The End Of A 35 Year Journey ---Zellaton -The Reference Ultra Final Frontier

[jbrrp1]

A couple of weeks ago I took delivery of a pair of Rockport Lyras, which weigh 560 lbs each and are shipped in ~200 lbs crates, to boot. The piano movers that brought them into my house and down my basement stairs consisted of two average sized guys only! And they used straps and a carpeted slider skid as the only assists. Two ~760 lbs. crates. They'd moved a 700 lbs safe into someone's house just before my delivery, and they had three different Steinway B's to move yet that day. Friggin' amazing what people can do when they know what they're up to.

Good luck with all the moves, and best wishes for all the musical splendor ahead, Steve!

 

[Steve Williams]

I’ve used these guys for years. They have moved speakers in and out of my room. They are the best

 

[SCAudiophile]

A couple of weeks ago I took delivery of a pair of Rockport Lyras, which weigh 560 lbs each and are shipped in ~200 lbs crates, to boot. The piano movers that brought them into my house and down my basement stairs consisted of two average sized guys only! And they used straps and a carpeted slider skid as the only assists. Two ~760 lbs. crates. They'd moved a 700 lbs safe into someone's house just before my delivery, and they had three different Steinway B's to move yet that day. Friggin' amazing what people can do when they know what they're up to.

Good luck with all the moves, and best wishes for all the musical splendor ahead, Steve!

Congratulations Jay!!!

 

[Steve Williams]

Picked Gideon up a few hours ago. He went straight to work and carefully crated up the Plural Evo which much to my surprise was just sold to a WBF member whom I am sure will get as much enjoyment out of these speakers a I did. He's reasonably local to me so Gideon is using my muscle men to deliver the speakers at the top of this coming week. My guys arrive tomorrow morning at 0830 so I will have pictures to share shortly thereafter.

 

[MarkusBarkus]

"I love it when a plan comes together."

 

[Stevet]

This is such a good post. Great story to follow this past almost six months. Looking forward to the final chapters.

 

[joey_v]

Looking forward to this

 

[Steve Williams]

Looking forward to this

Me too.

 

[Steve Williams]

I have to admit that the Zellaton crate construction is the best I’ve ever seen for any speaker brand. They come completely unhinged and make them so easy to store and to reassemble

 

[LL21]

A couple of weeks ago I took delivery of a pair of Rockport Lyras, which weigh 560 lbs each and are shipped in ~200 lbs crates, to boot. The piano movers that brought them into my house and down my basement stairs consisted of two average sized guys only! And they used straps and a carpeted slider skid as the only assists. Two ~760 lbs. crates. They'd moved a 700 lbs safe into someone's house just before my delivery, and they had three different Steinway B's to move yet that day. Friggin' amazing what people can do when they know what they're up to.

Good luck with all the moves, and best wishes for all the musical splendor ahead, Steve!

Just checked your full system…beautiful. Would love to know more but will not distract here and PM you separately.

 

[Steve Williams]

Plural Evos crates and ready for their. new home

 

[2ndLiner]

A couple of weeks ago I took delivery of a pair of Rockport Lyras, which weigh 560 lbs each and are shipped in ~200 lbs crates, to boot. The piano movers that brought them into my house and down my basement stairs consisted of two average sized guys only! And they used straps and a carpeted slider skid as the only assists. Two ~760 lbs. crates. They'd moved a 700 lbs safe into someone's house just before my delivery, and they had three different Steinway B's to move yet that day. Friggin' amazing what people can do when they know what they're up to.

Good luck with all the moves, and best wishes for all the musical splendor ahead, Steve!

Plural Evos crates and ready for their. new home

View attachment 153866

Actually, the crates are stunning!

 

[Steve Williams]

If you look at the photo of the crates you’ll see metal clips at top, bottom and sides These are easily unclipped allowing the entire crate to be disassembled for the speaker to slide out

 

[Steve Williams]

I’ve seen the speaker and I do like the green with the black rings.

 

[nenon]

Last evening was really fun and very informative. I hosted Ray Dude and Nenon for a few hours of critical listening to the Plural Evos. I had met Ray at my house about 6 months ago when I did an open house for Lukasz and Fred for a soft launch of the new Lampi Horizon 360 . I had a chance then to chat several times with Ray and occasionally over the past few months. Frankly I learned a lot from Ray as to set up of the Taiko Olympus and I also got to know that Ray had been in Oldenzaal where he spent 10 hours with Emile doing critical listening of the Taiko products played with Emile's Zellaton Reference Klassik. Ray also knew that I had ordered the Zellaton Reference Ultra and expressed interest in hearing these when they arrive. I finally met Nenon (Vassil) and his knowledge of electronics and digital transcends any bits and pieces I have learned over the years . I meet Vassil in his room at THE Show and as I have said in the Taiko thread, we as Taiko consumers here in the USA struck gold when Emile appointed Vassil the North American distributor for Taiko. Vassil is a diamond in the rough. He hss an addicting smile and he is soft spoken but what comes out of his mouth is one pearl after another. I also learned that it was Vassil who set up the room he was in showing the Taiko Olympus and IO. This room I have already reported was met favorite at the show and I have really never been a fan of YG acoustics but the room was double size with a curtain in the middle and another system on the other side of the curtain, Yet with all of the shortcomings I found t=this room for my ears to be the BEST in SHOW. Vassil has told me during our talk on Friday that Ray would be attending Saturday and Sunday and he and Ray expressed a desire to visit me and hear my system

