Dumb thought: Anyone ever compared an L7 and an L300 side-by-side?

[Fred Sanford]

Hey, BMWCCA,

I LOVE it!!! Of course, I'm rooting for the 4333!! If I hadn't already used up to those blanket-sized stamps, back when I was trying to send our L300's to Pete, I'd gladly send them to you, for an additional twist on this test! Our's have 2235H's in place of the original woofers from that system. I'm looking forward to hearing the results of your competition, but mostly I'm just glad you are going to be getting together with some LH members, and having some JBL fun!! Well done, my Friend!! Take care, and God Bless!

Every Good Wish,
Doc

The plan is to have the current 2231As re-coned as 2235s at some point- my two frames are mis-matched in age (serial #s 7038 and 24103), both spiders are sagging towards the magnet, and I'm not thrilled with the re-foam job they've got. Might want to re-gauss the mags as well, these have lived a hard life- these were from Clive Davis' office at Arista records, where they were powered by a Sansui BA-5000.

je

[Fred Sanford]

Oh yeah, the list of potential power amps is as follows:

Crown PS-400 (multiples)
Crown DC300A
JBL/Urei 6260
Adcom 2535 (multiples)
Altec 1270
Yamaha P2100 (multiples)
Yamaha RX-V1000
Nakamichi RE-1
Denon PMA-920
Elan Z-amp
ADA Rhapsody
Audio Control Architect 1250

je

[Doc Mark]

I'm still waiting for them...!??

I can understand if you're trying a different method, of course you wouldn't want all that stamp adhesive glue on the sides of the L300's...

....when they finally arrive, I'll be doing an A-B between them and the L220A's.


Pete

Hey, Pete,

Sorry, they never made it to the Post Office! Remember, I dragged them down to the street, and someone took them, and left those nice-mannered Minimus 7's in their place!! That was very considerate, don't you think?! But, the very next day, the L300's were BAAAAACK!! I'm guessing that they were too loud for whomever took them, too, and rather than unload them on some unsuspecting innocent, the folks just returned them. Sweet Bride carried them upstairs, both at the same time (strong woman, She!), and now they are back in our system. The Minimus 7's are still here, too, but pouting in the corner, with a massive inferiority complex!! Hummm, what would Freud say about "woofer size", in such cases???!!!!

It's been very hard to get all that PO stick'em off the L300's, but what the heck..... I guess they have found a permanent home, and I'll just "suffer" with them!! By the way, I do hope that TiDome is OK!! I heard a low-flying jet buzz our area the day TD was supposed to arrive, and then some massive strafing!!! I think that Regis has a lot of s'plainin' to do!!!! Take care, and God Bless!

Every Good Wish,
Doc

[Doc Mark]

Hi, Fred,

I'm really looking forward to reading about your enjoyable testing and comparison!! No matter HOW it turns out, I'm sure you will all have some great fun, and only wish I could be there with you, to share some of that!! Take care, and God Bless!

Every Good Wish,
Doc

[toddalin]

During your testing, please do us a favor and report on with and without eyeglasses on. See if anyone can hear a difference and if so, what that difference is.

Obviously, eyes will be shut in both cases.

Thanks

[pmakres1]

Hey, Pete,

Sorry, they never made it to the Post Office! Remember, I dragged them down to the street, and someone took them, and left those nice-mannered Minimus 7's in their place!! That was very considerate, don't you think?! But, the very next day, the L300's were BAAAAACK!! I'm guessing that they were too loud for whomever took them, too, and rather than unload them on some unsuspecting innocent, the folks just returned them. Sweet Bride carried them upstairs, both at the same time (strong woman, She!), and now they are back in our system. The Minimus 7's are still here, too, but pouting in the corner, with a massive inferiority complex!! Hummm, what would Freud say about "woofer size", in such cases???!!!!

It's been very hard to get all that PO stick'em off the L300's, but what the heck..... I guess they have found a permanent home, and I'll just "suffer" with them!! By the way, I do hope that TiDome is OK!! I heard a low-flying jet buzz our area the day TD was supposed to arrive, and then some massive strafing!!! I think that Regis has a lot of s'plainin' to do!!!! Take care, and God Bless!

Every Good Wish,
Doc

Doc,
You have my deepest condolences, having t put up with those L300's again....

Pete

[hjames]

Doc,
You have my deepest condolences, having t put up with those L300's again....

Pete

I know they must be the best thing since pickled grits and haggis (ugh!),
but the closest thing at our sound-check to L300 will be Fred's pair of 4333s.
We'll just have to soldier on without a pair of those glass-topped, sloped front, top-of-the-line boxen.

We'll just have to suffer ... ... somehow.

[Fred Sanford]

During your testing, please do us a favor and report on with and without eyeglasses on. See if anyone can hear a difference and if so, what that difference is.

Obviously, eyes will be shut in both cases.

