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Bought the 3.7i today

Posted by neolith (A) on June 3, 2015 at 15:57:24

I drove to Gifted Listener outside of DC to give a listen (although my mind was pretty much made up already). I brought some CD's and one of my W4S ST-500 amps. My very first impression was that they were not as bright as my modded IIIa's and the bass was muddled. A bit disappointing. The dealers amp was an Ayre VX-5 (175 WPC @ 8 and 350 WPC @ 4, continuous) which should have enough oomph for the 3.7i. The room was nicely set up but the speakers were a little too close to the front wall (about 3') because of cable length limitations.
I switched over to my W4S and the definition in the bass had an immediate improvement. This was a very pleasant surprise as the W4S was ~$1200 v $8000 for the Ayre. The 3.7i sounded warmer than my modded IIIa's (less bright?) and the integration of the mid and tweeter drivers (actually of all 3 drivers) was definitely superior. The bass extension is excellent and was up to E. Power Biggs playing Bach's Toccata and Fugue in d and just fell a little short on the lowest notes of the Bach Passacaglia & Fugue in c which really hits rock bottom. I may have to consider selling the Rel Strata III sub.
I asked Tom Unger, the owner of Gifted Listener, about the difference between the 3.7 and 3.7i. He commented that the 3.7i just sounded better and he speculated about some modifications to the mid-driver but he admitted he did not do an A/B comparison as he sold his demo 3.7 just before the 3.7i arrived. He told me that Wendell felt that the $500 upgrade (plus about $500 in shipping costs) was not worth it.
Tom was a bit shocked when I told him that the trim and socks didn't make a lot of difference to me (I am getting oak rails and black socks) as I had every intention of ripping these babies apart and building wood frames, no socks and more than likely designing a parallel XO to emulate the series XO and then converting to an active LLXO.
Speakers should be ready for pickup in about 3 weeks. In the meantime, I need to consider what to do with the IIIa's. I may sell them as is or sell just the tweeters and the custom mid-tweeter xo. I will hold on the the Marchand XM-44 in case I do go to an active LLXO. The sub may go, time will tell.
Music:
E Power Biggs: Bach Toccata @ Fugue in D min.
Bach Passacaglia @ Fugue in C min.
Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus: Money Jungle
Buena Vista Social Club
Kodaly Quartet: Haydn String Quartet in Bb, op. 50 #1
Angela Hewitt: Bach Toccata for keyboard #1 in C min
Charles Mingus: Mingus-ah-um - Better Git it in Your Soul, Goodbye Porkpie Hat
Diana Krell: The Look of Love - 'S Wonderful

"Our head is round in order to allow our thoughts to change direction." Francis Picabia

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