Howie. Did you have a fat juicy burger right before the second round of Extreme? The first round you must have been hungry dizzy.Well today I finally had the time to listen to the Innuos Statement and the SGM Extreme through the same system with everything identical including the same LAN cable, network, Totaldac D-12, etc. The only proviso is that it was not a system that i am very familiar with. All music was streamed using Tidal as that is likely to be an oft used source now that I have fibre optic broadband at home. Previously my 6MBPS broadband would hiccup, cough and regurgitate every minute or so whilst streaming.
Extreme:
I will be blatantly honest here. It didn't sound great. What didn't I like? The sound was a little harsh sounding. Resolution was very high and I could hear lots of minute details on the songs that I normally wouldn't hear. My Sooloos at home is the not the last word in resolution and it is pretty old too. The harshness worried me. Now I should state that the dealer only opened the doors 5 minutes before i started listening so may be it needed warming up. Magnificat by Kim Andre Arnesen, one of my perennial favourites had a touch of screechiness about it with an accentuated treble. I move onto Paranoid Eyes by Pink Floyd in the Final Cut, my favourite PF album. Clear as I have ever heard it. You could hear Roger Waters licking his lips but where was the warmth that I like? May be, i thought, the extreme is too neutral for me. Too clear and perfect for those who like analytical hifi. I listened to another host of songs and then we switched over to the Statement.
Statement:
The warmth came flooding back. I felt like i was home. Words sounded more like real people whereas before they sounded almost mechanical (I exaggerate here of course). It was relaxing but there was something missing too. Resolution was down, that was certain. Were notes rolled off a little? It was certainly richer and more dense. Coloured? May be, may be not? I don't mind coloured at all. If i like the sound, i like the sound. To me too many people worry about reproducing the real thing. IMHO this is never going to happen anyway so you might as well get the sound you enjoy. To hell with realism.
Extreme second round:
To me you can't compare two things just once. You have to go back to the original thing and listen again. After hearing the Statement now the extreme made more sense. The sound wasn't thin anymore, voices were realistic. Bryn Terfel had meat on his bones again which were missing from the first round. No it wasn't as tonally rich as the Statement but neither was it as disappointing as i had feared whilst listening the first time. This sounds like damning praise. It is not. The bass was prodigious. I realised how much had been missing from the Statement. Do i care? Not too much. I am not chasing rainbows and I don't need to hear every last detail. But it was clear how much more info was coming from the Extreme. The sound was pretty different from the first round and a big improvement.
Conclusions: Both are excellent. The Innuos is a relative bargain at less than half the price of the Extreme but the Extreme takes the biscuit on this audition. I could honestly be happy with either. What a great time to be server hunting!
Well today I finally had the time to listen to the Innuos Statement and the SGM Extreme through the same system with everything identical including the same LAN cable, network, Totaldac D-12, etc. The only proviso is that it was not a system that i am very familiar with. All music was streamed using Tidal as that is likely to be an oft used source now that I have fibre optic broadband at home. Previously my 6MBPS broadband would hiccup, cough and regurgitate every minute or so whilst streaming.
Extreme:
I will be blatantly honest here. It didn't sound great. What didn't I like? The sound was a little harsh sounding. Resolution was very high and I could hear lots of minute details on the songs that I normally wouldn't hear. My Sooloos at home is the not the last word in resolution and it is pretty old too. The harshness worried me. Now I should state that the dealer only opened the doors 5 minutes before i started listening so may be it needed warming up. Magnificat by Kim Andre Arnesen, one of my perennial favourites had a touch of screechiness about it with an accentuated treble. I move onto Paranoid Eyes by Pink Floyd in the Final Cut, my favourite PF album. Clear as I have ever heard it. You could hear Roger Waters licking his lips but where was the warmth that I like? May be, i thought, the extreme is too neutral for me. Too clear and perfect for those who like analytical hifi. I listened to another host of songs and then we switched over to the Statement.
