Audiophile Friends, you are aware that we of the Delhi/NCR chapter had a meet on Sunday, the 7th Feb, 2010 at the home of Siddharth Trehan in Gurgaon.
Many audiophiles who attended that meet have written about it ; I will add just a few words about my impressions. But , first things first-
First of all, heartfelt thanks to Sid & his family for taking all the trouble in hosting this meet. We couldnt have asked for more. It takes a lot of grace to have your home invaded by so many music obsessed people & still keep smiling!
Then, thanks to all the audiophiles who took the time out from their day of rest to attend & make it such a resounding success.
And last but by no means the least, thanks to Denny for lugging so much equipment from so far away, setting it up, & spending an entire day catering to every request of the audiophiles. Ive not come across a dealer who does so much. with a cheerful smile.
On the way in, Viren, HifiAshok ,Nirmal Prim & me dropped in at the home of gvenu as Viren had to deliver a Lyrita Pre Amp with a phono stage. After a round of tea & snacks, the Pre was installed & started singing. Gvenu has Acoustic portrait speakers connected to a solid state Pre & power Amp mfd by Corrson of Blore, the source being a Pioneer DVDPs transport feeding a DAC diyed by Venu from a kit.A very nice, musical set up.
Arriving at Sids home, we gathered in the lobby & had a round of cold drinks/snacks while waiting for others to turn up. The pics posted earlier courtesy Shashwat show an animated group waiting to get going.
Then we proceeded to Sids HT room in the basement, beautifully done up with required room treatment, dimmer lights concealed wiring et al, where the eqpt had been set up.
On demo were the Quad 11 L2 Bookshelves on their stands, Quad 22L2 floorstanders, Dali Ikon6 Floorstanders & the Dali Bookshelf spks; (A pair of Wharfedale Floorstanders were also installed but we couldnt audtion them due to lack of time).
The speakers were fed by the Quad CDP > Quad 99 Pre Amp > Quad 909 Power Amp into a device to enable switching between speakers on-the-fly. I/cs & Spkr cables by Dac.
Settling down, the first Cd played was the opening track from Norah Jones Grammy winning Album Come away with me then , Magic Moments- Dali Stereo Demo disc, first 2 tracks- Henry Mancinis theme from the Pink Panther & then Keith Dont Go- Neils Lofgren. Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel, & then the XRCD of Sheffield Labs Drum & Track Disc., couple of Guitar tracks from a CD brought by Viren( didnt catch the name will check up & post later),Colors by Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan/Zakir Hussain & Sivamani, Sach Kaho by Kalpana Zokarkar, Freedom by Akon, tracks Right Now & Beautiful.., The Robots from Kraftwerks Man Machine.
All the while, we kept switching between speakers on the fly to immediately hear the difft tonal signatures of the speakers, the rest of the chain remaining unchanged. After a couple of tracks we would stop & a very animated discussion would follow on performance of the speakers on audition .This was one of the special joys of this meet, enjoyment of the great music & appreciating the finer points of music reproduction.
As they say A picture is worth a thousand words; in the same way, theres nothing like a live demo to Hear & Understand what its all about.
We then broke to have the sumptuous lunch laid on by Mrs Trehan followed by Punjabi Chai.
Back to the music room, we all sprawled on the floor with cushions to just enjoy more music i/o critical listening. The Quad Pre & Power Amps were substituted by Lyritas Russian 6C33CB SET Amp, CDP remaining Quads. Later the chain changed to the Marantz SA 7001 CDP digital out > Venus DAC > Lyrita 6C33CB > Quad/Dal Spkrs.
We heard tracks from the Laya Project, James Taylor, Bob Marley, Tabeer, jack Johnsons In between Dreams, Choti si Asha from Roja, & a couple of Sacds ( forget the name, owner plz fill in).
Then Ashishji played back some tracks from his iphone thru a Harmon Kardon dock-pretty interesting!
Lastly, the Quad bookshelves were paired with a DefTech Sub- this just didnt cut it for me, the subs simply overwhelmed the Quads.
My impressions ( plz note that this is based on purely my personal take & preferences & is the POV of one out of 20 Audiophiles at the meet)
Source & Amplification chain- I found the Quad CPD, Pre & power Amps pretty impressive : Smooth, Neutral & Detailed without sounding edgy. The sound was quite musical, being neither syrupy nor overly clinical, bringing out all the subtle details without becoming bright, which is quite a feat.
With tubes in the chain, courtesy the Lyrita SET, the textural magic of valves came in, better transients, attack & lingering decay highlighting the flow of music, pulling out a wee bit more of low level details & hence conveying somewhat better the emotion of the music- this was clearly evident in tracks by Kalpana Zokarkar, acoustic music like in Virens guitar CD, vocal music.
When Venus DAC, based on the Philips TDA 1541A DAC chip was introduced in the chain with the Marantz SA 7001 acting as the transport, images acquired more solidity, with greater air & separation of the performers. At home Venu pairs this with the Pio DVDp acting as a transport, with very good results.This definitely is the way to go for obtaining a good quality front end on a budget. The results were quite comparable to the sound of the Marantz on its own. A pic of the DAC-
As regards the speakers, I must confess that it was the Quads for me. The Dalis have quite a reputation & following- even in the meet some audiophiles preferred their sound- but I found the Quads to be more musical, with a midrange magic, perhaps ever so slightly rolled off highs, very little so as not to lose the details but without being bright & tizzy. A balancing act pulled off quite nicely, IMHO . There were some tracks which sounded better on the Dalis , maybe a case of subdued recording coming across better balanced on the more bright Dalis? But I loved tracks like from the Dali demo disc( what an irony!) Vocals like Ms Zokarkar, the guitar music on the Quads, more musically involving, I felt.The device to switch speakers on-the-fly was a great help in enabling us to clearly hear the differences between the speakers.A very useful thing, I must say.
In my opinion, the Star of the Show were the Quad 11 L2 Bookshelves!
At just Rs 31k, they punched way above their price, excellent tonal balance, surprisingly good bass from such small drivers, & breathtaking imaging.
I was very, very impressed. They can be part of a very musically satisfying system on a budget with matching partnering eqpt, or for a great second system for your bedroom.
So, that was the end of the meet for some of us, with others remaining behind to enjoy a bit the Transformers, Blu Ray thru an Oppo BDP 83.
A long but very satisfying day, listening to music & interacting with an ever increasing group of Audiophiles, with a host who left no stone unturned to make the day for us.
Till the next meet.