OT
A cousin and I dreamt of owning the DS21. He realized that dream, I haven't ...yet... How much do they go for?
My spirits have been lifted
- Thread starter Rodney Gold
- Start date
OT
A cousin and I dreamt of owning the DS21. He realized that dream, I haven't ...yet... How much do they go for?
Frantz
Garage find condition £3-5k
Good useable but cosmetically challenged £5-10k
Excellent mechanically and super cosmetically £12-20k
Pristine, refurbished etc £20-30k
"Let yr baby eat off the engine bay" clean, mint/nr mint cosmetically £30-45k
As original and pristine nr mint/mint collectable £50-80k
Decopotable £150k+
Garage find condition £3-5k
Good useable but cosmetically challenged £5-10k
Excellent mechanically and super cosmetically £12-20k
Pristine, refurbished etc £20-30k
"Let yr baby eat off the engine bay" clean, mint/nr mint cosmetically £30-45k
As original and pristine nr mint/mint collectable £50-80k
Decopotable £150k+
This should be interesting to say the least!!!!
http://hifipig.com/trinnov-and-vivid-at-high-end-munich-2017/
On my side I am still having a ball ... some comments, updates and some tweaks
Today , I have decided that using a USB to SPDIF converter (miniStreamer from miniDSP $35) sound better as a digital front end than my Squeezebox touch .. I can AB them and the ministreamer seems to have a tad more bass punch and is overall a little punchier ... nothing night and day tho
Heres some comments .. A friend of mine that is an avant garde fanatic.. he has duos
First Rodney.... what a guy. Such a gentleman. And then the new Spirits.....
The speakers are beautiful in flesh with high quality finishes. I do prefer the colour of the new speakers. Rodney basically handed over the commander’s chair and I started with a high quality recording of a symphony orchestra (2L). At first I found the sound surprising.... I guess relative to what I am used to. The sound was “airy” with a nice sound-stage and it did not take long for me to be drawn into the music completely.
Then we turned to some pop music, “Frozen” by Madonna. Now, you can just imagine Rodney and I with a track like this, that craves extreme sound levels, blood was going to flow. The effect was radical, you could feel the effect of the extreme sound levels, not only on the furniture, but in your clothes and hair. Try this, play Frozen as loud as you dare (I know and have the iconic Yellow recordings, just try this one). This is where this system excels, it really likes this type of music.
Then there was the Falla, “Three cornered hat”. It is a dance, the Fandango, set to modern classical music. It is extreme and not very nice to listen to but it s very complex and trips over almost all the hifis I have tried it on. The Spirits had absolutely no problem. It is a very impressive set of speakers and I loved them.
We put it through its paces over the next few hours, it was great fun and, Rodney, this is a keeper.
So, once again, thanks for having us over and we are looking forward to reciprocate.
I have done some tweaks .. to wit...
I decided to measure the speakers via Dirac and apply DIRAC room correction .. always worked real well in the past , however I found with the spirits , DIRAC actually gave worse results .. seeming to suck a bit of the life out of the music .. even tho correction was only done under 150hz .. it seemed to lose a little airyness and treble..
I went back to ROON's parametric and used that instead to get rid of a few nodes . not quite as tight as DIRAC in the bass , but VERY acceptable without any overhead
I deleted the miniDSP DDRC 22 box out the system. Its now REAL simple , Squeezebox touch to my devialets and then to speakers
I also wheeled my G1's out of the room , as I found that they affected the room and its sonics .. even in a big room , they are BIG and its never a good idea to have other sets of speakers in the room.
I am going to swap over the Spirits with the G1's in the next few day .. to get a handle on EXACTLY what the differences and improvements are.
Im actually quite amazed by the audible difference in sound removing the G1's from the room..
There was a very slight "phasiness" to some tracks that i noticed and it is now gone , bass changed a lot .. obviously both the extra volume in the room , the fact the drivers might have been passively radiating and the speakers acting as tuned resonators as well as their huge surface area acting as reflectors had something to do with it..
Never heard the case for not having multiple speakers in the room made as clearly as I have heard it now
Here's another comment via a pal of mine , he has B1's and a devialet 220pro
If ever there was a reference system for reference systems, this would be it.
It is quite interesting comparing the Avantgarde Trios and bass horns with the multi components and valve mono amps to drive it to the Spirits/Devialet combo. As an aspiring audiophile, what a treat to have both such systems in Cape Town. Thanks to Rodney for allowing us to intrude in his space.
