I have a pair of Bakoon Satri 5515M monoblock amps on loan for a while .

I also have a pair of classic Yamaha NS75T speakers which I really like but to me they sound best in a smaller studio type room so I tend use them in my office which measures only 3.3 m wide by 4.6 m long.

I am really enjoying the sound of the Bakoons .The Yamahas are ruthlessly revealing and will show up most solid state amps I have tried in various ways but the Bakoons are sounding beautifully unforced and natural.

The Supratek Cabernet 300B preamp seems to be a beautiful match with the Bakoon and Yamaha combination.

The Accuphase component is an old DC61DAC.Yet to find a modern one that sounds better!

 Interconnect Cabling is also Accuphase Super Refined.

Speaker cable is Vermouth Audio Crimson.

Edited October 11, 20178 yr by THOMO

Very nice. Seem a little overkill electronics for the speakers but I think you have a thing for the vintage speakers so I can see why.

Well yes I paid $167 for those speakers in a local auction [needed work though] so matching them with $9000 worth of power amps would seem to be a bit over the top!They sound superb though.I have owned a handful of modern speakers in the $10,000 to $16,000 price range and they did not come close.

How the NS75T has not been "discovered"is a mystery to me.

 

Edited October 11, 20178 yr by THOMO

Yeah I didn’t think the speaker were chosen because you had no access to more expensive speakers

Those kind of Yamaha speakers were around at the time when I got into this hobby, was also put off by them for some reason, early 90’s and to this day I’ve never heard any of that kind of Yamaha speaker (all the models with that look) in a proper system. I’m hoping that the latest gen of these speaker (the 20k ones) are at the Hi-Fi show, love to hear them 

Edited October 11, 20178 yr by Sime

Looks good mate. I miss my little bakoon.

Great set up. You should move closer then I could hear them, actually i am down that way in December maybe I can call in. How did the Tannoy experiment work out?

Russell well the Tannoys are still  in the to do basket and that is a pretty full basket unfortunately.

12 hours ago, Sime said:

Those kind of Yamaha speakers were around at the time when I got into this hobby, was also put off by them for some reason, early 90’s and to this day I’ve never heard any of that kind of Yamaha speaker (all the models with that look) in a proper system. I’m hoping that the latest gen of these speaker (the 20k ones) are at the Hi-Fi show, love to hear them 

Yes I am hoping to hear them too.

The trouble with speakers like these is that they are very unforgiving of poor recordings and equipment.

So they were probably never likely to win mass market acceptance.Good on Yamaha for going all out to make speakers that could faithfully reproduce the musical instruments that they were also making though.A piano recording sounds like a piano.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 11, 20178 yr by THOMO

Looking good Jon ...will have to catch you soon before the Bakoon monos depart.

 

I got the impression that the small 15w Bakoon I once owned was as good as amplifiers get, so long as you could make use of the low power. The 50w monoblocs must be more of a jack-of-all-trades if not quite up to driving the Gale 401A ?

 

Cheers,

 

Steve

On 10/12/2017 at 8:39 AM, Steve M said:

Looking good Jon ...will have to catch you soon before the Bakoon monos depart.

 

I got the impression that the small 15w Bakoon I once owned was as good as amplifiers get, so long as you could make use of the low power. The 50w monoblocs must be more of a jack-of-all-trades if not quite up to driving the Gale 401A ?

 

Cheers,

 

Steve

I was talking to bloke who has owned all sorts of expensive amps including Gryphons and he reckons the Bakoons are the best he has used.I suspect some people would not "get" them because they are quite subtle.Hard to describe their sound really other than saying that they just sound natural. Although I think at the heart of this is probably their perfect timing combined with clarity so that well recorded music being played by good musicians draws you in.Complete lack of smear perhaps?

 

On 10/12/2017 at 11:39 AM, Steve M said:

Looking good Jon ...will have to catch you soon before the Bakoon monos depart.

 

I got the impression that the small 15w Bakoon I once owned was as good as amplifiers get, so long as you could make use of the low power. The 50w monoblocs must be more of a jack-of-all-trades if not quite up to driving the Gale 401A ?

 

Cheers,

 

Steve

Those that require a little more grunt than the 15w of Bakoon integrated might be happier with the new 100w Bakoon released earlier this year.

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews2/bakoon3/1.html

I'll be looking for a bigger swear jar for that one.

My latest purchase is a new Bakoon Satri AMP -5521.

The 50 watt monoblocks had to be returned to their owner and I missed them too much.As a friend said you can't unhear that sound and nothing else I tried as a replacement had the Bakoon magic.Not even close.

The AMP-5521 is only 35 watts but that is enough power for the Yamaha speakers in that room.I tried the 15 watt and it sounded great but I felt the speakers deserved a bit more power.

Somebody described the Bakoons as pure as a mountain stream.I think that sums them up nicely.

I think I'm turning Japanese-I really think so!

The only non-Japanese things in the system are the Vermouth audio speaker cable.The power cables are Oyaide and the interconnects are Accuphase Super Refined.Well there are some German Mundorf capicitors in the speakers.

Edited March 1, 20188 yr by THOMO

Changed things around a bit. I am now running vinyl in that room via some very early Supratek preamps with a wonderful sounding phono stage.

Turntable is a Technics SP10 in a curly jarrah "Thomo" plinth.The plinth void is filled with lead shot which mass loads a plywood base which hangs from threaded rods fastened into the deck rather than the deck being bolted to the plinth.

My vinyl has never sounded better.It has taken a huge leap with the Supratek phono .

