Bob debuts his new Amazing Line Source Speakers at AXPONA

[TNRabbit 371]

Going on today & this weekend in Jacksonville, FL. Here, Bob is saying "my next amplifier will be THIIIIIS big! (thanks to Mike/mbskeam for the hilarity)~

 

 

[zumbini 6,147]

Hope someone from the site is there to give us an "ears on" analysis.

[jazzman53 1,276]

I think BluesPwr and Bluesman57 were going today and Martin and I are driving down from Savannah in the morning.

 

[zumbini 6,147]

ROAD TRIP!

 

 

[BluesMan57 1,411]

Here are a few pictures from the Carver Room at the AXPONA show......

( Will post other pictures from the show in another thread )

 

And as to the sound of the speakers and amp combo all I can say is " They Sound Amazing ".

The speakers were bi-amped with 2 of the Black Beauty Tube amps and for an added reinforcement a Sunfire Sub Rosa subwoofer. The speakers will sell for $20,000.00 , Amps are extra.........

 

BluesPwr and I went from room to room and listened to all of the other systems and found ourselves back in the Carver room wanting more. The sound is as Bob wanted it when you close your eyes the room is filled with the music. The soundstage is enormous and lifelike.We listened to a lot of different kinds of music on the system from Allison Krauss to German Opera (From the Stereophile Magazine Reviewer) and all of it sounded sweet.

 

As a side note we got to talk with  Bob Carver and Bob Farinelli a lot. And as it has been said before both gentlemen are great people. Friday was a good day to go to the show alot less people in the rooms.  

 

 

 

Beautiful Finish on the Amps...........

 

The "Cherry 180" was also on display..... 

 

 

 

 

[engtaz 125]

Thanks for the report and pics.

[Blues Pwr 766]

 

 

Here are a few pictures from the Carver Room at the AXPONA show......

( Will post other pictures from the show in another thread )

 

And as to the sound of the speakers and amp combo all I can say is " They Sound Amazing ".

The speakers were bi-amped with 2 of the Black Beauty Tube amps and for an added reinforcement a Sunfire Sub Rosa subwoofer. The speakers will sell for $20,000.00 , Amps are extra.........

 

BluesPwr and I went from room to room and listened to all of the other systems and found ourselves back in the Carver room wanting more. The sound is as Bob wanted it when you close your eyes the room is filled with the music. The soundstage is enormous and lifelike.We listened to a lot of different kinds of music on the system from Allison Krauss to German Opera (From the Stereophile Magazine Reviewer) and all of it sounded sweet.

 

As a side note we got to talk with  Bob Carver and Bob Farinelli a lot. And as it has been said before both gentlemen are great people. Friday was a good day to go to the show alot less people in the rooms.  

 

 

 

Beautiful Finish on the Amps...........

 

The "Cherry 180" was also on display..... 

 

 

 

 

 

I'd just like to add that these speakers are easily the best of the show.

With the side firing drivers that are basically floor to ceiling the soundstage is huge, and more importantly the sweet spot is equally huge.

In fact there was not a bad seat in the room.

The speakers have a sweet enveloping sound that effortlessly fills the room all around you and you can't pinpoint exactly where the sound is coming from.

 

When the Stereophile Mag. reviewer Jason Serinus reviewed these spks.

I was sitting in the front row next to him, he was in the center and I was to his left. 

I was directly in front of the left speaker about 6' back from it.

Jason was given the remote control and he cranked them up the loudest I heard them play all day, and they just came alive.

Even though I was only a few feet from the speaker I could not hear the sound coming out from the speaker at me like every other speaker in the show, but it just seemed to emanate from behind and in between the two speakers.  

 I thought they were awesome at the more moderate levels that they had been playing at so people could ask the two Bob's questions without having to shout.

All I can say is  the more power you put to them the better they sound. 

Now don't mistake that last statement to mean that they have to be cranked up to sound good like many ineffiecent speakers need to be to sound good, nothing could be farther from the truth.

