Advice on Steinway Lyngdorf S-Series audition

[DigiPete]

I am going to audition a Steinway Lyngdorf S-Series stereo system on Monday.

 

Does anyone have any experience to share, so I'm as prepared as possible?

 

I'll probably take my MacBook Pro and interface by USB, use iTunes + PureMusic.

Alternatively Decibel and a few selected music files.

 

I seems that the digital stereo pre-amp SP-1 only has S/PDIF and no AES/EBU inputs.

I would have liked to feed it through my Weiss AFI-1, but it does not seem like an option.

 

Any thoughts???

[NOMBEDES]

Will they have a live band? Reporting I have read from the San Francisco audition stated that the system played behind the band and when the band stopped playing the system took over. Now this style of "A/B" may have made a comparison difficult.

I do not think I would have a problem with the "play along" comparison but you will have to make that decision yourself.

 

Good luck and please let us know your thoughts on the SL - S Series.

[mav52]

Steinway-Lyngdorf S Series review

 

 

Test Report: Steinway Lyngdorf S-Series Audio System | Sound and Vision Magazine

 

A chunk of change $$$

[mayhem13]

The posting of measurments by S&V doesn't really help Steinway.....a near 10db null at 800hz and after 17khz.......a cliff dive. I'd expect a bit more for my $58k.

[DigiPete]

The posting of measurments by S&V doesn't really help Steinway.....a near 10db null at 800hz and after 17khz.......a cliff dive. I'd expect a bit more for my $58k.

 

mayhem

 

A

The text clearly states:

"The S-15’s measurements are obviously marred by that dip at 530 Hz, which is an unavoidable cancellation effect caused by the wall-mounting. (Because it’s a cancellation effect, or “suckout,” it can’t be corrected through equalization; any additional energy pumped into that band would simply be canceled.)"

 

B

The text also clearly states:

"Even though I wasn’t able to recalibrate RoomPerfect for the measurement environment . . ."

 

I'd expect a bit more attention to detail from a fellow CA'er ;-)

[mayhem13]

Sorry Pete......it's your attention or understanding that's lacking....wall mounting won't produce a null in that range or that intensity. If anything, wall mounting would produce an increase due to boundary loading........much like BSC but with heavy diffraction.

 

As to the rolloff, if it were indeed a calibration error, it certainly wouldn't look like the classic AMT rolloff.

 

I'd take five of your Genelecs over this system any day of the week.

[DigiPete]

Sorry Pete......it's your attention or understanding that's lacking....wall mounting won't produce a null in that range or that intensity. If anything, wall mounting would produce an increase due to boundary loading........much like BSC but with heavy diffraction.

 

As to the rolloff, if it were indeed a calibration error, it certainly wouldn't look like the classic AMT rolloff.

 

 

I agree that a dip that high up with none below is strange, but so is the setup:

 

- Subs at 45 deg angle in the corners.

- Sub X-over at 300hz

- And he adds "Because the S-15 is designed primarily for wall-mounting, I mounted the speaker on an ersatz wall,

a 2-by-4-foot sheet of plywood attached to a stand and mounted on my measurement turntable."

- Calibration used from a different room.

The high freq. roll-off looks funny ;-)

 

Not sure what to make of it all.

I'm sure the SL-S is more capable than what the freq. response curve shows.

 

 

I'd take five of your Genelecs over this system any day of the week.

 

 

Thanks, the SL-S is up against a real competitive opponent.

I am however looking forward to the experience!

[mayhem13]

Anyways, still looking forward to your assesment of the system once you've done your audition. Although I may have been overly critical of the Steinway system, all that really matters is how it sounds so pardon my negativity.....ill placed I think.

 

P.S.....I can't hear a lick above 17khz as is the case for almost every real world 40 something male.

[firedog]

As Steinway says that one of the ways they were convinced to go along with the project was hearing Steinway piano playback with Lyngdorf that is indistinguishable from live, I'd like to hear you assessment of how "real" solo piano playback sounds.

[f1eng]

I recently heard a surround sound system using the Lyngdorf Steinway speakers. The sound was quite impressively loud but the quality was not to my taste.

Then I listened to the very much more expensive Model D system which is the best sound I have jeard on demo anywhere ever, by a considerable margin. Spectacularly beleivable on piano, as one may expect, but everything else I played too. it is the first system I have heard which sounded as good or better than my system at home.

It is exquisitely made and finished too.

If I had not got so far down the road of developing my own system I would buy it.