That would have been my guess. Thanks.
What differences do you hear? What types of music are favoured by either tap?
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Soundlab Audiophile G9-7c: a 30-year odyssey fulfilled
- Thread starter godofwealth
- Start date
What differences do you hear? What types of music are favoured by either tap?
The first post link is the nice fellow who sells SL in Japan. He has them designed for his market. One can get SL in just about any height/width one wants as they are custom built, although I favour being guided by SL corporate.
The 45 size (subtending a 45 degree angle) has more 'bass impact and dynamics' than bass-focus panels in the older 90 degree PX frames if you're thinking of a swap-out. I certainly wouldn't complain if I had either.
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My speakers were installed by Brett who built them at SL, and Chris who markets SL in Japan but also exhibits them in trade shows in the US (e.g., at the recent show in Oakland). Chris works closely with SL corporate, so I would give him a strong recommendation. Yes, you can custom design your SL pretty much anyway you want them.
Testing the fan-cooled tube grill covers for my ARC 750SEs with my Quad 2805s in a smaller listening room. Good news: these fans are quiet! The 2805 is an updated version of the legendary 63s, but even driven by the 750SEs, it projects a much smaller shrunken image than the majestic SL G9-7c’s.
Of course, the 2805 will work in much smaller spaces that the G9-7c’s will never fit in. The point source sound projection of the 63/2805 gives it a very different sonic character.
The time may have come to retire my Quads.
Long live the King, the King is dead (as the famous saying goes!).
Of course, the 2805 will work in much smaller spaces that the G9-7c’s will never fit in. The point source sound projection of the 63/2805 gives it a very different sonic character.
The time may have come to retire my Quads.
Long live the King, the King is dead (as the famous saying goes!).
Note the two small 12V fans at the rear of the tube grill covers. I can barely hear them standing right next to the amplifier. I’m assuming the fans are running at a low speed. My previous Ref 210 fans were so noisy I could hear them across a large room.
Back to listening to the SL’s again. A striking quality of the G9-7c is their ability to act as sonic chameleon’s. Many classical recordings are made with a rather distant perspective. I’m listening to Finzi’s wonderful clarinet concerto with soloist Emma Johnson. Her clarinet is not spotlit, so it sounds distant blending into the orchestra. Strings are warm and the music making is relaxed. One is reminded of the green English countryside. This recording is balanced on the rich warm side and sounds appropriately so on the SL’s as befits the music.
Here’s a richly resonant recording of my favorite guitar concerto by Castelnouvo-Tedesco. Philips was one of the largest purchasers of Quad-63s in their heyday and perhaps one reason many of their recordings are really good. A beautiful piece performed by one of the greatest soloists, Pepe Romero. If you haven’t heard this guitar concerto, put it on your playlist. It’s sensual and hedonistic. Best enjoyed with a glass of red wine.
Through the SL G9-7c’s, the ambience of the hall comes through vividly. The bass drum rumbles ominously. Strings are rich and warm. A rare case of an early digital recording that got it right.
Through the SL G9-7c’s, the ambience of the hall comes through vividly. The bass drum rumbles ominously. Strings are rich and warm. A rare case of an early digital recording that got it right.
As the evening turns to night, what better way to celebrate the coming of night than Brazilian jazz samba, courtesy of Stan Getz and Louis Bonfa. Very rich recording that’s miked very close to the instruments as usual. Maria Toledo’s magnetic voice on the right channel can sound brittle on some speakers. Not on the big SL’s, which bathes her voice with a glow that adds the right sensuality to this music. Great music for a late evening.
Listening to these classic jazz albums on the G9-7c, I’m struck by how well they sound. Perhaps one reason audiophiles are constantly tweaking their systems is because their current speakers are the source of their dissatisfaction. The SL G9-7c’s greatest strength is the complete absence of listener fatigue. It welcomes you to listen at length to music like this, not some audiophile approved playlist.
