Joey_V
Well-known member
Well, yesterday, Melissa and I went to a sushi restaurant for some dinner after being on-call for over 24hrs at the hospital. On our walk there, I caught a sign that said, "audio professionals" hung outside a somewhat small-ish storefront right next to the sushi restaurant.
I took a quick look at the hours of establishment and it was to close at 8p that night. I looked at my watch and realized that we only had 90 minutes to eat, pay the bill, and walk over to the adjacent audio store before they closed for the night. Anyway, to make a long story short, I ended up cutting the dinner slightly early (gf didnt get last order of Miso soup) just to make it before the 8p closing time!
Needless to say, Melissa was none too happy.... .
So I walked in through the doors and was greeted by this guy sitting relaxed on a sofa watching the news. He didnt give me much of an acknowledgement, probably because of my age. I mentioned that I noticed he had a pair of Sonus Faber Amati Anniversarios in the lower floor judging by what I saw through the window and his eyes perked up and smiled. He was impressed that I could tell what the speakers were from such a small window opening, and he brought me to the half-basement where the Amatis were.
He closed the doors and the blinds, dimmed the lights. I took a look around the room, the room appeared to be well treated and as symmetrical as they come. A bit of a pentagon shaped, the back of the room was sort of a bay-window type of an enclosure. The couch was positioned about 5 feet from the back wall, the Amatis about 4 feet from the front with a plant in the middle of the pair of speakers. Electronics were on racks along the left wall, all Naim's top gear. I asked him how much did the electronics (CDP, preamp, amp) retail for, and he gave me a number that exceeded the cost of my good friend's 2004 BMW M3.
Stunned by the fact that his preamp cost more than my entire front end... I took a seat, only to forget that I had not inspected the SF Amatis! So I got up and examined the speakers in all its glory.
Sat down and the first notes came. If you havent heard this speaker, boy, you're in for a treat! Very clean, very good imaging, very good depth... VERY good depth, did I say that twice? There were times that I didnt even have to close my eyes to appreciate the music soundstage... I found myself trying look around the right speaker to see if the singer was standing there. Amazing sense of PRAT, amazing sense of space, amazing sense of cohesiveness.... just an amazing speaker! Midbass.... probably faster than the Summits in certain parts.
Overall:
- A slightly laid back soundstage, usually behind or at speaker plane.
- Midbass was quicker than anything I have heard so far.
- Taut bass, right on the dot, easily besting anything I have heard, even my Summits.
- Vocals were well focused and had that "volumetric" effect... like you could tell that it had size and palpability. You could tell if it was closed mic'd or not and whether or not the singer was physically dynamic with regards to the positioning relative to the mic.
- Midrange was right on the money, beautiful!
- Speaker build was far better than anything I have seen in person so far.... and the leather was soft!
- PALPABILITY!
Next up, we went over to the affordable room. Quad 2805 electrostats with some Naim gear. The entire system was similar in price to my system, so I could finally compare apples to apples, sort of. About $12K in front end equipment and $9K for the Quads.... for a room that totalled about $21K. Quads were set up about 4 feet from the front wall, and the sofa was about 4 feet from the rear. There was a plant between the Quads and some diffusors that were situated behind each of the speakers. The owner went on to berate the Martin Logans, saying that ML electrostats are NOTHING compared to the Quads and that the Quad's method of implementing the entire "cascading frequency" throughout the entire planar sheet mimicked the principles of a single-driver system better than the hybrid Summit.
I argued with him, but since he had more experience and he was the owner of the place, I digressed and said, "well, regardless of what the speaker's design, the sound is the end result, so let's hear the Quads."
First note, I noticed that the soundstage was remarkably short. I'm not sure if this was because of the spoils from listening to the Amatis prior to the Quads or what, but the soundstage, I swear, was short! The instruments were not very tall and I couldnt appreciate the spacing between them as much. Sounded more ethereal than the Summits, but no palpability! Imaging was not as focused as I'd like them to be (not even close to the Summits in my system or the Amatis I had heard previously). Disappointed.
Overall:
- Ethereal sound, not focused.
- Lacked palpability, not that it didnt have palpability, but it wasnt at the level of the Summits in my own electronics and/or the Amatis on the full-onslaught Naim.
- Bass, non-existent.
- Couldnt get loud, dynamically limited.
- Short soundstage.
- NOT impressed, regardless of how much the owner ragged on the curved ML stats and the hybrid build of the Summits. Pshhh.... .
A great night and I wished I took photos! The owner, John, told me to come back again... just to kick around and spend more time with the Amatis. He was previously a Wilson dealer and a Plinius dealer so he was familiar with my stuff. Cool guy, obviously biased as we all are. Great knowledge, far surpassing my own. I learned quite a bit from him that night, I'll be back next time we go for sushi.
