The Loudspeaker 1, built NNN

Copyright 2021 © Troels Gravesen

The current builder wants to stay anonymous.

Here some excerpts from mails:

1st mail:

"I had the second speaker running yesterday, and I am quite impressed! But I will let the euphoria pass and see how I feel after a couple of months with them. Then I will send you photos and comments for your builder's response page. 

But initial impressions are:

- just like you said very dynamic and very transparent; they are so dynamic that make some of my vinyls sound dull compared to really good digital recordings... never had that before. 

- the word "palpable" is the first thing that comes to mind... the sound is not just detailed, but I feel like I can touch every instrument... and there is a bold contour around each instrument... in a really good way

- they seem voiced differently than any other of your speakers I have tried 

- no high frequency roll offs (I like it); the compression driver is really really good, and the Fostex super tweeter brings the highs to another level; I thought beryllium tweeters were best :)

- the midrange is exceptional

- the 18'' BMS woofer gives the best bass I've had in my system; I was afraid it would be slow, but no such thing; it is the most detailed and articulating bass I've had

- for some reason these speakers seem more forgiving on bad room acoustics; not forgiving on bad recordings, though

Those are my first impressions. But I really like what I am hearing! Speakers on steroids :)"

2nd mail:

TL are opening up and playing better and better. It's like I have added another dimension to my music. My friend who has huge horns stopped by yesterday and was very impressed. 

You were right that there are audiophile speakers ... and these! :) 

I am very pleased by them and happy I made the choice to make them (and you are a genius :)). It was a very difficult choice to make after all the time and money I spent on the NNNNN. 

The interesting thing is I did not play with speaker placement at all. Put them at a random place and don't really feel the need to try moving them around. But I will start tweaking things soon and will keep you posted of my impressions. 

3rd mail

I thought I would give you an update that you may find interesting. 

I don't know if you remember the problematic small room I live in. It's small and really bad. After years of tweaking and using a lot of bass traps, diffusers, and other room treatments, and after trying every spot in the room for speaker placements and reorganizing my living room in completely different way (for the benefit of a better sound), I can say that I did miracles in that particular room. It's still small, and still bad, but I believe I squeezed out every possible bit of performance there. 

NNNN from XYZ was invited by the XYZ Audiophile Society to present his new line of products - his signature DAC, new line stage, and his new monoblocks (which sound a lot better than the previous versions, ask me why if interested, as it a whole other topic). They gathered in a big room - 42' (13 meters) x 24' (7 meters) with a drop ceiling just under 9' (2.75 meters). I was really curious to bring my TLs there and hear what they could do in a big room. As you know, the TLs are some heavy monsters, and it required some heavy lifting including a few stairs. But I really really wanted to hear what they can do in a big room and did not care how difficult it would be to bring them to the event. 

Well, we did that. It was not easy, to say the least. The event was 3 hours. The first hour was mostly talking, followed by two 45 minutes listening session. A guy brought his heavily modified or DIY (not sure) Klipsch Cornwalls. Man, those things were horrible - no highs, and a lot of strong, shouty upper mids dominating everything else. But we had to listen to them during the first session. Then while people were taking a break I had to install and connect the TLs. I only had about 10 minutes, so I just dropped them at some random place. We bi-amped them with four NNNN monoblocks. Started the listening sessions and I was blown away. I have never heard sound like that - alive, dynamic, amazing soundstage, sweet and warm but with huge attack and a lot of details. And the bass!!!! Wow. I can't even describe how the bass sounded in that room. I keep dreaming about that sound... and guess what - it was my system playing :). 

My speakers, my streaming computer, my line stage (because we needed two outputs), 4 monoblocks like mine, and a DAC similar to mine.

I don't know if the people there were honest or just trying to be nice and polite, but a few people said this was the best sound they have ever heard. A few others said this was one of the best sound they have ever heard. And some said this was a really tricky and difficult room that can rarely sound good. Well, I just dropped the speaker at a random place. I did not use my fancy Stillpoints Ultra 6 footers under my speakers. I used just a bare 18AWG tinned copper speaker wire. No room treatment. Nothing fancy. I cannot imagine how the sound could get any better than that, but I do know those refinements like speaker placements, additional room treatment and so on can make significant improvements.