Philadelphia Area Audio Group Meeting at Overture A/V in Delaware
- Thread starter MylesBAstor
- Start date
Hello Myles, nice to meet you yesterday and thanks for attending the Philadelphia Area Audio Group's monthly meeting held at Overture Audio in Wilmington DE. For the record, we are the Philadelphia Area Audio Group, not to be confused with my good friend Peter Brueninger's Philadelphia Audio Society. Our group is comprised of 80+members focusing exclusively on 2 channel audio. We've been in existence since 2003 and hold most of our monthly meetings in members homes, with an occasional meeting in one of the Philadelphia area audio stores. Since we meet in members homes, we have had to limit the number of members in the club in order to ensure a quality meeting experience. We do maintain a waiting list, and we are currently in process of adding several new members from the list. Anyone interested in learning more about our organization should go to our website, www.paagonline.org
Dennis Pitzer
President
Philadelphia Area Audio Group
Dennis Pitzer
President
Philadelphia Area Audio Group
By the lack of comments I assume it was a static display with Terry frozen standing
Either that, or everyone is still stunned and unable to put their thoughts in writing yet.
I will. Heading out for the afternoon. I don't want to step on Myles' thread. Let him present his thoughts first. :b
Overture AV were very gracious hosts for the demo and frankly I wish I could provide a more positive report.
The electronics were all Spectral. Cables were MIT. The real star of the show was the much acclaimed Magico Q7. Overture owner Terry Menacker led the demonstration. He mentioned straight away that the source would be the Spectral CD player. This was surprising since there was a beautiful Basis 2800 table and Light Harmonics DAC sitting there. So no analog and no hi-res digital. Terry was touting the attributes of the Spectral player and its ability to play back HDCD encoded Redbook. He stated that the resolution was so good that playback was essentially identical to Keith Johnson's master tapes. When an auditor asked which was better - HDCD or SACD, Terry said without hesitation HDCD. He stated that SACD was a dead format and it was mid-fi. Many eyebrows in the audience were arched. The thought that crossed my mind was "check please!"
Source material was very carefully selected. It focused on soloists or small scale ensembles. No orchestral music and the closest we came to rock was Lyle Lovett. All beautiful recordings that featured ambience. As I recall Reference Recordings was featured (but not exclusively).
On to the sound. In a word: disappointing. To my ears the Q7 is completely soul-less. Low frequency extension was excellent. I had no issues with bass. It was rock solid - deep and controlled. Midrange was a bit congested. For many, midrange is where the magic lies. In this regard there was no magic in the Magico. Upper frequency response was quite extended but I found it hard as nails. There was a pervasive glare that I heard through every CD. Furthermore I didn't hear any continuity. To my ears this was as analytical a speaker as I've ever heard. I felt like I was being assaulted with notes. The emotional component was completely lost. I was hearing Doug MacLeod but there was no connection. To be fair, the speaker did an exceptional job of ambience retrieval. This was a strong suit of every recording we heard. Its not to say that other speakers can't do this well but the Q7 excelled in this area.
Perhaps with different electronics I would have come away with a positive impression of the Q7s but this was the hand I was dealt so I can only comment on the speakers the way they were presented.
Previously I had heard the Q3 and Q5 and I often refer to them as the emperor's new clothes. I'm sad to say that the Q7 completes the trifecta.
The electronics were all Spectral. Cables were MIT. The real star of the show was the much acclaimed Magico Q7. Overture owner Terry Menacker led the demonstration. He mentioned straight away that the source would be the Spectral CD player. This was surprising since there was a beautiful Basis 2800 table and Light Harmonics DAC sitting there. So no analog and no hi-res digital. Terry was touting the attributes of the Spectral player and its ability to play back HDCD encoded Redbook. He stated that the resolution was so good that playback was essentially identical to Keith Johnson's master tapes. When an auditor asked which was better - HDCD or SACD, Terry said without hesitation HDCD. He stated that SACD was a dead format and it was mid-fi. Many eyebrows in the audience were arched. The thought that crossed my mind was "check please!"
Source material was very carefully selected. It focused on soloists or small scale ensembles. No orchestral music and the closest we came to rock was Lyle Lovett. All beautiful recordings that featured ambience. As I recall Reference Recordings was featured (but not exclusively).
