June 16, 2000
Subject: Congratulations and a question
Congratulations on your new home and dedicated
room. I have recently moved to a new home with a room constructed from scratch as well.
Heck, I moved for my system not having a dedicated room, so I think that categorizes me as
one of Wes' "Hi-Fi Nuts."
So now I have that dedicated room away from
the wife and kids. Its dimensions are 15' wide x 21' long x 9' high. It was double
sheet-rocked with ASC wall-damp material between the layers. It is upstairs and not on a
concrete slab, but I had all the walls with 2x6s on 12" centers and had the floor
double-plied and extra layers of masonite put down with a real thick carpet pad. My system
currently consists of Wadia 27ix/270 digital front-end and a Mark Levinson No.336 power
amp with Hales Transcendence 8 loudspeakers and Cardas Golden Cross cables.
Unfortunately my Hales T 8s don't really mate
well with the room, and the bass is lean and boomy despite numerous attempts at placement.
I'm gonna sell 'em. I currently have EgglestonWorks Andras for 30-day demo trial from my
local dealer, and they are far superior to the Hales on the top and bottom, but I really
don't want to settle on the first new speaker I get to try. I've read your review of the
Andras about 100 times! My only concerns about the Andras are that in my room, to get the
bass I want (tight and tuneful), they need to be 24-30 inches from the back wall (probably
closer), and I like my speakers out in the room a bit more to improve depth, staging and
imaging. I have no local dealer for Revel or Avalon (I'm in Oklahoma) and would love to
know your opinion on the Salons and Eidolons with respect to my room and equipment and
compared to the Andras. And by the way, congrats again on the new home!
Phil Barton
Dear Phil:
You're a lucky man to be confronted
with these choices! I was able to get exceptional sound out of the Andras, but they are a
speaker YOU accommodate rather than have it accommodate you. As you'll note from JA's
measurement section to my Stereophile review, the Andra's drivers were in phase
only if you sat a specific distance from them -- otherwise they were all over the map.
This happened to work perfectly in my room in Santa Fe --- in my new living room, I'd
never get them to coordinate. If your audition revealed them to work well in your
listening room, you might very well love them.
I've never lived with either the Salon
or the Eidolon, but JA had the Salons in his Santa Fe listening room, and I just couldn't
hear enough of them. They are very special speakers. Ditto for the Eidolons, which I have
heard at Michael Hobson's Classic Records studio, as well as at Robert Harley's old
listening room in Albuquerque. They were focused, fast and detailed, while always managing
to convey the innate richness of music. At times, I thought the Eidolon's bottom end a
trifle leanish, but when I heard them in Classé Audio's suite at WCES '98, driven by
their 1000W monoblocks, this was definitely not a problem!
Have a good time deciding,
ATB...Wes
June 15, 2000
Subject: Noisy Fan
My name is Claudio and I'm from Brazil.
I’ve got a Crown power amp that has an efficient but noisy fan. My question is: Can I
turn it off? Maybe I could use an external (and silent) fan. What do you think?
Claudio
Dear Claudio:
Yes, that is an annoying fan,
isn’t it? But I wouldn’t remove it if I were you, even if you were going to add
an external fan. Maybe it’s because of my college minor in recreational pharmacology,
but I just don’t trust myself to remember to do things like turn on fans every time I
listen. Consider a sound-deadening enclosure, such as the ones offered for noisy computer
printers, or think about banishing the Crown to an equipment closet or remote location.
ATB...Wes
June 13, 2000
Subject: Upsampling
Hola Wes...congratulations and thanks your
site is great and very informative, especially the "Ask Wes" section.
I have a doubt about upsampling and want to
know more about it in view that it is the next "toy" in the avenue. There are
many people talking about it, but, as in everything else, too many thoughts that sometimes
look more like a fight than a thoughtful discussion.
