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

[godofwealth]

Death is a topic that has long fascinated artists, poets, and musicians. Mahler’s symphonies were continually obsessing over death. He was one of 14 children, but of his 13 siblings, only 5 survived into adulthood. In the era before modern medicine, death was far more common in infants and children. One of my favorite poets, Emily Dickinson, wrote of death:

Because I could not stop for Death—
He kindly stopped for me—
The Carriage held but just Ourselves—
And Immortality

We are now listening to a classic 20th century composer, Frank Martin, conducting the Berlin Philharmonic featuring the great baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau titled Six Monologues from Jedermann (Everyman) of the poet Hugo Von Hoffmansthal. In the first monologue, Everyman is visited by Death at dinner, and discovers all his guests have departed. He summons his servants to help him prepare for the ultimate journey.

This recording is a rarity as the composer himself conducts the famous Berlin Philharmonic in 1963 recorded in Berlin in Jesus Christus-Kirche.

This is heady intellectual music, but reveals how artists are torn by the mortality of our lives and have to come to terms with it. Mahler wrote in commentary on his Symphony No. 2, which he himself premiered with the Berlin Philharmonic as well in 1895.

What is this life—and this death? Do we have an existence beyond it? Is all this only a confused dream, or do life and this death have a meaning?

 

[ChrisSoundLab]

Here's another experience to share....these speakers clearly show the SALLIE absorber behind the speakers. It sure sounded very wonderful in here.

 

[ChrisSoundLab]

This is the lat stop on the visit to Sound Lab dealers. This pair of Ultimates have been around at John's home since 90's - and have gone thru several upgrades - even adding 'inserts' to the pole frames to go from a G7 to a G8 height. Now with the most recent panels (easy to tell by silhouette of grille to easily see the bass focus arrangement of cells) and Roger's latest version of back plates (just before the FRAB plates which do not require AC - nobody has those yet - first shipping around September), sounding great in this lovely split-level home. He also has some very cool equipment from back in the day (John was doing audio repair for many years - lots of experience, don't hesitate to ask him!) Couple of photos attached - preamp kit from 1962 - don't find this around much anymore!

 

[godofwealth]

Great pics, @ChrisSoundLab! Long time since I spotted a Goldmund Reference turntable. It used to Harry Pearson’s favorite table. Used to cost a fortune in the 1980s. Probably would cost a quarter million $ to make that today.

 

[godofwealth]

We are listening to the gorgeous and profound violin sonatas of Johannes Brahms on a Praga Digitals DSD recording. Brahms used to take his summer breaks on Lake Thune. In 1879, after completing his famous violin concerto for Joachim, the legendary violinist, Brahms penned his first violin sonata. As was his wont, he mailed a copy of the score to Clara Schumann, widow of composer Robert Schumann who had taken Brahms under his wing and helped to make him a celebrity. Those days, folks didn’t send YouTube recordings, you sent scores. Clara said she sight-read the first sonata score as soon as she got his letter and it brought tears of joy to her.

This beautiful recording sounds gorgeous on the SL G9-7c’s driven by the sound-state Mola Mola electronics (the all-in-one Makua preamp with the built-in Tambaqui DAC and the Kaluga 400 watt class D monoblocks). Peter Csaba’s violin is recorded behind the left speaker and the piano is nicely set back in a spatially realistic manner at a fair distance. The whole recording is bathed in the ecclesiastical acoustic of the cloisters where it was recorded in the Czech Republic.

Brahms’ sonatas were not plagued by a sense of strife and discordance as Beethoven’s was. Like his symphonies, Brahms here projects a sense of serenity in his music, weaving a deep melancholy into this sonata. No doubt it was influenced by his summer break on Lake Thune, where as always he found solace in nature. Highly recommended.

 

[godofwealth]

In 1969, four brilliant American musicians made their debut at the Marlborough music festival in Vermont, an idyllic New England venue that I’ve attended concerts at when I used to be a college professor in New England. These days it’s run by the famous pianist Mitsuko Uchida. The four musicians turned into the legendary Cleveland Quartet that dazzled audiences worldwide for the next 25 years. They performed at the inauguration of President Carter at the White House. They performed at the Grammys. Their series of recordings for RCA were reissued as a CD box set by Sony Music. They went on to record for Telarc. We are listening to the first two Brahms Quartets in this sumptuous Telarc recording.