At the moderate levels the full range of sound/music is being  accurately and  fully reproduced as close to live music as I've ever heard from a speaker.

At the louder levels no listening fatigue at all was expierenced, unlike many of the other systems at the show.  

 

Also note in the above picture of the Black Beautys the shot from above shows what looks like massive amounts of dust on the amps, not so, it is charcoal gray specks (not a metal flake) in the gloss black finish.

For lack of a better term similar to splatter paint but extremely subtle, and very tastefully done. 

In fact we didn't notice it until one of Bob's helpers, Tony pointed it out to us, thus the picture.

The finish on all these amps is like a top quality custom show car professional paint job.

 

For Bob's seminar we got to the conference room about 30 min. before Bob's speech was scheduled to start.

We were the first ones there, and lo and behold after a few minutes in Bob walked  and came over and sat with us.  

We had a nice conversation with him and just us for quite a while until this speech started.

What an awesome, humble down to earth person he is, and he has a great sense of humor, BEST DAY EVER !!!!!!!!

We also spoke with Bob Farinelli at length several times, and he also is a class act and just an all around nice guy too.

 

We have quite a few more photos and I have some brochures to scan into my comp. and Bluesman and I will work on those and be posting them at some point tomorrow.

Thanks Blues Pwr........

[SteveFord 1,119]

Not that I can afford it but it's nice to see Bob doing what I'm sure he wanted to do throughout his entire professional career.

[zumbini 6,147]

Sounds like it was well worth the price of admission. Thanks for the review and pics!

[jazzman53 1,276]

Martin and I heard the best systems at the show today, and had dinner with Bob and company this evening, where we had a lively discussion about the speaker-building psychosis.  I carried the top cover of my C1 preamp down with me and Bob signed it.  As for Bob's new speakers and Black Beauties, I have to agree with Bluesman57... nothing else I heard at the show impressed me as much.  Even the gazillion $$$ MBL Radialstahlers sounded almost lifeless by comparison.  And, dare I say it (ouch, this hurts for an ESL guy to admit)...  I preferred the Amazings over ML's flagship CLX electrostats, which I thought were supremely clean and transparent but lacking the wide sound stage and awesome dynamics of the Amazings.  I'm blown away.  

 

[zumbini 6,147]

 

 

Martin and I heard the best systems at the show today, and had dinner with Bob and company this evening, where we had a lively discussion about the speaker-building psychosis.  I carried the top cover of my C1 preamp down with me and Bob signed it.  As for Bob's new speakers and Black Beauties, I have to agree with Bluesman57... nothing else I heard at the show impressed me as much.  Even the gazillion $$$ MBL Radialstahlers sounded almost lifeless by comparison.  And, dare I say it (ouch, this hurts for an ESL guy to admit)...  I preferred the Amazings over ML's flagship CLX electrostats, which I thought were supremely clean and transparent but lacking the wide sound stage and awesome dynamics of the Amazings.  I'm blown away.  

 

 

Quick, someone etch that in gold on a strip of Kapton!

[peck555 366]

Awesome reviews, thanks Guys.

 

[galaxyoilcan 88]

Awesome roadtrip report guys! Did any of the conversations with Bob reveal what electronics magic he conjured to make them behave so differently and sound so much better than all the other speakers?

 

Jazzman, sorry to hear your ELS bubble was damaged by the experience. From your earlier posts I have read, I fear you may fall into another deep depression where you don't want to power up (not good). Although I would be interested in seeing your posts of another round of your self-therapy. Building a Jazzman version of the Amazing speakers might be just the thing! From the outside they don't look too complicated to build. Then again just looking at it, a brain just seems like a pile of pink & gray goo, so looks can be deceiving. I guess it's what's on the inside that makes it what it is.

[jazzman53 1,276]

 

 

Awesome roadtrip report guys! Did any of the conversations with Bob reveal what electronics magic he conjured to make them behave so differently and sound so much better than all the other speakers?