The Spirits are something to behold. Never ever have I seen such a fit and finish on a speaker. Although there is no polished wood (ala Sonus Faber) to excite the traditionalists, the paint job, details and design of this Spirits cannot be described in words. Even if they did not reproduce a single note of music they would still make gorgeous statues. Kudos for Rodney for choosing the burnt orange colour; photo's do not do them justice. Standing side by side to the G1's, the Spirits are shorter and stouter but looks better balanced from a design perspective. The G1's are just too tall and thin and, whilst still an amazing design, the aesthetics of the Spirits is more pleasing to the eye. The lowered tweeter definitely ads to the ease of speaker and listening position placement.
Each of us had an opportunity to play our own music whilst sitting in the sweet spot. The evening started off with some 70's/80's rock including Pink Floyd. Sitting off-axis, the detail and separation on offer could be clearly heard. I soon took over and played my favorite tracks. My musical tastes include more singer/songwriter vocals, a-Capella and sparsely instrumented tracks. Sound staging is big but the stand out is the focus and precise imaging that the system portrays. I have played Heather Masse’s Bird Song every Friday evening for the past 6 months, I know it intimately. Never have I heard the toms like they sounded on the Spirits; sharp and snappy left and right of the singer. Ruth Moody’s version of Bruce’s Dancing in the Dark is a magnificent cover version and the Spirits created a holographic view. If you want to test a system, listen to a gravelly male voice and Shawn Mullins’ Joshua starts off with a vocal introduction before the music starts. His smoky voice sounding rich and tuneful.
Of course the Spirits were on test here but do not forget the Devialet D-Premier duo that that kept on giving more and more power as the listening session resulted in insane volume levels. Power is effortless, soundstage is free from the speakers, and most importantly the musicians are there in the room with you and provides real insight into what is happening on the other side of the microphone.
A pic of The G1's out of the room and "dressed up" by my wife (we have a miniature schnauzer pup who scratches at stuff if he sees his reflection and she was worried he would do so to the speakers .. hence the covers)
Heres a pic of the Spirits without the G1's in the room
http://hifipig.com/trinnov-and-vivid-at-high-end-munich-2017/
On my side I am still having a ball ... some comments, updates and some tweaks
Today , I have decided that using a USB to SPDIF converter (miniStreamer from miniDSP $35) sound better as a digital front end than my Squeezebox touch .. I can AB them and the ministreamer seems to have a tad more bass punch and is overall a little punchier ... nothing night and day tho
Heres some comments .. A friend of mine that is an avant garde fanatic.. he has duos
First Rodney.... what a guy. Such a gentleman. And then the new Spirits.....
The speakers are beautiful in flesh with high quality finishes. I do prefer the colour of the new speakers. Rodney basically handed over the commander’s chair and I started with a high quality recording of a symphony orchestra (2L). At first I found the sound surprising.... I guess relative to what I am used to. The sound was “airy” with a nice sound-stage and it did not take long for me to be drawn into the music completely.
Then we turned to some pop music, “Frozen” by Madonna. Now, you can just imagine Rodney and I with a track like this, that craves extreme sound levels, blood was going to flow. The effect was radical, you could feel the effect of the extreme sound levels, not only on the furniture, but in your clothes and hair. Try this, play Frozen as loud as you dare (I know and have the iconic Yellow recordings, just try this one). This is where this system excels, it really likes this type of music.
Then there was the Falla, “Three cornered hat”. It is a dance, the Fandango, set to modern classical music. It is extreme and not very nice to listen to but it s very complex and trips over almost all the hifis I have tried it on. The Spirits had absolutely no problem. It is a very impressive set of speakers and I loved them.
We put it through its paces over the next few hours, it was great fun and, Rodney, this is a keeper.
So, once again, thanks for having us over and we are looking forward to reciprocate.
I have done some tweaks .. to wit...
I decided to measure the speakers via Dirac and apply DIRAC room correction .. always worked real well in the past , however I found with the spirits , DIRAC actually gave worse results .. seeming to suck a bit of the life out of the music .. even tho correction was only done under 150hz .. it seemed to lose a little airyness and treble..
I went back to ROON's parametric and used that instead to get rid of a few nodes . not quite as tight as DIRAC in the bass , but VERY acceptable without any overhead
I deleted the miniDSP DDRC 22 box out the system. Its now REAL simple , Squeezebox touch to my devialets and then to speakers
I also wheeled my G1's out of the room , as I found that they affected the room and its sonics .. even in a big room , they are BIG and its never a good idea to have other sets of speakers in the room.
