RMAF 2012 Postmortem

Dpe: Wondering if you'd elaborate on your issues with tinnitus and ribbons? Too edgy? I find this sometimes (eg Salk HTL-TL w/Van Alstine, RMAF 2010), but not others (Vapor on a number of occasions).

Mrtennis: I heard various people comment on how well the Sanders integrated this year; maybe they've cleaned things up a bit.

On the topic of integration, anyone hear the Rythm -- a single driver augmented with a bass unit? I only heard it briefly, but I wondered about the integration.

The Joule Black is my favorite of the Vapor line as well Petrakis; punching above its weight is you'd move from the C4! I think the pro audio based Acurus is a really neat design too; might be my choice, if I were more of a headbanger.

John

I think the Sanders sounded good, especially in the bass; but overall they cannot match the Magnepans in the mids and highs...overall I still think the Maggies sound better, especially the 3.7 and 20.7's...

John,

I can hear to 18 kHz no problem. Old CRTs, and whatever is going on in the fluorescent lights or hard drives I can here a continuous high pitch sound. Having worked near wind tunnels for 25 years I've undoubtedly broken off some of the tiny hairs in the cochlea. Thus a small portion of my midrange has dimensioned. Unfortunately this accentuates the highs, which means that any persistent frequency between 10 to 13 kHz will cause extreme listening fatigue for me. I can easily hear a 10-12 kHz buzz from and ribbon or electrostatic tweeter and ribbons can produce sound way beyond 20kHz (hardly anyone past their teens can hear or ever heard 20kHz). I'm more amazed that other people don't have similar issues.

When I say that there’s a pop or punch in the highs I’m just referring to a sudden seemingly uncontrolled burst of energy that doesn’t dissipate well at 10-12 kHz. This is different then the constant buzz of a ribbon; rather it’s punctuated. I can tell you within 30 seconds whether a cone tweeter has this tendency. The buzz of a ribbon tweeter will fatigue you over time because it’s sustained. Just my opinion…

Analysis Audio, I was told, is having 25% off for RMAF that is good until the end of this month.

Thanks Dpe. I'm prone to earbleed and fatigue from etched audiophile detail, but I've not noticed the buzz.

John