Treats and Eats!
Once again, I must thank all for their hospitalities and good times. *Lindz also says many thanks, she enjoyed it all very much!*
I suppose chronologically would be a sensible way to talk about the day.
Started the day off at Joey's place in the lovely UIC/Rush area of the city. The first thing I was able to listen to was the minis? which while very nice speakers, aesthetically and aurally, when sitting next to the MIGHTY SUMMITS!!! There simply was just no contest.
We were given demonstrations between 2 sets of variables. First was the difference between the Squeezbox, and his nice tooobed DAC. The second was the differences between Class A and Class A/B from his Plinius. While the differences could be heard on the minis, once these variables were played with on the Summits EVERYTHING BECAME MUCH CLEARER!
My first thoughts on the Summits were the sheer size of the things! While they aren't much taller than what I was expecting, their width and especially the bass box was much MUCH more than I had thought. My greatest thought was the effectiveness and fantastic sound reproduction that Joey's DAC is capable of. If it were me, I would always run though that and not str8 from the squeezebox, although on the other hand, when performing say a mixdown or some other production based function it might be better through the squeezebox, for its flatter reproduction. Just my .02
As far as the Summits are concerned, I am in love with em! Their ability to reproduce bass is just undeniable. I can't imagine that for 2ch listening a sub is necessary with summits. For HT I can see the use, but for 2ch I just don't think that a total of 800w pushed to 4 10in subs needs any more assistance.
Final thoughts, windows is and can be great for certain things, but we all must and have dealt with blu screen=death. On a side note, you mentioned you are using the xfi audio card, well my reccomendation for using your transport is picking up one of theses babies
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...194&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation
For anyone wanting to use the pc as a transport this device is simply awesome! It gives you the availability of many balanced outs and ins, as well as digital in/out. Just a thought. Not exactly the same gaming performance I would assume though- so its tough to say how it would effect surround performance from games, but also seeing that you weren't running surround, I would most definitely take a look at this guy. Connects to the pc simply through firewire.
About the chair, I stick with my original recco- DBOX!!!
After Joey's we traveled to the one true India House.
Mmmmmm Delicious!
Although, I do think that Wayne/Indian Food may not be the best mix. While at the I-House, we were met up with David Mattz *forgive me if I got the name wrong*
From the I-House, we walked down the street a few blocks to the Glen Poor store. Here we were treated to the sweet tooobed sounds coming from a Wilson MAXX. The setup which we listened to was valued at 100,000$ 25k for each speaker and another 50k for all of the associated electronics. Look for the pics below. *in one picture of the cd player, Cherian places his finger next to the power cable to the cd player (toobed) to give you an idea of the insane power cable!
All the associated electronics were from a company called T&A. Interesting name, which we all know stands for
THINK AGAIN! 100,000$ COME ON!
I don't remember if I had voiced my opinion of the setup very much while there, but I'll make sure to reiterate myself here. Without a doubt the Wilsons sounded great. 100k great? No. WITHOUT A DOUBT NO! I would easily say that my experience of listening to summits trumps the wilsons. Now, with that said, I am wondering how it would sound to have had the Summits hooked up to the same associated elec..... :rocker: FOR SURE!
We also did a quick listen to a speaker from T&A. Didn't take longer than a few seconds to realize that it sucked. To me it sounded loose and muddy. Obviously not to an extreme, but for 26,000$ it sure didn't sound good.
My final thoughts on my experiences at Poor, were besides for their undeniable ability to make you POOR, I wish they would sell logans..... Then I thought about this statement for a second, and realized they never could.
Think about it for a bit..... why wouldn't they be able to sell Logans?
They would drastically kill any sales of the other brands of speakers is why! Although this could help the sales of their associated elec. I sure wish we could have heard the summits paired with any of their other electronics.
From Poor, we headed a short distance to the other side of the river, and made our way to Cherians.
Cherians setup is very nicely put together and as he says, very symmetrical. 4 Scenarios, and a cinema, with a depth handling lfe. I very much enjoyed the sounds of the Scenarios. It made me realize even more how much the Logans are capable of. Across the board, they are so crisp and tight. Their ability to reproduce sound, especially when the sounds are multiply layered, is just phenomenal. My main regret is that we forgot to test out the HT capabilities, and were not ever treated to the sounds from the cinema, or the rear scenarios.
On a side note, being up in a high rise in the loop, made me very nostalgic. I really missed the times being up high in the city listening to killer tunes, with beautiful views to enjoy.
Gotta love it!
From Cherians we headed out to Burkes... Sadly this is where Joey had to cut his day short...
It is truly too bad, since he missed out on not just more fantastic listening, but a great BBQ as well!
Burke has a very nice setup with his beautiful Summits matching well with the Stage. If that weren't enough Logan love, there are four count em 4! more Scripts completing a 7.1 surround. For me this is just a dream. Coming from a film/video background, I always have a sweet spot for the surround.... :rocker:
All of the sounds were taken from a Oppo981HD universal player, through HDMI into a pioneer elite receiver, I believe the 74tx model? I was very pleasantly surprised at the ability of the Pioneer to drive all of those Logans and quite well! Their handling of the Summits fickle nature was not very apparent. We sampled the DVD from this forum, the name escapes me. I think the favorite scenes were probably from the Final Destination movies, bugs anyone? And through door #2!
We also were able to listen to multiple SACD and DVD-A discs from Diana Krall, Patricia Barber, and many more. I must admit to being a big fan of both artists, and found myself greatly enjoying the 5.1 mixes on the discs...as my SACD player *ps3* is only digital out, and my receiver not having HDMI input, cancels my ability to listen to the 5.1 mixes on my fave discs.
To make the experience even more intense, the images were projected through a Sony LCD 720p projector onto a screen i'm guessing was roughly around 100"!!!!!!! Just great!
The BBQ followed and I must say many thanks! Burke has a wonderful back yard BBQ/Margarita area that is just perfect for summer. A second kitchen is what he calls it....and a second kitchen it is! A HUGE GRILL!!! Screened in porch, full table and seating area etc etc. Truly a treat for a day of treats!
Final FINAL thoughts.
1. Joey has alot of gear.
2. Toobs sound killer
3. Summits are phenomenal! In every finish that I have seen so far!
4. Wayne is really tall. (I'm about 6'1)
5. Cherian could be a sunfire rep! *great stuff*
6. Burke has a HT setup that I would have trouble leaving if it were in my place, going to work would be painful.
7. 100,000$ is not well spent on the Wilson setup. I'd take some Summits, associated audio, and HT gear any day over those monsters.
8. I don't think I said it out loud, but I LOVED THE RED FINISH!!! SNAP ON TOOLS ANYBODY? It could be that my car is RED as well, but I liked its IN YOUR FACE COLOR!
9. Dreamer, I know you were pumped for the video! Which brings me to my final thought. I suppose I can't take ownership of the thought as I believe Wayne was the one to bring it up, but when you want video of Logans and their setups, don't give the camera to somebody fascinated by Logans, you don't get anything.... I do have a few quick minutes from Burkes though. I'll edit it up sometime soon and throw it onto youtube...or some other host.
Now onto the fun stuff...... pics are all hosted from imagevenue.com The thumbnails are all clickable to give you the full rez 12.8mp image. I didn't do anything to the pics as far as processing or editing goes, so don't be harsh on the iq of em.
