A night with the Obelisks in TW
Posted by: David Hobbs-Mallyon on 12 July 2002
After much anticipation Tom Alves, Dave J and myself, piled round to the Lees residence for a listen to the Shahinian Obelisks last night. As some of you may have read, Mr Lees has been waxing lyrical about his latest acquisition, so we were all keen to hear what all the fuss was about.
Nick’s system consists of CDSII/LP12 vinyl thingy (details Nick?)/52/135s all sitting on some rather fetching double width black Hutter. Prior to listening to any music, we all scrupulously checked system set-up. Needless to say, attention to detail was awesome:
Electrics – Nick provided written proof that he has a quote for installation of a separate spur, and promised that he really really would get it done at some stage in the near future….
Fuses – pristine in the packet and waiting to be implemented at any moment now….
Rack set-up – 135s were optimised for maximum inconvenience in speaker cable attachment.
Speaker placement – optimised for ‘stadium sound’ each side of the very substantial TV
Cable dressing – is for girls.
Warm-up - consisted of a couple of bottles of wine before the drinking started.
We then spent the next 5 hours throwing a very broad range of music at the Obelisks. My contribution was the following:
Charles Mingus – Ah Um - Better git it in your soul
Antonio Joseph Bazzini – La Ronde des Lutins – played by Maxim Vengerov
Gyorgy Ligeti – Atmospheres – Berlin Philharmonic/Nott
Zakir Hussain – Making Music – Water Girl
Throwing Muses – The Real Ramona – Honeychain
John Coltrane – My Favourite Things
The rest ranged from Blues, Rennaissance, 60s psychedelia, Krautthrash (if such a genre exists) – all good stuff. Guys please provide details of what was played.
For those that don’t know the Shahinian Obelisks are an omnidirectional design, with something like 4 tweeters, 2 midrange, and a couple of bass drivers, seemingly placed as asymmetrically as possible. They are quite a compact speaker - placement seems reasonably forgiving. Nicks were placed about 2 ft from the rear and a 1ft from either side. The sound that comes out is very different and a bit difficult to describe. Almost like the whole sound envelope is projected in front of you, which gives that ‘in the room’ effect, rather than the imaging from traditional speakers. Shahinians have a reputation of being difficult to drive, but 135s sounded well up to the job.
The tone is lighter than my Wilson Benesch, but the amount of bass that these speakers produce is surprising for the size, double basses in the jazz pieces above had a really natural sound and presence. However where they really excel is in the way they highlight the rhythm of a piece which made listening to these a joy – difficult to describe, but after each track you just wanted to put the next piece of music on. The top-end was never harsh and the timing was pretty close to SBL standard. Downside? – well possibly sometimes they didn’t sound as intimate as I would have liked, but this was pretty minor. I could definitely live with this speaker, and not many fit in that category for me.
Anyway, many thanks for the demo Nick. I’ll write some more when you guys put on your track listings.
Also a special thanks to Mr Alves for bringing the Naim mugs.
David
[This message was edited by David Hobbs-Mallyon on FRIDAY 12 July 2002 at 13:37.]
[This message was edited by David Hobbs-Mallyon on FRIDAY 12 July 2002 at 16:07.]
Nick’s system consists of CDSII/LP12 vinyl thingy (details Nick?)/52/135s all sitting on some rather fetching double width black Hutter. Prior to listening to any music, we all scrupulously checked system set-up. Needless to say, attention to detail was awesome:
Electrics – Nick provided written proof that he has a quote for installation of a separate spur, and promised that he really really would get it done at some stage in the near future….
Fuses – pristine in the packet and waiting to be implemented at any moment now….
Rack set-up – 135s were optimised for maximum inconvenience in speaker cable attachment.
Speaker placement – optimised for ‘stadium sound’ each side of the very substantial TV
Cable dressing – is for girls.
Warm-up - consisted of a couple of bottles of wine before the drinking started.
We then spent the next 5 hours throwing a very broad range of music at the Obelisks. My contribution was the following:
Charles Mingus – Ah Um - Better git it in your soul
Antonio Joseph Bazzini – La Ronde des Lutins – played by Maxim Vengerov
Gyorgy Ligeti – Atmospheres – Berlin Philharmonic/Nott
Zakir Hussain – Making Music – Water Girl
Throwing Muses – The Real Ramona – Honeychain
John Coltrane – My Favourite Things
The rest ranged from Blues, Rennaissance, 60s psychedelia, Krautthrash (if such a genre exists) – all good stuff. Guys please provide details of what was played.
For those that don’t know the Shahinian Obelisks are an omnidirectional design, with something like 4 tweeters, 2 midrange, and a couple of bass drivers, seemingly placed as asymmetrically as possible. They are quite a compact speaker - placement seems reasonably forgiving. Nicks were placed about 2 ft from the rear and a 1ft from either side. The sound that comes out is very different and a bit difficult to describe. Almost like the whole sound envelope is projected in front of you, which gives that ‘in the room’ effect, rather than the imaging from traditional speakers. Shahinians have a reputation of being difficult to drive, but 135s sounded well up to the job.
The tone is lighter than my Wilson Benesch, but the amount of bass that these speakers produce is surprising for the size, double basses in the jazz pieces above had a really natural sound and presence. However where they really excel is in the way they highlight the rhythm of a piece which made listening to these a joy – difficult to describe, but after each track you just wanted to put the next piece of music on. The top-end was never harsh and the timing was pretty close to SBL standard. Downside? – well possibly sometimes they didn’t sound as intimate as I would have liked, but this was pretty minor. I could definitely live with this speaker, and not many fit in that category for me.
Anyway, many thanks for the demo Nick. I’ll write some more when you guys put on your track listings.
Also a special thanks to Mr Alves for bringing the Naim mugs.
David
[This message was edited by David Hobbs-Mallyon on FRIDAY 12 July 2002 at 13:37.]
[This message was edited by David Hobbs-Mallyon on FRIDAY 12 July 2002 at 16:07.]
I'm getting very curious as to the sound of the Obelisks. No one's got them around here, and he doesn't have dealers in North America. I'm almost ready to hop on a plane to New York, for a visit with Dick Shahinian.
We're about to get a dog (a smooth collie), and kids are probably on the way in a year or two. Therefore, the precarious nature of stand-mounted speakers may become an issue. Since it took me six months to choose my beloved Albions, I had better start shopping for speakers now (just in case). Then again, I could always attempt to train the dog and kids to STAY AWAY from the speakers. (Fat chance!
)
-=> Mike Hanson <=-
We're about to get a dog (a smooth collie), and kids are probably on the way in a year or two. Therefore, the precarious nature of stand-mounted speakers may become an issue. Since it took me six months to choose my beloved Albions, I had better start shopping for speakers now (just in case). Then again, I could always attempt to train the dog and kids to STAY AWAY from the speakers. (Fat chance!
)-=> Mike Hanson <=-
quote:
Just pop round and we'll have an XTC fest!
Sounds great! The next time I'm across the pond, I'll give you a buzz.
-=> Mike Hanson <=-