Topic: Things of beauty

[qguy]

Everytime my sister would visit my house, she would give my old (1979 model) KEF 105.2 loudspeakers a hard look and say "you know your stereo sounds good, but I can't appreciate it... ang pangit kasi ng itsura !!!



shown with an M&K subwoofer

This went on for a year or so.. finally I gave in and got an Usher X-719, I got this unit for 4 reason,

1. it's drop dead gorgeous
2. it had a good review in Stereophile
3. it's drop dead gorgeous
4. it's drop dead gorgeous

Did I mention that  its drop dead gorgeous ?

so I picked up the Ushers at one of pdvd members residence, here, when the owner opened the box and I had a glimse of the piano black finish... I said to myself "WOW..ang ganda... and ang laki" (the X-719 are bookshelve speakers, but at 37 pounds each, these are huge, put on the floor and people would say.. nice looking subwoofers !!!).   I listened to it for about 10 minutes, we used a T-amp as the owners regular amp was out for repair. the T-amp could hardly drive the users. We place the Usher in the box and I headed home.

Once I opened the box, my wife caught a glimpse of the Black top of the X-719 and said with a frown on her face "Black na naman !!!"  then I lifted the ushers out of the box and once she sw those wooden side panels she gasped and smiled.





 

[av_phile1]

Fine looking speakers there.   Congrats.      Beautiful cabintry and clean elegant looks are always a plus when getting any part of your sound systems.  They're in the aesthetics department.   If you can have both great aesthetics and great sound, why not?  But just like people, looks can be deceiving sometimes. Your old KEf may look yucky, but if they sound gorgoeus, then they do what they were meant to.  Many audiophiles close their eyes when listening anyway.     But, I agree,  a thing of physical beauty is always rewarding just to behold. 

[ronjet]

beauty and brain na ba sir qguy? invite your sister again. Congrats on that "Drop Dead Goooorrrgeous"  speakers. Happy listening.

[JojoD818]

Awesome! Congrats!

 

[qguy]

oh no.. initially the X-719 where not to our  liking (me and the wife, the wife uses the stereo,more than I do) , the mids were rather too forward the highs were a bit too hot for my taste..... you should have seen my wife face when we played some vocal cd... she said "ano yan, patayin mo, patayin mo... parang akong sinisigawan",  to be fair,it could have been the room or s most likely it  could have been our ears which has been subjected to 8 years of laidback sound (others would say ngongo sound ) from the KEF 105.2, Celestions Sl6si and Acoustic Energy Aegis 1

I tried different cables,  tried an Audio Research D76A (PP 6550),  the AR, did help a bit, but the sound was really not to our liking. I was on the brink of selling the item, but every time I saw the X-719, I would say to myself.....ang pogi!!! pagh tyagaan natin ayunsin.  Someone from WS,confirmed that the sound can be tailored to our liking by modding the crossover. Searched the net mostly on the DIY Audio forums and read about notch filters,  notch filters is a Capacitor, Resistor and Inductor circuit which cuts down on some frequencies, Luckily I found a website where an loudspeaker designer had a similar problem with his loudspeaker, not an usher X-719, but a DIY 2 ways with the same drivers as the X-719,  he had the same problem with the mids and highs,  he made a notch filter to tame 900 hz and 1200 hz.....once connected to the crossover, the sound suddenly change, it was like listening to a totally different loudspeakers, the mids were laidback and sweet.  A couple of days after I added a  1 ohm resistor to cut down on the tweeters output...finally Beauty and Brains na siya !!!

beauty and brain na ba sir qguy?

[ronjet]

congrats sa  tweaking sir qguy ... buti nalang... kung 'di... palo siguro.