Re: An evening invite........
Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 4:59 pm
Take a bow Ciaran as it definitely ranks as one of the best get togethers I have been to since I joined TirNaHiFi.
The wine, coffee, drinks and biscuits and savouries were a great touch.
Most notably for me the evening was a great success because we did actually listen to a lot of excellent music on the evening, a lot of times we get together we can drift off into a lot of discussions on HiFi and such without hearing too many tracks, gear, etc.
We packed a lot in that evening and it is testament to the quality of the speakers that we kept wanting to swap equipment and play music at every opportunity, but as the guys above pointed out once we hit on the star of the evening in the third and final set of speakers we stayed with them for the night and no one wanted to go back to the other pairs we listened to.
For the benefit of those who could not make it we listened to 3 sets of speakers on the evening with all built around SEAS Drivers and all sets are front ported. We listened initially to the base 2 way model I think which was a nice compact standmount which performed very well and these were priced by our resident valuation expert Panda2rom within 10% of cost so he obviously has a good pedigree in valuing speakers.
We listened to these on an FatMan iTube amp off a CD unit whose name escapes me now.
After several tracks including the excellent test track 1."Furia Taurina" at over 10 minutes provided off "An Evening with John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess" by Panda2rom on CD we moved to the beautiful looking and largest speaker of the evening being a floor stander which was made from solid hardwood all round.
Again this was a 2 way and sounded as good as it looked and at that point I was thinking to myself I wanted a pair if the price was right, after several tracks we then engaged our resident valuation expert Panda2rom and this time he was within about 25% off cost price and at this point I was almost tempted to make an offer....glad I did not as the best was yet to come which I was not expecting!!
For the third and final set we moved down a little in size to the 2 and a half way design floor stander which had 2 smaller woofers and a top of the range tweeter.
This set only had the front panel in solid hardwood but Ciaran plans to supply these in the gorgeous full hardwood design which I look forward to seeing again when he has the first set ready.
When we got the third set of speakers in place which I have to admit I was thinking fell some way between the first and second set price wise based on size and looks we all immediately were won over by how amazing they sounded and that is when the serious challenges began.
The Rega Planar 3 was put in place, then the Croft Acoustics Micro 25 provided by Simonewings and we were listening to some serious sounds at that point.
The Leak 20 was then introduced and this was wonderful with these speakers, TT and Pre combination. The soundstage was huge with great separation, detail and control.
I believe an hour or two passed very quickly at that point in the evening with lots of vinyl being thrown at this combination trying to find limits but none were evident, instead we were all in stunned silence as we tapped our feet and exercised our necks in sympathy to the great sounds we were hearing. Several of us hit the wine at this point as it was an evening to be savoured.
We called on our resident valuation expert Panda2rom and this time he was spot on in price to some amazement by me as I was way off in my initial estimate thinking these were likely in the middle ground but no for the first time have I been deceived by looks before hearing a piece of kit.
Just as I expected we were all almost ready to shuffle away into the night we moved then to Nigel's DAC which straight away on the first three 16/44 tracks he played from his MAC hit the spot and had us all wanting one of these DAC's, it had all the beauty and scale of the high quality vinyl we listened to earlier and with tremendous attack and detail. Another hour was to disappear with some great music.
We finally introduced the Bush A746 from Panda2rom replacing the Leak 20 not expecting much given its appearance and were surprised how powerful and dynamic it was, just go to show once again that looks can be very deceiving!
If you are thinking of purchasing speakers at either budget entry level or something more serious I would recommend a trip down to Ciaran's as it is a great room with a great selection of speakers to suit any budget.
Most of all I think these solid hardwood design with the SEAS drivers will make an easy sell for any one needing buy in from a partner as they are serious pieces of furniture and very pleasing to the eye.
Cheers, Pearse.
The wine, coffee, drinks and biscuits and savouries were a great touch.
Most notably for me the evening was a great success because we did actually listen to a lot of excellent music on the evening, a lot of times we get together we can drift off into a lot of discussions on HiFi and such without hearing too many tracks, gear, etc.
We packed a lot in that evening and it is testament to the quality of the speakers that we kept wanting to swap equipment and play music at every opportunity, but as the guys above pointed out once we hit on the star of the evening in the third and final set of speakers we stayed with them for the night and no one wanted to go back to the other pairs we listened to.
For the benefit of those who could not make it we listened to 3 sets of speakers on the evening with all built around SEAS Drivers and all sets are front ported. We listened initially to the base 2 way model I think which was a nice compact standmount which performed very well and these were priced by our resident valuation expert Panda2rom within 10% of cost so he obviously has a good pedigree in valuing speakers.
We listened to these on an FatMan iTube amp off a CD unit whose name escapes me now.
After several tracks including the excellent test track 1."Furia Taurina" at over 10 minutes provided off "An Evening with John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess" by Panda2rom on CD we moved to the beautiful looking and largest speaker of the evening being a floor stander which was made from solid hardwood all round.
Again this was a 2 way and sounded as good as it looked and at that point I was thinking to myself I wanted a pair if the price was right, after several tracks we then engaged our resident valuation expert Panda2rom and this time he was within about 25% off cost price and at this point I was almost tempted to make an offer....glad I did not as the best was yet to come which I was not expecting!!
For the third and final set we moved down a little in size to the 2 and a half way design floor stander which had 2 smaller woofers and a top of the range tweeter.
This set only had the front panel in solid hardwood but Ciaran plans to supply these in the gorgeous full hardwood design which I look forward to seeing again when he has the first set ready.
When we got the third set of speakers in place which I have to admit I was thinking fell some way between the first and second set price wise based on size and looks we all immediately were won over by how amazing they sounded and that is when the serious challenges began.
The Rega Planar 3 was put in place, then the Croft Acoustics Micro 25 provided by Simonewings and we were listening to some serious sounds at that point.
The Leak 20 was then introduced and this was wonderful with these speakers, TT and Pre combination. The soundstage was huge with great separation, detail and control.
I believe an hour or two passed very quickly at that point in the evening with lots of vinyl being thrown at this combination trying to find limits but none were evident, instead we were all in stunned silence as we tapped our feet and exercised our necks in sympathy to the great sounds we were hearing. Several of us hit the wine at this point as it was an evening to be savoured.
We called on our resident valuation expert Panda2rom and this time he was spot on in price to some amazement by me as I was way off in my initial estimate thinking these were likely in the middle ground but no for the first time have I been deceived by looks before hearing a piece of kit.
Just as I expected we were all almost ready to shuffle away into the night we moved then to Nigel's DAC which straight away on the first three 16/44 tracks he played from his MAC hit the spot and had us all wanting one of these DAC's, it had all the beauty and scale of the high quality vinyl we listened to earlier and with tremendous attack and detail. Another hour was to disappear with some great music.
We finally introduced the Bush A746 from Panda2rom replacing the Leak 20 not expecting much given its appearance and were surprised how powerful and dynamic it was, just go to show once again that looks can be very deceiving!
If you are thinking of purchasing speakers at either budget entry level or something more serious I would recommend a trip down to Ciaran's as it is a great room with a great selection of speakers to suit any budget.
Most of all I think these solid hardwood design with the SEAS drivers will make an easy sell for any one needing buy in from a partner as they are serious pieces of furniture and very pleasing to the eye.
Cheers, Pearse.
