Looking forward to L800 but have concerns, what are your thoughts?

stevep

DarqueKnight wrote: »

it is not desirable to have any obstruction near either ear during critical listening sessions.

I got the chance to hear the L800 last night and this was very apparent. Any "shadowing" greatly reduced the imaging and impression of an extended sound stage. As long as you weren't sitting with someone else blocking either speaker there was quite a bit of latitude in position from center left to right or front to back.

pglbook

stevep wrote: »

DarqueKnight wrote: »

it is not desirable to have any obstruction near either ear during critical listening sessions.

I got the chance to hear the L800 last night and this was very apparent. Any "shadowing" greatly reduced the imaging and impression of an extended sound stage. As long as you weren't sitting with someone else blocking either speaker there was quite a bit of latitude in position from center left to right or front to back.

I think you are one of the first Polkies to hear the L800s in person and we'd be interested to know your impressions of them in some more detail. Thanks.

nooshinjohn

The listening room is not doing any favors either...

mhardy6647

nooshinjohn wrote: »

The listening room is not doing any favors either...

is that Masonite paneling or lauan on the back wall?

Viking64

I bet that baseboard heater rings like a mofuggah. HAHAHAHA

Vanilla edited M0F0!!!

DaveHo

Reminds me of a 1970's basement.

Viking64

DaveHo wrote: »

Reminds me of a 1970's basement.

Yeah, it's just screaming for some orange shag carpet and a few beanbag chairs. Dave, are you up for a game of Pong®?

mhardy6647

Viking64 wrote: »

I bet that baseboard heater rings like a mofuggah. HAHAHAHA

Vanilla edited M0F0!!!

Q. what do you call a person who mixes cement with a pitchfork?

A. a mortar forker

Thank you. Thank you.
I'm here all week.
Don't forget to tip your server.

DarqueKnight

tonyb wrote: »

Head in a vice ?? With SDA's ?

When I see extremely misinformed comments like that it makes me wonder if the person isn't just parroting what they read elsewhere, rather than speaking from personal experience.

DarqueKnight

stevep wrote: »

I got the chance to hear the L800 last night...

So glad to see Polk requiring proper seating arrangement for stereophonic evaluation. The typical "row seating" at these kind of events has been a peeve for many, many years.

soupbone

DarqueKnight wrote: »

tonyb wrote: »

Head in a vice ?? With SDA's ?

When I see extremely misinformed comments like that it makes me wonder if the person isn't just parroting what they read elsewhere, rather than speaking from personal experience.

Well...I must have been doing something wrong that last 33 years. Three different houses and a lot of different equipment. My image has always been high & wide with lack of depth. So wide that, while on the second floor, I've checked the porch door for someone knocking while listening to Phil Collins, One More Night. I've been startled out of my mind with sonic images a full 90 degrees to the left or right. I love the SDA sound and the illusion it provides but my listening position has always been super tight to keep that illusion balanced. While listening to Karen Carpenter I can hear the piano well to the right of the speaker but if I move my head a few inches it collapes and the piano shifts to right edge of the speaker. Maybe I'm doing something wrong:(

stevep

I was lucky to have 5 mins with Stu before the room started to fill up.

I was impressed with the L800's ability to throw images far outside the space between the two towers but I had trouble with the images rest of the soundstage. They seemed compressed and overlapping. I can't say if that was due to my ears, the room, the source recording, or the speakers but it was disappointing considering how strong the images were at the extremes.

SIHAB

I'm out.

ptrooper

Is this comparing to your 1.2tl's or what other polks?

stevep wrote: »

I was lucky to have 5 mins with Stu before the room started to fill up.

I was impressed with the L800's ability to throw images far outside the space between the two towers but I had trouble with the images rest of the soundstage. They seemed compressed and overlapping. I can't say if that was due to my ears, the room, the source recording, or the speakers but it was disappointing considering how strong the images were at the extremes.

aprazer402

mhardy6647 wrote: »

nooshinjohn wrote: »

is that Masonite paneling or lauan on the back wall?

Looking at the vertical boards above the red curtains (there appears to be windows behind the curtains) the variety of the grain in the boards leads me to believe the wall is not paneling, but individual oak boards butted together vertically. The sheen is pretty glossy where the lights shines on them near the top, so I would guess a poly or lacquer was applied. I may be wrong, it's hard to tell from a photo. We used to call Lauan or Luan, Filipino mahogany years ago.

Tony M

I had a jam session with my SRS2s and other sets today.
The sound stage was the size of that paneling. This song was like a live stage act!
Seriously.
I forgot to add this...I hope the new SDAs can match the magic I heard today.
https://youtu.be/tfeV2ZDP3UY

verb

Tears for beers fears! Love em!

verb

Oleta Adams kills it on Woman in Chains! I picked up a few of her solo albums.

Tony M

She seems to be an excellent tweeter test voice.
https://youtu.be/QzkK3ZtI9SU

mpitogo

Heard them, pretty amazing!

DarqueKnight

soupbone wrote: »

Well...I must have been doing something wrong that last 33 years. Three different houses and a lot of different equipment. My image has always been high & wide with lack of depth. So wide that, while on the second floor, I've checked the porch door for someone knocking while listening to Phil Collins, One More Night. I've been startled out of my mind with sonic images a full 90 degrees to the left or right. I love the SDA sound and the illusion it provides but my listening position has always been super tight to keep that illusion balanced. While listening to Karen Carpenter I can hear the piano well to the right of the speaker but if I move my head a few inches it collapes and the piano shifts to right edge of the speaker. Maybe I'm doing something wrong:(

Thank you for further details.

