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(LONG) David & Goliath

What happens when a 12cm alnico fullrange loudspeaker with 97dB sensitivity -- the Feastrex Dimension 5 -- goes head-to-head with the Eltus Niagara, a 3-way field coil loudspeaker with 110dB sensitivity using modern reproductions of the Western Electric TA-4181 46cm woofer, 594 4-inch compression midrange driver, and 596 compression horn driver? Is the Feastrex fullrange doomed to be carried out on a stretcher after the first round, or will we witness the upset of the century?

It was early Friday morning, and I was exhausted. I had spent most of the week camping out at the office, slaving over a major presentation for my department. The actual presentation that afternoon would be given by someone else, so after making the final revisions my work was essentially finished. Needing to think about something else besides work, my thoughts turned to an inquiry I had recently received on this forum about the Feastrex D5e field coil ranges. It had been over a year since I had last heard them, and since all the other Feastrex drivers had improved so much during that time, I assumed the same must be true of the field coil models -- especially since the few people that own them seem to be quite enthusiastic about them -- but I thought it would be great if I could confirm that for myself. The Feastrex head office listening room in Yamanashi Prefecture is too far for me to go to listen, but I remembered that the builder, Mr. Teramoto, was going to be giving a demonstration today somewhere in Tokyo, and I thought maybe I could get him to agree to bring a pair of field coil units in for the demonstration, and I could slip out of the office later and go check it out.

I called Mr. Teramoto and he still hadn't left for the 2-hour drive into downtown Tokyo, so I explained that someone had been asking for an update on the field coil units and I asked him if there was any chance he could bring in a pair so I could listen to them later. He said sorry, not on such short notice, as he had been concentrating his full attention on the D5 and D5nf alnico models recently and there were no assembled field coil units in stock, just unassembled parts. But he added that it would be possible for me to do a listening comparison between the alnico Dimension 5 loudspeaker and some great vintage loudspeakers, including a pair that used field coil transducers. Well, that was too good an offer to refuse, so we agreed that Mr. Teramoto would pick me up in his van outside my office at 6:30 P.M.

Mr. Teramoto was already there when I exited the building and he was in very high spirits. "I sold a pair of the Dimension 5 loudspeakers at P&C Electronics today. Here, let me introduce you to Mr. Kurashima, of P&C Electronics, and to Mr. Asayama of Sound Mates in Akihabara, which is where I'm taking you tonight." Mr. Kurashima and Mr. Asayama were also in high spirits, or rather, they were "in spirits," having found a bottle of shochu liquor rolling around in the back of Mr. Teramoto's van. Great, we could have Mr. Teramoto as our designated driver while the three of us got lubricated for tonight's listening session. However, we had already arrived at Sound Mates before I had a chance to get any of it inside me. Not to worry, while I was gawking at the delightful equipment on display in Sound Mates, Mr. Kurashima went to the convenience store next door and soon reappeared carrying six large cans of nicely chilled Asahi Super Dry beer.

Mr. Asayama was profusely apologizing for the condition of Sound Mates, explaining that the shop hadn't officially opened yet and he was still in the process of setting everything up for the opening next month. True, things were sitting around in boxes on the floor, and zero attention had been paid to either the decor or tweaking the acoustics of the room, and it was readily apparent that the situation for listening was not ideal. Still, even in this semi-finished state, the room was already in most respects far better than what I have at home.

Only a few pieces of the equipment in the shop were readily recognizable to me. There was a pair of the Feastrex Dimension 5 loudspeakers, a pair of Stephens Trusonic 206AXA coaxials in a large ported enclosure that looked to be a factory original in mint condition (either that or someone had done a fantastic knockoff), some other Stephens Trusonic coaxials, a Marantz CD player, and a Thorens turntable that wasn't fully assembled yet.

There were also many models of vintage and esoteric equipment that I didn't recognize, including several models of absolutely gorgeous tube amps. My wife won't allow me to have a tube amp at my house until my transistor amp goes on the fritz, and since there are no signs of that happening any time soon, I don't pay much attention to tube amps. But it later turned out that all these amplifiers had been built by Mr. Kurashima. The reason for their fantastic build quality, I later heard, was that Mr. Kurashima used to build and maintain communications equipment for the Japanese Self-Defense Force. Mr. Teramoto tells me he is one of those fellows who could turn a pile of trash into a usable military communications device, so naturally when he turns his attention to amplifiers using fine components, the things end up looking like works of milspec art (especially the wiring and soldering). And his prices are amazingly low, too. But these were all things I learned later. Mr. Kurashima, obviously a very humble man, didn't utter a peep about his own products all night long, despite being quite outgoing. (The same goes for Mr. Asayama. Later in the evening it came out that he is extremely knowledgeable about DA converters, having designed and successfully commercialized several, but he didn't say a word about his products until I asked. Both men have fine original products about which they can feel proud, yet they are very self-effacing and extremely easy-going -- just the kind of guys that make a customer feel comfortable and eager to go back to visit their shops again and again.)

