I have waited almost 16 years to get into this hobby. And finally decided to take the plunge this year.
My hunt started with speakers as usual but amp was the first component I finalised. Came across O&B amps on HFV and got in touch with Aniket(@adas). I had the chance to listen to a pair of ATC SCM19s being driven by an O&B DMB at a FMs home. Built like a tank sounded even better. Chose a 150W@8ohms pc in a dual monoblock configuration. At the same time I was still deliberating about speaker choices and the decision was not firmed up. I was considering following options- ATC SCM19, SCM11, Sonus Faber Sonetto II, Monitior Audio Gold, Wharfedale Linton, IndiqAudio Mishra. Was discussing my speaker choices with Aniket and he pointed me to Suman Jana(@smnjn) of Saptak Acoustics. Suman makes 3 different speaker models. He shared measurements, build details, enclosure and component details and costs involved. Based on my budget I decided to go with the Rediscovery Towers.
Both Aniket and Suman promised delivery in roughly 2 months. Paid up the advance and waited.
The speakers arrived packed in layers of foam and bubble wrap. A week later the amp arrived equally well packed. My 11 year old kid was around to help when I was hooking up the system. But at the time it was hard to tell who was the kid. Below is a quick review. I am winging it mostly but these are as objective as I could be with my observations. Reviews and opinions about hi-fi gear and SQ are very relative to what the individual has experienced earlier.
Out of the box the speakers sounded great. Highs and mids were smooth without any hint of being shrill or shouty. There was enough grunt in the low end. But everything was so cohesive. The initial amazement was obviously a bit of rookie rush. So I waited for some run in to happen before writing this review.
- The highs are very detailed with good extension. I never felt any ear fatigue. Bells, strings, cymbals and the likes are revealing yet beautifully warm and smooth.
- The mids are sublime. Probably tweeters ability to crossover very low allows the mid woofer to shine so well. Vocals especially female vocals(Diana Krall) are phenomenal. Together the highs and mids create an extremely natural atmosphere that is true to the source. Though I feel the lower mids are not very pronounced. Suman mentions this will become better after the speakers are run-in for at least 240 hours. At this time they have run-in about 50 hours.
- Bass was a surprise. For a 2 way with 7in mid woofer the speaker can go quite low(~32hz). I can clearly hear stuff even lower like 25hz but probably 5-6db down. Its not quantity or thumping bass but the quality, very musical. I was listening to Awara Bhawre from the movie Sapney. Never knew AR Rehman's music had such quality bass in the track. Then another track- The Plan by Travis Scott from the Tenet movie sound track. Felt like slabs of bass passing through me. But definitely won't shake the floor. And the speaker needs proper positioning or adjustments with the listener's seating to avoid standing waves or boominess. I was experiencing this between 70-75hz.
- Imaging, instrument separation are quite good. May lose some composure in busy sections of a track. But thats a given trait with most 2 ways.
- I have a small room- around 160sqft and the speakers are kept just 7ft apart. Probably not enough separation to experience a good soundstage with floor standers. Tried Chesky records ultimate demo, track- Britten: Festival Te Drum. The choir actually seemed to sing from a height. Allan Taylor's The Tennessee Waltz is equally awesome.
- Transients and dynamics are nice- Prodigy(Pele soundtrack), Mombasa(Hans Zimmer, Inception).
- Quite unforgiving to poorly recorded tracks. But if well recorded, even cheesy bollywood numbers are a charm.
- One thing kept sticking out with these speakers. The coherent, natural and life like reproduction. The speakers have the ability to disappear. Very pleasurable when music envelopes you entirely.
Beside the choices of drivers and enclosure design, I strongly feel the magic is in the crossover design. Suman has done an excellent job. Some might think the speakers are high and mid forward. They are very balanced in my experience. I kept comparing their sound with my headphones and the speakers sounded equally accurate without any coloration.
I chose the DMB2300 Dual Monoblock Power Amp in class AB topology. 150w@8ohms pc with individual power supply sections for each channel. Class A operation- 20w@4ohms. Offers both balanced and unbalanced inputs, selectable HPF@20hz, damping factor- more than 800. Entire case is built for heat dissipation. Weighs about 25kgs. Much of that weight comes from a large torroidal transformer inside. Black finish with cool blue VU meters and a green power button gives the amp bit of a McIntoshy vibe. Though I wish it came with an option to dim the VUs for night time listening. Buttons and switches are very tactile and feel solid.
