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I just ordered a unit. Hope to have it this weekend. |
Ron Buffington of Liquid HiFi here in Charlotte NC.
I am an authorized dealer for QOL and recently plugged in my demo unit and the effect is not subtle. Significantly larger soundstage, improved imaging with more air around instruments and musicians, improved depth of field.
I would be pleased to demonstrate the unit for any interested parties in the area in my systems or yours.
Marc777 got his from me and actually encouraged me to get involved with the QOL, and we are both very glad to have them in our systems |
Nak8, I do not understand how this technology works after reading all I can. What I do understand is when you hear it you know it is right and sounds much more live and correct. Not all recordings are as improved as much as others, but all benefit and some dramatically. Just read review of the qol unit in the latest TAS by Robert Harley with his super high-end system. He also is in love or lust as much as I am with his unit and it ain't going nowhere. ((smile)) Marc PS It is hard for me to listen to my car stereo much anymore, as I miss all the extra the qol unit brings into play. Long live qol, I need it every night! |
Ditto Mark....
I spent the holidays an my vacation home where I do not have a qol in that system. A very nice system, was once my primary audiophile setup, but I could not wait to get back and listen to my daily system that runs qol.
I kept thinking....what the heck is missing....what did I change there...then it struck me....I should have brought the qol with me.
Interesting how one grows acustom to a way of listening and when it is gone, it is easily noticed and missed. |
Pimconsulting, that is interesting about the panel speakers. I have a back-up pair of maggies I use if a speaker problem occurs with the Shophia IIIs. One of the many benefits the qol unit does is expand the perceived height of the Wilsons. They sound more like the maggies now as far as soundstage. This is one of the many benefits the qol unit does in my system. I have not tried the maggies with the qol, but I had wondered if things might be different with panel speakers. I do disagree about audiophile statement you made and I bet time will prove me right. To me if something sounds more live and real, that is desirable, after all stereo is just an illusion trying to sound more real than mono. And Setonaudio, I agree the qol does make the system a lot less room dependent. I am sure that i love what the qol unit does for believability and when off the thrill is gone. Long live qol, I need it every night. Marc |
I've heard the Qol on several different systems now, including Maggie 3.6, Apogees, small Gallo's and Pipedreams.
I can say, in general, I didn't like what it did to the panel speakers. They are already capable of producing wide open sound. The QOL was a bit too much of a good thing, and you can achieve the same presentation on these with proper setup and room treatment.
However, on cone speakers the QOL was very nice indeed. Those little Gallo's sounded like floorstanders and filled the room. On the Pipedreams it made the presentation far more expansive.
So overall, YMMV depending on the type of speaker system you are trying this on. And yes, the price point of this puts it out of reach for many people, and no I have no idea how it works except that it must play with phase. That means it is probably not a device for the purist audiophile, but more for someone who just wants things to sound good to their ears. |
Marc,
I concur with your findings. I no longer do sound test but rather just run Qol during listening sessions. The way I see it, it is like going to stereo...once listeners got over the paradigm shift, it just become the completion of the music and how it should be heard.
Once very nice extra feature is that the room acoustics now play less of a role. This is great for problem and odd shaped rooms. |
I have been having some friends over, but the rotation was so heated i could not justify a slowdown in the action so that i could do a cable swap. All comers spoke more than once that it sounded better than live to them. We know this isn't likely, but you get the point i'm sure. Upon taking the qol unit out of the circuit, all the excitement diminished. I will get around to swapping cables soon. Marc PS Setonaudio, what is your feedback? |
I will be testing position change this weekend. In previous test, within my system,placing qol before the pre there was marked drop in air and soundstage. After talking to Larry Kay and telling him my experience he confirmed he also heard improvement after pre. I am fairly sure that is the prime way to go, but I will try 1 last test now that the new Cardas Clear IC is broken in. Marc |
Marc, any more experimenting with placement in your system? (before pre, after pre, etc.). Any effects on tonality? |
Setonaudio, one more weekend only verifies the value of qol unit. Old rock, The Who,Beatles,CCR,Doors,Stones, ect. are all enhanced very markedly. Have not tried classical yet, because once you start playing music you keep playing more of whatever you are listening to due to the great improvement. I am grinning a whole bunch more than I have in years. What has been your experience so far? Marc |
The music I have played so far has been acoustic, voices, horns, piano, drums ect. in CD, SACD and streamed in from Mac both in stereo and some mono. Etta James, Ray Charles, Van Morrison, Norah Jones, Stevie Wonder and BeeGees.In all cases added phase info adds to marked difference in articulation of voices and instruments. Besides stage width and depth both being increased another benefit was that music seems to come from a sphere from each speaker instead of being flat in nature. The stereo separation is improved no matter the position or room you are in. It just reminds me of all the live music i have been graced with listening thru the years. This weekend i plan some rock and classical music to hear how it is effected. One caveat from my experience was when I moved the qol unit from between my ARC LS-27 preamp and ARC DS-450 amp to before the preamp the air and soundstage collapsed. A Cardas Clear 1/2 meter IC arrived so that i will be trying to see if this was cable related or did i somehow miss connect it. Live music has always made me want to get up and dance and I now realize the phase info must be the ticket to ride and what has been lacking in all stereo systems. I know it is fairly expensive and it goes against my audiophile nature to simplify and here you add a box and a set of cables. But this for me is it!!! After some more time and use i will write again about how cable and position came out. |
Setonaudio, I am a slow typist and at work late tonight, but i will share my experience as soon as time allows. I can say, from my "earpoint" that the unit seems to have solved a fundamental short-coming in sound reproduction and the more listening done the more of value it becomes to me. I will break down what music and what differences were heard. I may sound subdued, but believe me the fire is down below and i will explain what i mean in next thread. Marc |
Mark,
So how did the marathon go? I look forward to comparing your notes with ours.
Note: I am a Dealer of the Qol product here in the San Francisco Bay Area.
If you have time, details on type of music auditioned and how the Qol product effected these types of music would be much appreciated. As well, if you can make a comment about the music depth, I would love to hear your impressions. |
I have had one in system for a week now and I am very satisfied. I went in extremely skeptical with thoughts that this might just be a gimmick. So far I am amazed at how everything seems so much more live.I had previously thought my system gave one a hair-raising experience, but the hair on my air literally stood up as long as i was playing music, this past weekend. This coming weekend I plan a music marathon and will describe more what differences one hears. Marc |
I agree,4-K for a future ubiquitous product in the realm of main-stream audio is a bit much.1K seems a little more in line with reality.
Are you listening Mr Kay? |
It supposedly extracts hidden Phase data in the signal (the so-called geography of sound). In unfurling this data, the sound appears more real, like the original event.
They say they plan to license this out like Dolby does, so trhat it will be ubiquitious embedded tech.
It is a bit of a dismay that their one available audio product is so expensive and thus will limit the amount of people who will be able to afford this. $4K is steeep! This should be a $1K price point. |
Very impressive ... ? Very impressive aluminum box ?
What does it do? |
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