August 2017 SAC Meeting
For our August club meeting we’re very pleased to be able to present Devialet and Sonus Faber.
Our Devialet for the day is being kindly provided by club member Andrew Baldwin. The Sonus Faber speakers are being kindly provided by the Lifestyle Store in North Parramatta. (Refer to https://www.lifestylestore.com.au .) Alex Wilson from the Lifestyle Store will present the equipment. The Devialet has many technological advances. One of many is SAM (Speaker Amplifier Matching). This Devialet functionality tailors the signal to better match the speakers it is driving. Alex and Andrew will explain and demonstrate the SAM function of the Devialet. Note that Devialet products are also available through the Lifestyle Store.
My brief search through the club records suggests we’ve never before presented Sonus Faber speakers. And I’m certain we’ve never had Devialet presented. So this holds great promise to be a very interesting and enjoyable club meeting.
The featured system on the day will be as follows:
Sonus Faber Olympica III Floor Standing Speakers: Taken from the Lifestyle website… “Sonus faber was established in 1983 and produces premium handcrafted and beautifully designed loudspeakers. Based in the historic city of Vicenza, Italy, Sonus faber's designs incorporate finely polished wood, leather and metal to create exquisite works of audio art. All Sonus faber loudspeakers blend science and craftsmanship to deliver emotion and music. The Sonus faber name lies behind a tale of a passion for music so deep, that it goes beyond passive listening, giving life to something new. Experience the very finest the world has to offer in loudspeaker design.”
Refer to https://www.lifestylestore.com.au/sonus-faber-olympica-iii-floor-standing-speakers-pair.html ,
http://www.sonusfaber.com/en-us/products/olympica-iii and
http://www.avhub.com.au/product-reviews/hi-fi/sonus-faber-olympica-iii-loudspeakers-review-and-test-413562
Devialet Expert 440 Pro Integrated Amplifiers: The 440 Pro is effectively two 220 Pro amplifiers working in tandem. Impressive stats... Dual-Mono: 2 x 440 Watts @ 6Ω. 0.0005%THD+ noise (harmonic distortion) at full power, 0.00025%THD at 10W/6Ω, 0.001Ω Output impedance, 133 dB Signal-to-noise ratio.
Taken from the Lifestyle Store website… “Well above and beyond an ordinary amplifier, Devialet reinvents and combines for the first time all of the key components of expert playback (pre-amplifier, amplifier, DAC, streamer, phono stage) in a single and extremely thin slab.”
Refer to https://www.lifestylestore.com.au/devialet-expert-440-pro-integrated-amplifier.html and
https://www.devialet.com/en-eu/expert-440-pro-amplifier-82.html and
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews2/devialet/1.html
Oppo BDP-105D Universal player. Will be used as a transport only. Refer to http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/oppo-bdp-105-universal-blu-ray-player-and-dac/ and
https://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-105/
Shunyata Research powerboard and Anti-Cables power cables, Yarbo speaker cables, other cabling is mostly Furutech.
The second half of the music sessions will be our popular BYO. Members and guests are welcome to offer music to share with us all. So bring along your favourite music on CD/SACD or USB flash drives (sorry, no vinyl). All we ask is that the music and recordings be interesting. We'll ask you to tell us a little about the artist/recording before it is played. Tracks over 6 minutes will be faded out, to give everyone a fair go.
Whether you are a novice or a seasoned veteran, you will have the opportunity to listen, learn and share your experiences with others. Feel free to come and hear the capabilities of the system, or to just share the experience with like-minded music lovers in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere.
Guests are welcome – we are a very friendly club so you don't need to know anyone to join us for an afternoon of fine music and sound.
Venue: Epping Creative Centre, Dence Park
Address: 26 Stanley Road, Epping
When: Sunday 13th August 2017
Doors open at 1pm
Meeting starts at 2pm
Best regards,
Tom Waters
President
Sydney Audio Club
W: www.sydneyaudioclub.org.au
FB: https://www.facebook.com/sydneyaudioclub
E: [email protected]
Follow up Report
Hi all, our Sunday club meeting was lots of fun. Not only did we have great gear in, but also lots of great music. And of course, as usual we had lots of fun.
I opened the meeting as usual and then handed over to Andrew Baldwin. Andrew gave an exacting and comprehensive description of the Devialet 440 monoblocks and their many features. Unfortunately, our room interfered too much and we didn’t feel it was worthwhile to demonstrate the effects of SAMs. But in a proper sized room with normal room damping, the SAMs difference is quite obvious – Andrew uses it at home all the time to good effect. Alex gave an excellent description of the Sonus Faber Olympica III speakers and further detail about the Devialets. Both Andrew and Alex also played some tracks to demonstrate the gear.
The Devialet / Sonus Faber combination proved to be an excellent simpatico match.
btw - the platforms that the two Devialets and Oppo sat on (see photos) are Ikea Aptitlig chopping boards - they do make a difference! Just Google it for more information...
Here are a few comments from the Feedback forms…
“First time visitor. Made to feel very welcome. Clear sound with great control.”
“Enjoyable as always. Strong bass but boomy particularly at high volumes especially with Rock/Pop. Classical more crisp...”
“Excellent system.”
“One of the better meetings. Good synergy in system. Power amps very capable. The room muddy the bass in some seats.“
“Great meeting, best this year. Great speakers.”
“Very enjoyable meeting. The gear was masked by room acoustics.”
“Very compact and delicate "all in one" amp.”
“Very enjoyable as always. Top sounding system at a price though. Great variety of music, some exceptional recordings. Great amplification system, excellent. Power amps were embarrassingly good - I wish I could afford a pair! Speakers provided a great refined sound and looks, there's a lot of competition at this price though. Killer looks!”
“I arrived late, still enjoyed it!”
“A special system that I'd love in my shed. Loved it.”
“Great sound”
“Great pairing of gear. System sounded very good. Thanks to Lifestyle, Alex and Andrew.”
“The system worked well even when it played difficult music.”
“Speakers were impressive despite room effect.”
“A wonderfully musical meeting.”
“Lovely system. Thanks to Andrew B and Alex W for a great system.”
“Sonus Faber speakers were very impressive.”
Thanks again to Alex Wilson and the Lifestyle Store for giving us the opportunity to put together a great system.