Tidal La Assoluta system

[Audiocrack]

Hello Lloyd, I am a little late with my reply because I was on a skiing holiday with my son last week. But as regards your question: you know that for me in the end ultimate purity, liquidity, density and serinity - or to put all this in one word: ‘unmechanicalness’ - is more important than ultimate power. And so far I have never experienced a big/massive solid state amplifier that can match my Kondo’s in unmechanicalness. Therefore I have never been tempted to listen to large solid state amps at home with my LA’s, also because due to (i) all my grounding efforts with various state of the art Tripoint Audio components and cables, (ii) all my mechanical isolation efforts by employing 40 pure and untreated copper slabs as platforms for all my audio components as well as for mass loading these units (iii) all my power related efforts and (iv) the - relative - high sensitivity of my Tidal La Assoluta loudspeakers (around 93-94 db with no drops below 4 ohm if you look at it in say a ‘realistic way’; around 96 db if you look at it from the ‘inflated sensitivity numbers perspective’ many loudspeaker manufacturers are providing to their customers) I have assembled an audio system which sounds to my ears very dynamic/explosive and is - depending on the recordings of course - capable of creating a wide and deep soundstage.

That all said I visited the Tidal factory years back and listened to the LA’s in their former dedicated listening room (Tidal Audio has since moved to another place). This listening room was larger - in particular wider - than my listening room while the really huge and impressive Tidal La Assoluta monoblocs were used to power the system. And yes, with such massive solid state amplifiers you have more control/command, in particular with regard to the four bass drivers per LA loudspeaker, and the dynamic swings witch these behemoths are more impressive than I am able to achieve with my - relative low wattage - Kondo power amplifiers. The combination of the Tidal La Assoluta monoblocs and the Tidal La Assoluta loudspeakers really impressed me.

So I am sure that with two - let alone: with four - massive solid state amplifiers like the LA or Vitus monoblocs I would be able to create a sound that is more impressive in certain departments. But in my - in comparison to the Tidal listening room - somewhat smaller listening room I am quite satisfied with the dynamics, command and low end of the Tidal LA/Kondo amps combination while their unmechanicalness is imho absolutely stunning.

And lastly: please keep in mind that my LA system has greatly benefitted from adding the Wadax reference dac, the Wadax reference server, the Wadax dedicated reference PSU (for the reference server) and four Wadax Akasa cables (three of them are dc cables while the fourth is an ic cable between the Wadax reference dac and reference server). Inter alia the dynamics and low end of this Wadax digital trio are in my view world class.

I hope this answers your question.

 

[LL21]

Hello Lloyd, I am a little late with my reply because I was on a skiing holiday with my son last week. But as regards your question: you know that for me in the end ultimate purity, liquidity, density and serinity - or to put all this in one word: ‘unmechanicalness’ - is more important than ultimate power. And so far I have never experienced a big/massive solid state amplifier that can match my Kondo’s in unmechanicalness. Therefore I have never been tempted to listen to large solid state amps at home with my LA’s, also because due to (i) all my grounding efforts with various state of the art Tripoint Audio components and cables, (ii) all my mechanical isolation efforts by employing 40 pure and untreated copper slabs as platforms for all my audio components as well as for mass loading these units (iii) all my power related efforts and (iv) the - relative - high sensitivity of my Tidal La Assoluta loudspeakers (around 93-94 db with no drops below 4 ohm if you look at it in say a ‘realistic way’; around 96 db if you look at it from the ‘inflated sensitivity numbers perspective’ many loudspeaker manufacturers are providing to their customers) I have assembled an audio system which sounds to my ears very dynamic/explosive and is - depending on the recordings of course - capable of creating a wide and deep soundstage.

That all said I visited the Tidal factory years back and listened to the LA’s in their former dedicated listening room (Tidal Audio has since moved to another place). This listening room was larger - in particular wider - than my listening room while the really huge and impressive Tidal La Assoluta monoblocs were used to power the system. And yes, with such massive solid state amplifiers you have more control/command, in particular with regard to the four bass drivers per LA loudspeaker, and the dynamic swings witch these behemoths are more impressive than I am able to achieve with my - relative low wattage - Kondo power amplifiers. The combination of the Tidal La Assoluta monoblocs and the Tidal La Assoluta loudspeakers really impressed me.

So I am sure that with two - let alone: with four - massive solid state amplifiers like the LA or Vitus monoblocs I would be able to create a sound that is more impressive in certain departments. But in my - in comparison to the Tidal listening room - somewhat smaller listening room I am quite satisfied with the dynamics, command and low end of the Tidal LA/Kondo amps combination while their unmechanicalness is imho absolutely stunning.

And lastly: please keep in mind that my LA system has greatly benefitted from adding the Wadax reference dac, the Wadax reference server, the Wadax dedicated reference PSU (for the reference server) and four Wadax Akasa cables (three of them are dc cables while the fourth is an ic cable between the Wadax reference dac and reference server). Inter alia the dynamics and low end of this Wadax digital trio are in my view world class.

I hope this answers your question.

Thank you! What a great read and very clear. I have heard one of your systems many years ago and definitely remember the signature of what you describe above! I can only imagine what it sounds like today!

 

[Audiocrack]

Thank you! What a great read and very clear. I have heard one of your systems many years ago and definitely remember the signature of what you describe above! I can only imagine what it sounds like today!

You are referring to my audio system centered around the Genesis 1.1 loudspeakers. At the time my digital source was the DCS four stack Scarlatti while my preamp and power amps were the Kondo m1000 mk i and the Kondo Gakuoh mk i respectively. It became too costly to keep two high quality audio systems more or less at the same level: so in the meantime I have sold both my Genesis 1.1 loudspeakers, the DCS Scarlatti dac and the Kondo Gakuoh mk i power amps. Since you visited me I have furthermore invested substantial amounts of money in inter alia (i) grounding (Tripoint Audio: the ‘grounding’ units as well as the grounding cables of Tripoint Audio have evolved greatly in say the last ten years or so. The current - state of the art - Tripoint Audio components can in my view not be compared anymore with their predecessors), (ii) mechanical isolation (pure, oxygen free copper slabs being used as platforms as well as for mass loading purposes) and (iii) higher quality power strips. In addition the Wadax reference digital source components are in all sonic parameters superior to the DCS Scarlatti: that is really no contest at at all. And the Kondo G-1000i and Kondo Gakuoh mk ii power amps are - very clearly - better built and better sounding components than my former Kondo (pre)amps: as a consequence my current Tidal La Assoluta set up sounds much, much more transparent and refined than my former Genesis 1.1 audio system; also the density and liquidity are at another level. While the Tidal LA loudspeakers are of themselves already significantly more ‘silent’ - that is more transparent - than the Genesis 1.1 loudspeakers. Although the bass / low end of the servo driven, separate woofer towers of the Genesis 1.1 loudspeakers went deeper than that of my Tidal La Assoluta loudspeakers - that is without the two separate Tidal La Assoluta woofer towers -, it was also definitely slower and less transparent.

So all in all, the sound of my current Tidal La Assoluta - cones - audio system is in my view not only quite different than that of my former Genesis 1.1 - ribbon - audio system but from a quality perspective also in a league of its own.

 

[Audiocrack]

You probably are the closest to knowing what that sounds like in your own home! I am curious about how feel about the use of the massive Vitus monoblocks (2 sets!) to drive the Tidals vs your spectacular Kondos. Setting aside all of the differences in purity, character, etc that speak for themselves between the 2 designs...do you think PURELY from a power perspective (effortlessness, etc) there is anything you ever were curious to find out about what happens to your speakers when you give them access to near-infinite power capabilities?

In listening to the clip, the one thing I note is that the room seems to be enormous...not many get to listen to systems in those scale rooms. I have done something in a pretty big room (AG Trio G3s) and I knew intuitively very very few speakers and systems could have filled that room so effortlessly that you did not realize what was happening unless you've had a lot of experience with high end audio. Most non-audiophiles would have said, 'great sound, so what?'...not realizing that put any 'normal' high end system in there, and the presentation sounds like you're watching from a flatscreen tv because the room was so big. But the AG Trios made you feel like one was listening to that same 'normal' high end system in a large living room...full-on, wide presentation, room-filling, effortless, nuanced, supple.

I imagine your speakers are capable of same. But I wonder if in a room like in the video, one would need to go that powerful (the AG Trios I heard were powered by Emm Labs MTRX Ref Monos which is 1000 watts into 8). And I also wonder what would happen in your room as well.

Here is a link to an interesting and recent review (by Robert Harley of TAS) of a - low wattage - single ended amplifier: https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/berning-hi-fi-one-reference-set-power-amplifier/

He inter alia compares the performance of this set amp to that of his CH Precision solid state amplifiers in combination with Wilson XVX loudspeakers. I agree with some of his findings (although he used different audio components than I did in the past and I am currently doing).