square_wave
Well-Known Member
The PMC MB2 Se have a 20 year warranty. I don't think I will be looking for an upgrade till the warranty runs outThese are IT for me. They absolutely rock.
Ha ha...knowing you,.. lets talk after ten years
Luxman C-900u and M900u
- Thread starter Nikhil
- Start date
Ha ha...knowing you,.. lets talk after ten years
Dev.R
Well-Known Member
Thats an Awesome setup Surrealistix. Happy Listening.
Rajeshh
Well-Known Member
@Surrealistix That is one amazing setup!
hifitoaster
Well-Known Member
What are those Racks? Beautiful and neat set up.
Surrealistix
Active Member
It's a diy rack I made out of some old wood from some old furniture.
Quick impressions on the way home
The system sounds nothing like his name. Realistic! Very dense sound extremely well served on all sorts of music - listened to Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Ahmad Jamal, Maisky-Argerich (buzz off JLS), Art Blakey, Radiohead, Nicholas Jaar, Prokofiev and Rachmaninov. Also finally played around with ifi thingie for noise reduction (one worked, the other at a different location didn’t change - essentially without it sound became flatter) listening to Jazz at the Pawnshop (Ok darn it we do like audio)...
It is not a forgiving sound. An extremely strong sound and not a lit-from-within inner resolution sound - very studio monitor. Out and out enjoyable with super scale. Soundstafe was within loudspeakers but within that all instrument well dileneated. This was after the Luxman was warmed for a few hours - midrange became liquid! A warm beast!
I would happily move in for a while if S gave the keys to his house when on holiday. And will be very happy with this sound for my music too.
The system sounds nothing like his name. Realistic! Very dense sound extremely well served on all sorts of music - listened to Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Ahmad Jamal, Maisky-Argerich (buzz off JLS), Art Blakey, Radiohead, Nicholas Jaar, Prokofiev and Rachmaninov. Also finally played around with ifi thingie for noise reduction (one worked, the other at a different location didn’t change - essentially without it sound became flatter) listening to Jazz at the Pawnshop (Ok darn it we do like audio)...
It is not a forgiving sound. An extremely strong sound and not a lit-from-within inner resolution sound - very studio monitor. Out and out enjoyable with super scale. Soundstafe was within loudspeakers but within that all instrument well dileneated. This was after the Luxman was warmed for a few hours - midrange became liquid! A warm beast!
I would happily move in for a while if S gave the keys to his house when on holiday. And will be very happy with this sound for my music too.
panditji
Well-Known Member
Great... The system is top of the line and am sure it would sound super.. I am interested in knowing what and where was the iFi placed which made a positive difference in sound? And which iFi was it?
Surrealistix
Active Member
Surrealistix
Active Member
@panditji its the ifi AC iPurifier. I recently bought two of these and hooked it up in my setup just for kicks. The first one is connected to the receptacle at the wall and other connected into the distribution box.
The one at the wall improved the sound while the one plugged into the distribution box didn't seem to have an effect.
When I heard a demo of the iPurifier at a hifi store adding these made a significant improvement. At home the improvement seems to be more subtle in comparison.
The second one (from the distribution box) has improved the sound in my house heheheh. I am superb at abusing hospitality. Damn it works.
Sorry just wanted to add about S’ system - the bass is superb. Not bloated. Textured. Simply fab.
Sorry just wanted to add about S’ system - the bass is superb. Not bloated. Textured. Simply fab.
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Had the opportunity to visit Surrealistix last Saturday with a couple of friends.
Very good sound overall.
Refined, resolving, good balance across the entire frequency spectrum (bass didn't over power despite the PMC MB2 speakers being huge), and tone is spot on.
Plays music and brings out the soul of music.
After a few tracks, I stopped bothering about the hifi things and was simply enjoying favourites from his vast collection of music.
Thoroughly enjoyed myself. Thanks for having us over.
PS: the day once again reinforced my bias against flac files and Tidal streaming. Neither was a match for locally stored wav files of the same tracks.
Very good sound overall.
Refined, resolving, good balance across the entire frequency spectrum (bass didn't over power despite the PMC MB2 speakers being huge), and tone is spot on.
Plays music and brings out the soul of music.
After a few tracks, I stopped bothering about the hifi things and was simply enjoying favourites from his vast collection of music.
Thoroughly enjoyed myself. Thanks for having us over.
PS: the day once again reinforced my bias against flac files and Tidal streaming. Neither was a match for locally stored wav files of the same tracks.
bhagwan
Well-Known Member
Sir,
It was a pleasure to visit.
I spent 1/2 a day @ your place.
This is Super.
I like this Pre & Power.
Top electronics.
Makes the British speaker play well.
I loved the tone.
Excellent job.
The D & D's have done a great job - set up so well.
I liked what I heard.
Contrats.
Enjoy in good health...
Regards,
Bhagwan
08.04.2019.
bhagwan
Well-Known Member
This is an 'expensive' set up.
22L for the MBII se
11L for the Pre
11L for the Power
3L for the DAC
Cables / Room etc. all is extra.
