C[omp]ute

From: andrew cooke <andrew@...>

Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2013 15:29:05 -0300

[Bear with me; audio stuff starts in a para or two].  Two months yesterday I
was terrified.  It was the day I predicted I would have a third outbreak of
MS, given the timing of the previous two.  That didn't happen; I am now two
months clean and have been celebrating.  First, a t-shirt - 
http://www.acooke.org/images/ndy.png - and second, some new audio gear.

Now let's jump back in time for some context.

The illness means I have been spending more time in bed.  So I moved the Quad
12l speakers, that we had bought for the living room, placing on them our
bedside tables.  And I connected everything up to an old Cyrus amp (so old the
pre-amp is dead; I've wired the input directly to the internal power amp) and
an AudioEngine D2 for DAC/WiFi.

That sounded great, to me.  The Quads have a very laid-back sound, which I
have really come to enjoy (especially when, in the first few weeks after the
outbreaks, any abrupt, harsh sound sent electricity down my spine).

But Paulina was less than happy with the rather large, cherry, lacquered
cabinets.  And we had no music in the living room...

...so I decided to find some smaller speakers and, frustrated with the lack of
volume control (I've been setting the volume in the digital stream from the
computer, which isn't optimal), a new amp.  The obvious candidate (options are
fairly limited in Chile) was a pair of ATC SCM7s, which the nice guy at
Audiolux - http://www.audiolux.cl - was importing

The original date for the import arriving was near the end of January.  That
matched the date I expected to have a new outbreak.  I dared not hope for no
attack; instead I hoped that I would be able to hear the speakers before it
happened - that if I was going to be bed-ridden, I would at least have
something new to enjoy.

But the shipping was delayed, several times.  Each time I shifted my hopes,
and each time the outbreak failed to appear.  So I made it to today.  Yay!


So we spent the morning in the Audiolux listening room.

We started listening to a Quad Elite CD player and integrated amp, with Roksan
K2 speakers.  That didn't sounds so great - thin and lacking in life.  But
when we switched to the Roksan K2 amp the difference was night and day.  Which
was a pity as the Roksan is ugly and the Quad is on sale.  The problems of the
rich...

At that point we switched to the AudioEngine D2.  That sounded a little more
flat than the Quad CD player, but not such a big change compared to the
difference in amps.  But since that was the output we have, we had to stay
with it.

So then we started running through the different speakers available.  Compared
to the K2 speakers, the ATC SCM7 sounded like a smaller box (which was fair
enough and not such a big deal), but also more "shut in".  The treble on the
K2s (which have a ribbon speaker) is very detailed.  On the other hand, we
weren't impressed with the treble on Quads but ended up loving the sound when
we had to live with it...

After that we tried a Vienna Acoustics Haydn Grand.  That extended the treble
back out, compared to the SCM7s, but the bass/midrange was missing.  It really
didn't work that well, with a strange emphasis in the lower highs.

So on sound alone, I preferred the K2s, with the SCM7s sounding pretty good
too.  But unfortunately the K2s are as big as the Quads.  And they have a
rear-firing port, which means no wall mounting.  So that would be no
improvement on the Quads (from an interior decoration POV).  Which meant a
veto from Paulina.

So the final choice - a slight compromise, but one I can live with - was the
SCM7s with the Roksan K2 amp.


Arriving back home, I connected the speakers first.  And my heart sank.  They
didn't sound at all special.

But then I remembered the difference switching amps made, and unpacked the
Roksan amplifier.  When I replaced the old Cyrus everything opened up again.
It was the sound we had listened to and, in our small bedroom, sounded even
better than in the Audiolux listening room (I think!).


And, best of all, the speakers are so small that I think Paulina is OK with
them staying on the bedside tables.  Which means no messing around trying to
find wall mounts - and also means that when I am lying in bed feeling crappy
they are positioned like near field monitors and just rock...

Andrew