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Listening to the Puresound A30...with a Puresound L10 on front!

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Posted on May 19, 2015 at 04:46:46
morricab
Distributor or Rep

Posts: 9321
Location: switzerland
Joined: April 1, 2005
 So, last night I fired up the main system with the A30 in place of my usual NAT and put the L10 preamp in front of it. Even though it is an integrated the gain is not so high that this cannot be done.

I was listening to analog (Yamaha GT-2000/Audio Technica AT150MLX + Silvaweld phonostage) fed into the L10 preamp. Speakers were Odeon La Boheme.

Well, the sound was really excellent! Rich but not too warm and detailed with good dimensionality of both instruments and the space the instruments are located within. It could be better in this respect I think if I had them in a bigger room where they could breathe better.

Resolution was excellent but a bit shy of the JJ or the NAT but only a bit!

Say what you want about the build quality, the amp sounds really good and for the used money I paid it is insanely good...particularly with the L10 in front. Without it there is a slight brightening of the sound and a slight loss of soundstage and instrument dimesionality...this is something we observed the L10 doing for the sound at my friend's place with his Octave/Thiel system.

I will try the A30 again soon with the Audion Silver Night preamp. Not sure what to expect there and I will also try out its built-in phonostage.

I will also be trying out an Audio Note Oto SE Signature in the near future. This is the upgraded version that has rather large Double "C" core transformers. Supposed to be a firecracker but who knows it won't be easy competition here.

 

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RE: Listening to the Puresound A30...with a Puresound L10 on front!, posted on May 20, 2015 at 07:14:42
A.Wayne
Audiophile

Posts: 2527
Location: Front row center
Joined: November 30, 2011
 Where's your Munich report Cab, Inquiring minds need to know ... :)

 

RE: Listening to the Puresound A30...with a Puresound L10 on front!, posted on May 21, 2015 at 15:20:08
morricab
Distributor or Rep

Posts: 9321
Location: switzerland
Joined: April 1, 2005
 Horns good (many of them), dynamic and planar speakers bad (most of them). :)

I have become more and more convinced that planar speakers only really work really well in smallish sized rooms that are not overly damped (particularly not behind the speaker). Otherwise, they sound overly damped and lacking in dynamics (this is what I heard at the show for basically all planars). This would also hold true for omnis.

Only two or three really good sounding dynamic speakers at the show. Perfect 8 + Ypsilon was really really good (the P8s used a ribbon tweeter). Another was Ascendo + CAT (they had a new amp and preamp) that was quite good as well. The Rockport + Absolare was also not too shabby.

All the single driver speakers (Voxactiv and some Lowther like speakers) were not so great. Voxactiv was OK with simpler music but fell apart on complex stuff. Their system with a dipole sub was probably the most convincing.

Overall though, the horns dominated the top sounding systems, IMO with Living Voice + Kondo again taking top honors. The room with an original WE theater system + Silbatone was also excellent as was a room with Avantgarde Duo Omegas + Audiopax amps. There some other pretty good ones (Blumenhofer + Einstein) as well. Tune Audio Anima should have been right at the top but the Modwright electronics were probably holding it back.

 

RE: Listening to the Puresound A30...with a Puresound L10 on front!, posted on May 21, 2015 at 16:03:00
A.Wayne
Audiophile

Posts: 2527
Location: Front row center
Joined: November 30, 2011
 Agree on planers, best in small rooms, mostly low ceilings not high and no damping behind speaker, none, no full planer for me.

Hybrids now, thats something else ....... :)

As to horns, a noisy show will benefit horns, there system will not run into clipping or dynamic compression from having to maintain an higher than normal din level, funny, looking at 30 different response, very few consensus, some thought the horns were bad, LV in particular was mostly "OK" and many found box speakers ruled ..


Audio ..:)


Anything on the PS Audio room, funny , Paul's comments match what i hear with every Maggie 20.? , they always sound like that to me, I wouldnt consider one without a sub unless in a small room ..

