Soundlab Audiophile G9-7c: a 30-year odyssey fulfilled

[godofwealth]

We are listening to Mike Jackson tonight on my Quad 2905s played back on the magnificent Chord Blu Mk2/Dave digital stack that blows away any digital streamer I’ve heard. There’s an inherent rightness of sound, a sense of solidity, that’s really hard to reproduce with streaming.

The album I’m listening to now is a CD I picked up several decades ago on a trip to Barcelona, Spain. It’s an extended length version of the famous collaboration between Mike and John Coltrane, their only joint gig. It’s a classic never to be equaled musical tour-de-force. And it sound to my ears far far better than the streaming versions on Qobuz.

The opening track when Coltrane comes in on the left channel guns blazing with his sax is the stuff of jazz legend. This whole album is a conversation between two jazz greats who don’t speak English, but “jazzese”. That’s so much nicer a musical language than guttural English. The recording is excellent for a classic jazz album and these two giants keep the rhythm pounding. It’s like watching a thriller movie except no one gets killed and there are no villains.

So, why does the Chord Blu2/Dave sound so good? First, it’s got one of the best CD transports, the Phillips CD Pro that Audio Research used in all their CD players. Then it’s got Rob Watts brilliant multi-million tap filter that upscales CDs to 705khz. Then it’s got the Dave DAC that’s still among the best DACs money can buy. This digital front end still runs circles around every streamer I’ve heard.

Musically, this jazz album is among the very greatest ever made. When Coltrane comes in late on every track after Milt has said his piece, he steals the show. I feel sorry for Milt How can you compete with Coltrane and his dynamo of a sax? The only jazz album I want in my grave.

 

[godofwealth]

We are listening to the magnificent choral music of Robert Schumann, one of the great composers in the Romantic tradition of classical music in the 19th century. Schumann’s wife, Clara, was a brilliant pianist and in later years a close confidant of Johannes Brahms. Robert Schumann lived a relatively short life. He composed many brilliant works including his symphonies, a piano concerto, great chamber music pieces and choral music. He was plagued by mental illness and died in a sanatorium.

This Brilliant Classics release is a 3-CD compilation of his secular choral works performed beautifully by the Studio Vocale Karlsruhe. I’m once again reminded how good CDs sound on a top-quality transport — in this case the Chord Blu Mk2 with Rob Watts’ M-Scaler feeding into the Dave DAC. This combo has been around for a decade or more and still in production. I’m not surprised. It still runs rings around most of the competition. The design is classic British devoid of the American and some European penchant for excess. No hundred pound slab of metal here. Each component weighs around 12-15 pounds in impressively solid aluminum chassis. The power supply is a very fast switching power supply. Chord does not believe in old fashioned linear power supplies. The music shines through with impressive clarity.

 

[godofwealth]

The Helsinki University Chorus is an all-male choir that has been in existence for 142 years, being founded in 1883. We are listening to their magnificent performance of Sibelius’ choral music that was composed for this very choir. I have two versions of this recording. An earlier one is even more exciting and rawer in intensity than this later more polished version. The choral music is sublime. It’s hugely addictive. I’ve heard it thousands of times over the past decades and never tire of hearing it. It’s quite different from his symphonic music. The melodies are more uplifting and have a deep sense of relaxation like Gregorian chant. The recording is superb. The dynamics are quite remarkable. You can get a sense of the recording venue. The voices are striking in their power. A desert island disc.

 

[godofwealth]

Johan Severin Svendsen was possibly the greatest symphonist in Scandinavia before the arrival of Sibelius. When Greg first heard Svendsen’s assuredly confident Symphony No 1, composed when Svendsen was in his early thirties, he realized his own symphony was just not in the sane league and never wrote another symphony. Writing a symphony requires extraordinary skill. Besides mastering the hundreds of instruments that make up an orchestra, a composer has to find a sense of originality. Sheer melody is not enough. Nor is the ability to conjure up a lot of clanging and banging noises with the brass and percussion like teenage kids doing side shows racing cars and burning rubber tires on pavements. It requires consummate skill in balancing the instruments and maintaining a sense of rhythm and drama. Svendsen had this talent in spades. Greg didn’t. He wisely learned his place in music and didn’t attempt to do what he couldn’t.

