Focal, Pass XS and Lampi

Mike said:
Thanks Ken. I'm really excited about the Air Tight gear. The XS phono should be to me in 10-14 days. It should be a major step up from the XP15. The Siltech cables bring things to another level.

Will have to spend some time on the speaker front though. The Gauder RC7 mk2 are up there with a few others. You know a speaker I would love to try that is not crazy priced is the DynAudio C2 or C4 Platinum. My concern is the bass in my room. Will they work? Don't know.

Zellaton has peeked my interest too, as has Tidal and a few others. I really want to concentrate on some of the other technologies that the kids are using. [emoji6] For example, the differences between a well implemented ceramic tweeter and a well implemented diamond tweeter vs a more traditional soft dome tweeter or a ribbon.

I have a few requirements in mind: efficiency (for my AT gear), super smooth tweeter (I don't like bite and detest sibilance), bass friendly (because of my room), etc.
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Mike,

The one thing I wonder about the Zellatons is with their open rear design, how they would work in your upstairs room. I would think that speakers with forward, up or downfiring woofer ports would sound better than speakers with rear firing woofer ports in your room. Nevertheless, I have heard great things about the Zellatons. Best of luck in your speaker quest!

Ken
 
Ken - I would love to hear the Z's again, but my understanding is that they are brutal on amps (not a fit for modest power tube amps for example.)

Agree about the porting, but the STRADS are rear ported, so, hmmm...
 
Mike said:
Ken - I would love to hear the Z's again, but my understanding is that they are brutal on amps (not a fit for modest power tube amps for example.)

Agree about the porting, but the STRADS are rear ported, so, hmmm...
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Yup, but the Zellatons are literally open from top to bottom in the rear like a dipole speaker. I need to get to one of these audio shows so I can listen to Zellaton, Lampi, etc.
 
man that Zellation site is frustrating ...

Mike, would love to hear that Air Tight gear with some Wilson Benesch, especially these speakers & generators.



 
Wow Mike, the upstairs setup looks nicer than I'd imagined. I had a feeling you would try them out upstairs sooner than later :D

The system looks great! I can only guess how good it sounds...
 
MikeCh said:
Wow Mike, the upstairs setup looks nicer than I'd imagined. I had a feeling you would try them out upstairs sooner than later :D

The system looks great! I can only guess how good it sounds...
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Thanks Mike. As they say, if you're ever in town...
 
Mike, your room would be perfect for a pair of the Zellatons. Try those in that room and you will never want another pair again. An ex customer of mine from the 80's, when I was a dealer, now owns Hi Fi One in Carlsbad Ca. He is only one of two dealers in the US for Kaiser Kawero. I called him about two months ago and talked about the old days.

He asked me if I was still into the hobby and I told him I had Zellatons. His comment was, "wow, those speakers are as fast as Quads." He said the next time he passes through the Ozarks here, he will stop by and visit.

The amps I am now using are the DAC Cherry Marashino amps. The synergy on my system is incredible. It is pure magic and the Zellatons just totally disappear.

Mike, you would even get better sound since your room is superior to mine.
 
ozarktom said:
Mike, your room would be perfect for a pair of the Zellatons. Try those in that room and you will never want another pair again. An ex customer of mine from the 80's, when I was a dealer, now owns Hi Fi One in Carlsbad Ca. He is only one of two dealers in the US for Kaiser Kawero. I called him about two months ago and talked about the old days.

He asked me if I was still into the hobby and I told him I had Zellatons. His comment was, "wow, those speakers are as fast as Quads." He said the next time he passes through the Ozarks here, he will stop by and visit.

The amps I am now using are the DAC Cherry Marashino amps. The synergy on my system is incredible. It is pure magic and the Zellatons just totally disappear.

Mike, you would even get better sound since your room is superior to mine.
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I would love to hear the Z's in my room. But here's my question. Can they be driven by a 55 watt tube amp? I heard the Z's are absolute pigs for power/current. I love tube friendly speakers.

Mike
 
MDP said:
Looks good!

Quit holding back on your impressions :D
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Mike said:
45c56a66433eadfb0014859a01e5195e.jpg


Moved the Focal's upstairs for a demo with Pass this weekend. Sounding awesome!!
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Great pic of a gorgeous room. Impressed you got those monsters upstairs.
 
Mike said:
I would love to hear the Z's in my room. But here's my question. Can they be driven by a 55 watt tube amp? I heard the Z's are absolute pigs for power/current. I love tube friendly speakers.

Mike
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That should not be a problem. I have driven mine with a small 25 watt amp and I hear to get the absolute best sound out of Zellatons is use the 25 watt Audio Consulting power amp. If you go back and read the report when the Zellatons were at the New York audio show a few years ago, they were running a pair of the 30 watt David Berning tube amps.

Personally, I have never read a report that the Z's were power hungry. What is nice, a Job 225 amp or the Marashino cherry amps sounds wonderful with the Z's. You don't have to spend megabucks on an amplifier to get great sound.
 
the only specs I could find say the SR-1 is a 86db speaker into a nominal 4 ohm impedance---so it most likely would measure even less sensitive. i wouldn't consider that 50-watt amp tube territory...or perhaps better said, I'd want to hear it first.

i should also add, i consider Zellatons website very poor in this regard as they don't post specs of their loudspeakers.
 
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