maxg Posted July 6, 2004 Share Posted July 6, 2004 Well what a weekend and more it has been! for those of you that dont know I live in Greece. That means that I have not slept for 4 days or more - why? Well wouldn't you know Greece qualitifed for the European championships (soccer) for the first time and went and against all the odds - won the damn thing. Its been a 3 week jaunt into the unknown for us - and an amazing experience along the way. Against all the odds? How about 150 to 1 against us winning at the start of the tournament. In US speak - think Little League team winning the World Series. The party has been going for several days now - Ouzo to blood ratios about 1 to 1 on average across the country. Despite all of this - and possibly helped by my absence from the forum for a few days - I have got in some serious listening to a variety of systems which I will share with you all here. Tony has been in hyper mood all weekend. SWMBO away - sitters arranged - tme to play (between football matches of course). Start off point? How about a pair of Kharma Ceramique speakers: Driven by some impressive SS amps with both Cd and vinyl sources. Sadly the room was not up to much - so the sound was decent but nothing to write home about. Defnintely not a Klipsch sound - but there was a sweetness and lightness to the touch that is worth experiencing at least once - just to know there is another way of listening to music. Bass impressive for the single 8 inch driver - ported. Audiophiles seem to be going crazy over this speaker - I am not sure why - its fine - nothing obviously wrong - but hardly worth the fuss they attract over here. Of course for around 14,500 euros (about $16,500) I would go for the Jubilee in a heartbeat first - but an interesting experience nonetheless. Next up - Kef 205: Bi-amped with Cd only source (old Technics) in a reasonable room this time. This is another model that audiophiles are going nuts over. Something around $6500. Lots and lots of bass with this speaker. Excellent soundstaging and good depth. A very well balanced speaker overall - but somehow...somehow....very very boring. A good speaker for a dinner party when you dont want to disturb anyone - as long as you have the volume low. Raise the volume and the bass will beat you over the head but without ever managing to convince you that you are listening to anything else other than a reasonable stereo system. Definitely not a live experience. What do they see in this thing - qaint no way Tony will be swayed from his 802 target with these methinks. Between these 2 a stop off at the local importer of everything excet Klipsch. Playing in his very impressive main listening room are a pair of Triangle speakers (who? - French apparently) - little ones: No fuss about these - no-one seems to know they exist. Oh look - horn loading - that's nice - sensitivity a reasonable, but unimpressive 91 dB - but the impedance graph shows a range of almost 4 ohms at the bottom to 13 ohms at the peak. In other words - a seemingly easy to drive load (compare those figures to Heritage). And just look at the size of the boxes - these are small speakers - huge WAF and a choice of finishes to boot. Interesting rearwards firing midrange driver - very nice build quality - and a surprising range of 45 Hz to 20,000 - a match for the Belles? Well maybe not quite (maybe that is - still not heard the belle) - but certainly the most impressive speaker I got to hear all weekend. If it wasnt for the $3000 price tag (including stands) these would be a very interesting alternative to Heresy's. Actually that is doing them down. Frankly these were seriously impressive - with as good a soundstaging as I have ever heard. Oftentimes I have read, and even used, the phrase - "the speakers disappeared". I now know that I have not applied this phrase correctly. These truely do. Listening to an Opera singer move from outside the speakers, across the left channel and into centre stage - singing all the way, was a staggering experience. At no time do you get any impression of where the speaker is. Depth, as you might imagine with rear firing mid range drivers is seriously impressive. Its like listening to a pair of really good ESL's but without any of the headaches of owning them, and with that glorious front firing Horn to really provide the live experience. I am definitely going to borrow a pair of these to test out at home. These were being driven by the entry level SS amp from Primare (around $1000) and their entry level CD player (same $). According to the seller - my front end setup would blow this out of the water. That these little monsters blew away the other 2 setups hardly needs emphasis. Of course Tony is dead set against going the Horn route - hearing with his eyes again - what can you do? Are they as good as my own speakers at classical? I think yes (but that will become clear when I test them out). Are they better than mine at Rock and Jazz? You bet your butt! Serious speed and impact here. I am left pondering how they did it. The image size is simply impossible looking at the box. The sound is that wonderful live experience and 70 wpc will make them scream whenever I want to. Actually a mere 8 wpc with that impedance curve could be enough....I wonder... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doudou Posted July 6, 2004 Share Posted July 6, 2004 triangle is french, you re right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dflip Posted July 6, 2004 Share Posted July 6, 2004 Those darn Greeks on the Danforth (Toronto has the second largest Greek population of any city in the world, not in Greece) wouldn't let anyone sleep. They started at 4:30 pm and kept going past 2 am in the morning. Not a car could travel down the street, there was fireworks, and drinks everywhere. You'd have thought they won something big or something. On the local sports stations, they thought the accomplishment was more like Finland winning the gold medal in hockey at the Olympics, a major surprise, but something that is possible. After all, they beat England earlier this year, so they established they were a good team. Congratulations! To keep within the two channel rules, thanks for posting the reviews on the three pairs of speakers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted July 6, 2004 Share Posted July 6, 2004 Congrats on the football! Max, I've been wondering if you are planning to take in some Olympic events? What do you want to see? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebes Posted July 6, 2004 Share Posted July 6, 2004 Max not only are you living in one of the nicest countries on the planet you get to hear all this very serious gear. Man am I jealous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scriven Posted July 6, 2004 Share Posted July 6, 2004 I thought I've Got Blisters on My Fingers was John Lennon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted July 7, 2004 Author Share Posted July 7, 2004 Thebes, Greece, at least Athens, is a place that looks better from a distance. Trust me - things are far from perfect over here - but we do have a disproportionate number of audiophiles it seems. DaddyDee, Yup - I think we will attend a few events as the mood takes us. Not really decided what yet - certainly some of the track and field. tickets have hardly flown off the shelves - so we should have a full choice. Some of the events seem to be quite near to us - there are venues all over the city - but I am not sure they are events we particularly want to see - maybe the cycling would be interesting though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnWhite Posted July 7, 2004 Share Posted July 7, 2004 Read in the news about some of the hotel employees striking because they are not getting a bonus for working during the Olympic games. Its good to see that us Americans are not the only money driven people around I hope it doesn't cause to much of an issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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