This is the last of my posts on Roger Dressler's visit a couple of days ago. The others are
http://www.audioheritage.org/vbullet...l=1#post300675
and
http://www.audioheritage.org/vbullet...l=1#post300704
Thanks to Grumpy's efforts in taking pictures during the calibration of the Synthesis® One Array, some of the shots were posted here and there. When Roger Dressler saw the final curve, he said he was interested in hearing it, since he imagined that kind of curve would appeal to him. He was speaking to Sanjay Durani, an avid, respected, knowledgeable, and prolific poster over on AVS, who responded, "I know that guy." So on his recent trip to LA, Roger teamed up with Sanjay and they came over.
After letting him perceptively improve my two main floor systems (K2 and Performance Series) and making him sit through an XPL200A active bi-amp demo, we finally got to the Two Jims Theatre. When I explained the first Jim was Jim Lansing, he nodded, and when I said the second Jim was Jim Fosgate, he smiled a big smile and said he'd have to tell Fosgate about it. He'd already noticed that I had a lot of Fosgate Audionics gear, so he even suggested I take some pictures of it and send it to Jim Fosgate to prove "it's still in use and greatly appreciated by a fan."
In the Two Jims Theatre room itself, he was very curious about the S4Ai surrounds and the Saturn diffusers. He asked a number of questions, which I hope I answered satisfactorily, and I blathered on about the SDEC units, the dedicated 20 Amp circuits, the absorber placement, room measurements, etc. When I mentioned the deliberate omission of a door in the room, he immediately commented, "It's a bass trap!" referring to the function of the adjacent room as a dump for all the excess LF.
We finally settled in and listened to a lot of music from the disc he brought. He commented on the SAM1HF horns, wondering why they were standing on end. It was even more interesting when I told him they were designed by GT, the same guy who designed the K2 horns on the main floor. "Really?"
"Yep." (I should have had a better answer, huh?)
Upon first hearing, just like I did, he had to remark, they're really not horn-like at all.
"Yep." (Gotta work on my responses.)
We played around on the AV2 a bit in some of the music modes to see what we could hear, but of course, I kept an iron fist on anything regarding cinema or film modes. That was already calibrated, thanks.
We eventually put in Master and Commander for the obligatory movie demo. To say he was spellbound would be underselling his reaction. As a Dolby ProLogic, Dolby Digital, Dolby PLII, Dolby Digital EX, Dolby PLIIx, etc. veteran, he was checking every nuance of presentation, spatial cues, placement, etc. During the initial cannon salvos, I swear he jumped in his chair.
When it was over, his praise for both the S4Ai and SAM1/SAM2 units was effusive, including comments about how effortless and powerful they were, how they seemed to have no practical limits to accept power and produce clean, undistorted sound, and how incredibly balanced they were, top to bottom and side to side. When I told him it was -10 dB below reference, he was even more impressed
His respect for the S1S-EX was abundant. That's when he remarked it was not just a pants-flapper but a shirt-flapper as well. "I've never had my shirt flap before." He made some reference to tennis balls and air cannons or something when comparing the sound he gets at home. We then talked about the subs' placement, placement in general, and the Harman International approach to sound rooms, multisubs, etc.
Finally I had a lot to say! Both he and Sanjay commented that most of the principles of Toole, Olive, etc. were at play in the room and working to great effect. Then he commented that his own HT had little impact at all compared to this. Of course, it wasn't just the equipment, good as it is; it's also the calibration curve.
On that happy note, we exited the room and went to lunch, where we got to talk about Dolby, Jim Fosgate, 6Axis sound, Logic7, a little about Harman and Citation, Madrigal, Audax, etc. It was a pleasant way to pass the time with a couple of really intelligent guys and soak up their combined knowledge, experience, and expertise.
One of the better things about the day was being able to show the strength and enduring quality of JBL's leading consumer products to someone who's lifelong profession has been sound. He's a very professional and down to earth man who's quite certain about what he likes, and I'm happy/relieved that he liked everything he heard. Beyond that, he helped me make two of my main systems much better than when he came, and left me the demo and test disc to boot.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Titanium Dome
Oh, ouch god god man don't do that!
