Cessaro Liszts horns demo at Purite Audio

[spiritofmusic]

Hi guys and gals, just a few words on my visit to Keith of Purite Audio in N. London today to demo for the second time the Cessaro Liszts.
I had travelled there initially 18 months ago, and the experience was highly memorable. Then, my impression was of amazing texture, dynamics and air, real goosebump factor, but w/the bass nodes/standing waves in his room at 27Hz etc just bringing the sound crashing back to Earth.
In the meantime, Keith has attempted to address these room factors w/a combination of Modex panels and Illusonic dsp, which he even runs his tt thru.
Wow, what can I say, the sound is now so much more even. All the jump factor remains from before w/an amazing sense of presence and scale, but now the lows are fully integrated into the mids and highs to produce a really consistent sound w/the drivers acting as one. Speed, tone, air, dynamics, and fully extended bass come together better than any other speaker I've auditioned (incl the Rockport Antares and Hyperion, Kharma Exquisite, Martin Logan Prodigy, AG Trio w/231 subs, AG Duos, and even my much loved Zu Definitions 4).
I'm not sure I've quite got this combination of full bloodedness and delicacy, warmth and speed, in any other spkr to this extent before.
I sensed there was a slight truncation in the harmonic envelope w/the SS amps utilised today, and impvt imho would come by swapping out Keith's Mola Mola Class D Hypex-based amps for a fast and full blooded SET combination, my Nat Audio 211s may be a match made in Heaven.
Kudos to Keith for taking a world-class SOTA product that was performing schizophrenically in his room before, and really wringing out a step change in it so that it's true nature now shines thru.

 

[Ron Resnick]

As you know, Marc, I was very impressed with them at Graham's. In audiophile terms I think they are wonderful on transient response, dynamics, transparency, detail, body, height and scale. I heard no brightness from them.

I could live happily with them. I do not know why but the sound at Graham's was a sound which was more familiar to me than the sound at Avantgarde. I suspect, versus both auditions (i.e., your NATs, no DSP, room treatment), things could be optimized to your preferences for an even better overall result.

It is not the ultimate speaker for me (a) because of the depth question, which might be able to be ameliorated by pulling it into the room, (b) it is, to me, just a shade less transparent than the Audio Analysis Omega, which is a shade less transparent than MartinLogan and (c) I am still angling for a four-tower solution, but I truly think it might be the speaker for you. Plus I personally value the heroic cabinet construction quality and the precision molding of the horns. And if, in the future, you miss the cone excursion impact of the flagship Zu, whatever the low bass question is, Mark Seaton has the answer.

 

[marslo]

I spoke with Cessaro representantive at 2013 Audio Show in Warsaw. The front end and amps were from Soulution, tt from Brinkmann. The sound was crystal clear and very resolve, being still dynamic in macro and micro scale as often from horns design. As far as I remember the speakers were Alpha I. I missed in the sound the warmth and body of tube amps but the presentation was very impressive. Then the man from Cessaro explained me how much they care about resonance reduction , the mid horn for example is very rigid and heavy , if I am not mistaken its weight is 70 kg. The drivers are very good and expensive.
Comparing them to Avantgardes Cessaro sounded even more precise and life-like.
Then in Munich 2014 I listened to bigger ones, Liszt series, not impressed at all but it was just the matter of setup/room integration imo.
For me in Munich 2014 the champ was Acapellas/Einstein combo with tt equipped with wooden arm, I stayed there for more than 1 hour.
There are two things which I do not like with Cessaro- their look and price. For example for the price of Alphas one can buy Trios with small subs . And WAF is quite low.
Apart from that those Alphas were one of best speakers I have ever heard and fully understand Marc' s positive opinion.

 

[spiritofmusic]

The Liszts at Keith's are really supremely expressive, and w/the solving of room nodes, finally the spkr for the first time sounded as one. I'm really surprised, they're in a room which on the surface should be too small for them (7' high cabinets in a space 18'x14'x10), and as such they have to be pushed up against front wall, and close to corners. It was such a bonus to finally hear what they could do in the bass, and how this seamlessly integrated higher up.
As I say, my only issue was a slight truncation in harmonic development of notes, and I'm unsure whether this was a function of the Mola Mola SS, of the whole system incl tt being dsp'd.

 

[wisnon]

I spoke with Cessaro representantive at 2013 Audio Show in Warsaw. The front end and amps were from Soulution, tt from Brinkmann. The sound was crystal clear and very resolve, being still dynamic in macro and micro scale as often from horns design. As far as I remember the speakers were Alpha I. I missed in the sound the warmth and body of tube amps but the presentation was very impressive. Then the man from Cessaro explained me how much they care about resonance reduction , the mid horn for example is very rigid and heavy , if I am not mistaken its weight is 70 kg. The drivers are very good and expensive.
Comparing them to Avantgardes Cessaro sounded even more precise and life-like.
Then in Munich 2014 I listened to bigger ones, Liszt series, not impressed at all but it was just the matter of setup/room integration imo.
For me in Munich 2014 the champ was Acapellas/Einstein combo with tt equipped with wooden arm, I stayed there for more than 1 hour.
There are two things which I do not like with Cessaro- their look and price. For example for the price of Alphas one can buy Trios with small subs . And WAF is quite low.
Apart from that those Alphas were one of best speakers I have ever heard and fully understand Marc' s positive opinion.

I had similar impressions to you. The Horns were great at Warsaw 2015.

 

[marslo]

I had similar impressions to you. The Horns were great at Warsaw 2015.

I don' t know wisnon if you have had the opportunity to listen to Blumenhofer/Cary Audio combo. For me it was the discovery of AS.