Hyderabad HFV meet ? Interest check

[sidvee]

oops.. sidvee jee and sameer jee for you folks.. the aftermath of the audio meet... few pegs and a hell of a audio dicussion that was supposed to be done in an hour but went upto..8 pm... oh yeah and we enjoyed getting into that audio discussion. got to learn a lot more from you guys..

Actually this was the best part of the meet
:cheers:
Sid

 

[sameer kumar]

Actually this was the best part of the meet
:cheers:
Sid

True Sidvee! . It was a real good evening. Thanks TheIronhorse and Stereorules.

 

[stereorules]

I concur ..But I think thanx to you and Sid ...Once the "tall" glasses arrived, the discussion really ventured into a variety of topics ...and to you too Ironhorse for the company ...

... and a hell of a audio dicussion that was supposed to be done in an hour but went upto..8 pm...

very true Ironhorse, it was supposed to be over in half an hour/max 1 hr ..but it just went on from one topic to another ..we forgot time ..True hallmark of a good "bulla" session ...when time flies by ..and you dont notice it ..

 

[Santy]

Aww.. :cheers: This was the only part missing in our meet.

Seems you guys rocked. Appears to be a systematically managed event.
Kudos to the organizers.
It was planned in a very short time.
I know it is not easy to organize an event.:clapping:

Great pics, ironhorse seem to have enjoyed photography and music together.

 

[theironhorse]

Aww.. :cheers: This was the only part missing in our meet.

Seems you guys rocked. Appears to be a systematically managed event.
Kudos to the organizers.
It was planned in a very short time.
I know it is not easy to organize an event.:clapping:

Great pics, ironhorse seem to have enjoyed photography and music together.

you forgot the drinks ????? it was a trio.. so it was all guy stuff..

music, camera , drinks and loads of audio gyaan received from more experienced guys to a noob like me...

 

[mpw]

hey guys,

the equipment looks very nice.. am sure all of you would have enjoyed..

regards,
mpw

 

[sameer kumar]

Aww.. :cheers: This was the only part missing in our meet.

Seems you guys rocked. Appears to be a systematically managed event.
Kudos to the organizers.
It was planned in a very short time.
I know it is not easy to organize an event.:clapping:

Great pics, ironhorse seem to have enjoyed photography and music together.

Thank you Santy for the encouraging words.

We had very short time but finally pulled it off successfully.
We have good number of energetic young guns among Hyderabad members. We will do our best to raise our standards at the next meet

Cheers
Sameer

 

[sivakuru]

Looks like you guys had lot of fun. I was one of those who promised to make it initially when Sachin started this thread. However unfortunately as the day was nearing by was sure that I could not make it be it 11th or 18th. Sorry about that. Hope I will get to meet you guys when you organize next time.

 

[BLASTO]

Quick comments: actually the B&W N805 retail is $2000. It is a discontinued model. The S4 is a dicontinued model as well, and its retail is $3000 so actually it costs 50% more than the B&W.
Cheers,
Sid

That clears a lot of my doubts.

So, B&Ws are to be compared with other speakers wrt USD prices only. INR prices are always high compared to other brands.

Thanks,

 

[sidvee]

That clears a lot of my doubts.

So, B&Ws are to be compared with other speakers wrt USD prices only. INR prices are always high compared to other brands.

Thanks,

Yes - unfortunately in the motherland it seems that the higher end versions of B&W really get marked up. I guess they are catering to a different market segment here. This was the case with Dynaudio as well. Apparently, enough people didnt think dynaudio was worth the mark up and today there are no Indian dealers. There is 1 dubai dealer who caters to the Indian market which is probably miniscule.
Hence if you are planning to buy in India, IMO it is better to look for brands that have similar pricing here as they have internationally with may be a reasonable markup rather than 70-100% markup.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[Tanoj]

Hi Friends,

it was an awesome event , Thanks for Sameer, Sachin, Sid, blasto, Theiron, and all the members, to make this such a blastfull event

got opertunity to listen and compare wonderful sound machines,

Thanks to Mr. sridhar , for sponcering the gifts.

pics are real treasure


cheers and :clapping: to all of you guys


Tanoj

 

[captrajesh]

Hey,

OK guys, pics are there and jigs are there but no names? I can only recognise Goldyrathore as I had met him. Hope all the pics or at least the group photo contains names of the participants.

Rgds


Rajesh

 

[theironhorse]

i will add the group photo again with the names mentioned. sachin already pinged me about the same with name of most of the members.. i will add it soon.

 

[pdhanwada]

Another important thing to learn from the HFV hyderabad meet was involvement of Room in the sound quality.

As we dont have that big size rooms(30 X17) in our homes it may not be possible to get the same sound quality.

Speakers are the most important participants in the sound quality. Probably amp and room come in next. I would put the cables to the last. We did see the sound difference between a cd player and the squeezebox. But how much is the question each has to answer to himself. Depends on the individual's tastes.

I still feel the convieniance of the squeezebox overweighs the SQ improvement we got thru a cd player.

