As most of you know, I have issued a challenge to DUP to essentially put up or shut up when it comes to his talk about watts and large drivers and cables and cheap electronics by hosting a meet and allowing the stereophile forum members to judge for themselves the sonic fruits of DUP's labor. DUP has risen to the challenge (sort of) by inviting me for a visit. I asked him if I could bring my buddy who owns the DCS stack, and Focal Nova Utopia Be speakers to come along. DUP said yes, I called my friend and we were on our way to the nether lands of Jersey.
Let me begin by stating the obvious - I survived the experience unscathed. DUP not only spared me from physical harm, but he made no attempt to violate my maiden honor, for which I am eternally grateful. In fact, DUP is a very gracious host, quite lively and entertaining, and generally a really nice guy. I enjoyed his company immensely.
Alas, we're not here for the mere chit chat. It was time for DUP to rise to the challenge by showcasing his system - Legacy Whisper speakers driven by bridged and cascaded through a Van Alstine inverter Van Alstine modified Halfer amps, which were being fed by Van Alstine pre-amps, using Van Alstine DAC and various CONSUMER grade CD players, zip cords and $20 interconnects.
The first thing I noticed is that DUP does everything wrong. His speakers are in the corners, too close to the wall. His room isn't big enough for the speakers, he cascades his preamps (plugs one preamp into another because he ran out of inputs), uses crappy cables that he got from PartsExpress and he uses consumer grade CD players as transports. I thought that he was insane to have $18k speakers driven by this crap and set up the way he did. My friend Stew agreed with me. This should be interesting: $18k speakers being fed by 2400 watts per channel of crap.
The first disk DUP played for us was the Stevie Ray Vaugn and BB King SACD. It sounded like crap! Mid bass suckout, bright to the point of being shrill, absolutely painful. I figured our day will be short. Wait... what? WHAT??? You got an equalizer in the system??? Turn that shit off!!! I want to listen to your system, not your interpretation of what music should sound like. Jayzuzzzz! Ok, EQ off.
I had DUP play my reference CD - Pink Floyd's Wish you were here CD, the 1st track - Shine On You Crazy Diamond. I think it's a fantastic reference CD because it has everything: sax, guitar, drums, vocals, shimmering bells, etc. You can really test your system with this CD.
DUP hit the play button. Whoa! Detailed shimmer of the sparkling sound effects, the guitar sounds detailed, not over etched as it was when the EQ was engaged, tight drums, deep bass, no suck out, no brightness. The sound was full, liquid, engaging. Terrific! Better than terrific - Reference quality. I looked at Stew, his jaw was on the floor. We played classical pieces from Vivaldi concerto for 4 violins, to Helene's Grimaud's Beethoven interpretations to the Tallis Scholars to Jan Starker's captivating Bach cello performance. The system sang. Stew leaned over to me and said: "I think this system sounds as good as mine. In fact, I think it's a bit better than mine". I agreed. The sound emanating from the Whispers was captivating. It was enthralling. The instruments sounded as they should, the voices were magical and real. This was a top notch set up. DUP's claim of watts and drivers, Van Alstine as a God of all things audio and cheap cable theory has merit. His system sounded as good, perhaps slightly better than Stew's $100k setup for about 1/4 the price.
Was the system perfect? No. It had a few imperfections:
1. The biggest problem I had with DUP's system is that it sounds as though the music is coming at you from 6' above your seating position. This is very disconcerting. I don't know what causes this. I assume it's because the listening position is too close to the speakers (we were about 5' away from the speakers). I hope that in a better setup, and a greater distance from the speakers, this issue would be mitigated to a great extent.
2. The upper midrange is tilted up ever so slightly as to have a slight flowery glow. I don't know if this description makes any sense. What I'm trying to describe is the feeling you get when the timbre of the upper midrange is a bit higher than it should be. Not by much and it's not a major tilt, but it's just beyond the verge of being noticeable. This may be the speaker placement, the cables, the electronics, etc. Who knows?
