#1 Owston 2019 - Listening Impressions
Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2019 10:43 pm
After some thought, I decided to start this thread. If we're all very polite about everything, I don't think we learn anything much. I do hope, though, that this post is taken in the spirit that it's intended. I'm not looking to put people down so much as suggest what might improve the sound to my own ears.
I don't think I heard all the different iterations that went on - for me, the event is as much about the social aspect.
So, here we go, in approximate order of listening:
- Ed's Fostex-loaded speakers were interesting - it's always cool to hear what you can get out of a single driver. There was a peak somewhere in the lower treble that I'd want to iron out, but it wasn't overly-prominent. The black MTM speakers are something I would've liked to hear more of, but perhaps with an amplifier with a bit more grunt about it - it seemed to me that they could really have done with something that'll really grab them.
- Steve's 12" Fanes, in my opinion, sounded better in his living room where they had some reinforcement in the lower-mids and bass from the back wall. At Owston, then, they ended up with a presentation that was more forward/bright than I'd typically like. Again, cool to hear what can be done with a single driver per side, and I'm consistently impressed with the HF extension on offer there.
- The 3-way OBs in the corner (sorry, I missed the intro so didn't catch who the owner was!) showed potential, and I like the concept of a dipole system over a wide frequency range. I just think the crossover could've done with some more work as some tracks showed some roughness in the lower treble - perhaps the 8" Fostex could've done with a steeper lowpass..? I was also wondering if the H-frame was exhibiting some resonance in the 500Hz range, but looking at the pictures there was a raised platform directly behind them, which could easily be the culprit.
- I liked the Tannoy 15"s. The bass might've been a touch boomy, but that could also have been the room. Not a lot wrong with those. I did find the dispersion was a little narrow through the midrange, which meant you had to stand in the right place to get a good balance.
- I thought my system was okay, but clearly limited in volume. The 10" sub also turned to mud when driven hard (DTB - if the sub was adding distortion components, that'll definitely start masking musical information as the level rises), so I'll think about upgrading that in the future. IIRC the driver was from a mid-range Tannoy home-theatre sub, so fine for movie rumbles but apparently not much more than that! The little Fostex monitors were pretty good, but again fell victim to the size of the room. I've come away with some thoughts for my next speaker design.
- Colin's latest Edingdales were rather good, in a no-nonsense, play-anything kind of way. They told you if the music wasn't particularly well-recorded, but didn't let that stop the enjoyment of the music. It'll be interesting to see how they measure.
- Nick's turntable through Steve's speakers was an interesting listen, and about as good as I've heard a turntable sound. The music/volume levels weren't for me, but Steve's speakers seemed to do quite well. Perhaps a touch lean on the bass in that room, but I'd expect that to fill out closer to a wall.
- Thomas's Quasar-style OBs with Lowther drivers were pretty good when the relative levels were dialled in, although that peak at 4kHz got in the way at times. I do think they benefited from being driven by the big Crown amplifier, but it's difficult to judge when the Tower of Power was without its regulators.
- The Quad ESLs were nice to listen to. I'd really like to hear what can be done if you add cone drivers below, say, 200Hz to free up some headroom. I'm acutely aware that's a path that's been explored before, though. If it's of interest, I do have some very nice 15" drivers and would be willing to put together a shallow H-frame for next year.
I started to wonder what effects would come up from having them so close to Steve's speakers, but decided it was much too complicated, and enjoyed the music instead.
- Back to Colin's speakers with Les's amplifier. Sounded fine to me - a no-nonsense sort of amp.
- Mark's horn and ribbon combination showed some promise, which IMO was later realised when we gave them a 15" Tannoy to play with. A couple of measurements later to balance the highs vs lows, and the sound was rather enjoyable.
Later on Saturday, we tried Thomas's OBs with my Powersoft amps and some DSP to knock the 4kHz peak down and bring the low end forwards a touch. Definite improvements there.
On Sunday I brought some slightly bigger speakers* which were able to go quite a lot louder than the Fostex monitors. I think they need some more work on the crossover as the lower treble was more peaky than I'd like.
* 18Sound 6ND430 and a Das M3 per side, 1.6kHz crossover.
After that, we had Simon's 4" Audax carbon fibre cones running up to 3.5kHz and crossing to the HF horns in the PA speakers, with the 10" sub covering <120Hz. At sensible volume levels, that was rather good. The small drivers did show signs of stress at higher levels, but quite right too - they were receiving around 40v peaks before I turned it down.
