Rosso Fiorentino Siena

Rosso Fiorentino Siena

Jan 14, 2011
Pride of place in the Avatar Acoustics room at the Venetian went to the four-way Siena speakers ($24,995/pair) from Italian manufacturer Rosso Fiorentino. The designer teaches electroacoustics in Florence, but is a graduate from the University of Salford in the UK. A pair of aluminum-cone 8" woofers in a separate sealed enclosure are combined with a 6.5" paper-cone midrange unit (a ScanSpeak Revelator), a 1" silk-dome tweeter, and what appeared to be a Murata "ultrasonic generator," to give a specified response of 35Hz–100kHz, –3dB.

The Siennas were demmed in a system comprising Dr. Feikert turntable and tonearm, Abbingdon Music Research CD player, phono preamp, and integrated amplifier, with Acoustic System racks and cables, but I will hand over to Jason Serinus for some additional thoughts:

Volent Paragon VL-2

Volent Paragon VL-2

Jan 14, 2011
The Paragon VL-2 Signature ($8600/pair) from Hong Kong-based Volent Corp. combines a unique dual-ribbon tweeter with a titanium/graphite-sandwich–coned woofer in an attractively curved enclosure filled with wool. Frequency range is specified as 30Hz–60kHz, impedance as 4 ohms, and sensitivity as 88dB/2.83V/m. Driven by MSB's M202 tower amplifiers and MSB digital source, the sound was much larger than I was expecting from these stand-mounts.

Zu Goes Its Own Way

Zu Goes Its Own Way

Jan 14, 2011
Utah-based Zu Audio does indeed goes its own way, with retro, almost-full-range pulp-cone drive-units used in high-sensitivity designs. (See Art Dudley's review of the $4000/pair Essence in the October 2009 Stereophile. All of Zu's speakers have been moderately priced, so I was not expecting to see and hear a design costing $40,000/pair when I went into the Zu room at T.H.E. Show.

The Dominance uses three 10" paper-cone drivers, each with a whizzer cone, to cover the range from 27Hz to 12kHz. Each is in its own sub-enclosure featuring Zu's proprietary ZuRG loading (See AD's review) with the outer two tuned identically and the central drive-unit adjusted to give a bit more upper-midrange energy. There is also a downward-firing 15" subwoofer, covering the octave below 27Hz, and completing the line-up are two horn-loaded ring-radiator tweeters operating above 12kHz. Unusually, these are placed at the top and bottom of the Dominance.

For the dem, the subwoofer was powered by a Pass Labs XA30.5 but the main drive-units were driven by a 1.5Wpc Yamamoto SET amp. Yup, just 1.5W, but the Dominances still managed to fill the room with sound. Lows were tight and extended; imaging was tangible; jump factor was startling; but I couldn't get away from a touch of character in the mid-treble imparted by those whizzer cones.

windows sound drivers for Ayre / USB async Dacs - results of some fiddling

Forums
Computer Audio
Submitted by neiltingley on

I've got the ASIO4ALL drivers installed finally after a bit of fiddling.

I tried the AQVOX drivers on my non-media server windows 7 PC and they installed easily enough but the beep every minute or so they impose on you with the trial version is extremely annoying and off-putting.

Sadly the uninstall does not work and did not remove the drivers from my system so I can't use my baby DAC until I figure out a way to properly clean out the installation.

windows sound drivers for Ayre / USB async Dacs - results of some fiddling

Forums
Computer Audio
Submitted by neiltingley on

I've got the ASIO4ALL drivers installed finally after a bit of fiddling.

I tried the AQVOX drivers on my non-media server windows 7 PC and they installed easily enough but the beep every minute or so they impose on you with the trial version is extremely annoying and off-putting.

Sadly the uninstall does not work and did not remove the drivers from my system so I can't use my baby DAC until I figure out a way to properly clean out the installation.

sonus faber choices

Forums
Loudspeakers
Submitted by neiltingley on

Hi All

Would you go for a used pair of Sonus Faber Guarneri Homage from 2002 or a new pair of a Cremona M Auditors.

Not sure how much I ought to pay for the Guarneri but they have not been used much I'm told.

I only listen to classical / jazz and have a Pathos Logos and Ayre DAC and some decent JPS Labs cables.

Any good alternative to Sonus Faber around to $5000-$7000 US ? Quads are an option but I don't have the space right now.

Advice please ?

Speakers Choice - In Limbo

Forums
Loudspeakers
Submitted by MeloB77 on

Brand new to the Stereophile so your advice and opinions are highly appreciated.

A couple of months ago I decided to build my first ever analog system. It, being a beginner system, and because economics, I am thinking about spending $2,000-$3,000 on it. Ideally it would have to include tube pre-amp and amp, but I realize that might not be realistic so a tube integrated amplifier would do (even this might be out of budged as far as I know). The room is about 18' by 13'.

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