Anil Kumars DIY speakers with Vintage amps
Anil is another DIyer who I have been dying to meet. I admire the passion behind all his speaker builds and auditioning his creations was one of the highlights of this trip.
The Almighty has been quite kind to us in the fact that all our hosts treated us to finger lickin good food along with beautiful music!
Anils set up:
Source: Onkyo LD player dx v370
Amp: pioneer sa 9100/Yamaha ca6100(?)/Technics mini hi fi
Speakers: DiY Bass Reflex FS, TL Small Thors FS, Kef FS
Anils formidable array of Floorstanders
Vintage exotica on the audio rack
Pioneer sa 9100
Onkyo Ld player
TEchnics mini hi fi
So we start off playing our standard fare. The Marantz test disc goes in:
Anils own speakers, not the small thors, are connected.
Here comes the rain again : These speakers paint on a huge canvas and fill up Anils living room effortlessly. The mids were a bit lacking with a slight edginess to the voice. Separation and resolution overall were awesome.
Chinese Drums track: These babies kick some serious rear end with percussion! They go down deep and low, and are very clean while at it! Even our Manu bhai would bow down!
Taal se Taal Mila: The sub frequencies in the beginning are no sweat for this speaker. However when the rest of the band pip in with the heavy drums, there is a slight muddling/confusion.
Again Alka Yagnik sounds a bit shrill here but all the details come through without fail. The treble on this track is quite (over)energetic and on this set up becomes a bit too harsh for my liking.
Thats me putting the wheels in motion er putting the cd in the tray to start off with the session at Anil Kumars place
Dhan Dhan Dharti: Sonu Nigam: The male vocal on this is very powerful, but it sounded thin on the set up. The underlying synth bass and drums however were very well rendered.
We play Micheal Shrieves Sorcerer and the speakers devour it with ease. Brilliant panache with percussion and the enveloping sound is what characterize these.
Devdas theme song: Good details levels, but a bit congested here. The whip in the midst of this track was something I thought these could deliver with realism but it lacked the bite I expected, though it was way above par.
We switched to the Small thors, Anils TL design. The same tracks and some others were played on these. The Small Thors are not as exciting as the Bass reflex nor do they go as low, but they sound more balanced with stronger mids and sweeter highs. This was felt with Keith urban and Diana Krall.-Temptation.
We played much more music on these, but I am limiting myself , as time is less and I guess everybodys patience is wearing thin waiting for me to post, so that they can also join in with their inputs. Also, with all the stuff happening, my memory is working overtime to make sense of the whole thing!
Overall, I would say Anils speakers have to be heard to be believed, again they would trump most of the branded costing twice or thrice. If the mids were stronger and highs a bit more tame, Anils BR would be just shy of being on the perfect speaker list like Shreekanths creation.So would the Small Thors if coupled with a good, fast TL sub.
Suris candid shots during the auditions, seen here is Rallynut a.k.a Dr.Kannan making a point to Anil
Ta da!
Sreekanths mid bass driver on the small Thors
Up close and personal with Anils own speakers, thats the Vifa bass driver
Shoulder to shoulder , anils TL and Bass reflex FS
The Avatar man lost in the music