Mike's system

Mordante said:
Has Karma improved their sound so much? The few times I heard them 5 to 10 years ago. I was always a bit embarrassed I heard they have Dutch roots. Not sure if they are still being sold in the Netherlands.
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That's a petty trivial shitty comment from someone that should know better.
 
TheOctopus said:
Where do hearing aids rank in psychoacoustics vs acoustics? I know some audiophiles that wear hearing aids and are buying very expensive audio systems. Nothing like the sound of a hearing aid translating the expensive sound of an audio system that only the neighbor can hear in true fidelity? :rolleyes:
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Maybe they could hear better than you in the first place. That's as random as me accusing you of being an ice addicted ranga. How's that working for ya?
:congrats:
 
bzr said:
Maybe they could hear better than you in the first place. That's as random as me accusing you of being an ice addicted ranga. How's that working for ya?
:congrats:
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I'm trying to figure out why hearing aids were brought up in a thread about Mike's system.
 
Update on the Kharma’s. My room has definitely provided some challenges for a couple of speakers out there, but the Kharma’s are champs. They are easily one of the best speakers I’ve ever had in my room and I could argue tied with the Avantgarde’s for “the best” in my room. I feel my room had too much absorption for the MBL’s and I had planned to take it all down this summer prior to getting the call from MBL asking me to sell them to a lady who didn’t want to wait.

Prior to bringing home the Kharma’s, I was worried maybe the bass would be too much or there would be some other issue, but nope, I can safely use the “P” word….Perfect. The only thing I want to try now is either the DB11-S or MIDI Exquisite.

The Harbeth’s are renown for their midrange, but I have to say, these are as good. The top end of the Kharma’s gives you all the detail, but it never crosses that line…ever.

The dynamics are outstanding. It’s really hard to believe the dynamics these produce. I’m not going to say horn like dynamics, but damn….close.

I’m currently running the Boulder 1161/1110 with the MBL N31 and Aurender N20 while I wait for a mountain of NAIM 500 gear. Speaker cables are NAIM SuperLumina.

For fun yesterday, I tried the B&W DB1D subs I have in my room. Used a microphone, pink noise, dialed them in and they are barely moving, but I like what they added.

The one other thing I’ve noticed is how the Kharma’s handle bad recordings - think Adele for example. I played Adele and instantly thought this was the best I had heard her music and found myself listening to 21 and 25 all the way through. I also played a 1960’s recording - Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Waters to see how they handled that piano crescendo at around the 2:50 mark in the song. They kept everything so composed and controlled and never crossed the line into sounding shrill. Brilliant.
 
I look forward to hearing how they match up to the Naim 500 system Mike. I'm never quite sure where on the spectrum of 'high current' or 'high load handling' the NAP 500 lands. Not because it's not a big chunk of amp but because Naim's topology is just a little different (I think).

And I don't know where in the load spectrum your Kharmas lie vs. say Magico A3/5.
 
TheOctopus said:
So then we can agree that Kharma are pleasantly colored speakers? :cool:
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Not at all. The cabinet construction is excellent, so no coloration there unlike some speakers. Details on the cabinet construction is here:

Cabinets - Kharma

I think if you take some time and read about the Kharma Particle (no, they aren’t being coy with some marketing term), you’ll get a glimpse as to why owners are saying what they say.

Check out The Absolute Sound for the founders definition of what he calls The Kharma Particle.

Kharma Exquisite-Midi Loudspeaker - The Absolute Sound
 
Mike said:
Not at all. The cabinet construction is excellent, so no coloration there unlike some speakers. Details on the cabinet construction is here:

Cabinets - Kharma

I think if you take some time and read about the Kharma Particle (no, they aren’t being coy with some marketing term), you’ll get a glimpse as to why owners are saying what they say.

Check out The Absolute Sound for the founders definition of what he calls The Kharma Particle.

Kharma Exquisite-Midi Loudspeaker - The Absolute Sound
Click to expand...

Mike, I get that you like the speaker. I did not say anything bad about it. :)

Karma speaker is able to be neutral through careful cabinet design, construction, materials, optimal driver selection and fine tuned with state of the art crossover. It remains neutral but recognizes bad recordings and adjusts its neutrality bias for a more euphonic response. :)

They have not encoded the music for the speaker chip yet. I’m sure Bob Stuart has probably thought of it already. Good recordings this way through the crossover filter, the bad recordings please step this way through the proprietary DSP filter that Bob will charge manufacturers for… :D

One can’t have their cake and eat it too. I’m ok with technicolor by the way. I quite enjoy music that has meat on the bones and has a response that draws me in instead of making me tense expecting assault on the ears with every bad note. So if Kharma is able to achieve a level of musicality that pleases instead of offends, it’s my kind of speaker.
 
