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REVIEW: lightning sound rod Speakers

216.209.249.78


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Model: rod
Category: Speakers
Suggested Retail Price: $2400
Description: planar
Manufacturer URL: lightning sound
Model Picture: View

Review by weluvu@sympatico.ca ( A ) on November 03, 2004 at 12:00:15
IP Address: 216.209.249.78
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for the rod


Lightning Sound Planar Speaker Review

When I first powered up the Lightning Sound “Lightning Rods” planar speakers, the experience was very different from my AR 93Q’s. Being a planar speaker, the Lightning Rods are 5’ 2” tall, 17” wide and 2 ½” deep. Hand finished solid Santos Rosewood creates an A-frame or trapezoid around a diaphragm covered with black grill cloth that is 8” wide at the top, 10” wide at the bottom and 43 ½” tall. They sound as different as they look.

With these speakers set up properly—and it takes considerable time and listening to get it perfected in your room—they work well together and the speakers as the point of origin disappear. Sharp and clear in the midrange and high frequencies, the bass seemed to be under-accentuated. Should be a marriage made in Heaven for electronic music.

So on went Cirque Du Soleil, Saltimbanco. Crisp and clear, with three-dimensional imaging, I was not disappointed. How about Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells II? Wow! These Lightning Rods like electronic music. As you listen, you find the low bass is there, it’s just not rattling the china. Later, when I went back to my AR’s, they sounded bottom heavy.

My friend has a pair of these (it’s his fault I have this pair) and he uses an Advent AHP 850 to fill in the bottom end for more mainstream music. Listening to Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “Time, Sex, Love” the sub makes a subtle but noticeable contribution. Listening to cuts 6 and 7, “What Was it Like” and “King of Love”, the old phrase “lifts and separates” comes to mind—the individual instruments, not Mary Chapin Carpenter! Bringing the sub in, then out, sometimes it was difficult to tell if it was adding anything. Maybe time to try some vinyl.

My set up had the Lightning Rods 2’ from the back wall, 9’ from me, 5’ apart and pointed to intersect about ten feet behind your ears. Being a di-polar speaker, they like a clear reflecting surface behind them. Standing up so my ears were a little higher than the top of the speaker, caused a noticeable drop off in the high end and definition. Moving from side to side is less critical to the reproduction, but I do appreciate their sweet spot.

My turntable is a Sony TTS 4000 direct drive with an Infinity Black Widow tone-arm and an AKG P8ES cartridge. (The only one of these turntables Sony brought into Canada to enter into the radio station market.) The source was a Gale recording of the Beethoven Piano Sonata OP.53, (1-76-005) and the Lightning Rods really showcase the piece well. A London Import (CSS 6870) of Beethoven’s 7th with the L.A Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta was more of a challenge. The lack of depth was probably due to the fact that it was an old recording (1966) and I felt the sub would have helped to fill in some ambience. Let’s see what production values can do.

Moving up to the audiophile “Crime of the Century” by Supertramp required more of a twist on the volume control, but my amp (Quad pre-amp with Quad 405 power amp) was adequate for the job. About half way, was plenty. The Lightning Rods aren’t as efficient as the AR’s and I wouldn’t want to have much less than 100 watts on them, but with power comes accuracy and that’s what these speakers do best. No coloration, good imaging, brilliant reproduction. “Crime of the Century” is a program I have heard on many speakers and it just sings on the Lightning Rods!

You may want to rearrange your living room!

Geoff Goetz


Product Weakness: placement is crucial to get the best out of them
Product Strengths: crystal clear definition and depth of soundstage, and damn, they are pretty!


Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier: quad 405
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): quad
Sources (CDP/Turntable): sony tts 4000, infibity black widow tonearm, akg p8es cartridge
Speakers: other speakers, AR93Q
Cables/Interconnects: 8 guage
Music Used (Genre/Selections): classical, rock, electronic
Room Size (LxWxH): 24 x 14 x 8
Room Comments/Treatments: hardwood floor
Time Period/Length of Audition: months
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner




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Topic - REVIEW: lightning sound rod Speakers - weluvu@sympatico.ca 12:00:15 11/3/04 ( 3)