Hello Dre. That is kind of tough because I only spent a few hours listening with Myles. I really enjoyed meeting Myles and having a chance to hear his system about which I had read so much. A good friend up here in Boston suggested I visit because he had heard the system and remarked about just how good those S5mk2s sounded in that room.
I would say the main difference has to do with soundstaging and imaging: spatial resolution, listener perspective, scale and sense of presence. Myles has a fantastic music collection. He played for me two choral recordings, one of which I bought previously on his recommendation: Holst, Six Medieval Lyrics, Argo ZrG 5495, and The King's Singers, A French Collection, EMI CSD 3740.
We listened to a lot of music, but for the sake of simplicity, these two recordings should illustrate the sonic contrasts and differences from a system/room context that I heard. We played the first tracks from each LP. Both recordings sounded highly resolved and natural, but very similar in terms of presentation. I enjoy the music and I quickly forgot about the system and instead just relaxed and marveled at how good the system sounded. I was quite surprised because despite what I had read, I was expecting a really small presentation given the size of the room. I guess I was also expecting the speakers to perhaps overload the room, given their large size relative to the room. This was not the case.
The system and speakers disappeared and we were left with the music. The Holst is a large male choir with some string instruments. The individual singers were spread from left to right and filled the front wall. The image was recessed back behind the system near the front wall. Each voice was distinct, clear, and articulate. Myles remarked that if I liked the Holst, I would love the The King's Singers. This is a much smaller ensemble of six male singers. The recording is a stand out and sonic marvel. Resolution was off the charts. However, the singers occupied about the same space in the room, they just sounded bigger.
When I returned home, I bought a copy of the King's Singers to hear in my own system. In my room, there is a larger contrast between the two recordings. The image of the Holst fills the front wall from right to left, and the singers are slightly further back in the space than at Myles' place. The King's Singers however, are more forward, and are more or less at the plane of the speakers. They do not fill the front wall, but rather seem up close and personal, located from the outside edge of one speaker to the other. They are extremely present, in the room. The differences in scale, listener perspective, and sense of presence is more distinct between the two recordings. There is more spatial information and recording space acoustic. The contrast between the recordings is pretty clear.
At first I also thought Myles' system was a bit warmer than mine, with slightly more body and weight, though not energy. My sound had been a bit thin, I thought, based on what I heard at Myles', and some recent live music concerts, both large and small scale. I have been experimenting with cartridge loading and slight speaker positioning adjustments. This has resulted in considerably more weight, body, and warmth. I would now say that my system has a tonal balance which I think is very similar to what I heard at Myles. So, after the visit, I would have said that Myles' system had a richer, warmer tonal balance, and mine was thinner and slightly cooler, but I no longer think that is the case.
I don't know how responsive the S5 Mk2 is to such changes of speaker position and up stream vinyl adjustments, but the Q3 is a chameleon when it comes to upstream set up and gear changes. It really seems to have very little sound of its own. It is really hard to say that the differences I notice between our two systems have anything to do with the speakers. I think they are more likely based on the two rooms.
I did not hear differences that I might have attributed to solid stage versus tube electrics, belt drive versus direct drive turntables, etc. I should add that I was astonished at the spatial information and sheer experience of listening to his tape of Dark Side of the Moon. That was fantastic. It filled the room to a much greater extent than did his other recordings.
In the end, I actually think our two systems sound much more alike than I would have thought given the differences in components and typologies. In no way can I reach any conclusions about the sonic differences of the two speakers simply based on what I hear from our two systems.
