Windsor Hifi Show - simple systems ruled

[bonzo75]

To summarize, especially those in small rooms struggling to know what speakers to buy should just get the Heco Direkt, 2700 quid, and run it with SETs. Details follow.


Went to the Windsor HiFi show yesterday. None of the big systems were sounding good, due to room and show conditions on the first day. There was Dan agostino and Wilson Alexx, and AR and Wilson Yvette in the same room. Magico S5 mkii with constellation centaur metronome top line transport and dac. All with top of the line Transparent.

The Wilson room was playing many master copies of Peter McGrath's recordings. Ken Kessler gave a speech in that room where he was very honest that he does not use concerts to judge hifi, and does not go to classical (something I had guessed by reading his reviews). He said that according to him systems should be used to create your own definition of sound, and not try to have a live reference, else it will be self-defeating. He said that he and Peter Mcgrath were good friends, and had contrary views on this subject, Peter being a classical guy. He added that for someone who likes classical, reading his reviews was like a wine connoisseur reading a beer drinker's review. He mentioned that he sees the markets for dealers declining nad for custom install increasing, and the low end of hifi becoming cheaper but the high end becoming pricier. They mentioned someone in Colorado who had blown up a hole in the mountain to create a music room.

Anyway, back to the sonics. Given how bright the Yvette sounded in that room, I was surprised how relatively relaxed the Momentums made the Alexx sound. This was similar to when I had heard the Momentums with Alexandria X2S2, with a similar Vivaldi stack and Transparent set up. The momentums are extremely fine, musical amps. Will try to compare it to some other amp, and the stereo to the monos. The Alexandria was a private set up, and had much more timbre, midbass, weight and grandeur.

Then YG sonja with the Boulder 2160, a compete Boulder system with SME 30/12 and ortofon a90 also had set up challenges.

The Jadis JA 80 + Martin Logan Expression had the DCS running straight to the amps, which I think was a mistake and should have had the Jadis preamp in. It was wired L to R incorrectly, which I pointed out to them.

The Clearaudio statement room with Goldfinger statement and Gamut amps and speakers was too noisy with public taking loudly, and they were again wired L to R incorrectly, which I pointed out to them because violins started playing from the right. They corrected it and violins were back to the left.

All systems were sounding hard. The best rooms were the simplest. The Maggie 1.7 with audio analog 70w amp and Kronos Sparta 0.5 and transfiguration proteus, PS audio phono was extremely impressive. When I started playing my LPs of Argenta Espana, Rubinstein Emperor, Scheherazade, and Bruch Scottish Fantasia, with CDs of Bach cantata choral and other arias, it sounded great. Small room, panels close to the wall, with absorbers behind.

The Maggie 20.7 was in a big room with Ayre and Brinkmann Spyder, Lyra Etna.

The best sounding room was a small room run by Pure Sound of UK, a small dealer/designer. The Heco Direkt speakers, 95 db, with Pure Sound's 845 SETs of 25 watts (he mentioned he also runs them with 10w EL84 amps) and STS Motus direct drive with the Hana SL cartridge (500 quid).

I played Bruch, it sounded nice. I therefore thought I could stress the speakers easily with orchestral, so put on Scheherazade. Unflinched. Then I put on Argenta Espana, and it sounded brilliant. I was flabbergasted. Such small things should not be capable of such performance. You might not get the best piano from it, but hey, it's 2700 quid! And will fit into your bathroom if you wanted it too. And have a SET multichannel set up to boot.

The audio shows are a great representative of audiophile set ups. Most audiophiles force in speakers into rooms that don't suit them. I clearly had an epiphany today of seeing that unless you can get your ultimate system into a proper room, imperative to consider a nice low cost Turntable, with Audio Technica or Hana SL 500 quid cartridge, integrated SET amp 1 to 2k used, EAR phono used 1k, and Heco Direkt. These German speakers will come below your waistline, and are broad baffled, paper cone, vented bass at the bottom. Here is the 6 moons review

The other good sounding room was Audionote, which had, like in Munich, a live Cellist playing alongwith the music. The AN TT2 with the AN IO1 and their phono was giving a lot of purity to the higher frequencies and mids tones that I haven't heard before. I have never been impressed by an AN system before, but that's mainly because I am not a fan of those speakers.

