You REALLY wanna freak the guy out?He has heard them only once. So he can definitely go back to Denmark to listen, and on the way can meet Lagonda...Lmao
You REALLY wanna freak the guy out?He has heard them only once. So he can definitely go back to Denmark to listen, and on the way can meet Lagonda...Lmao
The sound quality of a great or even a good low powered SET is on a very different level than even the “best” high powered amplifiers, this is the primary reason for owning true easy to drive high sensitivity speakers IMO. Of course there are other benefits inherent to such designs. Whatever abilities speakers like your Pendragons might have is ultimately negated by the need for high powered amplification. The other issue that we’ve discussed and I’ve harped about often is the built-in amplification of a half active speaker. In this scenario you are stuck with whatever they put in there and will never properly integrate with its other half without matching amplification or use of typical homogenizing so called audiophile cabling, this is a fact. Set up of 4 boxes has additional complication that one should keep in mind contrary to claims of setup flexibility. Given all this I’m wondering how vocals are the competency of such designs when you’ll always end up with two different voices singing the same note trying to sound as one.Saturday morning musing:
I ordered the Gryphon Pendragon loudspeakers almost four years ago. Since then I have developed a greater appreciation for, and listened to more, jazz music and classical music. Jazz music and classical music definitely were not focuses of mine when we listened to the Pendragons in Denmark.
In the last four years I have developed a greater appreciation for the importance of the tone and body of acoustic instruments in audio reproduction. My friends with vintage or horn or concentric driver-type systems which reproduce particularly realistically the tone of acoustic instruments has allowed me to better understand and to better appreciate the importance of this sonic attribute to the suspension of disbelief. in the last four years I have had the opportunity to learn about, and to hear, many horn loudspeakers which I was unfamiliar with four years ago.
I have developed a greater appreciation of the benefit of driver-to-driver coherency in a loudspeaker. I like the coherence and holistic organicness I hear from Tannoy and Fyne concentric drivers, and from the wide-band driver of the PBN M2!M Jeff Tyo Special Edition. The biggest weakness of a two-way, four column system like the Pendragon with radically different driver topologies is the coherence of the drivers -- and the columns -- into a unified, organic, sonic whole.
In addition, during the last four years, I have crystallized upon the personal view that low sensitivity loudspeaker designs sacrifice more in dynamics and jump factor than I recognized previously. This is why I feel like I am "over and done with" many low-sensitivity/multi-way driver/complex cross-over/traditional box speakers. The Magnepan MG-IIIA was my first loudspeaker. I would not buy a 86dB sensitivity loudspeaker today. The Pendragon is a relatively low-sensitivity planar design.
Finally, I believe that the manufacturers of dynamic driver loudspeakers have not stood still in the last four years. The Wilson Audio XVX is the first dynamic driver loudspeaker I have heard that puts me on the same indifference curve with the planars I have always preferred. As someone who has owned only planar loudspeakers since 1988 this is, for me, a pretty dramatic development.
No loudspeaker is perfect. Every design is a compromise on one or more sonic parameters. I believe that some loudspeakers make easier the suspension of disbelief with certain types of music than with other types of music.
It will be very interesting to see how I feel about the Pendragon in light of these personal developments and evolving preferences and competing speaker manufacturer innovations. I remain absolutely confident of the Pendragon’s ability on vocals. But will it be able to perform as creditably on other genres of music? Time will tell . . .
I take it that there being another speaker - that there now is an indifference curve - is what is dramatic - that or the need to make a choice? Is it frustrating or challenging? I say defer to your changing values - the 'maturation' of your listening preferences. Don't let opportunity cost nag at you.![]()
I can't think of many people who would have a 2die4 set of spkrs in crates, unaffordable to most, maximum effort expended to acquire...and be thinking of replacing them, or that they're not what's really wanted, before uncrating and having an extended listen.
I would say Lol...but this is no laughing matter...lol.
The sound quality of a great or even a good low powered SET is on a very different level than even the “best” high powered amplifiers, this is the primary reason for owning true easy to drive high sensitivity speakers IMO. Of course there are other benefits inherent to such designs. Whatever abilities speakers like your Pendragons might have is ultimately negated by the need for high powered amplification. The other issue that we’ve discussed and I’ve harped about often is the built-in amplification of a half active speaker. In this scenario you are stuck with whatever they put in there and will never properly integrate with its other half without matching amplification or use of typical homogenizing so called audiophile cabling, this is a fact. Set up of 4 boxes has additional complication that one should keep in mind contrary to claims of setup flexibility. Given all this I’m wondering how vocals are the competency of such designs when you’ll always end up with two different voices singing the same note trying to sound as one.
david
Ron, did you prefer your favorite vocal tracks on the Pendragons to ddk’s SET/horns? I really liked vocals on the Alysivox predecessor with low powered tubes but not as much as on David’s system.
No, I did not. I played only Bill Henderson's "Send in the Clowns." I felt that on that track David's system transformed the room into the most realistic reproduction of a live jazz club I had ever experienced from an audio system.
Stevie is now monitoring the entrance to the listening room.
Mogami or Belden
Balanced? Can you imagine what a 50 foot balanced pair of the new Nordstrom gold cables would cost?
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