But, on listening the 'pedigree' & the Hi Fi
qualities do come across...
If the owner is open - lots of Mumbai
chapter people must visit.
It is a great example of what Hi Fi is all about.
Money is spent & yes - result is apparent &
one can get the results if one is persistant.
o.t.
Flac is CRAP
Only Wave
nothing else works.
Streaming from Tidal etc is for pure music search &
one cannot use it for 'serious' listening...
Bhagwan
Mumbai / India
08.04.2019.
22L for the MBII se
11L for the Pre
11L for the Power
3L for the DAC
Cables / Room etc. all is extra.
But, on listening the 'pedigree' & the Hi Fi
qualities do come across...
If the owner is open - lots of Mumbai
chapter people must visit.
It is a great example of what Hi Fi is all about.
Money is spent & yes - result is apparent &
one can get the results if one is persistant.
o.t.
Flac is CRAP
Only Wave
nothing else works.
Streaming from Tidal etc is for pure music search &
one cannot use it for 'serious' listening...
Bhagwan
Mumbai / India
08.04.2019.
bhagwan
Well-Known Member
Nikhil, if there are people that have a 22L budget for a Pre & Power - this is a 'super solution'
Sold in Mumbai - Local support from a Super D & D & great sound.
It is a top combination.
If SS design is what one is looking for - this combination is very nice indeed.
Top resolution @ low level too.
Bass weight & slam.
It has all.
That too with restraint - nothing is over the top..
Far better than any Bryston one can pair the PMC with.
Highly recommended - the Luxman from my side.
I do hope that all HFV - Mumbai Chapter people - make it a
point to go & visit with their Wave Files.
Its well worth the trip & the owner is a TOP Host !
I enjoyed my Saturday - completely.
Recommended.
Bhagwan
Mumbai / India
08.04.2019.
Surrealistix
Active Member
Thank you jls001 and bhagwan for making it all the way to Navi Mumbai. It was a pleasure to have you guys over
Glowing tributes from some pretty hard core guys.
No small feat by any means - congratulations once again Surrealistix!
The more I read about the top of the line Luxmans the more I am amazed at how this brand has re-positioned itself right back on the top of the game. They probably never left but for sure other brands came in and grabbed the limelight. It's great to see Luxman back in the mix.
.
No small feat by any means - congratulations once again Surrealistix!
The more I read about the top of the line Luxmans the more I am amazed at how this brand has re-positioned itself right back on the top of the game. They probably never left but for sure other brands came in and grabbed the limelight. It's great to see Luxman back in the mix.
.
bhagwan
Well-Known Member
Sir,
In fact, I personally like the mix.
The PMC MBII & the Luxman top line pre & power compliment each other.
They are a great match.
I would recommend them.
The Pre is a bit steep [actually very expensive] but its a class product - such super
micro dynamics even at low volumes - really not easy to come by.
I wish all people from Mumbai should call & take an appointment & go for a listen.
Will be a nice few hours spent.
Just remember - Pen Drive - Wave Music is needed to listen.
Surrealistix and I had an evening of music listening yesterday with one change in the system - JLS’ USB cable.
And sad to say and truth be told, came back with the strangest case of listener’s fatigue - my legs from all the toe tapping and constant movement. How amazing it sounded!! The warmth was natural and PRAT took off from the last time I heard it.
Kudos to JLS and what a lovely system S.
And sad to say and truth be told, came back with the strangest case of listener’s fatigue - my legs from all the toe tapping and constant movement. How amazing it sounded!! The warmth was natural and PRAT took off from the last time I heard it.
Kudos to JLS and what a lovely system S.
I had a 2-hour listening session at Surrealistix' place a few days back. Absolutely top quality system, and a real pleasure.
I have heard expensive systems before, and many of them sound too polite or lush. They give rise to beliefs like "XYZ system is great for jazz" or "ABC system is great for hard rock", and so on. I have heard an extremely expensive system which sapped the soul out of Dire Straits or one which tamed the gravel of Springsteen's "Nebraska" and made it socially acceptable. Really sad. I believe a good system should do all genres very well, and this one was in that league. Hard rock, soft Indian classical vocals, jazz, all sounded really excellent.
The room has been treated very well, allowing room echo to reduce. This means that the volume can be driven quite high before the room begins to break up the sound. Therefore, the room gives the necessary support to allow these super-clean speakers to deliver the detail which they can. Surrealistix plays at fairly high volumes -- nothing "audiophile" or "polite" about it -- and you can see how the room does justice to the amazing clean sound. A lot of separation of voices, instruments are apparent without any effort. There is no harshness in any tonal range at any volume level. There is a lot of energy in the music. It's a rare pleasure when you get to hear a dynamic, energetic delivery like this which retains the cleanness which is expected from top end systems.
One more thing I've rarely had a chance to experience is a top quality system in a room with a really low noise floor. This too did justice to the enormous amount of subtle detail coming out of the speakers. The room had excellent sound-proofing.
The bass had really excellent extension, but I felt had a very slight overhang in the notes extending a bit longer than theoretically expected. I guess this is a transmission-line artifact. However, with these speakers and this lovely room, this slight overhang was hardly an issue. And the overhang too is only a comment compared to the tightness of the rest of the sound. Most of the speakers I have heard elsewhere have much looser bass than what I heard here.
