Demo'ing $500,000 setups in the Netherlands these days? Glad to see good progress has been made on "denivellering" since I left the country.
Magico Q7 + Spectral monos
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Demo'ing $500,000 setups in the Netherlands these days? Glad to see good progress has been made on "denivellering" since I left the country.
Nivellering is still the way to go , its all for show , i guess most kharmas will be sold to asia , " socialism" (brussels ) rules in europe unfortunately 
It got even worse
It got even worse
lloyd but,... if i was shopping in that price range , i probably still would buy a kharma exquisite classic as its now called
i loved my Kharma Exquisite 1D's but they could not do enough bass (as much a room issue as a speaker issue) in my new room back in 2004. here is how they looked when my room was brand new powered by Tenor 300 watt Hybrid mono blocks. a great speaker that demanded great amplification to behave. in my earlier smaller room it was remarkable.
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Nivellering is still the way to go , its all for show , i guess most kharmas will be sold to asia , " socialism" (brussels ) rules in europe unfortunately
It got even worse
The most expensive I ever heard at Rhapsody in the Netherlands in my days were Avalon Eidolons, selling for probably around $40K. They moved up the foodchain quite a bit with the Q7s.
Ironically, I fell in love with Avalons in the Netherlands, but not a chance in hell I could afford them. In the end I ended up buying a pair of used Eidolon visions for $9K after I emigrated to the USA.
Andromeda, I clicked on your link and noticed that the importer also sells Pass Labs electronics. How do you think those large Class A amps would sound with the Q7? At 94 dB, they are pretty efficient and the Pass mid range magic might just sound excellent with the Q7.
lloyd but,... if i was shopping in that price range , i probably still would buy a kharma exquisite classic as its now called
Arrakis for me!
Arrakis for me!
MBL 101 X-Treme are quite intriguing. The 101E sound pretty phenomenal, so if you mulitply by three you get something quite special I'm sure.
They sounded very well. I heard both shows (Q7 with Zanden and the Pass monos). I liked both shows. As a Spectral guy I was amazed that I liked the Zanden soooooo much! But: maybe it had a lot to do with the Q7 and dCS superset combination.
Zanden as a boutique, high-end tube designer probably gets lumped with the tubey sound stereotype...but while they are very natural, they also provide enormous detail, transparency, etc. My own approach has been that while i will err on the side of warmth, now that i have the 'voice' i like (Zanden)...i try to go for more neutral/natural components than i used to.
As a result, with the Zanden-Magico combination, i could believe that it was quite enjoyable.
Beauties mike , you hardly ever see a pair for sale , formidable housingconstruction (made of HPL )and i think its a classic design , if you talk non resonant housing construction they are the real deal, i can imagine they dont energize a (big) room as your current do
But that weight and non resonant /stifness make them an anchor point for totally relaxed listening in my view
Magico has chosen another path but essentially its the same idea , massive stainless steel construction inside a high grade aluminium housing
But that weight and non resonant /stifness make them an anchor point for totally relaxed listening in my view
Magico has chosen another path but essentially its the same idea , massive stainless steel construction inside a high grade aluminium housing
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No they are not from the same importer that was a different Q7 show , i am not very familiar with pass labs i am sorry they are said to be very musical amps , power wise it should be no problem i reckon with the higher powered pass amps .
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yes; a truely non-resonant (but lively) cabinet allows the nuance of the music to come alive yet also be low distortion.
the Exquistes had formidable contruction, very dense and solid. with odd shapes inside to eliminate standing waves, same approach taken with the Evolutions. and like my Evolutions, also a first order crossover and ceramic mid-range. none of those similarities are an accident.
the Evolutions are made in the same fashion as the Kharma in terms of the layered panels. only they use 2000 layers of Baltic Birch pressured by a 6 ton press. the screws holding the drivers on the Kharma are the same as on the Evolutions. only the Evolutions actually weigh more than the Kharma's.
lots of ways to skin the cat.
How exactly can you be “truly non-resonant but lively"
Is the Kharma Exquisite front is made out of MDF as well? I mean if you are going to use the same screws in the Evolutions, would you want to make sure you are screwing to the same material? Also, I do not believe that any Kharmas are using first order crossover, the ones that I owned were certainly not (The Midi-Grand). I any event, I don’t think you would want these ceramic drivers, with their wide break up, to have a 1st order XO.
How exactly can you be “truly non-resonant but lively"
Is the Kharma Exquisite front is made out of MDF as well? I mean if you are going to use the same screws in the Evolutions, would you want to make sure you are screwing to the same material? Also, I do not believe that any Kharmas are using first order crossover, the ones that I owned were certainly not (The Midi-Grand). I any event, I don’t think you would want these ceramic drivers, with their wide break up, to have a 1st order XO.
the Kharma Exquisites i owned (1D's) had the dense resin (HPL) side panels, and HDF middle panels. only the earliest Exquistes had all resin panels. Charles told me he did that because there was no performance advantage to all-resin panels and it was much harder to work with and more expensive. i did happen to replace 2 accuton ceramic mid-ranges on my Kharma's (Tenor OTL's detonating) and so did observe their insides as well as their attachment scheme.
not all Accuton ceramic mid-range drivers work the same. later ones had the little black resonators; and there are tricks to dampen the speaker cage which make large differences. it's the application and whole design which matters. and no doubt that the Kharma's needed a very refined amplifier or they would get a bit hot sounding.
my Kharma's had a 1st order crossover according to my discussions with Charles Von Oostrom back in the day. don't know about the Midi-Grand. i had the Midi-Exquisite's also for 6 months while i was waiting for my VR9SE's after i sold my 1D's. as i recall that was 1st order also, but i could be wrong.
the Kharma is a great speaker; too bad that got so crazy expensive.
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