Windsor Hifi Show Report, without Pictures

edwinr said:

One of my neighbors (and my best friend) owns a pair of 802 Diamonds. They're a cherry color and look fabulous. He's running them with McIntosh gear. The sound is incredible with very deep and punchy bass. I would not describe these speakers as anaemic. Compared to the Montis, the 802s offer a little more punch in the bass but maybe not as much extension. I prefer the more open sound of the Montis, but at the end of the day, there's not a lot in it. I would be most happy with a pairt of 802s.

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I meant it relatively.

I have heard many 802 diamond systems, and while they all share the same tone... I have noticed they sound like crap or great. Just depends on the upstreams and the room. I think these diamonds are fantastically transparent speakers. I've been talking to someone here and we both agree that they would rather buy a speaker that sounds crappy and good depending on the upstreams rather than a speaker that sounds good all the time .

Do you own the datasat system?

Was this v1 or v2 diamonds?

Joey_V said:

Do you own the datasat system?

Was this v1 or v2 diamonds?

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Hi I don't. A guy in London does. I have heard 3 now, still one more to go. Not sure if they were V1 or V2.

twich54 said:

I agree with Timm, except for the divorce part…………still married to the same woman for soon to be 40 years…….

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Dave, you are THAT old? Guess you must be broken in by now

timm said:

just one thing I will say on multi channel.....

When I got back into audio ....basically was heavily into it until the age of 26.... got married ... divorced.... got back into it at age 36...... got remarried... and still into it... anyway - about 15 years ago... 5.1 was the schizney!! So, instead of going with an awesome 2 channel system - I went with a 5 channel system.... and what I discovered was the magic was lost for me.... Everywhere I looked - there was a speaker emanatiing sound.... The magic of two channel is the sounds that emote from areas in your room that do not contain a speaker.... If I have essentially 15 speakers with 4 subs or whatever.... for me... the magic is lost.... I look left - speaker ... right- speaker ... up - speaker.... down - speaker..... behind me - speaker..... you see what I am saying.... If it floats your boat great - but, from my perspective, I have tried this and have felt a loss of 'magic' so to speak.... Not saying anything negative about what other people like.... just saying what I like... and what my experiences have been...

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Interesting that you say that. In the book "Get Better Sound", Jim Smith says that he set up fancy MCH HT systems for customers, but many got abandoned after the novelty wore off, and if I recall correctly, he said that they went back to 2CH.

bonzo said:

Timm, Dave, that's why I started saying if you use your previous experience you are doing yourself a disservice. I have heard Mch before, and I have heard this exact system in Mch, as a 9.4, without the Auro 3d, and it didn't float my boat. So we are on the same page so far.

Ken, sorry, I thought Trinnov Atmos was only available as 32-ch

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no doubt, I need to crawl out of my cave and see what the 21st Century has to offer !!

bonzo said:

Ken, sorry, I thought Trinnov Atmos was only available as 32-ch

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8/8, 8/16, 16/24, 16/32 I/O. Big output counts would most likely be used for bi and tri-amped setups. And it isn't just Atmos, since Trinnov will decode Auro, and likely DTS UHD when it's released, as well.
http://www.trinnov.com/products/high-end/altitude32/product-details/?lang=en_us

Bernard said:

Dave, you are THAT old? Guess you must be broken in by now

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Lol, his valves need replacement.

Regarding Jim Smith, when he wrote the book he probably had the Mch we didn't like, this is new, like in this year

For McH sceptics, this was as a recent post on WBF:

" Mch is in my view very strong in the classical repertoire and still growing. In about 7 years since discovering hi rez Mch, I have a collection of 2-3,000 Mch classical albums from SACD and BD-A & V plus downloads. Kal Rubinson at Stereophile has at least that number and perhaps more. Have you not heard of sa-cd.net? I listen to essentially no CD whatsoever, and forget LP. They are not worth my time sonically, in spite of some unsurpassed performances. Are there holes in the available Mch repertoire? Yes, but fewer as time goes by. I have never been happier as a classical music lover/recording collector. Finally, with hi rez Mch I can hear a plausible replica of the frequent live concerts I attend.

I am a recent convert to the superb e28 used with Dirac Live. I have heard no better sound anywhere in my travels and in my extensive networking with other audiophiles. I never thought I would ever be at this level, but it is really beyond my wildest dreams, starting as I did with assembling a basic mono system and buying LPs in my teens with my meager grass cutting and snow shoveling income in high school. "

And this is not even Auro 3d or Atmos, which should be much better