My ceiling, my regret

The title bears such negativity! Confront it or condone it. Six months living with my Performa F32s, the ugly truth surfaced. My room is my biggest liability, not room size but the rattling ceiling. Well, a bigger house is everybody dreams. Right where I am staying, my wife won't cede an inch more for my audio room. So, forget about golden ratio, diamond ratio for that manner, I work with what I have.

My ceiling, my regret. Upon inspection, the previous renovation contractor cut corners on my ceiling. The ceiling framework was shabby, could not withstand against the bass waves. As such, mysterious sounds were found all over once I hit the loudness threshold. At times, it had me thinking that there is loose parts in F32s. Holy smoke! Compromises. I got to keep the loudness below the threshold to not to excite the ceilling. Turning down the volume, turning down the excitement. Hey! I am not a head banger. Now, this is the thing with S1 EX, my ceiling has no chance of survival. It will make itself known.

An insensitive speaker, anything below 89db/W/m requires one to turn up the volume a little more to achieve realism. High efficiency speakers fare better in this regard because they do not eat up the realism as much. Then again, high efficiency speakers have their set of limitation, mostly and namely, nasality and limited bandwidth.

 

 

I always worry about handling and delivery. Thank God, my S1 EXs came in one piece. I knew that I need to get the ceiling fixed before moving the little monsters in my room. Time waits for nobody, my time is not for others to waste. I don't waste people time and hate people wasting mine. I am an impatience person. I see, I take and I pay.

I drove around in my neighborhood looking for contractors. Went through with the contractor what I wanted to do, agreed upon the terms, the contractors showed up at my door and started to work on my room two days later. Going forward, the contractor beefed up the ceiling framework, skimmed and repainted my walls. The reconstruction took four solid days, and the dust was unbearable. I have to clean the place up after work to be livable. Exhaustion beyond words.

OK, the news spread like wildfire with S1 EXs. The guys were zealous, anxious to know how they sound or how terrible sound I will get. By the way, the paint odor is sickening. With some helping hands, I got the hefty S1 EXs moved into my room. They weight a whopping 66kg each. O damn, the imposing stature of S1 EXs pose a strong contrast to my small room, my heart turned half cold already with the sight. Hello! I think I had dug my own grave. Dust to dust ashes to ashes, deep down in my heart I had started to murmur my own burial speech.

S1 EXs pose some serious challenges. Firstly, it was my greed and secondly, they are too big for my room. Violating the two utmost audio sins promise condemnation. And I had gone hiding in a confession booth to repent. I went against what I preach. Kuala Lumpur, I have a problem!

Did I jump the gun on S1 EX? My critical rational was the radiating surface? Let's see, Circle area computation is π x r^2. whereby r is radius.

F32 employs dual 6.5 inches midbass drivers, they equate one 9.2 inches driver. S1 EX employs dual 7.06 inches midbass drivers, they equate one 10.0 inches driver, an 8.7% increase in radiating surface. Surely, the bass would not be that great of difference! My friend whispered to me that I have overlooked the driver excursion rate, an unpublished data.

S1 EX's bass quantity blew my assumption to the roof. Hate to admit, S1 EXs were very boomy in my room!!! I now found myself five feet under. Plan A was a total disaster. The Neodymium magnet employed must account for the phenomenon. I swear on your grave that this rare earth magnet is not from Lynas, for Lynas has not started their operation in Kuantan during the time of speaker assembly. The last thing I want is the protesters come campaigning at my door. Neodymium magnet is being second to Electro Magnet developed by Focal in terms of power per heat value. Magnet loses power when heat buildup. Be reminded, S1 EXs are still far from breaking in. Nevertheless, I was all shook up hearing the bass speed, prowess and extension.

Damage control is taking place. Let's see my cards on my table, the best and worst scenario. I will never able to realize the full potential of S1 EXs in my room. 70% of S1 EXs is about right or maybe less, my room is the limiting factor. My present cabling has to go and I have to experiment speaker positioning. I am taking my time with each small step.

 

Tonal flavor aside, the good news is my trusty Mosfet 150 is capable of delivering the juice to make S1 EXs sing. While busy settling my system, I tagged along audio heavyweights to attend the exclusive AV Design's Bryston Model T launching on April 13. The system was all Brystons except Wywire cabling. The sound was promising with the bass quality and quantity unheard of at this price. The bass was full and meaty coupled with clean midband and inoffensive highs. So, Model T has created a ripple like repercussion underground. They are well worth their asking price and I shall not write too much due to brief casual listening in a less than ideal environment.

OK, enough bullshit for the day.


To be continued....