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a Decware Sunday (Read 5552 times)
gnat leader
Ex Member



a Decware Sunday
06/14/06 at 02:26:07
 
This post was originally here and here so some comments are there.

My comments at bottom below pictures...

Well, I may have unintentionally just sold a pair of HDT's for Steve and possible and CSP to boot.  Steve D., where's my commision? Wink

My buddy Steve K. and I had a mini listening session. He already had my CSP hooked up to his Art Audio Carissa amp. I brought my HDT's over his place today and left the for a while.  We gave a listen to a few disks on different combination of equipment.  The disks were good quality recordings, not awesome, but just good.  I forget the album names but Steve pulled out Natilie Merchant, Aimee Mann, while I had brought some of my current favorite Marcio Faraco (Brazilian jazz) 'cause I thought Steve would like him, which he did.  We had limited time so we focused on changes in equipment and listening mostly to Faraco.  Equipment listened to:

Speakers: Decware HDT, Reference 3A Royal Virtuoso
Amps: Art Audio Carissa, Decware TABOO, Charlize DIY chip amp   w/10amp switching supply
Preamp: Decware CSP w/cryo Sovtek 6N1P's
Source: Sony 9000ES w/Modwright mods
cabling: All cables were expensive looking snake-like beasts - I didn't enquire about their brands.
Room: No treatments, approx 15'x15', listening at approx 8' triangle, toe'd in pretty much directly at the listener.

Sorry for the quality. I snapped them with my phone... thought some of you might find them interesting...











my comments in short...

Ref 3A Royal Virtuosos: good sounding laid back sound, surprising bass for bookshelf speaker (though this *is* a small room).

HDT w/DFR8 drivers: Note the DFR8's are still not fully broken in.  On all amps including the Carissa we both thought the HDT's sounded better than the 3A's. Way more midrange detail, better bass, more "you are there" presense. I already kinda knew what to expect.  Though I wish I could get the bass we heard in my MUCH bigger room.  In this small room, the bass was not lacking at all.  Def no need for a sub.  Notable comments I heard from Steve, were... "they remind me of Quads in a way"... "wow, that's freaking awesome!"(that was with the CSP,  HDT+Carissa)...and..."that's the best sound I've ever heard in this room".  The treble did not seem to be lacking at all.  A helper tweeter does not seem to be needed with the DFR8's the way that I felt necessary with the FE206EM (with felted phase plug).

Carissa:  In this room, with this equipment, I preferred slightly the sound of the Carissa + CSP.  I just wish it didn't cost $7000, ~ 10 times what the TABOO costs!

TABOO:  (cryo treated SV83's and cryo Sovtek 12ax7-LPS) The sound was very good, approaching the Carissa in most ways. We both thought the bass with the TABOO was better than the Carissa - which really surprised me (it's an 845 SET).  I liked the mids from the Carissa a little more.  There was a problem with one channel distorting when we turned the volume up.  I swapped the power tubes and the noise followed, so it looks like one of the SV83's was bad and I didn't have a spare.  With the volume down it still sounded very good.  Steve said he could difinitely live with this sound.

CSP:  Not much to say. It made everthing sound better except the Charlize.  Not much difference there.  Could be I'm using all cryo treated Sovtek 6N1P's.  Maybe tube rolling (6922's?) would help?

Charlize: For the price the sound is quite good, but some brightness and listener fatigue there.  CSP smoothed out slight graininess but didn't fix the upper mids brightness.  IMO a great second system amp but won't have me selling my tube gear.  I've heard this amp sound better - with my DIY K-slot horns.

I hope someone finds this info interesting.

GL out.



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gnat leader
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Re: a Decware Sunday
Reply #1 - 06/18/06 at 19:08:08
 
TABOO: Yep, was a marginal SV83.  Swapped in another one and it could be turned up fairly loud without distortion.  Steve K. still has my HDT's so I've been listening to my K-Slot Horns.  Absolutely lovely mids now that I've put some stuffing in the CC. Lower mids especially bloooooom. Chris Isaaks voice sounds awesome.  :)
It's great to have my beloved TABOO and CSP back in the house.


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