Just wanted to share a little bit of good news with all of you. I wanted to do this earlier, but the last couple of days were full of drama around here....
As some of you would recall from a previous thread that I had gone out to audition speakers, but ended up waxing eloquent about the Prometheus passive preamp.
Well that was a long day, as I ended up auditioning 3-4 major brands.
But, before I get to what I auditioned, let me tell you what I couldnt audition, and why.
I wanted to audition the new B&W 803 D or 803 D, but couldnt. As the showroom in Juhu had only an 800D. That too they said they cant allow anyone to audition as some of its settings needed to be recalibrated.
So, disappointed, but still armed with beautifully precious memories of my audition of the earlier version of the 803, I drove down to Boomerang.
Once there, I auditioned the Dali Helicon... You see, I had gone out with the express purpose of UPGRADING from the Monitor Audio RS 8. I did not want to make a small sideways move.
Being a Bryston 3B SST owner and fan, I ensured that the audition was only on a Bryston 3B SST!
The Dali Helicon, is quite a musical speaker. Open, airy, but a tad too shrill for my taste. The ribbon tweeter in them is a charm to many. But, not me. Great speaker but, not for me.
As I switched off from the Helicon, I saw a whole lot of Avalons, and jutting out from among them, I saw the Darth Vader twins!
Hey Gratin, wont you get the Darth Vaders to sing for me? I quipped.
Sure!
We play the same set of songs on these. Only they dont sound quite the same! The bass sounds nice and tight. The highs and mids are like crystal.
Specifically, Chris Reas 'God Great Banana Skin' never sounded as good. The bass in Megadeaths Sweating Bullets was nice and tight. Steely Dans Do It Again with its tinkling glass had the ethereal quality of dusted glass falling and making gentle tinkling noises.... Something that Ive heard only the B&Ws do...
The Darth Vaders, it turns out, are the Thiel CS 2.4.
Stupefied, I ask Gratin, What else baba, that can give me this same quality, or maybe better?
So, Gratin motions to one of the boys hanging around, to put on one of the numerous Avalons.
I listen to it. The low frequency response seemed a tad better. But on careful listening I found that Allan Taylors deep bassy voice became a shade bassier on it!
Overall a nice speaker. But, in comparison the Theil CS 2.4 stood out as more neutral option.
And with the said Avalon being three times the price than the Thiel CS 2.4, definitely (for me) a speaker not worth remembering. Hence, I really dont remember its model name.
Just for the kick of it, I even tried a HUGE speaker called the Avalon Indira. Priced 6 TIMES the Thiel CS 2.4!
How did the Thiel Compare? Well, in this case The Song Remained The Same! (Mostly!) At one sixth the price, I should add!
I mean, it has a different tonality, which to me would be a different shade of black.
All in all, for the price and everything taken into account. The Thiel rang my bell nice and loud!
[B]In short, the scores:
1. Thiel CS 2.4 : 5 Glowing stars (The best build, tall speakers so high soundstage, wife pleasing looks!)
2. B&W 803 D: 5 stars (but 2and a half times the price of the Thiel CS 2.4, hence no glow on the stars!)
3. Dali Helicon: 4 grudging stars (3 and a half stars and another half for the build quality)
4. Avalon: 5 stars (expensive! But do the same thing as the Thiel CS 2.4 at 3-6 times the money...)
Oh, and by the way, my CS 2.4 is in Black Ash! Looks brilliant!
Now, all this was before the hifivision site became a flamethrower.
In the meantime, Ive been busy running in the Thiels. Over 15 hours of a special track and intermittent music the past week, has actually made me see the merits of Burning the equipment in.
The speaker sounds better and better. With each passing day, I can hear them getting more and more refined.
As I write this, Im listening to Santana ABRAXAS on LP (yes, the Clearaudio Ambient sounds 400% better on it!). The though on my mind is, wow, how much better can it get?!
Im told, itll come become really good at 1000 hours of listening. And in 3 years when the cabinet becomes mature itll be a different beast altogether!
All in all, Im a happy man. The wife is happy too!
And Im happy that shes happy because:
While the Monitor Audio RS 8 were 30% smaller, they always seemed to get in her way. Somehow, the Thiels dont. And the Monitors would sound too loud at the 9 O clock position. The Theil's dont, even at the 12 'O' spot! (Not that they arent loud. THEY ARE! But they dont bite the ear drum with the highs like the Monitors used to. . .)
In the end, Id just like to say that some of these truly high-end products really, really are worth it. In my case, just one upgrade has made it seem like Ive bought a whole new music collection as well.
