Listening session in Manhattan Beach, CA

[curtis]

For those of you in the LA area, myself, mziegler, and Mike^S are thinking about putting together a listening session at my house on Sunday(6/10) afternoon.

We hope to have the following to listen to:
Usher Be-718 (berrylium tweeter)
KEF 201/2
Dali Helicon 300
JLA Fathom F112
Hsu VTF-3MK3/Turbo
and of course the Ascend Acoustics Sierra-1 (I also still have the CMT-340SE)

Nothing too formal, my livingroom is not large, but it is a pretty decent place to hear speakers. We'll probably have some pizza and beverages.

Let me know if you are interested and I will get you all the necessary info.

[curtis]

So we had out little listening session today.

Myself, mziegler, Mike^S, and four others from the AVS forum. Three of us own Sierras, another has them on order.

First everyone met at my house for some listening before we headed to lunch. We just listenned to the Sierras, and all of the folks there had heard 340SE's before, some owned them and some heard them at my house. A couple of the guys felt the Sierras were brighter than the 340SE's, while three of us felt the opposite. I still have the 340SE's here, but we didn't have time to do an A/B.

After lunch, went over to the local A/V shop. A bit disappointing from a speaker standpoint because two of the three speakers I wanted to hear were not there....the Usher Be-718 and KEF 201/2.....so we searched shop and got the Dali Helicon 300 and Totem Rainmaker.

The room we were in was pretty reflective/bright...they really need to put some acoustical treatments in their listening rooms. The equipment used were NAD Master Series M15 pre/pro and M25 amp, along with a Denon 5910 universal player.

Speaking for myself, I was pretty disappointed with Dali Helicon 300.....sounded nasally and a bit muffled, they were a bit offensive to me. I didn't like listening to them at all.

The Totem Rainmaker sounded much better, and I can see why people like the speaker. Compared to Ascends, the midrange/vocals seem to be set farther back/recessed in the soundstage(sometimes it was like they were missing), and the highs are not quite as clean. Compared to the Dalis, they were much more pleasant and listenable.

To be honest, I think the 340SE is better than both of them and a better comparison...let alone the Sierra. The Sierra easily outclassed them.

The best part of the day was hearing the JL A Fathom F112. This subwoofer sounded excellent...the detail/articulation was great. It was so good, I had to walk out of the room to keep myself from drooling and wanting one. Just fantastic.

Eventhough we didn't get to hear the other bookshelfs, it was fun. We pretty much had free reign to do what we wanted. There was an LG dual format player not hooked up. So one of the guys hooked it up and we got to sample HD-DVD and Blu-Ray content on the LG dual format player on a nice Panasonic 50" plasma.

[muzz]

Sounds like fun bud, I wish I was there.... alas, one of the disadvantages of EC living I guess!!... hehehehe

I was hoping someone with a good Rythmic 12/15 would show up........... F112, nice to know, but I wont be owning one!!

Fun none the less!!

Sierra brighter than the 340?
I'm not seeing that personally, as I've listened to the 340 in PLX many times.

Maybe my ears are shot, I dunno......... but the Sierra sounds smoother to me.

[Jonnyozero3]

Great stuff, thanks for sharing.

[Mike^S]

My thoughts pretty much echo what Curtis said. The Dali's were not impressive. They were hollow sounding and kind of nasally. The Totem Rainmaker's were nice. Fairly smooth and laid back. But they didn't have the detail of the Sierras . And they didn't have the strong, deep bass that the Sierras do. I really wanted to hear the Usher BE-718, but they didn't have them.

And the Fathom F112 was really awesome. Best sounding sub I have ever heard. Oh wait! That was my sub.

The room definitely needs some room treatments. We were getting lots of reflections. The imaging of the Sierras wasn't as good as it is in my room.

[mziegler]

About a year ago we compared the Rainmakers to the 340, and the 340SE to me was better. We also compared the Dali Ikon 1, which was the worst--very thin sounding. It is not surprising at all that the Sierra beat the Totem.

I was hoping the shop would have the Totem Model 1. Oh well.

The Helicon goes for $3,200! Oy vey. It was very disappointing.

The shop, despite its sound problems, is a great place. We definitely had the run of the shop, and we did buy a few things. They were also running a blowout on the lower end Ushers--incredible values. It is the type of place where I try to find something to buy since they treat us so well.

[curtis]

Agreed, a great shop and I try to send them business.

They were not just blowing out the Ushers, but mostly everything in the shop was their cost plus 10%. The mark up on stuff is amazing!!

[tanaka]

Great info. Very interesting.

The higher end dali stuff is nice but still overpriced. I think people get wowed by their looks. The helicons and euphonias are still the best looking speakers I've ever seen in person. But not worth their price tag.

[mziegler]

Great info. Very interesting.

The higher end dali stuff is nice but still overpriced. I think people get wowed by their looks. The helicons and euphonias are still the best looking speakers I've ever seen in person. But not worth their price tag.

I would say that the Helicon wasn't even worth $800. I have yet to hear a Dali that impresses me. I would like to hear more Totems. I know a lot of people really like Dali, but I just don't get it--we never heard the Dali with the Fathom, however.

Perhaps it is the same with certain speakers as with certain authors--some acclaimed writers do not resonate with me.

[tanaka]

I would say that the Helicon wasn't even worth $800. I have yet to hear a Dali that impresses me. I would like to hear more Totems. I know a lot of people really like Dali, but I just don't get it--we never heard the Dali with the Fathom, however.

Perhaps it is the same with certain speakers as with certain authors--some acclaimed writers do not resonate with me.

I should have been more specific. I listened to the 6.5k floorstander. Gorgeous and nice sound but would not pay the 5k demo asking price the guy was selling them for.
I'm guessing you are refering to the bookshelves. The floorstanders seemed a bit on the warm side to me. I'm guessing the whole helicon line is similar. Is this the impression that you got as well?