Listening to these classic jazz albums on the G9-7c, I’m struck by how well they sound. Perhaps one reason audiophiles are constantly tweaking their systems is because their current speakers are the source of their dissatisfaction. The SL G9-7c’s greatest strength is the complete absence of listener fatigue. It welcomes you to listen at length to music like this, not some audiophile approved playlist.
And we end another listening session with a great jazz recording that features the soaring tenor sax of John Coltrane and the groovy vibes of Milt Jackson. A typical in-your-face jazz recording with all instruments panned hard left or right with no soundstage to speak of. Yet it’s hard not to come under the spell of these two jazz legends and get swept away in the music. I have the original mono LP, but here I’m streaming the “fake stereo” high res version on Qobuz.
The SL’s once again capture the gestalt of the recording while letting you hear the limitations of the original recording. Coltrane sounds majestic as always. The bass is recorded very close and jumps out at you. You feel like you are sitting a few feet away from the musicians as you would at a front row seat in a jazz club. I’ve heard this recording sound merciless on a famous brand dynamic speaker with a nasty tweeter. Here thankfully we have the recording sounding warm and full. My favorite track is Late Late Blues. Watch as Coltrane steals the show despite his late entrance in this number.
The SL’s once again capture the gestalt of the recording while letting you hear the limitations of the original recording. Coltrane sounds majestic as always. The bass is recorded very close and jumps out at you. You feel like you are sitting a few feet away from the musicians as you would at a front row seat in a jazz club. I’ve heard this recording sound merciless on a famous brand dynamic speaker with a nasty tweeter. Here thankfully we have the recording sounding warm and full. My favorite track is Late Late Blues. Watch as Coltrane steals the show despite his late entrance in this number.
Well, the big day has arrived. Hooked up my big ARC 750SEs to the SL Audiophile G9-7c’s. Source component is the Lampizator Pacific with the ARC 6SE preamp. It will take them a few days to “know” each other, so I’ll wait to give my impressions.
I’m using the Richard Krohn special edition of the KR 300B’s in my Pacific with the KR 5U4G rectifier. This gives a rather analog roundness to digital remastering of old analog jazz recordings like the Mulligan recording above that smooths away the rough edges.
We now turn to a modern DSD recording of a relatively unknown composer, Fuchs. These are delightful oboe quintets. The sound is exquisite through the 750SE’s. The oboe is recorded closely and floats out of the extreme left channel. You can hear every nuance of the instrument, including the fingers moving on the instrument. I’d have preferred a more distant perspective but it’s enjoyable nonetheless. The basoon is a bit more distally recorded on the right. There’s a reason every orchestra tunes to the sound of the oboe at the beginning. It’s the foundation of the orchestra. Oboe players are worth their weight in gold. A lot of the skill requires woodworking! The making of the tiny oboe reeds used to play the oboe hasn’t changed in centuries.
Make oboe reeds, a step by step overview - Aaron Lakota
Learn the steps to make oboe reeds. Making oboe reeds is a complicated process that takes years to master, but we can be happy while Oboe reed making.
aaronlakota.com
What better way to end another listening session than with the immortal choral music of Franz Schubert. His lieder is of course the stuff of legend, but he also wrote magnificent music for unaccompanied chorus. This Telarc recording was a favorite of Harry Pearson for good reason. It brutally reveals any coloration in your speakers. If there’s an ounce of brightness in playing back this recording, it’s not in the recording but in your playback chain. Most moving coil dynamic speakers have a really hard time reproducing choral music at scale. Here we have a large male chorus.
Jack Renner who engineered this recording was fond of using three spaced omnis, like Robert Fine of Mercury Living Presence. Like MLP, this recording has a lot of spatial width at the expense of center fill. No matter. This is music for the soul. The late Robert Shaw made many great recordings and this is one of his finest. Jack Renner gives him the red carpet treatment.
With the massive power delivery of the 750SE’s, there’s no sense of compression on this recording. The climaxes are handled with ease by the G9-7c’s, with the occasional solo tenor’s voice reproduced beautifully as the rare instrumental accompaniment of guitar or piano. A desert island disc.