Then there was the horns Universum room, which are among my favorite speakers. During the day they were sounding hard, and I noticed they were placed too wide to soundstage. After show hours, the crew took them off the wheels, spiked them, brought them closer to each other, and changed the amps from 80 watt 211s which had made the horns sound aggressive to 12w EL84 monos. Then it started sounding much better.

The choral on this was the best. The transport was a Lampi golden gate, which in the morning had KR 45 valves (not a fan), but in the evening had the special Lampi EML mesh globe anniversary 45s.

The distributor G point was bringing in a new turntable, Sikora, and both the reference TT with Kuzma 4 point 14 inch arm with Audio technica's top of the line Art 1000, and the smaller model with Audio technica Art 33sa (500 quid or less) were playing through the Sikora phono.

It surprised us that the smaller model was sounding better. Only later did I realise that the Art 1000 cartridge hadn't reached them yet, and they were temporarily using the Kuzma cartridge. In the evening they received the Art 1000 and installed it. It is still new and needs to be burnt in, but the slam and bass of the bigger TT is higher.

One thing these horns do better than systems is the separation and distinction of each instrument in orchestra. Flutes, clarinets, brass, strings, sound extremely well separated with distinct tones.

Oh yes, the 200k KEF Muons seemed to choke o Holst Planets Mars dynamics, and the tonality was heavy metal. Coupled with powerful Chord amps.

 

[caesar]

To summarize, especially those in small rooms struggling to know what speakers to buy should just get the Heco Direkt, 2700 quid, and run it with SETs. Details follow.


Went to the Windsor HiFi show yesterday. None of the big systems were sounding good, due to room and show conditions on the first day. There was Dan agostino and Wilson Alexx, and AR and Wilson Yvette in the same room. Magico S5 mkii with constellation centaur metronome top line transport and dac. All with top of the line Transparent.

The Wilson room was playing many master copies of Peter McGrath's recordings. Ken Kessler gave a speech in that room where he was very honest that he does not use concerts to judge hifi, and does not go to classical (something I had guessed by reading his reviews). He said that according to him systems should be used to create your own definition of sound, and not try to have a live reference, else it will be self-defeating. He said that he and Peter Mcgrath were good friends, and had contrary views on this subject, Peter being a classical guy. He added that for someone who likes classical, reading his reviews was like a wine connoisseur reading a beer drinker's review. He mentioned that he sees the markets for dealers declining nad for custom install increasing, and the low end of hifi becoming cheaper but the high end becoming pricier. They mentioned someone in Colorado who had blown up a hole in the mountain to create a music room.

Anyway, back to the sonics. Given how bright the Yvette sounded in that room, I was surprised how relatively relaxed the Momentums made the Alexx sound. This was similar to when I had heard the Momentums with Alexandria X2S2, with a similar Vivaldi stack and Transparent set up. The momentums are extremely fine, musical amps. Will try to compare it to some other amp, and the stereo to the monos. The Alexandria was a private set up, and had much more timbre, midbass, weight and grandeur.

Then YG sonja with the Boulder 2160, a compete Boulder system with SME 30/12 and ortofon a90 also had set up challenges.

The Jadis JA 80 + Martin Logan Expression had the DCS running straight to the amps, which I think was a mistake and should have had the Jadis preamp in. It was wired out of phase, which I pointed out to them.

The Clearaudio statement room with Goldfinger statement and Gamut amps and speakers was too noisy with public taking loudly, and they were again wired out of phase, which I pointed out to them because violins started playing from the right. They corrected it and violins were back to the left.

All systems were sounding hard. The best rooms were the simplest. The Maggie 1.7 with audio analog 70w amp and Kronos Sparta 0.5 and transfiguration proteus, PS audio phono was extremely impressive. When I started playing my LPs of Argenta Espana, Rubinstein Emperor, Scheherazade, and Bruch Scottish Fantasia, with CDs of Bach cantata choral and other arias, it sounded great. Small room, panels close to the wall, with absorbers behind.

The Maggie 20.7 was in a big room with Ayre and Brinkmann Spyder, Lyra Etna.

