Later that evening we were sitting listening to music and waiting for the pizza to arrive when I thought I heard a faint knock. I got up quickly—worried that my neighbors had come up to complain—and peered through the peephole: it was the pizza delivery dude. Turns out he'd been knocking throughout the entire run of the Kinks' "Hatred" (Phobia, Columbia CK 48724), but we couldn't hear him because the music was too damn loud, I said! I'm sure my neighbors were loving it—especially with that big-boy sub sitting right on top of their heads.
This room only has two walls!
I kept the entire system set up for about three weeks just as I'd "positioned" it out of the box. But I knew I had to move that sub away from the 'Zeros—I could tell they weren't integrating optimally because the best listening seat with that setup was my toilet. I also wanted to get the SW2 off the floor—my conscience was starting to get the better of me re. the thumping I'd been subjecting my neighbors to all the time. I figured some space between sub and floor would make for a richer sound. So Stoner and I went to the lumberyard, got four 3' pieces of pine four-by-four, then to the arts'n'crafts store for a yard of fuzzy red material—the cheesy kind they put on bean-bags—to set the sub on. We went back to my apartment and proceeded to completely rearrange my living room. I don't have much space to work with in the first place, so it was a bit of a challenge trying to decide where to put everything. But my number-one priority was getting that sub away from the 'Zeros. I wanted to put it in my bedroom, but the speaker cables weren't long enough, so we ended up leaving the 'Zeros at the long end of my living room near the window with the CD player and NAD sitting on top of one of my end tables, which we placed in the middle of the adjacent wall.
I put the NHT MA-1 on the second tier of the same table, and the sub on top of the red-fuzzy-material–covered four-by-fours (which we'd arranged in the shape of a square) at the far end of that wall, between the end table and my TV—this was as far away as I could possibly get it from the 'Zeros. I ran into a problem with outlets—I don't have enough along that wall to plug all my electronics into. So I keep both amps plugged into the wall, and the CD player plugged unswitched into the NAD. I plug in my TV or lava lamp only when I need them. Problem with this is that I can't listen to music and watch the lava lamp at the same time. I haven't taken the time to solve this problem yet, but I suspect that I'll have to buy one of those multi-socketed adapters, which may degrade the sound of my system a bit—just one of the unfortunate compromises apartment-dwellers have to make to get a little atmosphere.
Gimme back those superzeros quick! i'm coming down!
Then I went to Los Angeles for a week's vacation, so I let Stoner borrow my SuperZeros—he'd just recently purchased his own SuperZero/SW2/MA-1 system (footnote 4) and wanted to hear how four 'Zeros and the SW2 would work as a Home Theater system. When I got home from LA, I walked into my apartment ready to turn on some jams, and remembered that my SuperZeros were gone! I phoned Stoner.
"Dude, you have to bring those SuperZeros over right now. I wanna listen to some music."
"Do you have to have them now?"
"Well, I sure would like to have them real soon," I replied. "I haven't listened to any music for a long time now."
"Hook up the RA Labs," he suggested. "You still have them there."
"Oh, yeah. But I really like that sub," I said. "Actually, I just had an idea—I can hook the RA Labs up with the SW2 and see how they compare to the SuperZeros."
I popped the speaker cables onto the RA Labs and cued-up Chrissie Hynde's and UB40's version of Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe" (Pretenders: The Singles, Warner Bros. 25664-2). Yeeee!!! It sounded awful—the bass was real thick and muddy, and not at all integrated—too much overall. So I turned the MA-1's volume almost all the way down. That helped a little, but listener fatigue set in after about three minutes. As I listened to other tracks I continued to mess around with the level of the MA-1 and the bass and treble knobs on the amp, but the RA Labs and SW2 just would not integrate.
I turned the sub off and listened to the RA Labs by themselves for the three days it took Stoner to get around to bringing my 'Zeros back, but I just couldn't listen to them at the volume I was used to listening to the 'Zeros/SW2 at without getting fatigued.
Stoner and I did a direct comparison the night he brought my SuperZeros home: Using Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way" (Rumours, Warner Bros. 3010-2), we listened first to the RA Labs alone. Then, keeping the volume controls and bass and treble knobs set at the same levels, we listened to the SuperZeros/SW2; the difference was amazing. The SuperZeros/SW2 actually had a soundstage—that was the first time I was ever able to identify that. The RA Labs, in comparison, sounded flat—as if the music was stuck on the wall behind the speakers. There were also subtle thumb-rolls on a tambourine that we discovered while listening to the 'Zeros—they weren't there with the RA Labs. Listening to the 'Zeros/SW2 after the RA Labs was like reaching the Rocky Mountains after traveling across the wastelands of Nevada: lush, fragrant, moist, colorful, variegated landscape vs dry, dusty, brown flatlands. Ahh—what relief!