I do not understand amplifier electronics much and I am not experienced in differentiating sonic characters of amplifiers from various brands. But I believe Aniket has built a power amp of high standards. Much of what I experienced with the speaker's ability to reproduce music was a direct result of the amp's prowess to drive 85db sensitivity speakers with complete authority. Switch on the amp and a host of protections relays get into action. At normal listening levels the amp hardly went beyond -40db on the VU meters. Aniket says this is still class A territory. After long hours of running, the amp doesn't get hot, not even warm I would say. Neither did I get any audible hum or noise even at high volumes. The presentation of the amp and the speakers together is very clean with a dark background. Makes it quite good for listening at low volumes at night. Together they make an extremely capable mid-fi system.
I stand somewhere in between "music lover" and "gear lover" categories. So goal was to build a solid baseline system with a speaker and amp combo that is above the entry level stuff. Keep my music enjoyment in play for years. Gradually will add or upgrade other parts like sources, dacs, cables etc. First order of things is to get some good quality av rack. After spending considerable time with the system, I am convinced that these components are step in that direction.
My hunt started with speakers as usual but amp was the first component I finalised. Came across O&B amps on HFV and got in touch with Aniket(@adas). I had the chance to listen to a pair of ATC SCM19s being driven by an O&B DMB at a FMs home. Built like a tank sounded even better. Chose a 150W@8ohms pc in a dual monoblock configuration. At the same time I was still deliberating about speaker choices and the decision was not firmed up. I was considering following options- ATC SCM19, SCM11, Sonus Faber Sonetto II, Monitior Audio Gold, Wharfedale Linton, IndiqAudio Mishra. Was discussing my speaker choices with Aniket and he pointed me to Suman Jana(@smnjn) of Saptak Acoustics. Suman makes 3 different speaker models. He shared measurements, build details, enclosure and component details and costs involved. Based on my budget I decided to go with the Rediscovery Towers.
Both Aniket and Suman promised delivery in roughly 2 months. Paid up the advance and waited.
The speakers arrived packed in layers of foam and bubble wrap. A week later the amp arrived equally well packed. My 11 year old kid was around to help when I was hooking up the system. But at the time it was hard to tell who was the kid. Below is a quick review. I am winging it mostly but these are as objective as I could be with my observations. Reviews and opinions about hi-fi gear and SQ are very relative to what the individual has experienced earlier.
Speakers- Saptak Acoustics Rediscovery Towers
The speakers come with real wood veneers. Suman offered choices of veneer and I went with coffee walnut. The veneering is really excellent and high quality. Multiple layers of polish and pu gives a rich look and the edges are matched well. Enclosure is built from 1in HDF to keep resonances low. Crossover components are from Jantzen like superior Z caps and aircore inductors. Internal wiring and connectors with Oyaide, Choseal and Aucharm. Suman also builds interconnects and speaker cables with these brands. More on that later. Drivers are both Scanspeak from Revelator series crossed over low at 1600Hz.Out of the box the speakers sounded great. Highs and mids were smooth without any hint of being shrill or shouty. There was enough grunt in the low end. But everything was so cohesive. The initial amazement was obviously a bit of rookie rush. So I waited for some run in to happen before writing this review.
- The highs are very detailed with good extension. I never felt any ear fatigue. Bells, strings, cymbals and the likes are revealing yet beautifully warm and smooth.
- The mids are sublime. Probably tweeters ability to crossover very low allows the mid woofer to shine so well. Vocals especially female vocals(Diana Krall) are phenomenal. Together the highs and mids create an extremely natural atmosphere that is true to the source. Though I feel the lower mids are not very pronounced. Suman mentions this will become better after the speakers are run-in for at least 240 hours. At this time they have run-in about 50 hours.
- Bass was a surprise. For a 2 way with 7in mid woofer the speaker can go quite low(~32hz). I can clearly hear stuff even lower like 25hz but probably 5-6db down. Its not quantity or thumping bass but the quality, very musical. I was listening to Awara Bhawre from the movie Sapney. Never knew AR Rehman's music had such quality bass in the track. Then another track- The Plan by Travis Scott from the Tenet movie sound track. Felt like slabs of bass passing through me. But definitely won't shake the floor. And the speaker needs proper positioning or adjustments with the listener's seating to avoid standing waves or boominess. I was experiencing this between 70-75hz.
- Imaging, instrument separation are quite good. May lose some composure in busy sections of a track. But thats a given trait with most 2 ways.