What this world needs is less self proclaimed expert fact checkers and less neutral speakers. Life is too short to be playing recording engineer at home. I want to click play on Roon and be whisked away in all the glory of jazz. I could care less how accurate of a simile the music is to that moment some 50-60 years ago, as long as the saxophone takes my mind away from all else in the world. Yes, the world needs more of that
 
Bart001 said:
"How has Michael Børresen, Raidho’s world-class speaker-designer, managed a magic trick this astounding? The answer is by putting psychoacoustics ahead of acoustics—by making the way we actually hear music in real venues his prime engineering goal. Børresen’s formula is simple and logical: Since our ears are most sensitive in the 1–7kHz range and least sensitive in the 20Hz– 100Hz region, Børresen deliberately reduces energy in the presence and brilliance ranges and boosts it in the mid-to-upper bass, voicing his speakers to sound flat to the ear rather than to measure flat to a microphone."

Raidho Acoustics D-5 Loudspeaker - The Absolute Sound
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This is a known , Known, It’s been used for decades and during the serious audio days of EQ it was known simply as the smiley face setting , more scientific circles known as the FM curve ..

:)


Regards
 
Mike said:
Update on the Kharma’s. My room has definitely provided some challenges for a couple of speakers out there, but the Kharma’s are champs. They are easily one of the best speakers I’ve ever had in my room and I could argue tied with the Avantgarde’s for “the best” in my room. I feel my room had too much absorption for the MBL’s and I had planned to take it all down this summer prior to getting the call from MBL asking me to sell them to a lady who didn’t want to wait.

Prior to bringing home the Kharma’s, I was worried maybe the bass would be too much or there would be some other issue, but nope, I can safely use the “P” word….Perfect. The only thing I want to try now is either the DB11-S or MIDI Exquisite.

The Harbeth’s are renown for their midrange, but I have to say, these are as good. The top end of the Kharma’s gives you all the detail, but it never crosses that line…ever.

The dynamics are outstanding. It’s really hard to believe the dynamics these produce. I’m not going to say horn like dynamics, but damn….close.

I’m currently running the Boulder 1161/1110 with the MBL N31 and Aurender N20 while I wait for a mountain of NAIM 500 gear. Speaker cables are NAIM SuperLumina.

For fun yesterday, I tried the B&W DB1D subs I have in my room. Used a microphone, pink noise, dialed them in and they are barely moving, but I like what they added.

The one other thing I’ve noticed is how the Kharma’s handle bad recordings - think Adele for example. I played Adele and instantly thought this was the best I had heard her music and found myself listening to 21 and 25 all the way through. I also played a 1960’s recording - Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Waters to see how they handled that piano crescendo at around the 2:50 mark in the song. They kept everything so composed and controlled and never crossed the line into sounding shrill. Brilliant.
Click to expand...

I had wondered but never asked how the MBL’s fared in your room knowing how treated , glad you covered the topic ..


:)
 
TheOctopus said:
Mike, I get that you like the speaker. I did not say anything bad about it. :)

Karma speaker is able to be neutral through careful cabinet design, construction, materials, optimal driver selection and fine tuned with state of the art crossover. It remains neutral but recognizes bad recordings and adjusts its neutrality bias for a more euphonic response. :)

They have not encoded the music for the speaker chip yet. I’m sure Bob Stuart has probably thought of it already. Good recordings this way through the crossover filter, the bad recordings please step this way through the proprietary DSP filter that Bob will charge manufacturers for… :D

One can’t have their cake and eat it too. I’m ok with technicolor by the way. I quite enjoy music that has meat on the bones and has a response that draws me in instead of making me tense expecting assault on the ears with every bad note. So if Kharma is able to achieve a level of musicality that pleases instead of offends, it’s my kind of speaker.
Click to expand...


No Dr Neophyte ,

It’s able to let you hear once thought bad recordings in a more neutral light , without the added coloration and distortions these type of recording are rendered with more clarity and are thus less Objectionable...

Regards ...
 
Mike said:
… I also played a 1960’s recording - Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Waters to see how they handled that piano crescendo at around the 2:50 mark in the song. They kept everything so composed and controlled and never crossed the line into sounding shrill. Brilliant.
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Mike, is this a reference track for you? I appreciate you calling out the specific part of the song you listen for. Can you share other examples?

(I bought a sealed copy of “Bridge over troubled waters”, sadly it sounded like crap.)
 
Bobvin said:
Mike, is this a reference track for you? I appreciate you calling out the specific part of the song you listen for. Can you share other examples?

(I bought a sealed copy of “Bridge over troubled waters”, sadly it sounded like crap.)
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here is the one you want, the 4 disc 45rpm Classic pressing. really fine sounding. "The Boxer" is revelatory. owned it since 1999. i started College in 69'-70', this was a fav of mine then and since, and so i had a very strong impression of how this should and might sound. the Classic 4-disc blew my mind. i finally heard how it should sound.

Simon And Garfunkel – Bridge Over Troubled Water (1999, 180 Gram, Vinyl) - Discogs

i'll have to drag it out again and listen for that piano crescendo. can't recall how 'clean' it is off the top of my head.
 
Bobvin said:
Mike, is this a reference track for you? I appreciate you calling out the specific part of the song you listen for. Can you share other examples?

(I bought a sealed copy of “Bridge over troubled waters”, sadly it sounded like crap.)
Click to expand...

I was playing this QoBuz version:

e6717b94976cc17a3a23b0a8038b226a.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
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