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In Reply to: RE: Looking over the AN speaker catalog... posted by RGA on September 02, 2014 at 18:47:52
RGA,
Congrats on your new speakers. I have some Snell J's with new AN foam surrounds but have never had the opportunity to hear any AN products. I was hoping you or Bob might be able to answer a few questions.
I noticed in a recent show report that AN was using J/D's. Evidently, they are available in black only and do not have the Baltic birch cabinet. I believe pricing was $3700 and $4000 if you got the hemp woofers. Is the J/LX the next step up? Does the J/LX have Baltic birch cabinets and real wood veneer? Pricing? If you get hemp woofers does the efficiency stay the same and use the same crossovers as paper cone woofers? Have you ever compared the Baltic birch to the chipboard cabinets? Compared any of the AN speakers to the Snells?
Thanks, John
Follow Ups:
Bob or Dave Cope probably know for sure. My understanding is that the D models have Russian birch on the front and back portion with an MDF wrap on the sides bottom and top. The old original models used chipboard which is what Snell Used.
The original Snells were different - different size port (rear firing tweeters) and the internals were different. AN uses carted sheep's wool over Dacron, better wiring, cabinets, caps.
With the E (and it should apply to the J as they always have) it goes something like this:
AN E/D (SEAS black paper woofer)($4,950ish)(Birch front and back)Review of this is here http://dagogo.com/audio-note-an-ed-speaker-review
AN E/D (Hemp woofer) (Birch front and back)
AN E/Lx (SEAS black paper woofer) (All Birch and up)
AN-E/Lx (Hemp)
AN E/LX (High Efficiency Hemp)
AN E LX Signature (LX96 copper cable connecting to external crossover with Audio Note™ copper foil signal capacitors, silver voice coils.)
The other models all use silver wires:
AN E/Spe (SEAS Black paper woofer)
AN E/Spe (Hemp)
AN E/Spe (High Efficiency Hemp)
AN E/Spe Signature (silver cable connecting to external crossover with Audio Note™ copper foil signal capacitors, silver voice coils.)
AN-E/SPx SE Signature
AN-SPx27 or on later models AN-SPx29 and currently AN-SPx31 silver speaker cable connecting to external crossover, with Audio Note™ copper foil signal capacitors and solid silver inductors, silver voice coils.
AN-E/SEC Silver
AN-SOGON LX96 silver internal cabling, AlNiCo speaker magnets, silver inductors with silvered polyester crossover capacitors, silver voice coils.
AN-E/SEC Signature
AN-SOGON LX96 silver speaker cable connecting to external crossover with Audio Note™ copper foil signal capacitors, solid silver inductors, AlNiCo driver magnets, silver voice coils.
AN-E SOGON
The ultimate 2 way speaker, AN-SOGON LX96 silver speaker cable connecting to external crossover with Audio Note™ pure silver foil signal capacitors, soild silver inductors, specially selected and matched AlNiCo drivers with silver voice coils. ($238,000USish)
And then there are the AN E Kits
Kit E starts at $2,000 with and $3200 with the cabinet. http://www.ankaudiokits.com/newSpkr.html
...that's SOME kind of weird fetishism.
You can buy the world's fastest production car for that (the new Lamborghini).
Sometimes, I think, there is something seriously wrong with audiophiles' (or car fetishists' for that matter) value systems.
Don't tell me, the people who buy those AN Sogons also jam them into untreated rooms and have no idea that they're listening to the room, too.
The times I have heard AN at audio shows, I have been miserably disappointed. There is absolutely no way I would buy into that line based on the audio show performances I have heard, jammed into tiny rooms and sometimes even playing average recordings. Unforgivable ;) On the other hand, when you're running underpowered amps, you can only play the simple audiophile recordings with no dynamic range or complexity....presumably even those 238,000 speakers lose their magic when asked to reproduce anything loud, like Led Zep, or complex, like Mahler.
Perhaps I should seek out a well set up AN system and do a real audition.
That's nothing - $306,000 for the DAC and Transport (and you need the cable)
$154,000 for the M10 preamp and $265,000 for the Gaku-On 45ish watt monoblocks.
The speakers are looking like a deal ;)
But I think it should be pointed out that you are not paying $238,000 for a speaker you're paying for external crossovers and very expensive solid silver cables and capacitors. The box in front of the speaker is the external crossover and I believe each crossover weighs more than both speakers. Each is the size of a big power amp.
Shows are what they are - the Old School can tell you about that comparing CAS a few years back to his latest experience. At CES 2010 I had both AN rooms in the top 5. At CAS 2012 AN would not have cracked my top 10-15. So it goes.
I will say that while we may not agree on the sound - I like your word fetishism with regards to this stuff. Both on he manufacturing end to keep pushing what Snell started in the late 70s to the limits.
Anyone who can spend this kind of money doesn't live in the same world world that we inhabit. These are people who earn more than $238,000 whilst doing their morning triple S in the washroom.
Is it bonkers? Well I live in Hong Kong where you can drop $3,000,000US on a watch. So I guess I have been desensitized to the price of some of these things.
Lastly, I would suggest you play your music. Audio Note plays music they like - not music that happens to demonstrate sound quality well. Maybe they coincide but between the two - they will side with playing music they like over some froo froo Diana Krall track. If Peter Qvortrup runs the room as he did at CES 2010 - he will play The Evil Nine, Nightwish, Split the Atom and Slipknott.
None of that SOFT Led Zeppelin rock ;)
This is what Peter brings
nt
RGA,
Thanks for the response. Are the K and J made in High Efficiency models too?
To my knowledge no. The K comes in three versions
AN K/Lx
AN K/Spe
AN K/Spx
The tweeter and woofer are different and are I believe made by VIFA.
The J come with either the SEAS paper woofer or the Hemp.
The J is actually the easier speaker to drive than the E. Which may be why some like the J a little bit more. The OTO has no trouble with the J but does with the E.
The reason is the impedance. The E dips to 3.6ohms and stays there for much of the bass range. The J is only marginally less sensitive - 1-2dB but the speaker never drops below 5 ohms (according to the measurements done by Hi-Fi Choice).
I suspect AN felt the same way and when they began to produce 2A3 and 45 tube amps that have 3 watts - their AN E with the lower impedance was likely going to be an issue so a HE version of the driver was needed. But the regular non HE version power requirements are 7 watts minimum to 150watts maximum.
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