Brian Cox Speakers

He obviously gone deaf....lol

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks they are dreadful. And the price is ludicrous for what you're getting.

Looks like he has a nice big room there. He could get some speakers that don't need to be rammed up against the wall.

Surprised you would be keen on any of them Paul.

I did wonder about that given he's a physics professor why he would go for valves and such odd, coloured speakers. But I suppose he has what he likes as we all do.

Not much to dislike about the bouncy fun of Snell K or J's.  Accurate?  not in the uncoloured sense but good fun.  E's?  Nah....especially An/E'S.  They use the cab panel resonance as part of their bass/system sensitivity along with tight to wall bass lift (ie no baffle step) to get their claimed bass extension output (which I think is cheating).  Like all large thin wall designs of this nature (apart perhaps from the older active Harbeth M40s which needed a large space to work properly) they sound muddy and incredibly coloured in the lower bass, unsurprisingly.  Their slate fronted one is better in this respect as it isn't acting as much like an out of phase large panel driver in it's own right!

AN-E are a real mixed bunch depending on the variant. Some, usually the lower priced ones, can be pretty decent in terms of neutrality. It seems the more you pay the more colourations you get - I have heard some truly appalling high end models (no names ). Jake Lordmortlock had a pair not too far up the range that were very listenable.

Still coloured? Yes, sure - but unlike a few AN-Es I have heard I could enjoy music without gaping in sheer disbelief at the literally ludcicrous levels of colouration on display.

Anyway, BC has AN-J - great fun with boppy music. I can imagine them as a carry-over from his days in student digs.

There's nothing wrong with the mid and top on them it's just that bass. First time I heard them I just couldn't get over it.

Audionote in general - I get where they are coming from and I get why for some people it's the end game. Despite the bass they still have some of the more 'listenable' rooms at shows. It's just not for me.

Audionote speakers big bouncy and fun with no rough edges, accuracy like a naim amplifier not much, but they are fun to listen to construction humm, not the best. Can see why people like them.

Mind you Mr Cox should know better, mind you perhaps his hearing suffered after that time in D-Ream?

AN amplifiers are responsible for a lot of that wooliness. They make this:




....sound like this:




Their mega output impedance and high distortion doesn't do them any favours at all.  I'm sorry....I just don't get the whole AN thing.  The only amp I've ever liked was the Otto SE but only then with horn speakers or other speakers not needing much DF.  The higher up the range the worse, imho, they've sounded.

Do you mean you heard a system with it in and you weren't impressed with the sound you were hearing from the system? Speakers and room ruled out? Once went with a mate to Neat Audio when he was after some speakers. They had some Celestion SL6s. We had a listen. After all I'd read about them I was expecting Great Things. I (and my mate) were both a bit surprised at the sat-on sound they had. The copper tweeter was supposed to sound a bit obvious, I'd read, but the top-end sounded pretty muted. Unsympathetic pairing with amp? Can't remember what it was now. Anyway, my mate went for a pair of B&W 110s which were about half the price of the SL6s when both were new. They just had more life and dynism in their presentation.

Maybe just a build up of ear wax. 🤓

Not sure what the uk AN amps are like but a Kondo m7 is one of the best pres I've ever heard. Simply stunning into big mono Nat power amps and the biggest of the old style art audio speakers. Utterly visceral.

Unsurprisingly, nothing being sacred or really protected when it comes to Chinese cloning these days, I found this on Ebay:

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254601451461

Your very own M7 clone (minus casework, valves and a transformer) for £90-odd. It would be interesting to see how such clones tested.

There doesn't seem to be anything remarkable about the design really.  One side looks like power and rectification (looks like it's in part valve rectified and a lot really depends on that performing well...these days it seems more sensible to use fully solid state rectification to avoid the inherent issues with valve rectifiers.  The translation isn't great...I'm assuming that they are referring to a blue Alps pot on this one?  It might make for a fun project for someone.