Regards

 

RE: Listening to the Puresound A30...with a Puresound L10 on front!, posted on May 21, 2015 at 18:01:46
A.Wayne
Audiophile

Posts: 2527
Location: Front row center
Joined: November 30, 2011
 TAS:

Best of Show

Best Sound (cost no object):
Audionet PAM G2 with EPX/PRE G2 preamp/MAX mono amps/Kronos LE PRO with Black Beauty/Airtight PC-1 Supreme/Kubala-Sosna Elation Xpander and cables/YG Acoustics Carmel 2 speaker.

Best Sound (for the money):
exaSound e12 & e22 Mark II DAC/Pass Labs X250.8 amplifier/Magnepan 3.7i speaker playing DSD 256 files.

Most Significant Product Introduction:
The exaSound e12 is an affordable all-format DAC.

Most Significant Trend: Many rooms were taking the easy road with front-ends that omitted analog playback sources at AXPONA 2015.

Most Coveted Product: The e22 Mark II DAC from exaSound.

 

RE: Listening to the Puresound A30...with a Puresound L10 on front!, posted on May 22, 2015 at 01:17:56
morricab
Distributor or Rep

Posts: 9321
Location: switzerland
Joined: April 1, 2005
 Maybe there is something to what you say but it seems to be more than that. It is a presence that is missing in most other speakers. For example, the Avantgarde + AudioPax was in a small and relatively quiet box in the downstairs exhbition hall. Since the space was small, no speaker would have had an issue with clipping there and yet the sound was unlike anything one usually gets from a normal box speaker...even with great tube amps.

I heard the Maggie + PS audio and they had a sub to reinforce the bass but it was not dialed in very well and made itself known a bit too much. In a small room that speaker will sound big and poweful but in this large room and 3-4 meters from a back wall it sounded weak.

When I had large full-range Acoustats in a smallish, untreated room the sound was huge and powerful...even with low powered amps. They went right up to the ceiling so I had a true floor to ceiling line source. There was nearly no drop in level from the speaker to the listening position.

I think those that panned LV are those that don't really love music because they focused on music that I would not call mainstream "popular" even for audiophiles.

 

RE: Listening to the Puresound A30...with a Puresound L10 on front!, posted on May 22, 2015 at 07:43:17
A.Wayne
Audiophile

Posts: 2527
Location: Front row center
Joined: November 30, 2011
 Thoughts on Raidho...?

 

RE: Listening to the Puresound A30...with a Puresound L10 on front!, posted on May 22, 2015 at 14:09:46
morricab
Distributor or Rep

Posts: 9321
Location: switzerland
Joined: April 1, 2005
 The overall system was impressive but not realistic sounding. The speakers I think have great potential but not driven by Class D like they were at the show. Same kind of sound I heard with Lansche, which used the great Cubus speaker but with synthetic sounding Mola mola amps.

 

RE: Listening to the Puresound A30...with a Puresound L10 on front!, posted on May 23, 2015 at 13:04:30
A.Wayne
Audiophile

Posts: 2527
Location: Front row center
Joined: November 30, 2011
 Back on OP..

"I was listening to analog (Yamaha GT-2000/Audio Technica AT150MLX + Silvaweld phonostage) fed into the L10 preamp. Speakers were Odeon La Boheme." - Morricab


AT150MLX, really ...?

 

RE: Listening to the Puresound A30...with a Puresound L10 on front!, posted on May 26, 2015 at 08:22:09
A.Wayne
Audiophile

Posts: 2527
Location: Front row center
Joined: November 30, 2011
 Cab, thoughts on the AT150 MLX, why over others in that range ...?

 

RE: Listening to the Puresound A30...with a Puresound L10 on front!, posted on May 26, 2015 at 18:33:45
A.Wayne
Audiophile

Posts: 2527
Location: Front row center
Joined: November 30, 2011
 Also thoughts on the ClearAudio in the same range ..?

 

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