3. Very slight driver integration issues. I can't say that this is very noticeable, but as you listen for a while and listen intently, you begin to notice when one driver hands off the music to another. I didn't notice a suckout in frequency response, sibilance nor an overly pronounced frequency range. However, when you listen for it, you can tell which driver is playing the music. This is indeed a 4 way speaker with a very complex crossover. This is not your planar, electrostatic or a single driver speaker, with that perfect, smooth transition from low to high frequency. This speaker tells you that it's a 4 way design. It doesn't scream it out, but it does whisper.
I have heard a number of really high-high end systems. The speakers that stand head and shoulders apart from the competition are the Avantgarde Trios with their bass horns. Those things sound real. As real as a live performance. You don't just hear the music, you see the musicians. It's that good.
The next tier of highly musical, great sounding speakers, which sound like good reproductions of a recording, rather than a live event consist of Focal Nova Utopia and Sonus Faber Stradivari.
The Legacy Whispers in DUP's system fall between the Nova Utopia/Sonus Faber group and the Avantgarde Trios, although they're MUCH, MUCH closer to the Utopia/Faber group than they are to the trios. However, with all the shortcomings that I noticed in DUP's system, I am confident saying that they edge ahead of the $40k Utopias and $45k Stradivari speakers driven by $40k electronics. This is saying A LOT.
So, is DUP correct that you can never have enough power and more power is better? - I don't know. I would have to hear his setup with a more modest power amp set.
Is he correct in saying that one needs large drivers to move air to sound realistic? - I think so. I haven't heard a small speaker with small drivers that I thought merited reference quality standard.
Is he correct in saying that Van Alstine is the God and the Guru, the gift from heaven to audiophiles everywhere? - I don't know. I would love to hear the Whispers with more expensive electronics.
What I do know is this: Regardless of whether is 100% right in his claims, his claims have merit. Judging by what I heard today, I'm inclined to listen. My friend Stew agrees.
As most of you know, I have issued a challenge to DUP to essentially put up or shut up when it comes to his talk about watts and large drivers and cables and cheap electronics by hosting a meet and allowing the stereophile forum members to judge for themselves the sonic fruits of DUP's labor. DUP has risen to the challenge (sort of) by inviting me for a visit. I asked him if I could bring my buddy who owns the DCS stack, and Focal Nova Utopia Be speakers to come along. DUP said yes, I called my friend and we were on our way to the nether lands of Jersey.
Let me begin by stating the obvious - I survived the experience unscathed. DUP not only spared me from physical harm, but he made no attempt to violate my maiden honor, for which I am eternally grateful. In fact, DUP is a very gracious host, quite lively and entertaining, and generally a really nice guy. I enjoyed his company immensely.
Alas, we're not here for the mere chit chat. It was time for DUP to rise to the challenge by showcasing his system - Legacy Whisper speakers driven by bridged and cascaded through a Van Alstine inverter Van Alstine modified Halfer amps, which were being fed by Van Alstine pre-amps, using Van Alstine DAC and various CONSUMER grade CD players, zip cords and $20 interconnects.
The first thing I noticed is that DUP does everything wrong. His speakers are in the corners, too close to the wall. His room isn't big enough for the speakers, he cascades his preamps (plugs one preamp into another because he ran out of inputs), uses crappy cables that he got from PartsExpress and he uses consumer grade CD players as transports. I thought that he was insane to have $18k speakers driven by this crap and set up the way he did. My friend Stew agreed with me. This should be interesting: $18k speakers being fed by 2400 watts per channel of crap.
The first disk DUP played for us was the Stevie Ray Vaugn and BB King SACD. It sounded like crap! Mid bass suckout, bright to the point of being shrill, absolutely painful. I figured our day will be short. Wait... what? WHAT??? You got an equalizer in the system??? Turn that shit off!!! I want to listen to your system, not your interpretation of what music should sound like. Jayzuzzzz! Ok, EQ off.