There are countless quarterts but few can match the sheer beauty of the Cleveland Quartet. Four stringed instruments can be hard to hear and particularly many quartets have a grating first violinist whose playing reminds me often of fingernails scratching on a blackboard. Here we are given a textbook demonstration of how to play the first violin gorgeously without the slightest brightness.

What a lovely recording of these famous quartets by Brahms! It suits the music perfectly. Brahms’ music exudes serenity and pathos. Beethoven in his quartets brought a lot of dissonances and mental anguish. There’s none of that in Brahms’ music. He remained supremely serene in many of his compositions. Whatever his inner demons were, they’re not reflected in his music. Unlike Beethoven, Brahms did not wear his heart on his sleeve. He systematically destroyed all his personal notes, unpublished scores and diaries. He wanted to be judged based on his published music, nothing more. Beethoven wrote copiously about his struggles with his deafness, his attempted suicide, his dissatisfaction with Emperors and tyrants. Brahms gave us no hints as to his political persuasions. He remained secluded and hidden except in his published music.

On the big SL G9/7c’s, this recording can send you into rapture when you hear the warmth of the ravishing strings pouring into the room. Highly recommended as a desert island disc.

 

[godofwealth]

We are listening to two relatively unknown 19th century Danish composers, Johann Frohlich and Niels Gade. There were strong ties between Denmark and Germany in the 19th century and Frohlich’s father emigrated to Denmark from Munich. Frohlich was a child prodigy who made his debut at eight and then received a proper music education. He rose to eventually serve in a leadership role in Danish music and orchestras, but his symphony was not well-received by the then Danish audience. This Chandos recording conducted by Christopher Hogwood leading the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra is the premiere recording. It’s a nice sounding symphony in the Nordic tradition, but hardly as memorable as later symphonies by Sibelius. The second composer Niels Gade is more well-known as an established symphonist. He was a friend of Felix Mendelssohn and succeeded him as the conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

The Chandos recording sounds warm and naturally balanced. The strings are not brightly lit as on some Chandos recordings of British orchestras. The playback chain is a CEC TL0 belt- driven CD transport — a massive forty pound two box transport worth every penny — feeding into the Mola Mola Makua preamp with the built-in Tambaqui DAC driving the SL G9/7c. The ambience of the Danish Radio concert hall is amply reproduced. The recording is not closely miked. The reason I think is that this recording features a different Danish engineering team than the typical Chandos British recordings that I often find harsh. Recommended to connoisseurs only.

 

[godofwealth]

Composers are often inspired by literature or famous historical figures. We are listening to a lovely old Telarc CD of the music of Hector Berlioz, a firebrand French composer whose most famous work — Symphonie Fantastique — was composed to woo a 24-year-old British actress Henriette Smithson whose British tour group staged some plays by Shakespeare that Berlioz attended. Berlioz was infatuated by Shakespeare and Ms Smithson. Whatever Berlioz did, he did to excess. Initially Ms Smithson viewed the composer as a madman, but she later heard a performance of Symphonie Fantastique and eventually became his wife.

This CD features music from a variety of sources, from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to Goethe’s Faust to the swashbuckling exploits of Benvenuto Cellini, the sixteenth century Italian goldsmith and adventurer and murderer in whose exploits Berlioz found a reflection of his own daredevil nature. Berlioz was always a larger-than-life composer. I heard an amazing performance of the Berlioz Requiem in San Francisco once with Charles Dutoit conducting a huge orchestra and several hundred singers.

This Jack Renner recording of the Baltimore Symphony is classic vintage Telarc with three microphones capturing the ambience of the Joseph Meyerhoff concert hall in Baltimore. It’s rare to hear such minimal miking in modern recordings that are usually hugely multimiked. Here we are given a masterclass in how to record an orchestra while preserving the ambience of a concert hall. The recording sounds amazing on the big SL’s. When the famous Telarc bass drum makes its entry in the overture to the opera Benvenuto Cellini, it catches you by surprise. A fast bass note in the low 20 Hz hits you and is gone in a fraction of a second with no box overhang. Highly recommended.