All night long we used the same P&C Electronics 45 Single amplifier ( http://www.pandcamp.com/ampkit/45ss/45ss_e.htm ). We started off listening to the Feastrex Dimension 5 loudspeakers with the Marantz CD player as signal source.

If I had known in advance that we were going to be having this listening session, I would have brought a bunch of CDs that I know like the back of my hand, but as it was I had none with me, and had to rely on CDs and records in Sound Mates, most of which I did not know very well. I love jazz but I don't own any, since my wife and daughters, who listen exclusively to classical music, give me a hard time if I listen to anything besides classical. I was happy to be listening to jazz but for the most part we were venturing into unfamiliar musical territory for me. First up was something by Coleman Hawkins, with sax (of course), piano, upright bass, and drums. And let me tell you, it was sheer ecstasy from the get-go. I couldn't believe how good this was sounding to my ears. Mr. Asayama immediately started to apologize again about the inadequacies of the room acoustics, but I wasn't listening. I was enthralled by the sound.

"Why does this CD player sound so good? This is fantastic!" At that time I still wasn't aware that the player had been extensively modified by Mr. Asayama. Mr. Teramoto stood up. "You think that sounds good? Wait until you hear this. Here, give me a screwdriver." And he took the top off the CD player. I was immediately blown away by the further improvement of the sound. "These Marantz CD players are built like tanks but they need to breathe. When you take the top off, the sound opens right up." That was when I noticed that the inside had been extensively modified, and when I asked about it, Mr. Asayama brought out several populated PC daughterboards, explaining that these were all his original designs. He also showed me some older units from a few years earlier, and it was interesting to see the evolution of his designs. To be frank, I don't have the vaguest notion of what he did to that player, but it sounded better than any other CD player I have heard. Mr. Teramoto and Mr. Kurashima agreed it sounded fantastic. Mr. Asayama was grateful for our compliments, but he said that when he listens to analog, he often feels, why bother messing with digital? If it wasn't for the fact that so many new releases are available only in digital format, he wouldn't be interested in digital at all. And then, to demonstrate his point, he switched over to the analog turntable.

Now this too was a piece of equipment I had never seen before and it sure looked unusual. It had two platters stacked one atop the other, turning in opposite directions. It was a 47 Laboratory turntable ( http://www.47labs.co.jp/ ). Onto this went Sonny Rollins' Way Out West. This too was absolutely gorgeous, and the extremely low noise background is a testimony to the excellence of this little turntable. This is the only 47 Laboratory product I have ever heard, but it is a winner. Everything about this LP is delicious, but what stays with me most is Shelly Mann's percussion work. The excellent transient response of the Feastrex Dimension 5 fullranges made all the percussion instruments sound great. I can't imagine anyone listening to that and feeling dissatisfied. The bass too was very satisfying, if not quite up to the level of the midrange and high frequencies. In fact, the bass was going to emerge as the single biggest issue for all the speakers we listened to that night.

I wanted something that would let me analyze the bass performance of the speakers better, and although I have not listened to rock since my high school days, if I could have my pick of any program material for that, I think I would want the 801 Live album ( http://amazon.com/801-Live/dp/B000003S0W/ ). That has got some awesome bass and drumming that would have been great source material. Unfortunately Mr. Asayama did not have much rock music on hand in the shop, but he did put on something by Pink Floyd that was pretty good for my purposes. And, although I was able to get into the music as much as I am ever able to with rock music these days (almost all of it it tends to bore me), I still found the bass lacking somewhat. I wanted to get to the bottom of this. Was it the Dimension 5 loudspeaker? Was it the amplifier? Was it the room? Or maybe a combination of factors.

