Impressions of a beginner on the proac clones gen2(mylar tweeters) of a-audio:i don't have much experience in quality speakers being used only to pc speakers(logitech x540 anyone?) and a pioneer htib which i bought in 2004 for 26k as a present for my sister so my opinion on these are purely subjective.
the first time i heard the speakers was in sir anthony's place. when he fired up the speakers by playing some music, the first thing that came to my mind was: kumpleto and tunog. i may not be needing a sub if i'll used them for audio, i was thinking. i wasn't really paying that much attention when he tested the speakers with a movie since i was really looking at its performance with music. during college i had been a part-time acoustic singer in folk and country bars so i was really particular about the speakers fidelity. i am also of the mindset that if it is good for music, then it would be also be great for movies.
the second time was in sir pilyo's place when i went there on the same day to get the 5.1 power amp i had ordered. we connected one of the floorstanders to his ipod(of course using the amp he made) and again my impression was kumpleto talaga and tunog. But this time i saw that the speakers would sound even better with a sub. naidemonstrate kasi ni sir pilyo na iba talaga pag may sub.
so i brought those 6 precious speakers(i had also bought a 10" sub from sir anthony) home to baguio together with the 5.1 pilyo amp. since i arrived home quite late (2am) i wasn't able to listen to them that night. the following day i wasn't able to restrain myself. right after work i rushed to an electrical shop and bought the wires i needed to connect the speakers to my htpc. again i just connected the floorstanders, but this time as a pair.
the sound? nagulat ako.
wow! sir pilyo had had the kindness to burn me a copy of some of his uncompressed audio files and the first song i listened to was Somewhere over the Rainbow(i didn't take note of the artist,it was a female.) the track was more on vocals. i was wearing a silly grin as the song went on because it was as if the vocalist had come out into the room to sing. i'm not exaggerating. this was just my honest impression. i had taken care to toe-in the two speakers so that i was in the exact sweet spot and the feeling was a first for me. nagblend yung dalawang speaker so that there was just the singer.even now i'm smiling thinking of that time. magical talaga for me. siguro part of the reason i had this reaction was again my relative inexperience in these kind of speakers.
i tried the other songs this time with the sub connected. i set the speaker settings to 5.1 so that i could hear the sub because i could not find a 2.1 setting. but this time i was a bit puzzled when Hotel California by the eagles was not as i remembered it. medyo may kulang sa vocals ni don henley.. then i remebered that the speaker settings on the computer was set to 5.1 and since the audio track was encoded in 5.1 format maybe some of the vocals which should be coming out in the center speaker were absent. i tried it again in stereo and nakumpleto uli.
kaso nabawasan na yung bass.
one thing i notice though, as i went on with my listening, was that there was a bit of stiffness. i dont know.siguro mawala din ito habang tumatagal. pero sa original search ko for fidelity, solve na solve ako.
so much so that ive noticed and i'm already thinking of improving my sound processors in the pre amp stage. would you believe that i'm using onboard sound. a high quality sound card, proper room treatment and i'll be in cloud nine.
but the speakers and sir pilyo's power amp? they're home to stay.
right now i can't wait to get home tomorrow after my duty to listen to the speakers again and this time set up in the proper 5.1 connections.
