Trevor, Chris & Peter,
Thanks for sharing interesting kit, insights and experiences. A well enjoyable day. There will be more in the pipepline.
Warm regards,
Paul
Date of bake-off: Saturday 7th October 2017
Time: 1000 to 1600
Attendees: savvypaul (Paul), herbie07 (Peter), Hemmo1969 (Chris), Toontrev (Trevor)
Venue: Paul's place - approx. 8 miles west of Durham City. Room size approx 16' x 14'.
Equipment:
Vinyl
Well Tempered Lab 'Versalex' Turntable & tonearm
Transfiguration Axia S Moving Coil Cartridge
Graham Slee Revelation C phono stage
NVA SSP MK2 I/c to preamp
Digital
Vortexbox Lux NAS / Server
Sonore Micro Rendu Streamer w/ linear power supply
Van Den Hul Ultimate usb cable
Chord 2Qute dac
NVA TIS MK1 to preamp
Amplification
NVA P50sa preamp
NVA SSP MK2 I/C
NVA A80 MK2 Monoblocks
Speaker Cable
NVA LS6 single wired
Speakers : NAV Cube 1, NVA Cube 3, Neat Motive 3, Elac 510, ProAc D15, Harbeth P3esr
Music played
Richard Hawley
London Grammar
Credence Clearwater Revival
The Undertones
Hank Mobley
Elvis Costello
Adele
The Unthanks
Pentangle
Henry Mancini
Lisa Knapp
The Clash
Martin Simpson
Rachel Sermanni
Dvorak
Shostakovich
Mixture of Vinyl, Hi-Res downloads and Qobuz CD quality streaming.
We listened to a 'core' of 6 or so tracks with each speaker and threw in other pieces as and when we wanted to hear / test a particular quality in a speaker, or just to freshen up the listening routine.
Played around 6 tracks on the Cube 1s first as they were already in place, then came back to them again at the end.
First 'guest speaker' up was Trevor's NEAT Motive 3, made in Bishop Auckland, about 8 miles from the bake-off venue. Started off with them fairly close to the wall but quickly realised that they wanted a good amount of room behind the rear firing ports. My first impressions were; a bit of a midrange honk, an upper bass hump, a bit down on transparency and a bit tinkly up top BUT still pretty good fun. Nicely voiced, likeable immediacy and scale (helped by the upper bass hump), and not trying to do anything 'fancy'. Would I want to live with them full-time? Probably not, but I would definitely have a right good snog with them 'round the back' after a few beers and a kebab!
Next up were Peter's German-made Elac 510s. AMT 'jet' tweeter and foil doped 'long throw' bass / mid driver (I think I have those details right, Peter?). An immediate consensus that these are brightly lit. I found them uptight on the Dvorak (cello concerto) and Elvis Costello (Motel Matches) but enjoyed them on a vintage Blue Note Hank Mobley jazz piece (Soul Station) where they kept time very nicely, with plenty of projection and separation, and the tweeter lapped up the hi-hats and cymbals. I suspect they would also do well with electronic music. They do throw it at you quite forcefully. In my smaller than average space I found them to be impressively detailed but unnaturally 'in yer face'.
Then Chris' Proacs...easy on the eye, and easy to listen to...”but also easy not to listen to”. They seem to apply a 'niceness filter'. Clear and sweet with simple well recorded acoustic music (Martin Simpson, The Unthanks) but not really keeping up when the going starts to gets lively. I would tire of the all-encompassing loveliness but I understand why many might not.
The Neats, Elacs and Proacs are all ported designs...and I could tell this to a greater or lesser extent with each. We missed a trick here...we should have experimented with stuffing the ports. One for next time.
The Harbeths succeeded only in unanimously disappointing all present. Emaciated and un-involving. It sounded like someone had told the jazz quartet to make less of an effort. Couldn't wait to take them out. “Like going from wide-screen to a 25 year old portable” was the gist of one comment. To think that I paid £1500 for these a few years back...
The Cube 3s have the same size driver as the Harbeths (and look even smaller) but sound way bigger. They have a seamless clarity and unforced presentation. They manage well in my room but the Cube 1 beats them for scale and effortless dynamics, most obviously with symphony music (Shostakovich). After hearing the Cube 3s, I think it was Trevor who said that he might prefer them to the Cube 1s in my room. When I put the Cube 1s back in he then said along the lines of 'ah, hang on, now I get why you would take the Cube 1s over the 3s. They go bigger without going louder (i.e. no stress) – like when I changed from the A60 to the A80s.
I've listened to the semi-omni Cubes for over a year now and their presentation seems completely correct and unforced. Putting the Cubes back in was the point where I mentally registered 'yes, there is all the emotion, there is all the musical information, there is the correct scale and there is only the music; the physical speakers getting right out of the way.' I value that I don't have to be in one particular 'hot spot' to hear the best from them and that they are inherently neutral; no obvious peaks or troughs or 'flavouring' that could be appealing in the short term but be wearing over time.
The Cubes timed properly with The Clash, gave a believable acoustic and body on concertos and symphony, made the hairs stand up for The Unthanks and Elvis Costello and took me right inside the set up and interplay of the Hank Mobley jazz quartet.
I don't violently dislike 'normal' speakers, each of the other speakers had traits that I would thoroughly enjoy, but having lived with the semi omnis for a good period of time, when I listen to 'point and squirt' it's hard for me to un-hear the 'forced' effect. I guess I've found what works for me.
Hope the above is helpful.
Planning a phono-stage bake-off next.