Audiovector R 8 Arreté loudspeaker Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Analog sources: Thorens TD-124 turntable (reconditioned by Schopper AG) with Thomas Schick 12" tonearm; Ortofon Xpression cartridge; SME 30/12 turntable with V-12 tonearm and Ortofon Windfeld Ti cartridge (in for review).
Digital sources: Intel NUC computer with SSD drive running Roon Optimized Core Kit; Denafrips Avatar CD transport; Synology DS918+ 4-bay Network Attached Storage device with 16TB; TP-Link 8-Port Gigabit network switch (unmanaged); PS Audio DirectStream and dCS Rossini DACs.
Preamplification: Auditorium 23 Standard step-up transformer, Pass Laboratories XP-27 and Sutherland Engineering prototype phono preamp, Pass Labs XP-22 line preamplifier; Zesto Leto Ultra II line preamplifier.
Power amplifiers: Pass Labs XA60.8 monoblocks.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Carbon, Cinnamon & Coffee, Comprehensive Connectivity DXLRP-DXLRJ-6EXF (all USB). Interconnect: Clarus Crimson (RCA, XLR). Speaker: Clarus Crimson.
Accessories: PS Audio Power Plant P10 power conditioner, Oswalds Mill Audio slate plinth (under Thorens), Butcher Block Acoustics RigidRack.—Jim Austin

COMPANY INFO
F3/Audiovector ApS
Mileparken 22 A
DK-2740 Skovlunde
Denmark
+45 3539 6060
ARTICLE CONTENTS

COMMENTS
MZKM's picture

It certainly looks amazing (not sure if $70,000 amazing), but I find it odd that the tonality can’t be more linear (doesn’t have to be flat, just smooth), but nice to see the wide directivity allowed by having multiple drive units of different sizes.

georgehifi's picture

"The R 8's demand for current will be ameliorated by its high sensitivity, but it should be used with amplifiers that don't have problems driving 4 ohm loads".

Looking at the fr and -phase epdr impedance across the bass, I think an amp that's not going to have any problems driving 2ohms is more the call, as many Class-D do 4 ok but into 2 many ????

Also looking at the spatially averaged room response, they look to be bass heavy and for a speaker this price I'd expect a flatter response, like the Sasha DAW
https://www.stereophile.com/images/1219Wilsonfig4.jpg
All the more reason with these to have an amp with dry vice like grip at 2ohms, any amp bloat will exaggerate that bass lift.

Cheers George

otaku's picture

That lead photo looks a lot better than it did in the magazine.

MauriceRon's picture

pink noise...?

hello ladieeeees

Lars Bo's picture

Thanks, Jim - very nice to read your positive review of a Klifoth speaker.

More than 30 years ago, my only second speaker on The Never Ending Hi-fi Journey was actually a kit by Ole Klifoth (satellite w/ bass module). The speakers provided years of much enjoyment.

To some extend I agree with your: "We like to say that's it about the music, but for me it's about the sound, too, equally. Music, after all, is made of sound. It is a distinction without a difference". I think most, if not all, audiophiles intensely enjoy the sheer "sound of sound". We react quite emotionally to certain drivers, be they spatial, micro dynamics, tone, klang, just to name a few. Or, indeed, as Herb, home recordings of Buddy Holly "being" in his NYC apartment. Or Art's "touch", perhaps similarly linked to a vivid humanness in sound. The aesthetics of sound is an intrinsic part of audiophile fascination, no?

But, generally and in hi-fi as well, I think music is distinctly different from "just" sound. Sound in itself is representational and of a concrete physical world; music is a sound-mediated, presentative art*. Like paintings are yet something other than their paint, and poetry more than its words, music is not reducible to sound (which, musically, is listened through). That doesn't mean the two phenomena are dichotomous; rather, in audiophelia, being about re-creating music (mostly) in our homes, they function hand-in-hand as the fidelity of real music play-back spans the two. Differentiation, though real, is somewhat of an abstraction. In practice, audiophelia pretty much seems to be about a hybrid fascination with the representativity of sound and alive music in authentic play. Perhaps, we all have our personal preferences of focus balances, but rarely, I believe, is intense enjoyment totally devoid of one or the other . Would e.g. (your, it seems to me, also partly musical "reading" of) the sound of tympani and the bass drum be equally emotional, if not skillfully played and conveyed in the context of a grand Mahler's 2nd?

On another topic in the September issue, in Letters, namely pitch of a record player, some additional comments/questions: The threshold for hearing a difference between two isolated pure tones is 1/20 of a semitone (semitone-frequences being ca. 6% apart (and 1,0595 ^12 = 2.0, i.e. an octave)). That translates to a critical pitch deviation of ca. 0.3%, or +/- 0.15%, no? Research shows that threshold is significantly lower for complex tones heard simultaneously, as in music. Along with e.g. in-press deviations, too (not to mention e.g. AAA recordings), vinyl is, on paper, not categorically free of possible audible pitch deviation. Even so, I think, we are many who hardly ever experience the slightest pitch-barrier for full musical and soundwise enjoyment on vinyl. Perhaps analog (heh) to rather high levels of measurable distortion in vinyl, well, simply not distorting.

As you state, people with perfect pitch can adjust to an overall off-pitch, say flat or sharp. But that is depending on music being in equal temperament; with older temperaments or some non-western temperaments this may not be so (as scale tone pitches vary within different fundamental, overall pitches). With equal temperament this is avoided. Then we have to live with a 5th harmonic being about three times greater (i.e. 0,83%) than the threshold for an off major third, a 7th harmonic six times more off a minor (or Mixolydian) 7th, not mentioning an 11th harmonic tritone. I imagine these patterns of off-pitched harmonics are also a part of JA's position on a specific profile of distortion being essential rather than merely raw levels?

Thanks again, Jim.

* As in Thomas Clifton's (Music as Heard): "Music is an ordered arrangement of sounds and silences whose meaning is presentative rather than denotative."

tonykaz's picture

Your PS Audio P10 is a power re-generating system, not a "power conditioner".

I suppose it's a small portion of your Associated Equipment grouping but it's a very large contributor to assured review confidence!

( In my opinion ) every reviewer of high resolution audio gear should have a reliable supply of clean power, shouldn't they ?

PS Audio is the only outfit offering gear like your P10.

Tony in Venice Florida

ps , the review loudspeaker veneer-wood is gorgeous but how do people keep them from scratches and damage? I had a pair of Meridian Loudspeakers in Rosewood that got scratched, ouch, too deep to repair. I also had a pair of Klipsch Corner Horns in Rosewood that were traded in with scratches, it's a pain that keeps on hurting to see and/or remember

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