*Edit -- I'm now in Portland OR* I'm bwaslo, I have DIY Synergies ("coSynes"), near Cincinnati or Dayton Ohio, have CD, Blu-ray, DVD, and USB; and several cats (allergy prone folks beware!). Would be glad to let others hear and get honest evaluations and suggestions. Like to sit, listen, and BS. Would also like to hear others' horn or waveguide -based systems, particularly Unity or Synergy, Geddes, SEOS, or Pi, within maybe a couple hours travel time.
Re: Cincinnati/Dayton/Middletown OH Hi, Bill. How would you feel about giving a demo to someone who is on the fence about making the leap into the world of DIY? I posted my plea for guidance as I buy my first subwoofer over on Audioholics and have been discussing DIY options with a very nice gentleman there. Dealing with local audio retailers has been pretty disappointing. He suggested I contact you. If you're even remotely interested I can provide more information. I'm in Bellbrook so we're practically neighbors! Thanks, Justin
Re: Cincinnati/Dayton/Middletown OH Yes! I am in Dayton and am not allergic to cats AND I'm very interested in hearing the Unity/Synergy/CoSyne. I made the MWAF but sadly missed the audition of your speaker. Weekends are best for me, but I can manage an evening after work. I have no idea how/what it's supposed to sound like, but the concept intrigues me. And you can pick the music, but please not opera or super slow chamber music. I might fall asleep. Aaron
Re: Cincinnati/Dayton/Middletown OH A big "Thank You" to Bill who graciously loaned out his den for the afternoon to my surprisingly needy ears. I'll post a full write up soon.
Re: Cincinnati/Dayton/Middletown OH I really don't know what to say... The experience was very strange for me. I've critically listened to hundreds of speakers over the years and these...confused me. Let me explain. We've all probably heard speakers that are "clinical" which in my mind is harsh and hard and reveal the slightest rustle of a pianist's pant legs. Conversely, we've heard speakers that inexactly define a stereo image, blurring the image to a mostly-mono result with only hard-panned sounds reminding you it's a stereo recording. The CoSynes are clinical and indistinct. But not in the classical sense. Read on. My first impression that just never went away is that the CoSynes reproduce an arrangement ridiculously close to how it was recorded. When you think about how a microphone is used in a recording, it is essentially a point source (sink?). There aren't separately filtered microphones for lows, mids and highs. When these speakers reproduce this sound, it is being radiated from as near a point source as I've ever heard. And it's very weird. The sensation that you are listening to a person sing without amplification, instruments being played with a perfect mix is something akin to fantasy. Having played in a jazz band and sung a capella in a four-piece group, I am used to getting "in the pocket" with surrounding players. You interplay until the levels are just so sweet and perfect that you'd swear the instruments are playing themselves. It becomes second nature. The stereo stage presented can be unclear. The speakers are arranged in a cross-firing manner; the reasons for which Bill explained to me, but I remember as "coherent wavefront" or something. It didn't matter - this is how you listen to music when you're not listening live. But wait...something else was tugging at my ear-strings. What was that envelope I just heard? There it is again. Oh - the mixing engineer is changing the compression ratio. Why can I hear this? Because he can't. He's listening on a set of conventionally designed multi-way, multi-path studio monitors. This is where is gets weird and somewhat annoying. There is the music, and then there are the artifacts brought on by signal processing. And you can hear them. I really didn't want to bring it up, but I couldn't present a good review without it. Let me be clear: this is not a failing of the speakers. It is a failing of the mastering process. Exciting at first (I've never heard that before!), it became incredibly distracting on familiar music. Steely Dan's "Gaslighting Abbie", a well recorded track, seemed weirdly gated and pumping effects heretofore undetected were wildly apparent. I had Bill change the CD. He dropped in "Good Places" by Beaver & Krause on their Gandharva album. I've never heard this track before and I was in for a treat. This track plays like a dream sequence - reverb contrails seem to go to infinity, early reflections meld into late and end in a random dissipation of heat. Yes...just like that. At certain points my body became so relaxed that I commented to Bill I felt an effect to that of auditory alcohol (as opposed to the oft-touted yet overrated eargasm). I wanted to take a nap as much as the warm kitty that had curled up on my lap. Ahhhh. Until this moment, my favorite speakers for immersive listening were the open-baffle Alon Phalanx (which I get to hear every week at my satellite office). Yes, I did just compare a pair of $16,000 speakers to the CoSynes - and I can sleep at night. Bottom line: You must give yourself the chance to audition the CoSynes or a Synergy speaker. It's an experiment as much as an experience!
Re: Cincinnati/Dayton/Middletown OH Thanks for the review, envisionelec, glad you had a good time. I did, too. Always up for an excuse to listen to music! Fortunately for me, I'm not as sensitive to hearing the mastering engineer's hand on the gain sliders so that seldom bugs me. The business about the toe-in is explained some in a writeup I did -- http://libinst.com/PublicArticles/Setup%20of%20WG%20Speakers.pdf The "Good Places" track is one of my favorites musically, though I wish it had been recorded a little bettter (there's tape noise and a bit of graininess at times in the mix.... a 70's mobile recording setup). It has some nice pipe organ lows and the saxes are fabulous.
Re: Cincinnati/Dayton/Middletown OH Cool to see the "Listening Opportunities" forum paid off. Nice review too. I love it when speakers are so accurate they make you hate your music collection But that's just me.
Re: Cincinnati/Dayton/Middletown OH Bwalso I have a pair of tempest that I built out of mtx pa cabs using the delta pro 12 with a Pyle wave guide and the dna350 and I was wondering if someday you could give them a listen. I am in NW Ohio and I have no experience tuning cabs. Also I am building a pair of jack of all trades that we could listen to. Thanks cb
Re: Cincinnati/Dayton/Middletown OH Sure, if you can get them here. Kind of a distance though, I'm in SW Ohio.
Re: Cincinnati/Dayton/Middletown OH Just relocated -- I'm now in Portland, OR. Offer is still open to anyone wanting to come listen... but my setup is now in an unfinished basement! Still sounds surprisingly good, though.
Hey Bill, That is cool. I love Portland. Actually I am closing on an investment property in Vancouver, WA across the river. My parents lived there for more than 9 years and my sister still does (she will be the manager). We'll have to meet up when I come visit next. Josh