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AXPONA 2013 report planer speaker style

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Posted on March 12, 2013 at 19:31:07
TitaniumTroy
Audiophile

Posts: 637
Location: Mishawaka, Indiana
Joined: October 14, 2006
 I started my listening sessions actually a day before the show started At Audio Consultants in Evanston IL. Listening to some Magnepan 20.7's in a rather small for them room. Still I thought they sounded fantastic, the lower bass that they put out compared to my 3.6's was very cool.

I also listened to some Magnepan 3.7's and Thiele 3.7's in another room. No comparison to me, the Thiele's sound like nice neutral box speakers. However I have come to the conclusion that if I ever upgrade my Magnepan's I am going straight for 20.1's or 20'7s. And will skip the 3.7's as a Maggie dealer from Detroit told me about the 1.7's vs 1.6's the improvements are evolutionary not revolutionary, of course I might feel different if I could hear them side beside.

I also listened to a pair of Wilson Audio Maxx3's, they sounded boomy even though the room was about 17'L x 30'L their was a lot of bass trapping on the low peaked ceiling and some 4' tall tube traps in each corner, but still not enough to tame those speakers.

Also thanks to the sales people at Audio Consultants all were very nice and none were pushy or doing a hard sell.

 

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RE: AXPONA 2013 report planer speaker style, posted on March 12, 2013 at 20:33:38
TitaniumTroy
Audiophile

Posts: 637
Location: Mishawaka, Indiana
Joined: October 14, 2006
 Well on to the show finally, The first planer's I heard were the best. Martin Logan Montis Electrostatic speakers, which are $10k. They were in the Peachtree Audio room which was also showing off an integrated amp in which you can stream at 320k Mogg or Spotify straight to your speakers, via your iPhone.

Anyway those ML Montis speakers had incredible dynamics, soundstage, detail. Very well integrated between the dynamic woofer and electrostatic panel. Supposedly this is the first electrostatic mated with a servo controlled DSP woofer. All I know was this one my favorite room's of the whole show. Others in the same class were, Acoustic Zen, MBL, Linn Athenenum's (from NH not UK) YG Acoustics, and a pair of Focal Alto Utopia Be's

Next planer up was, I think the winner of best of show, Kingsound's Prince III electrostatic. While I thought they were very good I could not get past their limited dynamics, they just sounded restrained to me. These were being powered by some of Bob Carvers new tube amps.

Next was a planer magnetic, Leonardo from Italy. In the room they were out at least 5ft, however from the side walls maybe 5-6" so they bass was boomy and uneven. They are very good looking speaker, very nice build quality, and were run by strange looking tube amps that had a glass case.

Last but not least was a hybrid planer magnetic tweeter with a small 4" mid/woofer, I thought these sounded very nice. I misplaced the literature on their name, however they were in the TEO Audio room.

 

RE: AXPONA 2013 report planer speaker style, posted on March 12, 2013 at 20:46:13
TitaniumTroy
Audiophile

Posts: 637
Location: Mishawaka, Indiana
Joined: October 14, 2006
 Almost forgot, finally I got to hear some planer magnetic headphones, HiFiMan, Audeze LCD2 and 3's, and a new comer with a sticker shock price of 5k for the Aybss headphones. Being open backed and in a pretty noisy room full of stereo geeks it was hard for me to tell what were the better headphone.

I do know I prefer the angled out in back design of the Audeze, to lessen the inside your head effect. Also the Aybss's weird looking rack makes it look you have some kind torture device on your head from the one of the Saw movies.

 

RE: AXPONA 2013 report planer speaker style, posted on March 12, 2013 at 21:21:45
TitaniumTroy
Audiophile

Posts: 637
Location: Mishawaka, Indiana
Joined: October 14, 2006
 Opps, a couple of more speakers I left out one was the Newform Research, ribbon hybrid. These speakers sound very good, powerful, and fast. The same with Wisdom Audio's ribbon hybrid, however both speakers seemed to have the same problem to me, as with other large mega speakers like Scanea, Focal Utopia III's, Von Schweikert, and Legacy.

