I don't know where this goes, so I'm just starting it as a new thread; please move (or even edit or delete) as appropriate.
After reading too many wondourus reviews of ceramic driver speakers in general, and only having heard two pair, one time, (Kharma, last year @ RMAF) and having mixed feelings (not hearing what the reviewers heard), I thought I should spend some time listening to several different brands/types of ceramic driver speakers, and listen for a "family sound" as maybe what I hear (and disliked before) had more to do with set-up, amps, source, cables, room, listener; and maybe I could identify Sound of drivers within other "pieces of the puzzle"...
I was with my wife, also a trained musician and listener, with whom I often listen, and compare notes, to see if we here the same things, (or argue sound for hours...)
There were several models of Kharma, Avalons, Marten Coltrane Supreme, and others.
To try to make this as short as possible, of course everything has it's own "fingerprint", no two brands sound alike, and of course all the other factors make quite a difference.
But listening to the Marten Coltrane Supreme through several known pieces was quite enlightening.
The good part:
No, they don't really sound like Kharmas, and they don't have that "big" in your face sound that line arrays usually do (that I thought they might, and the Lamm ML3s didn't give them that Elephant in your face (that I thought they might have).
The rest of the story:
I couldn't live with these things if you gave them to me...
They're like Kharmas but more so...
That "detail" thing, that "superb imaging" thing.
It really sux.
Yes, detail -- It is like an etching instead of an oil painting.
Harsh, and missing harmonics in recordings that we were used to.
Shockingly so sometimes. Rich voices lost timber, instruments lost identity...
On one particular CD my wife brought in which an oboe leads a clarinet into a piece, you can't tell what either instrument is. And on and on. For another CD and two LPs.
Imaging is very deep and distinct.
Like cut-out siloets, and pop-ups, at various increasing distances.
Not a three-diminsional sound, nothing in-between the pop-ups.
It makes for a dramatic effect at first, then a confusing, "what's going on" thing, then "OH, Thats what's missing!"
Yes, demo's like these (with Coltrane Supremes) make audio shows educational at least.
After that, this "family sound" could be identified, to a greater or lesser extent, almost immediatly, in any speaker with ceramic drivers, by either of us, even with grill covers on, almost upon entering the room!
YMMV, all that stuff, most people seemed to like them...
Robert |
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