- I have a small room- around 160sqft and the speakers are kept just 7ft apart. Probably not enough separation to experience a good soundstage with floor standers. Tried Chesky records ultimate demo, track- Britten: Festival Te Drum. The choir actually seemed to sing from a height. Allan Taylor's The Tennessee Waltz is equally awesome.
- Transients and dynamics are nice- Prodigy(Pele soundtrack), Mombasa(Hans Zimmer, Inception).
- Quite unforgiving to poorly recorded tracks. But if well recorded, even cheesy bollywood numbers are a charm.
- One thing kept sticking out with these speakers. The coherent, natural and life like reproduction. The speakers have the ability to disappear. Very pleasurable when music envelopes you entirely.
Beside the choices of drivers and enclosure design, I strongly feel the magic is in the crossover design. Suman has done an excellent job. Some might think the speakers are high and mid forward. They are very balanced in my experience. I kept comparing their sound with my headphones and the speakers sounded equally accurate without any coloration.
Amp- O&B DMB2300 dual monoblock amplifier
I wanted an amplifier which had lots of clean power even for demanding speakers. I do not want to change or upgrade the main piece of equipment powering the music often. Goal was to get something around 100w@8ohms pc. Another requirement was- I didn't want the bells and whistles like inbuilt DAC, streaming, phono, preamp etc and just keep it clean. My search led to mostly pricey monoblocks. After coming across O&B amps I was quite interested looking at the specs and the competitive pricing. Auditioning the amp was what helped me finalize the decision.I chose the DMB2300 Dual Monoblock Power Amp in class AB topology. 150w@8ohms pc with individual power supply sections for each channel. Class A operation- 20w@4ohms. Offers both balanced and unbalanced inputs, selectable HPF@20hz, damping factor- more than 800. Entire case is built for heat dissipation. Weighs about 25kgs. Much of that weight comes from a large torroidal transformer inside. Black finish with cool blue VU meters and a green power button gives the amp bit of a McIntoshy vibe. Though I wish it came with an option to dim the VUs for night time listening. Buttons and switches are very tactile and feel solid.
I do not understand amplifier electronics much and I am not experienced in differentiating sonic characters of amplifiers from various brands. But I believe Aniket has built a power amp of high standards. Much of what I experienced with the speaker's ability to reproduce music was a direct result of the amp's prowess to drive 85db sensitivity speakers with complete authority. Switch on the amp and a host of protections relays get into action. At normal listening levels the amp hardly went beyond -40db on the VU meters. Aniket says this is still class A territory. After long hours of running, the amp doesn't get hot, not even warm I would say. Neither did I get any audible hum or noise even at high volumes. The presentation of the amp and the speakers together is very clean with a dark background. Makes it quite good for listening at low volumes at night. Together they make an extremely capable mid-fi system.
DAC- Topping E70 Velvet(AKM AK4499EX)
I chose this DAC solely based on online reviews. Some reviews have even compared it with higher end DACs twice or thrice the price. I wanted something that was not too entry level although I have plans to upgrade to a better DAC at some point. Very smooth with decent bass. I have played around with the filters it comes with. Couldn't tell a difference. IR remote is a bummer as it needs a short clear line of sight to work accurately with the unit. Nothing more to add here. Overall happy with it's performance.Cables- Saptak Acoustics Interconnects and Reference speaker cables
Suman makes some excellent interconnects and speaker cables. The Interconnects are made from Aucharm rca cables and connectors. The speaker cables are made from multiple 20AWG choseal cables twisted together and wrapped with insulation jackets. Initially I was using some 14AWG OFC cables from monster cable. The quality of the Saptak Acoustics speaker cables became apparent when I replaced the monster cable with them. Although the cables need some 10-12 hours of run-in, the difference was immediate and impactful. Everything opened up, started shining more. Cleaner background. And the music overall gained better presentation and soundstage. I thought it was just placebo. But then my septuagenarian mom walked in claiming the music sounded better.Source- Apple Music
Source is currently Apple Music Hi-Res Lossless. And I play it directly from a Mac(with Lossless Switcher) or from an Android phone using a long USB cable connected to the DAC. Bit of inconvenience, but as long as I am on Apple Music, this is the only way I can get the best quality.I stand somewhere in between "music lover" and "gear lover" categories. So goal was to build a solid baseline system with a speaker and amp combo that is above the entry level stuff. Keep my music enjoyment in play for years. Gradually will add or upgrade other parts like sources, dacs, cables etc. First order of things is to get some good quality av rack. After spending considerable time with the system, I am convinced that these components are step in that direction.
Last edited:
