Brad,
I'll try to answer this, from what I hear, not why it's changed......
First off, when Steve first built the CSP2 and told me how good it was, I didn't jump on the band wagon and buy one, I was completely satisfied with the CSP, other than the head phone feature, I didn't think it was going to make that much of a difference. Steve also did not want to modify my CSP because I had built mine, and it was my first build, and I was a bit proud of it. Then we figured I could build my own CSP2 some day, and we kind of left it at that for a while, then a phone call from Steve, telling me the difference was someone buying a pair of speakers, and someone telling me they'd think about it. I'm not sure this is a money making thing on his part, half the time in the evening when I talk to Steve, its late and he's still out soldering on amps. The best part for me was getting an 8, on a scale of 1-10 for my work, I was happy!!!!
Richer sound with more weight...I think that is due to the more dynamics, the mids to lower mids are cleaner with more leading edge snap, yet the sustain lingers like it should. This is really evident with piano, every key stroke is sharp with the attack and it just lingers on, never being covered up with he next note. The mid and upper bass is much snappier, more defined, which is what Steve mentioned in his post, I had a real bad "ROOM BOOM" problem with my room, until the CSP2 came along, so all the work I had done to get rid of it, and didn't help much, then its just gone, really had me pulling hairs for a few days.
Low bass I can only say, has gotten better tighter more defined, but my room still has a way to go, as more traps are needed.
The highs are just smoother, not less of them, from what I'm hearing. Voices with recorded room ambiance, the air the ambiance are all the same just smoother. Katie Melua CD's seem to have a bit to much recorded sibilance, I loved the CD but at times the sibilance was annoying, now its so smooth it doesn't annoy any more, its just there.
Imaging has not taken a back seat, if anything, its gotten better, not in the sense of wider taller or depth, its more focused. I kind of liken it to, going from regular TV to HD TV. Instruments in the background have such clarity, if you focus on them, you can tell its ten violins, there not smeared in any way, they all have there space with nothing covering them up.
I guess I'm like 95% of all the audio guys out there, when we get something new, we put in every favorite CD we have, to see if there is a difference or not, when I got the CSP2 finally up and running, I sat down with a CD that has 17 tracks, and track 17 is my favorite, I'm so lazy at times rather than finding the "10" button and the "7" and hitting play I just keep hitting the forward button till i get to track 17. Well the first day with the CSP2 I hit play, I was so astounded with what I heard, I listened to all 17 tracks, something I can't think of, ever happening before.
When I first got the CSP2, I was listening to the MG944's on the Torii-II, using the MG's was to set the room up, while they image great, they're no comparison to the imaging of the RL-3's and the RL-3's being much more room friendly will image good in a bad room. Also during the day, I run EH el-34 tubes in my amp, not to put to many hours on my good tubes, I was so impressed with what I heard, is was totally shocked, when I realized I had a crappy sounding pair of tubes that were amazing me. I was afraid for a couple of days, actually a week, to change anything in the set up, thinking what if the RL-3's don't sound as good as the MG's, that would be a complete let down, something I didn't want to find out. When I finally got the balls to try it, i wasn't let down, thank God, that would have ruined my day.
I've since tried the CSP with he Taboo, I've been listening to it with the RL-3's for a couple of nights now, great synergy with this combo as well, in fact better than I thought it would be, I've never thought the Taboo had it with the 3's I would still think the Taboo/ HDT would be even better, i'm trying to finish a pair of HDT's right now so I can give that a go. Before i sold the Select strapped Monos to RAP the CSP really made them sing, in fact they sounded so good I didn't want to sell them, I just wonder how that would go today if I had them.
I had also found, both Torii's not to show any great improvement with the CSP, at least not like the Mono's had improved, i wish I still had Torii-I here to try it, but it sure is synergistic with my Torii-II, and will always be in front of it.
Bob
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CSP to CSP2 upgrade now available ! (Read 30443 times)
