Lyrita Audio's New Amity Speaker

I am in town but saw this thread only today :sad:

anyways...had already planned with Viren for a session sometime this week...had no idea of the new babies when I did that...
 
ooh,am liking the amity's already!!!!!!!shall be patiently waitin for some details.man i wish i was smwhr near delhi.damn.cheers
 
Hi,

Hey all you impatient guys ;) here is the curtain raiser for the Lyrita's Amity !!

P1060635.JPG


P1060639.JPG


Will post the complete details with all the pics in new thread (may take some time) but until then drool over the above be content:lol: !!

Regards.
 
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Hello Soundsgreat,
they look bit unconventional but nice. I am also planning to get simialr effect by pairing a subwoofer with harmony one speakers. I talked to Viren about it he told me he tried similar experiments but tonal quality of sound from the speakers and the subwoofer is different so it may not work.
Thanks,
Mahiruha.
 
Hi Sreekanth
Thanks a lot for posting the pictures. Was following this thread silently and was eager to see the pictures of this new speaker by Mr. Viren
Well you know i am no expert but would like to ask you and Mr. Viren few things
Are the speakers without any spikes because it is still in designing stage?
Also is the rug sort of thing between the speakers for a purpose?
Also does the LF driver have a amp built into the speaker like the new Rethms?
 
Hi Rikhav,

The Amity speakers are a two-way design, with a passive crossover between the woofer and the full-range. They are meant to be driven by a single amplifier, so that sound of the same tonal quality goes to both drivers. Since the speaker sensitivity is high, 95 dB/1 watt/1 metre, even low powered amps will work well.

There are very shallow brass points under the speakers, so they are coupled well to the floor. Carpeted floors may well require spikes.

The bamboo "chattai" on the wall, between the speakers, is purely a decorative element!

Regards,
Viren
 
Thank you Mr. Viren for answering my queries
This makes a good concept having a full range and LF driver with a passive crossover. Will be eager to hear more about these speakers by you and other fellow members who have auditioned it and specially Sreekanth
 
It was indeed a pleasure to meet the mighty keen ears and the brain behind the tube amp & those lovely pair of speakers.

I had been to the discussed audition with my friend Denny (owner of Bass & Treble at Dwarka, Delhi). Post the session we got back to my home and played the ambient track that we played at Viren sir's place. I played the same track on Marantz SACD-7001 with PM7001.

Being a keen listener but the non-techy that i am, all i can say is that the difference was clearly audible to my novice ears when i played the track on Marantz, i was left craving for something that i had heard at the audition, it was missing with my Marantz. Viren sir's new package focused quite effectively on the mids and wow the music sounded never so free flowing and this alive on the mids.

I loved the vocals on the speakers and especially the Sufi number, the classical Hindi number and track by INXS which was asked to be played by Ashok bhai ..splendid !

The bass response of the driver on the deep Tabla note of the Indian classical track is still as clear as it was then. Very imppresive. The driver can really dip low! I got reminded of my Deftech in a way. (just a musical mention, no comparisons pls).

I would certainly discuss with Viren sir about his 15w tubeamp in near future viz-a-viz my Quad 11L2 bookshelves or Dali Ikon1 Bookshelves ..would love to pick the amp if the compatibility permits, as i shall not be having the space to keep the huge Amity's ..which i may pick if the above compatibility wont work.

Was a pleasure meeting Viren ji, Kamal ji, Ashok ji & Mr. Banerjee.
..pardon me for missing a few names.


Love, respects & wishes for the festivities
..
 
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Hello friends.

Im sorry Ive not been able to post my impressions of Lyrita Audios new Amity speakers earlier; reason-my computer has been misbehaving since 12-15 days & has thankfully not hanged today so Im grabbing the opportunity.

Soundsgreat has given his impressions alongwith some lovely pics of this latest offering from Lyritas stable so youve already had a foretaste of this speaker.

