OK! Esoteric K1 is the winner. ==• now we need to move to the speaker!!!!!}{[]>

here are the MAC line arrays which is what i listened to... justfor fun.....we will see if i did this right....

and the Strads in walnut......

Strads look fabulous. Macs look vile.

I heard some Macs in Hong Kong and hated them. They are in my 2008 HK show report on these pages if you care to search.

Sorry Timm that Mac design looks ridiculous. Are all those tweeters really directly in front of the woofers? If so, have they gone mad?:ROFL:

On my HD from 2008.. the Macs I heard.

Haha. Yes Justin. It is what it is. I say 7' tall - my son thinks 8'. They were ginormous. And as you can tell not the same as what you listened to. I have no comment on their looks. I can learn to like a look of a speaker if they sound great. I just wanted u guys to see what it was as they seem to have different designs.

Well if two of you thought they sounded great they probably did

That HK show was mad anyway. The music played was so far away from what you might hear at a European show it does make it difficult to judge...

timm said:

and the Strads in walnut......

Click to expand...

I'm calling Larry tomorrow at paragon and seeing if he will sell me those walnuts.

Amazing look. Very rare too in the strads. Most have red violin color, few have graphite. Even fewer have the new walnut.

Thanks for the report and pics Tim... Very insightful and nice to see some SOTA gear.

timm said:

and the Strads in walnut......

Click to expand...

At work right now, doing an overnight shift. Looking at the Walnut Strads again... so pretty and nice. Hoping the price is right.

Spoke to Larry owner of Paragon - he is selling the Walnut Strads that Tim heard. However, we were unable to agree on the price. I think he was asking about 8K too much for a demo pair. I guess Sumiko really has a stranglehold on pricing.

Ah well... maybe next time.

Of note, he told me that out of all the Sonus Faber speakers, he feels like the Stradivari best the Aida and Lillium overall. Quite possibly the best SF speaker of all time.

Joey, why don't you try out Verity Audio? here is a Chicago dealer

Kyomi Audio (3.5 km)
Chicago, IL
312-513-2759

bonzo said:

Joey, why don't you try out Verity Audio? here is a Chicago dealer

Kyomi Audio (3.5 km)
Chicago, IL
312-513-2759

Click to expand...

No longer in Chicago bud... in Dallas TX now. Must update my user info...

User211 said:

Jerry didn't like the Analysis Audio Omega when they last appeared at Bristol, Kedar. That was from a classical man too!

Click to expand...

Yep, I had a full blown dem at a dealer of the Analysis Omega - not a bad speaker, but very very similar sounding to Apogee Caliper Signatures that I used to own. The main problem was a very distinctive midrange 'plummy' colouration that is OK for a while, but then it drove me crazy! I owned the Caliper Sigs for getting on for a year, which was a long time for me in my pre-MBL days, so they were pretty good overall.

JANDL100 said:

Yep, I had a full blown dem at a dealer of the Analysis Omega - not a bad speaker, but very very similar sounding to Apogee Caliper Signatures that I used to own. The main problem was a very distinctive midrange 'plummy' colouration that is OK for a while, but then it drove me crazy! I owned the Caliper Sigs for getting on for a year, which was a long time for me in my pre-MBL days, so they were pretty good overall.

Click to expand...

The Analysis need to be modded to get the best out of them, from what I hear. All my dems have been modded AAs. In fact I thought they were not coloured, and very different from the Apogee Duetta Sigs I have heard at both Justin's and at Nottingham. If I buy it will be modded AAs

JANDL100 said:

Yep, I had a full blown dem at a dealer of the Analysis Omega - not a bad speaker, but very very similar sounding to Apogee Caliper Signatures that I used to own. The main problem was a very distinctive midrange 'plummy' colouration that is OK for a while, but then it drove me crazy! I owned the Caliper Sigs for getting on for a year, which was a long time for me in my pre-MBL days, so they were pretty good overall.

Click to expand...

You should go to Peter's place, not far from you, at Taunton, to listen to a well set up Omega for classical

Hm I wonder if the "plummy" bit Jerry refers to is actually coming from the NAT amps.

I'd really like to hear those NATs on my kit. Or alternatively an all solid state driven Omega. My bet is the Omegas "character" will change a lot with all solid state.

User211 said:

Hm I wonder if the "plummy" bit Jerry refers to is actually coming from the NAT amps.

I'd really like to hear those NATs on my kit. Or alternatively an all solid state driven Omega. My bet is the Omegas "character" will change a lot with all solid state.

Click to expand...

yes it did with the hybrid. Dynamics were amazing

Yeah that what happened with my old Duettas when faced with 475 Watts! Has to be heard to be believed. With Interstella, you get some of that with my tube amps. Some, not all.

Justin, I'm looking forward to your and Kedar's reviews of the Interstellas, with tube and SS amps, using both analog and digital sources. Kedar seems to be a recent convert to vinyl. Have you ever considered open-reel analog tape?

Joey, sorry for the thread hijack. BTW, it's curious, but when typing your name, my iPad gave me "Joeyitis" as one option

It is kind of reviewed already Bernard in "the thread".

Joey's thread has now meandered into 18 pages of hangout at the pub - everything goes