Statement:
The warmth came flooding back. I felt like i was home. Words sounded more like real people whereas before they sounded almost mechanical (I exaggerate here of course). It was relaxing but there was something missing too. Resolution was down, that was certain. Were notes rolled off a little? It was certainly richer and more dense. Coloured? May be, may be not? I don't mind coloured at all. If i like the sound, i like the sound. To me too many people worry about reproducing the real thing. IMHO this is never going to happen anyway so you might as well get the sound you enjoy. To hell with realism.
Extreme second round:
To me you can't compare two things just once. You have to go back to the original thing and listen again. After hearing the Statement now the extreme made more sense. The sound wasn't thin anymore, voices were realistic. Bryn Terfel had meat on his bones again which were missing from the first round. No it wasn't as tonally rich as the Statement but neither was it as disappointing as i had feared whilst listening the first time. This sounds like damning praise. It is not. The bass was prodigious. I realised how much had been missing from the Statement. Do i care? Not too much. I am not chasing rainbows and I don't need to hear every last detail. But it was clear how much more info was coming from the Extreme. The sound was pretty different from the first round and a big improvement.
Conclusions: Both are excellent. The Innuos is a relative bargain at less than half the price of the Extreme but the Extreme takes the biscuit on this audition. I could honestly be happy with either. What a great time to be server hunting!
Howie, do you put any of the ice melting on your opinion of the Extreme down to the system warming up? I mean, by the time you heard the Statement, it had warmed up on that first Extreme burst. And then Extreme second time around benefitted from even more.Well today I finally had the time to listen to the Innuos Statement and the SGM Extreme through the same system with everything identical including the same LAN cable, network, Totaldac D-12, etc. The only proviso is that it was not a system that i am very familiar with. All music was streamed using Tidal as that is likely to be an oft used source now that I have fibre optic broadband at home. Previously my 6MBPS broadband would hiccup, cough and regurgitate every minute or so whilst streaming.
Extreme:
I will be blatantly honest here. It didn't sound great. What didn't I like? The sound was a little harsh sounding. Resolution was very high and I could hear lots of minute details on the songs that I normally wouldn't hear. My Sooloos at home is the not the last word in resolution and it is pretty old too. The harshness worried me. Now I should state that the dealer only opened the doors 5 minutes before i started listening so may be it needed warming up. Magnificat by Kim Andre Arnesen, one of my perennial favourites had a touch of screechiness about it with an accentuated treble. I move onto Paranoid Eyes by Pink Floyd in the Final Cut, my favourite PF album. Clear as I have ever heard it. You could hear Roger Waters licking his lips but where was the warmth that I like? May be, i thought, the extreme is too neutral for me. Too clear and perfect for those who like analytical hifi. I listened to another host of songs and then we switched over to the Statement.
Statement:
The warmth came flooding back. I felt like i was home. Words sounded more like real people whereas before they sounded almost mechanical (I exaggerate here of course). It was relaxing but there was something missing too. Resolution was down, that was certain. Were notes rolled off a little? It was certainly richer and more dense. Coloured? May be, may be not? I don't mind coloured at all. If i like the sound, i like the sound. To me too many people worry about reproducing the real thing. IMHO this is never going to happen anyway so you might as well get the sound you enjoy. To hell with realism.
Extreme second round:
To me you can't compare two things just once. You have to go back to the original thing and listen again. After hearing the Statement now the extreme made more sense. The sound wasn't thin anymore, voices were realistic. Bryn Terfel had meat on his bones again which were missing from the first round. No it wasn't as tonally rich as the Statement but neither was it as disappointing as i had feared whilst listening the first time. This sounds like damning praise. It is not. The bass was prodigious. I realised how much had been missing from the Statement. Do i care? Not too much. I am not chasing rainbows and I don't need to hear every last detail. But it was clear how much more info was coming from the Extreme. The sound was pretty different from the first round and a big improvement.
Conclusions: Both are excellent. The Innuos is a relative bargain at less than half the price of the Extreme but the Extreme takes the biscuit on this audition. I could honestly be happy with either. What a great time to be server hunting!