I had DUP play my reference CD - Pink Floyd's Wish you were here CD, the 1st track - Shine On You Crazy Diamond. I think it's a fantastic reference CD because it has everything: sax, guitar, drums, vocals, shimmering bells, etc. You can really test your system with this CD.
DUP hit the play button. Whoa! Detailed shimmer of the sparkling sound effects, the guitar sounds detailed, not over etched as it was when the EQ was engaged, tight drums, deep bass, no suck out, no brightness. The sound was full, liquid, engaging. Terrific! Better than terrific - Reference quality. I looked at Stew, his jaw was on the floor. We played classical pieces from Vivaldi concerto for 4 violins, to Helene's Grimaud's Beethoven interpretations to the Tallis Scholars to Jan Starker's captivating Bach cello performance. The system sang. Stew leaned over to me and said: "I think this system sounds as good as mine. In fact, I think it's a bit better than mine". I agreed. The sound emanating from the Whispers was captivating. It was enthralling. The instruments sounded as they should, the voices were magical and real. This was a top notch set up. DUP's claim of watts and drivers, Van Alstine as a God of all things audio and cheap cable theory has merit. His system sounded as good, perhaps slightly better than Stew's $100k setup for about 1/4 the price.
Was the system perfect? No. It had a few imperfections:
1. The biggest problem I had with DUP's system is that it sounds as though the music is coming at you from 6' above your seating position. This is very disconcerting. I don't know what causes this. I assume it's because the listening position is too close to the speakers (we were about 5' away from the speakers). I hope that in a better setup, and a greater distance from the speakers, this issue would be mitigated to a great extent.
2. The upper midrange is tilted up ever so slightly as to have a slight flowery glow. I don't know if this description makes any sense. What I'm trying to describe is the feeling you get when the timbre of the upper midrange is a bit higher than it should be. Not by much and it's not a major tilt, but it's just beyond the verge of being noticeable. This may be the speaker placement, the cables, the electronics, etc. Who knows?
3. Very slight driver integration issues. I can't say that this is very noticeable, but as you listen for a while and listen intently, you begin to notice when one driver hands off the music to another. I didn't notice a suckout in frequency response, sibilance nor an overly pronounced frequency range. However, when you listen for it, you can tell which driver is playing the music. This is indeed a 4 way speaker with a very complex crossover. This is not your planar, electrostatic or a single driver speaker, with that perfect, smooth transition from low to high frequency. This speaker tells you that it's a 4 way design. It doesn't scream it out, but it does whisper.
I have heard a number of really high-high end systems. The speakers that stand head and shoulders apart from the competition are the Avantgarde Trios with their bass horns. Those things sound real. As real as a live performance. You don't just hear the music, you see the musicians. It's that good.
The next tier of highly musical, great sounding speakers, which sound like good reproductions of a recording, rather than a live event consist of Focal Nova Utopia and Sonus Faber Stradivari.
The Legacy Whispers in DUP's system fall between the Nova Utopia/Sonus Faber group and the Avantgarde Trios, although they're MUCH, MUCH closer to the Utopia/Faber group than they are to the trios. However, with all the shortcomings that I noticed in DUP's system, I am confident saying that they edge ahead of the $40k Utopias and $45k Stradivari speakers driven by $40k electronics. This is saying A LOT.
So, is DUP correct that you can never have enough power and more power is better? - I don't know. I would have to hear his setup with a more modest power amp set.
Is he correct in saying that one needs large drivers to move air to sound realistic? - I think so. I haven't heard a small speaker with small drivers that I thought merited reference quality standard.
Is he correct in saying that Van Alstine is the God and the Guru, the gift from heaven to audiophiles everywhere? - I don't know. I would love to hear the Whispers with more expensive electronics.
What I do know is this: Regardless of whether is 100% right in his claims, his claims have merit. Judging by what I heard today, I'm inclined to listen. My friend Stew agrees.