The best sounding room was a small room run by Pure Sound of UK, a small dealer/designer. The Heco Direkt speakers, 95 db, with Pure Sound's 845 SETs of 25 watts (he mentioned he also runs them with 10w EL84 amps) and STS Motus direct drive with the Hana SL cartridge (500 quid).

I played Bruch, it sounded nice. I therefore thought I could stress the speakers easily with orchestral, so put on Scheherazade. Unflinched. Then I put on Argenta Espana, and it sounded brilliant. I was flabbergasted. Such small things should not be capable of such performance. You might not get the best piano from it, but hey, it's 2700 quid! And will fit into your bathroom if you wanted it too. And have a SET multichannel set up to boot.

The audio shows are a great representative of audiophile set ups. Most audiophiles force in speakers into rooms that don't suit them. I clearly had an epiphany today of seeing that unless you can get your ultimate system into a proper room, imperative to consider a nice low cost Turntable, with Audio Technica or Hana SL 500 quid cartridge, integrated SET amp 1 to 2k used, EAR phono used 1k, and Heco Direkt. These German speakers will come below your waistline, and are broad baffled, paper cone, vented bass at the bottom. Here is the 6 moons review

The other good sounding room was Audionote, which had, like in Munich, a live Cellist playing alongwith the music. The AN TT2 with the AN IO1 and their phono was giving a lot of purity to the higher frequencies and mids tones that I haven't heard before. I have never been impressed by an AN system before, but that's mainly because I am not a fan of those speakers.

Then there was the horns Universum room, which are among my favorite speakers. During the day they were sounding hard, and I noticed they were placed too wide to soundstage. After show hours, the crew took them off the wheels, spiked them, brought them closer to each other, and changed the amps from 80 watt 211s which had made the horns sound aggressive to 12w EL84 monos. Then it started sounding much better.

The choral on this was the best. The transport was a Lampi golden gate, which in the morning had KR 45 valves (not a fan), but in the evening had the special Lampi EML mesh globe anniversary 45s.

The distributor G point was bringing in a new turntable, Sikora, and both the reference TT with Kuzma 4 point 14 inch arm with Audio technica's top of the line Art 1000, and the smaller model with Audio technica Art 33sa (500 quid or less) were playing through the Sikora phono.

It surprised us that the smaller model was sounding better. Only later did I realise that the Art 1000 cartridge hadn't reached them yet, and they were temporarily using the Kuzma cartridge. In the evening they received the Art 1000 and installed it. It is still new and needs to be burnt in, but the slam and bass of the bigger TT is higher.

One thing these horns do better than systems is the separation and distinction of each instrument in orchestra. Flutes, clarinets, brass, strings, sound extremely well separated with distinct tones.

Oh yes, the 200k KEF Muons were seemed to choke o Holst Planets Mars dynamics, and the tonality was heavy metal. Coupled with powerful Chord amps.

Bonzo,

Thanks for the great write-up! Is this Windsor show anywhere near the Windsor castle, near London?

Was there any chatter about how Brexit is affecting high-end in the UK? I read somewhere that the British economy actually grew a tiny bit, against all predictions. I would guess British manufacturers are happy with the exchange rate. How are the fans faring, especially those desiring products manufactured in other parts of the world?

Also, I am really starting to like Kessler. He is right about thinking high end as a different experience than live. High end, as great as it is, doesn't make you feel the same as live, no matter how good the system is. And furthermore, we all have a "reference" or "mental model" of live music in our head, but all have different systems... I like Peter McGrath, as long as he is not tired, (when he is tired, he is one cranky bastage!), but it's wishful thinking that classical will sound like the "real thing".

And Kessler has written some good pieces in the last few months on how everyone should admit high end is a luxury, and market it as such. I think we need more honest guys like him in the audio press.

 

[bonzo75]

Bonzo,

Thanks for the great write-up! Is this Windsor show anywhere near the Windsor castle, near London?

Was there any chatter about how Brexit is affecting high-end in the UK? I read somewhere that the British economy actually grew a tiny bit, against all predictions. I would guess British manufacturers are happy with the exchange rate. How are the fans faring, especially those desiring products manufactured in other parts of the world?

