VIB-TWO
A short reaction about the use of the VIB-TWO platters I bought from Hawk Audio as a vibration-free solution for my two Dynaudio nearfield monitors. Those platters do their job as a support for the loudspeakers near my computer monitor. Formerly the loudspeakers were placed on a wooden table generating vibrations even with rubber strips underneath.
The result with the VIB-TWO now is that the sound from the loudspeakers is cleaner, without perceptible vibrations in the table around 100 Hz. The stereo imaging now also is a lot better.
Hans I. (Hans runs a recording studio!)
A-18 Mk III
Hi Folks
Fritz Getze here, with a followup on the A-18 amp I built a couple of weeks ago. Everything functions well and I have installed permanent input jacks, speaker terminals, and the AB - A switch and led on a front panel I made from plexiglas.
Interestingly enough, the amp sounds best in my tube-based, high efficiency system, using a Bottlehead Foreplay preamp and the BK-16 folded horns with a Fostex fullrange diver, from Madisound. It has a very fast response with clearer highs and better bottom end than the Bottlehead Paramour 2A3 amps it replaces. It is a nice match with equipment that tends to emphasize the midrange. With the solid state system and the Duevel Bella Lunas, it tends to emphasize the tendencies of that system, which has a more pronounced high treble, slightly recessed mid treble and midrange, and relatively full bass. That system runs on Classe equipment, including a CD-10 CD player.
I was using a Conrad Johnson PV-10 preamp, and that mellows things a bit, but the extremely good transient resonse of the A-18 shows up the relatively high level of distortion of the PV 10 and makes for a slightly grainy sound. One combination I have not yet tried is the Foreplay and the A-18 on the Bella Lunas. I'll keep mixing and matching, but I am pleasantly amazes at how well the Hawk amp works with the 95 db efficient Fostex.
Fritz Getze, U.S.A.
A few experiences with the P-12 at ACA (may 20th 2006)
Click here for the original
Compared to the passive amp that George Hatziminas has at is home, the least I can say, from what I heard, before we burnt part of his system (yes from the volume believe it or not), was that John is not full of crap, this was really playing well. Soundstage, perfect control over the bass and musicality with little added pizzaz.
Seriously - it was better than the ZTPRE with my amp in almost all respects....but when we changed the amp for the Yamaha digital that was, in simple terms, about the best sound I ever heard.
I think Tony can write the review as well as I can at this point - he was the one that described La Traviata as Heaven.
From my point of view the combo of amp and pre-amp did everything I thought it was ever possible to do with recorded music and then some. Choose your audiophiles buzzword and it was there - air, depth, soundstage, image size, perfect tonal balance, bass, treble, mids, being there, raising the hairs on your arms etc. etc. etc.
I now realise that the (in)famous "speakers disappearing" is actually only the start - it is when you, the listener disappear, or rather the boundaries of you and they merge with the music - even the orchestra disappears at that point - it is just you and the music - and it is very hard to tell where one begins and the other one ends.
The combo was THAT good.
