My new 2160
- Thread starter infinitely baffled
- Start date
The Boulder dealer here in San Diego closed about five years ago but while they were open, the real sound was in the room with the 2160. They had Wilson, Magnepan, B&W, Paradigm, Linn, Aerial, and maybe some other speakers. In amps, Boulder, Classe, McIntosh, Krell, Ayre, Audio Research and a few others. Particularly with the Wilson Alexandrias, the difference was instantly noticeable, with the 2160 they were amazing and as soon as they put in any other amp, they were diminished. It is a great amp, keep the cats away.
Rest in peace Ziggy, you magnificent beastie
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Thank you very much chaps. Feeling heartbroken and a little lost; he's been in the same space as me constantly for 11 years, either on my bed, besides me on the sofa, or leading the way when we're out on the hills.
Here's Ziggy's playlist,
aka Restful Music for a Sick Friend or Family Member:
Solomon Grey- untitled album. Soothing, ethereal, and the final track is transcendent
Bonobo - Migration disc one
The Cinematic Orchestra - To Believe
- Ma Fleur
-Every Day
Late Night Tales - Bonobo
Sasha - Fabric 99
Alt-j - This is All Yours
- An Awesome Wave
Zero 7 - Simple Things
- The Garden
Luvgav
Here's Ziggy's playlist,
aka Restful Music for a Sick Friend or Family Member:
Solomon Grey- untitled album. Soothing, ethereal, and the final track is transcendent
Bonobo - Migration disc one
The Cinematic Orchestra - To Believe
- Ma Fleur
-Every Day
Late Night Tales - Bonobo
Sasha - Fabric 99
Alt-j - This is All Yours
- An Awesome Wave
Zero 7 - Simple Things
- The Garden
Luvgav
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I am so very sorry for your loss ... I hate it anytime any of us lose our best friends and they really are our best friends! Take care!
George
George
So grief is a funny old thing. My sometime partner lost her nephew in a car crash two years ago, they were very close , it was devastating for her. In her grief she didn't want to hear any music, just to be quiet. On the other hand, after a quiet week, i couldn't wait to play music again. It wasn't that i had finished grieving, far from it. In the music i played, profound lyrics would find me and speak to what was on my mind. I was encouraged to be grateful, to celebrate my friend's life, to be thankful for knowing him. I felt the sublime content from a life well lived, without regrets. He was always with me, we went everywhere together, never left at home unless he chose to be. Could i have done anything better? Maybe we could have climbed a few more mountains, lockdown took us from our stride and kept our adventures local. But there's no head of steam there. We lived a wonderful life and so i have no regrets. Ziggy's memory is a blessing. As for living in silence, nope, not me. Music has truly helped me to cope, and continues to do so.
Admittedly i did go through a bad stage of not wanting to get out of bed. Asleep he was present in my dreams, awake he was absent. It was my other beastie, Wolfgang the border collie who forced me to get up, have a routine, go for walks, because he was just as upset as i was. I don't know where I'd be without him.
So as this was happening, i was trying to put together an audio system for my dad. I was leaning toward an all- MBL setup, the 126 speakers plus matching integrated amp and cd player / streamer. Coincidentally, the Absolute Sound ran an article covering speakers in that price bracket, which i read and forwarded to my dad. (I'm not sure he ever looked at it).
The article included a dipole speaker made by Wolf Von Langa, the Son. I readily concluded that if i were specc'ing my own system at that price point, it would be built around a pair of the field coil, dipole Sons. And then the Munich show, where many esteemed audiophiles concluded the WVL room had the best in show sound. So now i wondered, what were the bigger brother models like, the ones that might compete with my own speakers?
And so it began...?
It turns out that the big WVL speakers, known as the Audio Frame range, appear to have been designed with someone like me in mind. As in, they were dipoles that do bass.
I'm a believer in the 'if it looks right...' school of thought, and on paper and in the flesh, these certainly appeared to be 'dipoles that do bass'.
So i searched for a UK distributor, all i got was the name of two stores who carried the Son, but not the Audio Frame range. One of them, Nintronics, i have an existing relationship with, having bought my Esoteric Grandioso G1 clock from them. Had a chat with Roger Taslaq, the main man, to try and narrow down which model might be right for me. Fairly soon i contacted WVL directly in Germany to get some guidance.
The two models that appeal are Chicago and Berlin.
Chicago features two 15 inch field coild drivers per channel in open baffle configuration, above which is a dipole field coil silk - paper midrange and and AMT dipole tweeter.
The biggest in the range, Berlin, has an additional bass driver stacked on top of horn loaded mids ands tops. They both look capable of moving large amounts of air.
So there's my dilemma; go for the dipole, or go for the biggest and horn loaded.
Having written to Christine Von Langa i received the advice that, given my love of dipoles, Chicago would be the one for me.... assisted by their horn loaded subwoofers, Wagyu.
But the obvious course of action was to get myself down to the factory in Southern Germany, where i could listen to both and make up my own mind.
So. Two pairs of 15 inch, field coil drivers providing dipole bass. (Three pairs in the case of Berlin.) Plus dipole mids and tweeter with Chicago, horn loaded upper frequencies with Berlin
I've never experienced dipole bass; both of my Alon open baffle speaker experiences were underpinned by either 10 or 12" drivers in a sealed box, with just the mids and tops in dipole configuration. Plus the Chicago featured field coil midrange drivers- I've never experienced that, nor an AMT tweeter. And horn loaded subs.
For the first time in a month, i was leaping out of bed in the morning.
So, two questions. One esoteric, one practical.
