Dear friends,
The hunt is nearing an end! Wanted to strongly believe that "where there is a will, there is a way", and consoled myself that all decisions of mine need not have to taken by the brain since heart is also an equally important organ for my mere existence.
First of all, thank you all who has helped me in knowing myself better in terms of my need, limitations & available resources, and helping me taking the decision.
The decision is Yamaha RN-602 + Indiq Audio Platinum Achal
My initial budget is out of my bedroom window and I feel very light both in my purse and my heart. Brian is a bit dizzy though.
Since the hunt was for quality music system for enjoying primarily the classical music and our good old radio in low volumes during late evenings and bedtime in my small bedroom, I thought of writing a travelogue of my journey so that it may help some other newbies, who may be equally crazy to go for a tower speaker set up in a 12*14 sized bedroom; fully aware that I may not be doing full justice to that system. A forum member suggested me in a PM that he no more believes in a single best system, rather go with a system that he likes to hear the way he wants to hear.
How did I take this decision? Here it is.
Managing the limitations of my bedroom as best as I can: The first thing (sadly) that I realised soon after my first post is that a good music system needs a good room acoustic to perform to the best level. It left me with two choices (1) comprise on my listening experience and ponder the sadness. (2) try it out and see what I can do about it to the best I can. So, I arranged my bedroom in such a way that I have two reasonably good listening positions (1) sitting on the bed (2) sitting on a recliner on the opposite side (the ideal position). I decided to remove all additional stuffs from the bedroom (printer, tea table etc.) to other places and keep the space free for a 2*6 rug running alongside my bed. I also decided to perform an acoustic make over of that room, when I do the next paining, which was anyway delayed due to COVID.
I had started this journey by selling my 20-year old Sony Music System for 1000/- in Olx to free up some space. A casual discussion with one of my friends led me to check out Bose Sound Touch 30 or Wave Series 4. I felt that Wave Series 4 met most of my requirements and went to Bose showroom for an audition. To my surprise, they told me that both these models are no more in supply and suggested me Bose Home Speaker 500. I didn't feel that it is worth the 40K it demands. I then checked with few other Bose showrooms to see if I have any luck in getting the Wave Series 4. The only available option was to settle for a Sound Touch 20 demo version, which might not get replacement support if something goes wrong. That's when I decided to check out other options.
My friend had also suggested that Yamaha RN-803 + Bose/Elac speaker will be the best fit for my requirement though it may be above my budget. Thats when I turned to this forum for suggestions since my decision of buying a Panasonic Plasma 10 years back , which I still believe was one of my best decision, was hugely based on the influencial discussions in this forum.
The first suggestion that I got as PM was to look for active monitors with a specific suggestion on JBL 300 series. I haven't heard of active speakers before that. I felt that it may a good idea and started exploring that option via forum reading, multiple PMs, You Tube etc. I felt that Vanatto will be the best choice for me. However, soon I realised that it's not that easy to purchase Vanatoo in India and they don't have any support here...once again, thanks for a forum member who shared his private email communications with Vanatoo.
In the mean time, I got to read/discuss about Rega, Blumenstein, Wharfdale, QAcoustics etc...and the need for at least some auditioning. One day, I barged into the Genelac experience center near MG Road, Bangalore, fully aware that I'm not going to spend that much money even if I like it. They were extremely receptive and spent a good 30-45 with me explaining the features and allowing me to play some of my favourite genres through their computers. My wife also got an experience on their home projector experience set up which impressed her a lot. I realised that not only the size of my room, but also its electrical circuitry will need a major make over if I have to put such a speaker system in my bed room. Further, without a sub-woofer, it did not sound as good as it should. Though Genelac was out of my radar, it gave me a good idea of what to expect from active speakers.
I realised that my hunt will go on for ever, if I don't fix at least some parameters upfront and stick to it. That is when I decided to go back to my initial Amp+passive speaker set up. It had ticketed all my needs (headphone jacket, FM/AM, remote control etc.) The first suggestion of Marantz with Elac/Whardale + streamer sounded good and was within 50-60K. But, with a bit of reading, the streamer didn't seem as good option as my iOS devices do not support AptX and I'm heavily into the Apple ecosystem. Further, in terms of cost, Marantz amplifier plus streamer was coming close to some of the Yamaha amps that has built in streamer and that too with the airplay option. I further got suggestions from the Forum that even Yamaha 202, 303, 602 etc will fit my bill & needs. I ruled out 202 since it had only blue tooth option. So, the amplifier was decided between Yamaha 303 and 602.
