**PLEASE READ CAREFULLY** 1) Please ask your questions of the Darko.Audio RU-vid community as I'm already off making the next video 2) Polite comments that advance the conversation are most welcome (but no URLs, please) 3) All comments are moderated by a third party: instagram.com/p/CTWcokaszpW/
Hi John. Nice video and again stripped of the typical non sense we see in the audiophile world! Just want to point out that when you mention moving the sub forward increases the arrival time, it's actually the other way around, it decreases (because it travels less distance) and therefore come at you earlier. I get what you tried to say but it just come out wrong!😉
I consider Darko Audio as one of my favorite products of 2021. You’ve increased my interest of audio and music hobby. I always enjoy your informative videos and incorporate them into my systems in order to explore them on my own. Thank you, John. Have a wonderful holiday season.. 🎵
OK manufacturers, you want my money? Stop brainstorming. Here is what I what. I want a "preamp only" product like the Bluesound Powernode and live my audiophile journey. It needs a streamer, a cross-over management between LFE/main, a LATENCY management between LFE/main (subs have latency which messes everything), latency tests, linear EQ (RME style). Two analogue inputs, coax and spdif input. I want to connect an external DAC (via USB, not coax, not spdif), an HDD with my FLAC, SACD, DSD, MP3, have a remote app on my phone/laptop. With this setup, I can grow and continue my audiophile journey. Cheers!
On your exact same wavelength here John! In 2021 I bought a preamp explicitly because it has analog high- and low-pass controls. It elevated the sound and undeniably reduced low/mid busy-ness and distortion on the mains, on multiple types of loudspeakers, and lightened the load a bit on the amp. Adding and then better-integrating subwoofers upgraded everything. Thanks for your efforts! Cheers
I've followed this channel for the last 2 or 3 years and both the content and production have steadily improved over this period. So while there may be a better reviewer of audio equipment on RU-vid, as I don't have the time to review every reviewer, I can't say that Darko Audio is the best. I can, however, say that Darko Audio is my favourite reviewer! Thanks for all the reviews this year and for making such excellent content available to everyone via RU-vid!
I bought the KC-62 after watching your review. I was in disbelieve for days!!! This tiny thing sounds far better and stronger than SVS SB1000-Pro that I had. The fact that that chassis doesn't vibrate means I can put it anywhere. I have it on top of my media cabinet and it still sounds good! Thank you so much for giving us these quality reviews!
Thank you John, it’s about time some said what you have said at the beginning of this video. That we should not consider our home systems as being what we hear 👂🏾 live or in a professional public venue. There are several audiophiles I follow that constantly drive that idea home in every freakin’ presentation & it’s sickening, to be polite here. Thanks 🙏 again for one audio enthusiast that has freakin’ common sense.
Thanks for the video John. I just wanted to mention that you have a very different take on integrating a subwoofer into two channel audio compared to Paul McGowan and John Hunter from Rel. They both advocate feeding the full signal to the sub rather than using a low pass filter, and certainly no high pass filter, as that deprives of the sound signature of the main speakers in the lower region. Of course I am not suggesting that your take is wrong, and it may be that both have their advantages and disadvantages, but I think it would be cool if you explored these different approaches in a future video, perhaps with a Rel subwoofer.
Nailed the 'live music' nonsense - you are absolutely correct in that you are often actually listening to a venue and its PA system. We've all heard some stunning gigs...but mostly been let down by a venues poor PA.
I remember FUN! Only reason why this hobby roped me back in really. I started listening to all my records purchased form show merch tables by my friends bands I used to follow around the small venues to go see on the regular. Listening to youtube bootlegs of shows Ive attended. Its more than music or even gear much as I love both, its recalling fond experieinces.
When you feed your signal path like this: analog audio signal, preamp, dsp incl. crossover, high passed signal back into power amp stage of your amp, low passed sub signal into power amp, into speakers/sub. You can use the dsp to alter your signal and do room correction etc. There is no need to spend 1000s of € for a whole new system or sound processor.
I just picked up a gently used pair of Zu Omen Dirty Weekend speakers, circa 2017 from the original owner. These speakers are simply incredible. I see a pair of Zu Union 6's in my future.
