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CES 2017: Genesis Technologies, SMC Audio, Transfiguration, Viva Audio

amirm

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093A7779.jpg


My friend Gary Koh was there representing his company, Genesis, this time with a box speaker. Quite a departure. The sound was excellent if I may so with all of my bias.
 

RayDunzl

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The sound was excellent if I may so with all of my bias.
Speakers are dipole in the way they have replicated drivers front and back but don't sound like dipoles.

More Directed Energy Weapons.

What do dipoles sound like that this one doesn't? (It may seem like a snarky question, but I don't get out much).
 

DonH56

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In comparison to a regular dipole planar speaker I would expect them to radiate more like a point source, front and rear, and less like a line source over the entire frequency range. That would make them less directional and mean they interact more with the room than a typical ESL (e.g. Martin Logan, Quad, Sanders, Sound Lab) or planar dynamic speaker (e.g. Apogee, EMT, Magnepan). That could provide a larger sense of "space" in a typical room compared to conventional dipole.
 

watchnerd

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Speakers are dipole in the way they have replicated drivers front and back but don't sound like dipoles. Woofers are self-amplified making them easy to driver with excellent bass.

Do you mean dipoles, where the phase is inverted on each side?

Or bipoles, where the phase is the same on each side?

Planars and open baffles are always the former. Dynamics can be either.
 

Sal1950

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Love the looks of the Viva tube amps.
True beauty in industrial design.
 

garylkoh

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The speakers are dipole above about 120Hz and bipole below that.
 
OP
amirm

amirm

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The Viva Auroras certainly made the room warm and welcoming!
In more ways than one! :)

I captured more tracks that I will post later to this thread. Great music and food were definitely had! :)
 

Sal1950

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The Viva Auroras certainly made the room warm and welcoming!
In more ways than one! :)
People can say what they will about tube amps. There's just something they bring to the table
when you fire up some good music, turn off the lights, and kick back in the sweet spot chair
with a pair of exposed tube monoblocks in the center of the audio shrine. :cool:
I always wondered about rigs like the Audio Research amps that hid the tubes behind the big panels.
The ones with meters are OK, but without the KT88s glow, why bother? ;)
 

watchnerd

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People can say what they will about tube amps. There's just something they bring to the table
when you fire up some good music, turn off the lights, and kick back in the sweet spot chair
with a pair of exposed tube monoblocks in the center of the audio shrine. :cool:
I always wondered about rigs like the Audio Research amps that hid the tubes behind the big panels.
The ones with meters are OK, but without the KT88s glow, why bother? ;)

I prefer to get my tubes in the pre section, gives enough tube euphonia.

It's like analog dither.

But the downsides on the power amp side are too much for me to abide.
 

Sal1950

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I prefer to get my tubes in the pre section, gives enough tube euphonia.
IME Tubes in the phono and pre sections tend to create noise and microphonic issues. Used with high gain amps and sensitive (horn) speakers things get kind of dicey.
 

watchnerd

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IME Tubes in the phono and pre sections tend to create noise and microphonic issues. Used with high gain amps and sensitive (horn) speakers things get kind of dicey.

They definitely create noise and sometimes microphony. How much depends on the tube and implementation. But if paired with solid state amps you don't need to use horns. I find a tube pre + Class D amp has no issues.
 

garylkoh

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Here's a picture that Amir wasn't able to take - the diamond cantilever on the Transfiguration Proteus D. Note - the stylus isn't held on to the cantilever using a blob of glue. This translates to the closest connection between the grooves of the album and the loudspeakers that I've ever heard in my life!

stylus 2 s.jpg
 

watchnerd

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This translates to the closest connection between the grooves of the album and the loudspeakers that I've ever heard in my life!

Really?

Because that looks like a conical or elliptical stylus to me, which aren't generally regarded as 'connecting to the grooves' as well as a fine-line, Shibata, or similar stylus.

Or perhaps you meant "closest" in a more poetic sense....
 
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