Digital love

by chadeffect on All Out Assault
DCS & Trios

Description

I have moved to a fully computer based set up as a source. No transport and none of those shiny disks any more.

The system has an open, huge soundstage, with very clean, tight bass that dives deep into two figure Hz.

The sound is very powerful and dynamic. Extremely detailed, but still warm, musical and believable and easy to listen to. With the right recording a reach out and touch holographic image and soundstage is possible.

I have been through quite a lot of equipment. I am and was a huge Audio Research fan for years, and I used their tube monos/preamps with great happiness.

I have pretty much always had planar speakers until recently. So I needed powerful amps to drive Magnepan2.6R/3.6R and Apogee Diva/Duetta sig etc.

I have moved to high sensitivity speakers in the form of the Avantgarde Trios now. This has enabled a move to very low powered SET amplifiers which has been great fun.

I have been searching for equipment that keeps the music free of colour and true to the recording. I believe you choose your source for its sound. The rest of the equipment should let the source do its magic as much as possible and get out of the way of the music.

Happy listening
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Components Toggle details

    • Yamamoto A08s
    This unit is modified with Mundorf silver/gold in oil caps, Mundorf tube cap, and Duelund VSF Cu caps. I use Emission Labs mesh plates 45 power tubes. A very refined and beautifully natural sounding amp. Very transparent.
    • DCS Scarlatti clock
    Finest player in the world
    • Avantgarde Trio
    19 ohm 109db/watt with 225 subs
    • DCS Scarlatti
    State of the art number crunching.
    • PS audio Premier Power Plant
    Power regenerator.
    • Analysis plus Golden oval XLR
    Beautiful cable. Amazing detail and still warm and life like
    • Audio Magic Stealth XXX oyaide
    Specially made with Oyaide XXX sockets and furutech input. Much more detailed than the Hydra it replaced
    • Apogee Duetta signature2 Heavily modified
    These have the latest Graz ribbons both tweeter/mid and bass panels. I have external cross overs with mundorf silver/gold in oil caps and Alphacore foil inductors. Caddock resistors and all solid core silver wired. All suspended and vibration free. These apogees take much more power and go way louder and have much better dynamics than the original. Not only that but much improved sound quality.
    Simply stunning! I have had many planars magnepan etc but these really are the best in every way now. Long live Apogee and Thank goodness for Grazs search for perfection!
    • Virtual dynamics Revelation 2
    This must be one of the only cables I have heard that when compared to cables that seem to "do nothing" or just pass signal untouched this cable does lots but in a good way! A staggering solid detailed sound, but a nightmare to plug in due to its size, weight and stiffness.
    • Virtual dynamics Master LE
    Very nicely focused cable with very low noise floor. The best bass I have heard and startling dynamic speed
    • Oyaide SWO XXX/SWO GX
    Its own spur and conditioned with various filters along the way before reaching the Stealth
    • Acoustic Revive RR-77
    Sends out a very low frequency into the room which disrupts RFI EMI and makes you feel relaxed! Very odd but works well Seems to focus the mid range
    • Sonic studio Amarra
    Bolt on for itunes
    • Auralex Lenrd Bass traps
    I have 8 of these traps placed subtly in the corners of the listening room. They have done a very good job in a room that had quite tight bass anyway.
    • Weiss Medea plus
    Latest super DAC. Volume control on Firewire input. Variable output voltage to match amps. stunning DAC

Comments 359

Showing all comments by cjfrbw.

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I don't agree that Chadeffect's positioning scheme is wrong. Yes, it tends to vary from the rote dogma that Aps should be out in the room away from the walls. However, corner loading Aps is very effective as well and can create a massive soundstage. Just as with horn loading, if the room sounds pretty good and is restricted in space, you can increase the nominal efficiency and dynamics by corner loading, as well as reinforcing bass.
I have a pair of corner loaded Centaur Minors used as surrounds raised about five feet in the air and pointed inward from the corners about 17 feet apart. When running the main stereo signal through them, using 300b amp and crossing over at 80 Hz to subwooofers, they play incredibly loud with a huge soundstage, quite a shocker. I got a similar effect when corner loading Stages.
I think that corner loading the larger Aps in a somewhat smaller room could create a dandy effect, especially with classical orchestra, if the room is compatible.

cjfrbw

Not fanning any flames, just stating that there is no specific efficiency for the Grand as stated: four amplifiers with four drivers and an active crossover means four different efficiencies. That would also make the efficiencies additive in some manner, not logarithmic, across the four different amps. The ability of a large panel to project into the room also needs to be taken into account. No single amp is spec'd into a passive crossover, so the 84db figure is just some kind of careless bogus-ness. I know the Apogee speakers website states 84db, but I think it is incorrect or a wild guess based on the other Aps. The best you could do is specify four different efficiencies based on bandwidth and power for each one i.e. each ribbon would have its own efficiency based on its bandwith, the subwoofer with its bandwidth etc.
I suspect the Grand overall is pretty efficient compared to the other Aps.

cjfrbw

Although it's always fun to watch Vince and Florian wrangle, I don't know that the Grand's efficiency can be so easily dismissed or placed to a single efficiency. Most Apogees are rated at 3 meters into the room, not the usual 1 meter, and their volume falls off in a more linear manner rather than to the square of linear distance. Also, the Grand uses an active crossover, which increases efficiency, and separate amps for each frequency band. It also has more powerful magnets than any other traditional Apogee, which should make it far more efficient. I think the 84db efficiency spec is guesswork based on other large Aps if not just erroneous. When I heard Grands many years ago in an enormous room, they were ear splittingly loud and very dynamic. However, I don't know that anything can compete with horns but other horns. On the other hand, what you hear with horns is often the horn itself rather than the source.

cjfrbw

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