Amazing, isn't it, how we all are able to dismiss Peter Walker's FRED (full range electrostatic dipole)? There was some wishful thinking there, rather than marketing hype, given the era. The fact remains obvious to all fans of electrostatics - they need a little help in the bass. Not much, but just enough, like a sprinkle of salt on an omelette—just enough to emphasize the taste of the eggs, not so much that it tastes of salt.
System that sounds so real it is easy to mistaken it is not live
My current stereo system consists of Oracle turntable with SME IV tonearm, Dynavector XV cartridge feeding Manley Steelhead and two Snappers monoblocks running 15" Tannoy Super Gold Monitors. Half of vinyl records are 45 RMP and were purchased new from Blue Note, AP, MoFI, IMPEX and some others. While some records play better than others none of them make my system sound as good as a live band I happened to see yesterday right on a street. The musicians played at the front of outdoor restaurant. There was a bass guitar, a drummer, a keyboard and a singer. The electric bass guitar was connected to some portable floor speaker and drums were not amplified. The sound of this live music, the sharpness and punch of it, the sound of real drums, the cymbals, the deepness, thunder-like sound of bass guitar coming from probably $500 dollars speaker was simply mind blowing. There is a lot of audiophile gear out there. Some sound better than others. Have you ever listened to a stereo system that produced a sound that would make you believe it was a real live music or live band performance at front of you?
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Mijostyn, I appreciate your unequivocal convictions on nearly all things audio, but don’t you think you’re a bit over the top or around the bend in subwoofers? The ONLY worthwhile design is the dipole??? Really? I do like the idea of the dipole though for its potentially compact form factor. What do you recommend? Have you ever heard a really correctly built full size transmission line woofer? For me that’s the fastest and lowest distortion bass for mating with an ESL. But can be very large. Also, if a subwoofer is palpably vibrating, could that possibly mean it’s playing bass tones, not distorting? Or do you think a sub should play bass without moving at all? I’d like to see that. |
I didn’t read all the responses but here’s my $.02. Of course nothing compares to good quality live music. There are too many steps along the way to reproducing music in our home w/ varying degrees of sound degradation. For the type of music mentioned, amplified rock w/ guitar, drums, bass guitar , vocals etc, good quality horns powered by tubes is, imo, the way to go if you want close to live sound without spending a fortune on heroicly priced speakers & amps! Unamplified music might be better suited for paneled speakers like Magnapans or Martin Logan’s, both for reasonable $. I own & really enjoy Volti Audio Rivals. They may not be the last word in ultra fine details & crazy frequency extreme extension but for dynamics, big sound stage, very fast & open midrange, & “live sound” in their price range, tough to beat. A good 20 watts w/ a good source is all they need to sound great. |
Dear @mijostyn : First those UDL by Velodyne came from 1989 and yes that surround foam was terrible for say the least. You live in your " small world " of your subwoofers and nothing can touch it when the real world has several alternatives even better than Magico as Evolution Acoustics :
M.Lavigne owns the MM 7.
In the other side I owned the Scintilla mated with Entec subs and running with monobloks that puts enough current to handled and amps with over 6db headroom. I never had any troble about and I can’t know for the Diva. Electrostatic speaker designs is not the " ultimate " speakers as a fact I listened almost all from Stax/ EMT/ ML/ Beveridge , etc, etc and the only one that like me is SL that I listened several times for long time. Magnepan planar design is really better than your SL paired or not with subs. Btw, my Velodyne is a way difefrent model ( no foam surrounded the woofers. ) and as I told you are heavy modified including internal bracing but I don’t " care " all those when the reality is that its measured THD is 0.5% that only the Titan is comparable. Each designer " kills flea in his own way " be Magico, Evolution, Velodyne, HSU, Paradigm, Thiel, ML, , etc, etc. Btw,, I agree with @lewm transmission line woofer ( everything the same ) can’t be outperformed not even by your four subs or Magico or what ever you could think. Come on mijos youa are better than that.
Your theory about my ADS ( that you never listened in the modified way in my samples. ) are just theory and you can be sure that your SL can’t puts you nearer to the recording than my L2030. Btw, I never said my speakers has no fail or are perfect and I know for sure are not perfect. Period.
Now, you can follow with lewm, don’t you think?
R. |
Dear @hifidream : Thank's to share that experience.
I know think you Own Magnepan 20 along those Kinergetic subs that I knew and listened many times paired with ML electrostatic because the distributor in México was who brougth both names here. Even with the Kinergetics ML never like me. As I told best planar speaker design for me Magnepan and with limited FR the Quad. R. |
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