Zero Distortion: Apogee Duetta, Scintilla, and tussle with horns

spiritofmusic · Apr 21, 2017

Yep, a kind of "do you want three or four spoons of sugar in your tea?"
More critically, I could really hear/feel the cutoff btwn different drivers/frequency bands
Whether that was indeed the drivers or the crossovers, who knows, but it was painfully apparent
Kind of like the perfect woman made up of a mosaic of photos of Gillian Anderson, Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Rita Ora, Helen Mirren, Giselle Bundchen
But with all the joins btwn them painfully apparent

morricab · Apr 22, 2017

spiritofmusic said:
Yep, a kind of "do you want three or four spoons of sugar in your tea?"
More critically, I could really hear/feel the cutoff btwn different drivers/frequency bands
Whether that was indeed the drivers or the crossovers, who knows, but it was painfully apparent
Kind of like the perfect woman made up of a mosaic of photos of Gillian Anderson, Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Rita Ora, Helen Mirren, Giselle Bundchen
But with all the joins btwn them painfully apparent

suffice to say I vigorously disagree with your assessment. I am not alone in crowning LV room king year after year...it has been the best at Munich at least last 3 years.

Given how likely your Zu + NAT setup is to sound tonally "thick" I am surprised you would criticize a full tonal pallet that the LV + Kondo offers. Perhaps you sat too close for full integration? It is a big horn system that requires space for integration.

gilles13 · Apr 22, 2017

About rowen. If I remember well Graz in the past tried this amps, had a lot of problems with them, and absolutely no after sale service. He lost a lot of money with this.

spiritofmusic · Apr 22, 2017

Gilles, point taken
I have problems with a number of horns that sound overly euphonic, the Greek Pnoes being another
My main issue w the LVs was not so much the overly sweet tone, although this is preferable to the stark bleached tone of the Animas, it was the disparate sound of all these drivers sounding, well, disparate
And at Munich I did move around to different seating distances, and nothing solved it
My Zus/NATs are deffo on the more saturated, tone dense end of the spectrum I'll agree, but seem more realistic than the LVs
I remain resolutely unconvinced by Kondo and its v particular presentation of music
Having heard a system incorporating Kondo cart, Kondo phono, Kondo dac, Kondo pre, all Kondo wiring, my conclusion was that's enough Kondo for one lifetime LOL
In my humble opinion
Thanks for the heads up on Rowen, but was never a likely goer for me
YMMV is alive and well, poss in horns more than any other component
I can quite see why so many vote the LVs as show stoppers

the sound of Tao · Apr 22, 2017

Bleached tone of the Animas... what garbage.

The Zu's I've heard have been middle of the road at best.

bonzo75 · Apr 22, 2017

I know spirit does not like the Anima, nor does Bill, but Brad, I and Tao do. Mani and f1eng own them. What does bleached tone mean, though?

I just realized i had heard the Rowen with JBL 66000 and compared to Jadis and had not liked them, thin and no tone.

I think the Edge NL has a good used price and the current and power to drive scintilla, never heard them though

spiritofmusic · Apr 22, 2017

Tao, I guess it's all in the setup
Have heard the Animas on Modwright SS
Stark and hollowed out is how I'd describe them
They sounded much more promising at Munich w the big Traformatic pwring them
But when AC/DC came on, any poise they had fell apart
You know what they say about garbage and garbage opinions?
The average household produces quite a lot
I'm sure the Zus are average, but they do average SO well

bonzo75 · Apr 22, 2017

I actually like their rawness on rock music

spiritofmusic · Apr 22, 2017

What can I say Ked?
I went to John after your strong recommendation, and I really struggled to get on w them
I guess that's why we've all ended up w such different systems
And I am aware of the overall shortcomings of my Zus, so in no way am I saying anything else
But other than brass impact and presence, I walked away from the dem as perplexed as anything else
For me, the tweeter horns dominated, maybe not surprising w mids x'ing to them at 1.5Hz
Esp w the owner being a rock and reggae fan

bonzo75 · Apr 22, 2017

spiritofmusic said:
What can I say Ked?
I went to John after your strong recommendation, and I really struggled to get on w them
I guess that's why we've all ended up w such different systems
And I am aware of the overall shortcomings of my Zus, so in no way am I saying anything else
But other than brass impact and presence, I walked away from the dem as perplexed as anything else
For me, the tweeter horns dominated, maybe not surprising w mids x'ing to them at 1.5Hz
Esp w the owner being a rock and reggae fan

I agree with what you are hearing. In this case you gave it a fair shot, and here I will say it's a preference difference.

Zero000 · Apr 22, 2017

Two tone Apogees should be banned. I don't like them to look at apart from in about 1 or 2 cases.

Raised Scintillas look somewhat odd too, as per Henk's output. He has his reasons, I am sure.

Now this is what a Scintilla should look like.

bonzo75 · Apr 22, 2017

Actually, I wanted to ask what most guys prefer. The color of Christoph's scintilla, posted in my pics (white with wood), or the red borders (that usually go with black for the rest of the body)

Zero000 · Apr 22, 2017

I can't stand white on Apogees. The Scintilla above is a model Jon did for a customer to check out what it would look like.

Proper service, that.

What do you like Ked?

I also think Henk's plywood Scintilla looks absolutely stunning.

bonzo75 · Apr 22, 2017

User211 said:
I can't stand white on Apogees. The Scintilla above is a model Jon did for a customer to check out what it would look like.

Proper service, that.

What do you like Ked?

I also think Henk's plywood Scintilla looks absolutely stunning.

The one in that hifi advice article? I think it looks too dull. Might look right in real life.

Zero000 · Apr 22, 2017

bonzo75 said:
The one in that hifi advice article? I think it looks too dull. Might look right in real life.

Yeah.

You could get some serious wood finishes done though - much nicer than ply. Get Henk to use a proper carpenter for it.

Zero000 · Apr 22, 2017

Just toying with the idea of getting some Scinnies made and then selling either my Interstellas or the Scinnies.

I'll get over it in a minute, but at the moment the idea seems appealing

bonzo75 · Apr 22, 2017

User211 said:
Just toying with the idea of getting some Scinnies made and then selling either my Interstellas or the Scinnies.

I'll get over it in a minute, but at the moment the idea seems appealing

. You will need to invest in amps though

Zero000 · Apr 22, 2017

bonzo75 said:
. You will need to invest in amps though

Might try and cop a listen to the real version of the one I posted above.

Argonaut · Apr 22, 2017

bonzo75 said:
Stats are better at detail. I don't like their thin sound anymore. Did love it once.

And there was I thinking that the CLX Art's that you heard, sans subs, when you visited Alta Fedelta Merate had made a favourable impression on you ? Even though nether pre or power had a valve to be seen, often a factor in bringing warmth and texture to the midrange whilst retaining most if not all the detail.

bonzo75 · Apr 22, 2017

Harlequin said:
And there was I thinking that the CLX Art's that you heard, sans subs, when you visited Alta Fedelta Merate had made a favourable impression on you ? Even though nether pre or power had a valve to be seen, often a factor in bringing warmth and texture to the midrange whilst retaining most if not all the detail.

They are quite good, not saying they are bad at all. Just that we are on WBF, and I can choose only one of these

Zero Distortion: Apogee Duetta, Scintilla, and tussle with horns

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