I’m approaching 48 hours with the Townshend Allegri Reference in my system. It’s not going back to West Molesey, that’s for sure. I’m no psychoacoustic scientist, or engineer, or golden eared reviewer. And it still flummoxes me how a purely passive device can “improve” the sound of an already good system. I completely understand how a poorly designed attenuator could mess up a system (and presumably why dCS cautions against attenuators). And it’s no secret that failing to adjust volume properly for comparisons easily mislead the ear and brain, often accounting for perceived improvements in bass, or midrange presence, etc. But why should characteristics like imagery, soundstage, and depth be different? I don’t know, but they are. The Reference has the effect of enlarging all dimensions of the presentation, from the space between instruments and voices, to the air between notes, to the effect of decay, and especially the rear depth of the soundstage. And what was really good at low levels, is now even better.
Perhaps it relates to having Vivaldi set at 0.0 all the time now, and running at 6V? My wife—my bulwark against my and this hobby’s tendency toward absurdity—hears the difference as well. The only difference in the system is the addition of the Reference, and the replacement of the Iconoclast OCC IC with the Townshend Fractal F1 ICs running from the DAC to the Reference to the Wavelet processor.
This next week, a demo unit of the Bespoke Audio passive preamp will arrive, and my dealer still wants me to hear the Ayre KX-R Twenty. I’d like to hear both, and maybe even add a couple of others to the list. I am biased against an active gain stage at this point, especially any that purport to add I or affect “euphorically,” but I am happy to listen.
Some non-SQ points:
Townshend is a delight to work with. Toni there was very helpful, and seemed to be accessible all hours of the day and night.
The Reference is a solid piece of kit. It’s sometimes called “Bigfoot,” because of its large isolation feet. It has a squat, stubby appearance, but it fits in fine with quality gear.
The Apple remote works well, but it’s had the odd effect of complicating my system control. Until the Reference came home, I could control everything in my AV systems with my phone. From power up to shut down, from choosing between audio, and all sorts of video, everything was on the phone. But not the Reference. It recreates a sense of being tethered. The remote stores magnetically on the underside, but it’s still a small complication.
Hi Greg - very interesting post. Will be very interested to hear an update on your findings with others preamps, both passive and active. Can you run the Allegri in balanced mode (XLR) or only single ended (RCA) out of your DAC?
Greg, I hope that you do not mind my being pedantic but the Allegri Reference has no balanced inputs or outputs but does have some that use XLR connectors.
Ben, not specifically, no. I have a lot of notes from those two weeks of listening, and I owe Harry Sullivan a detailed reply to his email. (Harry is a superb and gracious gentlemen.) There is a lot to like about the Bespoke, especially aesthetically. And its SQ is excellent. But there are specific reasons I chose the Allegri Reference over it, including component longevity, remote functionality, acoustic isolation, and attenuation technology. Both components are very good at “getting out of the way.” But I give the Townshend the edge in holographic imaging. That’s what sold me. And saving over $10k on something that provided more of the functionality I wanted with slightly better SQ.
Just installed the Geistnote wide eye BNC. The effect is totally noticeable: more focus, more presence and transparency, wider, deeper and taller (!) soundstage, much more dynamic, more colors and modulations. Voices were already beautiful, now they are gorgeous.
Can’t believe a clock cable can make such a difference; still …
Thank you to all the experts in the Forum: I followed your advices!
Question about the direction of BNC cables. I just got 2 BNC cables from SoTM to connect my Rossini Clock to my Rossini DAC/Streamer. The cable network box has an arrow on it. Could any of you tell me which end should go to the Clock and which end to the DAC?
Many thanks in advance.
Please forgive my ignorance
Ritwick
In case it’s still of interest/help, @newdcsfan, my Transparent clock cables are also directional, and on those the arrow should point INTO the DAC. (Makes sense, too — it’s the “Clock In”.)
Interestingly — and annoyingly — for whatever reason I think I’m enjoying myself more with the Transparent Reference clock cables than I am the Van Dammes. I hope this isn’t just my brain fooling me into thinking that cost is a performance metric as @PaleRider once said
Very well put. In the last year or so I have been so busy with my job that there has been little to no time for fiddling with cables, feet, and all that; let alone testing a new amplifier (Gryphon Essence) I’ve been eyeing for a while.
Well, just listening to music for months without even changing the loudspeakers toe in angle has been a revealing experience. I (and my wife) have observed clear sound quality improvements during the first year of life of our Rossini player + clock and all cables (signal and loudspeakers). Those improvements, I have to admit, are greater than those we experienced in the past with some tweaks, like a new set of feet, or a new digital cable.
I am talking about perceived improvements, but quite tangible, simultaneously heard and described in the same way by two different people.
I do not have an explanation for this, be it break-in or any other cause. I just know that there are so many variables involved in this crazy thing that my null-effect area has now expanded beyond previous limits. Before we buy anything new we need to hear some OBVIOUS, SUBSTANTIAL improvement. Not subtle, not just change: substantial improvement.
Meanwhile, the total clarity and pureness of the sound produced by this setup (which obviously includes the listening room and the humans in it) have allowed me to pinpoint two different frequencies at which some stationary waves take life in the room. One is around my voice frequency, the other one is lower, something around the mid-bass. Unfortunately, this is not good for listening to some piano works that I love particularly.
Any advice on the steps to take to make improvements to my room under this point of view are more than welcome.
So yes, I am going to test some blackcatcables for my clock, and then I want to test the Kondo as interconnects, but this time the effect has to be HUGE, before I even take into consideration purchasing them.
A.
I recently purchased a Rossini Clock for my Rossini DAC. While I noticed an improvement in SQ with various power cables for the clock, I didn’t experience any difference with clock cables. I auditioned the following 6 pairs of 75 ohm clock cables: Van Damme, Cardas Lightning, Wireworld Gold Starlight 7, Audioquest Diamond, Shunyata Alpha V2 and the uber expensive Shuntaya Omega.
I lived with each pair of clock cables for days at a time and instead of focusing on any specific SQ improvement such as extended highs or lows, I noticed that the addition of the clock seems to put the music a bit more in focus sort of like adjusting the focus of an SLR camera. This makes the listening experience more enjoyable as the presentation of the music is more relaxed.
Even though I did notice a difference with the power cable used, I didn’t hear any differences with the clock cables so I decided to keep the Van Damme due to its lower price and they added ‘Clock 1’ and ‘Clock 2’ labeling on both sides of the cables to help avoid any connection mistakes.
As for a pre-amp, I tried using the Rossini pre-amp to go direct to my Gryphon Antileon EVO amp. I found using my Gryphon Pandora pre-amp produced a better sound with increased dynamics. Going direct from the Rossini to the amp can seem a bit lifeless.
Greetings Brian and thanks for posting. I found very similar to you. Definitely more focused with the clock but couldn’t hear any discernible difference with clock cables and so I’m also using the Van Damme. If it’s good enough for Abbey Road, etc! I also agree about preamps. I am using Constellation Stereo 1 power amp and prefer the sound using the Constellation preamp 1 than going direct. I found going direct is highly analytical and precise, but seems to lack “emotion and depth” to my ears at any rate.
