But we are - we've both chosen exactly the same image for Miss Lush! Bert's Miss Clarixa would be my Miss Clarixa-Intona. (Perhaps we'd have the same Miss Clarixa if our mid/high horns were made of the same material?)

Mani.

Yeah, nice.

Mani.

Really? To my eyes, Miss Lush looks warmer and more natural... and yet shows more detail (wisps of hair, skin blemishes, etc).

I'd take 'warm' Miss Lush over 'ball-breaker' Miss Clarixa any day (though Mrs Sandher comes first... obviously )

Just a bit of fun...

Mani.

Probably not the best illustration, but an idea of the difference between the Clarixa and the Lush...

Mani.

Wasn't sure where to post this, but I'll put it in this thread for now...

My Lush arrived today, but I've only now had the opportunity to put it in. And what can I say? It is simply phenomenal! Everything that everyone has said to date, though Peter's initial description nailed it completely. It's all about 'musicality' and pretty much nothing else. More of my own thoughts (perhaps in the Lush thread) when I've had more mileage with it.

The best Phasure product/upgrade to date? Not sure... But certainly the best value for money, of that there is simply no doubt in my mind. And I suspect the Lush will transform any system, irrespective of software/hardware used.

My prolonged and immense frustration with USB audio has been vanquished in one fell swoop. Can't thank you enough Peter...

Mani.

From how people have described the sound of the Lush, I'm confident it'd transform the sound of my system 100% for the better. Although I very much look forward to receiving mine at some point, my system remains very enjoyable to listen to right now, albeit a bit tighter and more clinical than I'd like.


It's interesting, as soon as my valve amps were in chain, I started pursuing a similar route - trying to eke out more and more detail, because it seemed to improve the sound. But I suspect the valve amps were smearing the sound (just asking too much for them to drive full-range 3-way passive speakers with no LF assistance), and I very much doubt that's what the Lush is doing.


I don't have any work travel for the next 6 weeks or so, so let's liaise...


No problem from my end. It'll be a very nice surprise once it shows up!

Mani.

Just a quick update...

Since swapping to the BD30-SPR mono amps, the Phisolator now 'works' in my system. It's 'ultra-natural and smooth' sound complements the hyper-resolution of the BD amps very nicely.

I still prefer AP over Custom, but feel that the Q settings need to be adjusted to prevent the sound veering to much on the 'metallic' vs. 'wooden' side. My current settings are those which Peter came up with a while ago: Q1=14, xQ1=10, Q3,4,5=1.

Yep, I could live with this sound indefinitely.

Mani.

Thanks Peter, I'll give it a go.

Mani.

Hi Ramesh, glad to hear things seem to be going well with the Orelos.

Of course, having the DSP in the LF of the Orelos means you have so much more flexibility than I have with my current speakers. I used the DSP in the Orelos to overcome the dip I was experiencing in the LF (see attached).

Pic 1 - Response from 30Hz to 70Hz with the mic placed just in front of the speaker vs. at the listening position. There was a 25dB dip between 65-35Hz at the listening position.

Pic 2 - Response at the listening position with DSP. Very similar to that with mic placed in front of speaker.

But I have to say that correcting for such a large dip with DSP came at a cost, and I reverted back to the original settings after a while.

Mani.

I thought I'd start a new topic to follow on from this:


I decided to take a few measurements. The obvious tool would be REW, which I've used in the past. But I wanted to use the system exactly as it is (XX -> NOS1 -> BD amps -> Anima speakers), and not mess around switching gear. So, I decided to simply play a pink noise signal and capture the speaker output at the listening position with a measurement mic. The charts below show the following:

1. The pink noise signal, with its -3dB/octave slope on the FFT

- exactly as expected
- in an ideal world, it'd be great to be within a few dB of this curve

2. The captured signal, with the original speaker position (placed right in the corner).

- ~-8dB/octave roll-off below 60Hz
- 'hump' between 100-200Hz
- lack of HF above 10kHz
- matches my comment, "If I adjust them so that this LF is more pronounced, the mid-lows/upper-bass seem too prominent - vocals become unrealistically husky."

3. Hypothetically increasing the mid and high by 4dB (I didn't actually do this)

- would solve the 'hump' issue
- would exacerbate lack of LF
- lack of HF would remain
- matches my comment, "If I adjust the speakers so that voices sound palpable and real, the LF (below 60Hz, say) seems slightly lacking."

4. What I actually did: moved the speakers away from corner, and reduced the mid/high level. (This no doubt reduces the overall sensitivity of the speakers, and probably necessitates the use of a reasonably powerful amp.)

