my trip to Emporium...

ok, i went looking for new speakers at Emporium today, and also to trade in my Plinius 8100 integrated amp as it'd been doing the rounds on the classifieds and had had a few bites but was worth more than anything beginnnig with £4xx.

I had contacted Nick and he said he had some Black Orchid speakers which are the same as Aurum Cantus Leisure 2SEs (Ribbon tweeter, carbon fibre midrange) but had upgraded crossovers. Closely related to the Red Rose speakers too- they are all made in the same Chinese factory. So we slapped those on my hifi. I took everything bar the rack- i said to him- do most people bring this amount of stuff. Nick replied- you're the first whose brought their mains leads

anyway, into the SAT CDFIX went a few cds. Very pleasant sound- picked up lots of detail through the Black Orchids on a Grace Jones cd and my new purchased Hall and Oates cd was ok. But nothing thrilling. The best part of the speakers was the ribbon tweeter- smooth, revealing but none of the sibilance that i'd encountered with other speakers. But midrange was appalling- certainly nowhere near as good as my old JM Labs Electra 905s that Ultrasonic now has. Both the JM Labs and Black Orchids retail at £1200.


Next to be connected to the Plinius power amp were some Dynaudio Contour 1.8mk2 floorstanders. Dynaudio and Plinius are supposed to be a match in heaven. These retail at £2000 and were the first time i'd ever heard a Dynaudio speaker.
Basically, I was extremely disappointed. It was a reasonable sized room- about 5m squared and they were setup correctly. There was nothing technically wrong with the sound except for the poor bass definition. It was certainly not very tight. There was zero stereo image, the treble was too bright as well. But the main flaw is that the speakers just seemed very flat and boring. There was no life.

It was at this point that another customer of Nicks dropped off a pair of speakers as a trade in on some Avalons.
They look, as you can tell from the pictures, fairly agricultural and quite boring but stylish in a silver, futuristic way.
The customer said to me- these are bloody awesome speakers- you won't be able to believe the bass and left me to it- i was still listening to the Dynaudios at this point and experimenting with toe-in.
I frankly didin't believe the bloke- the speakers just seemed visually unremarkable and weren't overly heavy. They also say 'reference studio monitor' on the back of them which seemed a bit 'white-van-man' to me.

But out came some Soundstyle stands, the Dynaudio speakers were disconnected and these new speakers were wired up. The same Donald Fagen cd was carried over to the new boxes.

Power amp back on, and away they went. My jaw dropped down to the floor, and i was just standing to one side of the room at this point.

These speakers were staggering! There was so much life, so little colouration, an incredibly revealing yet not overly bright treble and bass as deep as floorstanders but not without the lag.
Although i knew the rrp of them- they were £2800 in 2001 and now were £3500, i didn't know how much Nick was selling them for- there was a scratch on one side of one and two woofers had small dings in them (they are aluminium). The price- £1400. I was given a trade in of £600 on the Plinius so had £800 to pay.
I queried the woofers so we opened one up and found the woofer- a Visaton AL130 available at Wilmslow. So a pair of them are on their way to me and I can fit them myself. I managed to get another £100 off, so in the end, they were mine for £700 plus the Plinius.

I'm an extremely happy chappy

Thanks for reading

Heres some pics. First person to correctly identify the speakers gets a demo disc of my favourite tracks if they want.

 

Well done Rory, you have some Vaessens!

See the website here

Enjoy.

 

wow it took only 9 minutes for someone to guess the brand!!

Have you heard any Vaessens Merlin?
These are just called Vaessen Box

 

I've heard these at Walrus, they are indeed excellent, as is the ant-sized Micro Box.

-- Ian

 

I've heard the Aquarius which is on dem at Walrus Rory - not listened properly but love the build quality.

I think you will find that Mr Vaessen distributes 47 Labs in Benelux, so I suspect there's a certain synergy there.

I look forward to reading more of your views.

 

Nice one Rory! Look forward to reading MOre of your thoughts, when you've had longer to live with them.

 

nice one.

Top place to buy stuff the Emporium isnt it?

Ive always been very impressed with his trade in prices like you said.

Did you audition in the shed?

 

no i auditioned in the house. i think it was the room that the cat usually stays in- there was fluff all over the arm chair. there were also some huge altec lansing horn speakers in there.

i did venture into the shed. quite how he knows where everything is is beyond me. There was some gorgeous looking viva amps laying around, some HUGE electrostatic speakers- we're talking 8ft tall and a mammoth B&W ASW4000 sub in the middle of the lounge

Really is an experience going to the Emporium. Nicks a really nice guy, although coffee isn't up to Signals standards (you reading this, Alastair )

 

Yes, Nick most certainly is a top fella.
Have bought from him several times, never been disappointed: he really knows his stuff!

 

How are you getting on with them Rory?

Are they right for you in the long run do you think?

 

ok an update after the XLR lead scenario.

These are probably the best speakers i have ever heard now that I have given them a full repertoire of my music to deal with.

They have a fast, slam, sort of sound that one associates with Nordost cables but without any of the harshness.

Vocals are beautifully presented. There is zero sibilance that I encountered with the JM Labs. Unfortunately i can only place them 1.5m apart at the moment so not much of a stereo image but the positioning of the instruments in the soundstage is effortless.
EVen with complex orchestral pieces, the Vaessens refuse to become flustered. Everything is handled with ease. They have a remarkably neutral balance- not one area of the frequency response is highlighted above an other.

And we haven't come across the most impressive aspect yet. They are now on Atacama SE6 fully filled stands. The bass is absolutely incredible. These things kick out more low end than an active 12" Ruark sub and my old Focals combined. The tightness and depth really is staggering. These make my door frame rattle. And we are talking 2x 13cm drive units per speaker here guys.

Nothing I have EVER heard before perfectly recreates the bass line from Grace Jones' 'Slave to the rhythm' like the way these do it.


If anyone wants to come and have a listen to these they are very welcome to, as long as you don't want to buy them off me!! I always thought the Sonus Faber Cremona Auditors were the speakers for me, but quite frankly these walk all over them. A much faster, more dynamic, more enjoyable sound.

me happy. me very happy

 

Woah - "unremarkable looks" - I think they look awesome! They'd look ace in my front room on the back of the Naim stuff - nice buy there!

Certainly MUCH more interesting to look at than Dynaudio Audience 52s...

 

Nice 1 Roz, they do look very cool and unique- i was abit doubtful when u told me u got "these speakers from belgium" and then ur phone died Hehe so give em' a year and i'll buy them off ya or R these for keeps Got the JM labs sounding sweet, they did indeed produce some sibilance when i had my BD21 stands empty but now fully filled the sound is spot on and the bass is rather tastey I might B moving in2 my gf's soon in Ipswich mate so when/if i do i want to hear those new babies of yours

Ultra