I am considering a AMP change in my system if I can get convinced that there will be significant improvement. Not sure how to determine that. I know for the same reason we go after upgrading the equipments.

I had earlier tested my speakers with the ROTEL which kevian bought to my place. I found some improvement in SQ but not significant enough. It was a 60 Watt one. We need to see how my speakers respond when tested with more powerful amp.

I sound stage developed by the Bel canto was amazing. I was impressed with Bel canto. I know that Paradigms are more forgiving on their source I think it was the amp which made them sing better. I also think that room also had a some share in improving the sound quality.

Sid,

Question for you.

As you played the speakers with same amplification and source, how did you feel about sound quality. did it improve or fall or was it the same.

Let me know.

Thanks
Pandu

 

[nmurthyk]

Good to hear about the event. Seems that you guys have great fun & at the same time gained a good knowledge.

Unfortunately I missed this event.

Looking forward to the next meetup. I will not miss it again.

Hope a few more reviews/observations from other participants. It is really very helpful.

 

[cha_indian]

Yes murthy you missed it! It was a wonderful experience and learning for me. I was really really impressed with Norge amp and i wonder how their speakers sound. :licklips: considering that Norge amp SQ was equal to higher priced equipment . I hope somebody in hyderabad owns a norge set of speakers and allows us to audition.

 

[max123_ind]

My observations :
-----------------
(1) Usher Diamonds -> nice warm sound (My preference, I hate speakers that sound like they're drilling in my ears) -> The warmth may be in part due to the copper speaker cables brought by sidvee.. Each one looks like an Anaconda and they come in a box the size of an amplifier.. [ and I thought my multichannel $120 cables from US were expensive.. lol)
(2) BelCantos pre+amp -> Whatever was paired with them played great
(3) Jamos speakers (and amp+cd player of BLASTO) -> These are a real bang for the buck
(4) Paradigms -> These are my favorites of the lot.
(5) Ayon -> awesome cd player with a nice CD mechanism
(6) The DIYs by cha_indian and his bro were interesting.

..and many more.

 

[sidvee]

Sid,

Question for you.

As you played the speakers with same amplification and source, how did you feel about sound quality. did it improve or fall or was it the same.

Let me know.

Thanks
Pandu

Hi Pandu - My impressions were as follows using the bel-canto pre-power. Unfortunately I did not listen to the rotel pairing as I was packing up:
The S4 had better low frequency extension of the two speakers - logical since it is a larger speaker with dedicated low frequency driver/ 805 is smaller with single driver for mid bass and low frequency. I think the s4 will need a decent powered amp. to achieve this though. For reference the Belcanto S300 is rated 150 watts into 8 ohms and 300 watts into 4. So IMO for an amp change you will have to look at an amp. that does at-least good 80 to 100 watts into 8 ohms if you are looking at class a/ab. Of-course all this is room size dependant, SPL levels you like to listen to, and type of music you prefer. I have used the 805 majority of the time with Quickilver mid mono push pull tube amps. that put out 50 watts into 8 ohms, but majority of my listening is to 60-70 jazz groups and my room size is 14' x 12'.
For high freqency I felt that the 805 had the edge, undoubtedly due to the nautilus tweeter - it felt more airy and smooth. Again an amp that does not sound grainy will be required to achive this in the S4. Usually low priced integrateds struggle in this aspect - just my experience - YMMV.
BTW I have a 7.1 set up of Paradigm Studio v3 series for my HT and I have used the Paradigm studio 40 (which is the lower version of the s4) and the studio 20 (which is the lower version of s2) in a stereo setup and both performed well with my tube amps., so for lower level listening that is as option as well. Although in my small room I felt that the 20 performed better than the 40.
My approach to system matching usually consists of fund allocation in this manner, Speaker 40% - Ampification/source - 50-55% - cabling - 5-10%. Of-course this is assuming room treatment/acoustics have been taken care of - which in your case it has been.
Hope this helps.
PS: If you are looking at power amps. that can work well with the Paradigms and are not too expesive try to audition the odyssey series from ARN. I had the odysssey stratos for a year and and at its price pont it was a superb value.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[sidvee]

Another important thing to learn from the HFV hyderabad meet was involvement of Room in the sound quality.

As we dont have that big size rooms(30 X17) in our homes it may not be possible to get the same sound quality.

Absolutely true Pandu - concur with you. The dynamics and SPL levels that we were experiencing at the show will be hard to tolerate in smaller rooms for music playback. In fact the preamp level on the belcanto pre 3 was routinely being set at 72-80 for the show, and in my home in my room of 14' x 12' I rarely cross 55-60.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[sidvee]

My observations :
-----------------
-> The warmth may be in part due to the copper speaker cables brought by sidvee.. Each one looks like an Anaconda and they come in a box the size of an amplifier.. [ and I thought my multichannel $120 cables from US were expensive.. lol)
.

These are the PS audio xstream statement cables.
More info. attached.
xstream
Cheers,
Sid