Does this make me a shallow materialist?
And should i take my 2160 along with me to the audition?
?
Admittedly i did go through a bad stage of not wanting to get out of bed. Asleep he was present in my dreams, awake he was absent. It was my other beastie, Wolfgang the border collie who forced me to get up, have a routine, go for walks, because he was just as upset as i was. I don't know where I'd be without him.
So as this was happening, i was trying to put together an audio system for my dad. I was leaning toward an all- MBL setup, the 126 speakers plus matching integrated amp and cd player / streamer. Coincidentally, the Absolute Sound ran an article covering speakers in that price bracket, which i read and forwarded to my dad. (I'm not sure he ever looked at it).
The article included a dipole speaker made by Wolf Von Langa, the Son. I readily concluded that if i were specc'ing my own system at that price point, it would be built around a pair of the field coil, dipole Sons. And then the Munich show, where many esteemed audiophiles concluded the WVL room had the best in show sound. So now i wondered, what were the bigger brother models like, the ones that might compete with my own speakers?
And so it began...?
It turns out that the big WVL speakers, known as the Audio Frame range, appear to have been designed with someone like me in mind. As in, they were dipoles that do bass.
I'm a believer in the 'if it looks right...' school of thought, and on paper and in the flesh, these certainly appeared to be 'dipoles that do bass'.
So i searched for a UK distributor, all i got was the name of two stores who carried the Son, but not the Audio Frame range. One of them, Nintronics, i have an existing relationship with, having bought my Esoteric Grandioso G1 clock from them. Had a chat with Roger Taslaq, the main man, to try and narrow down which model might be right for me. Fairly soon i contacted WVL directly in Germany to get some guidance.
The two models that appeal are Chicago and Berlin.
Chicago features two 15 inch field coild drivers per channel in open baffle configuration, above which is a dipole field coil silk - paper midrange and and AMT dipole tweeter.
The biggest in the range, Berlin, has an additional bass driver stacked on top of horn loaded mids ands tops. They both look capable of moving large amounts of air.
So there's my dilemma; go for the dipole, or go for the biggest and horn loaded.
Having written to Christine Von Langa i received the advice that, given my love of dipoles, Chicago would be the one for me.... assisted by their horn loaded subwoofers, Wagyu.
But the obvious course of action was to get myself down to the factory in Southern Germany, where i could listen to both and make up my own mind.
So. Two pairs of 15 inch, field coil drivers providing dipole bass. (Three pairs in the case of Berlin.) Plus dipole mids and tweeter with Chicago, horn loaded upper frequencies with Berlin
I've never experienced dipole bass; both of my Alon open baffle speaker experiences were underpinned by either 10 or 12" drivers in a sealed box, with just the mids and tops in dipole configuration. Plus the Chicago featured field coil midrange drivers- I've never experienced that, nor an AMT tweeter. And horn loaded subs.
For the first time in a month, i was leaping out of bed in the morning.
So, two questions. One esoteric, one practical.
Does this make me a shallow materialist?
And should i take my 2160 along with me to the audition?
?
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Well you saay that Dan.
2160 does of course have a big brother, 3060
I would be lying if i said i haven't already enquired about terms to trade up...my guess is it will translate to another three years' saving
Right now I'm leaning towards a pair of dipoles first?
Btw Boulder have suggested that a btter use of two chassis than monoblocks would be bi-amp. So i don't consider 3050, as i would instead buy a second 3060 to bi amp, before i went to 3050's, (if i were ever in that position.)
So for me, the 3060 represents the state of the art.
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So i guess this is a difference between UK and US power delivery, but when i asked my builder / architect if i could have a 30 amp line, he said i already have a 100 amp dedicated line.
Additionally i have a junction box mounted in the floor that i can hard wire my power cord into, removing the plug and mains switches. I'm awaiting a visit from my sparky to change the old 2060 pc for the newer, shielded 2160 pc
I think it may be a while before i can stretch to 3010 pre amp?
Generally I prefer a valve pre, which is convenient financially?
Recently on my radar, pre amps from Allnic, Mactone.
I adore the sound of my Wavac, but it doesn't play well with components up or downstream.
Wavac have a funky approach to balanced connections, so i have both phonostage and digital source go into single ended inputs. On the output i keep threatening to buy a device aka The Interociter built by Steve McCormack that takes a single ended signal and converts to fully balanced, so i can feed my power amp a true balanced signal.
My subs seem perfectly happy with the Wavac's xlr output
RMAF: The Interocitor Saved My Life
Well........ if not my life, at least it saved my show! ;) This is BIG, and I didn't want to wait until after the show to post this. You know how it is - a bunch of equipment, a strange room, bad electricity. Surely a recipe for ground disaster. I avoid most of it by going all balanced...
www.whatsbestforum.com
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Just a wee postscript
They say denial is the early stage of grief. I think there may have been some of that going on. The WVL mission certainly gave me a bounce...but I'd be lying if i said it had lasted.
I will follow through on Germany, but the grieving process can't be cut short, and will take it's time.
For the sake of Wolfgang, my border Collie, and myself, I'm looking at pups. But it's brought up feelings I'm struggling with, like I'm being unfaithful.
We'll get through it together.
They say denial is the early stage of grief. I think there may have been some of that going on. The WVL mission certainly gave me a bounce...but I'd be lying if i said it had lasted.
I will follow through on Germany, but the grieving process can't be cut short, and will take it's time.
For the sake of Wolfgang, my border Collie, and myself, I'm looking at pups. But it's brought up feelings I'm struggling with, like I'm being unfaithful.
We'll get through it together.
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