Hi 853guy,
I think the Maxonic in Munich will be just Maxonic drivers in speakers made by Natural Sound. I don't think Maxonic will be there with their own speakers.
Hi Exlibris,
Ah, that's interesting. Thanks for the heads up.
Cheers!
853guy
Hi 853guy,
I think the Maxonic in Munich will be just Maxonic drivers in speakers made by Natural Sound. I don't think Maxonic will be there with their own speakers.
This weekend I had a chance to hear a pair of JBL 4344s from Kenrick in Japan.
What really struck me was how these speakers (on certain recordings) filled the air between the listener and the speaker plane. I’ve heard modern speakers do this (usually with high frequency air and sparkle or low bass) but this experience was qualitatively different – you experience all the frequency ranges filling the space and sometimes you actually feel them in a bodily sense (and not just the bass). Being with these speakers can be a tactile experience as well as an auditory and mental one.
Well if best horn speaker under 250k is the name of the game then I would like to add the Aries Cerat Symphonia. At 85K and a true 3-way I haven't even been able to reach its potential with best Aries Cerat electronics.
And it uses a Raal ribbon horn loaded tweeter from a compression free treble
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Have you heard the Contendo? How does it compare to the Symphonia?
I have heard the Mk1 design in prototype stage and plan to hear the Mk2 next year when I head out to Cyprus next fall.
Differences between the Contendo and Symphonia are night and day on one hand and very similar on the other (confusing I know). Due to the design nature of the Symphonia you get many of the virtues of the Contendo, but in a smaller package,. In no way does the size mean the output of the Symphonia is lacking or cannot fill even the largest room with ease. This is where the similarities stop.
Given the Contendo uses a massive midbass horn not found on the Symphonia and double stacks the ribbon tweeter horn (just the tweeter section weighs in over 100lbs!!) you get what I like to call a revelation of detail that I have not heard in any speaker in any home or venue that even comes close. This is by no means an exaggeration.
The Contendo MK2 replaces the tower design of the bass section to separate bass horns similar to the Symphonia but with 4 times the output of each bass horn. For those who have heard the Taranto Son Sera track of the Flamenco stomps through the Symphonia know the bass attack is rock solid and you feel it in your chest and in the room with precision and weight. Then you can imagine that x4 and it is almost too difficult to grasp what that means.
Given this redesign and the already massive size of the horn section this needs a dedicated room one with a very large footprint and preferably built around the design itself. If you would like to make the trip with me let me know. You will be a changed man
Interesting! Just so i get this right, the Contendo mk I has a set of woofer towers, each with 2 x 15" cones. Now we are going to a separate horn woofer 'tower' for each channel? So still a 4-speaker Contendo?
And what exactly does this separate horn/bass tower look like? Like the bottom section of the Symphonia? or more like the gigantic round horn of the Contendo? Just trying to figure out if Mk 2 takes up less or more space in the room and on the floor. Thanks!
Great stuff, Stavros! Thank you! Very interesting...the footprint of these speakers is quite big. We can do our current big Wilsons, the big Rockports, and the big Apogee Full Ranges...might even be able to swing the 4-tower Pendragon that Ron has ordered or its replacement Kodo 4-tower...but the Contendo Reference looks like it will breach that maximum footprint. Nevertheless, would love to hear some day! Appreciate the sneak preview!
Unfortunately,the basshorn's footprint alone is larger than an XLF sized speaker.But big horns are...big Will give our best to have it demoed next year,you know where....God willing
Cheers
Stavros
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