I heard his largest speakers at RMAF '07 playing with, I think it was, Art Audio low-powered SET amplification. It was one of my favorite rooms. The speakers were full range, coherent and very engaging. They did everything very well disappearing like ghosts and throwing a huge stage. I spent quite a bit of time listening in his room. I have not heard any other examples from his line though. Also notable is the cabinetry, which is superb. He uses solid woods and does just beautiful joinery, albeit very distinctive from expectations one may have from the seamless veneer finishes of most speakers.
Showing 7 responses by jax2
I'm still shopping for a good quality high current design to replace my 150.2 and am curious what impact that will have on my system. I'll keep everyone posted. Per previous posts; definitely put the new Modwright amp on your short list. You can read my feedback and impressions, among others,on this Audiocircle post of that amp. You can also contact Lou to get his impressions of it - I believe he's ordered two of them to use bridged after trying out the amp for a while at his place. Disclaimer: Dan is a client of mine. There's also a pending review on 6Moons where you can see more very nicely done internal photos of that amp (the link is on that same thread). Marco |
You can find some input from Dan Wright (Modwright) on the Daedalus RMa speakers on this thread on AudioCircle. Marco |
I had to stop by Dan Wright's new workshop in Amboy. He had a pair of Lou's RMa's there (per my previous post). We listened to them in Dan's gorgeous listening room with Dan's new amp and a very modest digital front end with a handfull of program material. Like Lou's other speakers, the RMa's sounded great. They are definitely a full-range speaker, but they did not reach the lows that the larger speaker I heard at RMAF was able to reach. Very understandable given the volume difference and the additional drivers. These are damn fine speakers, seamlessly integrated and go plenty low overall (being driven by 150w into 8 ohms of SS power in a moderate to large room). I would have guessed they were dropping off at the high 20's. I would say only a real bass head would want a sub with them. On the warmer side of neutral I'd say, and fast enough to keep up with whatever is thrown their way. All the characteristics of the larger speakers I heard. As with the larger speakers these reflected the same gorgeous, solid build quality I'd seen at RMAF. They are unique in this respect..not your typical hard-edge, modern veneered glossy box...these look like a classic piece of furniture. The craftsmanship is peerless. |
So what is the ideal match to Daedalus speakers, integrated and tube, if possible. Man, if anyone could answer that question, Lou would be the man. He knows his own speakers best. Being a musician himself I'd put my faith in what he had to say on the subject. When I heard the Ulysses at RMAF '07 (I'm pretty sure it was the Ulysses - his largest at the time) I believe he was using a SET amp (I can't recall whether it was Art Audio or WAVAC, but ask him). That pairing (RMAF '07) was outstanding. Very lifelike in scale and impact...beautiful soundstage....he pushed them pretty hard for us and they never seemed to break a sweat, nor did they become harsh or fatiguing in any way at all...They seemed to do everything right as far as the music I'd brought to listen to. I'm sure we spent the better part of an hour in his room listening. It was a very nice combination. In an entirely different pairing off; I just learned that Dan Wright (Modwright) is considering getting a pair of Ulysses for his listening room at his workshop. They'd be his main showroom speakers. I can tell you the RMa's made for a great pairing with his new 150 watt SS amp there...can't wait to hear the Ulysses in that room! One other note in reading my RMa observations above...the Ulysses also have a more impactfull midrange from recollection, without giving up any purity of midrange that the RMa's also offer. Damn fine speakers, both! The short answer, since I've become too wordy as usual, is that they occur to me as versatile speakers since they could sound great with both low powered SET and 150 watts of refined SS power. It's been too long since the RMAF experience to state my comparisons are spot-on, but I did make some notes on the experience then and remember it well. I hope these general impressions are of some help. |
Another thing a speaker needs to do to "disappear" is recreate a soundfield wherein the speakers do not cue your ear as to their location. This my DA-1.1's do very well but are not in the same league as the best I've heard in this regard. A couple of comments based on above: Soundstaging will be profoundly affected by the room and setup, and of course the system behind it. No offense meant at all to Dodgealum, but the room in his system pics does not look like it's optimized for two channel listening (though a very nice WAF runaround on the corner bass traps!). Neither is mine for that matter. I too have to deal with a large TV screen between my speakers and that is a huge compromise. I usually put a large absorption panel in front of my screen when listening and that does help some, but ideally I would prefer to have nothing in between my speakers. I'm of course, assuming he's still using this room in his system pics and basing his comments on that. As far as the DA1.1's not being up to the best soundstaging speakers out there; well, I would not expect a 3-way floorstander with five drivers to compete with a great 2-channel monitor or a single-driver speaker in this specific area that Dodgealum has isolated (sounstaging). That would not be a reasonable expectation IMO. A more specific comparison may be more useful in this context. As far as my own limited experience with Lou's speakers, which has been limited to RMAF '07 (I think Ulysses) and Dan Wright's listening room (RMA's), in neither case did the speakers call attention to themselves in any way imaginable. Both threw vast soundstages and both were in very nice rooms (Lou scored one of the better [larger] rooms at RMAF that year, while most of the [smaller] rooms are quite challenging at that venue). No doubt coming into any hotel room is quite challenging, but the larger rooms there in general did sound better. Dan's room is excellent and well sorted out. Hope that helps, Grant. |
You and I are in the same boat, Dodgealum. Probably like many here we have to use what we have the best we know how. The tube trap reference was referring to your runaround of using, perhaps unknowingly, substitutes for actual tube traps. Your corner bookshelf and a house plant probably do a very similar service in breaking up the two back corners of the room :-) Again, no disrespect was intended in the least bit in anything I said. Since Grant seemed to be asking about one area of performance, and you made a very specific response, I just thought that I should point out that your observations (as anyone's) should be put into perspective. Grant's response occurred to me as very 'finite', though he may not have meant it that way. By way of a personal example; I've had several pairs of Silverline SR17 monitors over many years. I've used them in perhaps half a dozen different rooms with various systems. In some they did an astounding disappearing act (which I believe is a strong suit of that speaker), while in others their soundstaging abilities were limited by the room, the system or both. Had I only had the less ideal room/system to judge them by I would probably opine that they were lacking in that area. So there is yet another consideration in reflecting upon answers of such a query. Just food for thought, I guess. |