Looking forward to a RELigious experience with the twin 15” Predators tonight😎

7 minutes ago, Lil Caesar said:

Looking forward to a RELigious experience with the twin 15” Predators tonight😎

some very serious subs there ! 

 

enjoy ! 🙂 

Looking great, in earlier posts you had the left and right speakers on stands and a wider sound stage, the current locations have proven better?

27 minutes ago, Hi-Fi Whipped said:

Looking great, in earlier posts you had the left and right speakers on stands and a wider sound stage, the current locations have proven better?

Work in progress towards a new stereo within the room.  Currently running just the 7 channels of Adam Audio monitors, plus the 2 RELs and 4 Krix in the roof for Atmos duties.  The LCR looks a bit naf on the entertainment unit in the picture but the OLED is an 83 inch Sony so the scale is probably a bit deceptive.  Works well enough in terms of imaging and throw 🙂 New dedicated stereo speakers will sit on top of the RELs in due course.

I must say I’m mighty impressed with these 15 inch predators.  REL market this at the top of the “HT” range however the brands’ crucial musical speed is largely retained.  Compared to my previous SVS pair of rumblers there is little to no visible cone excursion with these beasts and the acoustic difference is a palpable increase in dynamic precision and attack .  Their immediacy is almost intoxicating 🥰

The Predators are designed to be stacked up to three high in order to create a formidable bass array.  As such, the mini JBL monitors are easily accommodated.  This exercise is a proof of concept for next steps in my stereo journey.  It’s quite amusing to hear the weight and presence of this system which is almost comical in appearance 🙃.  The monitors cross to the subs @ 75Hz via an active digital filter courtesy of a minidsp SHD then Dirac takes care of the rest.  The eq sees two full range speakers and I get a monster four-way configuration….

 

Pre-Order Confirmed 😎

 

Avantgarde Colibri C2

 

Edited December 31, 20241 yr by Lil Caesar

What a fantastic and exciting purchase @Lil Caesar - I hope you can make them chime with your current subs - the Avantgarde subs cost about the same as the Colibris which seems a bit prestige-brand crazy. From what I read in @WorkinClassAudio's system set up thread, sound improved once the Avantgarde subs were brought in after much trialling of Rel and JL iirc.

You also have quite a high ceiling, thinking about hanging something off of that? Andrew Jones makes that point while showcasing his 888 sourcepoint

 

Anyway, congrats, major horn envy.

Hi @Steff,

 

The matching C18 sub is a whopping AUD $8,250 so to acquire two of those in addition to the C2's was simply not feasible on my budget.  I figure that whilst the REL's will be a compromise, they're just fast enough for music whilst doing double duties for HT and at less than the price of a single C18, much easier on the wallet.

 

Really hoping once the active X/O from minidsp and Dirac applied , most phase and timing issues will be largely ironed out.  The plan is for this to be my system for many years now, having gotten tired of the component merry-go-round.   I'll start a new thread start once these arrive as I suspect there's a few SNA'ers who will find this of interest.

Edited December 31, 20241 yr by Lil Caesar

Whilst eagerly anticipating the immenent arrival of my new speakers, a piece of wall art has been acquired to reflect what I believe will be the acoustic outcome….

Edited January 27, 20251 yr by Lil Caesar

In what can only be described as a very 1st world problem....my suspicions were confirmed when Klapp AV advised that the initial shipment of Colibri speakers to these here parts has been delayed 😞.  Patience is a virtue which I possess in the smallest of quantities 😮‍💨

Edited January 30, 20251 yr by Lil Caesar

...And the saga continues 🙃.  Apparently AvantGarde changed an element of the supply chain shortly after the Colibri went into production and they've had QC issues with the white version ever since.  Sounds like the finish on the horn may be the culprit but this is just an educated guess.  Anywhoo, long story short I've switched to the dark side and will go with a black pair instead.  Should be here in a fortnight.   Given the aesthetics, I think I'll call them the Darth Vaders 🤓

11 minutes ago, Lil Caesar said:

...And the saga continues 🙃.  Apparently AvantGarde changed an element of the supply chain shortly after the Colibri went into production and they've had QC issues with the white version ever since.  Sounds like the finish on the horn may be the culprit but this is just an educated guess.  Anywhoo, long story short I've switched to the dark side and will go with a black pair instead.  Should be here in a fortnight.   Given the aesthetics, I think I'll call them the Darth Vaders 🤓

actually reckon it looks even better in black !!! 🙂 things happen for a reason .. was meant to be  

😎🥳🔊

They should get you past 100dB "smoothly" with that huge horn 😆

So they’re considerably more imposing than I envisioned.  The build quality is exquisite.  And yes they’re the most sensitive speakers I’ve ever owned.  Ever so slight sound from the horns and I’m running purifi amplifiers !  More to come in due course.  They need to be run in and Dirac applied, etc…

They look fantastic! I reckon black looks better too.

Very interested in your thoughts on how they sound

Well… for the first few minutes they were rather nasal and congested, closed and inhibited.  I was somewhat shocked to be honest.  Over the past half an hour however, they’ve begun to really open up and their immediacy and transparency is beginning to reveal itself.  Quietly confident I’ve made a very good long term investment here 😌.

