http://www.dynakitparts.com
http://www.dynakitparts.com/store/catalog.aspx?cid=1
http://www.dynakitparts.com/store/catalog.aspx?cid=1
TRELJA almost In New York, 2006
Hi All, Im the Bob Z mentioned above. I just want to clarify my association with NAT/Quest. Stephen Monte is the owner of Quest for Sound (retail store) and NAT Distribution (importer and US distributor for Consonance products and AAD loudspeakers, among others, and creator of the Sound Quest products). I have no financial interest in Quest or NAT, but I am a fan of the Consonance and Sound Quest gear. My affiliation started several years ago as a Quest customer and I now consider Stephen a friend (even though I am a bit jealous of Stephen for running his own business while I remain a lowly wage-slave, an indentured servant to The Man). As I was planning to attend the VTV show I thought it would be fun if I volunteered to help Stephen out at VTV. I mostly hauled boxes in, unpacked them, packed them, and hauled them back out (a middle aged roadie if you will). Oh, and I occasionally dolled out misinformation on the products when Stephen was not available to more intelligently answer show goers questions. ;-) Sorry if I lead anyone astray with my woefully inadequate knowledge of the specs/pricing on all the various products. Anyway Joe (Trelja), Nice write up! Ill throw in my two cents on rooms I was able to spend more time in and enjoyed VTV Show Sonics - I was unable to hit all the vendor rooms at the show. But, based on how I know the Consonance and Omega speakers to sound in other rooms Id agree with Joe and say the sonics were fair to good, but not great. Large speakers producing lots of bass did overload the small rooms. A bigger problem was that the listening positions were, in general, too close for many speakers (with the exception of monitors designed for closer positioning, like those in the North Creek room that you mention enjoying). Dynakit - I too was impressed with the new Dynakit (http://www.dynakitparts.com) and so was Gary Krakow of MSNBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12689936/. Dynakit sells parts kits as well as individual replacement parts, including chassis, for the old units. I spent some time speaking with Kevin Devaney about the kits, including a walk through of the manual and a look at a partially assembled kit. Kevin has obviously put a lot of time and effort into getting this right and ready for market. (One of his associates mentioned that Kevin has put something like five years into this, and it shows.) The parts quality is outstanding (and all US sourced). The assembly procedure is extremely well planned and the manual provides all the pointers, tips, and tricks of the trade that an experienced assembler would know. Putting all this in the manual will make it easy for even a first time builder to have a Dynakit that looks professionally assembled. After showing the online manual to an EE coworker of mine (hardware engineer with 20+ years of RF design experience who repairs vintage audio as a hobby) he was most impressed and thought that the 35 could be easily assembled by a newbie in four evenings. (As an aside, the new Dynakit as no association with the current Dynaco.) REX Loudspeakers The show proved that Vytas Viesulas Boxxer7 design works well in smaller rooms. These speakers have a punchy, articulate bass mated to very smooth mids and highs. They are not bright and convey the music in a non-fatiguing fashion that, to my ear, hides the presence of the crossover very seamless. And they are beautiful and beautifully constructed. The craftsmanship put into them is obvious. Consonance - What can I say? I like the products. The Droplet CD player hooked directly into the Cyber 800 tube mono-blocks (78 watt) fed the Consonance M15 horn speakers. The closeness of the listening position to the M15s made them sound brighter to my ear than they are in a larger room but the setup sounded great overall and is extremely engaging. In spite of generally preferring tubes to solid state, I actually like the Forbidden City Turandot CD player (all SS) and Calaf Integrated Amplifier (hybrid, tube pre, with 200 watt SS power that is class A to 40 watts) with the M15. The room received many complements and many a folk with PRESS badges requested to make arrangements for review samples. When a PRESS person is tapping his toe to the music, the room must not be sounding too bad, right? FJ Speakers - The Hudson Audio room is where I believe Joe was listening to the FJ speakers that you disliked. If this was the room, the speakers are the new three way FJ Super-OM. I spoke to Tom Hills of Hudson about them. They use a soft dome mid-range driver. My understanding is that the show sample speakers were straight off the boat, fresh out of the box, and playing at the show. In my experience with auditioning the smaller FJ OM and Mini, the FJ speakers need lots of run time to sound their best. Patience is rewarded with the FJs because when they are broken in they sound excellent. By the way, Tom is a great guy, very energetic, and (you will appreciate this Joe since you like your music LOUD) late in the day he could be found cranking up heavy metal and classic rock at balls-to-the-wall concert volumes. In fact, his was the only room that I know of that the hotel management asked to turn down the music as it was disturbing guests dining in the restaurant. That should add some points in the Super-OMs plus column for those who like lots of dBs! Omega & Red Wine - I really liked Louis Chochos Omega Superhemp speakers in past auditions and the show conditions did not change this. These are great speakers to my ear and when I can get an in home audition, to prove whether they will fill my rather large listening room, they may stay with me. This was my first opportunity to hear the Omega XRS speakers and the Red Wine audio products. The Fostex based XRS was in the Dynakit room driven by the 17.5 watt per channel Dynakit 35. I was surprised at the amount of bass emanating from a single 4.5 driver. The tonality and timbre seemed accurate, the instruments sounded natural and real, if not full sized (in this case, the trumpet sounded small). In the Red Wine / Omega room there was a prototype XRS with a 4.5 Hemptone driver and this was also very good, and perhaps a bit warmer sounding than the Fostex based XRS. While digital amplification is not my cup of tea, I really enjoyed the Red Wine / Omega combinations. The music came across in a natural and relaxed manner; high fidelity without hi-fi exaggerations. When I asked about the source I was surprised to be told that it was a music server. A music server?! This is something that I had not considered but I must say that Vinnie Rossi (Red Wine) makes a persuasive argument with his modified Olive unit (numerous mods including change to battery power). If you want the convenience of a server but dont want to sacrifice sound quality this may be the way to go. Enjoy! |
Nicely done, Bob!!! Just to put my own two cents in, Bob Z. is one of the finer people you'll meet, audio or otherwise. It's always good to know people like Bob, and when they happen to share the same hobby as you, it's all the better. I think Bob helping out Quest For Sound just for the heck of it on Saturday speaks to the type of person he is - he gets involved to help out with whatever is needed, with no thought of personal reward. |
I must say that Vinnie Rossi (Red Wine) makes a persuasive argument with his modified Olive unit (numerous mods including change to battery power). If you want the convenience of a server but dont want to sacrifice sound quality this may be the way to go.There are many of us out here who are very interested to get some opinions of the sound of the Olive as it compares to other DACs. (I know the Olive is more than a DAC, but the DAC is the most important element in the box, IMO). It seems like an ideal solution to me...especially the Opus model. |