Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Where for art thou Sushi!!!

Saturn,

Right, we should have run the panning pink noise from the AVIA DVD -- we were too busy enjoying the actual music/movies. But I could already tell from the MCACC calibration tones (various pink noises) that the Maggies and VP150 would work together pretty well.


Mike,

You got all the DVD cases with you, but the Saturn A.E. platter was left in my DVD player. Sorry I didn't catch them when you were leaving (all of our attention went into loading your Maggies back to your car). I will mail them to you if you prefer...


Nick,

Yeah, I too am more of a music lover than an audiophile. For me, audio equipment is no more than a tool to enjoy the music -- that's why I have kept my Hales speakers for as long as 12 years (although I did a serious amount of research and auditions when I bought them). But I will tell you, once you find a feasible way to improve the sound quality of your system further, it is darn hard to escape from that thought. And I know that a better sound quality will increase my enjoyment of music, which does matter to me...

In reply to:

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How about the CC3?

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For $1100 retail that doesnt sound too appealing. The VP150 rings about right. The QS8 will definitely be my surrounds.

Saturn

I'm gonna cryyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You guys had the perfect oppurtunity to test the VP150 with the Maggies. I definitely already made up my mind with the QS8. The VP150 was still up in the air. Since I was gonna do custom colors I doubt the 30 day refund would work.

WWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You guys let me down.

No, Saturn. Like I said, to my ears the Maggie/VP150 match was at least as good as the Hales/VP150 match, which I consider is excellent -- judging from the pink-noise test tones during the auto-calibration. MCACC puts various test tones successively and repeatedly to each channel, so it is sort of like a pink-noise pan (although it doesn't really pan).

I don't think you will be disappointed by the MG12/VP150 combo.

I was just joking above. See the winking face.

Playing by ear when watching a movies or having the pink noise does help but not totally I find. I did the same thing with my old (2 months old..esshhh) PMC TB2 and it worked well in pink noise for calibrating....but when I did the pink noise pan....thats where it came out wrong. when going from L to C to R with a panning pink noise it was like listening to a waterfall from the top at the L and when it panned to the C the pink noise seemingly dropped down like a waterfall till it was full center sounding like the bottom of the waterfall and then went up again when it was on the R. This was calibrating by ear, with SPL, with old Rotel. Now with my new Elite...I know MCCAC does have EQ changes to tonally match the mains. That I did not do becaue by then the center channel was gone. Actually now the PMC Db1 are gone too now.
Back to when the Tb2 was center and maggies were the mains... So when watching movies the sides of the soundstage was vast/airy and then the center seemingly sounded compressed/smaller/compact by nature. It wasnt bad but just different and odd.
Oh yeah the stage on the left and right with the maggies seemed way far back and vast. The stage on the PMC was about 1 foot in front of the speakers. I thought I was in Escher world.
I'll be ordering the Qs8 in a day or two...and was contemplating VP150 for $420cdn + $150cdn eggshell white or used MG CC3 for $1096cdn+shipping+duties

So when are you getting your speakers?...Or have you not have made up your mind yet?

Saturn, I want to listen to the GR-Research Alphas one more time before I decide. GR-Research is about 2-hour drive from Dallas.



Obviously, $5000/pair speakers are really a major purchase for me, and I've decided not to do this in a hassle. After all, like my Hales, the new speakers will stay with us for a decade or longer.

I was lookng at those too months back. Since it started not so far away from me(in location) as a DIY kit and someone local was selling one last I recall. I just dont have the time, patience and brains to build those big monsters.

Brought home the VP150 and QS4 tonight.
Watch T3 and it did pretty well. Better blend than my old PMC center. What did the trick was the MCACC Auto Eq calibration. I tried it by ear but failed miserably. Althought the VP150 did a better job than the PMC TB2 center it still was not 100% matched but liveable. The QS4 was not matching to the VP150 as well either. I bet the QS8 would have done a better job. One thing though is that if this system did not have an auto or even manual EQ calibration ... the speakers definitely as it stands would not match my Maggies. My old Rotel did not have this feature. So yes the MCACC feature is definitely awesome. Kudos to the Pioneer Elites to having this feature.
So next week I will place an order for QS8 and VP150 to match up with the Magnepan MG12. I just have too figure out what color of the rainbows I wanna paint it with.

Saturn

ps: by ear I could not tell the tonal difference once playing pink noise on each speaker. Where you can actually hear if all speakers have the same tonal characteristic is through circular PANNNING pink noise in the high and low bands. When doing that the center channel seem constrained, less ambiance, also has a little lower tonal charateristic. It is not as obvious as other speakers I have tried. Phantom center is tonally correct but lacks the ummppphhh of the center channel dialog using the VP150.

I hope he hasn't abandoned us.