Also a nice pic of my Tessa T21 chair.

My Edgar horns are back again.

Over the years I have used a range of bass boxes from folded horns to ported to open baffle.

The problem has always been getting good integration of the bass and the midrange at around 500Hz which is the low frequency roll off of the Edgar Tractrix midrange horn and a tricky crossover point..The driver there is the Dynaudio D54 std dome midrange-a high efficiency [96db] textile dome with a huge magnet assembly.

Here I am using some quite humble Eminence Beta 12A woofers which seems to work really well in this smaller room.They do not go ultra low [45Hz ish] but seem to integrate well and have a fast and textured sort of bass.A lot of woofers struggle to keep up with the rest but not these.They a re 98db sensitivity which might be helping.

Biamping using a Naim copy on the bass and a gainclone chip amp for the horn and tweeter[which has always sounded the best with the Edgars for some reason].Preamp is Supratek Syrah.

 

Edited June 15, 20232 yr by THOMO

Hi Jon,

 

…wow. Those would be the original, true Edgar Midrange Horn, all the way down to the driver.  <<sigh, lust>>

 

The colour of their finish looks exactly like the finish I saw, 20-odd years ago, of an Edgar Monolith bass horn that existed, also in WA. I wonder if it and your Midrange were built by the same DIY-er?

 

Back then I had a very brief email chat with the Monolith builder, as I was building my own at the time.

 

Sorry for reminiscing on your thread, but those Midrange’s just triggered me. 🙃

 

cheers

Grant

I have a spare D54std if anybody needed one.Fantastic drivers.

Yes Jock McGavin  had a Monolith and midrange driven by DIY monster 211 SETs.That was an incredible sound and got me into horns.He also made some of the midrange horns in concrete so there could be some of them around still.

I still have not heard a better sounding midrange.Especially for female vocal.

Edited June 16, 20232 yr by THOMO

Yes that’s the name! Small world….

And now for something completely different-

Dynaudio Confidence C5s  in  nice Rosewood veneer.Their flagship speakers of the era.They cost $16000 back then.Esotar tweeters and dome midranges.These are  from about 2002 so a late version 2 which were easier drive and more efficient than the first ones [85db sensitivity compared to 82 db for the earlier ones].Still not very sensitive but apparently they do not drop below 4.7 ohms so should not be too hard to drive.Isobaric loaded sealed box so very tight and clean bass and they seem to sound best pushed right into the corners-which is pretty unusual and a blessing for smaller rooms like this.

 

 

Edited September 14, 20232 yr by THOMO

15 hours ago, THOMO said:

Sexy Pedigree Dyns look the part. Hope you are enjoying them.  I’d guess you miss your old Usher Class A power amp Jon. 

 

 

 

 

18 hours ago, La scala said:

On 14/09/2023 at 6:57 PM, THOMO said:

Sexy Pedigree Dyns look the part. Hope you are enjoying them.  I’d guess you miss your old Usher Class A power amp Jon. 

 

 

 

 

Yes The Usher probably would have been a good combination.My Dartzeel NHB 108 clone seems to drive them nicely though.Not the oomph and weight of the Usher but very refined, open and organic sounding and the lower damping factor probably suits the highly damped bass .

 

Back with valves. An Almarro 205MK2 came up for sale and I always wanted to try one.4.5 watts single ended pentode  using EL84s and a single 12Ax7.They seem to be a much loved amplifier.This one has been upgraded with copper Vcaps and Gold Lion valves.

I have previously owned an Almarro 318B which was a great SET using 6C33Cs.Only after selling it and trying a lot of other valve amps I realised how good it was.I do think the little Almarro sounds a bit more special though.

Speaker matching with a 4.5 watt SET/SEP is always going to be a problem of course.

It cannot quite drive my big Tannoys properly.Pretty good with the Toshiba SS 30s but a bit bass light.

Then I came across these Athena AS -F1 for sale in my local second hand shop and researched them quickly and found out they were rated at 92 db/watt sensitivity so thought they would be worth a try.Was not expecting much but am really surprised by how well the Almarro can drive them and how good they sound.

So I think I have discovered one of the best kept secrets in audio for speakers that suit low powered valve amps.

They were not expensive new but they are obviously very well engineered and designed by the Canadian based designers  who had worked for other Canadian makers Energy /Mirage/Paradigm  and no doubt influenced by the research work done by Floyd Toole etc. They look a fair bit like some of the Revel speakers -using a wave guide and shaped front baffle and also have a similar sort of sound to the Revels I have heard-smooth,refined,full bodied and with very good driver integration.

Edited October 11, 20241 yr by THOMO

The Almarro 205Mk2.It does not look much but it sounds glorious!

3 minutes ago, THOMO said:

The Almarro 205Mk2.It does not look much but it sounds glorious!

They use some pretty good iron Jon, some serious weight!

Now a very "analogue " sounding system.

I picked up two pairs of speakers locally .Monitor Audio Bronze BR6  which I sold and which sounded like  the $1600 new  speakers they were.And these old Richter Wizards Mk1s which sound really lovely .The term nicely voiced  describes them well.Perhaps not "audiophile " sounding at all but they just sound tonally and musically pleasing.Paired with a classic Shure V15 cartridge ,Realistic 42-2101A phono stage [a Shure copy] and the Almarro 318B SET amp .The Richters seem to be easy to drive and match well with the  15 watt Almarro.For old Van Morrison and jazz records it all combines nicely.

I guess you could say it is not ultra high resolution.In a good way!

 

Edited October 3, 2025Oct 3 by THOMO