Visit to Detlof' place - Techdas, Kronos, you name it

Detlof

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Nov 5, 2015
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Thanks Ked! It was a joy to have you here in Alladin's cave, as you put it. Thank you for sharing your expertise with me. You have put quite a few ideas into my head, which sooner or later will come into fruition. Kudos and all my admiration for having condensed, what was really casual conversation, into such a concise report. Wished you had stayed longer.......
.P.S. : please permit just a small correction:
My beloved Atmas are Mk. III, not Mk. II.
 
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Folsom

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Oct 25, 2015
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Do they end up being a true line source? I'm envious of that experience. It looks like a true treat in respects of equipment auditioning and shared enthusiasm.
 

bonzo75

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Feb 26, 2014
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Ked,
I'm looking carefully at the photos and am compelled to ask: The guy appears to be a passionate, detail oriented fanatic with bases upon bases and feet upon feet for his gear. So I wonder if you had any discussion about the placement of his various statues and figurines. Are these for sonic benefit or are they purely aesthetic?

BTW I was also impressed with his lair of Stealth cables. Not sure of the models but i tried a few recently and they are both insanely expensive but also extremely good, particularly the Sakra V12. I first heard these to good effect at Philip O'Hanlons (he uses them to hook up his analogue tape machine to his preamp, although they were the Indra model. Still quite excellent.
Marty

Lol. The statues must be for aesthetics. That said, there was one spot behind the listener where I looked and said oh you have one of these too. Detlof naturally thought me being Indian, I was referring to that big statue of Lord Krishna. But my religion has changed so much, I hadn't even noticed it and was looking past it directly at the Acoustic revive schumann resonator in the corner :)

As for the Stealth, yes, he has a lot of Stealth, and many not being used. Jazzhead swears by his Stealth cables too, and he has tried various high end cables including Zensati and Jorma. My problem with them is they are expensive plus they are stiff, and no way do I have Detlof's energy to carefully weed them through the equipment. I tried that with Virtual Dynamics once never again.

My suggestions to him were - first, my standard suggestion for all systems - Shun Mook diamond resonators. He could start with trying one set under his dac, then pre, then phono, see how he likes it. Two, try the Ortofon A90/95/Anna, maybe A90 as that is the cheaper, and because Ortofon has a very different timbre to Goldfinger and Kondo IO gold, so it could be a good variation and realtively cheap to try.

Btw, I forgot to add, he also has some tape decks - at least two, but they weren't working that day.
 

Audiophile Bill

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Mar 23, 2015
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I concur with everyone else - great report and sensational room.
 

NorthStar

Member
Feb 8, 2011
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The system is so passionately amazing that professional pictures would be the most welcome. ...Like from a quality SLR camera...Nikon, Canon, Olympus, etc.
...A simple suggestion for next time, because I know that we're all very very fascinated. This is serious audio hobby, and it requires serious quality pictures.
...Professionally executed.

Music comes first
 

bonzo75

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Interesting report! I think you are right about the acoustats and you should have heard mine with big Silvaweld OTLs, the experience was nearly psychedelic.

What I still need to hear is the first Acoustats, which were actually direct drive from built-in OTLs and no transformers. I think you might find that hard to beat at any price.

I personally think the Grand sounds ultimately flawed because it's electronic xover colors the sound in a destructive manner and limits the overall system potential.

There isn't anything like a Grand, each one is different. You haven't heard Henk's, it is special, that might be because he is a restorer and can tweak it all day till it sounds right.
 

bonzo75

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Feb 26, 2014
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The system is so passionately amazing that professional pictures would be the most welcome. ...Like from a quality SLR camera...Nikon, Canon, Olympus, etc.
...A simple suggestion for next time, because I know that we're all very very fascinated. This is serious audio hobby, and it requires serious quality pictures.
...Professionally executed.

Music comes first

Agreed. I don't want to go down another OCDed path though, so I am not going to buy a camera, but somebody should do that.
 

Zero000

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Jul 28, 2014
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I shot this at Munich 2014.


Some very brief thoughts here: theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?43970-Cool-Gales-Bath-Audio-Fest-2016/page2

Got some more pics on my hard drive of other models I've heard. Only at shows, though.

With the right gear in the right room, as always, things can change substantially, as we know. I'm always capable of changing my mind. And that little setup you have just heard Kedar may well have done so!:)
 

BruceD

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Dec 13, 2013
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Thanks for that Ked!--looks and I gathered sounded superb--

My friends think I'm Nut job with 1/100th of that number of gear--ha!!:D

Grateful for the Pics and Commentary

BruceD

PS: I trust that Shelving is substantial!:p
 

Keith_W

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Mar 31, 2012
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I am already going "oh wow" after looking at the pictures. If I was there I would be even more floored.

BTW I love London. I try to go there as often as possible, even though it takes me almost 24 hours sitting on an airplane to get there!
 

NorthStar

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Feb 8, 2011
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I am already going "oh wow" after looking at the pictures. If I was there I would be even more floored.

BTW I love London. I try to go there as often as possible, even though it takes me almost 24 hours sitting on an airplane to get there!

 

JackD201

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
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Bring a friend Keith, this only costs as much as a great pair of amps LOL
 

bonzo75

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Feb 26, 2014
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I shot this at Munich 2014.

Interesting. This does not seem to have any sound signature similar to what I heard, but that can be because of my laptop speakers. Or it could be the electronics. I would really be interested to now to listen to a similar speaker with simpler electronics as that will highlight the effect of such triamping on the overall sound signature.
 
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Argonaut

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Jul 30, 2013
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The MBLs I don't like at all. Real music is not thin and transparent. It is transparent and dense. GP does that. Also these kind of set ups can't be heard at shows.)

Whilst taking into consideration the limitations of yer average YouTube, this particular performance does not come across as overly lacking in tonality and density IMO.

[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oZOTW74Vgfc[/video]
 

bonzo75

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Whilst taking into consideration the limitations of yer average YouTube, this particular performance does not come across as overly lacking in tonality and density IMO.

[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oZOTW74Vgfc[/video]

Hi I can't view this at work but if that is Greg baron's MBLs, can easily understand as he uses them with the UHA tape deck and loads and loads of shun mooks.

I have heard the 101s with Spectral 360 and MBL 2011 and 2008, and MBL 111 with Ypsilon and MBL integrateds. Apart from the usual Extremes demo in Munich.
 

Zero000

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Jul 28, 2014
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Whilst taking into consideration the limitations of yer average YouTube, this particular performance does not come across as overly lacking in tonality and density IMO.

[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oZOTW74Vgfc[/video]

I think you can argue 101E and 101 Xtreme can come across as a bit bright, but 116F doesn't to me. I think density can get lost with omnis as they chuck the sound all over the room, so that makes some logical sense.

I always wrestle with the term tone - good tone can equate to a coloured sound in my mind. When people talk of tone, I always think of speakers like Audio Note type E etc.
 

bonzo75

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I think you can argue 101E and 101 Xtreme can come across as a bit bright, but 116F doesn't to me. I think density can get lost with omnis as they chuck the sound all over the room, so that makes some logical sense.

I always wrestle with the term tone - good tone can equate to a coloured sound in my mind. When people talk of tone, I always think of speakers like Audio Note type E etc.

Not at all. Tone is the tone of violin and brass, for example. Nothing to do with colour. You know how much I dislike AN-E.
 

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