Tidal La Assoluta system

[Audiocrack]

Audiocrack, I went back and read Alex3's very positive comments regarding the grounding cables. I also read your feelings concerning aluminum as a material vs copper. I think the thing that I admire the most about you is that you have made some very astute fundamental decisions, first your wonderful speakers and their extensive use of diamond deposition. This must be an incredible technology. I am sure that your La Assoluta's will be keepers for years to come. Next was your choice of single ended triode power taking full advantage of their high sensitivity. Next because your amps and pre are single ended the use of the very expensive copper power strips followed by the incredible grounding and copper isolation, resulting in a noise floor that is incredibly low. You have put together a masterpiece and I an not exaggerating. I can hardly wait to know your impressions when you get your mids and tweeters grounded.

I have gone a less expensive but IMO quite effective route which begins with a Transguard TG60 whole house surge protector that has a superb main power line filter. It sits between the enormous transfer switch of my whole house GE 60K watt generator and my light pole. It makes an incredible difference in my noise floor, more than any power conditioner possibly could. Next I chose to go fully balanced whole system that included my C-12000 An and MCD12000 An and of course my 3500's. All my power cords in my main system are Dragons and all my cables and IC's are solid silver, very expensive, either Wel Signature or Dragons. My cables, cords, and conditioners are significantly more expensive than my Mac gear. And of course I went with a Niagara 7000 with HC Dragon power cord that powers all my source gear from a dedicated 20 amp line. And 3 Niagara 5000's for my amps with judicious of Wilson Pedestals for excellent isolation. All this results in what I believe to be quite excellent resolution/transparency through my XVX. It is surprising how resolving/transparent the new McIntosh reference gear can be using exclusively solid silver.

But my efforts pale in what you are doing with your superb single ended tubes powering your La Assoluta's with those amazing copper power strips, copper grounding cables, and copper foundations and isolation feet. I went the conventional route as you know. But you have chosen a remarkable unconventional way to wring the absolute best out of your La Assoluta's. Quite amazing and congratulations on achieving such a unique system that as I have said previously is among the top 4 or 5 systems I have had the privilege of admiring. And you are still improving it.

Hello Charles, you are way too modest about your own audio system: you have assembled a mighty impressive range of equipment yourself!

Thanks again for your very kind words, much appreciated. The choices as regards my various audio components - the Tidal LA loudspeakers, Kondo amplification, Wadax digital components, Tripoint Audio grounding, Taralabs Grandmaster ic’s and loudspeaker cables and Tidal Audio pc’s - I made on my own.

However, as regards the implementation of all Tripoint grounding as well as employing the 40 copper slabs the credits should fully go to Miguel Alvarez of Tripoint Audio: he was the one who came up with the idea about using pure, oxygen free and untreated copper slabs for mass loading and as platforms. And he is a ‘grounding wizard’ as well.

In addition he urged me to use the 6 copper pieces on top of the various copper slabs used for mass loading. He did quite some research in this matter and he explained to me there are valid scientific arguments why it so important to include these pieces in the mass loading process. I can only conclude he is completely right about the importance of (i) grounding, (ii) mass loading and (iii) adding afore mentioned copper pieces.

Allow me a few remarks as regards your comments:
- the Tidal La Assoluta loudspeakers are imho master pieces. But they are utterly transparent and ‘honest’ transducers, so when something is not completely right in the audio chain they will let you hear this ‘mercilessly’. I think that this fact is one of the reasons why some audiophiles experience Tidal loudspeakers on audio shows as too strident or thin. They are not but you need good circumstances in order to let them ‘blossom’.
- Tidal has stopped producing the LA’s. In their current portfolio Jorn considers the Tidal for Bugatti (active) loudspeakers as his top of the line transducers. I have not heard these loudspeakers so I cannot compare them to my LA’s. I did notice however that the latest Tidal Audio loudspeakers no longer employ dedicated grounding terminals anymore. I do not know why Jorn has made this decision because - top notch - grounding imho catapults the LA’s (as well as the Tidal Akira loudspeakers btw) to another level. So yes, I am still very happy with my LA’s and have no plans to replace them.
- I have tried in the past to amplify the LA’s with the 20 watts single ended Kondo Gakuoh mk i amps I owned at the time. But although the LA’s are relative sensitive transducers - around 93-94 db and no drops below 4 Ohm - these se amps could not fully control the four woofers of each of my LA’s. Therefore I have opted for the push pull version of the Kondo Gakuoh mk ii amps.