Since I didn't have much idea of a good book shelf speaker, I decided to go with the suggested options that has an aesthetics suitable to my taste. It boiled down to Elac, Warfdale and few others. That is the time, I got a suggestion to include IndiqAudio's Platinum Mishra for audition. A bit reading about their systems and the company profile (an Indian company having good products) aroused my interest in them. So, I decided to checkout Platinum Mishra first.
A casual call to IndiqAudio's contact number took me to the interesting personality, Amit Jain. He came out as a good listener and patiently answered most of my stupid, trivial questions. He invited me to visit him if possible and told that he would like me to spend about 1-2 hours auditioning his products. Within two hours, I and my friend (who was planning to set up a 60-70K home theater of Denon+Pioneer speaker combination soon) landed at Amit's place. To my surprise, he had invited us to his house which had all his products arranged for a demo. After some initial discussion regarding my music tastes and volume levels, he asked me try out his products using my iOS device as source through a streamer. So, unlike with Genelac, my source files were 320Kbps MP3 and Flac streamed through a regular bluetooth interface (as iOS doesn't support AptX). In the next 1 hour, I and my friend fell in love with IndiqAudio's Platinum Achal to such a level that we were going back to Achal even when he was demonstrating the other products.
Then, I had a detailed discussion with him regarding my room limitations and my apprehensions about putting a big speaker system in that room. Luckily, since I had posted my room pictures in the forum, I could show him how it looks like. He was confident that his system will perform exactly the same way as I heard them in his living room. To my queries regarding the soundstage, imaging, bass reverberations etc and requested me to try out how I'm feeling those in his living room, which also had many similar limiting parameters like my bedroom (e.g., wall to speaker distance). In the end, the best assurance that any seller can give his customer was the statement "if you don't like the system in YOUR ROOM, you can just give me a call and I will take it back, WITHOUT ANY QUESTIONS ASKED and refund your money". My heart then told me to trust his words and I DID.
He told that if I decide to go with ANY of his system, his team will come and install everything and do all the needed adjustments in my room so that I can get the best possible experience. With regard to my question regarding Amps, he told that Yamaha RN 303 will be perfectly fine even with Platinum Achal. But, a bit more discussion with him on the two models made me settle for Yamaha RN 602 due to two reasons.1. It has a USB port that I can use for charging my iOS devices 2. It has a sub-woofer output in case I need to make it a 2.1 system anytime in future. He also obliged to my request to help me procuring the amplifier.
Though I had made my decision to go with Yamaha RN 602 and IndiqAudio Platinum Achal, I thought of checking with few other systems for a comparison since a tower speaker was no where in my research thus far. Next day, I called Audio Planet to see if I can audition some of the other models. It was one of the worst experience in my life. The person who talked to me (Mr. Palani) was showing off his knowledge on these matters and the lack thereof from my end to such a level that I lost my temper after 5 min. First of all, he told me that he can "accommodate" me only after January 4th even before knowing what I want from him...he strongly believed that a mere mortal like me will need at leat 2-3 hours of his orchestral demonstration to make me understand what music I'll like and what system I'll have to buy for that (with a caution that he doesn't deal with anything below 1.5 lakhs). Though I told him that I may not want to test drive a Ferrari in Bangalore considering mine/Bangalore traffic limitation and am pretty happy with test driving only a Honda City, he was not willing to believe that. He strongly felt that I need a demo of Ferrari even if I am settling down with Maruti 800. Though I lost my temper with him at that time, I later called him to give him my apology on my irritated tone. I got an auto text that he is attending one customer and will call me back later (which never happened). Later, I read about few good experiences that other lucky people had with Mr. Palani both in Google and here in the forum. So, to keep my decency alive, I sent him a message apologising for any unpleasant discussion on the Ferrari comparison of his suggested demo during our conversation. I didn't get any reply to that message as well. These events sort of reinforced my decision to go with someone who at least cares his products and his potential customers.
I know this post is reading like a never ending novel now. My only intention was to provide a close description of my journey so far assuming that in future, someone like me who does not have any idea of music systems but still likes to listen good music in a decent clarity may find it useful for their system hunt.
Note: My friend decided to ditch his Denon+Pioneer HT plan and decided to join me with Denon+IndiqAudio Platinum combination after our auditioning experience with Amit Jain.
Thank you all for all your suggestions, and putting up with my often trivial queries. Now the wait is on for next 2-3 weeks for the systems to arrive. I have now time to prepare my room for its arrival.
With best regards,
Dileep
