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Saturday, January 14, 2012

Thomas Mayer's (new) crossover: first listenings



... so, after one week since Thomas delivered his crossover, I had only the possibility to set up without the TacT's RCS XP 2.2, as the MOST important step is unfortunately missing and uneasy - i.e. the physical presence of my friend Franz Hinterlehner and his skill and deep knowledge of acoustics, room measurements and TacT programming.

The above will be fulfilled at Franz's convenience, later in the next weeks...

In the meantime, I implemented the Mayer's crossover in my Gotorama, connecting ALL my Hiraga's Class A amps and... horror and blame to me:-))), tuning by ear with some Ivie IE-30 and IE-20, respectively RTA and pink noise generator, support.

Strange enough, that's what happened... as you probably know, my Goto's drivers are aligned on vertical plane, BUT not time-aligned, at least without TacT's...

Without any active, semi-conductors based x-o, like the Goto CF-1 and the A&E EC-5 I used in the last months... the sound clicked soooo beautifully and easily... natural, smooth and with a killer detailing and soundstaging... magically (or not by chance, considering Dave Slagles'superb coils and TVCs and Thomas' workmanship and designing skill), the Gotorama's was superbly singing, effortless and untiring like when using TacT's and electronic crossover(s)... only better... I mean MUCH better, folks!

Maybe the light, even - almost non-existing - electronic glare and sonic footprint of Mayer's crossover highly "polished" music and gave a shiny, holy:-) character to the overall sound...

Thinking about being someway fooled by enthusiasm and possible (temporary) sonic "blindness" due to the novelty, I shared some listenings with a couple of (goodears) close friends... they also confirmed my feeling and thoughs, in awe and jaw-dropping mode like yours truly: also on well known discs and disks, an incredibly high quantity of new, previously hidden and veiled details appeared and every single note was like jumping out from athick, lively black fluid "canvas"... a never ending sense of surprise and smoothness.

... sure some boominess and slightly veiled shadow on lower frequencies are present... BUT, nonetheless, the zestness and beauty are SOOOO much more than the flaws...

My preview is that Mayer's crossover with its super transparency will further improve the sonics and musical enjoyment when my TacT's will be finally and properly programmed by herr Hinterlehner... as the bespoke frequencies and slopes already are so VASTLY above the previous - sans-TacT - overall sound in my studio.

Feel soooo excited and happy and satisfied... in the meantime, my deepest, sincere thanks go to Franz Hinterlehner, Thomas Mayer, Dave Slagle, Thomas Schick, Seija Goto and Shinichi Tanaka, Chiaki Kikuchi, Mario, Jean Hiraga... my system wouldn't be what's now, without their precious wisdom and associated skills.

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