Esanthosh and I have been interacting for a while on Hfv and TE. This guy has got it pretty much covered
when it comes to portable audio. In the last few months he has been persevering to get a HT as well as Hifi set up. He has always taken the pain to keep me posted( that too quite elaborately via his PMs) about his journey to the same.
So when he invited me to come to Coimbatore :yahoo:to check out his Audire IO2 based system(after he completed the 200 hour burn in), I considered it pretty much mandatory that I had to head to Coimbatore at the first available opportunity, meet this man and listen to his new audio set up!
I reached Coimbatore on Saturday, checked myself into a lodge room, showered, had a good lunch at Geetha Caf and got ready for the first days program which was to head over to Audire.( Cmon, it would be idiotic to miss visiting Audire when you are in Coimabatore, after hearing so much about them!)
After hearing about his musical tastes, I had a mental picture of esantosh as a guy with long hair, goatee, black t shirt, tattoo etc,
the whole Goth look, but instead I see a very simple guy immaculately dressed in formals with a pleasant smile on his face.
On the way to Audire we chatted non stop and he also introduced me to the single driver of the Ambassador , Govind Raj anna.
After reaching Audire met with Dr. Chandrasekaran who was to arrange our audition. The audire listening room and lounge had an array of exotic looking speakers.
Audire rack
We didnt waste much time and first listened to their Flagship Seraphims( which are still under development). They were conncected to a MF sacd player and Audire surround amp.
I played Saraswati and Shadows from Into the light. The Seraphims sounded very natural. But somehow they sounded quite timid, and not everything was coming out boldly. In the first track, the weight and texture of the background bass guitar was not coming through. I wondered aloud to esantosh if the Seraphims were a bit bass shy. But on the second track I mentioned there was an abundance of bass. I was perplexed and remarked the same to the Doc. He explained the Seraphims are usually driven by a very powerful Wavac(?) amp. As it got sold, it was now being driven of the Audire surround amp.
Next, I played Sultans of Swing by Dire straits on the Seraphims. I was underwhelmed. The impact of the drums when the repeats of the Sultans of Swing line is sung was missing. But i gotta say that the cymbals sounded ver close to the real thing and this I have heard only on a few systems. Doc said the Callistos would serve better for such music and we switched over to the same.
The Callistos were placed as shown in the pictures, and were connected to Audires own Class A 10wpc power amp( not yet completely developed) and a Marantz cd17 player. I played the same Dire Straits track and it delivered the excitement with pretty good separation. Next up, I played the de rigueur mandolin tracks from Into the light. This time around the weight and texture of the strings were delivered. However I noticed an unnecessary amount of tactile bass everpresent during the Shadows track. I looked at esanthosh and understood the feeling was shared by him too.
Next, I tried a couple of songs from Iruvar including Hello Mister and Narumugiye. The Callistos delivered them with good separations and well toned mids, but the high as well lows seemed a bit pushed, exaggerated. Especially, on the Hello Mister the highs were going beyond my comfort level.
I played Raghasudharasa, Carnatic based song, from the OST of a Malayalam movie Sargam, sung by K.J. Yesudas. This is not what one would call a very good recording( or is it?) and the Sound came across with good imaging and sound stage, I could hear the vocals and the mridangam in their respective positions. However, the speakers or the set up seemed to brighten up the recording overall, which took away from the naturality.
When I voiced my opinion to Dr. Chandrasekaran, he said we should try it with esanthoshs Topping Tp20, it would sound more balanced.
Next up, I tried Take 5 by Dave Brubeck, but this seemed to be a different,faster version than I am used to. Again, it sounded quite good, though the mid range could have a lil more body, lushness.
Then, we played a Dream Theater track, which one was it Santosh?, I enjoyed it on the set up and looked forward to how the higher end Io2 s would render the same at esanthoshs place.
Overall, I felt the Callistos are a good option to be considered for their 28k price, but one would have to partner it with something to tame the overenthusiastic highs and lows.
Thus, we came to the end of our 2 hour session at audire and after some chit chat with the Doc we left.
We couldnt listen to the Feastrex based speakers:sad: as they did not have their corresponding amps.
Worlds most expensive driver?
Audire D5, this uses a Rs.5 lac Feastrex driver.
The Echelons too were not available for audition.
Audire Echelon
Audire I02 speshal version, this looked simply stunning!
These speakers IIRC the doc said were mainly for Metal /HT
I would definitely be interested in listening to the Echelon with 8 driver and Tl design.
After having delicious Dosa:licklips: , vada and the big momma of strong coffees at Annapoorna, Santosh dropped me back at my room and I spent the rest of the evening strolling around Coimbatore town.
Disclaimer: pl excuse poor quality pics, the resizing messed up things!
?!!!looking forward to the deconstruct.cheers
hyeah:
