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A few impressions from the CES/THE Shows

I went with a friend looking for speakers to replace his Beveridges; they currently operate but he feels one amp is dying (again) and that it’s time. Unfortunately, he STILL hasn’t found a speaker to love. He’s pointed toward high-efficiency designs based on so-called full-range drivers, so we looked at many of them in 2-and-two-half days. We simply didn’t bother listening to MOST speakers as they weren’t interesting.

My friend’s and my taste in speaker voicing is VERY similar and we agreed overall about every system we heard. Both of us need MORE than a ‘neutral’ amount of energy in the orchestra’s power region–those 3 or so octaves from c. 100 to 800Hz–and we both want LESS treble energy than ‘flat’. We both love the spaciousness of dipoles but heard few to listen to.

First--the WORST sound, BY FAR, was the from the Wisdom M-75, priced at $55K/pair. It had so little energy in the power region, it wasn’t ‘thin’, it was clangy. Most disappointing for Dean was the Rethm, which wounded VERY think and bright, even with the horn extenders.

POSSIBLY the combined shows' best sound was produced by a prototype system by Cogent. It’s a 2-way system driven by 2 field-coil-powered compression drivers, horn-loaded of course, plus a monstrous mono-15"-horn-loaded subwoofer, all of which might retail in the $40-thousands. The horns were rectangular and built of birch plywood, painted, and had significant resonances, but both of us felt this system reproduced the sound of the orchestra VERY convincingly. The ‘possibly’ above is because they were in a much-too-small room. WAY over 100dB sensitivity. Maybe next year...

Overall, probably the best sound we heard was from the German-made $6500/pair Audio Physic Scorpio. It’s a rather-conventional-looking back-tilting, 4'-high floorstander that uses one dome tweeter and 2 MRs on the front panel and 4 7" woofers mounted 2 on each side and driven as bipoles. They had plenty of energy in the power region and great bass, extended and well defined. GORGEOUS veneers! Dean felt they were not quite as transparent as he would like; I disagreed, but he’s the GEA, not me.

The Vandersteen Quattros sounded very nice, neutral, spacious, etc., but were too ‘polite’ in the power region and hence uninvolving for both of us. Same for the Gallo Reference 3.1s, which produced probably the biggest and best soundstage of the show in a relatively HUGE room. Those little things were probably 10' from each sidewall.

In substantial contrast to their sound in Denver last September at RMAF, the Zus sounded QUITE good, especially the $2800/pair Druids with the $3K/pair ‘Method’ powered subwoofers. They were too bright for us but sounded VERY fine otherwise. I believe they’re Dean’s current favorites.

One thought both of us had--most of the speaker designers can’t be lovers of classical music--else they wouldn’t be designing speakers that sound, in the treble, little like real orchestras playing in real space. Oh well...
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128x128jeffreybehr

Showing 3 responses by tbg

tbg
5,263 posts
 
I posted several comments elsewhere that focused on speakers.

I thought the sound, as usual, was best at THE Show. I heard four speakers that impressed me. First the Zen Acoustics little guys with the Red Dragon switching amp. Second the Tonian $1500 speakers which have to be the best buy for the money. Third were the Ars Aures big speakers. With low phase distortion, they gave an excellent sound stage and realism. I could listen all day with the Art Audio 845 amps. Fourth and best, were the Cerious Technologies satellite speakers with powered subwoofers. They were no doubt helped by the H-Cat, but their sound stage realism was dumbfounding. I have never heard such accurate bass. They are also incredibly priced at $7800.

The Acapella Violon Mk IIIs were also excellent, but their price is offputting. The little one, also pricy, were also excellent.

I would entirely agree with you about both the Wisdoms and the Rethms. I have heard the Rethms sound quite good although most limited in frequency response, but this time I stayed as short a time as I could.

I cannot agree about the Zus, however. I only listened to the bigger ones but thought they were far superior even in the very close field at RMAF. I lost all interest in them.

The Cogents were a thrill and a disappointment. It is good that there is an American all out effort, but although I liked the sound considering the small room, I really don't want to get back to a four way system and the very great expense of getting there.

As you can see, only the Cerious Technologies is a viable interest for me.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
Twilo, I saw the TADs but given the sound and my previous experiences with the Model Ones, I did not bother to go into the room. I wish they had not abandoned high efficiency designs.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
I did spend a good deal of time listening to the TAD 2s and Andrew Jones' great presentation. I still don't like the speakers and wish TAD would have stuck with high efficiency speakers where the crappy powerful Pass amps would not be needed.

In my opinion the sound is colored more so than the Pioneer XE speakers that cost a fraction as much. I don't know whether this is the amps, the set-up or room, or the speakers. The sources were great.

I heard the LSA Model 1s and the YGs, both of which have extremely rigid aluminum non-resonant boxes. It is against them that I found the TADs colored. It is, of course, possible that both wooden and aluminum boxes, no matter how rigid, have their own colorations.
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