On to the sound. In a word: disappointing. To my ears the Q7 is completely soul-less. Low frequency extension was excellent. I had no issues with bass. It was rock solid - deep and controlled. Midrange was a bit congested. For many, midrange is where the magic lies. In this regard there was no magic in the Magico. Upper frequency response was quite extended but I found it hard as nails. There was a pervasive glare that I heard through every CD. Furthermore I didn't hear any continuity. To my ears this was as analytical a speaker as I've ever heard. I felt like I was being assaulted with notes. The emotional component was completely lost. I was hearing Doug MacLeod but there was no connection. To be fair, the speaker did an exceptional job of ambience retrieval. This was a strong suit of every recording we heard. Its not to say that other speakers can't do this well but the Q7 excelled in this area.
Perhaps with different electronics I would have come away with a positive impression of the Q7s but this was the hand I was dealt so I can only comment on the speakers the way they were presented.
Previously I had heard the Q3 and Q5 and I often refer to them as the emperor's new clothes. I'm sad to say that the Q7 completes the trifecta.
The owner of Overture would never see a single nickel from me. Anyone who would utter such preposterous drivel is a charlatan in my book.
I walked out of demo at Newport when a dealer running the room proclaimed a DAC he sells made Redbook sound "better" than any SACD. See ya.
Ken, I'm not afraid of different opinions, unlike this fellow who ran the demonstration Actually, this is sort of what I expected...
After hearing the Q7 with an all-Soulution setup, I got mostly the same impression. Impressive, but lacking something.
Then I asked to bring my music, and that's where I realised what was wrong: the eletronics. I brought in my darTZeel pre+power combo, and the sour turned to sweet. Better *everything*, even bass. With a 100W amp.
I came to realise that there's a whole contingency of folks that actually ENJOY this kind of "lacking something" sound. The Magico importer usually demonstrates with Soulution, and he sells a whole lot of them. For small scale stuff, the transparency is impressive.
Fortunately for me, the dealer here is not as ..erm... opinionated as this guy over there, and allowed me to test further. If I was to form my impression of Magico based on hearing through the Soulution gear, I'd file them as the "impressive, but not for me" category.
alexandre
Actually, this is sort of what I expected...After hearing the Q7 with an all-Soulution setup, I got mostly the same impression. Impressive, but lacking something.
Then I asked to bring my music, and that's where I realised what was wrong: the eletronics. I brought in my darTZeel pre+power combo, and the sour turned to sweet. Better *everything*, even bass. With a 100W amp.
I came to realise that there's a whole contingency of folks that actually ENJOY this kind of "lacking something" sound. The Magico importer usually demonstrates with Soulution, and he sells a whole lot of them. For small scale stuff, the transparency is impressive.
Fortunately for me, the dealer here is not as ..erm... opinionated as this guy over there, and allowed me to test further. If I was to form my impression of Magico based on hearing through the Soulution gear, I'd file them as the "impressive, but not for me" category.
alexandre
Ken, I'm not afraid of different opinions, unlike this fellow who ran the demonstration
After hearing the Q7 with an all-Soulution setup, I got mostly the same impression. Impressive, but lacking something.
Then I asked to bring my music, and that's where I realised what was wrong: the eletronics. I brought in my darTZeel pre+power combo, and the sour turned to sweet. Better *everything*, even bass. With a 100W amp.
I came to realise that there's a whole contingency of folks that actually ENJOY this kind of "lacking something" sound. The Magico importer usually demonstrates with Soulution, and he sells a whole lot of them. For small scale stuff, the transparency is impressive.
Fortunately for me, the dealer here is not as ..erm... opinionated as this guy over there, and allowed me to test further. If I was to form my impression of Magico based on hearing through the Soulution gear, I'd file them as the "impressive, but not for me" category.
alexandre
Alex:
I agree with you but I can only judge based on what was presented to me. I don't feel that anyone should have to make an apology for a $185,000 speaker. Even with the Spectral gear I should have been, to some degree, knocked on my ass.
Perhaps in a different room with different electronics I would be mesmerized. Sadly it didn't happen the other day.
Ken
I fail to see how one could be impressed given this setup, with some sitting so close to the speakers or the center of the stage, and others obstructed by folks sitting in front of them... when similar demos are done here, people are asked to rotate, there are no more than two rows of chairs, and set far from the speakers
Bruce, I am quite surprised you need to ask.
-claiming the redbook cd was equal in resolution to the RR masters done 176.4 Khz: ABSURD
-claiming HDCD is "better" than SACD.: ABSURD
-claiming SACD is a 'dead format": ABSURD
These are the claims of a carnival barker.
Like lasercd said, check please.
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