Thanks again and keep enjoying your beautiful audio system.

 

[Audiocrack]

You can listen to wellfloat boards under kondo electronics and kondo power supply and also wellfloat delta under tidal speakers. Wellfloat has great impact on the sound and decrease distortion without killing life and energy of music.
You will be shocked if you use wellfloat.
I also use Neodio B2 under cables.

There a taiwan corporation produce ground conditioner it’s name is Telos, it seems $50k telos is better than other ground conditioner.

If you hear minor pink noise in your speakers it means your kondo amplifers are the best amplifiers in the world, minor pink noise shows Kondo does not use negative feedback so do not worry about it.

Kondo, Audio Note , Vitus Audio (SS) , Robert Koda (SS) all do not use negative feedback and all of them are Class A .

Thank you very much, Amir, for your suggestions. I listened many moons ago to a Telos (active) grounding device in my LA system but at the time this device could not convince me. I have not heard their latest grounding products though.

Currently I am employing RevOpods as well as the top of the line Hifistay pieces as footers. I am quite happy with both these brands and I do not know how the Wellfloat products compare to them. Have you maybe made a comparison yourself?

 

[Audiocrack]

You can listen to wellfloat boards under kondo electronics and kondo power supply and also wellfloat delta under tidal speakers. Wellfloat has great impact on the sound and decrease distortion without killing life and energy of music.
You will be shocked if you use wellfloat.
I also use Neodio B2 under cables.

There a taiwan corporation produce ground conditioner it’s name is Telos, it seems $50k telos is better than other ground conditioner.

If you hear minor pink noise in your speakers it means your kondo amplifers are the best amplifiers in the world, minor pink noise shows Kondo does not use negative feedback so do not worry about it.

Kondo, Audio Note , Vitus Audio (SS) , Robert Koda (SS) all do not use negative feedback and all of them are Class A .

Forgot to mention one other thing Amir: at the headquarters of Telos they play with the Tidal La Assoluta loudspeakers, albeit in the four tower configuration (that is with two separate woofer towers). I posted a few videos of that set up earlier in this thread. My room is not wide enough (4.5 meters) to accommodate these two additional towers.

 

[Charles S]

Hello Charles, you are way too modest about your own audio system: you have assembled a mighty impressive range of equipment yourself!

Thanks again for your very kind words, much appreciated. The choices as regards my various audio components - the Tidal LA loudspeakers, Kondo amplification, Wadax digital components, Tripoint Audio grounding, Taralabs Grandmaster ic’s and loudspeaker cables and Tidal Audio pc’s - I made on my own.

However, as regards the implementation of all Tripoint grounding as well as employing the 40 copper slabs the credits should fully go to Miguel Alvarez of Tripoint Audio: he was the one who came up with the idea about using pure, oxygen free and untreated copper slabs for mass loading and as platforms. And he is a ‘grounding wizard’ as well.

In addition he urged me to use the 6 copper pieces on top of the various copper slabs used for mass loading. He did quite some research in this matter and he explained to me there are valid scientific arguments why it so important to include these pieces in the mass loading process. I can only conclude he is completely right about the importance of (i) grounding, (ii) mass loading and (iii) adding afore mentioned copper pieces.

Allow me a few remarks as regards your comments:
- the Tidal La Assoluta loudspeakers are imho master pieces. But they are utterly transparent and ‘honest’ transducers, so when something is not completely right in the audio chain they will let you hear this ‘mercilessly’. I think that this fact is one of the reasons why some audiophiles experience Tidal loudspeakers on audio shows as too strident or thin. They are not but you need good circumstances in order to let them ‘blossom’.
- Tidal has stopped producing the LA’s. In their current portfolio Jorn considers the Tidal for Bugatti (active) loudspeakers as his top of the line transducers. I have not heard these loudspeakers so I cannot compare them to my LA’s. I did notice however that the latest Tidal Audio loudspeakers no longer employ dedicated grounding terminals anymore. I do not know why Jorn has made this decision because - top notch - grounding imho catapults the LA’s (as well as the Tidal Akira loudspeakers btw) to another level. So yes, I am still very happy with my LA’s and have no plans to replace them.
- I have tried in the past to amplify the LA’s with the 20 watts single ended Kondo Gakuoh mk i amps I owned at the time. But although the LA’s are relative sensitive transducers - around 93-94 db and no drops below 4 Ohm - these se amps could not fully control the four woofers of each of my LA’s. Therefore I have opted for the push pull version of the Kondo Gakuoh mk ii amps.

