For those of you who’ve followed my hi-fi adventures over the last (nearly) two years and have made some immensely helpful suggestions, I thought I’d do a quick summary of where my main system’s got to. It’s included some wrong turns and some big surprises.
When I started out, I thought I’d settle on the amp first. The thinking was that if I had the best amp I could afford, I’d then be able to do meaningful speaker demos at home. I regret that decision now, and I’m firmly in the ‘speakers first’ camp.
The reason for my change of heart was the revelatory experience of electrostatic speakers. Hearing a pair of Martin Logans in a comparative demo (against the Harbeth SHL5s and Sonus faber Cremona Auditor Ms, both lovely speakers) was, well, a revelation. I was lucky enough to find an ex-demo pair of Martin Logan Montis, and I knew they’d be the heart of my system.
Back to amps: before the Martin Logan experience I'd got well and truly bitten by the Devialet bug, and I still haven't heard a better amp at the price for driving normal cone speakers. I lived with the Sanders Magtech power amp, which was designed specifically for electrostatic speakers by Roger Sanders, a legend in the world of ESLs. It’s a big, unprepossessing box that delivers 500WPC through 20 output transformers with no protective circuitry. Hearing the Magtech with the Montis was like my first demo of Martin Logans: it opened up a new sound world. An enormous soundstage, hugely detailed, with beautiful presentation of mids and highs and rich satisfying bass.
I did that demo in my study upstairs, which has a very nice acoustic, but when I moved the system down to its destination in the living room, things went wrong again. The bass was boomy in the bigger space, but the highs were also much too energetic.
The solutions came in two forms. First a set of Townshend seismic bars for the speakers, which provide almost complete isolation from the floor (no foo here; it’s proper engineering).
The second solution was a DSPeaker Anti-Mode 2.0 Dual Core, which is a veritable hi-fi toolbox and strongly recommended. Its main function is to remove bass modes; it turns out I had two big humps at 30Hz and 60Hz, which is quite normal for a UK living room. Those humps have now gone. The DSPeaker also works as a DAC and preamp, which is how I’m using it at the moment, though it can be used in pure digital mode.
The system is now wonderful for all types of music. The acoustics of the living room are still a bit too lively, but some new softer furniture and a big rug should sort that out.
There’s room for future tweaking. My source is currently a modded Sonos Connect. I might demo some other streamers, though I’m sceptical. Also I might experiment with using the DSPeaker in digital mode and introducing another DAC/preamp, though again I think the benefits are likely to be marginal.
So … nearly there. Many thanks to all who’ve taken part!
Matt *drinks*
When I started out, I thought I’d settle on the amp first. The thinking was that if I had the best amp I could afford, I’d then be able to do meaningful speaker demos at home. I regret that decision now, and I’m firmly in the ‘speakers first’ camp.
The reason for my change of heart was the revelatory experience of electrostatic speakers. Hearing a pair of Martin Logans in a comparative demo (against the Harbeth SHL5s and Sonus faber Cremona Auditor Ms, both lovely speakers) was, well, a revelation. I was lucky enough to find an ex-demo pair of Martin Logan Montis, and I knew they’d be the heart of my system.
Back to amps: before the Martin Logan experience I'd got well and truly bitten by the Devialet bug, and I still haven't heard a better amp at the price for driving normal cone speakers. I lived with the Sanders Magtech power amp, which was designed specifically for electrostatic speakers by Roger Sanders, a legend in the world of ESLs. It’s a big, unprepossessing box that delivers 500WPC through 20 output transformers with no protective circuitry. Hearing the Magtech with the Montis was like my first demo of Martin Logans: it opened up a new sound world. An enormous soundstage, hugely detailed, with beautiful presentation of mids and highs and rich satisfying bass.
I did that demo in my study upstairs, which has a very nice acoustic, but when I moved the system down to its destination in the living room, things went wrong again. The bass was boomy in the bigger space, but the highs were also much too energetic.
The solutions came in two forms. First a set of Townshend seismic bars for the speakers, which provide almost complete isolation from the floor (no foo here; it’s proper engineering).
The second solution was a DSPeaker Anti-Mode 2.0 Dual Core, which is a veritable hi-fi toolbox and strongly recommended. Its main function is to remove bass modes; it turns out I had two big humps at 30Hz and 60Hz, which is quite normal for a UK living room. Those humps have now gone. The DSPeaker also works as a DAC and preamp, which is how I’m using it at the moment, though it can be used in pure digital mode.
The system is now wonderful for all types of music. The acoustics of the living room are still a bit too lively, but some new softer furniture and a big rug should sort that out.
There’s room for future tweaking. My source is currently a modded Sonos Connect. I might demo some other streamers, though I’m sceptical. Also I might experiment with using the DSPeaker in digital mode and introducing another DAC/preamp, though again I think the benefits are likely to be marginal.
So … nearly there. Many thanks to all who’ve taken part!
Matt *drinks*
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