Quest for musicality - a session at Leonard's place
Janos
music. The author claimed that people listen different to stereo than
they would to live music. Most people listen to characteristics of the
sound when listening to stereo: soundstage, dynamics, low level
information content, and so on. On the other hand, during a live
presentation he criteria are very different, relating mostly to the
technique and personality of the players, and their capability to play
well.
I start listening to live performances as if I would listen to a
stereo: check for dynamics, frequency range, soundstage, transparency,
and so on. Whenever I go to a performance of the Honolulu Symphony, I
put on the record with the same (or similar) music content at home for
sonic control.
If the performance is mediocre, I stay at the level of analyzing the
sonics. Check if I can separate the violins. Try to guess the effect of
the hall on the harmonics of the cello, and such stuff.
But all of this changes when I hear something that I like: I just
absorb the music, and forget all about sonics.
This brings me back to the issue of stereo. I have found that most
people fall into the category of analyzers; checking constantly for
sonics, and never (rarely) enjoying the music itself. Our local group
is different, as I see we tend to look for the music, and enjoyable
musical reproduction rather than justifying a certain technology.
This way we can listen to unusual tastes and styles. One such is the
Furuyama speakers of Francis. I think it beats 99.9% of every
commercial speakers. Why? Because it lets you listen to music. There
are very few speakers that can do this.
Other such speakers is Leonard's open baffles. We had a great session
at his place with Nelli, and Charles. Leonard has excellent Chinese
tea, and drinking gongfu cha brings you into the mood of listening to
music.
Leonard has tried something very unusual: the Fostex FE107 drivers.
These are tiny, 4in "full range" tweeters. I expected nice,
coherent sound from them, but no low-end whatsoever. I was very wrong
at this point.
First we have listened to the OBs with Macintosh 240 amp. Very clean
sounding, excellent highs and mids, and even viola sound very nice. The
sound was lean, but I ws very surprised to hear deep notes, although
they were faint - yet clear, and rich in harmonic content.
After a while we have changed to Ew's Audiohobbyist 6EW7 kit, built
by Charlie. This is a one-tube inexpensive 2W DIY SET kit from
Malaysia. We were very surprised. The kit, with 0 hours of break-in,
sounded already better than the beefy Mac 240. The base became much
better, the music more involving. We started talking about the records
Leonard put on, and the sound was just perfect - as an audiophile, I
could find negatives, but I put it aside, as the music was so
enjoyable, that it made all the worries gone.
We were listening now to an under 400$ system, with an Apex DVD player,
a 100$ kit, 80$ drivers plus baffle. We used the inexpensive volume
control of the 6ew7 kit.
It was getting late, and Leonard had the idea to insert the modified
PAS3 to the chain. As a surprise, the sound has improved a lot, the
tiny "tweeters" jumped another category, with even more low end,
and better resolution, dynamics. Another jump was made with the DIY
CAT5 speaker cable, replacing the heavy ga copper stranded wire. If I
had to guess with closed eyes, I would have told that we are listening
to at least 6in diameter drivers. The OBs have completely disappeared,
and the soundstage was stable, coherent, no matter where you were in
the room. It was very hard to believe that we are listening to digital,
it sounded so relaxed, and natural.
The findings have reinforced what I have found with my SET / single
driver setup: they are extremely sensitive to cabling and impedance
matching. The base quantity is proportional of this, and not to amp
power. Driver size can be quite misleading, going much lower than we
would expect. The FAL drivers are an excellent example, they go down
incredibly deep for a single driver.
The FE107 are an excellent choice for music listening. However, we have
not tried every genre. Probably the fans of techno-rave, pipe organ,
and kettle drums need to look elsewhere. For 90% of the listening
material, however, they are a wonderful choice.
Janos
Francis Chinen
to all fellow diy-haven-members,
yes janos i agree with you on musicality it can come to you from unexpected places and equipment. on the subject of the furuyama speaker system first let me thank each and everyone of you for attending the diy meeting at stu's store, and all of your input as to what you heard and any of the improvements that were suggested, this is what mr. furuyama was looking for in his visit here, he also sends along his thanks to all of you. have been in contacted with mr. furuyama after his return to japan and after he digested all of your reactions and coments he has come up with some changes that has greatly improved the musicality of the system, also have my cobalt bottlehead 2a3 in the system. have found that 2.5 watts is more than adequate for my room, the speakers remain very dynamic. so here is an open invite to all you fellow diy-haven members to come out
for a listen. thanks isl kid
Janos
Thank you for your invitation! We'll come with Nelli, and we could
arrange a time that is best for you. We were very glad to meet Mr
Furuyama. He is a person with knowledge, perseverance, and passion for
music. I liked that he presented with enthusiasm all of the music that
he demod the speakers with. He made great drivers, unique in the flood
of one-like-the-others.
You have done a great job with the cabinet! When Stu said your speakers
are in the listening room, we rushed in, and were baffled, because we
found no speakers that looked DIY. Your cabinets look better, and more
authentic than most professional cabinets!
Janos