It’s now over 2 years since I joined the forum and began benefitting from the honourable members’ accumulated wisdom. Lots of water and lots of bridges later, as of last week I finally have my main system installed in its designated and destined space.
During these two years there have been dozens of demos (remember them?), a couple of false starts, a house move, new furniture, and loads of cable debates. I spent a bit of money too. The learning curve has been pretty steep at times.
The system architecture is quite simple. A pair of speakers and three boxes of electronics: a streamer, a DSP/DAC/preamp, and a power amp. Oh and my teenage daughter’s turntable and phono stage!
It goes like this (minus the TT): Sonos Connect (W4S mod) > DSPeaker Anti-Mode DualCore 2.0 > Sanders Magtech > Martin Logan Montis.
Am I happy now?
For most of the music I listen to, the system is superb. It has a frightening degree of resolution. Everything is there. Instrumental timbres are stunningly accurate. The sense of immediacy is remarkable. I don’t like the word ‘palpable’, but it’s probably the right word here.
The speakers have two other trump cards. The electrostatic panels are about 4ft in height (not including the woofers). All frequencies from 20kHz down to 350Hz (where the woofers take over) are spread evenly along the full height of the panels, which means the soundstage is both wide and very tall. For orchestral music this is a huge plus. I’ve not heard a speaker that does an orchestra better.
And then there’s the volume. I generally don’t listen at very high volumes, but on occasions I have, and the speakers go loud in a totally unforced manner. Really loud. Without distortion.
I can still pick holes in the system’s performance. I get more powerful and truer bass from my Devialet Phantoms, but they are the stuff of legend in the bass department. Some recordings sound rubbish. I guess that’s because they’re rubbish recordings. I’ve yet to find a (post-1970) classical recording that sounds anything other than excellent.
So, yes, I’m happy now. Very happy.
During these two years there have been dozens of demos (remember them?), a couple of false starts, a house move, new furniture, and loads of cable debates. I spent a bit of money too. The learning curve has been pretty steep at times.
The system architecture is quite simple. A pair of speakers and three boxes of electronics: a streamer, a DSP/DAC/preamp, and a power amp. Oh and my teenage daughter’s turntable and phono stage!
It goes like this (minus the TT): Sonos Connect (W4S mod) > DSPeaker Anti-Mode DualCore 2.0 > Sanders Magtech > Martin Logan Montis.
Am I happy now?
For most of the music I listen to, the system is superb. It has a frightening degree of resolution. Everything is there. Instrumental timbres are stunningly accurate. The sense of immediacy is remarkable. I don’t like the word ‘palpable’, but it’s probably the right word here.
The speakers have two other trump cards. The electrostatic panels are about 4ft in height (not including the woofers). All frequencies from 20kHz down to 350Hz (where the woofers take over) are spread evenly along the full height of the panels, which means the soundstage is both wide and very tall. For orchestral music this is a huge plus. I’ve not heard a speaker that does an orchestra better.
And then there’s the volume. I generally don’t listen at very high volumes, but on occasions I have, and the speakers go loud in a totally unforced manner. Really loud. Without distortion.
I can still pick holes in the system’s performance. I get more powerful and truer bass from my Devialet Phantoms, but they are the stuff of legend in the bass department. Some recordings sound rubbish. I guess that’s because they’re rubbish recordings. I’ve yet to find a (post-1970) classical recording that sounds anything other than excellent.
So, yes, I’m happy now. Very happy.