But also, it's the ability to play loud
I now run VAC Master 300 monoblocks on my 96 dB/Watt Canterbury, play loud, and love it. There's a perception of limitless dynamics and very much a "you are there, and the music is alive" feel.
What's surprised you gear or cable wise?
- Thread starter Michaels HiFi
- Start date
I now run VAC Master 300 monoblocks on my 96 dB/Watt Canterbury, play loud, and love it. There's a perception of limitless dynamics and very much a "you are there, and the music is alive" feel.
chops
Active member
Two big surprises for me that stand out the most over the years...
1) The big, ugly, huge dual 15" open baffle subwoofers I designed and built 20+ years ago. Flat to 16 Hz on their own, EQ only used to tame down a slight peak around 60 Hz. The most natural, most realistic, most dynamic bass you could ever imagine. To this day, STILL the best sounding subwoofers I've ever heard at any price point by any manufacturer.
2) These beautiful Odyssey Audio Stratus monoblock amps. At nearly half the power of the stereo Emotiva amp that they replaced, these amps sound stronger and cleaner, and they make my Maggies and subs sound much larger and more powerful. Imaging and sound staging is much better as well.
1) The big, ugly, huge dual 15" open baffle subwoofers I designed and built 20+ years ago. Flat to 16 Hz on their own, EQ only used to tame down a slight peak around 60 Hz. The most natural, most realistic, most dynamic bass you could ever imagine. To this day, STILL the best sounding subwoofers I've ever heard at any price point by any manufacturer.
2) These beautiful Odyssey Audio Stratus monoblock amps. At nearly half the power of the stereo Emotiva amp that they replaced, these amps sound stronger and cleaner, and they make my Maggies and subs sound much larger and more powerful. Imaging and sound staging is much better as well.
Dizzie
Well-known member
I forgot to add I did not feel there was any signal degradation using 6.5M high quality balanced (XLR) interconnects.
atmasphere
Active member
I don't think I would want to go back from having easy to drive speakers. Mine are 98dB, 16 Ohms and flat to 20Hz, using field coil drivers (Classic Audio Loudspeakers T3). When I heard the first version back in the late 1990s, I bought them right away and have yet to hear anything surpass them.
The next eye opener for me was the use of a Distributed Bass Array. The first person to seriously offer any such thing to high end audio was Duke LeJeurne of Audiokinesis, with a sub called the Swarm. Finally a solution for that pesky loss of bass at the listening chair, while the rear of the room would be just fine. So I use a pair of the Swarm subs in my system to break up standing waves. Really effective. If I had it to do over, I'd run four of his subs and the main speakers would be a bit smaller since no need to plumb the bottom octave, but I really don't want to give up that efficiency of the mains. Easy enough, but I already have the best speakers I've heard so I don't expect to make a move.
Finally class D offered something to me sonically a few years back that caused me to sit up and pay attention. I'd thought for years it was a sort of rising star in high end audio, at this point I realized that as a manufacturer, if we didn't get a handle on it we'd get left behind. From a designer's point of view, class D offers some solutions that are very difficult if not downright impossible with conventional amps: getting a really good Gain Bandwidth Product value, something essential if you want to apply feedback to an amplifier properly. We had avoided feedback in our OTLs precisely for this reason; if you don't have enough GBP in your design, the result is usually distortion rising with frequency. If distortion does not rise with frequency, the amp stands a much better chance of sounding like real music. Finally there's something out there that can give you the smoothness thru the mids and highs that you expect of an excellent tube amp without any tradeoffs except overload (which is otherwise instantaneous). Since I'm a tube aficionado, to me this also means that class D is able to take on A and AB solid state amps and still come out on top. The result of that in my own system has been great; no more tube worries, no heat, smaller size and best of all, better sound.
The next eye opener for me was the use of a Distributed Bass Array. The first person to seriously offer any such thing to high end audio was Duke LeJeurne of Audiokinesis, with a sub called the Swarm. Finally a solution for that pesky loss of bass at the listening chair, while the rear of the room would be just fine. So I use a pair of the Swarm subs in my system to break up standing waves. Really effective. If I had it to do over, I'd run four of his subs and the main speakers would be a bit smaller since no need to plumb the bottom octave, but I really don't want to give up that efficiency of the mains. Easy enough, but I already have the best speakers I've heard so I don't expect to make a move.
Finally class D offered something to me sonically a few years back that caused me to sit up and pay attention. I'd thought for years it was a sort of rising star in high end audio, at this point I realized that as a manufacturer, if we didn't get a handle on it we'd get left behind. From a designer's point of view, class D offers some solutions that are very difficult if not downright impossible with conventional amps: getting a really good Gain Bandwidth Product value, something essential if you want to apply feedback to an amplifier properly. We had avoided feedback in our OTLs precisely for this reason; if you don't have enough GBP in your design, the result is usually distortion rising with frequency. If distortion does not rise with frequency, the amp stands a much better chance of sounding like real music. Finally there's something out there that can give you the smoothness thru the mids and highs that you expect of an excellent tube amp without any tradeoffs except overload (which is otherwise instantaneous). Since I'm a tube aficionado, to me this also means that class D is able to take on A and AB solid state amps and still come out on top. The result of that in my own system has been great; no more tube worries, no heat, smaller size and best of all, better sound.
Puma Cat
Well-known member
I heard those at AXPONA in Gary Leeds's room and they were superb. Using the big TOTL Lampizator DAC, the Horizon, too.
If memory serves, the Westminster Labs Rei monos were designed by Angus Leung, who also happens to work with Lumin, and if my hypothesis is correct, also designed Lumin's amp, named...AMP.
Given how good the Reis sounded, I'd love to hear AMP sometime, too.
I heard those at AXPONA in Gary Leeds's room and they were superb. Using the big TOTL Lampizator DAC, the Horizon, too.
If memory serves, the Westminster Labs Rei monos were designed by Angus Leung, who also happens to work with Lumin, and if my hypothesis is correct, also designed Lumin's amp, named...AMP.
Given how good the Reis sounded, I'd love to hear AMP sometime, too.
Yes, Westminster Lab is Angus Leung's company. The AMP Angus designed for Lumin is Class AB, the Westminster Lab Rei is Class A. Both small but mighty.
a.wayne
Well-known member
Flat to 20hz :roflmao:
Would love to see some data on these flat to 20hz transducers, heck any data period to back any of your claims Ralph , seeing in 25 yrs not one editorial has ever tested any of your products for real bench data to back up your claims ..
BTW the Bass array was around way before Duke , some of us were dumb enuff to try 4ch back when it was thought to be the way , guess how the subs were arranged
So feel free to post up some actual bench measurements of these greatest of all time audio gear ..!
Regards
Mr Peabody
Well-known member
I was not impressed by the Westminster amp audition at Axpona. Especially when I put on some music that wasn't for going to sleep. I'm familiar with the Horizon. I thought Westminster may just not be a good match with VS. Another issue could have been if they were using the Horizon as preamp, in my opinion it's weak in that area.
I would have loved not ending up with a 100 lb amp again but that's where my ears are.
I would have loved not ending up with a 100 lb amp again but that's where my ears are.
Mr Peabody
Well-known member
No, the music they played in that room was for going to sleep.
The sound of the system didn't have any punch or liveliness to it. Well, that would indicate sort of sleepy. Hmmm, it didn't seem slow more like a lack of transient response (balls). That system didn't do drums well. I played a small portion of a song that was pretty energetic before they changed it back to something slow. I could be wrong but I got the impression they knew something was off.
Enough people like the amps so I'm inclined to believe it was just not a good demo and hopefully I'll get a chance to hear them again.
I thought for a newcomer Class A amp the Infigo was much better based on my auditions.
The sound of the system didn't have any punch or liveliness to it. Well, that would indicate sort of sleepy. Hmmm, it didn't seem slow more like a lack of transient response (balls). That system didn't do drums well. I played a small portion of a song that was pretty energetic before they changed it back to something slow. I could be wrong but I got the impression they knew something was off.
Enough people like the amps so I'm inclined to believe it was just not a good demo and hopefully I'll get a chance to hear them again.
I thought for a newcomer Class A amp the Infigo was much better based on my auditions.
Ok. Sounds like we heard the same sleepy sounds.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Michaels HiFi
Well-known member
- Thread Author
- #53
Is MIT still in existence? I haven't heard anyone in HiFi mention MIT in decades.
JCS123
Active member
I am also running Odyssey amps into Maggies (Kismets > LRS) with SVS subs and like you, I am happy as a clam.
There's been a large stock of MIT cables that the dealer on Audiogon has been trying to unload for years now. Beyond that, by all accounts it looks like MIT the company was abandoned and is now defunct.
Puma Cat
Well-known member
Yeah, that was my understanding as well.
audio.bill
Active member
Not so fast...
I recently saw a post on another forum from an MIT dealer stating he recently placed an order, and then the following was shared:This was posted by MIT on Facebook
Greetings from MIT Cables.
We wanted to give everyone an update on what is happening at MIT. First, we want to thank everyone for their support as we are in the process of making some changes.
As you have probably noticed, our website WordPress › Error has been down for a week or so. We had some issues with the host that we had been using for our website connecting with WordPress and are in the process of moving over to a new host. We hope that we have that up and running within the next week.
Some of you may have heard that we are in the process of moving our factory. We wanted to let everyone know that we have successfully completed the move of factory to Reno, Nevada. Along with this move, we have added more inventory as well as invested in High-Tech automated test and measurement equipment aimed at improving QA & QC while still being proudly Built in the U.S.A.
Because many of the parts we demand have become difficult to purchase, we are very excited about this increase in inventory along with the addition of our new equipment, as this will vastly improve our turnaround times for orders while improving the quality of our products.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at [email protected]
MIT Cable
Michaels HiFi
Well-known member
- Thread Author
- #58
Not so fast...
MIT Cable[/I]
Thanks for sharing.
Does anyone really still buy MIT? They have virtually no presence nor marketing that I've seen for sooooo long, I forgot they even existed.
mep
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2013
- Messages
- 5,090
