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

[pk_LA]

how many Zellaton users do you know that are using subs, I did a search yesterday amongst friends, dealers, online users as well as all videos and truthfully I haven't found one. As stated I respect your opinion but a sub is not in my future with these speakers and I trust Emile's opinions on the subject as well . I too have Helmholtz resonators throughout my room. I did have subs for many years in my room. It wasn't until 3 speaker manufacturers visited my room and all of them indecent of one another said my room would sound better without subs. It took me another 2 years of living with them before I finally sold them and my room has never sounded better. So can we please drop the subject. I appreciate your comments but as stated subs are not in my great scheme of things.. Time to move on

Thou doth protest too much, methinks

 

[Steve Williams]

whatever.
asked and answered Patrick.

My suggestion is to start the other thread and have at it. I've done my due diligence on this one and I feel very comfortable with my decision

This thread is not about subs with Zellaton. You asked a question and got several answers and there are other here who want the issue of subs taken to a separate thread...or as Shakespeare said, " I wax poetic"

 

[ray-dude]

Yes! They sound like foam, not even kidding

Those paper boxes have a distinct tube character

 

[Mike Lavigne]

I spent a significant amount of time experimenting with high input versus low input signals for subwoofers. I also believed from others' comments that there's some magical synergy from an amplifier(s)' output to a sub versus a low output from a preamp. My JLA Fathoms only accomodate low input signals so I purchased from Jensen their best high to low output transformer - based converters, 1 per channel. The result is - there is no difference both from a scientific (measured via REW) or human sonic perspective. I even A B'd with the wife (she's getting good at it)

I'd be curious if anyone else has tried and compared, my gut says no, but the myth continues. ;-)
If so, and their efforts resulted in a sonic benefit, I'd love to know.

Steve - feel free to delete. ;-)

the question would be whether a completely ground up integrated two tower design using the high input signal for the bass towers has advantages over a cobbled full range speaker + separate subwoofer from another manufacturer.

hard to know what the odd assembly of pieces is doing all around compared to the integrated design. is your comparison valid across different degrees of integration? or only in your particular case.

i'm no speaker or crossover designer so i have no idea. OTOH my speaker designer is actually an expert about it. i know what i hear, with multiple different amplifier designs. amazingly coherent bass performance....and true full range performance. but it is just one particular case. certainly in terms of simplicity having a high input signal source from the speaker terminal to the bass tower/sub is a much more elegant and less expensive approach as it eliminates a spendy long interconnect from the preamp to the bass towers/subwoofer.

 

[adyc]

The Elysiums do not have iron fist control over the bass, they do however sound “natural”, or “believable”, surprisingly close to real instruments if the recording allows.

They’re not the best match for electronic music, they’re however incredible for real instruments, they do drums really well for example, which sound very believable because it provides one of the most complete renders of all the individual parts of the drum and the room, rendering all resonances with constant and natural decay you can hear bouncing off the virtual walls which define your soundstage.

The Zellatons really excel in that area, they completely disappear and the soundstage extends far beyond the room boundaries. I really do not want to bring subwoofers back into the discussion but this trait is one of the things I valued most from adding subwoofers before, you most definitely don’t need them for this particular aspect.

But for slam / power, I would pick something like for example the CJ ART108s for tubes, or very high quality solid state. But that will leave you craving if you have heard what the Elysiums can do partnered with the Zellatons, beware before you try.

I listen to just about everything except metal and techno.

Preamp is Zanden Chukoh, cabling Audioquest, Zenwave, Siltech, Acrolink.

Can I ask what happens to your Alsyvox speaker?

 

[LL21]

The Elysiums do not have iron fist control over the bass, they do however sound “natural”, or “believable”, surprisingly close to real instruments if the recording allows.

They’re not the best match for electronic music, they’re however incredible for real instruments, they do drums really well for example, which sound very believable because it provides one of the most complete renders of all the individual parts of the drum and the room, rendering all resonances with constant and natural decay you can hear bouncing off the virtual walls which define your soundstage.

The Zellatons really excel in that area, they completely disappear and the soundstage extends far beyond the room boundaries. I really do not want to bring subwoofers back into the discussion but this trait is one of the things I valued most from adding subwoofers before, you most definitely don’t need them for this particular aspect.

But for slam / power, I would pick something like for example the CJ ART108s for tubes, or very high quality solid state. But that will leave you craving if you have heard what the Elysiums can do partnered with the Zellatons, beware before you try.

I listen to just about everything except metal and techno.

Preamp is Zanden Chukoh, cabling Audioquest, Zenwave, Siltech, Acrolink.

Fantastic. A few questions!

1. I see you have the legendary Chukoh...would love to know more about how you feel it compares. Presumably from AE in HK, have you heard the Robert Koda K15EX which they also have? I am an enormous fan of Zanden so always appreciate learning more about Yamada San's other work.

2. Have you heard the YS Sound amps? Some $600,000 I have read somewhere...but boy, the sound I heard from several recordings of different times YS has been paired with Zellaton seemed beguiling to say the least.

I wonder how our electronics (Zanden, Robert Koda amplification) would fare with the big Zellatons.

 

[c1ferrari]

Hi Steve,

Exciting times, ahead!

Happy New Year!

 

[sbo6]

Older Stereophile reviews showed it.
See https://www.stereophile.com/content/audio-research-reference-3-line-preamplifier-measurements- I think it was Nouvelle Revue du Son that also had 50 kohm load.

Unfortunately currently they only show the 100k and 600 ohm load ones.
I have verified this behaviour in my preamplifiers, but did not keep records of it.

There is a lot more about technical matching than childish thumb rules ...

Thank you. The link provides 1 preamp and the distortion and frequency limits are extremes (minimal in audibility) as indicated by JA.

JL Audio F112v2 specs show 50ohms input impedance, Rel states their subs have, "higher than 100,000 ohms".

Of all the people including myself over decades, I know of only 1 scenario where the preamp had a problem driving amp(s) + subs, and that was a tube preamp that had only 1 pair of outputs and the gent split via a Y connection to connect the subs.

Some things don't require overthinking ...