Well respected speakers that you don't like

nbrowser said:
hrm let the fur fly...I've personally heard the Focal Grande Utopia EM speakers powered by a huge stack of Bryston gear. My impressions...meh. Honestly too sterile and not a lot of fun in the presentation. I like a fun speaker, one you can hear someone had fun in mind when they designed it.
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Any examples?


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nbrowser said:
hrm let the fur fly...I've personally heard the Focal Grande Utopia EM speakers powered by a huge stack of Bryston gear. My impressions...meh. Honestly too sterile and not a lot of fun in the presentation. I like a fun speaker, one you can hear someone had fun in mind when they designed it.
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Perhaps what you were having problem with were the Bryston amps. At CAS I heard Focal with amps brought by Recording Engineer Bob Hodus and it was by far the best I have heard from Focal. In HK I heard Focal with YS electronics and it too was spectacular. The HK based company I had never heard of and the amplifiers were $500,000 US for the preamp and power amps but it was one of the rare times I have actually LOVED SS amplifiers. Unfortunately the price is dizzying (and I liked the sound before I knew the price). Bryston got me into the high end - but it's funny - now I can barely stomach it for more than 5 minutes.
 
nbrowser said:
hrm let the fur fly...I've personally heard the Focal Grande Utopia EM speakers powered by a huge stack of Bryston gear. My impressions...meh. Honestly too sterile and not a lot of fun in the presentation. I like a fun speaker, one you can hear someone had fun in mind when they designed it.
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This is not a good sign for the Bryston gear. I have heard them play with the Naim Statement amp and that was stunning. One of the best sound reproductions I have ever experienced and definitely the most relaxed one.
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Also with McIntosh gear (not my favorite amps) the sound is amazing, as demoed here in Tilburg, The Netherlands
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To be fair guys, comparing Bryston gear to Naim Statement isn't quite fair. The Bryston gear has a market and a place. The Bryston 28SST2's driving a pair of Maggie 20.7's would give anyone world class sound reproduction at a fraction of the price of some of these other big systems.

Like the Hegel H30, the Bryston 28SST2's are hard to beat under $20,000 for difficult to drive speakers (which the Focals are not).
 
Mike said:
To be fair guys, comparing Bryston gear to Naim Statement isn't quite fair. The Bryston gear has a market and a place. The Bryston 28SST2's driving a pair of Maggie 20.7's would give anyone world class sound reproduction at a fraction of the price of some of these other big systems.

Like the Hegel H30, the Bryston 28SST2's are hard to beat under $20,000 for difficult to drive speakers (which the Focals are not).
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Fair enough. And I don't judge on the Bryston amps I just figured that if you don't like the Grande Utopia's it most be another source.
 
mep said:
I gave you credit for giving the most honest assessment yet of Raidho speakers and I could feel your frustration in your post. I hope it works out for you.
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Dude, All kidding aside, why can you only focus on comments people make about the Raidho's set-up complexity and ignore all of the exceptionally positive points people make about how phenomenal the speakers can be when dialed in properly?

So all of the people that absolutely love their Raidho's and don't want to sell them aren't as honest as our friend Bobo? You really come off as having an odd fixation for someone who has never heard the speaker.
 
I'm not convinced AT ALL by Magnepan with anything let alone Bryston. My dealer in British Columbia carries both lines and neither is their favorite.

I remember listening to an AN System in their basement room - listened to classical, jazz, pop, and some soft rock (Jackson Browne). Went up to listen to the flagship Magnepans with the flagship Bryston and Classe gear. I listened for a time and was stunned at how truly pathetic it sounded compared to the AN system below (which was half the price). I looked over at the dealer and he simply smiled and said "we know."

Mind you I get the appeal of them - but a lot of people including me don't REMOTELY associate Magnepan with World Class. One man's poison...
 
wisnon said:
Ypsilon?

High End Swiss 2014: Ypsilon, Backes & Muller | The Audio Traveler
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Yes exactly! And what I see in your message: Backes & Müller is a brand I actually do like! This was one of the positive surprises of the Münich High-End 2014. I visited a demo of the big ones with te wooden finish (BM20 or BM30 i believe) and that was awesome. It filled the big room with the most beautiful and realistic high-end sound reproduction. And lots of power too...
 