I & some other audiophile members have been listening to this speaker over some extended listening sessions with a wide variety of music, in order to get an impression of this speaker & also to give our inputs to Viren as an aid to tweaking & finalizing the sonic signature- a very interesting & exciting process, I must say.

Viren is one of the designers who has an open mind towards comments about his products which has helped him in his quest to continually refine them; he does not react like a mother hearing comments about her fav child, like some other designers Ive interacted with in the past.

And now, on to the Amitys.


Design- 2 Way, Hybrid- Open baffle + Bass reflex, rear ported. Input jacks-1Pair.

Drivers- Mids&Highs- 6 full range Fostex FE 167E in the open baffle

Bass- 12 Eminence BETA-12A-2 ,in the bass reflex cabinet.

Sensitivity- 95db/ 1 Watt/ 1 Metre.

Frequency Response- 40 Hz to 18 Khz, into 8 Ohms.

Crossover- 300 Hz, 6db/ Octave.

Height/Width/Depth: 1100x365x400mm.Weight 30kgs/pair.

Tonal balance- (3 way switch)- Flat, + 1db, - 1 db.


Listening impressions

The first session was on the 2nd Oct afternoon.
The initial objective was to find out how well the speakers met the design objective, viz , to provide enhanced bass energy at the lower end alongwith even more open sounding mids & highs , for the benefit of audiophiles who wanted greater bass slam than what the Fostex alone could provide, ( impt for the younger ones with a taste for hard/metal rock!), along with Bass definition.

We would also listen to the Tonal balance, Bass/Mid/Treble performance, Soundstaging, Detail & Dynamics, Coherence & , very importantly, Musicality
Present were HifiAshok & friend ,Rohit, Siddharth Trehan & friend ,self & our host Viren.

Partnering Eqpt-6C33CB SET Amp + Marantz 5001 CDP, Lyrita solid core Hi purity copper ICs & Spkr Cables, power thru an Isolation Transformer.

Listening Area- 15 x 20 x 10 Hall, medium furnished, open entrance on left doors to right & behind, doors mid & end of the left wall,window end of right wall.

We heard the following music:-
- Dire Straits- Money for nothing, Brother in Arms,
- Sarah Maclachlan- Just like me, Unchained Melody,
- Oliver Tuku Mlukudji tracks from album Nhava,
- Best in Lounge-Smooth Guitar-Pat Metheny-Last train home,Eric Tingstad & Nancy Rimbel-The Merced,
- Sun Lounger-Another day on the Terrace-Another day,
- Patricia Barber-tracks from-A fortnight in France, live in Paris,
- Definitive INXS-Need you tonight,
- Music in a Great Space, St James Church, Chicago-Choir & Cathedral Organ,
- Clarence Gatemouth Brown- You can disagree,
- FleetwoodMac- Rumours- The Chain,
- Sarah Maclachlan I love you,
- Kalpana Zokarkar- sach kaho more batiyaan
- Sufi Gold- Man kunto-Abida Parveen, Mera sohna sajan gharNusrat fateh Ali Khan,
- Rebecca Pidgeon- The Raven-Spanish Harlem,
- Mark Knopfler-Screen Playing- The Long Road,
- Rock On-Yeh tumhaari meri baatein
- Rene Olsted- Summertime,
- Michael Jackson- Thriller- Billie Jean.

As you would observe, we played a fairly wide variety of music from albums brought in by all the audiophiles interspersed with discussions on our impressions.

What we heard was a speaker with great promise, exhibiting excellent transient response,true timbral capabilities, outstanding bass definition & palpable weight, free floating mids & highs & excellent soundstaging capabilities.

Along with the SET Amp, it made a pretty musical system.
But, HifiAshok & I felt that some work was required in the tonal balance which we conveyed to Viren.

Thereafter, I went by myself for couple more sessions,( since others could not make it on weekdays) after Viren said that hed done some work on the speakers, & then some more, during the 3rd session.