I am going to swap over the Spirits with the G1's in the next few day .. to get a handle on EXACTLY what the differences and improvements are.
Im actually quite amazed by the audible difference in sound removing the G1's from the room..
There was a very slight "phasiness" to some tracks that i noticed and it is now gone , bass changed a lot .. obviously both the extra volume in the room , the fact the drivers might have been passively radiating and the speakers acting as tuned resonators as well as their huge surface area acting as reflectors had something to do with it..
Never heard the case for not having multiple speakers in the room made as clearly as I have heard it now
Here's another comment via a pal of mine , he has B1's and a devialet 220pro
If ever there was a reference system for reference systems, this would be it.
It is quite interesting comparing the Avantgarde Trios and bass horns with the multi components and valve mono amps to drive it to the Spirits/Devialet combo. As an aspiring audiophile, what a treat to have both such systems in Cape Town. Thanks to Rodney for allowing us to intrude in his space.
The Spirits are something to behold. Never ever have I seen such a fit and finish on a speaker. Although there is no polished wood (ala Sonus Faber) to excite the traditionalists, the paint job, details and design of this Spirits cannot be described in words. Even if they did not reproduce a single note of music they would still make gorgeous statues. Kudos for Rodney for choosing the burnt orange colour; photo's do not do them justice. Standing side by side to the G1's, the Spirits are shorter and stouter but looks better balanced from a design perspective. The G1's are just too tall and thin and, whilst still an amazing design, the aesthetics of the Spirits is more pleasing to the eye. The lowered tweeter definitely ads to the ease of speaker and listening position placement.
Each of us had an opportunity to play our own music whilst sitting in the sweet spot. The evening started off with some 70's/80's rock including Pink Floyd. Sitting off-axis, the detail and separation on offer could be clearly heard. I soon took over and played my favorite tracks. My musical tastes include more singer/songwriter vocals, a-Capella and sparsely instrumented tracks. Sound staging is big but the stand out is the focus and precise imaging that the system portrays. I have played Heather Masse’s Bird Song every Friday evening for the past 6 months, I know it intimately. Never have I heard the toms like they sounded on the Spirits; sharp and snappy left and right of the singer. Ruth Moody’s version of Bruce’s Dancing in the Dark is a magnificent cover version and the Spirits created a holographic view. If you want to test a system, listen to a gravelly male voice and Shawn Mullins’ Joshua starts off with a vocal introduction before the music starts. His smoky voice sounding rich and tuneful.
Of course the Spirits were on test here but do not forget the Devialet D-Premier duo that that kept on giving more and more power as the listening session resulted in insane volume levels. Power is effortless, soundstage is free from the speakers, and most importantly the musicians are there in the room with you and provides real insight into what is happening on the other side of the microphone.
A pic of The G1's out of the room and "dressed up" by my wife (we have a miniature schnauzer pup who scratches at stuff if he sees his reflection and she was worried he would do so to the speakers .. hence the covers)
Heres a pic of the Spirits without the G1's in the room
Hey Rodney, I just read a great review on the Spirits by Jeff Fritz, Soundstage. According to him, they are clearly the best speakers for rock! Apparently he went completely bananas listening to led zep at concert levels. Jeff is a good reviewer in my opinion and I am not surprised by what he wrote considering what the giya brings to the party!
Next time I am in CPT, we will listen to some Bonzo drums ( the real Bonzo not our forum Bonzo (-
Cheers
Sujay
Next time I am in CPT, we will listen to some Bonzo drums ( the real Bonzo not our forum Bonzo (-
Cheers
Sujay
hiya sujay .. will read it with interest
Im busy with a write up of the G1's vs the G1 spirits..struggling to describe what the spirts sound is like in audiophile terms...they have a sound I have never heard from any system .. the music is not coming from the speakers .. its coming from the ether...
I can tell you that you will give out WAY before the spirits will .. some of my vistors have had the volume on "destroy the house" levels and they do that with ease...
The louder it gets the better it gets.. at low volumes , you are viewing the performance .. at high levels , you are part of it
Im busy with a write up of the G1's vs the G1 spirits..struggling to describe what the spirts sound is like in audiophile terms...they have a sound I have never heard from any system .. the music is not coming from the speakers .. its coming from the ether...
I can tell you that you will give out WAY before the spirits will .. some of my vistors have had the volume on "destroy the house" levels and they do that with ease...
The louder it gets the better it gets.. at low volumes , you are viewing the performance .. at high levels , you are part of it
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