Apologies to my gf, ahead of time....
Joey
I took a quick look at the hours of establishment and it was to close at 8p that night. I looked at my watch and realized that we only had 90 minutes to eat, pay the bill, and walk over to the adjacent audio store before they closed for the night. Anyway, to make a long story short, I ended up cutting the dinner slightly early (gf didnt get last order of Miso soup) just to make it before the 8p closing time!
Needless to say, Melissa was none too happy....
.So I walked in through the doors and was greeted by this guy sitting relaxed on a sofa watching the news. He didnt give me much of an acknowledgement, probably because of my age. I mentioned that I noticed he had a pair of Sonus Faber Amati Anniversarios in the lower floor judging by what I saw through the window and his eyes perked up and smiled. He was impressed that I could tell what the speakers were from such a small window opening, and he brought me to the half-basement where the Amatis were.
He closed the doors and the blinds, dimmed the lights. I took a look around the room, the room appeared to be well treated and as symmetrical as they come. A bit of a pentagon shaped, the back of the room was sort of a bay-window type of an enclosure. The couch was positioned about 5 feet from the back wall, the Amatis about 4 feet from the front with a plant in the middle of the pair of speakers. Electronics were on racks along the left wall, all Naim's top gear. I asked him how much did the electronics (CDP, preamp, amp) retail for, and he gave me a number that exceeded the cost of my good friend's 2004 BMW M3.
Stunned by the fact that his preamp cost more than my entire front end... I took a seat, only to forget that I had not inspected the SF Amatis! So I got up and examined the speakers in all its glory.
Sat down and the first notes came. If you havent heard this speaker, boy, you're in for a treat! Very clean, very good imaging, very good depth... VERY good depth, did I say that twice? There were times that I didnt even have to close my eyes to appreciate the music soundstage... I found myself trying look around the right speaker to see if the singer was standing there. Amazing sense of PRAT, amazing sense of space, amazing sense of cohesiveness.... just an amazing speaker! Midbass.... probably faster than the Summits in certain parts.
Overall:
- A slightly laid back soundstage, usually behind or at speaker plane.
- Midbass was quicker than anything I have heard so far.
- Taut bass, right on the dot, easily besting anything I have heard, even my Summits.
- Vocals were well focused and had that "volumetric" effect... like you could tell that it had size and palpability. You could tell if it was closed mic'd or not and whether or not the singer was physically dynamic with regards to the positioning relative to the mic.
- Midrange was right on the money, beautiful!
- Speaker build was far better than anything I have seen in person so far.... and the leather was soft!
- PALPABILITY!
Next up, we went over to the affordable room. Quad 2805 electrostats with some Naim gear. The entire system was similar in price to my system, so I could finally compare apples to apples, sort of. About $12K in front end equipment and $9K for the Quads.... for a room that totalled about $21K. Quads were set up about 4 feet from the front wall, and the sofa was about 4 feet from the rear. There was a plant between the Quads and some diffusors that were situated behind each of the speakers. The owner went on to berate the Martin Logans, saying that ML electrostats are NOTHING compared to the Quads and that the Quad's method of implementing the entire "cascading frequency" throughout the entire planar sheet mimicked the principles of a single-driver system better than the hybrid Summit.
I argued with him, but since he had more experience and he was the owner of the place, I digressed and said, "well, regardless of what the speaker's design, the sound is the end result, so let's hear the Quads."
First note, I noticed that the soundstage was remarkably short. I'm not sure if this was because of the spoils from listening to the Amatis prior to the Quads or what, but the soundstage, I swear, was short! The instruments were not very tall and I couldnt appreciate the spacing between them as much. Sounded more ethereal than the Summits, but no palpability! Imaging was not as focused as I'd like them to be (not even close to the Summits in my system or the Amatis I had heard previously). Disappointed.
Overall:
- Ethereal sound, not focused.
- Lacked palpability, not that it didnt have palpability, but it wasnt at the level of the Summits in my own electronics and/or the Amatis on the full-onslaught Naim.
- Bass, non-existent.
- Couldnt get loud, dynamically limited.
- Short soundstage.
- NOT impressed, regardless of how much the owner ragged on the curved ML stats and the hybrid build of the Summits. Pshhh....
.A great night and I wished I took photos! The owner, John, told me to come back again... just to kick around and spend more time with the Amatis. He was previously a Wilson dealer and a Plinius dealer so he was familiar with my stuff. Cool guy, obviously biased as we all are. Great knowledge, far surpassing my own. I learned quite a bit from him that night, I'll be back next time we go for sushi.
Apologies to my gf, ahead of time....
Joey
Last edited:
