It has been a while since I last heard FM satyakis speakers & during that meeting he had informed me about making another set with a different design in mind. The details of the design & such I will leave to satyaki to write about.
Satyaki had just finished the speakers he has christened as Serenata a few days ago & had messaged me to come over for a listen. The speakers according to satyaki had hardly been playing for about 4 odd hours prior to my visit & so were virtually fresh off the blocks!
The Serenatas are made for a client of his having specific requirements of being placed in his bedroom & so the size of the cabinets was critical. Satyaki will mention more on this & about cab dimensions. They will be paired with a lyrita EL84 Tubes based push pull tube amp having out put of 18Watts per channel.
Satyaki had connected the Serenatas to his Lyrita 2A3 SET Amp using speaker cables designed by him & connected to his laptop with an HRT Music StreamerII DAC. He has yet to set up his Project TT & so could not get a chance to listen to an all analogue set-up.
Played my test tracks one after the other & satyaki also played some of his & suddenly what was planned as an hour or so of listening became a 2 & hour session! When one enjoys the music, it is very easy to lose track of time.
Couple of my observations:
The speakers require an amp with more power to really shine. Would love to hear how these go with the EL84 based amp that is going to be partnered with. Would also love to hear a SS amp with them as the SS amp might show us something more about these speakers, especially wrt genres such as hard rock/metal :licklips:
The HRT music streamer II yet again proved why I do not fancy it much. Was hoping to hear a Antelope Zodiac DAC but satyaki advised that it will take him some more time to acquire it
Suggested that he look at the Maverick Audio Tubemagic D2 as a stop gap.
The Fostex drivers are class. Even though they need couple of hundred hours to really show what they can do, even in their current unopened status they played mighty fine.
Very good soundstage, instrument separation & vocals esp female ones are fantastically reproduced.
Very good cabinet workmanship & the veneer looks beautiful. Satyaki said that the speakers are heavy @ around 40kgs each!
Overall I was really impressed with Satyakis efforts. He plans to make these & a couple of other designs on an made to order basis, which is I feel is a good thing as someone looking for a musical pair of speakers which will do justice to almost everything (music wise) that 1 can throw at them.
On inquiring about the prices, he advised that the ones he has made with cedar wood veneer will be sold for 50k. Cheaper options would be with laminates which he can offer from 40k onwards.
All in all, a pair of these speakers with a sufficiently powered amp(tube/ss) & an mid level DAC/CDP/TT can do justice to ones requirements & keep one satiated for a long period of time without having to think of upgrading in the near future. A budget of a lac can get one there quite comfortably.
, I knew this question will be asked as the 1st pic shows a Jamo Sub in the background. It was just kept there(not connected) as there was no other space allotted for it by his wife, I suppose
