Bastanis Prometheus vs Dragonfly Speakers

Posted by Bill Allen (D) on January 20, 2005 at 15:09:56

Let me start by generalizing that the Prometheus and Dragonfly's are voiced similar. Not in as much as say, all the Lady Day amps sound alike, but as far as loudspeakers go they are a chip of the same block. The Bastanis block. In this thread I will try and expound the virtues of each design. Fist off, they are obviously totally different designs. The Prometheus is an open baffle design with a 12" wideband driver (80hz-10khz, 8 ohm, 100db, no crossover, no kidding)! Tweeter comes in at 10K with a simple 1uf cap. Deep bass is handled by a pair of 12 subs powered by a separate bass amp. The Dragonfly is a quasi horn loaded/transmission line 8" coaxial, 8 ohm, 93 db with a horn loaded tweeter hidden behind the dust cap and 1" tweeter driver coming in at 10k, threaded on the back. The bass horn is vented out the bottom of the cabinet. As I said ... very different designs, but amazingly, they sound similar in the "right" environment.

Suffice it say the Prometheus is one of the best sounding speaker systems I have ever heard. (Hard to imagine but Robert Bastani is going to improve upon the design with the Prometheus II, adding a wooden horn loaded tweeter in place of the Beyma tweeter and a new bass amp, coming March 2005). The soundstage is in the room, I call it lighting up the room. While the stereo image is predominantly between and behind the speakers, the soundstage actually extends outside of the this plane to encompass (light up) the entire room. Some people say it is like having headphones on the size of the room. I am not a headphone fan but I can see how you could use that analogy. Fact is the classic hi-end soundstage is quaint in comparison. I myself could never quite grasp that cute little soundstage floating behind the speaker extending into the back wall. Very unnatural! At 100db efficiency other planer speakers just cannot match the dynamics of the Prometheus while boxed speakers sound ... well boxed...! At the same time the Prometheus sound soft and inviting. Suffice it to say the Prometheus are now my reference loudspeakers. You owe it to yourself to experience them at your earliest convenience. They may not be your cup of tea but maybe it's time you experience something outside the Lipton League.

ENTER THE DRAGON!

The Dragonflys are an altogether "different" single malt tea. While they share the virtue's of other horn-loaded designs, in the right environment they sound closer to the Prometheus. While they tend towards the "classic" forward soundstage in a larger room, they absolutely fill a smaller room with Prometheus like prowness. Pair them with a WE91 Ladyday's and the Dragonfly's sing like angels. I first heard this at the RMAF when Robert Bastani fired them up for a short lived event. Unfortunately few people got a chance to hear them at RMAF. When I got home they where in heavy rotation in my main listening room (18' X 24') for over 2 months. The Dragonflys played for a solid month in my main room with an Ella at the wheel, Django TVC and a Sony Playstation 1 as source. (I just had no ambition to unpack the endless boxes I hauled back from the RMAF. Don't laugh, the Sony PS1 may run circles around your CD player. If you play nice I may even show you how to mod one). I can honestly say, I could live with the sound of that simple system for the rest of my life. But as you know, that ol' audiophile bug started biting. I hooked up "The Relic" Audio Alchemy CD system and rotated between the WE 91's and the Cherry Special Ladydays. The WE91 was the winner here but it was a close race. I hooked the Ella back in after 30 ladyday's, and I have to say, that the Ella now sounded broken in comparison. (I hope I did not offend anyone here, but that is an "audiophile broken" if that softens the blow to you Ella lovers). Along that same vain, I popped the Prometheus in after 2 months in the box, and now the Dragonflys sounded "broken" in comparison. That was until I moved the Fly's to my small listening room 10' X 14' with the 91's again at the helm, Django and Audio Alchemy ACD Pro as source. Taking into account that we are taking about dramatically different rooms the overall sound was uncannily similar. Go figure! There you have it, a simple guide on how to cook your Bastanis!

I would like to add one additional observation. I hooked up some lesser CD players to both systems, both rooms. Result! The larger the room the Higher the Quality of Source is required. I have never noticed this in the past but it was glaringly obvious with the Bastanis speakers. Just some extra food for thought. In fact the Ella now powers the Dragonflys in the small room and I can live with that! (I am whistling now). Peace!

Bill Allen
BaulsAudio.com

http://www.baulsaudio.com (Open in New Window)

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Topic - Bastanis Prometheus vs Dragonfly Speakers - Bill Allen 15:09:56 01/20/05 (2)

Re: Bastanis Prometheus vs Dragonfly Speakers - bcherry 19:01:06 01/21/05 (0)

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