To get 24-bit/192kHz from Vista Laptop today, go the Studio gear or the Audiophile gear route?

[jeroen020]

 

Hi Vincent,

 

Thanks for your reply. One additional question, were you able to get a demo versioin of the RME (in the Netherlands) ? I read the Weiss can be auditioned . . .

 

Kind regards,

 

Jeroen

 

[VincentH]

Hi Jeroen, I auditioned the Weiss via www.joystick.be, they sent the unit to me via mail, very helpful people there. They do the Netherlands and Belgium.

 

The RME, Focals and Adams I 'auditioned' by ordering them at www.thomann.de and then using their 30-day money back guarantee. They deliver in most of Europe and have by far the most pro gear I could find anywhere. Excellent & very easy service for return shipments and a full refund. I only had to pay for shipping which is very modest.

 

[emw]

I'm on a very simular route. I want to give up with the Hi-Fi or HI-END gear and are looking into pro audio stuff. I had a set of Quested studio monitors VH 2108 for audition at home. But was not totally happy.

So could you describe the SQ differences between the Adams and the Focals and any other monitor you may have tested.

After the Quested monitors my 2nd choise would have been Adams or Klein+Hummel. What do you think ?

 

 

 

 

[VincentH]

As far as active monitors goes I only tested Focals and Adams. I'll try to summarize what else I listened to; maybe this will help illustrate what they sound like by comparison.

 

When I started my search my reference sound was from my Grado RS 1 & RA 1 headphone & amp. This headphone excels in details in the high and compelling mids; in comparison I found other top model headphones (e.g. Sennheiser's best) clinical and/or boring.

 

So I went for speakers that could give me comparable mid's and highs to the RS 1 and more low extension, plus of course the ability to share the listening experience with my friends.

 

I started out listening to traditional speakers in various hi-end shops. Most speakers lacked the details in the high in a big way for me and were plain boring. Dynaudio speakers with their special Esotec-2 model tweeter were reasonable but not compelling (the cheaper model 1 tweeter I found very veiled).

 

I listened to many brands of speakers (in the range to $4K / pair) but the best I heard just could not give me what the RS 1 did. The few that stood out only were a reasonable second to the Grado sound.

 

So I read up about a lot of active monitors and selected a few based on special tweeter techniques and online reviews: Adams P33A's because of their special ribbon tweeters and Focal Twin 6 Be's because of their beryllium tweeters. Both are MDM designs with two identical mid/low drivers, where one driver receives both mid and low and the other only low (apparently this eliminates certain phase problems). Both are designed for near-to mid field listening and have front-mounted bass ports to allow placement close to the rear wall.

 

I had those two 30 days on trial at home, side-by-side. Here are the similarities and differences I heard:

• Both Focal and Adams DID deliver the details in the high and the extension I was lookin for; this was on a par or even better than the RS 1 highs; no comparison to the hifi speakers I heard before. Based on the highs alone I could not choose; I could hear *everything* in the music on both Adams and Focals.
  
• The Adams extended lower and had more texture in the lows (even though their enclosure was a bit smaller).
  
• The Focals seemed to have better integration; when listening to the Focals I heard the music more as a whole, where on the Adams I found I was more listening to lows / mids / highs.
  
• The Focals had more compelling mid's; for me the deciding factor was that when listening to female solo singers, the Focals moved me more than the Adam's did. I cannot describe the sonic quality that causes this, but the effect was very clear to me - the Adams sounded more clinical / engineered to me in the mids.
  

 

The Focals particularly excel in acoustic string instruments, cymbal work and solo voices. I did miss the low extension so I added the matching Focal Sub6 - again way better low (definition, extension) than I heard from Hifi speakers before :-)

 

So it boils down to selecting some models based on technical specs and reviews, and then listening at home with the music you prefer and see what it does to you. Specs cannot tell what sounds best to you, they just serve as a preselection.

 

I recently experienced something that illustrates that the choice of music for auditioning is very important: a friend of mine introduced me to some music styles that are new (to me) - amongst wich was music from Orlande de Lassus (masses from the 1500s). On his system (a Creative card to NAD amp to B&W speakers) this really moved me, but on my system there was a sharp 'saw' like quality when two male voices were singing notes that came really close to one another. His system also did DSP; I do not know whether the 'saw' edge was the recording, my DAC or the Be tweeters, but it clearly illustrates that when one style of music sounds great, other styles may not.

 

As Chris often says: Let your ears decide!

 

Cheers, Vincent

 

 

 

 

 

[AaronB]

Has anyone heard the Citypulse DA-2.03e? I know on paper it looks good, but haven't seen or heard one yet.