Cubes and Cubix

I am so pleased with these speakers now that you all have an open invitation to come and hear them, no buying motive just music. I am doing this because the way they *present* music is different to ordinary speakers and I want people to hear it and comment. I liken it to flat screen tv v Cinemascope v 180deg 3d.

Things like BBC designs give you flat screen tv, good speakers like Royds, Quad 57's, etc, give you Cinemascope, but these things are full on 180 deg 3d. Now I know this is a bad analogy but it is the nearest I can give you. And if you are used to the smaller screen with its detail placed in fixed left to right you may not like what they do, but if you can open your mind and think of the live presentation of a symphony orchestra in its acoustic then you have got it, which is why for me they excel with so called classical music. The problem is if you listen to rock, pop, prog live you are not listening to the band you are listening to the PA, and that stuff recorded tends to be studio mixed the same way as it would through a PA. So for some rock pop and prog and even Jazz these speakers present themself differently as though you are working with a live acoustic / acoustically. I know it is a cliche but things like Jazz at the Pawnshop you really do have the people around you drinking and chatting and the band there in the room in front of you, but something that has been contrived in the studio will show you just that, it is contrived. Too much hi-fi in the last 30 years has been geared to reproducing a PA system in your home, the classic Linn / Naim sound is just that. I think it is time for a change.

Please come, but obviously give me some notice, added bonus is you will hear the new Statement amps.

EDIT :- Joint thread running at http://thehifisubjectivist.noadforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=214 with comment

 

Had my first visitor under this invite - Jim Kempton.

This is his report - anymore would be welcome as the feedback is important for me as the launch will be Whittlebury Show.

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I've heard the NVA system before so am familiar with the "house" sound so to speak, and I get very much what Richard is trying to achieve. But on Friday I heard it sounding the best ever. The Cubix were driven in biamped mode by two huge stereo amps, TDS I think or was it TSS - can't remember what you said mate? Anyway they were massive! These were driven from the stepped attenuator passive preamp. The PL71/SPU was the front end - sorry guys it was a joyously 11010100101 free day

The first thing that grabbed me was the very low level of overhang, due I'm sure to the cabinets. I felt them while the bass was pounding and they moved of course BUT the important point is how quickly they release the energy. They do not rely on over-damped lossy cabinets as most wooden cabinets do hence the low overhang. This leads on to them timing incredibly well. I thought they reproduced piano as well as I've ever heard. Again I reckon this to be down to low energy storage whereby the piano note decay is free from blurring and smearing - a common problem with most other speakers IMV. At first I thought they were bass light for a largish box with 2 bass drivers but when we played some music with very deep bass they reproduced it very well with weight and attack. Again I put this down to low energy storage. It's very common for poor speakers to appear "bassy" when there's no need for it, i.e. it's not in the signal. The obvious conclusion being that the Cubix is adding very little. They go very loud, Richard's current room is not massive but it's more than big enough to accommodate them. I would suspect they'd be fine in a larger room also. The system was perfectly able to differentiate between the drums in a kit, the size of the drum and the skin tension being really obvious. Many, many speakers fail here IMV. I took Tom Waits Blue Valentine with me which is a good test for sibilance, it's easy (or should be!) to tell if the spit and sizzle in his voice is real or artificial. This system reproduced his voice as well as I've heard ever.

I also took a mint copy of Charles Mingus Pithecanthropus Erectus (Uglymusic as Richard says - I reckon he enjoyed it really). The rhythms and melody were easy to follow - no mean feat. Stan Kenton Solo is just him and a grand piano. I heard a big sonorous piano with all the body resonance you'd expect of the real thing. Easy to hear the hammers striking and the note and chord decay was first rate.

Here comes the but!! I felt I could hear a small amount of resonance in the speaker. I'm sure it's not the cabinet for all the above reasons so I reckon it's air resonance which is an all but inevitable result of putting dynamic, acoustic suspension speakers in a cabinet. Let me qualify this by saying it's very small and not that bothersome and Richard has asked for feedback. Let me also say that I'm very attuned to this as I normally use open baffles, and although they have many problems, do not have any trapped air to resonate. I'm probably a bit hyper-sensitive to this issue.

A very good day was had. Thanks to Richard for the invite and Nadia for a terrific lunch!

jimkempton

 

Got one more booked in for the end of August - come on I needs more listeners and feedback - lunch included

Added incentive the first Mk3 T.D.S.'s are finally up and running !!!