The setup had been moved to Virens sitting room;

Dimensions 10x12x10, opening to a hallway on the front of the left wall, entrance door on the front end of the right wall, door to the balcony rear of the left wall, ceiling height book case rear of the right wall, two well stuffed sofas along the right & left walls ,2 listening chairs at the sweet spot,

Speakers positioned abt 6 .5 ft apart, toed in 15 degrees from the horizontal

I spent many, many hours listening .

The following music was played during the sessions:-

-Mozart-Violin Concert ,D Major-Allegro,
Ensemble 96/0 Fevang-Nystedt-Immortal Bach, both from the 2L Sampler, very high quality recording,
-Unforgettables- Jagjit & Chitra-Baat niklegi, & Raat bhi neend,
-M.Jackson-Thriller- Billie Jean & Human Nature,
-Shirley Horn-The Ultimate Shirley Horn-tracks from,
-Beatles- Past Masters Vol II( 2009 Remaster)- Hey Jude & few other tracks,
-Classics Revival CD # 32- Lata,Aaj Socha Film Hanste Zakhm, ( one of my top 5 songs by Lata) & some other tracks,
-Ustad Rashid Khan- Albela saajan,
-Pt Channulal Mishra- some Horis from his CD,
-MS Subbulakshmi- Meera Bhajans- More to girdhar gopal & some other tracks,
-Bade Ghulam Ali Khan- Thumries- Saiyyan bolo,
-Kumar Gandharva- Raag Bhairav- Ravi ke karam hai,
-Pt Jasraj- Raag Multani,
-Ahmad Jamal- tracks from Legendary Okeh & Epic recordings,
-Shirley Horn-I remember Miles-My funny Valentine,
-Sonny Rollins-The sound of Sonny,
-Bill Evans Trio-tracks from Sunday at the Village Vanguard,
-Thelonious Monk-tracks from- Monks Music,
-Patricia Barber- tracks from-The Cole Porter Mix,
-Kari Bremnes- tracks from- Norweigan Mood,
-Sarah Vaughn- tracks from In Hifi,
-Ray Charles - Genius + Soul = Jazz,
-Vienna Boys Choir-tracks from,
-Fleetwood Mac-Rumours- Never going back, I dont want to know, The Chain,
-Ustad Vilayat Khan-Raag Gun Kalyan, Tilak Kamod, Lalit,
-Ustad Ali Akbar Khan-Raag Bhairavi & Dhun,
-Pt Nikhil Bannerjee-Thumri Raag Pilu,
-Sergei Racmaninoff- The Flight of the Bumblebee,
-Bach- Toccata & Fugue-Los Angeles First Congregational Church Organs, Michael Murray, Organist,
-Immortal Classics :-
# Smetana Ma Vlast : Vltava(Die Molda) Israel Philharmonic,
# Massenet- Meditation from the Thais-John Giorgiadis, Violin, LSO,
# Brahms- Hungarian Dance No 5,G Minor, Royal Philharmonic,
-Manger Test Disc, track # 2,
-Magic Moments-Dali Demo Disc :-
# Henri Mancini-Pink Panther,
# Nils Lofgren-Keith dont go,
# Hugh Maskela-Stimela,
# Ben Webster- Gentle Ben,
# Safri Duo- Samb Allegro.

I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the audition.

The Performance Of the Amity's with the SET

First & foremost, Tonality & Timbral Accuracy.

In my view correct tonality ,ability to accurately convey the unique timbre of acoustic instruments is very impt for full emotional involvement in the music.

If this is not spot on , you keep getting the feeling that you are listening to reproduced music, your mind gets distracted & you cant enjoy the music.

I particularly took note of this ,whether the Amitys were conveying the unique sonic signature of the various instruments in the variety of music I was listening to.

The Amity did very well in this.

It was all there the rasp & bite of the trumpet, the honeyed, breathy, raspy tone of the Saxophone ( very complex timbre, not easy to get right), the majesty of the piano, the complex magical tone of the Sitar in the hands of a master with the rich harmonics, the tone of the human voice in speech.