 

[godofwealth]

We are listening to a performance of the Chopin waltzes by a German-Japanese pianist courtesy of a DG high res recording. Alice Sara Ott declared to her parents at the tender age of three that she wanted to be a concert pianist. Her mother understandably demurred and placed a scaffold around the piano to deter the child. It didn’t work for long. She relented and by age five, Alice won her first piano competition. In this beautiful recording, Alice made a scrupulous study of the original scores and delved into what was known about Chopin actually played these pieces. He never played fortissimo on his piano. She brings a fastidiousness to her playing that’s remarkable. The piano sounds soft in many pieces. This is a recording that you need to listen in a quiet environment or on headphones. It’s remarkable how Chopin wove such a magic spell on the piano, without engaging in Beethoven style excesses of clanging and banging.

On the big SL’s with the Mola Mola electronics, this recording sounds exquisite. The piano is recorded at a natural distance and each piece whispers itself through Alice’s playing. She said if Chopin were alive, she would ask him if she got the “smell” of each piece correctly. It’s interesting how artists resort to other senses like smell to describe music. Highly recommended.

 

[DDB]

We are listening to a performance of the Chopin waltzes by a German-Japanese pianist courtesy of a DG high res recording. Alice Sara Ott declared to her parents at the tender age of three that she wanted to be a concert pianist. Her mother understandably demurred and placed a scaffold around the piano to deter the child. It didn’t work for long. She relented and by age five, Alice won her first piano competition. In this beautiful recording, Alice made a scrupulous study of the original scores and delved into what was known about Chopin actually played these pieces. He never played fortissimo on his piano. She brings a fastidiousness to her playing that’s remarkable. The piano sounds soft in many pieces. This is a recording that you need to listen in a quiet environment or on headphones. It’s remarkable how Chopin wove such a magic spell on the piano, without engaging in Beethoven style excesses of clanging and banging.

On the big SL’s with the Mola Mola electronics, this recording sounds exquisite. The piano is recorded at a natural distance and each piece whispers itself through Alice’s playing. She said if Chopin were alive, she would ask him if she got the “smell” of each piece correctly. It’s interesting how artists resort to other senses like smell to describe music. Highly recommended.

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I logged in again on WBF just to say “thank you!” for the many great musical pearls I discovered thanks to your dedication to share them

 

[ChrisSoundLab]

Just in case someone wants to get another opinion with some insights - this just posted by Tom Martin on the TAS channel:

 

[gleeds]

Consider trying a pair of Benchmark ABH2s bridged in mono using their SpeakOn cables since they have ample voltage and current to drive the impedance of the SLs. They have the uncanny ability to totally disappear if fed by the right low noise source which makes the SLs disappear even more. One can walk around and inside the image.

Of course, this implies that one uses true balanced ancillaries if possible.

With the Benchmarks and the SLs I find, with less than ideal upstream electronics, one does not hear the contributed noise per se; rather it is the timbre, resolution and imaging that is compromised.

I would add to the list the Sanders Magtech stereo or monoblock. I was Co-owner with Roger at Innersound when the amplifier was initially developed. In subsequent years under the SSS brand, Roger improved the special regulated power supply circuit that maintained rail voltage regardless of load. His approach has proven remarkably effective, as evidenced by the numerous sales of the ESL amplifier sold for use with Sanders, Soundlabs, Quads, Magnapan, and other difficult-to-drive speakers.

I love the big tube amplifiers from ARC, VAC, and VTL, but let's face it, they are big, hot as heck, and require maintenance, whereas an amplifier like the Magtech does not. FYI, there is a big difference in noise floor and headroom between the ESL amplifier and the Magtech version, resulting from the special power supply. Highly recommended!

 

[godofwealth]

Attended a lovely concert yesterday in Carmel-by-the-sea, part of the celebrated annual Carmel Bach Festival that runs this week and the next week. It's an amazing series of concerts featuring world-famous performers who come to this small village on the Pacific coast for two weeks of music making. The concert was the amazing Bach Mass in B Minor, written at the end of Bach's life. It is a monumental work, two hours and 10 minutes long, with four soloists (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass), and 24 choral singers divided into groups of four. There was also a period instrument orchestra (see pic attached), suitably scaled to fit the authentic nature of the piece. The concert was superb, and an amazing testament to Bach's genius. Why he wrote it is a mystery. It was never performed in his lifetime, and it is far too long to fit any function in a church. After his death, his son C.P.E. Bach, himself a celebrated composer, edited the score and saw to its publication. Rumors of the piece circulated widely, and Haydn and Mozart were said to have gotten early copies. Beethoven struggled to get a copy as well. It is now considered one of the most famous pieces of music, originally written in 1749, and now almost 300 years later, it is performed many times all over the world. I was sitting in the first row (!), dead center, and the sound was quite thrilling. I have a picture attached below of the view from my chair.