The two symphonies of Svendsen are played brilliantly by the Oslo Philharmonic under the baton of maestro Mariss Jansons. The EMI CD was recorded in 1988 by recording engineer Mike Clements who’s made many fine recordings for EMI. The strings are rich and full in their resonance. The brass is powerful and not shrill. The natural ambience of the Konzerthus in Oslo, a city I have visited, is clearly audible and gives this recording a sense of grandeur. Played back on the Chord electronics, this CD has a musical rightness that seems to elude streaming still.

 

[godofwealth]

Traveling this week to Philadelphia for an AI meeting, I had the opportunity to take in two wonderful concerts at the Marian Anderson Hall. Helene’ Grimaud played the magnificent Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 with other pieces including a symphony by Farrenc and a new piece commissioned jointly by the Berlin Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The orchestra hall is quite majestic with the 24-piece organ taking center stage.

Hélène Grimaud Plays Brahms

Pianist Hélène Grimaud brings “astonishing proficiency and poetic sensibilities” (The Washington Post) to Brahms’s First Piano Concerto; 19th-century composer Louise Farrenc’s surging, Romantic First Symphony beguiles with mystery and melody; and Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Julia Wolfe’s...

www.ensembleartsphilly.org

Hearing live music in a great concert hall is always a revelation. It’s so different sounding from recorded music. Of course, even though I was sitting about 20 rows from the main stage, peak dynamics at my location exceeded 100 dB on a few occasions. But because the sound is so pure, it doesn’t sound loud and boomy like it would in the confines of a small listening room. Most importantly, bass in a concert hall sounds completely unlike the boom-boom resonance of box loudspeakers.

Take the huge grand Steinway piano that Ms. Grimaud played so well. It was capable of massive dynamics, yet its sound was not resonant. It was crystalline. It was unlike the sound of recordings of pianos, which are just so far removed from what pianos actually sound like. . The orchestra featured several dozen string instruments, from violins to violas to cellos and double basses. These sound so pristine to make recordings sound like a joke. The first violins had a sheen to their sound one never hears on any recording. One could almost tell apart each of the dozen or so first violins. They were not just a blob of violins as it so often sounds on digital streaming.

Next week I have a bigger treat in store. The Philadelphia orchestra conductor Yannick Neze’t-Se’guin is coming to my neck-of-the-woods to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic in three concerts at U. C. Berkeley, featuring great masterpieces from Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony, Mahler Symphony No 1 and Dvora’k’s New World Symphony. I plan to attend all three concerts. Will give my further impressions next weekend. Till then I’ll have to console myself listening to the pale substitute of reproduced music.

 

[godofwealth]

We are listening to the music of Louise Ferrenc, a brilliant woman composer who lived from 1804-1875 in Paris. She taught for many decades at the Paris Conservatory at a time when women rarely had any hope of becoming professors. She had great teachers thanks to her enlightened parents who recognizing her genius sent her off at the age of fifteen to be educated by the cream of French composers like Anton Reicha and Johann Nepomuk Hummel. I discovered her music through a live concert by the Philadelphia Orchestra that played her Symphony No 1 last week. What a discovery!



We are listening to her chamber music on this generously filled 70-minute album. It’s really beautiful music shamefully neglected. Hopefully her 50-odd compositions are now almost all recorded. Her early piano music was much admired by legends such as Robert Schumann.

 

[godofwealth]

We are now listening to Louise Ferrenc’s sublime piano quintets, which are of a musical caliber to be compared with those of Dvorak and Schumann. The Quintetto Bottesini play the quintets with much beauty and grace. The warmth of the 44.1khz Redbook recording makes it as good or better than many high res recordings. The strings are captured very well giving a rich tonality to these mid-19th century chamber pieces. Ms. Ferrenc was an amazingly talented composer who was educated by the best that French music had to offer and taught at the prestigious Paris Conservatory. Her pedigree is undeniable. Like Gabriel Faure’, her music is cerebral but melodic, witty but no showy or ostentatious.