Given a "Y" transport (dedicated/CD
player/DVD) with a "Z" resolution (16/44.1, 24/96, or anything in between )
feeding an external DAC "X" and the addition of an "XY" upsampling
device (e.g. Bel Canto, Birdland, MSB, EVS, etc.), how is it possible to add to a red book
CD the other bits truncated in the pressing process? If you compress 24 bits of
information to 16 and cut the frequencies, how would an upsampling device add the missing
information in a reliable manner as to not add colorations or other artifacts? Say it
really does upsample, where would the effects be noticeable? Soundstage, highs extensions,
deeper bass?
Wes, excuse me if I don't express my doubts in
an understandable way, but I think you get my point. "Once gone, no way back."
Thanks again Wes.
Best regards,
Jose Garcia.
Dear Jose:
You have precisely summed up the
conundrum: Why should upsampling work at all? This is a matter of extreme controversy on
Internet chat groups, where the sides usually consist of those who haven’t
listened for themselves and insist that theoretically it can’t make a difference, and
those who have listened and report that they have heard a significant difference.
I have both a Bel Canto and an MSB
upsampling converter in house for audition and will be writing at greater length on the
subject in the near future. Have I heard a difference in upsampled digital? In a word, yes
-- and not where I would have expected the difference (which was in the highs), but in the
lower octaves. Having heard my favorite piano recordings through an upsampling converter,
I don’t want to go back.
But as I said -- that’s
another story to be told on another day.
ATB...Wes
June 11, 2000
Subject: Upgrading speakers and amplifiers
I just found the website, it's great. I will
keep coming back.
I am considering upgrading some of my
equipment after being out of the "consumer chain" for many years. Currently I
have a Meridian 506 CD player, a Michelle Syncro turntable with Helius Aureus arm and
Meridian M33 speakers. One dealer has advised I to listen to Jamo Concert 11 speakers (not
sure what amp -- but it is a valve amp) and another has said they are nice but you
can’t drive them hard and has recommended B&W 802 or 803 Nautilus-series speakers
with an Electrocompaniet amp.
Would you have any thoughts on these
combinations or could you suggest any other set-ups that would be worthwhile listening to?
My musical tastes cover everything from rock, classical, jazz, blues. I live in Brisbane,
Australia, so a lot of the specialist US/European equipment can be hard to find.
I look forward to your reply.
Frank
Dear Frank:
I used to work as a hi-fi salesman and
even the honest ones such as I was tend to overstate differences between products --
especially the ones they don’t carry. I haven’t lived with the Jamo Concert 11s,
but I’ve certainly heard them set up well. And I’ve heard the Nautilus 802 and
Nautilus 803 sing pretty well for their suppers, too -- generally with fairly substantial
solid-state amps, I might add.
Which brings me to my only real
comment to your letter -- I’m surprised I don’t see any of the great Australian
or New Zealand companies included in your list of choices. Given what importers have to
add to the price of a product, I would expect that some of the local gear, such as
Plinius, might be a more cost-effective choice for amplification. Their SA-50 mk.II was as
impressive as any US gear I’ve auditioned and I would expect you’d reap the
benefits of proximity.
ATB...Wes
June 11, 2000
Subject: Amp for Magnepan MMG speakers?
I am a musician and a new audiophile who is on
a school teacher's budget. I am using a NAD 314 amp with my MMG speakers and I would like
to go to a tube amp that would give me a more "musical" sound. Can you give some
suggestions as to what amps might work or where I might be able to acquire the knowledge
to make an informed decision? By the way, I am an amateur radio operator who would not
object to a amp kit.
Thanks,
Jim
Dear Jim:
I too am looking for a good tube amp
kit, but other than a few SE triode designs, which would be totally unsuitable for the
Maggies, I haven’t really found anything. Heck, I’m also looking for a good 5W
guitar practice amp kit, which isn’t all that easy to find either.
As affordable solid-state amps go,
I’d think the NAD would be a particularly good match to the MMGs. Tube amps such as
the Conrad-Johnson MV-55 ($1995) (or a used MV-50 for that matter) can be found for
a good price and would sound fantastic. Other choices might include the Anthem Amp One
($1299), AudioPrism Debut Mk.II ($2495), or the 40W Jadis Ochestre integrated ($2495).
ATB...Wes
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