![]() ![]() Beyond that, the aural image seemed almost completely disassociated from the Studios and the F206s, spread from wall to wall, all around back and way forward to the middle of Third Avenue beyond my front wall. Regardless of the recording, the Revels were able to conjure a convincing spatial impression. And just to finish up where I began in multichannel, this setup places around me and delineates all the individual instruments in Willie Nelson's Night and Day (DVD-A, Surrounded By Entertainment SBE1001-9) as I sit, feeling at home, in their studio. Sure, the elimination of the height channels compromised the image of the drummer sitting behind the listener, but gee whiz: The piano and bass up front are as solidly real as they would be from the front table in a jazz club. In a surprise, I discovered that the Hoff Ensemble's acoustic jazz album Polarity (SACD+BluRay Audio, 2L Records 2L-145-SABD), which I had found so impressive in 5.2.4 Auro-3D via the Trinnov Altitude A/V preamplifier in my Connecticut system, was much more satisfying in 5.1 via the Revels. The lead voices are more distinctive and present while the accompaniment and ambience are more naturally relaxed. I can say the samewith the addition of strings, winds, and singersabout the thrills and chills I get from Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony's spectacular recording of Berio's Sinfonia (24/96 5.1channel WAV download, Seattle SSM1018).Ībsolutely every recording I've tried, including familiars from Sara K, Michael McDonald, Dire Straits, and Alison Krauss, was revealed with more transparency and acoustical context than I have enjoyed before. I dug out what I recalled as a recording with great dynamics and ambience, the National Brass Ensemble's Gabrieli: Selections from Sacrae Symphoniae (SACD, Oberlin Music OC15-04), only to be stunned by the clarity of each instrument in the brass panoply, the solidity and power of the organ and, overall, the enormous and undeniable presence of the space that I was sharing with the ensemble. Voice and piano remained in place while the soundstage widened and the lateral and rear boundaries of the space melted away. Thus switching from a good stereo presentation to the surround version of Finzi's "Come Away, Come Away, Death," sung by Marianne Beate Kielland (SACD, 2L Records 2L-064-SACD), was not jarring but illuminating. To no surprise, the Revels were just super and offered the most coherent and integrated surround I can recall. With that, I moved on to the main course: multichannel. #Usa exasound 28 with pure music full#I'll say no more about two-channel but refer you to my original Studio2 review for full details (and JA's measurements). She sounds as pure and even, although a bit more distant, using the Benchmark amps. Thus the issues I've had with the rendering of Dame Emma Kirkby's voice in Mozart's glorious "Exsultate Jubilate" (CD, L'oiseau-Lyre 168055) do not exist with the Studios. I take that as indicative of the smoother, flatter treble response that I hear when playing music. Compared to the recently departed B&Ws, set at comparable levels and with my ear to the tweeter, the Studio2 had much lower noise, and the character of the noise was more of a soft hiss than a hash. From memory, overall balance was a smidgen less forward than with the F228Be, but I also noticed that when I compared them side-by-side at the Harman Store on Madison Avenue before placing my order. Bass was clean and tight midrange detail and transparency were excellent. I began listening with stereo tracks and heard at once a sense of the same rightness that I had enjoyed with the DSP-based speakers I discussed above. So far, I have not applied any EQ to this setup. I do almost all my listening from file playback using JRiver Media Center, an Audio Research MP1 preamp, and an exaSound e38 D/A processor, and I can set both level and timing compensation in JRMC. The two F206s are each about 7' from my ears. ![]() The Studio2s sit with their front panel 4' from the front wall of my room, the left- and right-channel speakers about 2.5' from their respective sidewalls. Unpacking and setting up the Studios was a repetition of my experience from a decade ago the F206s were easier because of their smaller size and weight. ![]()
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