 

Jazzman, sorry to hear your ELS bubble was damaged by the experience. From your earlier posts I have read, I fear you may fall into another deep depression where you don't want to power up (not good). Although I would be interested in seeing your posts of another round of your self-therapy. Building a Jazzman version of the Amazing speakers might be just the thing! From the outside they don't look too complicated to build. Then again just looking at it, a brain just seems like a pile of pink & gray goo, so looks can be deceiving. I guess it's what's on the inside that makes it what it is.

 

Not to worry... I'm definitely not in a depression over the show.  I think it's only natural to admire those things that other systems can do that mine can't, and visa-versa.

 

Bob's speakers did just about everything well, which is very hard to achieve.  In addition to those lightening-fast ribbons, most impressive to me was how they can can sound so good from practically any location in the room.  I think the Martin Logan's 5-speaker setup created some phasing issues that confused their imaging and, of course, their curved panels just couldn't match the dynamics of the ALS's.        

 

I'm pleased to announce that my bubble has not burst regarding ESL's, even if I found the ML setup at the show a bit disappointing.  In fact, after hearing the finest systems in the world, I left the show feeling pretty good about my inexpensive homebuilt flat-panel electrostats.  Even though my speakers have a miniscule sweet spot that puts your head in a vise and they can't play as loud as some of the high-powered systems at the show, I can truthfully say that none of those high-end speakers actually sound better than mine at the focal sweet spot, and none of them could match my speakers' coherence and imaging at the focal sweet spot. 

 

Flat-panel ESL's are so directional, anything said about them must include the caveat "at the focal sweep spot".  Conventional speakers, and also curved ESL's like the ML's, project a wider sweet spot, and this wider dispersion renders their imaging less precise, less holographic.  

 

Wide dispersion and imaging are typically mutually exclusive variables in any speaker.  This is why I am so impressed that Bob achieved in his speakers an all-encompassing sweet spot, yet they still retain very good imaging from practically any listening position.  No other speakers I've heard can do this.              

 

 

 

 

[galaxyoilcan 88]

So when are you starting on the Jazzman's Amazing clone build? lol

[jazzman53 1,276]

Bob shared some insight with me about his speakers and I've been considering how his approach might be applied using three ESL panels. The question is what happens when the backwaves from three dipole panels in a triangular relationship and close proximity, meet (?)

 

Martin (Martin1970), who lives just down the street from me and has also heard Bob's and my speakers, is hot to build a pair of electrostats himself. Maybe we can do some experimenting.

[weitrhino 1,443]

Wish I lived closer. I'd love to be a helping hand and learn a thing or two.

[galaxyoilcan 88]

Good luck guys! Can't wait to see what you come up with.

[oldtexasdog 2,456]

Excellent review-my Thanks

[weitrhino 1,443]

Another Axpona review....

 

http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2012/03/11/axpona-2012-bob-carver-purity-audio-amr-and-analysis-plus/ 

[megasat16 1]

The question is what happens when the backwaves from three dipole panels in a triangular relationship and close proximity, meet (?)

 

I think that spells a disaster. You'll have a lot of uneven SPL across the entire FR these ESL can play.

 

I wonder did Bob ever publish any measured FR plot for the new ALS.

 

[jazzman53 1,276]

 

 

 

The question is what happens when the backwaves from three dipole panels in a triangular relationship and close proximity, meet (?)

 

I think that spells a disaster. You'll have a lot of uneven SPL across the entire FR these ESL can play.

 

I wonder did Bob ever publish any measured FR plot for the new ALS.

 

 

Of course, Bob's speakers don't use three dipoles in triangular relationship so it wouldn't be a fair comparison. I see too many problems with trying to do with ESL's what Bob did with his ASL's.   Martin and I are brainstorming ideas to build some ESL's soon, though.  (I think Martin caught the bug)