Zu make such gorgeous stuff! I've always wanted a pair of those, but I can't get over the fear of what my kids would do to them. They look so fragile and exposed.
hi,for someone who just bought their first sub your really into it now .one of your products of the year is a sub and another two products are mentioned because of there sub intergration.awesome lol
Thanks for your amazing review, even though I'm not in the market for any of theses products I watched the whole thing for its entertainment value. Oh and a very belated "Merry Christmas" to you 🙂
The point you make about live recording is an interesting one, but as you also point out the reference is claimed to be of unamplified music. I don’t think anyone is suggesting this should be the only music to which one listens, simply that in assessing the accuracy of equipment it provides a valuable benchmark. Of course, even with unamplified music there are ways the sound of musicians playing can be adulterated, through the microphones and their placement and the mixing desk, and there’s no such thing as a perfect replication of such a performance. But we’re talking about matters of degree here, not absolutes, and on the whole a good recording of unamplified music - sounds with which we’re familiar - does provide a useful means of determining how close to the original performance we’re getting.It’s not the only factor but it is important. If such recordings sound “right” it’s likely everything else you play will too. As for recordings of amplified gigs, you’re correct. What we hear is the PA system, often very cruddy in my experience, which can interact badly with the venue’s acoustic. However, recordings of such gigs are usually taken from the mixing desk, the sound before it reaches the PA amplification and speakers, with later studio mixing to get the balance right. I have a number of live albums of gigs I’ve attended, and the sound is very different.
My timing solution for the sub and main speakers is a bit simpler. The sub sits behind me. I have a large recliner and the subwoofer is on the floor behind me. I set the levels to match and the timing works great.
Happy holidays and thanks for making this video's John. Tests on my wishlist for 2022, Finkteam Kim, Dynaudio Emit 20, Elac Unifi Reference and Velodyne Microvee X ☺️😉
I don’t think a best of 2021 list “should” only contain products from 2021. If a product from 2020 that you can still buy, is better than a product from 2021, isn’t the 2020 product not still the best you can get in 2021?
Understood. It’s trick isn’t it? I think for cleanliness one has to have a delineation point. In this case January 1st to December 31st. But I feel you.
glad to see you appreciating floorstanders…although they choose efficiency over full range (always a trade off between the two). I’d be curious to know if they are non fatiguing, a very important criteria for me (one of the the quality I cherish on my Wilson Audio Sophia Serie 1 from 2001, which have a rather low efficiency of 91 db for 2,83 volts at 1 metre, which I understand is the same as 86 db for 1 watt at 1 metre)
Most "ok" subwoofers have speaker terminal inputs and outputs that allow the sub to act as the "brain" in a system to split which tones will be played by the sub and which will be sent on to the speakers.
Agree about the benchmark issue. All depends on the studio mics and mixing. My Tannoys XT8F also disappear when fed with the right amplifier. May consider the Zu in the future.
Interesting video. Thanks for bringing attention to the subwoofer integration issue. My 20+ yr old cantons have a crude implementation. 12" passive sub with crossovers that feed a pair of 4" bookshelves all powered by a 50 wpc nad c316bee. Sounds pretty good!
Thanks to open-box deals on Crutchfield, I just couldn't resist getting the KEF LS50 Wireless II. I love it so much, even though I don't even use it for its wireless design intentions. It was the configurable high-pass and low-pass filters that really sold me on the package. I can't wait to add a KEF subwoofer to it.
Fantastic video, I love your insights. Have you played around with a Mini-dsp at all? It will do many of the sub integrating, hi pass, low pass, time alignment and room correction. All for a very reasonable outlay. This being said, I'm off to have a closer look at the KC-62. Keep up the awesome work!
Live vs Recorded - exactly right, two completely different creative endeavours. The biggest impact on live sound is the venue, even indoors or open air. The same super expensive, world class pa system will sound different from show to show, depending on the acoustics of the hall or stadium.
John, thanks for a great year or videos. I look forward to them. Also thanks for helping Hans channel while he was on medical leave. Very nice of you. Not gone unnoticed. Now a question about the Soul Six. Do you know if Zu is positioning the Soul Six as an improvement over the Soul Supreme? As you know the hifi publications love the Soul Supreme. The Supreme has a separate tweeter while the Six is concentric. So I am a little confused as to how the Soul Six is positioned in the Zu lineup relative to the Soul Supreme. Your thoughts? Thanks.
Hi John - Nice Video - I often pause and jump on to Tidal to check out some of the different stuff you've been listening to. The Alva Noto is certainly a bit different. I didn't dislike it but it would take some concentrated listening to aquire a taste for it. But keep throwing in reference to music like this. I aquired a taste for Rammstein when working out hard in Gym with some seriously silly weights.. Great to have audiophiles who listen to stuff besides jazz and female vocals.
I am very interested in these broadband like speakers. My sound system experiences started with old Philips AD broadband speakers. By no means hifi to modern standards but they still are incredibly pleasing to my ears.
