. wow!!! mikey likey.
these individual changes are all a little more than subtle, but less than profound changes......in and of themselves. but considering where it already was to my ears, in total it's a big step up toward the ideal ultimate musical immersion.
how can 4 huge 7' tall towers, weighing approx. 700 pounds each (2800 pounds total...in room), sound so coherent and fully disappear? impressive. how can they sound as big as a huge concert hall, or as intimate as a small jazz club? amazing!
these thoughts are after 4+ hours of listening at my pace. we will see how I'm feeling in a week or so. it has been a long road to get to this place in my audio path. I'm very happy (ecstatic actually) but trying to stay grounded and be open minded. we will see whether coming back fresh to this every day for a week with uncover any niggles.
thank you Kevin and Jonathan for this fantastic product and your considerable efforts to get it optimized in my room.
Kevin started in on the set-up process Tuesday morning around 9am or so; first setting up his tools for his measuring protocol, and then measuring things. he spent all day with this process of measurements and listening. moving the speakers and repeating the process. 4-5 years prior, when i had my MM3's, i had supplied Kevin with room plans and room measurements, and at that time he plotted out 12 potential speaker positions for the room. so he had already crunched the numbers before for the room. he did meticulously measure the actual dimensions of the room......which for my room with all the bumps and built in diffusion is difficult since almost no parallel walls exist.
i came home for lunch to see what was going on, and mostly it was white noise and grimacing.
i returned after work and they were still hard at it. then Jonathan, my wife, a friend and myself went to dinner and Kevin kept going with the process. we returned about 9pm (with some food for Kevin) and Kevin had just sat down to start listening.....he was done. Kevin went in the house to eat his food and we sat down and started listening. we ended up listening until 12:30pm.
before i get into my initial perceptions i want to mention that I'm not going to get into details on Kevin's methodology. first; i don't sufficiently comprehend it to properly explain it. second; it is his personal process and not mine to share. I'm not saying there are secrets about it, but that is for Kevin to deal with. if one gets ahold of the owner's manual for the Evolution Acoustics MM2/MM3 there are explanations there for some of his design philosophy and detail on how the speaker adjustments work.
it's now Wednesday evening; Kevin got on his plane.....Jonathan on his train, and i have been listening for 4 hours tonight in a relaxed way with my go-to records and enjoying myself.
i was already pretty stoked at what i had been hearing prior to this visit; but we have gone to another level now. the speakers have ended up in essentially the same place they were to begin with, although tweaked in exact positioning, as was my listening position essentially in the same place. that original position was based on Kevin's original spot for the MM3's.....so that is not any accident.
what's different? and by what degree?
it's rounder, like music.....less hifi. the music projects further into the room....more holographic. there is more impact and articulation both in the bass and simply more energy behind each note. there is greater tonal weight and tonal richness. there is more detail and textural nuance. there is better delineation of musical threads in the soundstage.....so easy to follow the flow. harmonic complexity is more life like. the music stands up and moves me with greater forward thrust, flows better. things are tighter and more focused. every improvement is in an area where i had previously considered it already superior. so this is about increased degrees of goodness.
the emotional content of the music has risen perceptibly. it's more alive and real. it gets into your body and moves you. the increased musical connection really hit me on a few of the cuts, one in particular is the Beethoven Later Quartets (Philips Lp) by Quartetto Italiano. that increase in the tonal richness, roundness and energy just pushed all my buttons. wow!!! mikey likey.
these individual changes are all a little more than subtle, but less than profound changes......in and of themselves. but considering where it already was to my ears, in total it's a big step up toward the ideal ultimate musical immersion.
how can 4 huge 7' tall towers, weighing approx. 700 pounds each (2800 pounds total...in room), sound so coherent and fully disappear? impressive. how can they sound as big as a huge concert hall, or as intimate as a small jazz club? amazing!
these thoughts are after 4+ hours of listening at my pace. we will see how I'm feeling in a week or so. it has been a long road to get to this place in my audio path. I'm very happy (ecstatic actually) but trying to stay grounded and be open minded. we will see whether coming back fresh to this every day for a week with uncover any niggles.
thank you Kevin and Jonathan for this fantastic product and your considerable efforts to get it optimized in my room.
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