 

[godofwealth]

Louise Farrenc was a rara avis {‘rare bird” in Latin). Immensely gifted, she escaped the fate of many women in the 19th century by being born in the right place (Paris) to the right family of sculptors and artists in the Sorbonne region dating back to the 17th century, and had brilliant teachers. She achieved the impossible: she was a professor at the Paris Conservatory for 30 years from 1840s to her death in 1870s. She was in the prime of her career and as a mother wisely decided to focus on composition and teaching rather than a career as a soloist. We are listening to her beautiful Symphony No 2 and 3, recorded in high res 24-bit 96khz on Naxos. Her symphonies remind me of Schubert’s early symphonies. Romantic symphonies, without the transcendental greatness of Beethoven, but superior to many more well-known male composers of the same period. Her music has been woefully neglected. I discovered her music through chance: the Philadelphia Orchestra played her Symphony No.1 as an appetizer for the main course of the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 last week.

The Symphony No. 2 that I’m listening to is a confident melodic piece that shows skill and a musical talent that’s remarkable. The Solistes Europe’ens Luxembourg deserves to be commended for bringing her music to our attention. What are the more well-known orchestras doing, one might ask? No, we don’t need yet another recording of Beethoven or Brahms! Give us more Farrenc. Or similar neglected composers. Highly recommended.

 

[ChrisSoundLab]

While godofwealth is taking what I hope is a comfortable rest after expounding about AI, allow me to announce some news for Sound Lab (as the 30 year odyssey continues)... there are new menus with information in the new website for Sound Lab (soundlabelectrostats.com) and more coming soon. Especially happy to show photos of listening rooms of all dealers where you can listen by appointment now in several areas across USA, in Paris, and coming soon in Australia.

Dealers – Sound Lab Electrostats

soundlabelectrostats.com

As you probably can imagine all dealers are long-time SL lovers supporting in most cases more than 30 years bridging the 'early years' to the now much improved current construction and performance. All welcome those who want to come listen and experience (and don't worry about 'the sell' - none of us are pushing and none of us survive by selling Sound Lab ... we just want to share to people who care to come listen and find out for themselves)
We are also showing at SWAF and introducing a new backplate which does not require AC power and prototype showing here on youtube:

)
All the best. Photo of Roger with G7-7Cs (majestic in maple with Fir gille) in progress for SWAF.

 

[Riverdinaudio]

Great news for audiophiles living in the Washington D.C./Richmond, Virginia/ Shenandoah Valley regions. Sound Lab is available for auditions. Mark DeBiasse is sole proprietor of Afton Mountain Audio. There is a web page. Contact Mark to schedule a visit. His home provides a comfortable and realistic venue to audition the Sound Lab G7-5C. This is the list of the system components at the time of our session on March 21st of this year.
Dr. Feickert Analogue Woodpecker/Linear Power Supply/Inertia Platter
Audio Origami PU-7 Tonearm (11" Titanium Arm Tube)
EMT HSD-006 Cartridge
Herron VTPH-2a Phono Stage
Esoteric K03Xs CD/SACD
Atma-Sphere MP-3 MK3.3 Linestage
Atma-Sphere MA-1 MK3.3 Monoblock Amps
Sound Lab G7-5C (Majestic Black Oak Frames/Cement Mix Grills)
WyWires Platinum Series Cables Throughout
Fern & Roby Racks
Mark provides a diverse selection of well cared for vinyl, CD and SACD. Streaming capability is in the works.
The three audiophiles in my party are dipole planar devotees. We enjoy planar magnetic, electrostatic or cones and domes on a baffle. Mark’s system is dialed-in and fun to listen to. The soundstage is good for the size room. He does employ the Sound Lab SALLIE system to control front wall reflections. Settings on the Sound Lab were Centered on the bass contour and just shy of Maximum on the treble contour. The three of us felt the bottom to top coherence and presentation was correct. Afton Mountain Audio receives our full recommendation.

 

[ChrisSoundLab]

Just to compliment the above intro to Mark, here are three photos to show the comfortable listening room and equipment. In the bottom rack between the panels (a little hard to see) are the MA-1s.

 

[godofwealth]

Apologize to everyone for my lack of new posts on this thread. As Chris said, I work in AI, and it’s been a crazy period of activity. Hope to get back to WBF. Continuing to enjoy listening to my G9’s. Each time I listen to it, I have to shake my head and wonder why I didn’t buy it before. A great loudspeaker. It simply oozes music. Any kind. Mono or stereo. Rock and roll, jazz or classical. Folk or opera. It makes music. As the Brits put it, ‘nuff said!

