This system has taken me a number of years to put together. It has been a fun process though. I am a person who started out just liking movies but I also evolved into some one who likes music as well. This system allows me to have both.
When I heard that JM Labs was going to make a limited edition speaker, I knew that was the one I wanted. I have always loved their sound. I have not been disappointed yet. Like I mentioned before, this system has been built over time. Adding a piece here, upgrading there. I think I have formed a nice synergy with my equipment. It can still bring a smile to my face when I listen to it.
I really like the detail I can get from this setup. It sounds very clean and clear. From the highs all the way down, it is done very well. Bass is surpriseingly good considering the size of my fronts.
When I get my new processor I am most likely done for a long time. I just can't see any reason to change or upgrade.
Thanks Henry. Yea it was quick. But I did have fun at the show. I think I found my turn table. I have a feeling that I will get the Well Tempered Amadeus table. I really liked it when I listened to it. The GP room was nice and so was the Esoteric room. I also liked the Dr.Feickert table. I ended up at T.H.E show also and got to hear Jonathan's room. Those speakers are great. And the integrated is very nice as well. Meeting everyone from DartZeel was great also. If I go again, it would be nice to spend some time walking around and chatting.
I have read, and people have told me that the room is key. I agree %100. That is why in a few months I am going to treat my room with some sonic resonators. I heard their effect in my dealers room and I was impressed. When I move my Turn Table upstairs, he will bring some so we can play around with them in my room. I had my old speakers way back in the room at first. They were on either side of my old wooden wall unit. I decided to pull them up so there was nothing between them. That was my first introduction to how placement and barriers could make such a difference. But with this, the physical change was so small, but the results were so larger. I was just taken off guard. I think now, I have the speakers set up pretty good. When I listen to music, it is just so much more involving. For me, I need to know that my system is sounding the best it can with the equipment I have. I think now, that is the case. That does not mean that I am not looking to change things in the future :), it just means that what I have now is very pleasing.
Shadorne, OK. I took your advise and move the DVD cabinet back. Was there a change. Oh Hell Yea :). I don't claim to understand why. Before, I always thought I had a decent sound stage. It sounded nice, but it would always "lean" to the right side of the room. Now, it is directly in front of me %100. I am really amazed at that fact to tell you the truth. On that song Old Man by the ABB, Now it really sounds incredible. Like I said before, it is an acoustic song with just vocals and the two guitar players. The vocals are smack dab in the middle of the room. Each guitar player are still in each speaker on their own. But now, when the solo's come own, now they really just float in the room. BUT they float at the same time that I am hearing the rhythm come out of the left and right speakers. It is hard for me to explain but it sounded real cool. I mean, the solo seems to come from the center channel while the other parts of the song are coming from the left and right speaker. Really cool. Thanks for the tip.
Thanks Shadorne. It may not happen for a bit. I need help moving my stuff around so until I can get help, I will just have to suffer as is :). That one in the main picture can be fixed pretty easily. And I thought that all I needed was to have nothing in between them and a bit of space from the walls. Silly me.
Thanks for baby stepping me :). I will see if I can play with placement and those cases. So I may be nullifing the positive affects the shape of my speaker provides by its current location? OK. I will see what I can do. Thanks again.
Thanks Shadorone. That is a brand new picture. Yea, it is pretty close to the case with the DVD's. Are you suggesting that I move it closer to the outside wall? I might be able to move the cases down a bit to make some room. What if I leave the speakers where they are and just try and schooch the bookcase down a bit. Would that accomplish anything? Thanks again for the input :)
Thanks Jylee. As I mentioned, it has taken a while, but I am happy with the results. The Grand Prix just helped to unleash the potential that my system already had. But 1037's, they must sound sweet. I am happy I went with the 1027's. First, the deal I got was just to good to pass up. Second, the 1037's were not even out yet and even if I could swing the price, they would be WAY to big for my room. The 1027's are perfect for all types of music in this room. But the GP is really great. I am very glad so many people talked me into getting them.
Thanks Henry. I was listening to some Dire Straits and Allman Brothers. The song Old Friend by the Allman Brothers sounded completely different. Not to mention that I heard details in the other songs as well. And the album Brothers in Arms sounded incredible. Much more music AND vocals. Even with ABB I heard more extended vocals. I will do the feet at some point, but I have other things I want to do first.
System edited: OK. A pretty big change. I switched out my old wooden wall unit for a Grand Prix Monaco Modular rack system. To say I am impressed would be a gross understatement. I now understand. My system has taken a quantum leap in SQ with this, plus, I like the look
Yea, there are a lot of great tables out there. I have no doubt that the Raven is killer. But to be honest, the thing that keeps running through my mind is Ayre. I have read how fantastic their stuff was from reviewers and end users. They all said their stuff was great and it had fantastic musicality and detail. When I went to CES I got a chance to check them out. I was not floored. The stuff sounded very good, but it did not "move" me. Now they were using Thiel speakers which I really don't care for anyway, but it still left an impression. And I know about "show" conditions" but I did hear other stuff that I really liked. I am just afraid that this will be one of those times. When the time comes, I guess I will need to try and check out this table for myself. I really don't want edgy either. I, like you, favor detail. My system right now is fairly detailed IMO right now. But, I could also live with a softer warm sound as well. My speakers do well with either bias.