Also, I am really starting to like Kessler. He is right about thinking high end as a different experience than live. High end, as great as it is, doesn't make you feel the same as live, no matter how good the system is. And furthermore, we all have a "reference" or "mental model" of live music in our head, but all have different systems... I like Peter McGrath, as long as he is not tired, (when he is tired, he is one cranky bastage!), but it's wishful thinking that classical will sound like the "real thing".

And Kessler has written some good pieces in the last few months on how everyone should admit high end is a luxury, and market it as such. I think we need more honest guys like him in the audio press.

HI yes it's near Windsor castle. Too early to tell how Brexit will affect UK and EU. Everything's more expensive for UK audiophiles.

I actually like Peter McGrath's presentation, if only the speakers would sound as good as he does.

I think you are you and Ken (or rather the way I paraphrased Ken) are talking about different things. No one is expecting high end to sound like live. His point was that live, especially classical, should not even be a reference or a mental model in your head. So in a way, since you have MBLs, does not matter how it sounds like to Wilson or to live, all it matters is if you like the sound, how do you maximize it.

I agree it's a luxury, anybody will find it tough to deny that. His point, and which has been mentioned to me by a couple of high end retailers, is that there is a clear market for those who are not on the forums and don't do research, and call (or have their agents call) a high end consultant to set up a high end system. Notice that rsvinta said three of his clients bought Goldmund 800k systems before hearing them this year alone. And there is a market for OCDed audiophiles, who do research and go for sonics, DIY, price to value, every tick box compare, etc etc. As long as people who are in a particular market know which market they are in, that's fine.

 

[caesar]

HI yes it's near Windsor castle. Too early to tell how Brexit will affect UK and EU. Everything's more expensive for UK audiophiles.

I actually like Peter McGrath's presentation, if only the speakers would sound as good as he does.

I think you are you and Ken (or rather the way I paraphrased Ken) are talking about different things. No one is expecting high end to sound like live. His point was that live, especially classical, should not even be a reference or a mental model in your head. So in a way, since you have MBLs, does not matter how it sounds like to Wilson or to live, all it matters is if you like the sound, how do you maximize it.

I agree it's a luxury, anybody will find it tough to deny that. His point, and which has been mentioned to me by a couple of high end retailers, is that there is a clear market for those who are not on the forums and don't do research, and call (or have their agents call) a high end consultant to set up a high end system. Notice that rsvinta said three of his clients bought Goldmund 800k systems before hearing them this year alone. And there is a market for OCDed audiophiles, who do research and go for sonics, DIY, price to value, every tick box compare, etc etc. As long as people who are in a particular market know which market they are in, that's fine.

Thanks. I would love to know exactly what Kessler said, but I think it's impossible for live music not to be a mental model - people have heard live music enough times in their life, and then project it in their head and compare to what their systems do (along with other high end systems they heard), unfortunately to much frustration.

As for audio being a luxury, I think the idea is getting out there, but it hasn't fully sunk in. As one example, many people are led to believe by audio writers and fans that "home made drivers" and in-house cnc machines result in better products. In reality, they are better in some cases but not in others. One can easily design a great driver and have someone else manufacture it. Yet our industry has followed the fashion industry to vertically integrate and call it "better quality" product since it's totally controlled. (Louis Vuitton, I believe was one of the first fashion house to do this in the eighties.)

But one just has to do a cost benefit analysis of finding space, buying machines, managing the shop, training the staff vs. outsourcing this to some one who has done it. Boeing and Airbus are not vertically integrated and have thousands of suppliers, as Adam Smith predicted; otherwise their products would be way too expensive. On the contrary, the fashion industry and high end audio get a free ride to pass the mark-ups of in-house manufacturers to consumers, who are led to believe by audio media personalities that they will get better sound that way.

Another way it has not sunk in, is that most audio dealer showrooms are dumps. Yet even if one is shopping for a "modest" kitchen housing $10K worth of appliances, everything in that showroom will be sparkly and new, and look and work great...but how many dealers have fabulous sound? Not too many in my experience.

Anyways, thank you for reporting on the show. What you say makes a lot of sense. Having met so many audiophiles who have more than one system, I usually find the smaller systems sound much better than their all-out-assault system.

 

[bonzo75]

On that, I am quite sure he said he does not go to live classical (of course he has been to some), and does not prefer to use live shows as a reference model.