What i love about my reference system
Pretty straightforward: I love the deep, rich bass; I love the clean, clear sound of the music; I love that I can listen loud without becoming fatigued; and I love the way it looks in my living room—my living room is my dedicated listening room now, proof positive that music is of central importance to me. I like that people will know that when they visit my pad—it makes me proud. For $2000, this is a system that makes plenty of music. What my reference system lacks
I wish the Rotel CD player had a function that told me how much time was left on each song of a CD, and on the entire CD itself—even my portable Sony CFD-440 CD/tape player had that simple provision. I wish the amp had a remote. The CD player has a remote, which is nice for skipping tracks or repeating songs when I'm sitting down and don't want to get up. But more often than not, when I'm skipping around CDs, I want to listen to some tracks louder than others. In a way, using the CD's remote is pointless, because I have to get up anyway to turn the amp up or down. I wish the NHT MA-1 amp had some kind of different-colored mark on the volume control that allowed me to see what level it's at—there's only a small black notch on the dial, but I can barely see it in the daylight, let alone at night, when I do most of my listening.
The reference system could be better at revealing hidden musical details. I've been listening quite a bit to the Optimus CD-3400 CD player with an antique pair of Sennheiser HD 420SL headphones. (I tried the $69 Grado SR60s that everyone's raving about, but found them unbelievably uncomfortable. I also found that, although the Grados played louder, the highs were too present—ie, it didn't take long before my ears started to hurt; also, the bass through the Sennheisers was richer and easier to listen to.) I hear details through the Sennheisers that I can't hear through the 'Zeros/SW2/MA-1—eg, Kurt Cobain's coughing on "Pennyroyal Tea" (In Utero, Geffen GFE-24607); and the section in Liz Phair's "Mesmerizing" (Exile in Guyville, Matador OLE 051-2) where she sounds as if she's singing in a bathroom full of hot-shower mist.
Why is this particular system incapable of reproducing those details—is it the CD player? the amp? the speakers? any combination of components? I don't know, but I find myself looking forward to hearing them, and being disappointed when I don't. I hope to discover the source of the problem; I just hope I don't have to spend a lot more money.
Footnote 4: He said his curiosity was piqued by CG's review (Vol.17 No.1); the evening that he and I traded songs all night sealed the deal.
I kept the entire system set up for about three weeks just as I'd "positioned" it out of the box. But I knew I had to move that sub away from the 'Zeros—I could tell they weren't integrating optimally because the best listening seat with that setup was my toilet. I also wanted to get the SW2 off the floor—my conscience was starting to get the better of me re. the thumping I'd been subjecting my neighbors to all the time. I figured some space between sub and floor would make for a richer sound. So Stoner and I went to the lumberyard, got four 3' pieces of pine four-by-four, then to the arts'n'crafts store for a yard of fuzzy red material—the cheesy kind they put on bean-bags—to set the sub on. We went back to my apartment and proceeded to completely rearrange my living room. I don't have much space to work with in the first place, so it was a bit of a challenge trying to decide where to put everything. But my number-one priority was getting that sub away from the 'Zeros. I wanted to put it in my bedroom, but the speaker cables weren't long enough, so we ended up leaving the 'Zeros at the long end of my living room near the window with the CD player and NAD sitting on top of one of my end tables, which we placed in the middle of the adjacent wall.
Then I went to Los Angeles for a week's vacation, so I let Stoner borrow my SuperZeros—he'd just recently purchased his own SuperZero/SW2/MA-1 system (footnote 4) and wanted to hear how four 'Zeros and the SW2 would work as a Home Theater system. When I got home from LA, I walked into my apartment ready to turn on some jams, and remembered that my SuperZeros were gone! I phoned Stoner.
Pretty straightforward: I love the deep, rich bass; I love the clean, clear sound of the music; I love that I can listen loud without becoming fatigued; and I love the way it looks in my living room—my living room is my dedicated listening room now, proof positive that music is of central importance to me. I like that people will know that when they visit my pad—it makes me proud. For $2000, this is a system that makes plenty of music. What my reference system lacks
I wish the Rotel CD player had a function that told me how much time was left on each song of a CD, and on the entire CD itself—even my portable Sony CFD-440 CD/tape player had that simple provision. I wish the amp had a remote. The CD player has a remote, which is nice for skipping tracks or repeating songs when I'm sitting down and don't want to get up. But more often than not, when I'm skipping around CDs, I want to listen to some tracks louder than others. In a way, using the CD's remote is pointless, because I have to get up anyway to turn the amp up or down. I wish the NHT MA-1 amp had some kind of different-colored mark on the volume control that allowed me to see what level it's at—there's only a small black notch on the dial, but I can barely see it in the daylight, let alone at night, when I do most of my listening.
Footnote 4: He said his curiosity was piqued by CG's review (Vol.17 No.1); the evening that he and I traded songs all night sealed the deal.