I was well satisfied while listening to tracks featuring the piano, sax, trumpet, sitar, bass guitar & double bass,& the sarod- they sounded just the way they should sound.


Next, Bass/Midrange/Treble performance.

Ive mentioned earlier as to how the Bass definition & weight of the Amitys took my breath away. This is bass of a very high quality- Tight, fast, articulate with not a hint of overhang.

In the Jazz Albums tracks, MJs Billie Jean, Dire Straits Money For Nothing Intro, the drums sounded taut & explosive, the strokes clearly differentiated, with the bass guitar & the double bass the separate tones of the strings & the fingerwork came thru clearly.

The bass was multi toned, not a single note boom, boom as is the case with improperly damped, uncontrolled woofers.

Granted, these speakers roll off appreciably in the bottom two octaves, but you still get that sense of deep thrumming bass-e.g, in Sarah Maclachlans I love you & Kari Bremnes The Ship.

But 40 Hz on, they do a superb job.

About the Midrange, it has been said that if this isnt right, nothing else matters.

And Mids are where 80% of the musical information resides.
Here the Amitys were expected to shine , given Virens familiarity & experience with the Fostexs & they didnt disappoint.

Having got used to the Harmony speakers of Lyritas midrange magic I didnt really expect any improvement, but there is. Due to the open baffle design, the Mids & the Highs seem to float in the open air.There is a sense of ease, effortlessness, space & airiness that has to be heard to be believed.

Vocals, esp female vocals in the nos. by Sarah Maclachlan, Sarah Vaughn, Kari Bremnes, Shirley Horn, Patricia Barber,the pure vocals in The Vienna Boys Choir, were capable of moving you to tears, if you, like I do ,often listen to music for its own sake. And Lata, believe me, youll get a lump in your throat thatll refuse to go away.

I esp played the Ensemble track from the 2L sampler and it sounded absolutely ethereal.

The male vocals sounded natural, not chesty or nasal or honky .I lay back & enjoyed the performances by Rashid Khan, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Saheb( my benchmark for a male classical vocalist), Pt Jasraj , Pt Channulal Mishras lovely raspy & wonderfully controlled & evocative voice-they sounded so good with all the harmonics of their voice coming thru.

It is in such subtleties that the superb transient response of the Fostex drivers, their ability to project the low level details becomes apparent. In the male vocals where the lower midrange is more prevalent, the seamless integration of the Fostex with the Eminence driver is clearly evident.

As for Treble , after the tweaks following the first audition, it sounds sweet & liquid as it should..

My test for this has been track number 2 from Jagjit & Chitras Unforgettables, Chitra's "Raat bhi neend bhi.."

If the treble is not controlled, she can sound unbearably screechy- here she sounded just fine so one could enjoy the delicacy of her high pitched voice which gets overwhelmed otherwise.

In so many other tracks e.g the Ensemble from2L, the violin track from the Immortal Classics CD, the Mozart track from 2L, the backing Tanpura in the Hindustani music tracks, the Sitar tracks , in the Music from a Great Space, the Bach toccata & Fugue, the high quality of the treble contributed to the sense of air, of space, of delicacy.

The open baffle design has really worked excellently for the Mids & the Highs.

Soundstaging : The Amitys threw up a wide, well delineated soundstage, spilling over beyond he speakers., . There was a strong centre image of the vocalist/s, with clear placement of the instruments on the either side.There was a palpable width & depth to the acoustic image.

With Hindustani classical music track, the sense of presence of the musicians was startling, as with other vocal performances.

There was a real sense of the presence of the orchestra with several layers apparent.

The Amitys created a perceptible sense of space in the Ensemble track from 2l, the Vienna Boys choir, The Great Space track recorded in Chicagos St James Cathedral, the Bach Toccata & Fugue, with their superb transient response, detailing ability,transparency.

