PFM meets ZG - aka Dev & Tenson

It was good to see Dev and Simon yesterday for and afternoon of music and chat. I'm sure you'll all be relieved to hear that there were no busted drivers or shattered tubes despite letting Dev's Dhol Foundation Cds rip at tinittus inducing volume

Simon and Dev's Comments on the Impulse H2s were interesting as it seems they sound very different to the new Brian Taylor designs shown at Heathrow.
Both preferred the tweaked CD5i to the Sony 3000ES and I'm beginning to think I've made a big mistake as I've just sold the Naim...... oh dear

 

It just means you need to tweak the Sony

Tony.

 

Very true Tony.

The sony, with the brickwall filter disabled does things spatially that the Naim will only hint at on some discs (mainly simply miked stuff) but it lacks the grip of the Naim. I'm sure some Super Regs on the Sony will do it and i'll also try Simon's idea of using the Behringer 2496 as a DAC.

 

Hi Rob,

It was good to see you and Simon. Thanks for the hospitality and the loan of your test disc, which was used very effectively to scare the wotsits out of my 4 year old nephew (don't feel sorry for him, the little brat deserves a lot more).

I enjoyed your system very much, it has better top end than mine, especially with the passive pre I have at the moment. Sorry we liked the Naim CDP more than the Sony. An excellent selection of music as well, what a great way to spend an afternoon.

 

There's a guy in Germany who does mods of the various Sonys commercially. Having talked to him at length, I think you'll find it takes a lot more than just some improvements to the ps to really make the Sony sing. I'm afraid I think you'd get more out of your time and money investment by going down a different route.

 

I'm not so sure Markus.
In some areas the Sony clearly betters the Naim and isn't far behind where it isn't quite as good - the traditional pace/timing stuff. I'd place the Sony ahead of the standard 5i.

I see no reason why the inventors of CD shouldn't be able to get good results from it. They aren't exactly short of brains or cash either.

 

I think I know quite well what you mean when you say the Sony beters the Naim in some areas. I used to own a CDP-XA50ES and liked it. But the pace/timing deficiencies were present in that one, too, and it seems that this is precisely the area where you have to dig pretty deeply until the Sony delivers that (and keeps its strong points).

But please don't let me deter you; if you do manage to make the Sony do the pace etc. stuff, there'd be hope for a lot of people out there, there's a lot of Sonys around and they come at rather attractive prices.

 

Rob,
Good to see you on here too. What front end are you using now with your system? I understand you played with a N OS dac for a while.

 

Hi Mike,

Good to be here. I've met some nice people over here and while PF is 'home' I enjoy posting and reading the stuff here.

Front ends are Sony X3000ES and Micro Seiki DDX1000/SME4/Lyra Argo. I used the NOS for a while and while it had a different presentation to the Naim I ended up preferring the latter after the PSU mods.

Did you stick with the H2s?
I'm toying with the idea of replacing the Focal tweeter with a newer variant which apparently a drop in replacement but is 1db more sensitive so needs a little attenuation. I've got some ideas on plinths which will decouple the speakers from the floor and still hold them rigidly - ideas whizzing around in my head at the moment they may take shape soon.

 

I kept with the NOS, moving to a v2 with an add on PSU, sounds damn good.

Never made it to H2s, though I did try the Taus (newer version of the H2s). Had a very similar presentation to the H2s, both of which are a little too extreme and compromised IMO. I'm running a pair of Lali's (newer version of the H6s), which have some of the dynamics of the H2s, but without as many of the compromises (again IMO). Right now, I'm VERY happy with my amp/speaker combo, just considering potential front end upgrades.
I had a very good listen to a Consonance Droplet at Heathrow and was extremely impressed by that. So I will be setting up a dem of one in the near future and comparing it to my existing front end.

 

The mid horns on the bigger impulse speakers give great immediacy and clarity but can be a bit hard and relentless, especially when playing loud. A good tube amp works wonders though, so if you ever try the H1, H2 or Taus again try to hear them with some tube watts.

 

The Taus I considered buying were being fronted by a pair of mono block 300Bs, which I did think would do the trick.
Just a question of personal preference. As mentioned, I find that the Lali are somewhere between a normal speaker and the H2s, and make a very nice compromise.