The conductor Grete Pedersen lives on a boat in Norway (!) most of the year, and comes down to Carmel just for the Bach Festival. She's famous for her condiucting of choral groups in Norway. From January 2026, she is becoming the conductor of the Yale Schola Cantorum, and will also be a Professor in the Art of Music Conducting at Yale School of Music. The soloists are all famous singers and academics. The concert is repeated next Sunday, so if you are in the Bay Area, it's worth going to it!

Bach's Mass in B Minor - Carmel Bach Festival

J.S. Bach – Mass in B minor Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B Minor, BWV 232, is a landmark … Read More

bachfestival.org

 

[godofwealth]

In celebration of the Carmel Bach festival, we are listening to the Bach Brandenburg concertos from the Brilliant Classics complete box set of all of Bach’s music. Bach composed these delightful six concertos for Christian Ludwig, who was Margrave of Brandenburg (the term Margrave means military commander). Brandenburg was the Margraviate (principality) of the Holy Roman Empire from 1157 AD to 1806.



The original dedication page of the manuscript has survived and is written by Bach in French! These are among the most tuneful and delightful pieces of instrumental music written in the early 18th century and performed countless times even today 300 years after they were composed. The performances by the original instrument group Amphion sound delightful with crisp instrumental tonality, piercing brass and great clarity. Hearing original instrument orchestras like this, which are so spritely, can make a regular modern orchestra sound bloated and sluggish. There’s a great reason to perform Bach on original instruments. That’s the sound he was aiming for. On the big SL’s, the recording sounds really delightful and not bright in the least, despite the astringent strings that are tuned at a higher pitch than modern orchestras.

 

[godofwealth]

Moving on, we are listening to Bach’s four Orchestral Suites written from 1724-31. Unlike the Brandenburg concertos, these were not intended as a set and only later configured as such. Nonetheless, they are delightful suites written in the French style of overtures. These performances are by the Consort of London led by Robert Haydon Clark.

Looking at the movements of each suite, you can see they are all in the form of slow or fast dances. That’s exactly how they sound. Bach’s genius was weaving in the woodwinds into each suite with some charming melodies.

 

[godofwealth]

Continuing the Carmel-by-the-sea Bach Festival, I heard the Mozart Requiem with his earlier Vespers yesterday at another amazing concert in the Carmel Sunset Center. Bring seated again in row 1, you get a very intimate sonic microscope into tiny nuances that are obliterated in most recordings. For example, Mozart loved basset horns and wrote a prominent part for them. The conductor chose to seat the clarinet/basset horns right up front. You hear all the notes these beautiful instruments play in the Requiem. Here is one of these amazing performers holding these instruments while her colleague stepped out before the concert began. It’s fascinating to hear these famous compositions live and you understand them far better than you can through any recording. The movie Amadeus shamefully portrayed the composition of the Requiem as being stolen by the court composer Antonio Salieri. Mozart had been unwell for several weeks and died before finishing the composition. It was “completed” by his student Sussmayr with help from many others. What the movie portrayed was absolute fiction. Sadly Hollywood always resorts to such fantasies instead of reality.

 

[Paul1960]

@godofwealth I think you have the largest Sound Lab speakers, the Audiophile G9-7c? I'm curious if you have any experience with their smaller speakers and whether and how much the sound might have evolved over the past 25-30 years?