Mr. Asayama switched over the Stephens Trusonic 206AXA 15-inch coaxials in large ported enclosures. Perhaps they wouldn't have sounded so bad to our ears if they had been the first speakers we listened to, but coming after the Dimension 5 loudspeakers, frankly, they sucked. Admittedly they went down a little bit lower. In a certain sense one might say that they had a little bit more authority in the bass, but it was the authority of a sumo wrester posing on stage at the Mr. Universe pageant. It was one-note bass, without any definition whatsoever, at least compared with the Dimension 5. And it was the lack of definition in the bass that was bugging me about the Dimension 5 in the first place, so for the Trusonic 15-inch coaxials to have even less definition in the bass was unforgivable. "Sit down fatso, you're blocking our view of the stage!" And nothing else about those speakers could excite us either, after listening to the Dimension 5. It was a total defeat for the Trusonics. Now to be fair, except for esoteric coaxials like the Maxonic field coil units now under development, 15-inch coaxial speakers are almost always less expensive than the Dimension 5 loudspeakers are. So price-wise, they are in different brackets. But even taking the cost versus performance ratio into account, I felt the difference in performance was hard to justify. I had a similar experience about half a year ago with the D5's lower priced sibling, the D5nf. At that time the D5nf in Feastrex's tiny original enclosures went up against a pair of Altec 604-8G coaxials in large bass reflex cabinets, with similar results. The Altecs had a little more bass extension, but in every other respect the D5nf speakers were clearly superior. Better integration, definition, clarity, speed, soundstage, imaging, high end extension - everything. What's the point in having such a large speaker occupying so much real estate if it's not going to do much besides block your view? That's how I feel when listening to one of these big boys immediately after listening to any of the Feastrex fullranges. "You're outtahere!"

Next came a pair of loudspeakers that had a slightly smaller footprint than the Trusonics, but were considerably taller. I thought they were very classy looking indeed, although one would need a rather large listening room to keep them from dominating the room. I could tell from the clunky black metallic shape of the small conical horn and compression driver perched atop the cabinet that the driver was of the Western Electric type. This, I was told, was built by Eltus Corporation. Just hearing that name filled me with eager anticipation, as I remember having heard a different Eltus loudspeaker many years ago -- one even more massive than this one -- and found the experience to be thrilling and unforgettable. This one was their "Niagara" model, visible here ( http://www.eltus.net/english/ ) and including the driver units shown on that page, all field coil units. In the past I had some experience using truly wonderful fixed edge 38cm woofers and I know how excellent a good fixed-edge woofer can sound. Since these were 46cm woofers crossed over at 400Hz, I expected the bass to be excellent. Since all the drivers were of the Western Electric type, I expected the loudspeaker to have excellent performance all across the board. Even though it was a field coil unit, I was nevertheless amazed to hear that the loudspeaker had a rated sensitivity of 110dB/W/1m. Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised; after all, the Feastrex 6-inch field coil fullrange is rated at 105dB. Surely this "Niagara" would thunder like the waterfall that is its namesake.

And indeed, it was excellent. All of a sudden the Pink Floyd album that had sounded so dead with the Trusonic coaxials roared to life. The overall detail was amazing and the sound quite thrilling indeed. If you're going to listen to rock music, this is the right way to do it! The bass was clearly extending a full octave below what the little D5 fullranges had been producing. Well it ought to, at 46cm versus the D5's 12cm.

But there was still a problem. The bass was slightly better defined than that of the D5, but not by much. This really bothered me. When I listen to a 46cm fixed-edge field coil woofer, I want bass so dry, tight and powerful that it almost hurts. That's what I could get from my old 38cm fixed edge woofers, and there's no point in having a larger woofer if it isn't going to give you that kind of performance.

To varying degrees, all three of the speakers we listened to that night suffered from bloat in the bass. The 46cm WE field coil woofers extended a full octave lower than the Dimension 5, but the difference in quality of the bass was not that great. So we had three loudspeaker systems, two of which sounded extremely fine, but all three suffering from the same sort of deficiency in the bass. That tells me that there must have been problem(s) elsewhere, rather than in the speakers themselves. I refuse to believe that a 46cm WE field coil woofer can't produce awesome bass. I think the problem(s) are either in the room, or in the amplifier, or perhaps in both. When I visited CES2006 as Feastrex's interpreter, they had serious problems in the sound of their bass until they figured out how to deal with the room acoustics, and after they dealt with those problems the bass sounded much better, instantly. I am almost certain we were experiencing something similar in Mr. Asayama's shop. After all, it is still under construction and he has none absolutely nothing to the room yet. Except for a few pieces of furniture, it is just a commercial storefront exactly as provided by the realtor. It would be amazing if it didn't have problems. I fully expect Mr. Asayama will be able to eliminate any such problems completely with some judicious room treatment.

Another distinct possibility that must be at least considered, although I hate to speculate in a public forum about somebody's products without providing confirmation, is that maybe there is a slight weakness in the bass reproduction of the P&C Electronics 45 single amplifier. In retrospect I wish we had tried a different amplifier. That might have told us whether the problem was exclusively in the room, or also, do a degree, in the amplifier. The room and the amplifier were the big constants among the three loudspeakers. I should add that for the price, even if one was to blame the 45 Single entirely for the problems in the bass, it would still be a bargain in view of the extreme beauty of its sound in every other respect. Personally, I'm inclined to suspect that the acoustics of the untreated room bear the lion's share, if not all, of the blame, and if that is the case then the P&C Electronics 45 Single amplifier must be called a fantastic bargain.

So anyway, I'm going to grade on a curve for the bass. Since the Eltus Niagara's 46cm field coil unit had both the best quantity and quality of bass, we'll call it a perfect 100 for both quality and extension. Just so we're clear, it wasn't a perfect 100 in absolute terms. But taking that as our reference, the Dimension 5 loudspeaker's bass would be a 95 in terms of quality and an 85 in terms of extension, for an average score of 90 relative to the bass of the Niagara. The Stephens Trusonic 206AXA coaxial gets a 90 for extension and a 70 for quality, for an average score of 80 relative to the bass of the Niagara. My totally subjective opinion, but that's what my ears told me.

After listening to the Niagara for quite some time, we went back to the Dimension 5 loudspeakers, and immediately we all had the same reaction: we felt a sense of relief. I hadn't noticed it until the Dimension 5 loudspeakers started playing again, but the Niagara was tiring me out. It is an exciting speaker, with much to recommend it, but there is something about the music coming out of that speaker that does not belong there. I realized that when I listened to the Dimension 5, because whatever it was that was "out of place" with the Niagara loudspeakers, those "out of place" elements were not evident with the Dimension 5. Maybe it's some coloration coming from the horns, or maybe it's something to do with the passive crossover network, or maybe it is just the difficulty of truly integrating multiple transducers in a loudspeaker. But at least based on what I heard that night, I have to say I prefer the mechanical crossover of this particular single-driver loudspeaker to either a coaxial or a multi-way loudspeaker system. The sensitivity of the Niagara is a whopping 13dB higher than that of the Dimension 5, but as I listened to the Dimension 5 I did not miss that difference in sensitivity in the least. Except for the bass (where all the speakers faltered) every detail of the music struck me as virtually perfect. It's likely that in reality every detail is NOT perfect, but it is a testimony of a great loudspeaker that it can do so much so extraordinarily well that you manage to completely miss any minor faults. Because other than what I pointed out above, I didn't find any. It's not cheap, but (for example) it's cheaper than the Eltus Niagara loudspeaker system -- and far smaller and easier to use. When I put all these things together, I think it is pretty clear that David toppled Goliath in that listening room.

Despite the slight deficiencies that plagued the bass of all three loudspeakers that night, I am convinced the Feastrex Dimension 5 loudspeaker is the most well-integrated, most truly musical speaker I have heard so far in my life. Admittedly my experience is more limited than that of many other audio aficionados, but it seems clear to me that this loudspeaker is a fantastic success. Any loudspeaker that would aspire to greatness will have to contend with the Dimension 5. In my book, it is the speaker to beat, and it won't be easy, at least not overall. In certain limited respects, yes, the Dimension 5 can obviously be bettered. But in the big picture? This little loudspeaker is mighty impressive.

************

I want to thank Mr. Teramoto, Mr. Asayama, and Mr. Kurashima for their great kindness in giving me three and half hours of their precious time on the evening of the last day of their work week. I'm sure they must have all been tired, but they sure rejuvenated my tired old bones, and for that I am very grateful. I have great expectations for the success of Mr. Asayama's Sound Mates after it opens up next month. His digital player modifications are fantastic and his selection of equipment and his understanding of audio and his down-to-earth, laid back demeanor tell me that he is going to quickly develop a loyal clientele. I suggest it would be a good place for any audio lover who happens to be in Tokyo to go visit:

Mr. Koji Asayama
Sound Mates
Libera Akihabara 1F
5-6-11 Ueno
Taito-ku, Tokyo
03-5761-4340

The Feastrex and P&C Electronics websites are online and worth a visit if you haven't done so, and P&C Electronics also has a bricks-and-mortar shop in Tokyo's Shinjuku district. So does Feastrex but it's out in the boondocks of Yamanashi Prefecture . . . it does have a nice view of Mt. Fuji if you don't mind traveling for two hours outside Tokyo. (Unfortunately the Feastrex website still needs to be updated . . . )


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Topic - (LONG) David & Goliath - Christopher Witmer 05:43:22 02/25/07 (13)
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