Anyone Understand Design Approach of Stenheim? What are they doing differently from Magico, YG, Wilson, etc., to have High Sensitivity?

[jespera]

Interesting you experience. I have heard them many times, living here in Switzerland, and I would not call any of the experiences Shite; however, they also didn't convince me to buy them either...

i guess sh!te is hard word but i suspect my 10” mg’s would run in circles around them.

 

[Al M.]

Im still a bit flappergasted by this stenheim experience. They sounded so sh!te that im starting to think that they’re specifically designed to rip people off. Not only for the crazy money they cost, but also because youll never be happy with them. Then youll go to the dealer and the dealer will say “thats because you need a bigger more expensive amp/dac/cables/feet/whatever”.

It’s the hifi dealer’s wet dream.

Until you have heard the speakers on another, more powerful amplifier, I don't think you can draw such definitive conclusions from your one-time experience. Potential impedance issues have been pointed out.

 

[jespera]

As i said, ive heard them on ch precision too. Left me (ice) cold too. But it didnt stand out as bad as this experience.

Anyways, may try a trusted solid state amp if i get the chance. Btw if anything, its not the number watts that counts but the output impedance.

Oh and btw btw if you really like them i can sort out a very reasonable price for you.

 

[Atmasphere]

Until you have heard the speakers on another, more powerful amplifier, I don't think you can draw such definitive conclusions from your one-time experience.

Less efficient speakers often benefit from more power

 

[Al M.]

Oh and btw btw if you really like them i can sort out a very reasonable price for you.

I have never heard the speakers nor am I even remotely interested in them.

My only concern is about bashing components heard under conditions that with great likelihood make them underperform. Happens all the time in the audiophile community, by the way.

 

[andromedaaudio]

I hope to hear the stenheims in Munich .
All paper units, could be interesting

 

[cannata]

Most Europeans who take this hobby seriously and therefore visit the Munich show have heard these, several times, with big power. jespera is generous.

 

[jespera]

Most Europeans who take this hobby seriously and therefore visit the Munich show have heard these, several times, with big power. jespera is generous.

hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

The cables arent right. The feet are the wrong ones. Everyone knows thats a sh!te dac. And really you need the ch precision signature biamped monoblocks for those speakers. Blahblahblahahahahahahha

This is what is called bass:

Tannoy liberation

I’ve owned and loved a set of 15” monitor golds in original rectangular york cabinets for about 8 years. About a year ago i upgraded the crossovers to a special design by the ukranian maestro Abbas Zulfugarov. Certainly well worth it. Today i took another step in tannoy liberation by...

www.whatsbestforum.com

 

[microstrip]

I have never heard the speakers nor am I even remotely interested in them.

My only concern is about bashing components heard under conditions that with great likelihood make them underperform. Happens all the time in the audiophile community, by the way.

Well, I have listened to them in a show and shop demos and they sounded quite decent, but I had no experience with the matching components.

A pity audiophiles go on bashing so easily. Why not simply saying it did not match their preferences and give us some details on why?

To get an idea of the people behind Stenheim we can read this interview with their CEO , Jean Pascal Panchard https://www.live.stenheim.com/english/issue7 . The kind of person I would love to have in WBF, but I doubt that he will feel tempted to participate in this forum. BTW, the Stenheim team comes from Goldmund. They are known to voice their speakers with DartZeel and Nagra.

 

[DasguteOhr]

hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

The cables arent right. The feet are the wrong ones. Everyone knows thats a sh!te dac. And really you need the ch precision signature biamped monoblocks for those speakers. Blahblahblahahahahahahha

This is what is called bass:

Tannoy liberation

I’ve owned and loved a set of 15” monitor golds in original rectangular york cabinets for about 8 years. About a year ago i upgraded the crossovers to a special design by the ukranian maestro Abbas Zulfugarov. Certainly well worth it. Today i took another step in tannoy liberation by...

www.whatsbestforum.com

Stenheim sounds like hifi, there is no life in it. Better buy a nat set amp and a Harbeth. when you press the power button you know right now, it comes music with goosebumps guarantee.

 

[Al M.]

Stenheim sounds like hifi, there is no life in it. Better buy a nat set amp and a Harbeth. when you press the power button you know right now, it comes music with goosebumps guarantee.