Approx 25% into burn-in time according to the manual 🤪.  Been having a few beverages and lost resistance to play my favourite album.  Somethin’ Else.  ok I’m a jazz guy.  I love long slow horns and melancholy.  Kind of blue, etc.  But the aforementioned album really is… Somethin else.  Mind the crazy stereo separation.  No speaker does horns…. Like horns.  And crazy low resistance and high power efficiency.  Leading to presence that is holographic 🥹

Edited April 6, 2025Apr 6 by Lil Caesar

Lost patience running in the Colibri.  These are extremely highly efficient horns and they’re playing havoc with my room.  Ran Dirac.  WoW .

Edited April 6, 2025Apr 6 by Lil Caesar

….Need to redo my crossover from Colibri to my REL subs.  The high pass is OK on the subs but I also had low pass in place from my previous JBL monitors.  It seemed ok for those bookshelf sized conventional speakers but the Colibri are soooooo controlled they follow the curve too well and I now have a dip where I know the x/o is in place.  Crazy stuff.

Edited April 7, 2025Apr 7 by Lil Caesar

OK so some lessons learnt....

 

As @Kaynin had suggested in the My system Today Thread - the Colibri on the subs being an issue reared its ugly head.  I thought the rubber grommets built into the speakers - they have a pseudo-Pro/PA aesthetic to them with multiple mounting and standing points - would be sufficient for both stability and excessive vibration absorption.  Ha, Nada.  Certain music tracks with genuinely deep bass caused alarm with some audible buzz but that quickly escalated to full-blown panic when switching to HT mode and the ensuing rattling from the Colibri.  Rubber bullet pads now adhered to the base of the Colibri and this has addressed those shortcomings.

 

More interesting was my choice of filtering for the X/O.  Using Linkwitz-Riley with its -6dB @ 75Hz proved to be complete overkill between the active subs and bi-amplified Colibri.  Massive dip.  Switched to Butterworth with its -3dB @ the set frequency, 75Hz for the Low pass & 65Hz for the High pass.  Problem solved.  Why run both filters ?  Although the Colibri basically fall off a cliff below 70Hz, I'd prefer to control that behavior and apply Dirac to give me maximum flexibility in terms of shaping the target curve.

Edited April 8, 2025Apr 8 by Lil Caesar

I’m going out on a limb and designating the Colibri “Reference Monitor” status, with caveats.  This is derived from the fact that despite the practical need to augment with subs below 70Hz, they are highly neutral in their reproduction, albeit highly subject to the size of your room and its surfaces as the dB increase.  Eq I feel, is a must with these speakers in an inclosed space.  
 

My listening level, as far as the minidsp SHD dac/pre/dsp is concerned, has dropped 6-9dB since the Colibri were introduced to my system.  The sheer transparency and sensitivity of the Colibri has been akin to updating one’s DAC after 25 years - the production and/or recording qualities of music has been put under a veritable microscope.  
 

You could put these devices in a large warehouse, coupled to PA subs and easily host a rave party.  They exhibit no strain and project on what seems like a parabolic scale with the addition of volume, easily eclipsing comfortable listening levels in my 30m2 room with all but the most audiophiliac recordings.

Edited April 12, 2025Apr 12 by Lil Caesar

 

….so it would seem I have a mysterious dip between 50-70Hz.  tightening up the crossover between the subs and Colibri only made a small difference.  Dirac makes an enormous compensation but I’m still left perplexed.  🤔.  It wasn’t an issue with previous speakers, large or small.  I welcome any suggestions.  Just curious to understand what’s driving it.  My hypothesis is the manner in which the mid-bass drivers of the Colibri are partially occluded by the high-frequency horn is confusing the microphone during eq - since the visual representation of the problem (reported in-room response) does not entirely seem to match what I’m hearing - controversial 😎….

Edited April 13, 2025Apr 13 by Lil Caesar

In true testament to my growth as an adult I’m going to make an extremely embarrassing confession.  Above I indicated an issue with certain frequency response.

 

Given the system is in a dedicated  symmetrical room and setup in a ideal fashion, despite my arrogant protestation, there’s no real explanation for the strange upper-bass and/or lower mid loss of response….

 

except there is 🤣.

 

Yours truly, in his haste it would seem, to create this epic quasi-active three way system, neglected to  observe that the NAD C298’s speaker outputs are mirrored for the two channels,  meaning that the four terminals are not laid out as one might expect.  It’s positive, negative, negative positive for the four posts.  It’s clearly colour coded, but my brain didn’t see this.  I’d assumed plus minus plus minus.  
 

…Meaning that for the past six weeks I’ve had the most expensive and complex stereo hifi in my life, wired incorrectly.  Completely out of phase if nothing else.

 

When I realise the gravity of the error, knowing full well I’d run Dirac over that config, I was stunned I hadn’t caused any damage.

 

It also explains a lot 🤪.

 

Needless to say I’ve rectified the situation and rerun the room correction.

 

WoW.

 

A character-building experience to say the least.