This morning was at Sandeep’s home. The modified Achal Diamonds and the new Rotel amp and preamp combo were set at the long end of the L shaped room with the speakers about 2 m apart. The side firing woofers were facing inside and grills were off during the listening session. The Blusound Node with LPS power supply was connected to the Rotel RB -1552 MK II pre amp with both conventional RCA Analog and coax cable. We chose coax for our listening.
After warming up the amp for sometime we put on the first track. Now, I had heard this speaker before they were sent for upgrades by Indiq Audio.Earlier, while sounding good, they certainly had some rough edges to the sound. The midrange and human voicing was not as expected of a speaker of this class, I felt.
This time, the mids simply reached out into the room, with Miles Davis (So What)and Coltrane literally playing into the room. Dave Brubeck’s ‘Take Five’ had the alto sax projected well into the room. We then ran Eagles “Hotel California” (Hell Freezes Over version). If the amp or speaker is not up to the mark, at higher volumes the bass either distorts or does not have the impact. In this case, even at higher db the amp exerted total grip over the sound and the speaker’s bass performance from it’s side firing woofers was exemplary. In the track ‘Tequila Sunrise’ the beginning has a lot of cheering and high frequency sounds. The sense of ‘air’ was palpable.
Dire Straits “Money for Nothing” is another track which taxes the system. In this case the crescendo and drumming showed no signs of compression and the drums were felt right on the chest.
After this we played Jagjit Singh. At a suitable volume his voice filled the room. We played other tracks with cellos, sax , trumpet and other musical instruments. There was a vast difference since I heard it last. While human auditory memory is short, one does have an imprint of the sound heard in one’s memory. The difference in dynamics and control of a lower powered amp with less current and a higher powered amp with more current manifests itself when a speaker with large (8” 10” or 12”) woofers are driven. Low sensitivity and impedance swings are other speaker factors which expose a lower wattage/current amp. In this case the Rotel Pre Power combo ( 130w at 8 ohm) had enough grunt,current and drive for these speakers, which did sound full bodied and rich. The bigger version of this amp is supposed to be even better, but to me this amp will suffice. This combo is revealing enough to discern the differences between various cables ( many believe all cables sound the same, my opinion differs) and, at the same time, forgiving of poorer recordings, something of a paradox.
Of course I must thank Sandeep for the wonderful hospitality and time spent at his lovely home. As I told him, “ I will be coming again.”
Beautifully maintained and tastefully upgraded with new cables and Isonoe isolation feet.