While the video of the Stenheim was bad, unfortunately I don't hear much bass from that video either.

How do you judge anything from crappy videos?

 

[jespera]

While the video of the Stenheim was bad, unfortunately I don't hear much bass from that video either.

How do you judge anything from crappy videos?

I agree with that. I liked the lyrics better than the music in that post.

 

[DasguteOhr]

No i heard them at ATR germany ..sorry not my cup of tea

ATR - Audio Trade

Dein Vertrieb für den besten Klang. ATR bietet dir seit über 40 Jahren das umfangreichste Angebot für Hifi und Heimkino in Deutschland.

www.audiotra.de

I was there because of the new Cabasse and also listened to the Stenheim speakers there.

Cabasse The Pearl Pelegrina

Die Pearl Pelegrina. Das Meisterwerk. Anlässlich des 70-jährigen Jubiläums stellt Cabasse das Flaggschiff seiner Connected-Speaker-Familie vor: Die Pearl Pelegrina. Dieses Meisterwerk ist das Ergebnis des einzigartigen...

www.audiotra.de

 

[jespera]

Most Europeans who take this hobby seriously and therefore visit the Munich show have heard these, several times, with big power. jespera is generous.

This is a great video. The only thing missing is a pan shot of the fat bald muppets in the plastic chairs, discussing the cables …

You can smell the vibe …

 

[Cableman]

This is a great video. The only thing missing is a pan shot of the fat bald muppets in the plastic chairs, discussing the cables …

You can smell the vibe …

One of the worst sounds in a show room I ever heard was at Munich. And with a SOTA amp noch. Halcro incidentally.

As someone who travelled round the world to show by show as an exhibitor, and who was complimented waaayyy too much for the room
sound, you are advised never to base your evaluations on show rooms.

 

[Cableman]

This is a great video. The only thing missing is a pan shot of the fat bald muppets in the plastic chairs, discussing the cables …

You can smell the vibe …

Funniest thing for me at shows was after people kindly complimented me on the (mostly) really good sound ( thank ye kindly Sir) they would always then walk behind to check out the back of the speakers. What the heck did they expect to see there? Some sort of mysterious black box adding some sauce to make that good sound?

I kept telling them it was all about the heart of the system. The amps. They never ever got it!

 

[Al M.]

As someone who travelled round the world to show by show as an exhibitor, and who was complimented waaayyy too much for the room
sound, you are advised never to base your evaluations on show rooms.

True. My mantra is, if it sounds good at a show it must be good; if it sounds bad at a show, then whatever, withhold your judgment. It's a meaningless data point.

Bad sound at a show can have a myriad of reasons. Bad, hasty setup, bad acoustics, bad power (hotel rooms, and everyone hangs on the same line), or any combination of those. Throw in possibly bad gear combinations because of certain contracts or agreements, or just because of a wish to randomly show off the main brands you carry as for example a distributor, and with all the above combined the chances of a bad sound at a show can be quite high.

 

[microstrip]

(...) For the first friend, we have tried different amp/speaker combinations (he is using Magico speakers currently). Nothing sounded good except for some extremely expensive high powered amplifiers that cost 3 to 4 times what his speakers cost. Tube amps were useless. (...)

I am curious - what were exactly these Magico's that only sounded good with amplifiers that cost 3 to 4 times ?

 

[microstrip]

Tube amps will never sound as good with Wilsons and Magicos as SS amps, and yes cost of SS amps keeps going up for quality. ( ...)

IMHO Wilson speakers sound great with tubes - I had great sound with many tube amplifiers and various Wilson's, as well as a few friends. In fact they were and are often paired with VTL, Audio Research and conrad johnson, just to refer to well know old brands. The Siegfried II is an exceptional pairing with the XLF.

 

[Cableman]

Tube amps will never sound as good with Wilsons and Magicos as SS amps, and yes cost of SS amps keeps going up for quality. One thing with tube amps is to add a SS preamp like Soulution instead of the valve preamp, then they can work better.

Which 2a3 PP amp did you try? NAF 2a3 is very good, and which valves did you use? Which 300b amp and valves are you using?

Why?