The kind of imaging collapse you experience is typical of what I hear with most conventional speakers, but never with SDAs, not even with electronics of mid-level performance capability. The lack of depth you describe is also of concern.

What you describe could be caused by some defect in the crossover (miswiring or bad component) or the characteristics of your hearing, or a combination of the two. The noise characteristics of audio electronics can also cause imaging anomalies. Whatever the cause, as I, and others on the forum, and even Matthew Polk have stated, what you have been experiencing runs counter to the design and performance of SDAs.

DarqueKnight

stevep wrote: »

I was lucky to have 5 mins with Stu before the room started to fill up.

Which dealer hosted this event?

WLDock

verb wrote: »

Oleta Adams kills it on Woman in Chains! I picked up a few of her solo albums.

Tony M wrote: »

She seems to be an excellent tweeter test voice.

On man, I'm a sucker for 80's- early 90's Pop, British Invasion, R&B, Pop Rock, House Music, Dance stuff. Tears for Fears, Oleta Adams, yeah man! The Mrs. says I get stuck in that era...she's right.

Verb, did you get the 'Circle of One' album? Its a nice album, I love the songs "Get Here", and "Everything Must Change"

If you like Oleta, you might like these;

Anita Baker - 'You Bring Me Joy'
Regina Belle - 'Make it Like it Was'
Brenda Russell - 'Piano In The Dark'
Randy Crawford - 'Street life'

verb

Oh yeah! I have Circle of One, and Best Of. Love em!

mpitogo

I have a stereo pair of L800 on the way from a local dealer, paper work all signed... before what comes next below. Of course I listened to them first and was impressed before signing. I was not totally blown away since these show rooms tend to have issues but I can still hear the potential.

Continuing from my post 319 above

So after coming back for a second listening, still impressive. I asked a few questions and it sparked a discussion around something I think everyone should know about the SDA interconnect between L/R speakers.

If your amps are balanced differential then the SDA effect will not be as pronounced because the SDA signal will lose half of the waveform produced. At least that was my interpretation from Scott Orth.

I love the sound of my McIntosh with the LSiM 707 but the new L800 SDA brought in a new listening dimension and I would like to take advantage of it but I will not give up my amp. I'm now a bit worried the true potential of why I'm buying the L800 in the first place will be moot as the dimensional array will not function correctly.

I have an RB-1590 in the closet and it was not my favorite amp with my LSiM 707s. While it was adequate, it did not provide the liveliness and full bodied sound I found from my Quad Balanced McIntosh. The latter I felt had more slam and oompf while at the same time the smoothness and finesse to handle the speaker. I realize the RB-1590 maybe more suitable for the SDA since it is not a true balanced amp design end to end so will feed the SDA cable the full signal. To me the RB-1590 is nice but a down grade.

Besides the SDA dilemma another realization today was that the LSiM 707 are not "8 ohm" speakers they are "8 ohm compatible" speakers which are per Polk Audio realistically closer to 4 ohm speakers. All this time I have been incorrectly using the 8 ohm taps on my amp. I will need to experiment and see if the magic is gone when moving to the 4 ohm taps.

Yikes I am in for a world of hurt.

Is there a way tweak trick SDA to get a the full waveform from a balanced amp? Do anyone who own the older SDA use balanced amps with your setup?

REL article on balanced amps

verb

Well, congrats on your purchase of the L800's!

ptrooper

Wow,Yes,Gratz on the purchase.I bet all your worries disappear while your running them in!
Can't wait on our feed back.

I gather Scott must know this and informed you from the manual supplied with the floor stock L800's ?
Are the left and right channels truely isolated!
I wouldn't want anything that removes half of the wave form to each channel .

motorstereo

Congrats to you on your purchase and I'm looking forward to your impressions on them and especially paired with your Mcintosh gear.
I run my modded 1.2tl's with a pair of fully balanced mc1201's (the phrase quad balanced hadn't been coined yet) and I honestly could not be happier with that pairing. I've used several different amps over the years and the 1201's make them sound their very best by a long shot. If there is a diminished sda effect (there's not) I haven't noticed it.
Perhaps your dealer may let you try a non Mac amp with similar specs just to put your mind at ease?

Emlyn

The article above from REL concerns McIntosh monoblock amplifiers, which the MC452 is not. It's a single chassis stereo amplifier that puts out a lot of power regardless of speaker load. The MC452 does use what they call "Quad Balanced" technology that McIntosh has used for a very long time because people like the sound it produces (i.e. euphonic distortion that's pleasant to the ears).

I would use the MC452 and see how it sounds then compare the SDA imaging with a different amp. My bet is the MC452 will still sound better than the Rotel.

Here's a good review from earlier this year of the update to the MC452 that explains what's going on inside that type of amp, and the comment section is pretty informative too:

https://www.stereophile.com/content/mcintosh-laboratory-mc462-power-amplifier

mpitogo

Thank appreciate the feedback. Hoping I am worrying for noting when they land next week. They don’t do Saturday delivery 🤨

@Emlyn yes the REL article did not mention it since it was referring to monoblocks, I couldn’t find similar articles but it does refer to amp topology at the bottom. Single ended vs balanced different. The topology is the same in the MC452 in a shared chassis.