The Amity's have a widish sweet spot & the soundstage does not abruptly collapse if one were a bit off centre.

High marks on this one.


Coherence & Detail : I have mentioned earlier re the seamless integration of the two drivers even with a lower than conventional crossover & a gradual slope.

This has largely been possible not only because of the careful design of the crossover but also because the two drivers share very similar sensitivities, apart from both being paper cone drivers. Thus there is no sense of lag in the performance of the woofer vis a vis the Fostex.Both seem to perform as one.

No doubt Viren's experience with the sound of his single drivers aided him as to what to strive for when designing this speaker.

Thus there is a seamless coherence between the bass, the mids & the highs.

What you hear is the wholeness of he music instead of transitions between these frequency ranges .

About the sense of detailing & transparency, Ive made mention at several places.

These speakers can pull out & present large amounts of low level details, the harmonics the subtle nuances that project the emotion of the music.


Musicality: To my mind , the ultimate parameter while reproducing music.

One of the major reasons why so much music was played during the listening sessions was to see if these speakers had the ability to deeply involve one in the music. If a system is unable to convey the emotion in the music, it becomes a boring affair & one soon loses interest.

How does a musician convey the emotion of the music?

Lets take an example, Ashaji singing Chain se ham ko kabhie.
It is possible for a singer with some amount of technical training and practice to sing all the words of this song in the right pitch & cadence.
Will it be the same?

No, because Ashaji due to her inherent genius sings those very notes with slight variations of volume, pitch, vibrato , emphasis which may be very small & subtle but which marvelously succeed in conveying the sense of sadness & desolation of the lyrics. She successfully conveys the emotion , & it moves us as no technically correct but emotionally sterile rendition can.

When a speaker, a system, can accurately & faithfully project all this subtle artistry of an accomplished musician, we will go through an emotionally satisfying experience .The system has successfully conveyed the emotional intent of the composer, the performer.

I played many tracks that Ive heard again & again over the years & which have never failed to move me deeply.

For example, the Album by MS Subbulaxmi. Ive worn out three cassettes & was desolate until SaReGaMa came out with a CD a few years back.
Mind you, the recording quality is nothing to write home about, Chesky would probably laugh at the fact that anybody could listen to it.
But, the genius of that artist & the ability of her music making to exalt!

Similarly, the Thumries by Bade Ghulam Ali Khan sahib, the magic of Latas virtuosity, the astonishing ability of Shirley Horn to establish a mood with a few deft touches, the timeless magic of Fleetwood Macs Rumours, the humungous talent of the Beatles( try singing Hey Jude-looks simple does it? Just try!), Jagjit & Chitra- how old do you think their Unforgettables album is? Ive got it on Vinyl, on Cassette, & now on CD, & still keep listening to it. Ustad Vilayat Khan, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan,Pt Jasraj, Ustad Rashid Khan &

When you can sit back & play all these old beloved favourites on a system for hours & not notice the time passing by, then surely that system is doing something right.You are fully gripped , emotionally.

The SET & the Amitys gel that well together.

Another session was held on Sunday, the 11th Oct, when Dr Sanjay Dhawan & HifiAshok made time from their commitments to come over & listen to the Amitys ,after all the tweaking.

Plus, we wanted to see how the Amitys would fare with Hard /Metal rock.
Sanjay & Ashok are old fans of this genre while I am not ,so it was fitting that they should get a selection, listen & decide.This was important for the sake of such of the audiophiles who listen a lot to this kind of music.

We heard the following:

- Whos Next- Getting in tune, The sing is over, Behind blue eyes, Baba ORiley,
- Dire Straits Sultans of Swing,
- Eagles-Hotel California,
- Nirvana- Smells like team spirit, Come as you are,
- U2 Vertigo, Mysterious ways,
- Hard Rock Caf Sampler Saving Abel- track-Addicted, Katy Perry-track-I kissed a girl.

