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LA Audio Show 2017: Day 1

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amirm

amirm

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Thanks for the report.

Is it possible to have a picture of "unveiled" Magnepan room?
Here you go.

093A0036.jpg
093A0037.jpg
093A0038.jpg


It was pitch black in there so I really had to turn up the gain on my camera to make them visible. Pretty haphazard stacking.
 

RayDunzl

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I'm not sure what I'm looking at there...
 
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amirm

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Two speakers stacked on top of each other for Left and Right and a center channel. A processor was used to produce the 3-channel output from stereo music. Was an odd configuration that played most of the music from center channel.
 

DonH56

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Seems strange. Memories of the old stacked Quads (HQD) and Acoustat ESLs come to mind. I also quibbled over their "tri-center" approach for various technical reasons but have never heard it. Maybe they just wanted to ensure a floor-to-ceiling line source? Or make sure it sounded OK for all the people walking around. Hmph.
 
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Or make sure it sounded OK for all the people walking around.
That's what they said for the center. And yes, they wanted to simulate the sound of a line array with the stack.
 

RayDunzl

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Why do our little brains think a 15 foot wide room is 50 feet wide when you use a wide lens?

Aren't our little eyeballs already wide-angle?

Why? Why? Why?
 
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These rooms are so small that I have had to resort to widest angle zoom lens I can get my hands on (Canon 11-24 mm F4L):

canon-11-24-l-wide-angle_0.jpg


This is a very low distortion lens so it was a delight to use it. But yes, it does exaggerate perspective as it pulls in such a wide angle.
 

bibo01

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Here you go.

View attachment 7507 View attachment 7508 View attachment 7509

It was pitch black in there so I really had to turn up the gain on my camera to make them visible. Pretty haphazard stacking.
It seems to me that there are a couple of Magnepan .7 model on each side (one inclined and one straight) and possibly a 1.7i in the center.

In the side speakers the side "wings" look odd. They are either for dispersion or for simple support - they are not DWM woofers.
Incidentally, in the 3rd picture, on the bottom left corner, we can catch a glimpse of perhaps a DWM (I'm just guessing). Amir, did you notice any extra panel on the far side by the wall?
 
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RayDunzl

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GEORGE: Yeah. I think we really got something here.
JERRY: What do we got?
GEORGE: An idea.

JERRY: What idea?
GEORGE: An idea for the show.

JERRY: I still don't know what the idea is.
GEORGE: It's about nothing.

JERRY: Right.

GEORGE: Everybody's doing something, we'll do nothing.

JERRY: So, we go into NBC, we tell them we've got an idea for a show about nothing.
GEORGE: Exactly.

JERRY: They say, "What's your show about?" I say, "Nothing."
GEORGE: There you go.

(A moment passes)

JERRY: (Nodding) I think you may have something there.
 

josh358

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Seems strange. Memories of the old stacked Quads (HQD) and Acoustat ESLs come to mind. I also quibbled over their "tri-center" approach for various technical reasons but have never heard it. Maybe they just wanted to ensure a floor-to-ceiling line source? Or make sure it sounded OK for all the people walking around. Hmph.
I heard the tri center at Magnepan and it was stunning. They didn't see it as a product that many would buy but Wendell Diller, their director of marketing, felt it was such an improvement over two-channel that he had to offer it. One odd and unique thing about it is that after you've listened, regular two channel stereo collapses into mono until the next day!

The idea of this demo was to demonstrate the audible improvement afforded by a true line source speaker over a smaller one. It wasn't intended to sell anything -- they aren't offering stacked .7's to the public. Shows don't much affect their sales anymore and speakers seldom sound their best in show conditions. Rather, it was intended as an interesting demonstration.

As in the past, the center channel speaker was used just because it provides better coverage to people sitting to the left and the right. So it was just to make the demo work with a large audience. This always causes a bit of confusion at these shows because people think they're selling three channel. Last year, on the other hand, they had a demo of three channel (not tri center but using a Bryston processor programmed with secret juice) at THE. It was extremely effective if you were sitting in the center seat as I was. In fact, I'm having a hard time living with two channel now. :-|
 
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Frank Dernie

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Giya


This was on LP. Great ambience and dynamics.

The sidelit woofers show turntable rumble very easily as they modulate back and forth. Someone asked what it was in the audience. Interesting that so much "jitter" goes on in analog but folks have not witnessed it objectively. Fortunately it is low frequency and harmless.

Strictly speaking the pumping is caused by warps or eccentricity being near the natural frequency of the cartridge/arm effective mass on the cartridge compliance, not rumble. This can be a big peak if the cartridge doesn't have a lot of damping (and in seismic transducers damping reduces accuracy over their proper working frequency range). In 1976 (iirc) the RIAA changed their equalisation curve to roll off its boost at very low frequencies but lots of people prefer a bit of resonance in the bass so not every maker uses this updated curve...
True it doesn't matter much in multi way speakers but it must modulate the mid range in a 2-way, and use a less linear part of the magnetic circuit some of the time.
It can't be accurate even if some people like the effect.
 

TitaniumTroy

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Huge thanks Amir, for the VSA and Magnepan pics. Also the for reviews of how the room sounded. Would love to hear Magnepan's TriCenter someday, those VSA really have a cool svelte look, much better than their previous super tower speakers. They also sounded a lot better than the ones I heard at the first AXPONA in Chicago. That version had subs on the side, and their were many problems with room.
 

Sal1950

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Strictly speaking the pumping is caused by warps or eccentricity being near the natural frequency of the cartridge/arm effective mass on the cartridge compliance, not rumble. This can be a big peak if the cartridge doesn't have a lot of damping (and in seismic transducers damping reduces accuracy over their proper working frequency range).
Vinyl playback issues that things like the Shure Dynamic Stabilizer were marketed to address. :)
These kids don't remember anything. LOL
"Dynamic Stabilizer: The Shure exclusive viscous-damped Dynamic Stabilizer maintains a uniform distance between the cartridge and the record under difficult playing conditions, even those caused by warped records or mismatched tonearm mass. When such stabilization is not required, the stabilizer brush can be locked up into its detent position, which, under ideal playing conditions, can provide even better sound quality."
https://www.shure.com/americas/products/phono/m97xe-audiophile-phono-cartridge

max_desktop_M97x-Angle1.jpg
 

Frank Dernie

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Vinyl playback issues that things like the Shure Dynamic Stabilizer were marketed to address. :)
These kids don't remember anything. LOL
"Dynamic Stabilizer: The Shure exclusive viscous-damped Dynamic Stabilizer maintains a uniform distance between the cartridge and the record under difficult playing conditions, even those caused by warped records or mismatched tonearm mass. When such stabilization is not required, the stabilizer brush can be locked up into its detent position, which, under ideal playing conditions, can provide even better sound quality."
https://www.shure.com/americas/products/phono/m97xe-audiophile-phono-cartridge

max_desktop_M97x-Angle1.jpg
Indeed. The "correct" place for the damping in a proper seismic sensor is between the stator and the excitation, in this case the cartridge body and the groove. Here the record surface is near enough the groove, and certainly massively better than the damping at the cantilever which is the "wrong" place but a necessary compromise given the way record player assemblies evolved.
Another example of LPs sounding nice despite the technology in use being poor.
 

Sal1950

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Two speakers stacked on top of each other for Left and Right and a center channel. A processor was used to produce the 3-channel output from stereo music. Was an odd configuration that played most of the music from center channel.
Stacking device and brackets look to be a "Primitive Pete" kludge. Fugly as sin L brackets and hammered together stand, hope it didn't look as cheesy in the light as it comes off in the ramped up pictures
 
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