Well today I finally had the time to listen to the Innuos Statement and the SGM Extreme through the same system with everything identical including the same LAN cable, network, Totaldac D-12, etc. The only proviso is that it was not a system that i am very familiar with. All music was streamed using Tidal as that is likely to be an oft used source now that I have fibre optic broadband at home. Previously my 6MBPS broadband would hiccup, cough and regurgitate every minute or so whilst streaming.
Extreme:
I will be blatantly honest here. It didn't sound great. What didn't I like? The sound was a little harsh sounding. Resolution was very high and I could hear lots of minute details on the songs that I normally wouldn't hear. My Sooloos at home is the not the last word in resolution and it is pretty old too. The harshness worried me. Now I should state that the dealer only opened the doors 5 minutes before i started listening so may be it needed warming up. Magnificat by Kim Andre Arnesen, one of my perennial favourites had a touch of screechiness about it with an accentuated treble. I move onto Paranoid Eyes by Pink Floyd in the Final Cut, my favourite PF album. Clear as I have ever heard it. You could hear Roger Waters licking his lips but where was the warmth that I like? May be, i thought, the extreme is too neutral for me. Too clear and perfect for those who like analytical hifi. I listened to another host of songs and then we switched over to the Statement.
Statement:
The warmth came flooding back. I felt like i was home. Words sounded more like real people whereas before they sounded almost mechanical (I exaggerate here of course). It was relaxing but there was something missing too. Resolution was down, that was certain. Were notes rolled off a little? It was certainly richer and more dense. Coloured? May be, may be not? I don't mind coloured at all. If i like the sound, i like the sound. To me too many people worry about reproducing the real thing. IMHO this is never going to happen anyway so you might as well get the sound you enjoy. To hell with realism.
Extreme second round:
To me you can't compare two things just once. You have to go back to the original thing and listen again. After hearing the Statement now the extreme made more sense. The sound wasn't thin anymore, voices were realistic. Bryn Terfel had meat on his bones again which were missing from the first round. No it wasn't as tonally rich as the Statement but neither was it as disappointing as i had feared whilst listening the first time. This sounds like damning praise. It is not. The bass was prodigious. I realised how much had been missing from the Statement. Do i care? Not too much. I am not chasing rainbows and I don't need to hear every last detail. But it was clear how much more info was coming from the Extreme. The sound was pretty different from the first round and a big improvement.
Conclusions: Both are excellent. The Innuos is a relative bargain at less than half the price of the Extreme but the Extreme takes the biscuit on this audition. I could honestly be happy with either. What a great time to be server hunting!
Hello Tango,Howie. Did you have a fat juicy burger right before the second round of Extreme? The first round you must have been hungry dizzy.
Howie. Did you have a fat juicy burger right before the second round of Extreme? The first round you must have been hungry dizzy.
Yes Tang. Must be the mouth watering. In all honesty i would discard the first round as everything was just coming on.Howie. Did you have a fat juicy burger right before the second round of Extreme? The first round you must have been hungry dizzy.
Hey i didn't see that!Hello Tango,
You are right!
The Kabo Burger which is 10m away from the building of the HK Innuos & SGM dealer is IMO one of the best hamburger restaurants in HK.
https://m.facebook.com/kabo.burger
Hello Howie,
You like hamburgers?
I would completely agree. The dealer's system is very different to mine in terms of presentation and it is not possible to separate the sound of the extreme from the influence of other components on the first listen. After I listened to the Statement and went back to the Extreme, I was able to tease the difference out with a very different result as I mentioned.Fantastic fantastic fantastic fantastic
I'd argue the first part of a listening session to an unfamiliar system comes with a degree of adjustment to the system sound signature.
Yes Marc. Absolutely. Not only that but i had no real idea what the system sounded like at all. That's the problem with dealer demos but we got there in the end.
Blood sugar levels, and endorphin rush from melt-in-the-mouth burger quality, could make all the difference going in to a top class audio demo.Hey i didn't see that!
