I totally understand. I only have two pairs because my wife likes the sound and likes the color of my pewter painted pair. . . she allows them in the living room in the audio/visual set (all my audio components except the Oppo UDP-205 in this system are hidden behind a cadenza she loves. . . luckily the narrow chassie of Decware products make this possible.) I love the way they have the radial pattern of the omni-directional speaker and the conventional drivers (including a passive radiating woofer in the base). Full frequency, full room sound, no real head in a vice setting.
I have been slowly getting rid of excess equipment. Only one set of speakers not in use. . . a pair of Decware ERR. I’d probably sell them except I can’t bear to pack and ship them–the last time I did ship a pair of speakers and the last shipped to me had damage.
I’d love to listen to Shahinians again! I first and only heard them in my high school music focus. The school room where we analyzed symphonies etc had the Diapasons. It was gorgeous and so different to normal Hi-Fi.
If I had a very well treated and big enough room I’d definitely would want to try them again. If funds were no problem, I’d have Shahinians as an option at least.
Hopefully there’s a chance again somewhere to listen to them.
Yes - I remember from another post you said that you had first heard them at high school in the music room, lucky you. I find it fascinating your first introduction to Shahinian Diapasons was at high school given their size and cost. I first heard the Diapasons in 1989 and back then they cost close to £10,000 - over 30 years ago.!
I can see why Omni (in general.!) speakers aren’t everyone’s cuppa tea. They don’t pinpoint instruments across the soundstage; rather, they “suggest” their lateral locations. This is actually what I hear at a concert: Frequent concertgoers will recognize this “limitation” and accept it, most Audiophiles – less accustomed to seeing orchestra members in the flesh – will find the vague localization disturbing. The soundstage is a studio trick.!
Comparing the Diapasons and the Wilsons, the Diapasons don’t “throw” a soundstage very well, either. The reproduction of spaciousness and an engagement with the performance is truly excellent and on another level, no other speaker I own comes close. While the Diapasons does a lot of specific things very well (as do the Wilsons and Harbeth’s, etc), it is clearly not so much the sum of those things which makes it so hypnotically seductive, but rather the Diapasons ability to create an overall impression of reality so persuasive it makes me - the listener, unwilling, unable, to listen analytically to them. They draw me into the music like no other speaker I own. Plonk them (if you have strength of the Hulk) down in a room and they make MUSIC come alive.
Dirk, like your posts, did you buy all your Shahinian speakers in the UK ?
If as you said they are built to order how did you first hear the speakers over 30 years and get to know about them.
To me those Omni speakers are the only ones sounding close to the real thing. Not rarely that’s also less spectacular on the one hand to those used to Hi-Fi, on the other hand it’s a much more realistic experience. Nobody hears a layered pin point soundstage in a symphony concert.
That is true. However, perhaps there’s another perspective to the Pearson truism that recreating the aural equivalent of sitting in the audience at a live concert is the sine qua non ultimate listening experience. I’ve come to think of recording music as something that exists as its own art form unconstrained by the compromises of the listener at a concert venue. You aren’t going to recreate the experience of a listener in the audience very well anyway unless the recording is a binaural recording from the intended audience position (even then it doesn’t fully succeed.) When sitting in the audience at a live event, we use our eyes as well as our ears to understand a complicated score and grasp who’s playing what part. Bring the non specific instrument placement of the concert hall into the home (where eyes aren’t a factor) and it can become a less satisfactory gestalt IMO. At home listening to my system, I appreciate a modern recording’s pinpoint instrumental placement and layering that a competent tonmeister achieves. The Pearson perspective also ignores the vast range of recordings that are studio creations existing outside a live performance venue.
For me, your last sentence is the most significant. Relatively little recorded music is intended to capture the experience of a listener at a live concert event.
Yes, also true…Hi-Fi is just an artificial illusion. For the most pure acoustical part more spectacular than the comparable live concert.
Manufacturers also tend to use the argument that fits best at the occasion. They generally say they want to get as close as possible to the live event and as soon as they see that their concept has e.g. a completely different sound dispersion, they argument with the fact that anything is artificial anyway.
I have repeatedly expressed here that soundstage is an artifact of the recording process. But it is very important to many audiophiles.
In my work recording orchestras and chamber groups I find the orchestras often prefer a more open, less precise soundstage, while chamber group typically prefer a precise soundstage with a more intimate (closer mics) sound.
Whether the soundstage is tight and precise or more diffuse is determined by the polar pattern of the mics used and their orientation, as well as the distance from the performer.
These opinions are expressed by the non-audiophile musicians. I think these opinions are grounded in good part on what one experiences as a performer in the respective ensembles.
Studio rock and other pop recordings are an entirely different animal.
Dirk,
This is the first post I have read about any speakers, at any price, that has invoked a desire to hear a speaker other than my Tannoy Westminsters.
With regard to omni designs, I have a fully restored pair of Hegeman Model 1A omni-directional speakers created by one of the most important figures in the history of omni’s, Stu Hegeman. These speakers, I will NEVER sell. It is apparent the Diapasons are a much different approach, but I mention this to convey my appreciation for much of what you have described in your post.
I am yet to hear a speaker than can best my Westminsters (and Dukane Ionovac combo) - based on my personal listening preferences. That said, I feel like I need to figure out a way to hear the Diapasons.