 

[microstrip]

On that, I am quite sure he said he does not go to live classical (of course he has been to some), and does not prefer to use live shows as a reference model.

Yes, his anti-classical music style is known for decades ...

He is a very peculiar reviewer that I appreciate a lot, not exactly for the equipment review contents, but for his high-end culture and style, including the very hyperbolic comments , that need some learning from the reader to be fully understood. Quoted from his interview to Wojciech Pacu?a http://www.highfidelity.pl/@main-279&lang=en

WP: If you could advise your readers how to read reviews – what would you tell’em?

KK: If one can presume that the readers are seasoned audiophiles, what they need to do is recognise the various reviewers’ preferences and prejudices. That is the only way they can appreciate the remarks in any sort of context. I, for example, am not the guy to read for extreme bass – I’m more concerned with the midband. Others are obsessed with imaging, etc. Once you are equipped with knowing how the reviewer works, then you need to hear what they heard, by finding a shop that can demonstrate the product. Sadly, this is becoming more and more difficult. So perhaps the best way to hear equipment is to have a wide circle of friends who own a variety of components!

 

[morricab]

On that, I am quite sure he said he does not go to live classical (of course he has been to some), and does not prefer to use live shows as a reference model.

Well, remind me not to read his reviews seriously anymore...I still adhere to the OLD Absolute Sound concept of real-live music in a real space as being the reference to judge whether a system is on the right track or not. This usually ALSO means that the system will have maximum differentiation between recordings...which is what Peter Q from Audio Note claims to be of maximum importance. However, one can have great differentiation between recordings and still sound fundamentally wrong compared to the real thing.

Now, I have yet to ever hear a truly convincing lifelike performance for large scale works but I have had personally a couple of systems that could get small scale classical (solo, duos to quartet/quintets) quite close to the real thing. Of course there is always something that gives away it is not real but closer or further away can usually be accurately judged...if one has the observational skills.

 

[LL21]

Well, remind me not to read his reviews seriously anymore...I still adhere to the OLD Absolute Sound concept of real-live music in a real space as being the reference to judge whether a system is on the right track or not. This usually ALSO means that the system will have maximum differentiation between recordings...which is what Peter Q from Audio Note claims to be of maximum importance. However, one can have great differentiation between recordings and still sound fundamentally wrong compared to the real thing.

Now, I have yet to ever hear a truly convincing lifelike performance for large scale works but I have had personally a couple of systems that could get small scale classical (solo, duos to quartet/quintets) quite close to the real thing. Of course there is always something that gives away it is not real but closer or further away can usually be accurately judged...if one has the observational skills.

Hi Morricab,

the closest i have come to life-like scale was the Arrakis on Nirvana Unplugged (not large scale music obviously, but it was still shockingly life-like in scale and power, compared with XLFs, etc). The first note off one of Norah Jones' albums still sticks in my memory because most speakers sounded tame in comparison, even the 'big boys'. The other is the big Genesis 1s where listening to Rachel Podger Vivaldi was quite impressive in a 38' x 16' x 11' room.

Neither was full scale orchestral, but i have to admit the ability of these speakers to move air effortlessly was incredibly helpful in delivering the sense of power that live can give.

 

[guyser]

For the sake of completeness, the Pure Sound system at the show was using an Aurorasound Vida phono equaliser, & Preda Linestage. (autoformers with buffers fore & aft) The STST turntable was fitted with the 10" version of their own Vertex tonearm.

I would have used the cartridge pictured left but it had only just returned from a loan & I didn't have time to install it. The Hana SL is actually a sibling of that one & does a very good job for the price.

 

[Zero000]

I wonder how the Heco Direckt Dreiklang fares (bigger, three way effort) against the two way Direckt, Ked. I thought the former showed up at Munich 2016. Did you hear it?

 

[guyser]

I heard them at Munich & they seemed promising. A larger, wider bandwidth version of the Direkt. I think they are only now starting to ship them though.

 

[bonzo75]

I wonder how the Heco Direckt Dreiklang fares (bigger, three way effort) against the two way Direckt, Ked. I thought the former showed up at Munich 2016. Did you hear it?

No, tbh I would have ignored them thinking they were too small to be good.

Here I actually went to check out the Motus and came out stunned by the speakers.

