[Review] LC Audio Patriot V100

Henry,

I noticed you don't use spikes on your subs, spikes made a huge difference with my Strata IIIs...

 

Listened to Grahams amp yesterday and it is superb. much, much better than the MF M3 nuvista. An absolute bargain.

Graham, just watch that electricity bill

Cheers, Robbo

 

Yes indeed. It passed the Godspeed You Black Emperor at insane volume test without any problem at all.

I just feel sorry for his neighbours...

-- Ian

 

Hi Antonio,

My subs are on their spokes, although it doesn't look like it in the photo because the carpet and underlay are very thick. I currently also have the spikes sitting on top of Michell Tenderfeet and some ceramic floor tiles (until I can get hold of some paving slabs) to further isolate the subs from the suspended wooden floor.

Hmm, but my current speakers and sub's days "maybe" numbered, as the Meadowlarks at Graham's were doing some very fine reproduction of lower end organ pedal notes on Mahler 8 and Poulenc which is starting to make me think about larger floorstanders again. :MILD:

 

They were good, but there was a whole octave missing from the aphex twin stuff. Not that it is an issue for classical stuff though.

Robbo

 

So you're after "never mind the quality feel the depth"?

....and the Herons are fine for real music made by real instruments!!!

Seriously though - thanks for the compliments. I just count myself so lucky to have the amp. I think the biggest compliment (inadvertent) was from HenryT, when he asked whose recording of Mahler 8 (albeit only the opening flourish) I'd just played - and then couldn't believe it was the same one he has!

I guess a dedicated sub will always go lower than an integral speaker, but I'm not sure you're right about the "whole octave" - the Herons go down to 28Hz (before any room reinforcement), and there's only half an octave below that before you cease to hear anything. I was at that Infrasonic experiment a few weeks ago, where they were transmitting enough 19Hz into the room to flap a programme held at the end of the resonator a good couple of cm, and it was completely inaudible (at least half the people in the hall got it wrong whether it was on or not).

I wish I'd played a whole number of other pieces - it just keeps on getting better. In particular I've just played the finale to the Rite of Spring (Tilson Thomas/SFSO), which I played at Robbos, and the bass drum beats are fantastic - they really shake the settee (and are far more lifelike than when at yours ) - there's thwack and timbre and decay :banana: . We also didn't play any female vocals, which really are absolutely stunning.

The other really interesting experiment was playing with interconnect rolleyes: ). I've normally been using my standard 2.5m NuVista I/Cs. We also tried some 1m Acoustic Zen Matrix Reference balanced, and Towshend Isolda balanced. In previous tests the balanced has come out clearly ahead of the RCA, so here we got - NO DIFFERENCE (or as least nothing a blind test would come close to detecting; surprisingly the RCA may have been a bit louder than the balanced). Later on we also tried a passive (Lee's DIY) attenuator with cheapish RCA connections, and still little difference. Even putting in an active component (Lee's Art Audio pre-amp) made very little difference other than volume - other than maybe a very slight loss of ambience (which was a tad more pronounced with Sideshow's EAR pre). So maybe this is vindication for the engineer types who say that magic I/Cs are not required if the components involved have properly designed input/output stages. The biggest difference, and that still wasn't huge, was a bit of a clean up at the top end with a some mains conditioning (either Robbo's Kimber stuff or my Trichord block).

As for the problems with the chamber stuff - the major problem recordings were digital recordings from 1982-1984, so it could be just that the amp was showing me just what was on the disc . We did get a definite improvement switching the amp from the symmetric mode I'd been using up until then into single ended mode, when things became a bit warmer and sweeter (if a bit less tight at the bottom). So with that option things are looking pretty decent.

Upgrades over!!!!! :boogie:


(...now what was that about a TT?)

 

Graham,

floorstanders are never going to get as low as a decent sub. It doesnt really matter for you though


The aphex twin stuff I reckon has stuff down to below 15 hz. I can sense test tones at this level in my room, and things start moving around in the room, so something is happening! At yours, you didnt quite get the full low end rumblings that are on this track.

Isnt that because you play it at insane volume levels

I cant get that kind of level from my system. We should try that piece again next time you are over, I heve moved the sub to the corner and IMO it is much better than before.

Cheers, Robbo