S1. CD-CDP- SS-Tp20-IO2
S2. CD-CDP-SS-Tp20-Wf 10.6
S3. CD-CDp-Optical out-Mav D1 DAC-SS-Tp20-Wf 10.6
S4. CD-CDp-No SS(direct IC to amp)-Tp20-Wf10.6
S5. Fla lev5-HTPC-Xonar Stx Analog out-Tp20-Wf 10.6
S6. Flac lev5-HTPC-Xonar Stx Analog out (BJC)-IO2
S7. Flac lev5-Htpc-Xonar STx Analog out- Maverick D1-IO2
S8. Flac lev5-HTPC-Coax-Maveric D1-IO2
S9. CD-CDp-(MX)-Tp20-IO2
S1
I decided to play Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits as the inaugural track. Just 20-30 seconds into the song and I was frowning! I asked Santhosh to pause the song and told him, Man, dont feel bad, but something is seriously wrong! Now I had high expectations for the speakers. After listening to the Callistos at Audire listening room, I expected the more premium offering to surpass it by a big margin. This was not true, It sounded quite disappointing, lacking in resolution, the separation of instruments that the Callistos could do so well was absolutely missing here, bass was vague and lacking, mids were recessed without much tone. I was flabbergasted, tbh. Earlier when Santhosh used to say that he was not fully satisfied with the set up, I used to tell him that it must be because he was used to very detailed IEMs. But now I could see what he meant.
Subsequently, I played Here comes the rain again from the Marantz Test disc, it confirmed my impressions, as this one was also sounding very veiled. The imaging was not upto the mark either. I played Saraswati , my fave Mandolin track, and it fell flat.
I was sure the speaker was capable of much more than I was hearing, so then on we went on try as many changes as possible to see what was wrong in the chain.
S2
Yes, it was a big change to effect. But, since Santhosh, has a popular commercial loudspeaker, Wharfedale 10.6 lying around, I decided to try it out. So I got it from the HT hall and connected it to the Topping. As I played Saraswati again, there was an improvement in the instrument separation and the mids felt clearer though still lacking in body. However bass was still way off the mark, sounding quite muddy.
S3
Sorry ! I dont think we got around to doing it. Did we, Santhosh?
S4
I had been asking Santhosh about the source selector, which brand it was, how much did it cost, where did he get it from. I remembered Rajiv saying that he would anyday forego input selection for sound quality. So I had a strong feeling that with this out of the chain, there would be a difference.
Sure enough, we played Sultans of Swing and voila, the song pretty much came back to life, I could hear Mark Knopfler again! There was an overall substantial improvement all over the frequency range.
Even the mandolin track was sounding was clearer, more dynamic, though the tonality was still not upto expectation.
S5
Now with the same Wharf speakers, we changed the source to Htpc thru Xonar STX. With the same tracks, I found a massive drop in gain! The clarity was good, but it sounded thin and sibilant without any body.
Overall, it was not doing much to convince me about PC audio.
Then we played,Benighted by Opeth. Beautiful song, I noticed a jump in gain, I mean it increased a lot. (Later on, when I played it at home, I realized these tracks seem to be recorded with higher gain) Again the highs were harsh and the overall sound lacked body.
S6
So we decided to connect the IO2s back as they were our main interest. The rest of the chain remained as explained earlier.
The sound did not impress. One thing I noticed, was that even at lower volume leves, the detailing was consistent.
S7
This time around the Mandolin note had a pleasantly warmer tone but bass resolution suffered.
S8
We changed the connection from Htpc to Mav d1 thru coax, The fast mandolin notes sounded OK, but the sound as a whole didnt have the required depth to it. When the D1 was connec ted in the Direct mode, the gain was better but a significant amount of distortion crept in.
Towards this time, Sarath and Sandeep of Audire, paid a visit to help set the speakers. I pointed out the bass issue to him and after he tried his own cds, he also acknowledged the same. Sarath remarked that the room had a lot of issues and would require treatment. He added that the IO2s were very sensitive to positioning. They played about for a while with the positioning and that did bring about an improvement with regards to the clarity. They tried interchanging the phase and surprisingly the bass improved a bit. Personally I was still not satisfied with the imaging, but at the end of the day(literally) the speakers were sounding better( without Source selector, without toe in) than my first listen.
Now, a very important point is that the Topping tp20 which were driving the Fostex 167 single driver based Lyrita Harmony ones with ease( great bass, detailing, spl) at thevortexs place( at 9-10 levels) was struggling here. It needed to be cranked up to 1 o clock eventhough Santhoshs room was also similar in size. Beyond 2o clock the amp started clipping. Expecting another amp from Audire to see the difference it makes. Also they have offered to check the Topping for any problems.
Though Santhosh s set up consists of a lot of good components, as a whole it is yet to perform to its best. I guess Santhosh is going to be a busy man in the coming days. He was the one who encouraged me time and again to give an absolutely honest opinion about the set up, however negative or positive it might be.
To summarize, I expected the IO2s to perform much better than the relatively inexpensive Callistos. It didnt. Also I was expecting a very fast speaker, very dynamic, that was not to be.
Hopefully better amplification, placement , room treatment with Audires guidance
should set things right and I hope to be dazzled by these beautiful speakers at the 2nd Coimbatore Nano meet.
Finally, Santhosh, Thank you, I had a great time.
hyeah:!!!!
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