Re: Danley SM80 and others shootout Monday January 14 at Danley in Gainesville, GA.
If they did, they weren't telling. To the extent that there was a victim of the shootout, the VRX was it. A number of us did like the Tannoy.
-F
Yes the VRX was pretty awful in comparison to everything there. Everything else was definitely usable. Frank, Mark, and myself were all impressed with the Tannoy, surprisingly enough.
The whole thing kind of reaffirmed my love for the 650z's too. It sounded as good as everything there, different maybe but good. The difference being that it takes triamping and an expensive processor to make it a contender. If I was starting fresh I would definitely go with sh46's over th118's for simplicity, but since I already have the 650's and everything that goes along with them I think I'll be sticking with them for now.
There is no doubt in my mind though that the sh46 is the perfect replacement for the all the kf650s and 850s out there in a lighter, less expensive (when factoring in new price + amps + cabling + processing), and a better engineered package.
For those interested in the bi-amped versus tri-amped comparison of the 650's, we found some rather interesting things. Because they sounded so different to begin with, Ivan decided to break out his measurement rig. Part of that difference was some polarity things and we got those straightened out, sort of. But right out of the gate with nothing other than the greybox settings, the triamped 650 measured flat in both magnitude and phase. It looked really pretty. When bi-amped with the xilica, the magnitude response response looked very similar, but the phase response wasn't even close. It was a very good example of how you can hear phase response, because even though they were a pretty close match in magnitude, they still sound drastically different. Combine that with the extra headroom gained in the midband from tri-amping and I think the UX8800 and tri-amping becomes the only choice.
Ivan- You didn't happen to save those traces did you?
All in all, I was very happy I made the trip down and finally get to here these things. The Danley stuff did not disappoint. The guys at Danley are a great bunch of guys doing some groundbreaking things. Now if we could only get over that pesky rider compliance thing so I could get my boss to cut the big check.......
~:-D~:grin: