Tell Randy and Bob that yes we can hear every cuss word that they are saying!

The bass of the HR-1's is enormous!

Listening this morning, this is the best the feed has ever sounded, IMO.

Seems like the OB's have been the star of the show as each time I tune in they have been playing the Big Betsy's (most often I should say).  Has anybody happened to catch/hear the Lii Flagship Speakers?  Would be really curios about the impressions of them.

Yes I listened to both the Crystal 10s in the open baffle and their large cabinets.  I think they are fantastic but get Lonely Raven and others to weigh in as they have been doing this a lot longer than I.  So my listening impressions are with the Zen 25th amp and preamp.  Zrock2 engaged with the open baffles, bypassed with the cabinets.  Various comments in no particular order and I will try to put into words what I heard.

1)  The F-15s / Big Betsy's have more bass impact and are fuller in the bass region.  This means when we shifted to the Big Betsy Jr's I had to shift gears.  That being said I like definition and tightness of the bass better with the Crystal 10 even though there was less impact.  What I was left wondering is there a way to support the Crystal 10 driver in the lowest octave with another woofer cut off by an inductor....  Clearly to my ears and tastes the Crystal 10s have more resolution and details than the F-15s and I just loved the Crystal 10s in either speaker platform.

2)  The Big Betsy Jr sounded wonderful with the ZRock2 engaged - and less so without it.  A must purchase together.

3)  The Big Betsy Jr had speed, resolution, naturalness and musicality.  Just so smooth and enjoyable sound.  Perhaps is this the coherence we think we get from well designed drivers with no crossovers?  I don't know but so pleasurable to listen too.

4)  The Crystal-10s in the cabinet had significantly more lower bass as expected given the driver design.  Maybe it gave up a touch of speed but perhaps gained a touch of density.  It filled the lower bass quite well - I loved the sound.  At the end of the short listening session my vote was for the Crystal 10s in the cabinet.  The bass it brings just cannot be ignored.

5)  I wish I could have hours to listen to both the Big Betsy Jrs and the Crystal 10s in the cabinets across lots of my musical selections in a quiet room to really come to a conclusion on what I liked the best.  Truth is I could enjoy either Crystal 10 platform or the Big Betsy long term - I thought to my ears they were that good.

Conclusions for me personally:

- I think I want to build my new system around the Crystal 10s.  I have various ideas from keeping it simple and buying the complete speaker from Lii Audio to just purchasing the drivers and trying to accomplish an outstanding open baffle setup like Wolfgang but using these full range drivers as the centerpiece.

- The Crystal 10s will let my play ALL my music well with just a 2 watt amplifier.

-  Toying with the idea of my future system being based around 2 sets of speakers - the Crystal 10s as my primary setup and when I want to party hard and loud and want that awesome bass impact in my gut for rock and blues music then I put in the Big Betsys.

This was a great trip to hear great equipment.  
* Dank had awesome new prototype monoblock amps that I loved and might consider for my Vandersteen system (it would take it up quite a few levels as I am running my 2Ces with solid state amps from the mid 90's.).  I believe they would be fantastic for any system including the F-15s and Bob's new HR-1s.
*  Speaking of Bob's new speaker - I wish I could have heard the presentation of it in my home where I have 10 ft ceilings - my gut says it would sound gorgeous in my home.  I loved the sound we were getting out of them Saturday morning.
*  Randy had a pair of Betsy baffles with a 12" woofer supporting the Betsy driver.  Very very nice - stunning the sound you get for the money.  An awesome option to build yet another quality system around.
*  And last but not least - I felt that Steve's anniversary amp and preamp brought out the best in a lot of speakers.  I wish I had time to listen to all the above mentioned speakers with the ZMA but too many people and not enough time.  Thank you for everyone there for sharing the listen time and experience.  Kudos to Steve for what he brings to our audio community and what a generous and kind host.  Thank you to both Steve and his wife!

I hope this helps a little but let's g et the feedback of others - we had over a dozen of us seriously listening and would love to hear them put their listening experiences into words.  Lean on them for better input.

Ken

Quote:


Is this the modified HR1 or another design?

Again, again?  He changed the crossover and upper driver last year.  Has he done further mods?

Bob was modest as usual about the new radials. In person the craftsmanship was stunning. He used Padauk hardwood which gave the speakers a rich look. They sound great as well, even with the two watt amp and preamp.

The new radials should be called HR-2

So now that the live feed is set up from the fest, I plan to use it to make some videos of the various speakers that are here for those who didn't get to hear it on the live feed.

That said, a video doesn't tell you much, since the combination of being family short in length, and having the music pre-selected for you often leaves people teased without hearing anything they like.

This weekend, I will light the feed up with the Crystal 10 cabinets from Lii Audio on a 2 watt Zen Triode amplifier and broadcast it live starting early Friday evening.  That way it will be possible to listen to several hours of random samples from the Decware playlists.

At the same time I will link to a discussion thread about them where you can comment on what you're hearing.

Thanks,

Steve

Hey Geno,

I put my comments in the big Betsy thread. In general I am in agreement with what’s been said here.

Overall I think the Zrock was overused at the fest.  I didn’t feel it was needed on the crystal 10s and at higher volumes I didn’t like it on any of the speakers.  

Some may feel you can’t get a good idea of a speaker via the web. I disagree.  I think this is a great idea.

I'm not sure i can tell what a speaker sounds like over the web but I can hear the differences between speakers over the web.  What I would like is to hear the same piece of music on two different sets of speakers.

A web controlled AB switch box would be AWESOME

i lived vicariously watching the sound room.  My favorite was one of the women there all by herself tapping her foot to the music.  I think sometime I get so wrapped up listening to stereo I miss the music.

Keep up the good work ... maybe someday Ill be able to make the trek.

+1 to pretty much everything Maddog said.  

However, and I don't know the chain, I heard them sound a little shouty and muffled.  This was in the cabinets.

The next day, I heard them in the OBs and they were very smooth, open and detailed.  I especially like MDs comment on the high end.  I did run them back to back and agree that you wouldn't know until you did this.

I'll be listening to the webcast to see how they sound in the cabinets.  I suspect something was up when I heard them in the cabinets before.  I'd love to just hear just Mac-DAC-Zibit-25th.

Does anyone know when the live feed starts?

Feed went online at 7:00 P.M. CST.

https://www.decware.com/newsite/zenfestcam.html

These are the Lii Audio Crystal 10 cabinets being driven by a stock pair of SE84UFO3's.  I have checked the feed and want to say up front that the feed captures the bass exactly as it sounds live, which is crazy deep.

Hope you enjoy it.  I plan to let it run all weekend ; )

-Steve

I agree this sounds excellent through my headphone system!!

Doing some late night listening in the car at work.  Going from my cell phone into my Dragonfly Red and into my car’s Aux input. The sound is very full and clear, and the variety of the music really showcases the strengths of these speakers.   

Thanks Steve for doing this...I’m really enjoying it!  I wish I could have made it to Decfest and heard these speaker’s in person.  

Dom

No sound for me either at 10:47 AM CST.

Just like during Decfest (via livestream) I can really hear the CR-10 cabinets.  Something slightly muffled and cavernous.  Maybe stuffy even.  Does this ring true to those who have heard them in person?

Good to know.  I'm not surprised that they don't translate perfectly via the livestream.

Hi I’m new since watching Decfest online this year.  I wondered what happened last night, awesome it is up and running again today.

Thanks for doing this Steve. I tuned in several times over the weekend. I enjoyed your music selection.  I also got a better feel for the crystal 10s.