Jack Renner who engineered this recording was fond of using three spaced omnis, like Robert Fine of Mercury Living Presence. Like MLP, this recording has a lot of spatial width at the expense of center fill. No matter. This is music for the soul. The late Robert Shaw made many great recordings and this is one of his finest. Jack Renner gives him the red carpet treatment.
With the massive power delivery of the 750SE’s, there’s no sense of compression on this recording. The climaxes are handled with ease by the G9-7c’s, with the occasional solo tenor’s voice reproduced beautifully as the rare instrumental accompaniment of guitar or piano. A desert island disc.
Today’s listening is dedicated to SACD physical media entirely. First up is a sampler of Henri Mancini’s popular music for famous films, beginning with his iconic Pink Panther tune. Sonically this recording is what you’d expect. A multimiked studio recording with no ambience. Rather dry sounding, but rendered nonetheless beautifully by the SL/ARC combo. Source is admittedly midfi: a Marantz universal player built in their heyday, a nearly 50 pound beast that’s massively overbuilt. It has a pure audio mode that lets you shut off the video circuitry.
Unfortunately most SACD players are not as good sounding as the best pure CD players such as my CEC TL0 transport or the ARC CD 8 tube player. The SACD encoding and decoding process induces a huge amount of ultrasonic noise. It’s really hard to make that noise go away entirely. The best players I’ve had like the Esoteric P03-D03 were not as good as dedicated CD players. I have an Oppo 205D, a quick loading transport that sounds a bit clinical.
Still, we must enjoy what we have, and I’ll stop griping. SACD sounds better in multichannel, but then you’ve got midfi home theater processors.
It’s revealing that ARC never bothered to make an SACD player. There’s just not enough source material even though several thousand SACD discs were sold and more are released still.
Unfortunately most SACD players are not as good sounding as the best pure CD players such as my CEC TL0 transport or the ARC CD 8 tube player. The SACD encoding and decoding process induces a huge amount of ultrasonic noise. It’s really hard to make that noise go away entirely. The best players I’ve had like the Esoteric P03-D03 were not as good as dedicated CD players. I have an Oppo 205D, a quick loading transport that sounds a bit clinical.
Still, we must enjoy what we have, and I’ll stop griping. SACD sounds better in multichannel, but then you’ve got midfi home theater processors.
It’s revealing that ARC never bothered to make an SACD player. There’s just not enough source material even though several thousand SACD discs were sold and more are released still.
The quieter pieces on this Mancini SACD sound really nice. There is a warmth to the strings that sounds alluring. Mancini’s daughter sings on several tracks. She has a nice voice, but she’s let down by the recording engineers for the extra sibilance and edginess most likely due to a cheap microphone.
We move from smooth Mancini to the raw lyrics and voice of Bob Dylan, the Nobel prize winning folk singer turned rock musician. Sony reissued all his famous Columbia albums on surround sound SACD. Dylan himself preferred his mono vinyl albums. This album features Dylan in his softer style. Not as profound as his early albums, like Freewheeling Bob Dylan, my favorite.
Fascinating to hear Dylan’s voice on the big SL’s, with the gravel tonality rendered without edginess. Drum kits sound different on electrostatics. There’s no bass overhang from slow bass cones. You get this quick bass note and it’s gone. This is a rock album, so it was mixed on a multitrack recording system. No hall ambience of course. Enjoyable as Dylan is of course the king. His opening song You Gotta Serve Somebody reminds us of the power of his lyrics.
Fascinating to hear Dylan’s voice on the big SL’s, with the gravel tonality rendered without edginess. Drum kits sound different on electrostatics. There’s no bass overhang from slow bass cones. You get this quick bass note and it’s gone. This is a rock album, so it was mixed on a multitrack recording system. No hall ambience of course. Enjoyable as Dylan is of course the king. His opening song You Gotta Serve Somebody reminds us of the power of his lyrics.
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