So, a free saturday meant some time for demo's and... what I am about to say will more or less destroy this entire thread and throw it into the abyss! But lets start with the easy bits first.
1. KEF R300's are a great little speaker, the huge bass will easily compensate for my relatively small and regularly turned off sub for the home theatre. Plus I think they will match my older KEF eggs pretty well in terms of style. Choice made.
2. I listenned to them on an LX87, quite impressed y the features, less impressed by the musical quality, but I have come to accept that would be the case, and I listenned in a tiny room and in stereo which wasnt fair, nor on a blu-ray, but a CD soundtrack (Master & Commander), and without any set-up done. I will end up with a cheaper LX76 I think, that should be enough for me, I think the feature benefits will pay off in the long run.
Theatre dealt with....
3. I listenned to some Spendor A6's at a different shop on a Rega amp, good, but there was a distinct punch in the upper bass range, which sounded out of place, otherwise they had a nice warmth and balance. Another contender yes, but that punch in the upper bass put me off a bit, also I wished slightly more clarity (as i do also withthe bigger floorstanding KEF r500 and r700).
4. The same shop put a pair of Totem Hawks next to them, and gained that clarity, but yet again lost something in tonal balance, or excitement. Actually today I listenned to the Totem against the Focal/KEF/B&W in my first shop (it turns outthey have the Totem also) and though the totem can be good after yuo get used to them, they didnt seem to outperform the others for the money, just add options and confuse things further (and thus I rapidly gave up trying to listen to speakers there that day). I left it with the shop, that when the new JM-Lab/Focal 926 comes in, we would give that a try, they are under the impression that it is quite a different beast to the older focals, and will definitely be worth the test vs the B&W which were probably my favourite, ish, in a long listenning session.
5. However ever keen to see/hear more, I wandered up to another much smaller shop I found on the internet the other day after much searching. This was a shop which sells very few brands that I have actually heard of, and given their lack of english, and my poor french, made for some interesting conversation. But I thought i would try them anyway.
***** REVELLATIONS HAPPENED******
You can ignore everything said above, after reading the following.
Firstly, the one brand they did have, which I was keen to hear was Audiolab. So we plugged the 8200A and 8200CD into the speaker they said would be "a good choice for Jazz" a pair of Davis Vinci HD (and honestly they didnt have really many others in the way of brands to compare to). I've never heard of them before. The Audiolab CD has been my first choice for a while, though I hadnt heard it, it has great reviews and I like the built in DAC feature. My initial impression was the same as frankly all others. I wasn't blown away, nor even that excited by what I heard, as I mentioned before, I struggled to love any of the speakers I have heard so far. These Davis units seemed pretty good, though lacked a little width in the midrange, otherwise the balance was pretty good. Certainly comparable to the others and one to consider, and very excellent value at £1300 a pair, but again not quite.... right.
This is when the revelation happened. The shop told me this "have you heard a valve amplifier yet?" for Jazz you really must try it.
They plugged in a £950 40W/pc JoLida 202 valve amp, alas another brand I have never heard of and also cant find much information or reviews of online. The change was astounding. I cannot honestly say how mindblowing it was. It somehow bore life into those quite neutral Davis floorstanders, that the Audiolab or frankly any set-up I have tried so far could even come close to matching. It was no one thing, or even noticeable sound quality difference. Yet, my Jazz was suddenly given a life that the other set-ups hadn't reproduced, and I had spent so much energy trying to find, and have been getting quite frustrated in not getting! The brass sections gained a fluidity in attack, vocals and solo instruments stood out in clarity in the forefront and reached out, and overall dynamic balance was excellent. Some of my loved CD's that somehow didnt quite sound that special on the other set-ups, suddenly sounded oh so georgous, warm exciting and full of life!
It was really georgous listening. Where in the past tests I had occasionally swapped CD's to try them in testing what sounds best for what, now I found myself quickly swapping to see just how georgous the next would come out, in sheer excitement! My love of Jazz music was back! It was exhilerating!
It wasn't perfect in places, nor for everyones taste though, I shall point out. On a few jazz tracks the double bass, though it sounded beautifully wooden, was slightly lost or quiet in places, though on the whole I felt the balance usually was right. Also I did put in Master & Commander, as well as some Pearl jam. The classical music in M&C was georgous, but the film-track sections didnt quite have as much edge as some, though were still very good and open.
A mellow accoustic Pearl Jam track from No Code sounded really fantastic, the accoustic guitars come out with such a lushness that it's hard to ignore, but when coming to the heavy electric guitar tracks, the anger was there but had lost a little attack, some bite was lost perhaps, and the balance not quite right also.
That said, though I love pearl jam, I gladly will take the trade-off.
Did I buy? No. Not yet anyway, though I was hugely tempted. The reasons being as follows:
1. I know nothing about valve amps, and wanted to do some more research on them before buying the first I have heard! And ask the fine people here!
2. I didnt know the brands at all!
3. With the Audiolab amp, I didnt totally love the speakers, and so wouldnt mind trying some of the better known ones on this valve set-up, though I am not sure how I will manage that.
4. with no remote for the amp, I disliked the idea of getting up every time to change volume. I suggested to them the idea of the Audiolab CDQ with pre-amp instead, and they agreed this could do the trick, but also recommended that if I was to spend that much extra just for volume control, I may aswell use that toward a better amp instead. The next step up to include the remote control was a JoLida 801s and about £550 more, and was i think an 80W/pc valve amp. I didnt get a chance to try it yet. That said, they priced together the system (I think exculding cables) at a touch under £3400, with the more expensive JoLida amp, which is quite reasonable I felt.
5. But, If I am suddenly spending not £300 more (which is a similar price bracket at least to the arcam a19) on the Jolida 202, but actually doubluing the Arcam's price range for an amp, then I ought again to try some more expensive electronic amps to comensate. That said, the £950 JoLida 202 set-up I tested completely blew away every system I have heard so far however, at least for my ears anyway!
So, anyone know anything about valve amps? or JoLida? or any others I should compare them to? Or speakers that particularly go well with valve amps?
its opened a whole new broad set of options, and practically thrown away all the work i've done already!