All in all, the speakers have an interesting architecture, with a very capable 12" driver reaching up to (a quite high) 380Hz, after which an exceptional 3" dome mid takes over. This is the first time I saw and heard a 3" dome mid. The tweeter is crossed over at 3.8KHz, fairly high and therefore giving an undemanding load to it. The speaker is a conventional rectangular shape, so the baffle is quite wide (15"?) to accommodate the large 12" woofer. None of the fashionable slim-line tower stuff here -- these speakers have a visual presence which matches their sound. And the dome mid was handling a full decade of range.
Surrealistix plays a 100% digital setup, but I couldn't help feeling that it would be very interesting to hear a top-notch turntable hooked up to such a rig and such a room, to see how a really good turntable excels if the downstream components are this transparent.
I think this system is not to everyone's liking -- specially considering the tastes of a lot of people who like exotic full-range speakers or valve gear with 1% distortion, etc. This system shows you how good, how natural, really transparent, "real" sounding systems can be, whereas a lot of people prefer systems with their characteristic "sound". I, on the other hand, strive for maximum accuracy and minimum "colour", so for me this was a confirmation that the pure, neutral, accurate approach can deliver a deeply emotional experience, not a "synthetic" or "clinical" output.
It's taken Surrealistix several years of journey to reach this point, I'm sure. I'm lucky I walked in at the end-point and got 2 hours and a cup of tea without any of his journey. I want to congratulate Surrealistix on having reached where he has. We think it just needs a big budget. In fact it needs sensitivity, enormous patience, and brains too.
I have heard expensive systems before, and many of them sound too polite or lush. They give rise to beliefs like "XYZ system is great for jazz" or "ABC system is great for hard rock", and so on. I have heard an extremely expensive system which sapped the soul out of Dire Straits or one which tamed the gravel of Springsteen's "Nebraska" and made it socially acceptable. Really sad. I believe a good system should do all genres very well, and this one was in that league. Hard rock, soft Indian classical vocals, jazz, all sounded really excellent.
The room has been treated very well, allowing room echo to reduce. This means that the volume can be driven quite high before the room begins to break up the sound. Therefore, the room gives the necessary support to allow these super-clean speakers to deliver the detail which they can. Surrealistix plays at fairly high volumes -- nothing "audiophile" or "polite" about it -- and you can see how the room does justice to the amazing clean sound. A lot of separation of voices, instruments are apparent without any effort. There is no harshness in any tonal range at any volume level. There is a lot of energy in the music. It's a rare pleasure when you get to hear a dynamic, energetic delivery like this which retains the cleanness which is expected from top end systems.
One more thing I've rarely had a chance to experience is a top quality system in a room with a really low noise floor. This too did justice to the enormous amount of subtle detail coming out of the speakers. The room had excellent sound-proofing.
The bass had really excellent extension, but I felt had a very slight overhang in the notes extending a bit longer than theoretically expected. I guess this is a transmission-line artifact. However, with these speakers and this lovely room, this slight overhang was hardly an issue. And the overhang too is only a comment compared to the tightness of the rest of the sound. Most of the speakers I have heard elsewhere have much looser bass than what I heard here.
All in all, the speakers have an interesting architecture, with a very capable 12" driver reaching up to (a quite high) 380Hz, after which an exceptional 3" dome mid takes over. This is the first time I saw and heard a 3" dome mid. The tweeter is crossed over at 3.8KHz, fairly high and therefore giving an undemanding load to it. The speaker is a conventional rectangular shape, so the baffle is quite wide (15"?) to accommodate the large 12" woofer. None of the fashionable slim-line tower stuff here -- these speakers have a visual presence which matches their sound. And the dome mid was handling a full decade of range.
Surrealistix plays a 100% digital setup, but I couldn't help feeling that it would be very interesting to hear a top-notch turntable hooked up to such a rig and such a room, to see how a really good turntable excels if the downstream components are this transparent.
I think this system is not to everyone's liking -- specially considering the tastes of a lot of people who like exotic full-range speakers or valve gear with 1% distortion, etc. This system shows you how good, how natural, really transparent, "real" sounding systems can be, whereas a lot of people prefer systems with their characteristic "sound". I, on the other hand, strive for maximum accuracy and minimum "colour", so for me this was a confirmation that the pure, neutral, accurate approach can deliver a deeply emotional experience, not a "synthetic" or "clinical" output.
It's taken Surrealistix several years of journey to reach this point, I'm sure. I'm lucky I walked in at the end-point and got 2 hours and a cup of tea without any of his journey. I want to congratulate Surrealistix on having reached where he has. We think it just needs a big budget. In fact it needs sensitivity, enormous patience, and brains too.
Surrealistix
Active Member
Thank you tcpip for penning down your impressions. It very much reflects how I think my setup sounds like. I am very much at peace with my setup now. Well, hopefully for a couple of years at least
It was a pleasure having you over.
It was a pleasure having you over.
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