Hey everybody.
After many months of waiting my for the arrival of my speakers, they finally were delivered yesterday. Twice they were off-loaded by the airline and then got lost by the Singapore Post Office after they attempted the first delivery. Next time, will try to arrange through a private shipping company. But no worries...
First off, i am not familiar with the sound of Pro Arcs so I can not compare them to the originals. I only know of their reputation but never auditioned them myself.
My main setup:
Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player - used for Blu-ray, CD, and SACD's
NAD T175 Processor fed via HDMI
Jojo's custom built Tube Preamp with HT by-pass. Fed from the 2 channel analog out on the Oppo
Rotel RMB-1075 5 Channel Amp 130 Watt/channel (Mardon, give up on thinking you will get it one day)
Front R/L: Gallo Acoustic Ref 3.05 (I have a hybrid version that shipped for a short while beween the Ref 3 and Ref3.1)
Center: Gallo Acoustic Ref AV Center
Surround: M&K S80
Sub: M&K MX70-B - it is 2 - 8 inch drivers in a push/pull design.
For the moment, I have replaced the Gallo Ref 3.05's with Anthony's speakers:
Pictures of everything is here, Mardon can maybe link them directly into this post for me.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdc115/sets/72157622531917127/So far I have only had them running for about 4 hours. Music listened to so far:
Patricia Barber's Modern Cool and Cafe Blue. both are Mobile Fidelity's Original Master Recording, SACDs and great reference recorders for listening purposes. She has amazing range in her voice and the recordings themselves are amazing.
Hiromi's Spiral and Brain - Japanese Jazz pianist (all acoustic)
Laika - Look at me Now
John Mayer Heavier Things SACD
Rachimaninoff's 2nd Paino Concerto on Living Living Stereo's SACD remaster of Van Cliburn playing and Fritz Reiner conducting
Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon SACD in 2 channel mode
For the audition, currently the setup is Oppo analog out to Jojo's tube preamp to Rotel Amp to Speakers. I do not have the M&K sub on and am feeding the speakers a full range signal
Out of the box, they are quite impressive even though they are not burned in. They take a little bit of time to get properly placed and my room acoustics are not very good. With the bass port in the back it is impossible for me to place them near the back wall without getting some very boomy-unnatural standing waves.
I have pulled them 2 feet away from the back wall, 6.5 feet apart (measured from the center of the speakers) and about 8 feet away from the listening position. There are no side boundries but the sitting position is against the back wall as my room in only about 12 feet deep in the way I am setup.
Compared to my Gallo's, they do seem to produce a tighter image and seem to have more snap in the mid range. Placing them is more difficult and at the moment they maybe lack the ability to really push them without sounding a little strained. But then they are not broken in and I am playing some demanding music and relatively high volumes.
I do seem to be finding more detail in the music that I not notice before. I think it has more to do with better separation and imaging. I have a better sense of the placement of the musicians.
So far i love what these things can do. They are a bit limited in the bass but that is to be expected due to their size. But I am quite happy to use them for music on their own without a sub-woofer. i will test them tonight watching some movies.
I will keep them in my main system for the next few weeks and then probably will set them up in another room for music only matched with a Parasound HCA-1000 power Amp, a Jojo designed passive pre-amp and Denon universal player.
i will update more later after I have more time with them and have them properly broken in. if i get a chance, I will try to find the originals to listen to as well.
