Tekton Double Impacts

Bullitt:

This thread has gotten so long.... rather than trying to find it in here, what are you currently driving the DIs with?

First I REALLY enjoyed evolvists visit last night. A really great person and we had fun exposing the failings of my system. LOL
But despite that, the DIs held up their end of things for him. They helped polish the turd, so to speak.
The newly formed NW Houston audio society (evolvist and me) have some big plans!

Vitop, I'm almost embarrassed to admit...

Digital: HTPC serving FLAC through JRiver to a Schitt Modi 2 Multibit.
Analog: Thorens TD165, AT440, Schitt Mani pre.
Amp is a Denon 4520 Receiver.
Sub is a DIY Dual Opposed 15" powered by two Crown amps.
We plugged in Evolovist's power amp. It made a huge improvement even using the $250 DAC and the Preamp section of my Denon to feed it.
Last night it was clear my front end was not feeding the DIs to anywhere near what they are capable of. I have an Odyssey Pre-Power on order. I need that yesterday. Although I love the Modi 2 I have the wheels turning to return it and go with the Bifrost Multibit or some sub-$1000 dac. Trying not to go off the deep end after last night! 

Anyone have any experience and recommendations on a dCS dealer? The closest ones to me are in Atlanta and Dallas. I'm fairly sure I am not region protected.

Component I'm considering is the dCS Network Bridge.

Thanks.

ok, thanks Bullitt. That helps and gives me some perspective. I'm still on path to upgrading my equipment and wanted to see if I thought I needed to make some changes in my plan based on the bright sound and what you might be using.

I appreciate it.

***THIS IS WHAT I WROTE LAST NIGHT***

Well, I just came back from @Bullitt5094 house, having experienced the Double Impacts for the first time.

The whole experience was very cool, and Bullitt is a super nice guy with a way cool home theater system. Being that his DI rig doubles as a both HT and 2 channel listening, he gets a lot out of these speakers. I was even offered beer! Outstanding!

So, listening to the DIs my first impression was, "These are bright!"

But wait! - Bullitt is way too critical of his own gear (contrary to his belief, his gear isn’t bad at all), yet at the same time I had brought my amp, the aforementioned Benchmark AHB2.

So, we’re like, "Okay, let’s see if the amp makes a difference."

Firstly, we hooked the amp up and the music was coming out in a very weak mono. Not even really mono, as some of the instruments were missing in the mix. Little did I know, my own amp has a mono/stereo switch and it was accidently flipped.to mono.

Secondly, the DIs were not bright anymore. An evenness grew from the DI’s soundscape that further clarified things. Bullitt expected this would be the case, and he was right, really justifying his recent purchase of a new pre and amp that’ll be in soon. So, it was great because he got to hear a bit of the sound that he should expect when his new kit comes in.

As for me, I got to hear a great deal of the DIs and I was impressed. Talk about slam! This was some voodoo stuff! Boy, those mids came out great with the AHB2 in the pocket.

HOWEVER...I’m not quite convinced yet, which is why we have plans to bring them over to my place, in a much smaller room, running from my Linn KDS/3 -> AHB2 -> Double Impacts. Remember, my Linn has Space Optimization, which is a unique room correction that doesn’t use a mic. So, you measure the speakers by distance from various locations in the room, tell it what the floor is made of, the walls, windows, etc, etc, and it takes the room out of the equation, as opposed to getting readings from a much more fallible mic setup.

At any rate, we’re having fun with it. It was a blast! In fact, a couple of days ago I shipped away my Audio Physic speakers, so I don’t really have speakers at the moment, but I’m picking up some Dynaudio 340s as loaners until I get what I want. These Dyns are no slouch speakers, so I should have them just in time to do a shootout between Bullitt’s DIs and the Dyn 340s (which, by the way, have been measured by Linn for ultimate optimization). In others words, the Dyns will be fully optimized, and we’ll kind of wing it with the DIs. So if the DIs win, this is a very good sign.

Otherwise... @vitop, are you saying that the mini Ulfs will be taller, but thinner, than the full sized Ulfs? The full sized Ulf are 7’3"! Anyway, you should get them in so that when I roll by San Antonio to pick up the Dyns, I can stop by your crib to listen to your mini Ulfs. Haha. :-)