For those who don't know Guy, he was part of the team that designed the Voyd reference ages ago.

Brad, did you not own a Voyd (was it the 0.5)?

 

[morricab]

No, tbh I would have ignored them thinking they were too small to be good.

Here I actually went to check out the Motus and came out stunned by the speakers.

For those who don't know Guy, he was part of the team that designed the Voyd reference ages ago.

Brad, did you not own a Voyd (was it the 0.5)?

I had a Voyd "The Voyd", which was a first generation 3 motor model. It had a fairly large (but not reference large) split phase power supply to drive the three Papst motors. It also had the acrylic and not the Lexan (polycarbonate) platter. I also had the Helius Cyalene arm...a fine arm. It was one of the most dynamic TTs I have heard...but my version at least was a wee bit noisy. Now I have a Yamaha GT-2000 with (optional) external supply and that is a world class direct drive. It has no cogging and uses both a sophisticated bi-directional servo (thanks JVC!) and a 6Kg platter to keep the speed locked on. No other TT has done as well with my Allnic Speednic in terms of staying completely locked down on the speed. It is just as dynamic as the Voyd was but totally silent. Now, the arm (Yamaha arm) is almost certainly not as good as the Cyalene but it also is not a lot worse because overall I get better sound from the Yamaha setup.

 

[morricab]

Hi Morricab,

the closest i have come to life-like scale was the Arrakis on Nirvana Unplugged (not large scale music obviously, but it was still shockingly life-like in scale and power, compared with XLFs, etc). The first note off one of Norah Jones' albums still sticks in my memory because most speakers sounded tame in comparison, even the 'big boys'. The other is the big Genesis 1s where listening to Rachel Podger Vivaldi was quite impressive in a 38' x 16' x 11' room.

Neither was full scale orchestral, but i have to admit the ability of these speakers to move air effortlessly was incredibly helpful in delivering the sense of power that live can give.

Exactly, well sorted out large systems can do a convincing job with smaller music and sound quite lifelike but I have yet to hear a full orchestra sound convincing through reproduction. Its ok for me as I can accept that as long as I can get convincing results for smaller music...which with ceratin systems now and in the past I have managed to achieve.

 

[caesar]

...

KK: If one can presume that the readers are seasoned audiophiles, what they need to do is recognise the various reviewers’ preferences and prejudices. That is the only way they can appreciate the remarks in any sort of context. I, for example, am not the guy to read for extreme bass – I’m more concerned with the midband. Others are obsessed with imaging, etc. Once you are equipped with knowing how the reviewer works, then you need to hear what they heard, by finding a shop that can demonstrate the product. Sadly, this is becoming more and more difficult. So perhaps the best way to hear equipment is to have a wide circle of friends who own a variety of components!
[/I]

I like this, and Kessler has consistently enjoyed audio research/ martin logan/ wilson for a long, long time. But do you have any suggestions for these scenarios:

A) How do you find what the preferred sound of each reviewer is?
B) How do you know if a particular component in a system was chosen for "synergy", such as a warmer DAC or a colder, cleaner amplifier?
C) What if the reviewer's marketing / money-making needs and sonic preferences are changing? For example, way back, Valin used to like musical gear like Lamm. Then about a decade ago, he came out as a "transparency to source"/ analytical listener, while championing Magico Q5 as the best of all time, and stomping on more musical speakers like NOLA (yet NOLA and Magico are polar opposites). Then he dumped Q5s for the more musical Raidhos. And his taste has been boomeranging from the Magico/ Soulution to Raidho/ VAC and back to new Magico models over the last few years.

Likewise, his partner Harley, has been championing the clean sounding Soulution and constellation over most of the last decade. Now seems to have have realized that the latter are too analytical with his Magico Q7s and has called the Berning amp the most musical he has ever heard....

 

[bonzo75]

I think reviewers can only be used for leads. If KK likes AR, you should go listen to AR if you want to do your research, or, if you don’t have the time or the inclination, buy what you have heard/been recommended by a trusted friend. For example, I now see that for those with the budget, should listen to both Soluution and Berning. In which case for me the reviewer's preference does not matter.

You should not expect to buy based on a reviewer’s preference, just use it for leads. KK was clear about this, he said he does not want responsibility to spend your money.

 

[Al M.]

