Axpona 2015 Pics

bthomas9 said:
I don't know if I would say they sounded like shit...but I left with a bigger smile/impressed from the HSU room for under 2k for all the gear combined


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For $240,000 sans gear/cabling, I expect to be at least modestly impressed - given that it's a show in a nice big room. I wasn't. But let's just chalk it up to an amp/speaker mismatch, break in, and park any final opinions until we can hear them in more venues, with great gear like Soulution, Vitus, Pass, etc.


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Mike said:
For $240,000 sans gear/cabling, I expect to be at least modestly impressed - given that it's a show in a nice big room. I wasn't. But let's just chalk it up to an amp/speaker mismatch, break in, and park any final opinions until we can hear them in more venues, with great gear like Soulution, Vitus, Pass, etc.


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Completely agree...the M room on the other hand...I'm pretty sure I would have sold my soul to take that whole room home with me


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Patricia Barber Quartet was absolutely delightful. I appreciate the chromaticism, rhythmic departures, and her subtle huskiness. Superb musicianship all around!

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Mike said:
For $240,000 sans gear/cabling, I expect to be at least modestly impressed - given that it's a show in a nice big room. I wasn't. But let's just chalk it up to an amp/speaker mismatch, break in, and park any final opinions until we can hear them in more venues, with great gear like Soulution, Vitus, Pass, etc.


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Given how new the Q7 Mk II is & the size of their drivers and crossovers, I wouldn't be surprised if the speakers were well under done. Also, I think the pairing with Aesthetix amps was strange. Ok, the Atlas mono's are very good value at their price point, but I don't think that is the best match for synergy. I mean we're talking about one of the best speakers in the world. Yep, I wouldn't read too much into that. Just listen to Floyd rave about the M Pro's...why would the Q7 Mk II be any less impressive given the right amps, room, setup and adequate run in?
 
I would have loved to have heard Soulution 701's on these big bad boys.


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Don C said:
Patricia Barber Quartet was absolutely delightful. I appreciate the chromaticism, rhythmic departures, and her subtle huskiness. Superb musicianship all around!
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I love Patricia Barber. All her CDs are well recorded. I wonder if that is by accident, or she, and the band, insist on it?
 
Heckler75 said:
to be honest, very disappointing!

:|

sounded more like a hi-fi speaker!


IMO- seems like, the more expensive the rooms, the worst they sounded:weird:
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Which speaker? Q7 mk2?


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Mike said:
I would have loved to have heard Soulution 701's on these big bad boys.
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I gotta be honest with you Mike, and it might sound ridiculous since we're talking about $200k plus speakers but I have no interest in hearing them with $155,000 amplifiers. While I might spring for the speakers, I am in no way paying $155,000 for amplifiers. I'd rather hear the speakers with something in this stratosphere. If it takes $155K worth of amplifier to make them sound good then thanks but no thanks.

That said, I'm sure the speakers are great and they could sound very good with the Aesthetix. I doubt the Q7s are broken in properly. I think they only just arrived in town yesterday. What were the cables? I thought I saw KS Elation back there? They're good but certainly not great.

How's that for hypocrisy? I don't want your $155k amps but I want them to spend more on cables :P
 
Thanks for sharing. Very well done.

No Focal, Chord? I thought Chord might be debuting their new QBDxx flag ship DAC.
 
Bodhi said:
Given how new the Q7 Mk II is & the size of their drivers and crossovers, I wouldn't be surprised if the speakers were well under done. Also, I think the pairing with Aesthetix amps was strange. Ok, the Atlas mono's are very good value at their price point, but I don't think that is the best match for synergy. I mean we're talking about one of the best speakers in the world. Yep, I wouldn't read too much into that. Just listen to Floyd rave about the M Pro's...why would the Q7 Mk II be any less impressive given the right amps, room, setup and adequate run in?
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Not everyone agrees but it's only day 1. Mark and I walked away from the M-project room totally underwhelmed with both of us remarking the music-on small scale music-was lifeless. A quality that many rooms unfortunately shared today.