 

[godofwealth]

@Paul1960, I haven't heard the smaller SL speakers. I would highly recommend you get in touch with @ChrisSoundLab, who is an SL distributor and dealer, and knows the sound of all the models far better than I do. Since this is my first SL, I don't know how their sound has evolved over the years. I know they have gone through several changes in the design of the panels. Compared to my Quads, I would say the SL's are more graceful at higher volumes, and they have the ability to cope with large orchestral music far better than my Quads can. I also think they sound more natural in some ways. But, they are not a point source design like the Quads, so the sound tends to be different in some ways. I also think they are far better built than the Quads ever were. It's really nice you can customize the fabric and wood finishes from a huge variety, whereas with Quad, you are stuck with the funeral black. I would say there's no question in my mind that the SL's are currently the best electrostatic loudspeakers you can buy for any amount of money. Since I prefer electrostatics to box loudspeakers, that makes them arguably the best loudspeakers in the market now, particularly for the kind of music I like to hear (classical, choral, jazz, folk etc.). I don't hear much rock and roll, but they sound fine in this regard, except of course rock and roll recordings are usually terrible sonically and the SL's will tell you how badly miked these usually are.

 

[Paul1960]

@Paul1960, I haven't heard the smaller SL speakers. I would highly recommend you get in touch with @ChrisSoundLab, who is an SL distributor and dealer, and knows the sound of all the models far better than I do. Since this is my first SL, I don't know how their sound has evolved over the years. I know they have gone through several changes in the design of the panels. Compared to my Quads, I would say the SL's are more graceful at higher volumes, and they have the ability to cope with large orchestral music far better than my Quads can. I also think they sound more natural in some ways. But, they are not a point source design like the Quads, so the sound tends to be different in some ways. I also think they are far better built than the Quads ever were. It's really nice you can customize the fabric and wood finishes from a huge variety, whereas with Quad, you are stuck with the funeral black. I would say there's no question in my mind that the SL's are currently the best electrostatic loudspeakers you can buy for any amount of money. Since I prefer electrostatics to box loudspeakers, that makes them arguably the best loudspeakers in the market now, particularly for the kind of music I like to hear (classical, choral, jazz, folk etc.). I don't hear much rock and roll, but they sound fine in this regard, except of course rock and roll recordings are usually terrible sonically and the SL's will tell you how badly miked these usually are.

Thanks. Someday I hope to actually have the chance to hear Sound Labs. I have never heard the Sound Labs but a friend of mine who is a lover of all panel speakers has said they sound somewhat smeared and diffused compared to the precise imaging the best panel speakers are capable of.

And it may be the case that the Sound Labs are the best electrostatic or panel speaker for the price, but I don't think you should have confidence in making the claim that they are the best speakers period if you haven't heard the top tier of the Alysvox, Diptyque, Clarisys or Popori lines. It does seem a little odd that after more than 45 years in business, Sound Labs still get so little mind share. But they certainly have a devoted fan base thus my interest.

 

[godofwealth]

Attended two magnificent concerts at the Carmel Bach festival recently. One was called “Fear and Hope”, featuring two cantatas by Bach (57 and 66). It was performed in the All Saints Episcopal Church in Carmel-by-the-sea.

Fear & Hope - Carmel Bach Festival

Works by J.S. Bach ‘Dialogue’ Cantatas for Christmas & Easter In this powerful program, Bach’s Cantata: Selig ist der … Read More

bachfestival.org

The second concert was an amazing performance of Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony — his last — conducted beautifully by Grete Pedersen in the Sunset Theater again. With a scaled down orchestra, the textures were beautifully clear and the music had a real joyous bounce to it. This concert also featured Schumann’s incandescent cello concerto, which he never heard performed in his lifetime. Sitting just below the main cellist, you got your hear every nuance and inflection in soloist’s playing.

Mozart’s "Jupiter" Symphony - Carmel Bach Festival

Mozart – Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter”, Jessie Montgomery – Starburst, and Schumann – Concerto for Cello Friday night opens … Read More

bachfestival.org

Hearing live music is always refreshing because it shows how far recordings have to go to get any kind of realism. The Bach cantatas had four soloists with a prominent part for a bass baritone. The sheer dynamics in the vocal range of a bass baritone in a church is beyond anything I’ve heard in any cantata recordings, and I have several hundred in my house. Cantata recordings sound so compressed compared to live performances.

I’m reminded of a famous quote by the film director Sir David Lean who made Lawrence of Arabia, shot in 70mm film in the deserts of Arabia. When he was shown the DVD version on a large television, he exclaimed: “you’ve reduced my film to a postage stamp”. That’s how recordings sound to me compared to live music!