Home demo of AS500, Cyrus 6A and Roksan Kandy K2 with B&W 684

[BigH]

Not sure its a good thing to try speakers at home..?

Yes try at home is best if you can.

 

[Vladimir]

The Roksan K2 is not a budget amp nor Will it sound that much different to hi-end amps at 5x the cost, speaking generally of course...... :-D

And on paper it's one of the most powerful integrated amps out there.

Curious as to why you bought a British amp considering your taste in sound.

I have fun exploring gear. It has nothing to do with music since I enjoy music playing from youtube and free spotify on laptop speakers or on my phone using cheap generic earbuds.

 

[Vladimir]

That's why we have 'burn in' period after purchase.

Now you just made the whole thing more complex..' burn in' & then find out its too bright or to dull sounding. Too late to return to shop. *dash1*

That's why we have 'burn in' period after purchase. *biggrin*

 

[Native_bon]

That's why we have 'burn in' period after purchase.

Now you just made the whole thing more complex..' burn in' & then find out its too bright or to dull sounding. Too late to return to shop. *dash1*

That's why we have 'burn in' period after purchase. *biggrin*

In the real world how many shops allow for burn in..?

 

[Thompsonuxb]

American gear like there cars are big and inificiant.

Has big has there speakers are they lack sophistication - there amps too.(based on visits to family out there)

But if one knows no better one can be happy.

Never heard a German amp outside of a car (most use 4ohm speakers has standard)

But me thinks you underrate the efficiency of British amps and speaker design.

I have to admit Vlad, when I read this topic it reminded me of our 'discussion' last week about the as500 and Focels. (the 684's being in the same ball park)

The Roksan is a strange amp though in that it's paper specs or power rating suggest it's far more powerful than it is in the flesh.

It thumps but compared to other Amps at half the power rating it does not deliver the sort of dynamic heft you'd expect it to.

What's your theory on that?

Input sensitivity is the showroom killer, as discussed before. No nasty loudness tricks with the Kandy K2s, they are old schools (as the design would clearly suggest).

Also the Roksan is not a very powerfull amplifier. It's just a decent ok budget amp that delivers nice power in transient peaks but it's far from a power house. My appetite is far bigger than this little Roksan, especially with 4 ohm nominal, closed box speakers (most accurate but most current demanding bass). 100Wpc amps are my minimum, I don't even bother with 50Wpc ones with hyped up inputs. been there, done that.

Before this amp I had a Harman Kardon HK6900 (175Wpc) and it died on the 2 ohm battle front line. Like Dave mentioned before, typical music listening is 90% or more without breaching 1 or 2 watts of power. But when the speakers demand (especially low impedance and phase shifts), the peaks are fast and very high, easily breach hundreds of watts.

What I really need is a welder by Electrocompaniet or Abrahamsen. With easy going speakers I would retire for life with an Accuphase integrated.?

Do you know why German speakers never sold well in the UK?

Our amps (in the main) piss poor power outputs.

I find there's a different outlook from countries like America and the UK towards hifi, speakers and amps especially.  The Americans want full range speakers and they tend to demand serious amps.

The UK speaker sales are mainly bookshelf and are generally a bit less demanding on amps.

What many Americans on hifi forums fail to realise is the speaker difference between the two nations mainly comes down to the average room size of both nations.  The UK has the smallest average room size in square metres in Europe.  America has larger room sizes than anywhere in Europe and larger room sizes can accomodate larger speakers.  The larger speakers require serious amps and America builds some seriously potent amps.

Here in the UK, with our pokey wee rooms, we need less speakers and a bit less amps.  It's probably no accident that Japan are a big market for UK mini monitors given their, on average, smaller sized living spaces.

The average new build UK house is 76m squared.  Ireland is 15% bigger, Netherlands 53% bigger, Denmark 80% bigger.

 

[Vladimir]

That's why we have 'burn in' period after purchase.

Now you just made the whole thing more complex..' burn in' & then find out its too bright or to dull sounding. Too late to return to shop. *dash1*

That's why we have 'burn in' period after purchase. *biggrin*

In the real world how many shops allow for burn in..?

It really depends on the country consumer protection regulations, particulary how much time you have to return a product after trying it. By the laws of audiophile physics burn in time must overlap this legal period. Simples.

 

[Vladimir]

But me thinks you underrate the efficiency of British amps and speaker design.

Efficiency as in how much power is wasted through heat dissipation?