Edinburgh bake-off

Calling Dunkyboy and Crustyloafer ....

 

Hello? I am still here.

 

How's this for procrastination? Here are the two pics I took of the bake-off: http://www.dunkyboy.com/pics/archive.php?curdir=images/04-10/Hifi Shenanigans

As for the bake-off, well it was great fun but we didn't actually end up trying out all that much kit as we quickly settled on a combination that everybody liked and just enjoyed that for the rest of the evening.

It went as Ditton says, starting off with the Arcam DVD-A player as source, MF pre/power, and Acoustic Energy AE1 Mk IIIs. To my ears this combination sounded rather "hifi" in the bad sense - lots of shiny treble, big thumping bass, not a lot else. It could easily have been a mismatch with the room (particlarly the bass hump), though the room seemed ideal for the ATCs. More likely, the AE1s and the MF pre/power just didn't gel, as Crusty said his A308 integrated has a much fuller, livelier sound, and that the A3 pre/power in particular errs on the side of bright and sharp. The room was also quite big and we had to be careful not to push the system too hard as the AE1s would reach their limits.

We then swapped in the Active 20s, using the CA2 preamp, and keeping the Arcam player. The bass was obviously much tighter and better controlled, the midrange warmer and more open, and no more treble tizz. (Obviously, this is close to the setup I have at home so this is the kind of sound I'm used to, so you have to take my favourable opinions with a pinch of salt. ) They also go a LOT louder. You can pretty much crank it as loud as you want and you won't do any damage. Nor does the sound change noticeably. This is one of my favourite features of the 20s (and ATCs in general) - not only total unburstability, but total control and composure as the volume is increased. No noticeable distortion, no hardening of treble, no floppy bass, just more volume. It's great.

One thing that shows off the ATCs' awesome dynamic capability and cleanness at high levels is drums. I love drums on ATCs. Drums only start to sound convincing when you REALLY crank the volume, and get that visceral thwack. But for this to work the speaker has to have a lot of dynamic headroom, and has to be able to handle those dynamic peaks without coming to pieces. IME not that many speakers can really do this - especially standmounts like the 20s. Things like Moby Dick on Led Zep II just sound real. Another brilliant track is Inertia Creeps, off Massive Attack's Mezzanine - crank the volume and the drum hits are quite terrifying (in a good way ).

But I digress.

The system at this point was about as good as I could want. We had yet to try the DAX Decade/Transcend, but I wasn't expecting too much - my experiences of CD players are that differences are pretty subtle. Not trivial, just subtle - the sort that might take a good hour or two of serious listening to really appreciate.

But the AS combo was something else - it was gorgeous! It really brought the ATCs to life, with a wonderful natural tone and a great sense of "liquidity" (don't know how else to describe it). As Ditton said, Miles Davis' Kind of Blue sounded "smoky" where before it had sounded good but a bit sterile. It just sounded lovely!

We then switched to N-code (having used S/PDIF to start with) and it improved further, though it was more subtle this time. The bass in particular became stronger and tighter, better defined.

But yeah, the AS/ATC combo was brilliant! We kinda lost the will to try other stuff, even though Crusty had piqued my curiosity regarding the Arcam C30 preamp, and we even had a Linn Unidisk we could try... we just didn't get around to it.

Also, the room was a lot better than mine for the bass - with the ATCs it was very even and correct sounding, with good depth and thwack and no obvious lumps. My room on the other hand is full of room modes and boundary gain and weird effects caused by all number of things. I recently shifted the speakers around 90 degrees to see how that would change it, and it's better but still not as good an Crusty's room...

So basically I want a DAX Decade. However, seeing as I just started on the vinyl path, it'll sadly have to wait. I also want a room like Crusty's but that's even less likely...

Anyway, I'll shut up now. Any of the others want to add anything..?

Dunc

 

just like the Man tells it ...