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SAS Demo

RayDunzl

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I attended a meetup of the Suncoast Audiophile Society yesterday.

AJ gave the demo.

It was only nine miles away, how could I resist.

A borrowed room at the Sun City Community Center, estimated dimensions 25 x 40 x 9.

upload_2017-7-23_13-43-11.png


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The big speakers have a coaxial horn / midrange at the top, a pair of woofers, and a subwoofer on the back.

The front half of the "box" is open (cloth sides and top), the rear half is sealed box for the rear sub.

The bookshelf has an 8" woofer and waveguide tweeter, also active. An array of 4 closed back mid/HF drivers was mounted to the back of the bookshelf and could be used with either set of speakers.

I don't know if the crossovers were active or passive, I might guess passive.

Both speakers were active designs. They appeared to be more tech demonstrators than fully finished "for sale" items.

A Mytek Brooklyn DAC was used for the front speakers. A pair of surrounds were also set up, possibly driven by an Emotiva DAC.

Sources were from the Laptop, wireless to the shrine, Tidal streaming, hard-disk files, optical disc were sources.

No DRC was used. Seemed a little off on the frequency response, but who knows, it being an unfamiliar room and system.

Bass was not boomy. That's always a plus.

Imaging was a little more diffuse than I am used to, maybe due to the use of rear speakers, which isn't something I have, or am acquainted with.

Apparently some of the tunes were fully MQA decoded, but nothing made me notice which were or weren't. It occurred to me to ask to be sure since the Mytek does MQA and Tidal can send it.

Of course, my single demo tune request was not part of Tidal's repertoire.

So, my first Audiophile meeting, ever. Scratch that off my bucket list.

Now, all I have to do is attend a Show sometime and my audio life will be complete. I've already visited a Dealer.

Sal1950 is in the second picture. I do not appear.

The directions to the place were a bit unclear, which is why Sal is still wearing a frown.

---

Here is AJ's company site:

http://www.soundfieldaudio.net/
 
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RayDunzl

RayDunzl

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watchnerd

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I don't think this qualifies as a true audiophile event; there is nothing even remotely voodoo being shown here.
 
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RayDunzl

RayDunzl

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Whats with the turned over chairs ...??

They're cable risers?

I think just to block that path to the fridge - some of the cables were too short for the span...

Compare to the other side, which was less likely to have foot traffic.
 
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Sal1950

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Whats with the turned over chairs ...??
They're cable risers?
I complained to AJ about that, he had another set of chairs sitting right there behind the right channel speakers he could have put into service.
I know I could hear a difference in height information between the channels and also possibly a higher noise level from the right side.
The wife of one of the Suncoast Audiophile Society members mentioned to me that while standing outside the front door she had noticed it immediately. even above the sound of the afternoon rain.
But AJ, in yet another demonstration of his anti-subjective attitude, chose to ignore our requests, just about spoiled the whole experience for me. :mad::p
 

jhaider

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I'm actually surprised AJ would do something as, dare I say, boring as an 8" 2-way. Even if the driver complement (my guess is Dayton Reference "subwoofer" and Seas DXT tweeter) requires either active xo or a big stack of resistors on the tweeter to blend. The other speaker looks more AJ-y.

AJ knows a thing or two about loudspeaker design. We've enjoyed a pair of his original semi-active Monitor 1's for years. Actually I think M1v2; version 1 had a JBL car woofer and ours have a TangBand woofer. Later models swapped out the BASH amp for a Yung Class D unit, and may have changed the woofer. They sound good enough for my wife to actually let me keep them in in our master suite despite their size and the dated-looking cherry veneer cabinets. A very simple system - RokuTV, little Yamaha half-rack AirPlay DAC/preamp, Parasound Zamp, speakers - that sounds great for background or serious listening.

AJ also made one of the few mostly full range dipoles that I've liked, with a 12" coax and an 18" woofer.
 
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RayDunzl

RayDunzl

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