- ~-8dB/octave roll-off below 60Hz remains
- 'hump' between 100-200Hz now elimated
- HF now drops away above 15kHz

The sound is now substantially better balanced with the new speaker placement. However, there's still the unavoidable roll-off below 60Hz. (Just to put this is context though - with the Orelos, I had a dip of 25dB at 50Hz in this same room!) I'm going to see how I go before I start thinking about what to do (if anything).

One thing that I already know though is that I'd prefer the sound to be a bit more... what's the word?... hmm... how can I describe it?... ah, I know... lush!

Mani.

Hey Juan, yes, I think the sound is pretty good... but still not quite 'there'. If I adjust the speakers so that voices sound palpable and real, the LF (below 60Hz, say) seems slightly lacking. If I adjust them so that this LF is more pronounced, the mid-lows/upper-bass seem too prominent - vocals become unrealistically husky. I'll probably revert back to the first scenario when the Lush arrives and see (hear) how I go.

This issue seemed less pronounced with my tube amps - they seemed to flesh the LF out somewhat. [I might take up Anthony's suggestion and start a new thread about the sound of different amps.]

Mani.

No, not the Bluetooth dongle again... What a PITA that was! (Good sound though  )

Mani.

Yep, I was using 211 amps before my 300B amps arrived a couple of months ago. I still have both pairs of power amps - will decide what to do with them at some point.


I'm starting to come around to believing that DSETs may be the only really satisfactory way of using SET amps.


I'm reminded of VJ's post in another thread a while ago:



Shame. I quite like your long, 'deviating' posts 

Mani.

Yesterday evening, I tried: Clarixa -> Phisolator -> short USB link (with 5V blocked) -> NOS1 G3 -> BD30-SPR monos, and...

This works very, very nicely! My initial thoughts of a 'smooth, rounded' sound with the Phisolator remain, but this now complements the overall presentation, rather than detracting from it. Also, when I tried the Phisolator earlier, I did not have the 5V blocked going into the NOS1.

Switching back to the Intona, there seems to be some HF 'hash' added to the sound. It seems to make the sound more lively, and as Anthony said, raise the overall pitch of the sound. As a result, the LF seems to recede quite a bit. With the settings I had my speakers on, and with the tube amps in place, this seemed to actually benefit the sound.

[For Peter: With the Phisolator now in place, in order to maintain the overall balance in the sound, I have the mid/high settings on the speakers at about the position they were when the weirdness in the mids/highs with the tube amp became apparent. I now wonder if this weirdness may have actually have been down to the Intona, and not the amps. Will investigate further at some point, but right now, really enjoying the sound with the BD amps.]

Mani.

I suppose this could do with some explanation...

I got an email from Peter on Saturday, the complete content of which was literally, "are you home tomorrow?". I replied "yes" and at around 5:30pm on Sunday, Peter, Ciska and Paul arrived at our doorstep. Most of the following two days were spent on chatting, sightseeing, eating and drinking (me less than Peter!). But we did get a chance to take a listen to my main system (but not my office system).

Peter, Ciska and Paul have 'great ears'. They could hear issues with my system immediately - issues that I was aware of too, but that I'd grown used to and/or wasn't bothered by. But playing around with a few things, it became increasingly apparent to Peter that my beautiful tube amps were doing something strange in the mids and tops. This 'strangeness' was being masked by the low end. The advice from Peter: "Mani, stick to how you had things before, because you were happy with the sound". Very, very good advice... but not satisfactory for me. At around 2am on Tuesday morning (only Peter and me still awake) I suggested that we try the BD30-SPR amps, which were already unboxed and sitting at the back of the listening room, because I'd been meaning to try them with the G3 upgrade for some time anyway.

As soon as the BD30-SPR amps were in, the whole sound just 'clicked into place'. What was/is wrong with the tube amps? I suspect nothing. But it really is a tall ask expecting their 5W or so per channel to drive full range speakers (albeit high-efficiency horns) with passive crossovers and no powered LF drivers. I suspect this is simply too much for them. I could be wrong of course. In any event, I have zero intention of selling these tube amps - if I ever go for a multi-amp setup in the future, these amps will be my number one choice for the mids.

It was an absolute pleasure entertaining Peter, Ciska and Paul for a couple of days. If you ever get an opportunity to have them around, I'd jump on it!

As for me, I'm very happy with the sound I now have (even happier than I was before - it just sounds 'more right' in every way). But I'm very much looking forward to receiving my Lush...

Mani.