So, there we have it.
Cheers, all.
Chris
I don't think I heard all the different iterations that went on - for me, the event is as much about the social aspect.
So, here we go, in approximate order of listening:
- Ed's Fostex-loaded speakers were interesting - it's always cool to hear what you can get out of a single driver. There was a peak somewhere in the lower treble that I'd want to iron out, but it wasn't overly-prominent. The black MTM speakers are something I would've liked to hear more of, but perhaps with an amplifier with a bit more grunt about it - it seemed to me that they could really have done with something that'll really grab them.
- Steve's 12" Fanes, in my opinion, sounded better in his living room where they had some reinforcement in the lower-mids and bass from the back wall. At Owston, then, they ended up with a presentation that was more forward/bright than I'd typically like. Again, cool to hear what can be done with a single driver per side, and I'm consistently impressed with the HF extension on offer there.
- The 3-way OBs in the corner (sorry, I missed the intro so didn't catch who the owner was!) showed potential, and I like the concept of a dipole system over a wide frequency range. I just think the crossover could've done with some more work as some tracks showed some roughness in the lower treble - perhaps the 8" Fostex could've done with a steeper lowpass..? I was also wondering if the H-frame was exhibiting some resonance in the 500Hz range, but looking at the pictures there was a raised platform directly behind them, which could easily be the culprit.
- I liked the Tannoy 15"s. The bass might've been a touch boomy, but that could also have been the room. Not a lot wrong with those. I did find the dispersion was a little narrow through the midrange, which meant you had to stand in the right place to get a good balance.
- I thought my system was okay, but clearly limited in volume. The 10" sub also turned to mud when driven hard (DTB - if the sub was adding distortion components, that'll definitely start masking musical information as the level rises), so I'll think about upgrading that in the future. IIRC the driver was from a mid-range Tannoy home-theatre sub, so fine for movie rumbles but apparently not much more than that! The little Fostex monitors were pretty good, but again fell victim to the size of the room. I've come away with some thoughts for my next speaker design.
- Colin's latest Edingdales were rather good, in a no-nonsense, play-anything kind of way. They told you if the music wasn't particularly well-recorded, but didn't let that stop the enjoyment of the music. It'll be interesting to see how they measure.
- Nick's turntable through Steve's speakers was an interesting listen, and about as good as I've heard a turntable sound. The music/volume levels weren't for me, but Steve's speakers seemed to do quite well. Perhaps a touch lean on the bass in that room, but I'd expect that to fill out closer to a wall.
- Thomas's Quasar-style OBs with Lowther drivers were pretty good when the relative levels were dialled in, although that peak at 4kHz got in the way at times. I do think they benefited from being driven by the big Crown amplifier, but it's difficult to judge when the Tower of Power was without its regulators.
- The Quad ESLs were nice to listen to. I'd really like to hear what can be done if you add cone drivers below, say, 200Hz to free up some headroom. I'm acutely aware that's a path that's been explored before, though. If it's of interest, I do have some very nice 15" drivers and would be willing to put together a shallow H-frame for next year.
I started to wonder what effects would come up from having them so close to Steve's speakers, but decided it was much too complicated, and enjoyed the music instead.
- Back to Colin's speakers with Les's amplifier. Sounded fine to me - a no-nonsense sort of amp.
- Mark's horn and ribbon combination showed some promise, which IMO was later realised when we gave them a 15" Tannoy to play with. A couple of measurements later to balance the highs vs lows, and the sound was rather enjoyable.
Later on Saturday, we tried Thomas's OBs with my Powersoft amps and some DSP to knock the 4kHz peak down and bring the low end forwards a touch. Definite improvements there.
On Sunday I brought some slightly bigger speakers* which were able to go quite a lot louder than the Fostex monitors. I think they need some more work on the crossover as the lower treble was more peaky than I'd like.
* 18Sound 6ND430 and a Das M3 per side, 1.6kHz crossover.
After that, we had Simon's 4" Audax carbon fibre cones running up to 3.5kHz and crossing to the HF horns in the PA speakers, with the 10" sub covering <120Hz. At sensible volume levels, that was rather good. The small drivers did show signs of stress at higher levels, but quite right too - they were receiving around 40v peaks before I turned it down.
So, there we have it.
Cheers, all.
Chris