Great video, and choices. When I say live being a reference, I mean live in the studio, as well as when I or someone else is playing in front of me well amplified/driven or unamplified. Most live events are horrific in terms of amplification, acoustics, PA quality and levels.
Exactly what I expected. The minute I was that red color capacitor I know their bar is very high. Still ultimately two dynaudio are better in terms of squeezing out that last bit performance. Diy can only carry you so far except in my case when I was building a pair linkwitz Lx521 4way dipoles because there were no commercial counterparts there.
Pensively stroking one's beard/chin... furrowed brow... eyes closed... deep in analytical thought... this perfectly captures the observed behavioral characteristics of the rare overwroughticus audiophiliaesus species in the wild. 😄
Great review as always, thanks! Would be interesting as well to make an EP to compare now how this list stand to NOS (as in New Old Stock) 😉. But this 2021 selection integrates technologies that just start to “blend” very significantly, so I guess there ain’t no comparison to make 🤔.
Hi Darko, this is a very informative video, thank you for that. I also agree with you on pretty much everything you have said. However, correct me if I am wrong but I've been doing all these settings for years with my AV Receiver: lowpass, highpass, time delay, phase control, crossover point even room calibration, etc... In my actual system, I have outsourced the main channels to a separate amp for stereo playback, using the AV Reciever only as signal processing unit. Which point am I missing exactly?
That's great to hear about the Bluesound- I bought it in early August, basically because I have an old school stereo amp- Rega Elicit R- and had bought a new tv without L-R plugs (and I also wanted to stream internet radio). I'd been watching Senor Darko for amusement. Hah! I am an old... I used the hdmi from the tv to the BlueSound and then went around and around with their tech support because the device wouldn't automatically connect to hdmi unless I pulled the plug and reconnected. They briefly suggested the optical connect- wrong! I was totally disgusted, why did I buy this pos etc., went on a vacation, came back, and the problem was solved. It's like their tech people actually listened, what a concept... Anyway, I'm sure there may be slicker devices, but this one now does what I want, enough said... Now I have to decide if the KEF Sub is what I need to go with my Ohm Microwalsh talls. It would be more than I paid for the speakers originally... Hmmm...
I like your attitude towards hifi. Take a product and enjoy music. Happy music holidays ahead. I’m going down the analog sealed direct servo sub rabbit hole….
Hi John, talking about syatem integration, Do you have any recommendation of an equipment that allows you to save and organize all the music that you already have saved in digital media, but also, and this is the important thing, that allows you to download and save the music you listen to and like it in streaming mode, with as little work as possible.
Andrew, I've seen him reply to similar requests, in the past, like this: "No, I can't, because I didn't have them both in-house at the same time. Human auditory memory is not very good, and doing comparisons from memory really doesn't work."
John, would you recommend either streaming amp as being a good match for the speakers and sub of the year if one were to do them as a complete system? With love, Ken
Hey John, Thanks for the review of the Zu audio speakers. Sounds like they could potentially meet my sound preferences. However I couldn‘t find a dealer in Germany. On their site they only seem to sell to locations within the US. Do you know we’re to buy? KR, Bernd
Hey Bernd, Zu ships to Germany as well. Just email them and ask for it. I ordered the Omen dirty weekend last year. They were shipped with FedEx. Tax comes on top. Greetings, Ralph
Im no fan that you cant turn of the HPF on the Bluesound when connect a sub. I whant my mains to go down as far as they are designed to do. Then use the SUB to "help" where they lack, in my case around 55hz and down.. I do like that this option is there, but not be abel to turn it off bugs me.. My mains do a better job produce fast end clean base/sound at 52-100Hz then any sub I tested in my room. I whant this controll myself. Just my 02..
@@ffuentes900 Yes you can have to much overlap if your mains play whery low , and you have a SUB with "limited" crossover control ( consider that many subs wount allow the crossover to be set lower then 50Hz, my REL allows 40 ). in this abow case a HPF in the amp will work great :) In my case, I use smaller bookshelfs that has a pretty hard drop around 55Hz . But the base they provide is so fast and clean so I whant my mains to play those frequencies ( OFC I cant play them as loud as a SUB would allow, but im more about sound quality vs volume in this case, otherwise I would opt for the HPF solution .) My SUB starts to come on at around 52Hz. So it "blends" in great in my application. I do like the option to be abel to use HPF from the amp. This way you can adapt the SUB-integration in your particular system the way you whant. But I would also like to be abel to turn it off if I whant.
