2. speakers
  3. 159584-355

A revealing speaker

There's a thread on the use of the word, revealing, but it's really all I could think of to describe these speakers.
They say idle hands are the devils work so in these virus times, Tony Minasian has been very busy. He came over with his newest creation, a stand mount monitor of modest proportions, using off the shelf drivers and the same material he used with my old Tonian Labs TL-D1s: birch ply with a nice walnut veneer.

What was supposed to be an hour session went well over three. We listened to Paris Combo, Anouar Brahem, Johnny Cash, the Breaking Bad soundtrack, Stacy Kent, Pacifika, The Elizabethan Sessions, Billie Eiish, The European Jazz Trio, Abdullah Ibrahim, and a couple of CDs that Tony recorded with some studio musicians. Tony had a couple of calls that had people waiting but we were having too good a time.

My first thought was, where's the bass? Two minutes later I'd completely forgot about it. These monitors "only" go down to the 60s but what bass they do handle easily allow the mind to fill in the rest. There's plenty of growl when called for with electronica coupled with the most see-through I've experienced. I still haven't disabused myself of the thought of selling my JBLs for these stand mounts. If I had them for a week, I'd keep them.

I had to ask Tony what the secret was and as usual, he was a bit mum about it, but he let on that it's all in the crossover, once you've settled on a decent set of drivers. He also explained that the speakers are what one needs to really get right. Your digital source has distortion in the 10/1000s% and your amp has it in the 10/100s% but your speakers are at 10% (or more) so they need to be as correct as can be. 

The most amazing thing about these speakers is they'll make you think you're listening with some mega-buck Swiss amp, fed by a SOTA high-res set up. Listening to his Redbook, 16bit recordings through these speakers had us laughing out loud. My Marantz sounded like my Kinki integrated playing through my JBLs. These speakers could transform any modest system into an excellent sounding one, and that is the point of this hobby, isn't it?

Listening to Tony's CDs had me constantly looking around in an instinctive way, to see where that sound came from. I knew it was recorded but the reaction was on a baser, automatic response level, which irked me. There was even a moment when a dog got up and walked across the soundstage, left to right, and you could hear his paws click across the floor. One of the studio musicians and a frequent performer used by Tony, Brad Dutz, listened to and then bought a pair for his studio after listening to his performance, replacing his NHT and B&W monitors.

These speakers had me working overtime, tuning my set up with my new Isoacoustic Oreas, so I don't have to buy them. I'm used to my JBLs now but I'm still haunted by this revealing, realistic and beguiling speaker. If you're in or around the Los Angeles area, and are in the market for a great monitor, do yourself a favor and give Tony a call and ask him about his G6 (it's what he's calling it for the moment).

As much as I loved my TL-D1s, these are much better, and they don't even go as low. I asked Tony if he could redo the crossovers on my JBLs to eek out some more performance but what he did with his G6, two way, can't be done with a three way in the same manner. He said to just use the pots on the JBL to suit my tastes and not be afraid to use them as it's not like using tone controls on the amp end. He was right. He usually is.

All the best,
Nonoise




128x128nonoise
nonoise's avatar
nonoise OP
10,882 posts
 
First, thank you, @hifiheartguy, for your impressions and contributions to my wavering mental state. Great to have you aboard here, on A'gon. Same for you, @rocray. These speakers still haunt me but I have to keep things in perspective. Tony told me he could always make me a pair, down the road, should I change my mind.

I’m also factoring in an A-HA moment I just had prior to posting this. While looking under my SACD player to see how much to move my Isoacoustic Orea footers (trying to eek out some more highs but not at the expense of the mids and that marvelous 3D imaging I’m getting), I glanced at the display and noticed a "F1" setting. I remembered trying out the F2 setting years ago and couldn’t discern any difference so I left it at the F1 setting.

Well, now with better cables, a newer set of speakers, and the new footers, going to the F2 setting eliminated some mid and low end bloat and just opened up the highs, like clouds parting. I’ve just spent the last 3 hours scurrying through my go to CDs and am more than just happy.

If the G6 were a "10" and my JBL 4319 were a "5", going to the F2 setting brings the JBLs up to 7.5-8, and I’m not kidding about this. Tony’s speakers will be on my radar and if I can sell off a couple of things, I’ll be giving Tony a call.

All the best,
Nonoise
snowpidgeon
4 posts
 
So I received my tonianlab speakers a couple of weeks and have finally had some free time to do some listening. Just to go over the speaker I am to compare them to the Yamaha ns1000, some may wonder if this is a high end speaker, it is. I have sold my harbeth shl 5 after 2 years of listening to both, the harbeth is a wonderful speaker, but the ns1000 is the speaker I kept going back to, the harbeths were my main speakers since 2006. I also have jbl l300, jbl 4301b, and spendor sp1, but they have limitations that keep them from being my main speakers. I have listened to most of the popular high end speakers like the Wilson watt 8 and Sasha, the Focal soppra, and the bowers and Wilkins 802d and found the ns1000 was better overall. These were heard at friends home, dealers and at trade shows, the Focal was only heard at dealers or trade shows. The ns1000 were just more coherent and the had a more natural tone. I have compared them to many other speakers, but these were the ones that cost so much more that I believed they had to obliterate the ns1000, which for the music I listen to they did not. The speakers currently have my eye on are the spendor bc3, Tannoy 12 or 15 silver or gold, and the Devore o/96. To anyone that has not heard these they just sound different then the current crop of high end speakers, they have a way of drawing you into the music. 

  Ok let's listen to some music. I started with some( the speakers were placed 23 inches from the floor) cd's from chesky, ma, and Tonianlab, after an hour of listening to these audiophile recordings I had to stop, if this is the only type of music you listen to you should just buy the speakers, they were amazing, percussion instruments just jumped out at you and the decay was so natural that it was as good as I have ever heard, piano sounded full and rich like the piano was in the room, acoustic guitar much the same. 

  So I decided I would play some classic rock. First up Santana abbraxas and Pink Floyd dark side of the moon. The imaging and soundstage was excellent, the stereo effect was huge, it wasn't as wide and sharp sounding as my ns1000, but the midrange was bigger and more natural sounding. Next cd was tears for fears the hurting everything from the vocals and and piano sound clear and defined with complete coherent integration between both drivers, the thing that was suprising was on bass notes I did not hear any coloration from the cabinet because the speakers are not that heavy. 
The only thing  missing was the speaker sounded a little lean on the bass and it didn't have the slam of the ns1000, but I don't know of any bookshelf or slim floorstander that has outstanding midrange and great bass if you know of any let me know. Next was Doreen smith a tribute to Julie London The vocals were beautiful so big and textured like she was right in my room. Next was the complete set from Miles Davis and John coltrane, funny thing was, I was listening to this off axis and there was a track that had miles talking and then whistling, I jumped up and went to my porch because my cat was outside and I thought someone was trying to get his attention, but it was only the sound system. 

 Time to wrap up this review. If you listen to jazz, classical, vocals, and popular music from the 40s to the 80's and really don't listen to progressive or classic rock, hip hop or trance music these speakers are as good as your going to get, they can play this kind of music but you would missing out on what they do best. To me they are a masterpiece like a Handcrafted Japanese chef knife or a vintage Tag Heuer watch a simple design that was designed with a purpose.These things are not just items to be discarded When they are no longer needed they are meant to be passed on to the next generation of music lovers. In the end I will be keeping these for awhile, not sure if I like them more than my ns1000, but I listened to mostly progressive rock so they serve a different purpose. I don't think any audiophile can find a better speaker that produces a better midrange under 10k. If there is a speaker out there you audiogoners have heard that sound special let me know i am always excited about learning about something new.
nonoise's avatar
nonoise OP
10,882 posts
 
@snowpidgeon,
Thank you for that thorough and enjoyable ride of a review. I thought I had my system finally dialed in, and to a large extent, I have, but after reading your thoughts on the G6, it's bringing back that slight but growing urge to listen to them again. 

It's a good thing I finally sold my other monitors.

All the best,
Nonoise
redwoodaudio
414 posts
 
Very cool to read these reviews of a very appealing-sounding speaker.  I'm assuming they are single-driver?

Also a very classy thread overall -- no sniping, no smugness.
nonoise's avatar
nonoise OP
10,882 posts
 
Actually, they are a two-way monitor. Just looking at them, they appear to be just another in a long line of monitors but once your hear them, you'll know you have something special to consider.

All the best,
Nonoise
More to discover