I (along with a friend) visited Audio Planet this Sunday as planned and met with Mr Palani. I found him very helpful and fully informative as others mentioned earlier. He started with the basics of sound, systems with enough details & examples and explained till what 5.1 channel setup is. He listened to all our questions and answered/explained it patiently.
First he inquired about my requirements and explained things for more than a hour before he plays any of his equipments. Surprisingly, I found a couple of other brands speakers - Wharfedale 10.7, Usher BE718 and a B&W Center etc.,
I spent almost 4 hours at his place which was more than I planned. We compared the speaker quality variations and its signatures. Our comparison / audition happened with
Mordaunt-Short Aviano 8, Mezzo 6 & Mezzo 8 and along with
Wharfedale Diamond 10.7 !!! (Yes. Mr Palani keeps B & W, Wharfedale and Usher tiny dancer - BE718 mainly to compare with his Mordaunt-Short speakers). It gives the chance to compare his speakers in one place instead of visiting multiple showrooms to compare the sound signatures of different brands/models. I feel that this surely provides a ground to prove his speakers are superior than others. But at the same time, some might have apprehension about how does he drive the other brand speakers though he allowed us to switch speaker pairs simultaneously. Moreover, he might have selected inferior model from other brand. But after visiting Vector Systems today (I will write another post about that experience), I felt it was genuine and Mr Palani selected other brand(wharfedale) speaker with equivalent specification (Both uses two 6.5" bass drivers, one mid range, one tweeter and can handle max 200W) of Aviano.
He used Cambridge Audio CD player and Cambridge Integrated Stereo Amp (forgot the model numbers of both but he mentioned that its mid-range/level amplifier). We started with Aviano 8 and side by side comparing it with Wharfedale 10.7 as the 'Taal' movie song - 'Ramta Jogi' played. Vocals came out better in Aviano 8 and little bit clearer than Wharf 10.7. Wharf was high on bass side and giving more punch but lacks in mid-range
compartively. Mr Palani explained the technical details behind this issue. He pointed out the mid-range driver used in the Wharf 10.7 which is comparitively smaller than the bass drives used and it makes that less capable of handling the mid range frequencies smoothly. I couldn't completely explain those points details as I couldn't remember all of them.
Then after, we compared the Aviano 8 with Mezzo 6. He purposely switched the speaker connections but I was not told till I gave my feedback about the signatures. Mezzo 6 sounded little more clearer than Aviano 8 which comparatively throws more bass. Obviously Aviano has got two bass drivers against the one bass driver at Mezzo 6. The differences were marginal not big apart from the little clarity in the mid range separation with Mezzo 6.
Then we compared the Aviano 8 with Mezzo 8 and I felt that it would be the proper comparision since both got the same number of drivers. There was a very good difference we felt with Mezzo and the signature was more clear than Aviano 8. But the price difference between Mezzo and Aviano series is almost double.
Finally I inquired about the drivers used in these speakers and confirmed that Aviano 8, Mezzo 6 and Mezzo 8 uses the same drivers except the tweeters. I've been told that Mezzo series uses the scale down version tweeter of its
Performance series. Mr Palani mentioned that it playes the major role in giving more clarity in the uppper frequencies. Apart from that speaker cabinet design (I checked their website) is different for Aviano and Mezzo series.
After that, we briefly auditioned the Aviano series 5.1 setup with a Cambridge AVR by then I was totally exhausted. It sounded fine.
At the end, I inquired about the speaker prices but he suggested/invited me to come for another audition (to drive those Aviano and Mezzo Floors (if possible with those Usher BE718) with different amplifiers to find the differences/improvements before make decisions. After I insisted, he mentioned that Aviano 8 pair may cost around 58K, Mezzo 6 pair may cost around 76K and Mezzo 8 pair may cost around 1.08 Lakh. I am yet to discuss on the final price and discounts :licklips:
Mr Palani was never in a hurry to sell/push me anything and he wants me to experience those speaker with different combinations then decide. So, mostly I will be visiting Audio Planet this weekend again.
Also, I visited the
Sonodyne showroom in Forum mail in the Sunday evening. They had just one (wooden cabinets) 5.1 setup - speakers (I suppose it is Sonus series) and others were HTiB type. The sales person didn't show any interest on attending my queries and answer it. He reluctantly played the movie
2012 trailor using a Pioneer DVD player and Yamaha AVR (Don't remember correctly it might be RX365 ). It sounded very good in that small space with good punch. The total price for that 5.1 speaker setup is around 56K.
Now I'm almost convinced on having a decent sounding (of course with very good bass
) HT set without spending much as almost everyone (including our forum members) mentioned so far.
Also, there was a slight change to my perception and slowly I'm inclining towards having two different setup for music and movies as our experienced members suggested. Even, Mr Palani suggested this and I'm going to explore more about the integrated amplifiers this weekend.
Thanks for all your inputs/suggestions and I'm slowly graduating :clapping:
