Tweet
Okay, I've had the Double Impacts running at home now for a week. Been alternating between either the 100 wpc Burson Timekeeper Virtuoso solid-state class AB amp and the 15 wpc single ended KT88 based Antique Sound Labs MG-SI15DT-S amplifiers. Still working on positioning, as these are really critical with regards to room placement, more so than any other speakers I've had in house. Been playing a fairly equal mix of LP and digital.
These are clearly voiced very differently than the smaller Lore design. Whereas the Lore trades off a certain amount of detail for dynamic capability, tone and coherency (running the 10 in driver up to around 6 to 8KHz) the DI seems more about detail, accuracy and extension. It is a much more audiophile oriented speaker. I still have a slight dip in in-room response at about 91 Hz and a peak at 51 (using the pink noise track from Stereophile CD2 and Audiotools FFT on my iPhone), but they aren't too bad and some additional re-positioning should help with that. I am getting solid bass into the mid 20s, which I haven't had since retiring my VMPS RM-2neo speakers in 2010.
The level of transparency and coherency I'm getting from these at times makes me think I'm listening to an electrostatic speaker, but with far greater dynamic expression than any electrostatic I've heard. Also getting the most focused lateral image I've ever heard in my setup. I've never been able to generate much depth with any speaker in my current room, with the odd exception of the SVS Prime Bookshelf speaker, that produced a bizarrely large, wide and deep soundstage that extended several feet beyond the boundaries of the room.
I should note, they are sounding much better here than they did at the LA Audio Show. That room was a nightmare to set up, though I have to thank Russ Stratton a thousand times over for his invaluable help in getting that room to sound as good as it did. If I do that again next year I won't bring any speakers with real low-bass capability again!
It will take a while to get the full story on these, but so far I am not just impressed, but quite surprised at just how good these seem to be for their price.
These are clearly voiced very differently than the smaller Lore design. Whereas the Lore trades off a certain amount of detail for dynamic capability, tone and coherency (running the 10 in driver up to around 6 to 8KHz) the DI seems more about detail, accuracy and extension. It is a much more audiophile oriented speaker. I still have a slight dip in in-room response at about 91 Hz and a peak at 51 (using the pink noise track from Stereophile CD2 and Audiotools FFT on my iPhone), but they aren't too bad and some additional re-positioning should help with that. I am getting solid bass into the mid 20s, which I haven't had since retiring my VMPS RM-2neo speakers in 2010.
The level of transparency and coherency I'm getting from these at times makes me think I'm listening to an electrostatic speaker, but with far greater dynamic expression than any electrostatic I've heard. Also getting the most focused lateral image I've ever heard in my setup. I've never been able to generate much depth with any speaker in my current room, with the odd exception of the SVS Prime Bookshelf speaker, that produced a bizarrely large, wide and deep soundstage that extended several feet beyond the boundaries of the room.
I should note, they are sounding much better here than they did at the LA Audio Show. That room was a nightmare to set up, though I have to thank Russ Stratton a thousand times over for his invaluable help in getting that room to sound as good as it did. If I do that again next year I won't bring any speakers with real low-bass capability again!
It will take a while to get the full story on these, but so far I am not just impressed, but quite surprised at just how good these seem to be for their price.
Comment