OTOH, we both hooked up later this afternoon and went to hear the Q7s. IMHO, the room was among the better sounds today playing two LPs that I was intimately familiar with (Neil Young at The Cellar Door and Superpercussion on SuperAnalogue Records). The Atlas amps acquitted themselves just fine driving the Q7s and one didn't hear that typical Magico show thinness and hardness. (Especially at the debut of the original Q7s). No artificial etching either. Today, no room save for the Q7 did an adequate job reproducing Neil's album. To a tee, most missed the recording's harmonic envelope. Others made his voice nasal and thin. Yet others just made it downright boring. Note that if this album doesn't reach your soul, then there's something seriously wrong with that system. No sense of that in the Q7 room at all.

Oh, and talk about low level resolution. Every little inner detail of Neil's piano playing was rendered in bold relief. Pedals moving. Little things going on inside the piano while he played. Little bangs and bonks.

The Q7s and Q-subs were more than up to the task of the percussion album really capturing the tone, dynamics, articulation, depth and harmonics of each of the different drums. In addition, many systems will lose the recordings's sense of air, recording space and space between the individual instruments not to mention transparency. All of these qualities were nicely rendered by the system. Boy was it easy to hear the back wall of the studio.

Different times, different recordings, cartridge wasn't warmed up. Something was changed, etc. Who knows?
 
Frank750 said:
I gotta be honest with you Mike, and it might sound ridiculous since we're talking about $200k plus speakers but I have no interest in hearing them with $155,000 amplifiers. While I might spring for the speakers, I am in no way paying $155,000 for amplifiers. I'd rather hear the speakers with something in this stratosphere. If it takes $155K worth of amplifier to make them sound good then thanks but no thanks.

That said, I'm sure the speakers are great and they could sound very good with the Aesthetix. I doubt the Q7s are broken in properly. I think they only just arrived in town yesterday. What were the cables? I thought I saw KS Elation back there? They're good but certainly not great.

How's that for hypocrisy? I don't want your $155k amps but I want them to spend more on cables :P
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Ha! I hear you. But those same cables were also used in my favorite room - SF Lilium/GS150. That ARC GS150 is something else.


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Frank750 said:
I gotta be honest with you Mike, and it might sound ridiculous since we're talking about $200k plus speakers but I have no interest in hearing them with $155,000 amplifiers. While I might spring for the speakers, I am in no way paying $155,000 for amplifiers. I'd rather hear the speakers with something in this stratosphere. If it takes $155K worth of amplifier to make them sound good then thanks but no thanks.

That said, I'm sure the speakers are great and they could sound very good with the Aesthetix. I doubt the Q7s are broken in properly. I think they only just arrived in town yesterday. What were the cables? I thought I saw KS Elation back there? They're good but certainly not great.

How's that for hypocrisy? I don't want your $155k amps but I want them to spend more on cables :P
Click to expand...


The speakers even need time to come up to room temperature. Alon will tell you 24 hours.
 
kzhtoo said:
Thanks for sharing. Very well done.

No Focal, Chord? I thought Chord might be debuting their new QBDxx flag ship DAC.
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Focal is here - just haven't had time to make it to all the rooms yet. No idea on Chord.


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Frank750 said:
I gotta be honest with you Mike, and it might sound ridiculous since we're talking about $200k plus speakers but I have no interest in hearing them with $155,000 amplifiers. While I might spring for the speakers, I am in no way paying $155,000 for amplifiers. I'd rather hear the speakers with something in this stratosphere. If it takes $155K worth of amplifier to make them sound good then thanks but no thanks.

That said, I'm sure the speakers are great and they could sound very good with the Aesthetix. I doubt the Q7s are broken in properly. I think they only just arrived in town yesterday. What were the cables? I thought I saw KS Elation back there? They're good but certainly not great.

How's that for hypocrisy? I don't want your $155k amps but I want them to spend more on cables :P
Click to expand...
I agree you don't need to spend $155k on amps. The Q7 Mk II's would sound great with a Vitus SS-102 & SL-102 pre (circa $68.5kUSD). Heck, 'even' my SIA-025 would drive the big Q7's no problem and sound wonderful. I recall Robert Youman paired his Q7's with a Vitus RI-100 ($16kUSD) and got great results!

The KS Elation cables are very good, though I rate Jorma Prime and certainly Statement higher in terms of both build quality and sound. Cables matter, but I rate speakers higher in importance to achieve good sound, followed by front end and amps equally, then cables and isolation slightly behind. Many 'philes don't agree with my approach (which is fine), but I have found it works for me.
 
How does D'agostino MLife sound? If I ever were to approach all in one box, that'd be it.
 
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