Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2019 21:33:50 GMT
STeVE gets his handouts and brags about it while others tell their stories. Highlights include:
STeVE:
Chris C:
Subagent:
Chris C:
Hoofy:
Rob Hume:
SandAndGlass:
Sugar Man:
The fun starts here:
Audio Note UK AN-E speaker choices, from cheapest to most expensive. A handy and useful chart..
STeVE:
I've been informed that Audio Note UK is making me a pair of AN-E/SEC Signature speakers. I've never heard a pair of AN-E's with external crossovers but have heard good things about them. Will be interesting and exciting to compare in my listening space. Stay tuned..
Chris C:
Well, I'm just back from an audition of AN-E SPe HE's in Toronto, Canada and that didn't go very well at all!
First, it's been about 15 or so years since my wife and I have been up to Toronto proper and I have to ask, just when did it turn into L.A.? I'm dead serious that I can get around L.A. much, much easier than Toronto. They have about 100,000 too many drivers up there now. We got to this place where about five main highways meet and my wife said "look, it's like a sea of cars" and I said "yeah, just like the opening scene of "La La Land".
Regarding the audition, I have to say that I was in heavy e-mail contact with the guy (Francis) at the store (which is actually in Thornhill, just north of Toronto) and he knew that I was bringing my wife and that I wanted to audition the Audio Note speakers. Thanks to the unknown traffic, we arrived about 30 minutes late and knowing that we would be a little late for our appointment, I called him to let him know, which was no big deal. He failed to warn me that this plaza that they are located in is mixed with about 30 other stores and that there is barely anywhere to park! He is standing by the door when we arrive with another customer, who was about to leave. We introduce each other and he leads us past the two main listening rooms and takes us way back into what my wife called the meat locker, with temps around 50 some degrees. This room almost feels like a makeshift back storage room, but he does have the Audio Note speakers and a complete Audio Note related set-up. Again, this guy knows that I was also bringing my wife, so you can only imagine my thinking right away when I notice that, not only does this guy not have proper chairs to sit on, but instead these "producers chairs", as if we were making a movie and only one is actually set up when we arrive. So, after already dealing with the traffic, the people and now the uncomfortable chairs, I'm a little dismayed, before he takes my CD-R of songs that I love to hear when auditioning speakers. Before the first few songs on my CD start, he adds "this room has a lot of echo", which is great to find out after traveling five hours to get up there! The first two songs are from Richard Hawley's beautiful "Truelove's Gutter" CD ("As The Dawn Breaks" and "Open Up Your Door"), which I personally find great easy going openers for speaker auditions. A few other songs play and I turn to my wife and she says "they sound like they have blankets on them" and I agreed.
It is at this point that I have decided that more often than not, my speaker auditions sound like this (same thing happened to me in Pittsburgh auditioning Golden Ear and Harbeth speakers and in Cleveland with Vandersteen Treo's) and I ended up disliking all of those as well. I guess that it is simple to figure out just what the real issue is and that is that all of these dealers all run everything flat and with little volume. Thusly the only things that usually sound really great doing that in my book, is when playing classical, old jazz or some boring Diana Krall album. I want my speakers to "say something to me" and those AN-E's said nothing to me or my wife! My wife jokingly added, they didn't put tone controls on an a pre-amp or receiver if they didn't want you to use them. I have to be honest and say that it pisses me off when someone tells me that McIntosh products are too smooth and then I audition something like these and they are EXACTLY just that, too damn smooth. Near flat is fine for most recordings, but I rarely, if ever, run my music completely flat and I always add a touch of treble or low end. I mean, even Steve has admitted to finely EQ'ing certain recordings when listening to them, as they often need it. I haven't used an equalizer for years, but I can certainly understand why some do. I'm just too lazy to get up and change the EQ for each and every recording, so instead I try to buy a speaker that fixes a lot of that crap on their own, but as we all know, no one speaker does it all.
So, in future auditions, does anybody know what I should say to the dealer before I arrive that I don't really care for completely flat playback and is there a way to add a touch of highs and lows to the mix, so my experience goes better? Otherwise, I can't imagine how any speakers ever get sold with this kind of presentation, as you really don't get any true idea of just what they are capable of, in my opinion.
First, it's been about 15 or so years since my wife and I have been up to Toronto proper and I have to ask, just when did it turn into L.A.? I'm dead serious that I can get around L.A. much, much easier than Toronto. They have about 100,000 too many drivers up there now. We got to this place where about five main highways meet and my wife said "look, it's like a sea of cars" and I said "yeah, just like the opening scene of "La La Land".
