RMAF 2017 Impressions

Thanks for nicely describing various products! @AllanMarcus

BTW, What Tekton speakers did they display?

I am using lore (the same color as below), and always think my loudspeakers look very cute and lovely!

 

I can comment from previous experience, since I've heard all of these and the Pulsars in particular at length. The JA stuff is very good, but it's definitely on the fuller/richer side of of the spectrum. They image quite well and scale with the system. In one particular top notch vinyl rig owned by an acquaintance near me (Kuzma XLDC, Ypsilon, Zesto), the Pulsars created one of the deepest and incredibly well layered presentations I've heard to date. Granted this was a very well treated room, dedicated to 2 channel listening, etc.

It's interesting to see @AllanMarcus liking both JA and Raidho so much, given how different they are. Right brain vs left brain essentially.

Harbeths are famous for their midrange. Another right brain speaker, like JA. Now, the 30.1 to 30.2 transition I've not been able to evaluate, but if like the 40.1 to 40.2 transition which I have experienced, then I can say the .2 iteration removes some of the fluidity of the .1. The .1 will sound a bit gentler with bad recordings for example, while the .2 will be more revealing of them. So I think .1 vs .2 is going to be highly preference dependent based on what you're trying to achieve. But in general, Harbeth caters to those who seek a very natural presentation. Not a speaker for "critical listening" per se. But for example if, like me, one of your favorite instruments is the human voice, then you might really enjoy a well executed Harbeth rig. They don't fare as well with all genres of music, however. Just that in the sweet spot of their strengths, they are very good. I do like them for what they are and recognize what they aren't. I have a pair of the little ones on my desk.

 

"It's interesting to see @AllanMarcus liking both JA and Raidho so much, given how different they are. Right brain vs left brain essentially."

Ug, site is all perwickity and "insert quotes" isn't working for me.

Well, I wasn't listening to the pulsars, I was listening to the Pearl3, which is quite a different speakers. I haven't heard the pulsars in a while, but I do recall they had a great bottom end ( a great bottom end always appreciated). Once I will the lotto, I will need to compare them all more closely.

 

Sorry to be coming to this late, and I don't want to drag this too much off topic, but I somewhat disagree with this. What upscaling to full time operation does is expose any problems in design.

To some degree this is like what happens when a medicine goes on the market after pre-approval testing. The broader experience allows rare side effects to show up that didn't occur in more limited testing

But also, designing for "mass production" is an engineering skill - it means designing so that if something goes wrong the whole thing doesn't blow up. So, if, for example, a transistor fails, it doesn't take all the associated parts with it. That means specifying parts to tolerate worst case scenarios - how much power will this resistor have to burn up if the transistor shorts out? How much voltage will this capacitor have to withstand if it sees B+ at one end instead of the tube plate? How much power will go through the shunt power supply if a wire to the amp accidentally gets disconnected? How easy is it to remove a board from the amp if it needs to be replaced? I didn't train as an engineer, but I went to a pretty good engineering school, and one thing I learned is that you over-specify. You don't push things. Good design is more than just building something that works if everything goes right. It's also building something that doesn't become a charred mess if something goes wrong.

Look, everyone is entitled to a screw-up, Sometimes parts are defective and fail. But if you have multiple designs that have high failure rates, that's a refection of insufficient engineering. Period.

 

BTW, the Final Exit Audio electrostatic amp in @AllanMarcus post #209, first picture, is a maxed-out KGST with GRHV power supply, transformer volume control and (I think) Belleson regulators for the low voltage PS.

 

@JimL are you in the audio industry?

 

What @JimL said makes perfect sense to me

 

Nope, retired doctor, was a physics major in a previous life. Learned audio electronics via The Audio Amateur, AudioXpress, etc., eventually wrote a few articles for them. Modded the Stax SRX circuit to the SRX Plus, modded the Stax SRM-T1 to improve its drive capability, articles on both published in AudioXpress magazine. I've met @AllenMarcus at local meets a couple times. Know just enough about circuits to be dangerous to myself and others.

 

I have no clue to what extent what you say is true of the products in this thread, but I enjoyed the methodology insight. Thanks.

 

Yeah, I have absolutely no personal experience with Cavilli products, and don't know him. No axe to grind, personal or otherwise. Just commenting in general on what others report. As a matter of fact, I was revising my shunt regulator PS yesterday and turned it on to do some measurements, then turned it back off because it wasn't reading correctly, and noticed that a wire to the amp circuit had been disconnected, meaning that the shunt was absorbing the total current flow. Now that PS should normally have 5-7 watts running through it but there were 30+ watts running through it because a wire got disconnected. Nothing blew up because there was adequate heatsinking. Reconnected the wire and everything worked. So things happen, but if you plan for the worst, you save yourself some trouble.

My personal opinion is that high end products should be like appliances in that, with an appliance, you don't have to baby it, you don't wait for it to blow up. You just turn it on and it works. No muss, no fuss. If we expect a $40 toaster to work for years, why shouldn't we expect a multi-thousand buck amplifier or headphone to do the same?

 

Damn... if im looking for a hd650 sound with better imaging/bigger soundstage aeon open a good choice ? Or is there a better recommendation, also any full size headphone sound similar, in the tonal sense to the isine20 Idk if you've ever heard them personally. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.