After Aangen brought up the modified active Jenzsen Valentina speakers made for BACCH, I started to consider such a change. Eventually I would need to let go of my Apogee Diva speakers. They weigh too much (150 lbs. each) and are a bear to move. They are 37 yrs old and there have been many advances in speaker design. Downsizing sounded possible. I started looking at various stand mount options, but all would need a subwoofer. I wanted something I could move around by myself, hopefully less than 50 lbs.
I found a pair of AEquo Audio Stilla Active speakers at The Music Room. After reading the few online reviews, I decided to try them. They sound fantastic in my system. Each speaker has two interesting controls. One adjusts the bass balance to match room size (XXS, XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL). The second adjusts the bass balance for speaker placement (tight in a corner, in a corner, up close to back wall, near back wall, away from back wall, far from back wall, away from all walls). All controls are analog (no DSP).
I am very happy with these speakers. There are improvements in clarity, detail and tighter bass. I removed 6 pieces of equipment (4 mono-block amplifiers, an electronic X-over, the X-over power supply). Before applying BACCH filters with ORC, the speakers have extremely wide and deep soundstaging. The imaging is much better than my Apogee Divas. I know active speakers are not for everyone, but for me they worked out wonderfully. I wanted to thank Aangen for mentioning active speakers.
Here is my upgraded system. My Apogee Divas are on the far sides covered in sheets.
It aināt pretty, but pretty much everything in my system is grounded to my Synergistic Ground Block SX. My system is completely silent even with 94dB efficient speakers.
Speaking of speakers, my next upgrade is expected to arrive Fridayāa pair of Fyne F703SPs in gloss walnut to replace my standard F703s but, horror of horrors, I will be speakerless for several days as my 703s are going to a friend in Oregon on Tuesdayā¦
My issue with the new fake meats is that they taste too much like meat. One of the reasons I stopped eating it in 1978 was that I didnāt like the way it tastesā¦
Yup, adding extra salt seems to be the go-to to add flavor. My wife and I have taken the approach to not add any salt if we can help it. May be a boring life, but hopefully a better one.
Iām relieved to realize that I have no immediate upgrade planned. I am ruminating over one possible one that I can accomplish with items on hand, moving one SDFB from my audio/video system into my main system to feed my Dynagrid Jr. rectifier component. . . but that would mean robbing an AC-12 from that system too. . . and not sure the sonic detriment to one is equal to the sonic improvement to the other.
But I may try it. . . which will probably mean Iāll be on the hunt for another PS Audio AC-12 power cable. . . which I really canāt afford right now.
Sometimes I realize this audiophile thing is akin to a disease!
I am totally with you which is why we donāt eat any of the Impossible products because they actually taste like meat.
Beyond and Quorn products donāt. They are separate food categories unto themselves and while they process the heck out of these products they seem to make me feel ok after eating so, what the heck!
An inclusive list by proper chemical name of the āingredientsā in, for example, an apple would take many, many pages. We shouldnāt judge people on their names-same goes for chemicals. Acrylonitrile and vinyl cyanide are two names for the same chemical that is the building block for a series of very useful plastics. (In this case, the latter name implies the toxic nature.)
Three rules I try to follow but with only limited success are donāt buy anything with (a) more than five ingredients, (b) with an ingredient you canāt pronounce, and (c) an ingredient your grandmother would not recognize.
Not sure if you can pronounce: (R)-3,4-dihydroxy-5-((S)-1,2-dihydroxyethyl)furan-2(5H)-one but Iāll give you 5:1 odds on a sizable bet that neither of your grandmothers has seen the full chemical name of vitamin C. The simple bottom line is that chemical names (even simple ones such as vitamin C) are typically assigned long before chemical properties are fully known. There are exceptions as chemists are generally a curious bunch and will often seek out the specific ingredient that imparts interesting properties. Tetrodotoxin is such an example. It is the active ingredient in the puffer fish (which belongs to the family: Tetraodontidae, can you pronounce that?). Tetrodotoxin is 25 times for toxic than potassium cyanide. For those who are curious, it is toxic because it prevents your nerves from firing.
