Emerald Physics CS 3

[square_wave]

Finally got to hear the CS 3s at ARN Systems

Listened to the following cds.
1. Tchaikovsky1812 overture
2. 2L sampler a few songs
3. McCoy Tyner - New York reunion
4. Stan Getz Bossas and Ballads
5. Ella and Louis
6. John Coltrane - Soultrane
7. Fleetwood Mac- Rumors
8. Pink Floyd Wall
9. Dire straits - assorted
10. Grateful dead Assorted
11. Some assorted test cds.

This room was approximately 18ft x 16ft. From what I hear, if you can have 2ft behind the speakers, that is all you need. The minimum setting in the behringer active unit is 2ft. If you have this and the room is decent sized one, you are done.

Source Usher cd player.
Cables- some random audio art cables.
Pre- Passive custom made
Amplication Symphonic line, Leben cs600, Nad c370

Note :
The symphonic line was the best. Very neutral and colorless sound. The leben came close (slightly different sound). C370 ? well most people can live with this amp too. That is the beauty of this speaker. The quality of the amp will not make day and night difference The speakers will show the difference, but it does so many things right that you will not be too bothered.

Scale The sound stage is large and realistic. It is like real performers on a stage. Each instrument has a realistic size to it. Western classical thrives. In comparison most boxed speakers can make the size miniature and sound anemic.

Very dynamic The sound has an out of the box dynamic attack. Very realistic and convincing.

No apologies - There is a no- apologies speaker. No comments like the interconnects are burning in. so the sound can be a bit constricted for a few days, please come next Saturday and it may sound much better and such. Play the speakers and you just sit and listen. The speaker does so many things right, that you do not want to think of anything else.

Coherency This is speaker combines the coherency of a single driver full range with the extension and slam of a multi driver speaker. Very convincing job. Hardcore, analytic followers of each genre may be able to nit-pick if you really want to but this is as good as it gets for the money if you want to combine both.

Irritability factor The speaker removes most the irritables caused by the interaction of the room and thickness inherent with most boxed speakers in less than ideal rooms. This is a super-major plus in my book.

Bass- This is one of the best aspects of the loudspeaker. No thickness or muddiness. Out of the box and well defined and clean with lot of detail. Very balanced and convincing. For medium sized room, the CS-3 is all you need.

I was able to enjoy all genres of music, none scoring above the other. With most music, it was some of the most impressive renditions I have heard. Classical, choral, female vocals, rock, jazz. all sounded just fine.

An audiophile told me recently, if there is just 10 percent improvement in sound, it gets lost in time. If there is more than 30 percent, you remember it always. This is one of those speakers which does more than the 30 percent. Very impressive.

 

[suri]

hi square _wave,

did you hear the cannons in 1812?

 

[square_wave]

hi square _wave,

did you hear the cannons in 1812?

Yup Very clean and impressive !

 

[Asit]

Hi square_wave,

Thanks for a very compact and useful review. A few questions:

1) Is this the 2-way speaker that does not need bi-amping?

2) How are vocals?

3) Any ballpark price points?

Regards.

 

[square_wave]

Hi square_wave,

Thanks for a very compact and useful review. A few questions:

1) Is this the 2-way speaker that does not need bi-amping?

2) How are vocals?

3) Any ballpark price points?

Regards.

Asit.
Yes. It is the 2-way.
Vocals sound clean and un-colored. Very vivid imaging of the singer.
Pricing is around 2 lakh depending on the finish.

 

[rastaman]

Hi square_wave,

I'm on the search for something similar and from the thread http://www.hifivision.com/speakers/5529-lowther-fostex.html EP CS2.3 was recommended. How different is the EP CS3 from the EP CS2.3 and also did you listen to the EP CS2.3 and how would you rate its performance?

I will be making a trip down to Bangalore in a month to audition them for myself.

 

[odyssey]

Hi Rastaman
SW did not hear the CS2.3. In the room that he mentioned, the CS2.3 is a bit of an overkill, it does work though and there is no problem provided the speakers have a gap of at least 3 ft from the backwall (which is usually not a problem given the thickness of these speakers). The main difference between the two speakers is the bass impact/weight on the CS2.3 vs the CS3. On the CS2.3 it goes far deeper and louder (on a HT, you will not need a sub). The bass performance on the CS3 as SW described is very very realistic with a lot of bass definition and detail, not room reverb (which is commonly mistaken for bass) and overhang. The CS2.3 needs to be biamped vs the CS3 which requires a single amp. This gives you the advantage to have a different amp (say tube) on the mids/highs and a solid state for the bass. Both speakers are of enough high sensitivity that a low powered tube amp can be used.

cheers
[email protected]

 

[unleash_me]

Ooh..me likey!

