Super Bowl Sunday - Atlanta Audio Society
Style
By Philip E. Abbate
2/28/98
It must have been five days before our January Atlanta
Audio Society (AAS) monthly gathering at the Hellenic
Center that I found out that we had scheduled it on
Super Bowl Sunday. I was particularly distressed since
I had volunteered to host our presenters at our home
the night before to be sure that they had everything
they needed to awe the big crowd we tempted them with.
I asked Chuck Bruce why we had selected this particular
Sunday and he told me that it was because the earlier
weekends were holidays or Consumer Electronics Show
days in Vegas and the only weekend open in January
was this one. I think Chuck sensed the panic in my
voice when he suggested that: we divide up the list
of over 120 members of the AAS; call the entire society
before the meeting; to remind them that the Super Bowl
did not start until 6 PM and there would be plenty
of time to get home from the meeting before kick off.
 Our presenters, Trevor DeMaat and Elina Dobin came a long distance
for our pleasure. Elina Dobin of LAAM Audio came from
my home town, Brooklyn New York, where she and husband
Vladimir Shushurin LAAM's chief designer manufacture
the product line. Trevor came from Washington DC where
he imports the Dutch designed and manufactured Kharma
line of speakers. Monica and I greeted them at our
home around 4 PM on Saturday the day before the gathering
. It took them 10 hours to drive down from DC which
was good time considering that they were hauling a
jeep full of equipment and a small U-Haul trailer.
Trevor and Elina are seasoned showsters not willing
to leave anything to chance. They had everything required
to set up an "A" system for us in case I was derelict
in my facilitating duties.
Since there was still a few hours of daylight left
my wife Monica decided I should give them a cook's
tour of Atlanta. Our first stop was Audio Solutions
in Dunwoody (http://www.audiosolutions.com to
pick up the Theta Miles one piece CD player to be used
as a source for the system.
 I purposely drove them the back way through
Berkeley Lake and down Spalding and Mt. Vernon to impress
them with the country side and the homes. Elina was
particularly enchanted with the estates enthusiastically
snapping away with her camera and contrasting Atlanta
with Russia. Elina and Trevor were taken back with
the cold here and were puzzled about why it was not
a lot warmer being the "south" and all. Monica described
the hot muggy summer weather as being what the south
is all about and praised central air conditioning crediting
it with the growth of Atlanta. Monica asked Elina if
she had air conditioning in Russia. Elina explained
that where she grew up, there was no air conditioning
or refrigerators and the citizens ( or comrades) did
not even know that such things existed. They did have
stereo though and mother Russia lost the best designer
of audio gear they had when her husband Vladimir immigrated
to the USA. Vladimir's designs were one of the few
profitable products manufactured under the communist
regime, only because they sounded so good, people actually
wanted to buy them.
 Our next stop was little five points where we had
some espresso and stopped off at criminal records to
see what we could find in the used section. I then
discovered that Trevor and I shared some musical taste
and also enjoyed finding deals on used CD's. We drove
back to Duluth and went to Thai Diner where we found
out that the term "Dutch Treat" was not invented in
Holland. Elina is pretty quick and within seconds she
helped us convince Trevor that it meant that he was
buying since he was from Holland. We stopped at the
package store and bought some of my favorite beer,
Blue Moon Belgian White and then returned to our house.
I have to admit, there was a reason that I volunteered
to help John Morrison, President of the AAS by picking
up the Theta Miles CD player from Audio Solutions and
taking it to the gathering on Sunday. It was because
I wanted to hear it in my system.
I was a little embarrassed to let these audiophiles
see my modest system, but they were kind and we focused
on the music. During our listening and talking, I mentioned
that the Super Bowl may affect the attendance. Both
were oblivious to the Super Bowl. I began to explain
how the two football leagues play one another etc,
when Trevor interrupted me with, " which game is football?" After
a short explanation both grasped it as the game on
TV where they tackle one another, "a more tamed version
of Rugby" Trevor commented. Elina decided to call and
have them cancel the Super Bowl as to assure it would
not interfere with our meeting. I let her know that
out of the 30 or so members I called, most of them
knew what the Super Bowl was but did not know when
it was. Or should I say 90 members missed out on the
best gathering and sound we have had yet.
We played some of my music and some of theirs over
my system and then Elina noticed that he had one of
the songs I played off Vinx, Rooms in My Fathers
House on one of the recordable CD's made for her
by Purist Audio to use as demo material. She found
the disk and we put it on the Miles and both Trevor
and Elina were shocked to hear a narrowing and shallowing
of the sound stage. They were both in the sweet spot
( my listening room is 27 feet long so there are two
rows of seats each with a sweet spot) and both heard
it and looked at one another. I was off axis and I
thought I heard a level difference, Elina's being louder
than the original. Either way , I anxiously await Elina's
explanation of the difference. Once Monica and Elina
decided to retire, the real audio and ale consumption
started.
Trevor met the OLS folks ( the parent of Karma http://www.kharma.com ) 15 years ago in Holland
while looking for some drivers for his car stereo.
He built a friendship with Charles van Oosterum the
owner designer of OLS
and it blossomed into his current arrangement of
importer of the Karma line in the USA. The audio industry
being a little different in Europe than here, OLS in
Holland designs and builds 28 different models of speakers
as well as amps, preamps, transports and converters
and sell them directly to the public out of one store.
