CES 2015: TAS Show Report

"Powered by Soulution 701 monoblocks and 725 linestage preamp, Magico’s stalwart, four-way, five-driver, aluminum-bodied Q7 was being shown with the new Q Sub 18 (two 18** woofers in a 570-pound, sealed aluminum enclosure), crossed over (low-pass-only) via the sub’s built-in DSP crossover and powered by its built-in amp. The combo was fast, powerful, and room-shudderingly extended on hard-driving jazz, and also showed excellent speed, color, and low-level resolution of texture and articulation on the smaller-scale Kodaly Duo for Violin and Cello. Having said this, I still thought Magico’s beryllium tweeter was too bright, adding edginess, forwardness, and sibilance to male and female vocals on Leonard Cohen’s “Ain’t No Cure For Love,” while also bleaching out some of the richly saturated color of Javier Mas’ accompanying acoustic guitar and Dino Soldo’s sax. On top of this, the chucking bass line of the Cohen song wasn’t as chewy or as well defined as I’m used to hearing. On a revisit to the Magico room, adjustments to the subwoofer improved overall balance, blend, and bass definition, reducing much of the brightness and edginess I heard on the first go-round." - JV

Ouch!!

Now, this is interesting. Everyone I spoke to who was there said this was their favorite room. Proving once again, I have no idea what he hears. Not a fan of JV.

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I haven't kept up-does JV still have any Magico speakers in house?
 
Here is the latest (but he really needs a Twitter account for his latest "new reference", "best I've ever heard", "flavor of the month", "who's running the biggest ads?")

JV’s Reference System
Loudspeakers: Raidho D-5, Raidho D-1, Avantgarde Zero 1, MartinLogan CLX , Magnepan 1.7, Magnepan 3.7, Magnepan 20.7
Linestage preamps: Soulution 520, Constellation Virgo, Audio Research Reference 10, Siltech SAGA System C1, Zanden 3100
Phonostage preamps: Audio Research Corporation Reference Phono 10, Innovative Cohesion Engineering Raptor, Soulution 520, Zanden 120
Power amplifiers: Soulution 711, Siltech SAGA System V1/P1, Constellation Centaur, Audio Research Reference 250, Lamm ML2.2, Zanden 8120
Analog source: TW Acustic Black Knight, Walker Audio Proscenium Black Diamond Mk V, AMG Viella 12
Tape deck: United Home Audio UHA-Q Phase 11 OPS
Phono cartridges: Clearaudio Goldfinger Statement, Ortofon MC A90, Ortofon MC Anna, Benz LP S-MR
Digital source: Berkeley Alpha DAC 2
Cable and interconnect: Synergistic Research Galileo LE, Crystal Cable Absolute Dream, Anzus Diamond
Power Cords: Synergistic Research Galileo LE, Crystal Cable Absolute Dream, Anzus Diamond
Power Conditioner: Synergistic Research Galileo LE, Technical Brain
Accessories: Synergistic ART and HFT/FEQ system, Shakti Hallographs (6), Zanden room treatment, A/V Room Services Metu panels and traps, ASC Tube Traps, Critical Mass MAXXUM equipment and amp stands, Symposium Isis and Ultra equipment platforms, Symposium Rollerblocks and Fat Padz, Walker Prologue Reference equipment and amp stands, Walker Valid Points and Resonance Control discs, Clearaudio Double Matrix SE record cleaner, Synergistic Research RED Quantum fuses, HiFi-Tuning silver/gold fuses


One TAS subscriber writes:

gun_clutcher • 2 months ago
Jon I enjoy reading your reviews and fantasizing about owning stuff like these Raidho bad boys but what I find especially mystifying is your "reference" system...or should it read "your" reference system. I didn't take the time and won't to add up the $$ for all of those top shelf components but it's gotta be well over a million dollars. And you've had those components for quite some time now. No offense intended but there's no way you own all that stuff. I would have to assume that it's a long term loan situation so my question is how long is long term? My other question is do you just hang on to a component until the mfr rings you and says "hey Jon about that LAMM amplifier we loaned you back in aught whatever..." Next question...where do I sign up to become an audio journalist?

duck-1.jpg
 
Mike-Assuming you have the latest version of JV's system, he no longer has Magico speakers in his house. I was wondering why he was ragging on Magico's tweeter.
 
mep said:
Mike-Assuming you have the latest version of JV's system, he no longer has Magico speakers in his house. I was wondering why he was ragging on Magico's tweeter.
Click to expand...

Alon must have taken his toys and went home. Little Jon Jon was not happy.
 
Is the tweeter in the Q7 different than the ones that were in the Magico speakers he used to have in house?
 
mep said:
Is the tweeter in the Q7 different than the ones that were in the Magico speakers he used to have in house?
Click to expand...

Not to my knowledge. And certainly not substantially.

All my friends said that Q7/Soulution room was unfreaking believable.
 
My worst nightmare as an audio reviewer would be to have a 'killer' system made of up of top notch components and I didn't own a single damn one of them. That's why I don't list components under review as part of my "reference system."
 
Doesn't JV live in just a NYC apartment? Realizing that some of those can be sizable, still where does he keep all that stuff?? And I have a lot of trouble believing that he is physically able to swap in and out some of those pieces (since I would describe as a somewhat frail late middle-age man)?
 
rbbert said:
Doesn't JV live in just a NYC apartment? Realizing that some of those can be sizable, still where does he keep all that stuff?? And I have a lot of trouble believing that he is physically able to swap in and out some of those pieces (since I would describe as a somewhat frail late middle-age man)?
Click to expand...