For me I always enjoy sitting with like minded audiophiles and I was wanting to see if Vassil had any thoughts or suggestions as to my Taiko setup as his depth of knowledge was readily apparent just by talking with him. And Ray also I had found to be very knowledgeable as he looks at all things audio far more analytical than I. Also he had 10 hours of listening to a similar setup as mine sat Taiko headquarters and I was very interested to see if I was drinking the Kool Aid with these loaner Zellaton Plural Evo as I await the Reference Ultra in the next few weeks. Ray has also heard my system with the big Wilson speakers and I was anxious to get his thoughts about these Plural Evo speakers. The PE are smaller than the Reference Klassik Ray heard with Emile as well s the Referene Ultra I have on order. I have said many times in this thread about how gobsmacked I am from the Plural Evo. All of my anxieties as to whether my Lamm Signature series would drive them and I was ankle concerned as to. a smaller speaker than the Wilso would cast a smaller soundstage. I had dismissed these two notions immediately upon my first listen but I was hoping to have a few impartial listeners with gifted ears and great knowledge to tell me what they really think

I played a few demo tracks that I use to evaluate new gear and then I turned the tablet over to Ray and Vassil as they queued up some of their favorites which they also use to demo. Their music a=was simply beautiful and I immediately added several albums to my library. I was also playing the Olympus/IO with the Lampizator XDMI digital card and I was anxious to also get Vassil's thoughts as to comparison in his mind to the Taiko analogue card as, to date my analogue card is sitting on a shelf in my sound room still wrapped the way I received it. I know there is V2 of the analogue card coming with more updates as well as whistles and bells so I felt this would be educational for the 3 of us


Suffice it to say I think Ray and Vassil liked what they heard and I got great feedback from ray as I played tracks which he heard several months ago when he attended the open house I had for Lukasz and Fred. His comments were most informative to. me as I keep pinching myself when I hear these Plural Evo speakers knowing that The Reference Ultra will bring even ore to the table. At first I even apologized to Ray and Vassil that these PE speakers were a smaller speaker but I went on to say that they have brought me to my knees with respect to Zellaton. I let them do the talking as I did not want to put words in their mouths but at the end of the evening listening to their feedback, I felt vindicated

I dont want to say more as I am hoping both will chime in with comments. I do know Ray preferred Emile's Reference Klassik and he is anxious to hear my Reference Ultra and I invited Ray back when Gideon and the speakers arrive and Ray can watch Gideon do the installation.


Ans as for the Taiko Olympus and IO everyone knows that I have been trying for well over a year to have an open house weekend for Emile and there was a glimmer of hope that he might have been able to make it to THE show but for now he remains steadfast with his work ethic at home until all orders have been fulfilled. I admire that work ethic. Vassil did share with me however that when V2 of the analogue card is available to all Rmile and Vassil will hopefully finally come to SoCal for a weekend open house where we Taiko users will be able to a/b the new analogue card against the V1 and also a/b V2 against my XDMI digital card. I look forward to that as Vassil was beaming when he was talking to us about the V2 analogue card.

So I am going to stop here and hope Ray and Vassil will have more to say as to what they heard last night and perhaps Ray might comment in comparing the PE to my now departed Wilson. Plus he also told me the difference in what he heard in Oldenzaal and what he heard last night

I meant to post this much sooner (much, much sooner), but between getting back from the Costa Mesa show - where @ray-dude and I had the chance to visit @Steve Williams - and heading off on a long-anticipated family vacation in Europe, time slipped away from me.

I understand Steve just received his new speakers, so my impressions from listening to his system with the smaller loaner Zellatons are probably a bit outdated already. I won’t go into too much detail, and I’m very much looking forward to hearing the new setup once it’s fully dialed in and broken in.

That said - when you’re running a show, like I was that weekend, the last thing you usually want to do afterward is listen to more systems. So my visit to Steve’s wasn’t really about critical listening - it was about relaxing with Steve and Ray, sharing a glass of wine, and unwinding after an intense setup and show weekend.

As everyone here already knows, Steve and his wife are phenomenal hosts. After some wine and a great chat about how the room was designed, built, and treated, I sat in the listening chair for a quick session. And wow - I genuinely loved what I heard. It was an incredibly impressive showing from the “small” Zellatons: dynamics, punch, scale, pinpoint imaging, coherence… all there. I was very pleasantly surprised, and the system was clearly set up with great care. Aside from a small room mode that revealed itself as some extra punch in the bass - honestly more of a welcome character than a flaw - I couldn’t detect any real issues. It just sounded great. And I don’t say that lightly.

Honestly, I didn’t want to get up, no matter how tired I was. And I definitely didn’t want to give up the sweet spot to Ray quite so quickly! It’s no wonder Taiko uses Zellaton in their HQ (which I still haven’t had the chance to hear yet). Maybe @Audioarts and I should team up for a future show and give more people a chance to hear what this kind of sound can really do - though admittedly, we’d be hard-pressed to match the magic of Steve’s nearly perfect room and his decades of careful component and cable curation.

Good luck with the setup of the new speakers, Steve. Hopefully Emile and I can visit you soon.

 

[Steve Williams]

we finally broke away for something to eat. Set up ,and position is all done and all I will say noe is that these Reference Ultra speakers are something truly special. I will have more to say later but for noe I thought I would post some setup photos

 

[Steve Williams]

 

[Steve Williams]

 

[Steve Williams]

 

[Steve Williams]