Thanks

Actually, with the close proximity to a few Halloween parties, I just may be testing with and without a wig & some Ray-Bans:

[4313B]

I know they must be the best thing since pickled grits and haggis (ugh!),
but the closest thing at our sound-check to L300 will be Fred's pair of 4333s.
We'll just have to soldier on without a pair of those glass-topped, sloped front, top-of-the-line boxen.

We'll just have to suffer ... ... somehow.

I greatly admire your pluck! Best of luck to all of you!

[Fred Sanford]

During your testing, please do us a favor and report on with and without eyeglasses on. See if anyone can hear a difference and if so, what that difference is.

Obviously, eyes will be shut in both cases.

Thanks

You have no idea how many times the other folks attending swapped glasses/no glasses during the day (I wear contacts).

I'll leave it to them to provide you with results of their thorough testing.







:dont-know

je

[Fred Sanford]

It was fun, it was social, it was unscientific, and if it was supposed to keep Phil from wanting L300s I think it was unsuccessful.

I didn't take a single picture yesterday, too busy swapping wires and slinging bagels, but I think Heather did take some. In fact, I didn't sit in a sweet spot all day, I was off to the side switching preamp feeds pretty much the whole time. We tried to keep our focus on the original idea (L7s side-by-side with 4333As), and then sort of flew through 120Tis/L1s/L20T3s/S38s/HP420s/L110s/L100s/L46s/TR225s once it started getting late.

I think the clearest "winner" of all was the Adcom 2535 power amps, actually. We really didn't notice them at all.

I'll post a couple of 'before' pics, to give you an idea of the spaces. Then maybe a list of the gear used. Then maybe some listening impressions.

je

[Fred Sanford]

Some shots of the Living Room, the main rig & the room shot for perspective.

Gear used here:

Pioneer DVL-91 Elite DVD/LD/CD player. Digital out to a Marantz DP870 as a DAC, output splits to an Ashly SC22 crossover (low pass) and then the four signals continue on to an Adcom 2535 power amp (4 x 60W at 8 ohms), then to the 4333As.

To feed the L7s, we first took a fixed-level analog out from the Marantz DAC to a Soundcraftsmen preamp, then split to four channels of another Adcom 2535 power amp, then on to the un-strapped terminals of the L7s. At some point I got the bright idea of heading straight from the analog outs of the DVL-91 to the preamp, and all present noted an improvement in the high frequencies coming from the L7s...oops. Guess we coulda done that better from the start.

We did run pink noise through both setups & try to match levels, but at some point I must have adjusted the level on the 4333As by accident & then things were off. Let's say 25% of the listening was pre-matching, 50% matched, and then 25% more after my adjustment. :dont-know

We occasionally tried some tunes with another digital output from the DVL-91 going to the Yamaha RX-V1000, then to the Canton Karat 20s and NHT SW10 sub. I generally do run the NHT sub with the 4333As, using the 100Hz crossover in the Marantz DAC. For this testing we did not use the sub with the 4333As.

Yes, the position of the 4333As is a temporary compromise until we can build the custom cabinetry I've designed. I'm not loving them on the floor, and they did sound better at least standing vertically in a previous setup. It was kind of fun to watch everyone slide off the couch onto the floor every time we switched to the 4333As...

je

[Fred Sanford]

Here's the control room downstairs, we listened to a couple tunes through this gear:

Alesis Masterlink CD player
Carvin MX1644 mixer
Yamaha P2100 power amp
JBL L110s
M&K V3B sub

je

[Fred Sanford]

We listened to each of the JBLs here for a little while, then set up the smaller ones folks brought in (L1s, L20T3s, S38s).

HP420s (and then the L1s/L20T3s/S38s plus some Canton Plus Ss) were heard through a Phillips CDR-775 CD player, analog to a Denon PMA-920 integrated amp (2 x 115W 8ohms).

Five L46s (and Velodyne VA 1210X sub) were heard through:

Pioneer DVL-909 DVD/LD/CD player
Pioneer DVR-810H TiVo/DVD player
Philips CDR-775 CD player
Adcom GTP-600 preamp (analog signals)
Harman Kardon ADP-303 surround processor (digital signals & RF from LDs)
Elan Z-Amp (6 x 60W at 8 ohms)

L100As were heard through a Sony Discman (line out) to an EV BK1642 mixer with a Crown DC300A. TR225s were heard briefly through the same setup and an Audio Arts 1500 parametric EQ + JBL/Urei 6260 power amp.

Guitars, idle speakers, cymbals and drums all contributed their own resonances & sympathetic vibrations to the proceedings. I'm not going to inventory all of those here, though...

je

[Fred Sanford]

Oh yeah, there were no EQs or tone controls used throughout with the following exceptions:

I did push the Loudness button on the Denon integrated amp a couple of times just for giggles, mostly when trying the HP420s and S38s.

There was a parametric EQ in line with the TR225s, set for feedback reduction, which really didn't matter 'cause they were set for mono and they sound pretty crappy anyway and nobody really seemed to care much.

je