Regarding the audition, I have to say that I was in heavy e-mail contact with the guy (Francis) at the store (which is actually in Thornhill, just north of Toronto) and he knew that I was bringing my wife and that I wanted to audition the Audio Note speakers. Thanks to the unknown traffic, we arrived about 30 minutes late and knowing that we would be a little late for our appointment, I called him to let him know, which was no big deal. He failed to warn me that this plaza that they are located in is mixed with about 30 other stores and that there is barely anywhere to park! He is standing by the door when we arrive with another customer, who was about to leave. We introduce each other and he leads us past the two main listening rooms and takes us way back into what my wife called the meat locker, with temps around 50 some degrees. This room almost feels like a makeshift back storage room, but he does have the Audio Note speakers and a complete Audio Note related set-up. Again, this guy knows that I was also bringing my wife, so you can only imagine my thinking right away when I notice that, not only does this guy not have proper chairs to sit on, but instead these "producers chairs", as if we were making a movie and only one is actually set up when we arrive. So, after already dealing with the traffic, the people and now the uncomfortable chairs, I'm a little dismayed, before he takes my CD-R of songs that I love to hear when auditioning speakers. Before the first few songs on my CD start, he adds "this room has a lot of echo", which is great to find out after traveling five hours to get up there! The first two songs are from Richard Hawley's beautiful "Truelove's Gutter" CD ("As The Dawn Breaks" and "Open Up Your Door"), which I personally find great easy going openers for speaker auditions. A few other songs play and I turn to my wife and she says "they sound like they have blankets on them" and I agreed.
It is at this point that I have decided that more often than not, my speaker auditions sound like this (same thing happened to me in Pittsburgh auditioning Golden Ear and Harbeth speakers and in Cleveland with Vandersteen Treo's) and I ended up disliking all of those as well. I guess that it is simple to figure out just what the real issue is and that is that all of these dealers all run everything flat and with little volume. Thusly the only things that usually sound really great doing that in my book, is when playing classical, old jazz or some boring Diana Krall album. I want my speakers to "say something to me" and those AN-E's said nothing to me or my wife! My wife jokingly added, they didn't put tone controls on an a pre-amp or receiver if they didn't want you to use them. I have to be honest and say that it pisses me off when someone tells me that McIntosh products are too smooth and then I audition something like these and they are EXACTLY just that, too damn smooth. Near flat is fine for most recordings, but I rarely, if ever, run my music completely flat and I always add a touch of treble or low end. I mean, even Steve has admitted to finely EQ'ing certain recordings when listening to them, as they often need it. I haven't used an equalizer for years, but I can certainly understand why some do. I'm just too lazy to get up and change the EQ for each and every recording, so instead I try to buy a speaker that fixes a lot of that crap on their own, but as we all know, no one speaker does it all.
So, in future auditions, does anybody know what I should say to the dealer before I arrive that I don't really care for completely flat playback and is there a way to add a touch of highs and lows to the mix, so my experience goes better? Otherwise, I can't imagine how any speakers ever get sold with this kind of presentation, as you really don't get any true idea of just what they are capable of, in my opinion.
Subagent:
I feel for you. It is really difficult to set up meaningful auditions hundreds of miles from home. It becomes a project, a mission if you will, and unsatisfactory results-- for whatever reason-- leave you feeling disrespected and disappointed after the effort you made in making it happen. I'd like to believe that no disrespect was intended. I also feel for the fellow being discussed. He's at a disadvantage, as is almost always the case in situations like this. Sort of a lose-lose deal.
Chris C:
Thanks for understanding and it has been a lose-lose deal. I'm fifteen minutes into this audition in Toronto and my wife says to me, "I'm sorry that I talked you out of flying out to L.A. and auditioning these with @warren Jarrett", like I originally wanted to. I still may not have loved or wanted to buy Audio Note speakers after visiting Warren's showroom, but at least I know that I would have been respected and accepted there and that the experience would have gone much better!
Steve Hoffman is the one guy who has these auditions down and that is by having these high-end companies sending their products directly to his home, with hope that he will throw out a nice review like this thread and get guys like me interested. Well, it WORKED!!!
Steve Hoffman is the one guy who has these auditions down and that is by having these high-end companies sending their products directly to his home, with hope that he will throw out a nice review like this thread and get guys like me interested. Well, it WORKED!!!
Hoofy:
Just to be clear, AN UK has never once asked me to do a review of any of their gear, not once since 2014. If I write anything about them it’s because I’m genuinely delighted about the sound and want to share with people that might be on a similar journey.
Rob Hume:
Steve is relatively high profile hence the freebies. Good luck to the gent I say. I’ll be interested to read his opinion of the SEC Sigs if he can be impartial! I’ve yet to speak to a dealer who recommended anything that he can’t sell me so it can only be a step up from that ......
SandAndGlass:
As a note, as Steve has mentioned before, the "freebies" do not belong to Steve, they are all on loan from AN.
When newer gear arrives, older gear is passed on to @warren Jarrett for sale on the west coast or sent on to their east coast dealer.
When newer gear arrives, older gear is passed on to @warren Jarrett for sale on the west coast or sent on to their east coast dealer.
Sugar Man:
I, unlike Steve, will gladly provide a glowing review, quid pro quo, to anyone who would like to send me their Audio Note gear. :righton:
The fun starts here:
Audio Note UK AN-E speaker choices, from cheapest to most expensive. A handy and useful chart..