Zu products really call out to me but given you can’t demo them in the UK (without spending a fortune on import and postage if you don’t get along) is so gutting!
Huge fan John, Merry Christmas sir. Now let me be blunt, no one should be singing the praises of Bluesound. They're shown themselves to be a garbage company that cares only about the initial sale. Next gen Node buyers were baited into upgrading from the Node 2i. We were promised that usb out functionality would cone via a firmware update shortly after launch. 10 months later, we're still hold our hands on our collective arses. Absolutely zero commitment by Bluesound to make good on their bait and switch tactics.
Careful you don't fall down the rabbit hole of bass too far...cuz it goes real deep! #BassTrap #10Htz It will change your life, as in you will be selling your flat to go move out into the country in a big house with a cement basement just so you can crank it up. LOL I think Sunfire was the first small sub that actually was impressive, but for audio you need a fast sub and nothing is faster than REL (Reference are the fastest) and they make nice small versions. Two is always better than one...for tuning reasons. ;) Velodyne makes a 6.5" sub now too. Paradigm also have a couple tiny subs...but I'm not sure how good they are, as there is no replacement for displacement. Personal favorite is the discontinued Servo 15 Paradigm made years ago, runner up would be JL Audio F113V2 (soft velvet fast & deep puncher). Merry XMAS!!!!
Re the zu…. Question is can you sit in front of them for hours on end and not come away with a headache? Initially impressive, but they wear you out and becoming fatiguing? ( as lots of speakers do these days )
John, talking sub 40 Hz soundscape, did you ever try Fatal Attraction by Gold Monk with your sub? Already my 25 year old Focals create a world of their own: yummie!
I appreciate your cringes when you say the word "Best" :) I hear people use "Best" a lot followed by disclaimers and backtracking. I think we just need to use a different word more commonly... maybe "Favourite" is better than "Best" ;) It speaks more to context and personal experience rather than universal absolutes. Rant on!
I have to take exception with something John said. Wanting a system to sound like real live music is not nonsense. Live music should absolutely be the reference. A good system should be able to reproduce accurately the timber, tonailty, frequency range, dynamic range of real non amplified instruments. Only real instruments produce sound independently from electricity/electronics. And they are the only standard by which can truly judge a systems ability to reproduce accurately. Yes, different violins can sound slightly different from one another... but the differences are subtle and all violins always sound like violins. The same for cellos, bass fiddles, trumpets, clarinets, etc. And anyone who has heard these instruments knows what they sound like. Rock concerts, synthesizers... all instruments dependent on electronics and electrical amplification, while often can sound very beautiful, do not produce natural sound. And the sound is often electronically modified. In performance an electric guitar can sound smooth, in another distorted, even to varying degrees. So which electronic guitar sound should be used to voice a good pair of speakers? A system should sound like a PA system? Here we have the same problem. Which PA system would be used for the the "standard" PA system sound for voicing speakers? When I listen to music in which acoustic instruments are played I want my system to reproduce those instruments as faithfully as possible. When I listen to an electronic instrument I don't care a wit whether the sound that I am hear is faithful to the actual sound of that instrument. My son-in-law plays the bass fiddle professionally. I played various bass fiddle recordings for him. He said that what he was hearing was the sound of a real bass fiddle in every way... even with respect to size. That is good enough for me.
I'd beg to differ and agree with John I think the confusion is in the description of played live (or heard live) and at a live concert, the latter is impossible to achieve at home Even albums recorded at a live concert also go through similar recording, production, mixing and mastering processes of a studio album. However, the instruments are played live in the studio for studio recorded releases. Therefore, we want to hear the instrument reproduced at home as it was heard when played "live" in the studio. The sound heard through the P/A at a live concert is completely different, mixed and amplified specifically for the acoustic environment of that particular room.
Just to add that John is also correct imo that the live concert even worth attempting to reproduce through home hi-fi is narrow. As you've stated yourself that is the only sound you care about, specifically an acoustic performance, anything using a P/A is completely different and impossible to reproduce at home. While you've said you don't care how faithful the hi-fi sound heard is to that of, for instance, an electric guitar, the vast majority of us do and that is the point made by Mr Darko at the start of this video One simple fact that proves it is a nonsense to even attempt to achieve the sound heard through the P/A at a live concert, despite the audio being controlled as much as possible is that there is nothing at all that can account for the listeners position in the audience. The Instrument played live and as it was heard in the recording studio is what we hope to reproduce at home using a hi-fi system, what was heard through the P/A system at a live concert just isn't possible