My local dealer, who I would probably get the cartridge from since I am getting the preamp from him sells Dynavector and Graham. I know that the Graham works but I am unsure about the Dynavector. I contacted Jeff just out of curiosity. He said that for the price, he could include an arm for me. The later, I could upgrade it. We shall see. Thanks though for your thoughts :). I do appreciate them and they are helpful.
Just to add some more. I find it interesting that you said the Hyperspace was "dark". That is exactly the thoughts I got when I was reading the reviews of the Raven. Some indicated that it was very think and complex. "A muscular, dense presentation" "However, the Raven AC brings its own set of sonic strengths to bear -- that dense, weighty presentation, one that I would characterize as "neutral," The Raven AC doesn't have the leanness that overtly detailed equipment often has, bleaching the sound to create the illusion of transparency. There's too much weight, power and color to the Raven AC's sound, and it retrieves too much detail to be considered dark or sloggy." The reviews use words like Dark and rich. I was just unsure how those translated to what I like. I mean, I have of course seen all of the praise on this site, and the review of "the One" was very good also. In fact, in that review, it was showed to a Nottingham dealer. He was extremely impressed with build quality. All options are open. Including this one. I would get the Raven One though. That would fit my budget much better :).
I hear you Dgad. I am not ready to buy anything yet any way. This is my time line. In a few weeks I will have my Grand Prix rack that I just purchased installed. Then, I am going to add one more shelf and and a dynavector preamp and move my old Kenwood TT upstairs just because I really am anxious to start spinning some vinyl. At that point I am going to get some room treatments(Sonic Resonators). Then I will upgrade my cables to Evolution Acoustic. I want to get my setup sounding as good as it it can so when I do drop a table in it I know that it will sound as good as it can. I am not just blindly going into this. My dealer has access to VPI and Well Tempered as well. But I will keep the Raven on my radar also. It does seem to be a great table. I have talked to the importer and he seems like a good guy. Thanks for the thoughts.
I hear you. I am almost afraid to listen to my system again because I know in my mind it will not sound like what it did with that amp. But I can be happy until the time comes. Well, now the saving beings.
One thing I forgot to mention clearly is the overall sound characteristics. First, it did not sound like SS. I have heard many solid state amps. Albeit, not in my system though. I have heard MBL, Ayre, Boulder, Jeff Rowland along with others. This amp sounded nothing like them. But it did not sound like tubes either. I have heard Pathos, BAT, AR, along with others and it did not have the "tube" sound. It just sounded clean and natural.
Well, I had the chance to listen to the amp in my system. Let me first say that the build quality looks simply incredible. I happen to like the look of it. Barry from Transparent Systems came over to do it for me. So first we listened to some music with my amp so we could get a base line. Basically I wanted him To hear what my reference is. Then we switched amps and listened to the same music. There was a change :). I started to hear layers into the music I had not Heard before. Also, the bass was very different. It sounded incredibly smooth and refined. Not what I was used to. The soundstage opened way up. There was even a bass line that I picked out that was muted before. And that was with a regular cd. Then we put on a Re-mastered version of Dire Straits Brothers in Arms. Now that sounded incredible. Again, the bass along with everything else sounded fantastic. But it also seemed less congested. It is like some one took a blanket off my speakers. The instruments sounded so good and real. Then we listened to a Verve recording of Diana Krall. Again, it sounded fantastic. Finally I wanted to see how an SACD would sound so we put on Buddy Guy. Well, from the very first not I could tell a difference. No doubt that this amp was taking me deep into the music. The better the recording, the better it sounded. IE:cd's had a big improvement, but the remastered and Verve had a bigger one. And the SACD had the biggest. As the quality of the disks improved, so did the overall SQ.
So after doing that listening Barry wanted to put the Bryston in again and listen to the Dire Straits. He had not heard that CD with the Bryston. So we put the amp back in and played the disk and my smile went away, it sounded incredibly congested. No sound stage. The bass was flabby. We could both tell the difference right away. In comparison, my amp seemed to mush everything together. It is a very very nice amp. I am going to try and get that in my system some day. It will just take awhile.
I know I know. I would really like to do it. But there are other forces working against me :). One thing I am really considering is getting rid of the Monster AVS2000. At this point I only have two items plugged into it. My TV and cable box. I could put them into my HTPS7000 and that way I could at least put the amp directly on the wall unit. Something that is not shown in that picture is the fact that I now have SRA platforms under my amps. So they are not directly on the Monster stuff. It is a pretty solid and inert wall unit. If I could easily do it I would. But that may have to wait until later.
Thanks for the thoughts Dewald. It is something that I am thinking about very much. I have talked with a dealer and he is really sure that I should do this. The rack does sound very sophisticated. I have my new sub going in this weekend and then I am on vacation. But when I get back, this is something that I am going to look very hard at. I just needed to get it through my head that isolation is that important. I mean, I figured it would be for my cd player, but my amps are SS not tubes. I did not think it would really matter for them. But I guess I was wrong Thanks again for the feedback.
Thanks for the nice words. The picture may be deceiving. The speaker placement works out pretty well for music and movies as it is. It took me a while to get the placement just right with these speakers. It was important to me to put gear together that works well for music and movies. The power conditioning is an interesting topic. It works for me because I need many outlets for my gear. But I will one day change out the monster for some Audience gear. I have a new sub coming this weekend. It should be fun. The upgrade to these speakers was the best choice I made. The deal was just to insane to say no to. Now I want to get the absolute most out of them that I can.
