alcy
New Member
On a recent chance visit to Landmark, I bought some cheap back issues of Stereophile and hifi+ as bathroom reading material. Soon enough I started crawling the internetz for a head-fi setup to bypass some of the inconveniences of a stereo setup, but I was easily confused & discouraged by a plethora of options, jargon, opinions, counter-opinions, counter-counter opinions and the existence of so many garage high-end companies( as dfkt from abi called them once on irc ). Too much to process, judge and decide.
So, took the relatively easier, cleaner route and got myself a simple setup of Usher V601 powered by the Marantz PM5004 with CD5004 as the source, using Audio Art IC-3 interconnects, and ARN custom speaker cables.
Putting on Steven Wilson's cover of Abba's The Day Before You Came, I was really impressed by the intimate, involving and full sounding vocals coupled with the rich, organic texture of the song's acoustic arrangement. There is nice separation during the ambient chorus with the female voice in the background and Wilson singing the main lyrics. My favorite part of the song is when after the line "...and the rattling on the roof, I must have heard the sound of the rain", there is a very small pause and you hear the sound of the rain before the song resumes again with "...the day before you came", towards the end. The speakers did justice to that little detail, as you would hear on good earphones. Another revelation came while listening to Tool's Mantra. I never knew
there was a low-sounding periodic hum in the background to the already ambient sound
( supposedly a slowed down version of Maynard squeezing his cat ! ). Also, backup vocals, for example, on tracks from Nirvana's In Utero album come out pretty well and clear.
Thom Yorke's vocals on Go to Sleep, True Love Waits, Fake Plastic Trees and other acoustic Radiohead numbers come across as strikingly real, upfront, lending a 'live' characteristic to the sound. In somewhat similar vein, but musically different, Nick Drakes's vocals on I Was Made to Love Magic and River Man sound hauntingly real as well.
The hard hitting snare and kick, and the punchy, exciting bass riffs on In Utero sound just that. I never thought I would be listening to Nirvana after like what, 8 years now, but heck listening to Tourette's once, I was blown. The bass on tracks like these, and others like Radiohead's National Anthem, Talk Show Host & Blackstar sound deep, and tight. Ditto for Porcupine Tree's Halo & The Start of Something Beautiful from Deadwing. Not to mention the first two albums by Arctic Monkeys !
The highs are smooth, and extend nicely. Take cymbals and hi-hats on pretty much all tracks on Fear of a Blank Planet and The Incident.
The only downside to these speakers is that on complex arrangements, like on Tool's Schism, the bass can be a little off at times. The details also aren't as distinct when compared to simpler tracks, but nothing to feel sorry about. These are great budget all-rounders with sufficiently good level of detail and soundstage, with natural, rich mids and clean highs. Most importantly, this is an enjoyable setup, and the speakers do justice to the kind of music you feed them.
So, took the relatively easier, cleaner route and got myself a simple setup of Usher V601 powered by the Marantz PM5004 with CD5004 as the source, using Audio Art IC-3 interconnects, and ARN custom speaker cables.
Putting on Steven Wilson's cover of Abba's The Day Before You Came, I was really impressed by the intimate, involving and full sounding vocals coupled with the rich, organic texture of the song's acoustic arrangement. There is nice separation during the ambient chorus with the female voice in the background and Wilson singing the main lyrics. My favorite part of the song is when after the line "...and the rattling on the roof, I must have heard the sound of the rain", there is a very small pause and you hear the sound of the rain before the song resumes again with "...the day before you came", towards the end. The speakers did justice to that little detail, as you would hear on good earphones. Another revelation came while listening to Tool's Mantra. I never knew
there was a low-sounding periodic hum in the background to the already ambient sound
( supposedly a slowed down version of Maynard squeezing his cat ! ). Also, backup vocals, for example, on tracks from Nirvana's In Utero album come out pretty well and clear.
Thom Yorke's vocals on Go to Sleep, True Love Waits, Fake Plastic Trees and other acoustic Radiohead numbers come across as strikingly real, upfront, lending a 'live' characteristic to the sound. In somewhat similar vein, but musically different, Nick Drakes's vocals on I Was Made to Love Magic and River Man sound hauntingly real as well.
The hard hitting snare and kick, and the punchy, exciting bass riffs on In Utero sound just that. I never thought I would be listening to Nirvana after like what, 8 years now, but heck listening to Tourette's once, I was blown. The bass on tracks like these, and others like Radiohead's National Anthem, Talk Show Host & Blackstar sound deep, and tight. Ditto for Porcupine Tree's Halo & The Start of Something Beautiful from Deadwing. Not to mention the first two albums by Arctic Monkeys !
The highs are smooth, and extend nicely. Take cymbals and hi-hats on pretty much all tracks on Fear of a Blank Planet and The Incident.
The only downside to these speakers is that on complex arrangements, like on Tool's Schism, the bass can be a little off at times. The details also aren't as distinct when compared to simpler tracks, but nothing to feel sorry about. These are great budget all-rounders with sufficiently good level of detail and soundstage, with natural, rich mids and clean highs. Most importantly, this is an enjoyable setup, and the speakers do justice to the kind of music you feed them.