OBIWAN,
this is a great job, and I think you wouldn't spent so much time getting such a nice finish unless the speakers weren't sounding good, so I suppect them to work very fine!😀
great spects too...How do they sound?
Vince
this is a great job, and I think you wouldn't spent so much time getting such a nice finish unless the speakers weren't sounding good, so I suppect them to work very fine!😀
great spects too...How do they sound?
Vince
Thanks Vince, they sound great. They're quite analytical but still smooth and easy to listen to. The soundstage is not as wide as some speakers I've heard but what it does provide is very well balanced with no odd shifting of height and neither does it enlarge the proportions of voices and other familiar sounds. Being a larger multidriver speaker it can do scale well with nice extension too. Despite their size and the number of drivers the sound is very cohesive - I had a forum member from on here come over to take a listen late last year and he was surprised because the sound was coming from everywhere but the drivers.
Yes this is the goal IMO: having the sound becoming holographic...good job ! I started a second 2 way system the first I just finished sounds very good considering it uses horn and 15inch woofers crossed at 800hz...on a custom horn .
the hardest was to get realistic imaging of the voices with no zoom effects... in a certain way I think they are ok, but even if pianos sound very well they still are a bit big comparing to the room size...
I still like them...
Vince
the hardest was to get realistic imaging of the voices with no zoom effects... in a certain way I think they are ok, but even if pianos sound very well they still are a bit big comparing to the room size...
I still like them...
Vince
When I used to work as a hi-fi salesman (some years ago) we had the opportunity to display a pair of Grand Utopia Be loudspeakers for about 6 months as well as the smaller Novas.
We had a difficult time getting the grands to work well in our room. We ended up with them fairly close to the back wall and widely spread. While image depth was somewhat curtailed, bass impact was fantastic and fairly flat. We drove the Grands with a Conrad Johnson Premier 350 (serial number 1), a pair of C-J premier 280 tube monos, and what actually worked best was a Red-Rose Affirmation integrated (huge high current amp). We tried bi-amping and it sucked. My co-worker's father (who is pipe-organ afficionado) and his friend spent a whole afternoon listen to awsome power pipe organ music.
When Dominic Baker (chief designer of the grands) came to our shop he also wanted to try biamping. He also tried a bunch of different placement options... The best compromise that he found was a long wall placement. He also tried biamping, but he found it lacking with our amps and set-up.
Anyway, these speakers need LOTS of current. Your friend's Boulder amps or big Pass monos should be great. I think that your positioning might be an issue.
If you are dissatisfied with the coherence of the speakers, I would try listening to them with only the top set of binding posts connected to the amp. This will dissable the big 15" woofer and better allow you to focus on positioning the speakers to maximize the performance from 50Hz on up. We did this and it was a very educating experience.
Best of luck.
Nate
We had a difficult time getting the grands to work well in our room. We ended up with them fairly close to the back wall and widely spread. While image depth was somewhat curtailed, bass impact was fantastic and fairly flat. We drove the Grands with a Conrad Johnson Premier 350 (serial number 1), a pair of C-J premier 280 tube monos, and what actually worked best was a Red-Rose Affirmation integrated (huge high current amp). We tried bi-amping and it sucked. My co-worker's father (who is pipe-organ afficionado) and his friend spent a whole afternoon listen to awsome power pipe organ music.
When Dominic Baker (chief designer of the grands) came to our shop he also wanted to try biamping. He also tried a bunch of different placement options... The best compromise that he found was a long wall placement. He also tried biamping, but he found it lacking with our amps and set-up.
Anyway, these speakers need LOTS of current. Your friend's Boulder amps or big Pass monos should be great. I think that your positioning might be an issue.
If you are dissatisfied with the coherence of the speakers, I would try listening to them with only the top set of binding posts connected to the amp. This will dissable the big 15" woofer and better allow you to focus on positioning the speakers to maximize the performance from 50Hz on up. We did this and it was a very educating experience.
Best of luck.
Nate
Its not surprising actually.
Often the crossover slopes and Q of the passive network have been customised using a system optimiser and then voiced and hand tweaked .
Trying to emulated that with an active network without the actual passive voltage drivers is a road to hell.
Add to this the system is a bass reflex design where the DC of the chokes has an audible effect on the woofer output at the tuning frequency.
You need serious measurement test equipment and lots of time for trial and error
Often the crossover slopes and Q of the passive network have been customised using a system optimiser and then voiced and hand tweaked .
Trying to emulated that with an active network without the actual passive voltage drivers is a road to hell.
Add to this the system is a bass reflex design where the DC of the chokes has an audible effect on the woofer output at the tuning frequency.
You need serious measurement test equipment and lots of time for trial and error
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