To summarize, especially those in small rooms struggling to know what speakers to buy should just get the Heco Direkt, 2700 quid, and run it with SETs. Details follow.

[…]


The best sounding room was a small room run by Pure Sound of UK, a small dealer/designer. The Heco Direkt speakers, 95 db, with Pure Sound's 845 SETs of 25 watts (he mentioned he also runs them with 10w EL84 amps) and STS Motus direct drive with the Hana SL cartridge (500 quid).

I played Bruch, it sounded nice. I therefore thought I could stress the speakers easily with orchestral, so put on Scheherazade. Unflinched. Then I put on Argenta Espana, and it sounded brilliant. I was flabbergasted. Such small things should not be capable of such performance. You might not get the best piano from it, but hey, it's 2700 quid! And will fit into your bathroom if you wanted it too. And have a SET multichannel set up to boot.

The audio shows are a great representative of audiophile set ups. Most audiophiles force in speakers into rooms that don't suit them. I clearly had an epiphany today of seeing that unless you can get your ultimate system into a proper room, imperative to consider a nice low cost Turntable, with Audio Technica or Hana SL 500 quid cartridge, integrated SET amp 1 to 2k used, EAR phono used 1k, and Heco Direkt. These German speakers will come below your waistline, and are broad baffled, paper cone, vented bass at the bottom. Here is the 6 moons review

[…]

Great write-up, Ked. Unlike you, I would not be surprised about smaller speakers doing orchestral music well. I have monitor speakers of about the same price as the speakers you liked (my review here), combined with a sub, and on my system thread (see my signature) several people have commented on the big and dynamic sound. My speakers of 92 dB sensitivity are driven by parallel push-pull triode amps (2 x 15W). I drive the speakers routinely up to 95 dBa peaks on dynamic material (exceptionally up to 97 dBa), but not further. Not because the system couldn't take it, but because I don't want to ruin my ears (see table). Rock with its continuous loudness gets played in the 85-90 dBa range. By the way, my system reproduces piano rather well.

 

[microstrip]

(...) A) How do you find what the preferred sound of each reviewer is?

You must read a lot, particularly to their comments on specific recordings performance, and listen to the equipment they have owned. I will not take seriously comments of most reviewers on Aida's or XLF's.

Some magazines have a section where reviewers write about their systems and preferences.

B) How do you know if a particular component in a system was chosen for "synergy", such as a warmer DAC or a colder, cleaner amplifier?

I hate this childish, oversimplified and often repeated example of synergy. Synergy is a lot more than than a tube preamplifier with a SS power amplifier. It is a very complex subject and you will never get it from short reviews - each case is a different case.

C) What if the reviewer's marketing / money-making needs and sonic preferences are changing? (...)

Listen to the Rigoletto. Remember reviewers and audiophiles are not different from Dona's.

IMHO some people expect getting guidelines from reviewers - something they are not able to provide.

 

[bonzo75]

It's simpler than that. Go to live shows, listen to gear, and ignore reviewers except to get leads.

Otherwise read reviews and take a punt in the used market, if someone owns your component and has "upgraded" from that based on music you listen to and attributes he has highlighted. And if you don't like it, take a punt in the used market again based on another reviewer since the first did not work

 

[microstrip]

I had a Voyd "The Voyd", which was a first generation 3 motor model. It had a fairly large (but not reference large) split phase power supply to drive the three Papst motors. It also had the acrylic and not the Lexan (polycarbonate) platter. I also had the Helius Cyalene arm...a fine arm. It was one of the most dynamic TTs I have heard...but my version at least was a wee bit noisy. Now I have a Yamaha GT-2000 with (optional) external supply and that is a world class direct drive. It has no cogging and uses both a sophisticated bi-directional servo (thanks JVC!) and a 6Kg platter to keep the speed locked on. No other TT has done as well with my Allnic Speednic in terms of staying completely locked down on the speed. It is just as dynamic as the Voyd was but totally silent. Now, the arm (Yamaha arm) is almost certainly not as good as the Cyalene but it also is not a lot worse because overall I get better sound from the Yamaha setup.

Probably your Voyd was faulty or had a poor bearing - a synthesized split phase power supply using three separate synchronous motors should create a noiseless and smooth drive.