First of all, JV lives in Cincinnati, OH. I believe he owns a home. When you are an elite reviewer like JV who is able to secure long-term loans of mega-expensive gear, the companies take care of delivering the gear and setting it up. I believe that Andre Jennings sets up JV's cartridges/tonearms for him. If heavy gear has to be swapped in out of the system, I'm sure JV has helpers do that as well.
 
Mike said:
Here is the latest (but he really needs a Twitter account for his latest "new reference", "best I've ever heard", "flavor of the month", "who's running the biggest ads?")

JV’s Reference System
Loudspeakers: Raidho D-5, Raidho D-1, Avantgarde Zero 1, MartinLogan CLX , Magnepan 1.7, Magnepan 3.7, Magnepan 20.7
Linestage preamps: Soulution 520, Constellation Virgo, Audio Research Reference 10, Siltech SAGA System C1, Zanden 3100
Phonostage preamps: Audio Research Corporation Reference Phono 10, Innovative Cohesion Engineering Raptor, Soulution 520, Zanden 120
Power amplifiers: Soulution 711, Siltech SAGA System V1/P1, Constellation Centaur, Audio Research Reference 250, Lamm ML2.2, Zanden 8120
Analog source: TW Acustic Black Knight, Walker Audio Proscenium Black Diamond Mk V, AMG Viella 12
Tape deck: United Home Audio UHA-Q Phase 11 OPS
Phono cartridges: Clearaudio Goldfinger Statement, Ortofon MC A90, Ortofon MC Anna, Benz LP S-MR
Digital source: Berkeley Alpha DAC 2
Cable and interconnect: Synergistic Research Galileo LE, Crystal Cable Absolute Dream, Anzus Diamond
Power Cords: Synergistic Research Galileo LE, Crystal Cable Absolute Dream, Anzus Diamond
Power Conditioner: Synergistic Research Galileo LE, Technical Brain
Accessories: Synergistic ART and HFT/FEQ system, Shakti Hallographs (6), Zanden room treatment, A/V Room Services Metu panels and traps, ASC Tube Traps, Critical Mass MAXXUM equipment and amp stands, Symposium Isis and Ultra equipment platforms, Symposium Rollerblocks and Fat Padz, Walker Prologue Reference equipment and amp stands, Walker Valid Points and Resonance Control discs, Clearaudio Double Matrix SE record cleaner, Synergistic Research RED Quantum fuses, HiFi-Tuning silver/gold fuses


One TAS subscriber writes:

gun_clutcher • 2 months ago
Jon I enjoy reading your reviews and fantasizing about owning stuff like these Raidho bad boys but what I find especially mystifying is your "reference" system...or should it read "your" reference system. I didn't take the time and won't to add up the $$ for all of those top shelf components but it's gotta be well over a million dollars. And you've had those components for quite some time now. No offense intended but there's no way you own all that stuff. I would have to assume that it's a long term loan situation so my question is how long is long term? My other question is do you just hang on to a component until the mfr rings you and says "hey Jon about that LAMM amplifier we loaned you back in aught whatever..." Next question...where do I sign up to become an audio journalist?

duck-1.jpg
Click to expand...

Hell with that. Where does Valin keep all this stuff? :) At least HP had a garage.
 
My point was more that all that stuff can't be in his "reference" system, in that it's not all truly available for listening to and thereby being used as a reference.
 
MDP said:
I really enjoy Andre Jennings reviews, I like his writing style.
Click to expand...

Ditto. Andre is both thoughtful and intelligent and he writes great reviews. When he reviewed a turntable for TAS and the table he reviewed was the cover picture of TAS, I was very happy for him. I posted that on Who's Deaf Forum and some morons came out and attacked. They did the same thing when JV did a sidebar in TAS about Andre's cartridge setup skills. I made the mistake of posting that on Who's Deaf Forum and Andre came under attack again. I didn't get it and I was bummed about it. Thankfully we don't have those type of people here on AS.
 
mep said:
Ditto. Andre is both thoughtful and intelligent and he writes great reviews. When he reviewed a turntable for TAS and the table he reviewed was the cover picture of TAS, I was very happy for him. I posted that on Who's Deaf Forum and some morons came out and attacked. They did the same thing when JV did a sidebar in TAS about Andre's cartridge setup skills. I made the mistake of posting that on Who's Deaf Forum and Andre came under attack again. I didn't get it and I was bummed about it. Thankfully we don't have those type of people here on AS.
Click to expand...

Whatever. You blankety blank son of a blankin' blanker.


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kev313 said:
Whatever. You blankety blank son of a blankin' blanker.


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Click to expand...

No, no, you're supposed to say "wrong! If it doesn't measure well, it can't sound good and if it measures well, it must be great!"


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mep said:
Ditto. Andre is both thoughtful and intelligent and he writes great reviews. When he reviewed a turntable for TAS and the table he reviewed was the cover picture of TAS, I was very happy for him. I posted that on Who's Deaf Forum and some morons came out and attacked. They did the same thing when JV did a sidebar in TAS about Andre's cartridge setup skills. I made the mistake of posting that on Who's Deaf Forum and Andre came under attack again. I didn't get it and I was bummed about it. Thankfully we don't have those type of people here on AS.
Click to expand...

Andre clearly wasn't one of the chosen few. Perhaps if he converted all his analog signals to 24/96, it would have been a different story.
 
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