Thanks again and keep enjoying your beautiful audio system.

Audiocrack, thank you so much for your kind comments concerning my system. I think the La Assoluta's are keepers. It is actually better for owners of the LA's like you that they have been discontinued because as time goes on, they will become very sought after because they are no longer being made. I plan to keep my XVX. It's very similar sounding to the Wilson WAMM, which is frozen in time. Also, I prefer my Thor to any current Wilson subwoofer including the Subsonic. It's far more sensitive and has significantly more output. I can achieve nearly equal speed of a Subsonic by using an expensive plinth and a horizontal lie. Driving my XVX with tubes and my Thor with a MC2.1KW solid state slightly slows the XVX bass and the result is a perfect blend of the two. What a lot of folks forget is that understanding the gear, how to get the very best out of it, is what makes the high-end so rewarding. I have worked with McIntosh gear for decades. Under the right circumstances it can sound remarkably good, but you must "know" it and plopping a Mac piece into an ultra-high-end system like yours, it would sound very out of place. So, I completely believe that if I heard your LA's in your system, they would sound amazing including the bass. That's why I object to derogatory comments because most of the time; it's because the gear in question, has not been set up for success, but for failure.

For example, I am very familiar with vintage Krell's. I used a FPB 700 for a decade. Apexorca uses multiple (about 5) of these huge mono amps in his Fenice system. They are perfect for his Fenice's but with my Mac amps they would be too laid back and not dynamic enough. I will be following your audio journey. Mine is at the end. I'm old and just enjoying my music.

 

[Audiocrack]

Here is a picture of the Kondo g-1000 preamp being mass loaded. The picture might give you the impression that the units are touching each other but that is not the case.

 

[Amir]

Thank you very much, Amir, for your suggestions. I listened many moons ago to a Telos (active) grounding device in my LA system but at the time this device could not convince me. I have not heard their latest grounding products though.

Currently I am employing RevOpods as well as the top of the line Hifistay pieces as footers. I am quite happy with both these brands and I do not know how the Wellfloat products compare to them. Have you maybe made a comparison yourself?

Nice to hear you have compared Telos vs Tripoint.

I did not have Revpod but my friend in CA have both wellfloat and Revpod, he used Revpod but did not like it but he uses wellfloat and has no problem with it.

I have no idea about Revpod but The main problem of isolation systems is decreasing the music energy.

 

[Amir]

Forgot to mention one other thing Amir: at the headquarters of Telos they play with the Tidal La Assoluta loudspeakers, albeit in the four tower configuration (that is with two separate woofer towers). I posted a few videos of that set up earlier in this thread. My room is not wide enough (4.5 meters) to accommodate these two additional towers.

I do not have enough experience to recommend using 4 Tidal tower in medium size rooms (like your room) so my idea may not be true for you, my experience was very very positive with adding two bass tower in large rooms, I think properly setup bass towers change the sound dramatically , not just better bass but also much better midrange and Image height.

Rel designer shared some videos in internet and those are interesting.

If you are not far from Gobel showroom (munich) I highly recommend you to visit Gobel and ask Oliver to show you effects of subwoofers.

When Oliver turn-off 6 subwoofers then you will hear another sound , It is very interesting and wonderful experience.

I was there may 2024, Oliver is very kind and gentleman

 

[Audiocrack]

I do not have enough experience to recommend using 4 Tidal tower in medium size rooms (like your room) so my idea may not be true for you, my experience was very very positive with adding two bass tower in large rooms, I think properly setup bass towers change the sound dramatically , not just better bass but also much better midrange and Image height.

Rel designer shared some videos in internet and those are interesting.

If you are not far from Gobel showroom (munich) I highly recommend you to visit Gobel and ask Oliver to show you effects of subwoofers.

When Oliver turn-off 6 subwoofers then you will hear another sound , It is very interesting and wonderful experience.

I was there may 2024, Oliver is very kind and gentleman

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I totally agree with you regarding the positive sonic effects of adding separate woofer towers - I played many years with the Genesis 1.1 four tower system -, not only in the bass but also in the midrange and highs. However, when the room is not wide enough adding bass towers is (likely) a recipe for disaster.