Sonus Faber Aida vs Magico Q5

[JackD201]

gosh Jack you sound like me when we moved to our new house and I was realizing that I might not be able to build a dedicated room so 6 weeks after we moved in I was already looking to move

All good things are worth waiting for

 

[sonrock]

Thank you Sir, thats fun though. I am laughing when writing this up and I will try this to see how the speakers react to the postions and the room. I will have my 2 new bass traps panels by next week, so this will be fun. anyway I still think this wont work for me and the room

This is precisely what I suggested you to do
1,5m between speakrs and 2,0 to listening position isn't bad. If you keep the speakers straight, with no toe in, you shouldn't get much beaming from the tweeter, and you should get a very nice soundstage, and, of course, bass.
Please do give this a try, I think it's worth it.


alexandre

 

[Steve Williams]

Sonrock

Give it a try. You have nothing to lose. Your speakers are on casters still so they should be easy to
move

 

[Roger Dressler]

anymore advices Sir?

You mentioned that the excess bass only affects some of your music. My advice would be the next time such heavy bass is heard, lean well forward on your sofa. Does the bass reduce appreciably? Perhaps it is the sofa that needs the casters.

 

[Hyperion]

Marcus, your comment shocks me, someone changed from soulution monos to karan 2000 monos. and I dont want to keep the q5 in storage , just live with them. honestly, I have too much bass in some recordings only, not all of my collection so this is not really end of the world. bass are still awesome with tight and punchy. even your futura are still too big for my room, so I am happy to stick with the q5 until I can move on with the new room.

Why is that a shock...? Does the (BIG) price difference automatically make the Soulutions a better choice? It's mostly about personal preference and system matching on this level. The fact that the Soulution 701 monos cost approx. 110.000€ doesn't necessarily make them the better choice... I heard a full Soulution system partnered with Focal Utopias in Munich recently. If you like your food served perfectly aligned on a square plate without any spicing, they might be for you

 

[sonrock]

Sonrock

Give it a try. You have nothing to lose. Your speakers are on casters still so they should be easy to
move

Thank you Sir, I did try it for a day and had to relocate them in my room today, haha. quite impressed with the soundstage and bass in that such close listening position, about over 2m from my seat, but the speakers were too close to each other, just about 1.5m at most from tweeter to tweeter, so I could not live with that set up. I will post pics later.

You mentioned that the excess bass only affects some of your music. My advice would be the next time such heavy bass is heard, lean well forward on your sofa. Does the bass reduce appreciably? Perhaps it is the sofa that needs the casters.

I did try as you advised Sir but it didnt help much I have to say when I moved my sofa about 30-50cm from the back wall, but now its back to normal.

Why is that a shock...? Does the (BIG) price difference automatically make the Soulutions a better choice? It's mostly about personal preference and system matching on this level. The fact that the Soulution 701 monos cost approx. 110.000€ doesn't necessarily make them the better choice... I heard a full Soulution system partnered with Focal Utopias in Munich recently. If you like your food served perfectly aligned on a square plate without any spicing, they might be for you

No Marcus, I didnt mean about the price difference between the karan monos and soulution monos, what I meant is many people who are lucky enough to listened to this swiss made amps told me they are incredible, and it should have a reason for magico chose soulution amps to pair with in many shows. I've not listened to soulution amps driving magico speakers in real life, just through youtube but really impressed about the big souding and dynamic of the combo. In general, karan 2000's are the best amps I've owned and heard so far, but I just want to try and see how different amps matching with my q5, especially the soulution monos or the gryphon mephisto. I am not that rich and in that league, haha. I wish I was.

 

[andromedaaudio]

I dont want to spoil the party but what about choosing a relatively easier to drive speaker , and putting the money you save from not having to buy very expensive powerfull amps in more speakerquality

 

[LL21]

Thank you Sir, I did try it for a day and had to relocate them in my room today, haha. quite impressed with the soundstage and bass in that such close listening position, about over 2m from my seat, but the speakers were too close to each other, just about 1.5m at most from tweeter to tweeter, so I could not live with that set up. I will post pics later.

If you place the speakers on a custom platform that is the same height as your fireplace floor...perhaps then you can have the right speaker that much closer to the fireplace and enjoy the soundstage/bass in the closer listening position.

 

[Elberoth]

Lloyd,

The first public audition of Stradivari, in the presence of Franco Serblin at the end of 2003, was carried in a system including an Accuphase DP75 CD-player, Cello Étude passive preamplifier and Krell FPB350cx amplifiers. The berning ZHZ20 amplifier is a very special tube amplifier using a very unusual topology - it can not be considered a tube amplifier in the usual accession of the general properties of tube amplifiers.

When I visited Sonus Faber factory in Vincenza back in 1999, Franco was using Krell FPB-600 as his main amp, directly driven by Wadia 850.

 

[Elberoth]

sonrock - the problems you are experiencing are most likely the bass modes. Every room excites certain bass frequencies (and sucks out other freq) and what happens is that, when you play a recording which also happens to have a lot of energy at the freq similar to your room modes - you get the bass boom effect that annoys you.

