Went to the Windsor show today. This show has the best rooms of the shows I have been to, much better than Munich. Was the same last year.
The Maggie 3.7i sucked. The vocals on them are just so wrong. Else it was the Audio Analogue amplification, which I doubt.
As a background, took along the girl I have been dating. Kind of proves we have reached a stage where I was not afraid of her running away. Anyway, she has been going to classical and rock concerts in London since her teens (and no, she is not a teen anymore, she is just past 30), plays the flute, and has been accompanying me to these various live shows I have been going to (I still remember the first time I brought her home I tried to impress her with Cecilia Bartoli and Mussorgsky on my panels only to later find out she had a wider collection of Bartoli and of different Beethoven versions on Spotify that she listened to on her iPad.
So, since she had no preconceived notions of brands and prices, I took her along. First we went to the room with the giant 100k+ Focals with the Naim amplification. It was my test to see if size mattered to her. She was not impressed, said the reggae and those type songs sounded better than strings and opera.
We then went to the Wilson room. First time I have heard them sounding good (relatively), because it was all valve - all Audio research, with Transparent Opus cabling. Peter Mcgrath of Wilson does a superb presentation, and he has credibility having been a recording engineer for almost 30 years and having recorded many CDs. So when he put in a Debussy piano that had been recorded by him and said this is the best reproduction you will hear, she thought it would be, only to immediately turn to me and say this does not sound like a piano. At that point, I knew I was in love. OKcupid did rate us at a 99% match, and this was why, I guess.
Then we went to the Tune Audio Anima room, a speaker which I like, but had fallen off my radar due to the price and no used sales. Backed by Modwright electronics all the way. I loved it. She thought it was fantastic and liked the looks too (thought Wilsons were ugly). Given my recent orchestra concerts, I have begun to appreciate brass much more, and I have never heard the brass section produced so beautifully and with so much energy. Orchestra, jazz, Pavarotti, and Maria Callas were excellent, so was Louis Armstrong. Then he did a Western Electric and played Whole Lotta Love, and it sounded great. Easily a dream system.
Then we did a round of the Avalons and the Estelons. Avalons are not good on strings. The Estelons do everything well but have an electronic touch and are poor on the piano. But holography, accurate bass, midrange, is all very nice. High WAF too.
Then we went to the Magico room not sure if it was S5 or Q3, with Metronome Kalista and Constellation amps, Opus cabling. The Kalista is just a bit more expensive than the Animas, I think. She liked it, I thought the electronics were really good, the speaker to me sounded the same as the Wilsons.
At the end of this all, I told her the prices. She was shocked at all the prices, of course, but surprised to know that the Animas are not the most expensive.
Moral of the story is, I found all except the Anima extremely weak compared to a Datasat Auro 3d B&W 802D system. For me, at that money, it's a no brainer.
(Somewhere during lunch I told her that another guy (Justin) brings his wife over to hifi shows and she gets a day off at the spa. As soon as I said it, I kicked myself).
The Maggie 3.7i sucked. The vocals on them are just so wrong. Else it was the Audio Analogue amplification, which I doubt.
As a background, took along the girl I have been dating. Kind of proves we have reached a stage where I was not afraid of her running away. Anyway, she has been going to classical and rock concerts in London since her teens (and no, she is not a teen anymore, she is just past 30), plays the flute, and has been accompanying me to these various live shows I have been going to (I still remember the first time I brought her home I tried to impress her with Cecilia Bartoli and Mussorgsky on my panels only to later find out she had a wider collection of Bartoli and of different Beethoven versions on Spotify that she listened to on her iPad.
So, since she had no preconceived notions of brands and prices, I took her along. First we went to the room with the giant 100k+ Focals with the Naim amplification. It was my test to see if size mattered to her. She was not impressed, said the reggae and those type songs sounded better than strings and opera.
We then went to the Wilson room. First time I have heard them sounding good (relatively), because it was all valve - all Audio research, with Transparent Opus cabling. Peter Mcgrath of Wilson does a superb presentation, and he has credibility having been a recording engineer for almost 30 years and having recorded many CDs. So when he put in a Debussy piano that had been recorded by him and said this is the best reproduction you will hear, she thought it would be, only to immediately turn to me and say this does not sound like a piano. At that point, I knew I was in love. OKcupid did rate us at a 99% match, and this was why, I guess.
Then we went to the Tune Audio Anima room, a speaker which I like, but had fallen off my radar due to the price and no used sales. Backed by Modwright electronics all the way. I loved it. She thought it was fantastic and liked the looks too (thought Wilsons were ugly). Given my recent orchestra concerts, I have begun to appreciate brass much more, and I have never heard the brass section produced so beautifully and with so much energy. Orchestra, jazz, Pavarotti, and Maria Callas were excellent, so was Louis Armstrong. Then he did a Western Electric and played Whole Lotta Love, and it sounded great. Easily a dream system.
Then we did a round of the Avalons and the Estelons. Avalons are not good on strings. The Estelons do everything well but have an electronic touch and are poor on the piano. But holography, accurate bass, midrange, is all very nice. High WAF too.
Then we went to the Magico room not sure if it was S5 or Q3, with Metronome Kalista and Constellation amps, Opus cabling. The Kalista is just a bit more expensive than the Animas, I think. She liked it, I thought the electronics were really good, the speaker to me sounded the same as the Wilsons.
At the end of this all, I told her the prices. She was shocked at all the prices, of course, but surprised to know that the Animas are not the most expensive.
Moral of the story is, I found all except the Anima extremely weak compared to a Datasat Auro 3d B&W 802D system. For me, at that money, it's a no brainer.
(Somewhere during lunch I told her that another guy (Justin) brings his wife over to hifi shows and she gets a day off at the spa. As soon as I said it, I kicked myself).
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