Janeb, no problem at all.. It's just that I believe a picture says more than a thousand words do have some relevancy here. Furthermore, they happen to call this a 'Virtual' system site.
Mu6 and Bvdiman, do you guys have a problem? We have ten pairs of Odin IC's...one pair from the tonearm to the phono pre-amp, one pair from the phono preamp to the preamp, one pair from the Dac to the transport,one pair from the pre-amp to the amp(s), one pair from the headphone amp to the DAC, one pair from the DAC to the pre-amp. In my husband's system,one pair from the SACD player to the pre-amp, one pair from preamp to the amp and one pair for the tonearm to pre-amp and lastly one pair from the CD player to the pre-amp. Are you going to ask me for pics of these also...:0)
Dealer? Goes to customers from shop? ;)) C'mon Janeb, shed some pics already and stop all these speculating.. We all would just love to see your superb set-up and maybe learn a thing or two from it.
Mu6 ,the speakers cables are a bi-wire pair with bi-wire ends that are suspended on ceramic cable elevators. The speaker cables are all 3 meter runs. The ic's are balanced runs of 2 meters each and all cables are Odin's. We have ten pair of Ic's. Please don't ask me what goes to where and from where..:0)
How did you excactly configure the speaker cables from the amp to the speakers? And are you using balanced ic's and how much Odin ic's you have in total?
Sudesh, we listened to many combos of pre-amp and amp prior to going with the Edge amp and Boulder per-amp. We felt that the Boulder was better than any of the other pre-amps we heard particularly in its ability to portray inner-detail. It also was dead quiet and with the Edge amps everything is portrayed as it also has the ability to portray great detail.(as you have noted) Now we did not listen to any of the great tube pre-amps ( CAT, AR, EAR etc), because we did not think they would match up noise wise with the Edge. Alexsee, we opted for the Zanden phono stage and the Koetsu as I like a little warmth and felt that the rest of system would benefit in the front end from that, since it is all ss.
Janeb, Great system. I did try to e-mail you, but since I got no response, i'll post my queries here. I also own the Edge NL reference (pyramid) amps. I am looking for a preamp that can match it's detail & finesse. Do let us know your path in this regard. I have the Kharma 3.2 CRM FE speakers. Thanks & warm regards, Sudesh
hi Janeb, yr choice in the Koetsu cart & Zanden phono stage seem rather interesting to me. any reason why you decided to go with these rather warm sounding components as opposed to something more transparent (like most of yr other components)?
Rudevries, my husband and I felt that the Kharma's sounded best with tube amps. The Kharma's need a big amp to drive them and as I said before a big tube amp gives off too much heat for us. We were not able to hear these speaker systems in our home, so we had to visit various dealers and a couple of shows. It is true that we could not actually compare the speakers with the same front end equipment most of the time. We opted for the Coltranes because they seemed to have the ability to fill our big room well and were not lacking in any obvious area. Plus I liked the looks too ( a big thing for a woman..:) )
Janeb, with your 'list' of nice toys alone, no doubt you are pulling in lots of attention and curiosity here. I suggest maybe you should just post a few nice shots of your nice equipments, in your nice listening room asap., and put to rest some of the unnecessary questions and/or doubts?
Janeb, which dealer/retailer advised you in building your current audio system? Why did you opt for the Coltrane supremes and not for any of the other speker systems you listened to (what do you mean by the power requirement of the the top of the line Kharmaspeaker? The Edge poweramp you are using is powerful enough to be combined with the Grand exquisite? Were you able to compare the speakers under more or less the same conditions or did you visit different audio shops?
In all fairness, the two pics posted are stock photos from the looks of them. The wall coverings and floor coverings not being consistent is kind of a giveaway. Maybe an overall picture of the entire system in the room if possible? That might help satisfy the doubters.
Rudolph, prior to deciding on the Coltrane Supremes we listened to Wilson Alexandria 2's, Cabasse Spheres ( Very impressive but not anything I wanted to live with), YG Anat Professionals, Kharma Grand Exquiste's ( nearly bought these but my husband didn't like their power requirements) and several others I cannot remember. As for the tonality with the Edge amps, I feel they match very well with the Martens. The Boulder amps sounded a little bright and hard whereas the Edge's were more subdued and IMHO more neutral. We did not listen to tubes as I am not keen on their heat output.
Janeb, as you probably know the speakers need at least 400-500 hours of playing before they show what they are really up to. What kind of speakers did you listen to/take into consideration before you decided to opt for the Coltrane Supremes? Could you give us some thoughts about the tonality of the system used in combination with solid state amplification? I am using tubes myself.
Rudolf, I've owned the Coltranes a few months now..They are certainly impressive; not sure that they are showing their full ability yet as I suspect the run-in process is not done yet. My husband's strads took nearly six months to run-in and they are supposed to be good from the factory, we definitely heard an improvement after six months though.
I am the owner of a Marten coltrane supreme system as well. I am wondering how long you have been playing your coltrane supreme system and are you happoy with it?
Alexsee, I did not feel that the Boulder amp was competetive with the Edge, The amp(s) from Boulder seemed to me to be a little 'Bright' with my speakers and oddly, the same applied to the Edge pre-amp. The Edge was very good but not as good as the Boulder pre-amp in its imaging abilities