No song seems to sound quite the same!
As some of you would recall from a previous thread that I had gone out to audition speakers, but ended up waxing eloquent about the Prometheus passive preamp.
Well that was a long day, as I ended up auditioning 3-4 major brands.
But, before I get to what I auditioned, let me tell you what I couldnt audition, and why.
I wanted to audition the new B&W 803 D or 803 D, but couldnt. As the showroom in Juhu had only an 800D. That too they said they cant allow anyone to audition as some of its settings needed to be recalibrated.
So, disappointed, but still armed with beautifully precious memories of my audition of the earlier version of the 803, I drove down to Boomerang.
Once there, I auditioned the Dali Helicon... You see, I had gone out with the express purpose of UPGRADING from the Monitor Audio RS 8. I did not want to make a small sideways move.
Being a Bryston 3B SST owner and fan, I ensured that the audition was only on a Bryston 3B SST!
The Dali Helicon, is quite a musical speaker. Open, airy, but a tad too shrill for my taste. The ribbon tweeter in them is a charm to many. But, not me. Great speaker but, not for me.
As I switched off from the Helicon, I saw a whole lot of Avalons, and jutting out from among them, I saw the Darth Vader twins!
Hey Gratin, wont you get the Darth Vaders to sing for me? I quipped.
Sure!
We play the same set of songs on these. Only they dont sound quite the same! The bass sounds nice and tight. The highs and mids are like crystal.
Specifically, Chris Reas 'God Great Banana Skin' never sounded as good. The bass in Megadeaths Sweating Bullets was nice and tight. Steely Dans Do It Again with its tinkling glass had the ethereal quality of dusted glass falling and making gentle tinkling noises.... Something that Ive heard only the B&Ws do...
The Darth Vaders, it turns out, are the Thiel CS 2.4.
Stupefied, I ask Gratin, What else baba, that can give me this same quality, or maybe better?
So, Gratin motions to one of the boys hanging around, to put on one of the numerous Avalons.
I listen to it. The low frequency response seemed a tad better. But on careful listening I found that Allan Taylors deep bassy voice became a shade bassier on it!
Overall a nice speaker. But, in comparison the Theil CS 2.4 stood out as more neutral option.
And with the said Avalon being three times the price than the Thiel CS 2.4, definitely (for me) a speaker not worth remembering. Hence, I really dont remember its model name.
Just for the kick of it, I even tried a HUGE speaker called the Avalon Indira. Priced 6 TIMES the Thiel CS 2.4!
How did the Thiel Compare? Well, in this case The Song Remained The Same! (Mostly!) At one sixth the price, I should add!
I mean, it has a different tonality, which to me would be a different shade of black.
All in all, for the price and everything taken into account. The Thiel rang my bell nice and loud!
[B]In short, the scores:
1. Thiel CS 2.4 : 5 Glowing stars (The best build, tall speakers so high soundstage, wife pleasing looks!)
2. B&W 803 D: 5 stars (but 2and a half times the price of the Thiel CS 2.4, hence no glow on the stars!)
3. Dali Helicon: 4 grudging stars (3 and a half stars and another half for the build quality)
4. Avalon: 5 stars (expensive! But do the same thing as the Thiel CS 2.4 at 3-6 times the money...)
Oh, and by the way, my CS 2.4 is in Black Ash! Looks brilliant!
Now, all this was before the hifivision site became a flamethrower.
In the meantime, Ive been busy running in the Thiels. Over 15 hours of a special track and intermittent music the past week, has actually made me see the merits of Burning the equipment in.
The speaker sounds better and better. With each passing day, I can hear them getting more and more refined.
As I write this, Im listening to Santana ABRAXAS on LP (yes, the Clearaudio Ambient sounds 400% better on it!). The though on my mind is, wow, how much better can it get?!
Im told, itll come become really good at 1000 hours of listening. And in 3 years when the cabinet becomes mature itll be a different beast altogether!
All in all, Im a happy man. The wife is happy too!
And Im happy that shes happy because:
While the Monitor Audio RS 8 were 30% smaller, they always seemed to get in her way. Somehow, the Thiels dont. And the Monitors would sound too loud at the 9 O clock position. The Theil's dont, even at the 12 'O' spot! (Not that they arent loud. THEY ARE! But they dont bite the ear drum with the highs like the Monitors used to. . .)
In the end, Id just like to say that some of these truly high-end products really, really are worth it. In my case, just one upgrade has made it seem like Ive bought a whole new music collection as well.
No song seems to sound quite the same!
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