This is a problem thrown at Maggies a lot, though I think it is more of a room problem. The image and soundstage was always huge, some of the rooms were pretty good sized too. The line source Scanea's were by far the worst to me, though they had incredible transit response and dynamics.

Also the Newforms and Wisdoms seemed to have a much more forward sound, compared to dipole planers. Perhaps most of these problems were the acoustics of the rooms, though ATS did supply lots of bass traps and diffusors. But you have to work with what you got at a show like this for the exhibitor and attendee.

FYI the Peachtree Audio room with the Martin Logan Monits speakers had zero room treatments that I could see, and it was small too, but sounded great.

 

RE: AXPONA 2013 report planer speaker style, posted on March 13, 2013 at 07:22:19
TitaniumTroy
Audiophile

Posts: 637
Location: Mishawaka, Indiana
Joined: October 14, 2006
 Crap, too many speakers to remember. The Janzen hybrid electrostatics sounded good overall to me, but seemed strained in upper midrange treble area at the volume they were playing at. I liked their soundstage they did not seem to have that forward sound like Newform Research hybrids. Also their seemed to be a resonance coming from the right speaker.

 

RE: AXPONA 2013 report planer speaker style, posted on March 13, 2013 at 08:41:30
Hasse
Audiophile

Posts: 417
Joined: June 2, 2000
 What amp were they using with the 20.7/3.7?

 

RE: AXPONA 2013 report planer speaker style, posted on March 13, 2013 at 10:13:55
john65b
Audiophile

Posts: 327
Location: Chicago
Joined: July 19, 2005
 I was at AXPONA on Friday. Saw the Wisdoms, and the Janzsen, but missed the ML / Peachtree room as it was way too crowded, and never got back to it.

The Carver/Kingsound was not open on Friday (quite miffed)...

I was more impressed with the BAT room (with FOCAL Speakers), the Wisdom room, and the ARC / Sonus Faber room (and I do not usually like box speakers). I was hoping to see Martin Logan, Magnepan, Sanders, etc...
I VOID WARRANTIES

 

RE: AXPONA 2013 report planer speaker style, posted on March 13, 2013 at 12:02:35
GFL


 
Thanks for your time an info.Good to know about the ML

 

RE: AXPONA 2013 report planer speaker style, posted on March 13, 2013 at 13:53:32
ahendler
Audiophile

Posts: 5151
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Joined: January 24, 2003
 Did not know that Wilson Audio makes a ribbon hybrid. Are you sure you don't mean Wisdom Audio?
Alan

 

RE: AXPONA 2013 report planer speaker style, posted on March 13, 2013 at 19:41:37
TitaniumTroy
Audiophile

Posts: 637
Location: Mishawaka, Indiana
Joined: October 14, 2006
 Thanks for pointing that out, yes I meant Wisdom Audio hybrid not Wilson. Hence why you should always proof read your writing.

 

RE: AXPONA 2013 report planer speaker style, posted on March 13, 2013 at 19:46:47
TitaniumTroy
Audiophile

Posts: 637
Location: Mishawaka, Indiana
Joined: October 14, 2006
 The 20.7's were driven by Arye MX-R mono blocks, 300w x 8 ohms, 600w x 4 ohms.

 

RE: AXPONA 2013 report planer speaker style, posted on March 14, 2013 at 06:09:22
jsm71
Audiophile

Posts: 1123
Location: Cincinnati OH
Joined: June 16, 2011
 I own the Janszens and was naturally curious to hear how they would play at their first public show. David Janszen and I agreed he was getting some room node issues, a reality of show conditions I suppose. He also chose to use Bryston powerpack amps strapped to the backs of the speakers as a way to minimize the gear in the room. I can't say I'm a fan of Bryston's in general with revealing speakers and these powerpack amps are too commercial (dry) for me, just my opinion.

I was impressed with the exeSound e20 DAC he was using. The DSD files were about the cleanest digital sound I've heard. I prefer a more analog front and and a TT as I have in my setup, but I wasn't running the room.

 

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