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

[godofwealth]

Here’s an experiment to try with your loudspeaker. Walk up to it and try to listen to it at one foot or six inches or your ear against it. The huge SL G9-7c with 9’ x 4’ if radiating surface area sounds as composed at normal listening distances of 12-14’ as it does at one foot or six inches. Surreal. There’s no drop in tonality. No change in balance. Just the same sound. But the apparent immersion changes.

Rocking to the beat of Dylan. I wonder if he’s ever heard his music on big electrostatic speakers?

 

[godofwealth]

We now turn to listen to one of the most iconic jazz musicians of all time, Charlie Mingus in his famous album Ah Um remastered on SACD. This is far from an audiophile album. It’s raw and uncooked like Mingus’ music. Close-miked and hard-driving from the opening track Better Git it in your Soul. The album had much quieter tracks, like Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.

It sounds better than I’ve ever heard this album on any speaker I’ve owned in the past 35+ years. The Mingus albums tended to sound too bright on my former B&W 800 Diamonds I owned 15 years ago — their tweeter could be merciless. Here the sound is altogether more refined. The close-miked alto sax, tenor sax, trombone, combined with piano and drum kit and Mingus’ double bass are reproduced with a richness that belies imagination. So, this is what this album is supposed to sound like. Wow! Who knew?