No it's not Ypsilon. (though I had Ypsilon a tied show winner in 2012). But I believe it was a big power tube or tube hybrid).

There are two companies with the same name in HK - one is YS Audio - a tube maker I have not heard. The other is SS but alas I can find no website. They may only sell to the Chinese market. I've been looking for ages for a website. There is a big tube amp maker here who seems to target just HK as well Sound Master although he one dabbled in the west - he had an old pair of Avalons that he managed to make sound excellent and with KT88s which I normally don't like.

I wish I asked more about YS but $500k I kinda of just said thanks and left. And I remember liking Technical Brain a whole lot on sound but apparently they all fail - and they were pricey. So I would wait for Western representation regardless.
 
Thanks Richard, I'm a regular traveler to HK. I was familiar with the YS Electronics (tube manufacturer), wanted to know if its the same company? Regardless, I just bought the Gryphon gear.... and I'm not 500k insane, lol, so I'm not in the market, but always curious. For those of you not familiar with the Asian market, there are a number of companies over there making excellent gear that never gets exported out out of the region.
 
I also really liked the Analog Domain gear - I liked it over Shindo in the same room. And I'm a single ended triode sorta guy. To be fair the AD stuff was about 5 times the price - and I personally think Shindo is better on the preamp side of things. Shindo Petrus with the $100k AN Kegons was spectacular.

The Focal stuff I hated the first several times - Bob Hodus at CAS changed my mind. He was running the tape project and I just can't remember the amps he was using. But they actually raised the speakers a few inches off the ground and he claimed this was part of the big reason they sounded so good - blanketing the wall behind them in treatments also likely helped. I didn't end up choosing them in my final 4 of that show because they were not selling gear (it was the tap project) but it was the runner up room. Speakers I kinda hated wound up being pretty terrific. (That's why this thread is a bit funny. I try to hear everything at least 3 different times in 3 locations with appropriate gear). Shows are often dreadful.

I nearly bought the Micro-Utopia second hand for the small monitor system. I wound up getting the KEF LS-50 - but if I could have a do-over I would have taken the Focal.

Lastly you're right about some of the Asian stuff - I saw Line Magnetic's new line at the dealer here and oh boy does that stuff look incredible. But the pre with monoblocks is going to easily run $25,000 US and with the "Made in China" factor that is going to have to sound twice as good to get any respect from the anti-Chinese sentiment out there.

I really want to hear these for $27,000 - each monoblock is 204kg and is about 5 feet tall. A whopping 20ish watts per channel - lol - but how do you actually work it? eesh

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RichardAusten said:
I also really liked the Analog Domain gear - I liked it over Shindo in the same room. And I'm a single ended triode sorta guy. To be fair the AD stuff was about 5 times the price - and I personally think Shindo is better on the preamp side of things. Shindo Petrus with the $100k AN Kegons was spectacular.

The Focal stuff I hated the first several times - Bob Hodus at CAS changed my mind. He was running the tape project and I just can't remember the amps he was using. But they actually raised the speakers a few inches off the ground and he claimed this was part of the big reason they sounded so good - blanketing the wall behind them in treatments also likely helped. I didn't end up choosing them in my final 4 of that show because they were not selling gear (it was the tap project) but it was the runner up room. Speakers I kinda hated wound up being pretty terrific. (That's why this thread is a bit funny. I try to hear everything at least 3 different times in 3 locations with appropriate gear). Shows are often dreadful.

I nearly bought the Micro-Utopia second hand for the small monitor system. I wound up getting the KEF LS-50 - but if I could have a do-over I would have taken the Focal.

Lastly you're right about some of the Asian stuff - I saw Line Magnetic's new line at the dealer here and oh boy does that stuff look incredible. But the pre with monoblocks is going to easily run $25,000 US and with the "Made in China" factor that is going to have to sound twice as good to get any respect from the anti-Chinese sentiment out there.

I really want to hear these for $27,000 - each monoblock is 204kg and is about 5 feet tall. A whopping 20ish watts per channel - lol - but how do you actually work it? eesh

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The amps that were used in Focal/Bob Hodus room were VTL big mono blocks. Exact model slipped my mind. Focal's were Scala Utopia. Agree, that room was refreshing and stood out.
 
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