And lastly, Ashok pulled out the Sheffield Labs Drum & Track Disc & played the track-Improvisations to see how a relatively low powered ( 15 Watts ) SET Amp would fare with tracks especially compiled for testing of bass performance.

We were all stunned at the quality of bass put out by the system, even Viren !

The Bass was Tight, Fast, Articulate & Palpable. It was a real treat listening to this performance . This was bass of a very high order, just as bass should be.

Sanjay & Ashok will be posting their impressions shortly.
Since then , the sound of the Amity has improved further as the drivers break in.

Viren figures that itll take at least 50 hrs for the speaker to settle down.
Will go over again for another listen & see if they can be partnered with a SS Amp & how that sounds.

I leave you with some pics of the Amitys & the system.

amity5h.jpg

amity7.jpg

amity8.jpg
 
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Hi Kamal

That made very good reading - also, has made me certain that i should find the time to visit NCR to hear for myself!

warm regards
 
Hi Kamalji
Thank you so much for such detailed review and taking the pain of writing all in detail from the tracks played and how the speaker behaved in all departments.
Very good and positive review for the Amity's
Now I would be surely waiting to know how the Amity's pair with a SS amp. One request is to pair it with mid budget amps also if you are planning to use a high end SS amp.
Also i want to know was the whole audition done with the grills on?
And whose choice was Sunlounger (aka Dj Shah) music? :)
Thanks a lot to everyone
 
Hi Rikhav,
Thanks for the kind words.
I shall be auditioning the Amity's with mid-budget SS amps.
I always listen with the grills off the speakers as I feel it adds to the clarity & air.
The choice of lounge music was that of Siddharth Trehan, who is apparently pretty fond of this genre- he brought along a nice collection for the audition.
 
@kamal,very well written indeed.am familiar with a lot of the material used to audition virens new offering so quite literally felt like i was listening to them thru u :eek:hyeah:!!of course am sure the SET plays a huge role in the magic!!kudos!!

@viren,stupendo!!!bravissimo!!really great to hear such praise for ur babies.all the very very best.am sure u'll have ur hands full with orders for these.cheers
 
Hi Suri, hope it made up for your earlier impatience!
Yes, you really should try to audition this system yourself.
 
Hello Kamal,
very nice write up. I really salute your effort you have put in to come up with such a wonderful review. Apart from the speakers performence I find these reviews also gives information about lot of good music. After going through Venkat's review about Lyrita system I bought this Raaga Symphony album and since then I listen to it everyday. You have also provide me a with descent buying list for music.
Thnaks,
Mahiruha.
 
Hi Rallynut,thanks for the kind words.
Yes, the Amity's pair extremely synergistically with the 6C33CB SET.
There was always the feeling of unlimited dynamic headroom, never a sense of constriction.
All the bass heavy,demanding passages were handled with aplomb,
not surprising given the quality & efficiency of the Eminence driver.
As for the ability to convey the emotional content, isn't that the strength of SETs?
 
Thanks mahi.
I do hope your own setup is giving you joy & happiness, having come from the same stables!
 
Hi Kamal,

Really painstaking work, but love's labour it seems. Before I thank you, I have one suggestion for your long report:

For people like me who have +7 near-sight requirements, it would be really good, if you can separate out the paragraphs. Otherwise, I am having trouble reading your full report. I have tried a few times since morning even with enlarged fonts, but somehow without any paragraph break, my eyes (perhaps also the mind) are getting tired.

Could you kindly do that please? I hope you don't mind.

Regards and Thanks.
 
Lovely, lovely review, Kamal! Enjoyed reading through it and yes, it makes me wish I had a Delhi trip planned round the corner.

Only one question - I thought it made sense to pair this extra-high sensitivity speaker with the 2A3 tubes rather than the 6CC3. As they are supposed to be even more musical. Any particular reason for not trying this combo?
 
Sorry for having over looked that aspect, Asit!
I you could PM me you email ID, I'll send it to you with the para breaks, increased font size.
 
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