ivory paint lang
i'had had these speakers for 2 days now. space-hoggers they most definitely are. construction was oft-delayed because of the inclement weather. but now they're here and playin'!
except for 2 very small wooden triangular braces placed where the side panels meet the front board at the bottom, all the dimensions where as what was indicated at joseph esmilla's website.
because of space constraints i'm listening nearfield, roughly 2 meters away from them.
for a couple of years now, i'ven been using a tono pre and Tb2a3 combo to drive rather inefficient wharfedale III rated at 86 db; not your ideal set-friendly pair. ideal playing levels for me was having the volume knob at around the 10:30 position. i listen mostly to vocals and light instrumentals; the snoop dog albums are played on my portable however hehe.
i've seen and heard jon agner's superb daiichi floorstanders and i was hoping to use that design. i even bought the drivers but the cabinet construction never came around.
until i came into possession of a pair of altec 403-a's. wiredstate had a thread about open baffles and there was the je labs site. after much reading... i thought, why not give it a go?
if there was one thing that was evident, it was the loudness factor. i can listen to jane monheit or jean frye sidwell with the volume knob at the 9 o'clock position and it plays very loud without sacrificing detail. is the sensitivity thingy to consider here? the 403-a has a rating of 95 decibels sensitivity.
vocals are lush and detailed; brush on the drums are clearer and more crisp. playing the boys air choir 'deep peace' has more weight and presence. and so was the lunchtime track from jurassic park, the bone crunching seems so 'right there'. thanks jon!
something i noticed; while playing john pizzarelli's 'blue heaven', i tried moving the volume knob past the 11 o'clock mark and it seemed that some sort of distortion was setting in. as a backgrounder, this track seems to be 'mahina' in volume compared to the others on the same chesky sampler. i wanted to jack up the volume a bit just to check if the detail would be compromised.
i was surprised at the sound quality this speaker driver + ob design combo can dish out. am happy how my type of music seems to suit them very well. i'm having second thoughts of playing orchestral music though, it might blow out the paper cones
i will try rearranging these speakers so i can maintain a listening distance of about 3 meters and move the speakers farther from the wall as recommended.
thanks for reading.
ps don't mind my temp 'ojo' rack hehe