The bass traps you have chosen can only do so much, as they more or less evenly absorb bass at all frequencies, but only to a limited extent.

What you need is a trap that will be centered around the exact frequency that causes you problems (there would be at least two of them) and will have enough 'trap power' to remove it. That in turns means that you need to get one custom made for you or buy one that is tunable to a desired frequency, like the Varitune series of bass absorbers from the Swedish company SMT:

http://diffusor.com/Basabsorbenter.htm

To tune them you need to measure your room first (which, as was already sugested in this thread, you can do with variety of software/hardware packages available on the market) or, if you do not have time for this, you have to pay someone to do this for you.

You can hire Matts from SMT to tune his products - I know that he travels around the world to make measurements and tune them. From what I have heard, his charge is 800 euros per day. That is not a change money, but considering how much money you have already spent on your equipment, that will be the most cost effective upgrade you can probably make.

Best of all - since the bass traps are tunable - you will be able to reuse them in your new room when ready.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

another potential solution might be to set up the speakers on the diagnal of the room and not square to the corners. since there is so much gear in the room it would not be a permanent solution but it would get your ears away from that back wall and away from the bass node that is on the wall. then use a single chair for the sweet spot.

if that does tame the bass temporarily then at least you have made progress and can enjoy the music. at audio shows i see that help many times in small hotel rooms. if this does help with making the music more involving it might make it easier to live with until you find a permanent solution.

this suggestion is a 'shot in the dark' with no predictable degree of success. but what is there to lose by trying it?

since the Q5's are on castors you might be able to mark the floor with tape and move the speakers and a chair for music and move them back for movies.

my old room was a similar size to yours but had the saving grace of an almost 3m height so the bass nodes were minimal.

if you are stuck in that room long term, and you want large speakers in that particular room, you need speakers with considerable adjustments in the bass as it likely needs different side to side adjustments between the fireplace and the rear window door. the room is not likely symetrical at the bass frequencies.

 

[sonrock]

dear Sirs

Thank you very much all of your comments, suggestion and advises. I will consider them all, but now I am more than happy to stick with the current set up position of my speakers. I will wait for the 2 new bass traps panels besides asking the manufacturer if he can build the bass traps uniquely to use in my room which can absorb the fre range below 80hz and see how things going.

the pics I took 2 days ago when pulled the speakers out and now, my wife was very upset when she saw 2 big black speakers sitting in the middle of the room, lol


and the final position now, I cant dare to say this is the optimum but really happy. I dont toe the speakers in any more, flat only and they are directing to the bass traps on the rear wall. I will contact a carpet shop and ask them to custom cut a piece to fit my granite step on the fireplace

 

[Steve Williams]

well sonrock, I think you have a problem here and as I see it there are few choices based on your decision

1. New speakers
2. New house
3. Same speakers, same house, new wife

Isn't this hobby fun

 

[Elberoth]

I will wait for the 2 new bass traps panels besides asking the manufacturer if he can build the bass traps uniquely to use in my room which can absorb the fre range below 80hz and see how things going.

You do not want to remove all bass (which is what will happen if you keep adding broad range bass traps) but only the bass nodes. For that you need a tunable bass traps, with narrow working range.

And best of all - hire someone to take measurements for you to see what the problems are. I cannot understand how you can spend 100k+ euro on equiplent, only to skimp the last few hundred of euros to make the system sound right

The sound of a system is 50% equipment and 50% your room.

 

[DaveyF]

well sonrock, I think you have a problem here and as I see it there are few choices based on your decision

1. New speakers
2. New house
3. Same speakers, same house, new wife

Isn't this hobby fun

Steve, that's a really good one, LOL.
A little mean ( however very true), but hey

 

[sonrock]

well sonrock, I think you have a problem here and as I see it there are few choices based on your decision

1. New speakers
2. New house
3. Same speakers, same house, new wife

Isn't this hobby fun

haha, its actually fun Sir . a new room will be built eventually, I just have to wait until the time comes. regarding room measurement, I'll look for someone to help

 

[Bruce B]

well sonrock, I think you have a problem here and as I see it there are few choices based on your decision

1. New speakers
2. New house
3. Same speakers, same house, new wife

Isn't this hobby fun

From least to most expensive! Love it!!

 

[cjfrbw]

How about:

1. New speakers
2. New house
3. No speakers, No house, wife has both after divorce.

 

[Bruce B]

How about:

1. New speakers
2. New house
3. No speakers, No house, wife has both after divorce.

Yeah, that's what the judge told me. What's hers is hers and what's mine is half hers!

 

[mep]

I hate to say it, but that room looks more hopeless than solving world peace-at least with the big speakers you are using. There is an old saying about someone being all hat and no cattle, you are all cattle with no hat (or land). You have over-achieved in the speaker department and under-achieved in the room department. You either need to build on, move, or get smaller speakers for that room. You have way more speaker than you have (a) room for them.