Auditioned Indiqs today

vkalia

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It's been on my list for a while, but i managed to make it out and listen to Indiq speakers today - specifically, the Diamond Achal and the Signature Mishras.

Source was Spotify. Yeah yeah, lossy audio, I know. But it is more than suitable for providing a sense of the tonality and timbral accuracy of the speaker. For really precise analysis between two similar speakers, i would probably play lossless, but for my first cut, Spotify is good enough. This was piped through an iFi streamer, a DAC of some sorts and their own Class A SS amps.

A word of warning - I am not going to talk about highs, midrange and lows. I listen to music, not octaves. The only thing that matters is how realistically voices and instruments like violins, pianos, cellos etc are reproduced.

Short impressions:

The Diamond Achals:

They worked very well with male voices, reproducing Pavarotti and Lanza's voices with a good sense of depth and body and also with female - Nina Simone's throatiness was done full justice by the speakers. Byron Janis's piano also came out very solidly. And they knocked my socks off with how well they reproduced the harmonics of the cello. Dynamic slam was very, very good as well - the slam of the timpani at the start of Dvorak's 9th was relayed very impressively. In these areas, the speakers absolutely shone.

When it came to reproducing the complexities of an orchestra going full tilt, I felt a little something was missing: it wasn't bad by any means - I could listen to symphonies on them and enjoy the music, but i wasnt getting the "its right there" feeling: it felt like i was listening to a recording. Something like the Sonus Faber Sonetto 8s do a better job of being coherent with orchestral music, although, given their lack the dynamic slam that really makes a symphony come alive, even they dont provide a "its right there" feeling. So yeah, it isnt really fair to ask a pair of relatively inexpensive speakers to do something that even speakers costing multiples more cannot.

If you factor price into context, I cannot think of any other speaker in their price range, or even twice that price, which can do a lifelike job of reproducing an orchestral climax. However, when it comes to voices, jazz and other smaller-scale music, these are superb speakers on an absolute scale and absolutely magnificent for the price.


Signature Mishras:

So these were sitting on top of the Achals and not really optimized. Yet, for all that, they were a very pleasant surprise.

With small scale pieces (male and female vocals, cello, piano), the difference was not huge compared to the Achals - if this were my focus, i would probably listen to lossless music to really try to pick out minute differences (and hope it wouldnt not fall within the error margins of placebo and imperfect level-matching).

But with the complex and loud pieces, the bookshelf actually did a better job of maintaining coherence: during stuff like the conclusion of Shostakovich's 11th, the music sounded a little less strained. The instruments had a little more body and fullness/richness to it, which could also be why the music sounded a little more forward (in terms of presence, not tonality). The Achals did had a little more slam though (not surprising, given that they are floorstanders) - and their greater bass extension helped with things like reproducing the body of cellos.


Summary:

For the music i listen to and my preferences (replicating the sound of the unamplified instrument as closely as possible, measured accuracy be damned), both speakers did a FANTASTIC job with vocals and smaller-scale music/jazz. For small scale music, and if you didnt want to faff around with subwoofers, the Achals are great speakers. But the Mishras, paired with a good sub, could be an end-game setup for most music enthusiasts (as opposed to audioweenies who focus on sounds).

I plan to go back and listen to both of them with my tube amp whenever the damn thing is resurrected, but the Signature Mishras are on my list of speakers that i could buy and actually be happy with for a very long time.
 
A good one.

For a person who is not keen on "octaves", that was some excellent taste in music :)

I have listened to Signature Mishras during my audition. When compared to Diamond Mishras, they are livelier. And you're right about the bass. They are tighter and had more definition than the Mishras.

Listening to Signature prevented me from ordering my pair of Diamonds.

I look forward to a detailed audition once I am back in Bangalore.


 
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A good one.

For a person who is not keen on "octaves", that was some excellent taste in music :)

I have listened to Signature Mishras during my audition. When compared to Diamond Mishras, they are livelier. And you're right about the bass. They are tighter and had more definition than the Mishras.

Listening to Signature prevented me from ordering my pair of Diamonds.

I look forward to a detailed audition once I am back in Bangalore.



Heh, thanks.... what I meant to say was, i have never understood how people talk about bass, midrange and highs separately in gear reviews. A given instrument has a certain sound which covers a range of frequencies: it either sounds right or it doesnt.

They have Signature Achals under development as well, apparently....
 
I heard Mishra 2.0 once. I didn't know about the plans for Mishra 1.0.

2.0 sounded different from Diamonds, in a good way.

Amit said the new design can be adopted on the existing line of speakers as well.

I am seriously considering that prospect. Already planned an audition.
 
@vkalia Thank you for the detailed impressions of the Mishra signatures. Wonder how the 1.0s differ from the 2.0s. 1.0s are 10k cheaper. Have you heard both? Are they significantly different?
 
@vkalia Thank you for the detailed impressions of the Mishra signatures. Wonder how the 1.0s differ from the 2.0s. 1.0s are 10k cheaper. Have you heard both? Are they significantly different?

Haven’t heard the 1.0s but as per my discussion with Amit, they are voiced differently and he felt the 2.0s would fit my preferences better (based on what I told him about the sound I like, as well as my comments on hearing the Gold Mishras and Platinum Achals)
 
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