 

[godofwealth]

While godofwealth is taking what I hope is a comfortable rest after expounding about AI, allow me to announce some news for Sound Lab (as the 30 year odyssey continues)... there are new menus with information in the new website for Sound Lab (soundlabelectrostats.com) and more coming soon. Especially happy to show photos of listening rooms of all dealers where you can listen by appointment now in several areas across USA, in Paris, and coming soon in Australia.

Dealers – Sound Lab Electrostats

soundlabelectrostats.com

As you probably can imagine all dealers are long-time SL lovers supporting in most cases more than 30 years bridging the 'early years' to the now much improved current construction and performance. All welcome those who want to come listen and experience (and don't worry about 'the sell' - none of us are pushing and none of us survive by selling Sound Lab ... we just want to share to people who care to come listen and find out for themselves)
We are also showing at SWAF and introducing a new backplate which does not require AC power and prototype showing here on youtube:

)
All the best. Photo of Roger with G7-7Cs (majestic in maple with Fir gille) in progress for SWAF.

Love the green fabric. Very chic!

 

[ChrisSoundLab]

Greeting to all - and with godofwealth's encouragement I'd like to share a great story and with permission from Dietrich to share ... of course this may be something many of you already know, and perhaps others have already heard because so many recording engineers, musicians, countless well respected people in the business and audiophiles have reported the same opinions and conclusions over the years... but this is 'fresh' and also leads to an excellent chance for Europeans to audition Sound Lab in Germany (quite close to Munich actually). And getting the chance to listen is really the only thing I hope for Sound Lab, because without a doubt it invariably leads to an impression that is lasting and valuable and for some it is the answer they have been hoping to find for years and years. The story is from Dietrich, the CTO and founder of Acoustical Systems - maker of ultimate analog front end turntable, tonearms etc. and was told in an email to Roger just last week. Photos attached are from his show/listening room: G8-7Cs (from 2011 and legacy model name is 845 Majestic) You will notice this model has a custom grille made from somewhere in Germany and the model is just prior to our introduction of bass focus arrangement of distributed resonance ... paired with Acoustical System's incredible analog systems and wonderful room, I hope to make a visit Germany soon and experience myself. This all happened a little too late for us to join Dietrich in Munich audio show this year, but definitely a good chance for us next year (in Vienna I believe) - though Dietrich will be in Munich next weekend if anyone is going!

 

[godofwealth]

Great story, Chris! What's the cool-looking amplifier that Dietrich is using to drive his SoundLabs? As you know, I'm much taken recently with a relatively inexpensive (ha!) and much cooler running ARC amplifier for my G9-7C's, the VT80SE's. This produces about 75 watts a channel, one tenth of the power of the larger 750SE's that both of us use and enjoy. But it seems ample for the G9's, which is great news for those who want to know that SL's can indeed be driven by much lower-powered tube amplifiers. The VT80SE has the added advantage that it is automatically biasing the output power tubes, and can take a wide range of tubes, including KT170s, KT150s, KT120s, KT90s, and KT88s. ARC has confirmed to me via email that all these tubes work fine, although some work better than others. They find that KT170's surprisingly work less well than KT150s. I have a quad of KT170s arriving, which I plan to test with my SL's. Will update this thread when I get a chance.

I agree with everything Dietrich says in his email to Roger. Once you've heard a pair of SL's, all else falls by the wayside. Audiophile notions like "soundstage" or "imaging" or "bit depth" etc. seem pointless. You simply play whatever music you want and enjoy it. My G9s seem to get the best out of everything I throw at them, including really poorly recorded material. That to me is why I consider the SL's my end game speaker!

 

[ChrisSoundLab]

Great story, Chris! What's the cool-looking amplifier that Dietrich is using to drive his SoundLabs? As you know, I'm much taken recently with a relatively inexpensive (ha!) and much cooler running ARC amplifier for my G9-7C's, the VT80SE's. This produces about 75 watts a channel, one tenth of the power of the larger 750SE's that both of us use and enjoy. But it seems ample for the G9's, which is great news for those who want to know that SL's can indeed be driven by much lower-powered tube amplifiers. The VT80SE has the added advantage that it is automatically biasing the output power tubes, and can take a wide range of tubes, including KT170s, KT150s, KT120s, KT90s, and KT88s. ARC has confirmed to me via email that all these tubes work fine, although some work better than others. They find that KT170's surprisingly work less well than KT150s. I have a quad of KT170s arriving, which I plan to test with my SL's. Will update this thread when I get a chance.

I agree with everything Gerhard says in his email to Roger. Once you've heard a pair of SL's, all else falls by the wayside. Audiophile notions like "soundstage" or "imaging" or "bit depth" etc. seem pointless. You simply play whatever music you want and enjoy it. My G9s seem to get the best out of everything I throw at them, including really poorly recorded material. That to me is why I consider the SL's my end game speaker!

View attachment 150019

Ah .... if you expand the photos of the amplification image, it describes the amps (in German) - Vitus Audio SM-011 & WaVAC HE833v1.3 (it took me a while with the translation!)

 

[godofwealth]

Apologies to WBF for not posting recently on my musical journey. Things have been exceptionally hot in the AI world, with trillions of dollars sloshing about, as you’ve no doubt seen from the stock market gyrations.It has been super busy at work with so much money on the line. Who knew AI would one day rule the financial world? Not me when I started in thus crazy field 40-odd years back.

I digress. I’m listening to one of my favorite pieces, Johannes Brahms’ Clarinet Sonatas, composed in the last years of his life. I love Karl Leister playing these pieces on an Orfeo CD I picked up many decades ago. It’s a beautiful mellow sound that captures the autumnal sound of these timeless music.

My current summertime audio signal chain: ARC Reference CD8 player, ARC 6SE preamp, ARC VT80SE amp. Simple as it gets, but oh so beautiful sounding with my SL G9-7c’s. No one made better CD players than ARC. On a recording like this, the intrinsic virtues of Redbook CD shine in a way that seems to still escape streaming media. I am oh so glad I hung on to my many thousands of CDs. A collection of a lifetime. This recording is all the proof I need of why Redbook CD trounces streaming still in my system. YMMV.

Back to the crazy world of AI. Will post again whenever I get a chance. I’m going to listen to the SF symphony play Stravinsky’s Firebird next week in a concert conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. That should be exciting!

 

[godofwealth]

I’m trying out a quartet of KT170s with my ARC 80SE, my summer tube amplifier. ARC themselves prefer the KT150s on the 80SE, although their premium 330M uses the KT170s. But ARC uses large Wilson’s to test their amps. My G9-7c’s are the polar opposite of Wilson’s. In the bass, impedances run around 30 ohms, not 2 ohms like the Wilson. I have to wait till these break in a bit, but initial impressions are positive. The VT80SE is one gorgeous sounding amp. As someone who’s not a fan of meters, “blue” or “ghost”, the 80SE appeals to my more buttoned-down tastes. I prefer to hear an amplifier, not sit transfixed by blue lights or swerving meters. The VT80SE has an elegant design. Timeless and understated. It’s destined to be an ARC classic in the years to come.

 

[godofwealth]

Listening to one of Gerry Mulligan’s greatest albums, “What is there to say?” This album was recorded in the late 1950s, one of the last he did sans piano. This album features the great Art Farmer on trumpet. Beautiful as always. Mulligan was one of the jazz greats. The 80SE does not hide the limitations of this older analog 50’s recording, but there’s plenty to like. Farmer on the right channel, Mulligan on the left. The contrast between the baritone and trumpet are revealed with clarity. My Lampizator Pacific with the oh-so-gorgeous Western Electric 101D tubes is converting the digital bits into analog. I like the pensive look on Mulligan’s face on this cover. A thinking man’s music.

 

[godofwealth]

We are listening to the beautiful choral music of Guillaume Dufay, who lived from 1400-1473. In particular, this lovely Harmonia Mundi album features his isorythmic motets. The term comes from the use of a rhythmic formula that is constantly repeated in one or more parts while the melodic material changes. Dufay’s music represents the height of the music of the Middle Ages before the advent of full polyphony.

The recording was made in a stone church with the singers arrayed on the left and right with instruments in the center. The album has a nice picture of the recording venue and it sounds exactly like the picture shows.

Music like this can sound a bit monotonous when you listen to the entire 65+ minute CD. We are so used to streaming that we cannot listen to more than 5 minutes of an album, then it’s switcheroo to something else. Listening to this album in its entirety is a type of meditation. You need to slow down your heart rate and breathing. Take a deep breath and relax. The world will continue to be its chaotic state an hour later. But you will have refreshed your soul with music composed six centuries ago when there was no social media, no Instagram and no 24/7 news blather. So, unplug for an hour and travel back in time to the Middle Ages.