This is a crazy hobby/passion we all have and I've been at it for the last 35 years sinking lots of dough in it. I am getting there to that elusive audio/home theater system nirvana. IMO, the room has the biggest influence in the quality of the ultimate quality of the sound system. Case in point, my previous home, I had a dedicated audio room with very high cathedral cieling and it was a rather large living room. I had plunked down over 200G in 1988 to a system that was featured in Audio/Video Interior magazine called "Cathedral of Sound". The system consisted of Duntech Sovereign 2001 loudspeakers, Bridged Cello Performance Amplifiers(8 chassis including 220V power supply), Cello Audio Suite, Cello Audio pallette, Wadia and Accuphase transport/dac, Nakamichi Dragon DAT, Goldmund Reference RO turntable, Day Sequerra Broadcast monitor, etc. Well the sound of the system was just unbelievably close to live sound. I moved to a place that no longer had the high pitched cieling but also of decent sized room. With the same equipment, I no longer had that magical acoustics and sound from my system. One by one I started to sell the electronics, changed speakers, but nothing I have done truly restored the kind of sound that I was getting before. I remember that one of the biggest improvement that I made with the sound in my new place was when I got 8 dedicated 20 amp isolated ground MC 10 gauge 35 amp peak capable lines. You got to have your fundamentals correct.
My current configuration is getting there but not quite the sound I remembered having in my old place. I think the biggest improvement I made was when I got Dynaudio Evidence Temptations. The next biggest improvement was with the source, followed by speaker cable, interconnects and power cords.
I am about to replace this behemoth E-Cube dual 18 inch subs with dual prototype 15 inch subs with factory provided DSP equalization system which I can not disclose the manufacturer name for now. This ought to be interesting.
It is not evident from the pics but I have a large 1,600 sq ft listening area that expands out to three adjacent rooms beyond the listening position. Hence, the reason why I need a good subwoofer system to augment the bottom 1/2 octave I'm not getting without subs.
I think a good room correction possible nowadays with good DSP systems such as Rane, Tact 2.2XP, DEQX can go a long way in improving the sound and is definitely on my plate to try.
System edited: I've moved on from Dynaudio Evidence Temptation which I lived with for 2 years. Reason is that its sound is too agressive and in a word "FATIGUING". When you first listen to Evidence Temptation, you're quite impressed with the speaker but is soon wears out and you notice something that bothers you about its aggresive and not relaxing sound. I've listened to Evidence Masters and this agressive quality is ameliorated but I am not about to plunk down additional $40,000. Instead, I went to Kharma Grand Midi speakers which is faithful to live music being natural and pleasurable to listen to even for prolong period of time. I attend Disney Hall concerts and classical music played through Kharma is closest to live venue sound as I heard over the years.
Well, I've parted with both Dynaudio Evidence and Epiphany. I am now a big fan of Kharma Grand Midi. Evidence was just too aggresive sounding for me. Epiphany was a temporary thing and it was outclassed by Evidence Temptation. Kharma is amazing. It is very much musical and you can listen to hours on end with true to life sound.
Well, the subwoofers are past the prototype stage and I now have permission to mention the manufacturer who will deliver my subs and set up in my main audio system in two more weekds. The subs are manufactured by Zu which will be their new highest end subwoofer model which would make their Method middle of the line. The sub is built with a new 14 ply cabinet in oblisque shape using their light mass 15 inch paper cone diagphram driver in a loaded sealed enclosure which promises quick transient capabilities necessary for integration to high end audio system rather than your typical subs for LFE effects in home theater.
I prefer the Dyns. I primarily listen to Classical music. Dyns simply sounds more realistics to live orchestration sound with great micro and macro dynamics, huge soundstage and ability to resolve complex music passages with well dilineated placements of these orchestral instruments. I have seanson tickets to live symphony concerts in center front row and I marvel at Dyns ability to recreate the atmosphere with truly life like sounds of various strings.
Epiphany's are musical and relaxing to listen to and provides almost equally as well soundstaging and imaging but seems to strain on louder dynamic passages especially with its tweeter. This is not as noticeable with classical music but more with jazz sources where you hear more dynamic sax or percussion instruments in a more intimate recording space.
I've had and tried many speaker systems including Apogee Diva ribbon panel speakers, Martin Logan CLSz, Soundlab A-1, Duntech Sovereign 2001, Dunlavy SCVI, MBL111E, Kharma Midi Exquisite but I've yet to discover speaker system that performs as well as Dyns in all aspects of live sound reproduction. I am seriously thinking of upgrading to Dynaudio Masters as these have even bigger soundstage and more effortless sound or consider upgrading to Magico one of these days if I can find a deal on them as list on these are outrageous.