Trevor, a hard core audiophile, learned a lot from
Charles and is very much into why things sound as they
do. After listening to my system for a little while
he asked if I would try some of the DH Golden Sound
Jumbo ceramic cones ( feet ) under the 7" Focal mid-bass
box that sits on my 14" JBL bass driver box.. http//:www.goldensound.com
I lifted the mid box up and Trevor put three of these
hard and dense black feet under it. We instantly heard
several improvements. First was the removal of a mid
bass congestion that had been bothering me for quite
some time. I had tried reversing the phase of the mid
and bass with some success of clearing this problem
up, at the expense of removing the mid bass with out
of phase inter-driver interference. I had tried various
first and second order crossovers but again, the only
improvements were accompanied by removal of the problem
area, none of them went in the direction of correcting
it....until now. The change in the mid-bass was remarkable
in transforming percussive sound from a flat cardboard
like tone to a resonant full bodied timbre. Mighty
Sam McLean's voice lost this thick drunken slurring
sound and took on a more natural breathy sound, kind
of like the transformation a drunks voice goes through
when pulled over by the cops.
 (
Now now, don't put words in my mouth. I did not say
that if you sit on DH Cones when your drunk you will
sober up. You need at least three, two in back and
one in front, nothing kinky now. ) We could not characterize
all of the improvements until I decided to substitute
my own home made feet for the DH Cones.
Being a skeptic at heart, I thought that some of the
changes could be due to raising the mid-bass up 1.5" could
be responsible, or just the decoupling of the bass
and mid-bass cabinet were the sole reasons for the
change I heard. I walked out of my workshop with these
two inch square half inch thick Paraguayan plywood
tiptoes that used a 1.5" roofing nail as the spike..
They made a big improvement on the bass when I used
them to pierce the carpet and give the bass cabinets
and subwoofer a direct connection to the concrete foundation
of my basement. My cheep concoction did not equal the
DH Cones in their ability to clean up the mid-bass,
in fact to our amazement , they did nothing at all
for it. We also observed that some of the depth of
image and air around the individual instruments was
compressed, and the sweet presence of the female voice
on title cut of The Golden Palominos, This is How
it Feels was lost. Back with the DH Cones. They
are certainly worth the $70.00 for three. I have not
given up on finding a cheep substitute. I will let
you know, but for now they are staying in the system
right where they are and all other comers will have
some tough - or hard since these things are claimed
to be the next hardest thing to diamond - competition
to beat.
The next change we tried was to put my Marantz (http//:www.marantz.com)CD 67SE back into the
system.
 I
want the Miles because it shares a common feature with
the Marantz, a remote volume control. I can not live
without remote volume and most of the high end pre
amps omit this feature. The Marantz and the Miles have
internal analog volume controls and if you only listen
to CD's through your system, like I do, you can get
away with out a pre amp and an extra set of interconnects.
The eminently listen able Marantz was no competition
for the Miles. Much of what I had thought was speaker,
crossover and cable problems turned out to be the front
end. Don't get me wrong, the Marantz is a special CD
player and at one fifth the price of the Miles it is
a great performer, but it is not in the same league
as the Miles.
Putting the Marantz back in, brought back a certain
etched, sound on the T's and S's that the Miles seemed
to relinquish , without subtracting from the detail
in the music, it actually enhanced the detail and resolution.
The Miles very deep three dimensional sound stage changed
to a shallow almost two dimensional one. Before returning
the Miles to Audio Solutions, I needed Monica to hear
the difference. I pointed out two things in Twist
the Knife off the Golden Palominos album
mentioned above while playing the Miles. http//:www.thetadigital.com First the position of the background voices in the sound stage and
next the timbre of the crash cymbals. Monica heard
the distinct yet subtle difference in the cymbals.
On the Marantz, they sounded like some kind of cymbal
getting in the way of the music. On the Miles they
sound like someone rhythmically whacking a crash cymbal
with a different force for each whack deep into the
sound stage. The depth of image and individual space
of each instrument or voice was not a subtle difference.
Monica heard them out in the yard with the Miles and
in the room with the Marantz. She told me the Marantz
still sounded very good and asked how much the Miles
was going to cost. I quickly brought her attention
to the bass slam the Miles had and the Marantz didn't.
Oh by the way, did I mention that this comparison was
between a cold Miles and a Marantz CD 67SE that has
been on since I got it last March. My interconnects
are Esoteric Audio Artis and my amp is a Bellas 150A.
My speakers are homemade with a lot of help from AAS
member Harold Taylor on the crossover.
 The real fun began when we got to the Hellenic Center
and began to unload and set up the system. The few
die hard active members, that showed up at 11 AM to
help unload the 553 pound Karma Exquisite loudspeakers,
were in for a treat. Great equipment is essential for
great sound. If it is set up wrong, it does not matter
how good it is , it will not sound it's best. We put
the system in the room and moved it several times over,
listening to the change in the sound as we progressed.
This was an educational experience for some and a nerve
pincher for others but all in all much fun was had
and we did a lot of listening. The sound was simply
the best we have ever had in that room. I say that
without qualification since I have only been with the
society for less than two years, but everyone I talked
to even Chuck Bruce who has been with the society since
it's inception agreed.
 A diverse group of members and guests
enjoyed an afternoon of "Kharma"
I am going to end my story here because there were
several AAS members taking pictures, interviewing Trevor
and Elina , going over the equipment and spec sheets
and talking about writing something for the journal.
I am sure that their reviews will be better than mine
because I am really not into the nuts and bolts of
the equipment or the detail of the configuration or
the model numbers etc. Thanks Trevor and Elina for
your time and effort, we'all appreciate it and look
forward to having you visit us again.
 Lovely Elina shows off the innards of
the Lamm M1.1 100w Hybrid Mono Power Amp...
I have just one final question. Who won the Super
Bowl?
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