 

[suri]

Hi Rastaman
This gives you the advantage to have a different amp (say tube) on the mids/highs and a solid state for the bass.

now,why would anybody want to do that?

 

[odyssey]

hope that isnt a serious question

 

[suri]

hope that isnt a serious question

that is so a serious question-

the sound signatures of tube amps and ss amps are different.

when one attempts to reproduce sound or music, the attempt revolves recreating the entire fabric of that event.

recreating the upper bass and frequencies below that with ss amps may seem an easy way out, but the end result will not be the true event.

no, in my mind ss amps and tube amps should not be used together in an attempt to create a ..........

moreover, the circuitry is different, the processing of the signal differs- there are bound to be timing errors.

so tell me what i should know about this kind of pairing

 

[odyssey]

Hi Suri
I think here it comes to a matter of preference and tastes. I have tried all combos and I know that different people will prefer different setups. The EP CS2.3 is designed such that the bass frequencies are below 100 Hz and the rest is handled by the mid-woofer. I agree with what you say if the freq crossover is in the few hundred Hz or higher. At 100 Hz, there isnt much tone (though there is definition) and harmonics where tubes and SS really differ the most

cheers

 

[longshanks]

interesting 12 inch driver.

wondering how these would handle "Thievery Corporation - Le Monde" and "Hooverphonic - Mad About You"

 

[suri]

interesting 12 inch driver.

wondering how these would handle "Thievery Corporation - Le Monde" and "Hooverphonic - Mad About You"

tell me something about these two tracks - the highlights, and why you think these are a good test of the EP?

 

[longshanks]

^^just to hear how it handles the bass and the mid's of these songs.ive heard these songs in many setups and was not satisfied in most.

 

[marsilians]

hi square _wave,

did you hear the cannons in 1812?

You can hear cannons even on cheapy systems. There are 2 things to keep in mind however:

1. The SPL of the blasts - There are systems where this has gone as high as 115 dB
2. To feel the bass from 14:30 onwards as it goes below the hearing limit

 

[suri]

You can hear cannons even on cheapy systems. There are 2 things to keep in mind however:

1. The SPL of the blasts - There are systems where this has gone as high as 115 dB
2. To feel the bass from 14:30 onwards as it goes below the hearing limit

exactly that

 

[arj]

now,why would anybody want to do that?

Suri, maybe because we can ..we like to make simple systems as complicated as we can:sad:
Sridhar, is there a gain control somewhere to balance gains across different amps ?

 

[suri]

Suri, maybe because we can ..we like to make simple systems as complicated as we can:sad:
Sridhar, is there a gain control somewhere to balance gains across different amps ?

i would think it is like this-

to hear (and feel after 14.30) the cannons in tchaikovsky's 1812 overture, the bass transducer has move an immense amount of air and the amplifier has to provide iron control in the form of damping. For the bass transducer to move that much air, lots of current necessary = lots of watts = massively expensive(read 10-20 lakhs) valve amps. and i do not think that valve amps are able to provide the damping that ss amps can.

i have always felt that the bass frequencies are the most difficult to produce, reproduce and manage (room effects) and here valve amps do not cut the ice.

difficult for me to imagine ( at least, in theory) the use of ss amps and valve amps together in a single system as suggested by sridhar

 

[arj]

have always felt that the bass frequencies are the most difficult to produce, reproduce and manage (room effects) and here valve amps do not cut the ice.

difficult for me to imagine ( at least, in theory) the use of ss amps and valve amps together in a single system as suggested by sridhar

I dont think we need to differentiate between Valve amp and SS.. they are both the "same" as long as we look at it only at sonics..only the components used are different.

I dont think reproduction of Bass frequencies is a problem which valve amps will have.. generation of the SPL may be a problem but that depends on the Amp-Speaker interaction rather than anything else...as long as we can adjust the gain factor to keep the sound balanced.

I think thoretically this shoul be a beautiful combination...practically getting the tonality/gain/ slew rate etc etc balanced may be a lttle more complex