Thank you twotones and baffleport for your reviews.
Hoping to time my order for a UK Friday delivery. I think if I order early on Thursday then that will be fine.
Andrew
Location: Royston Vasey
Posts: 217
I'm AndrewR.
Thank you twotones and baffleport for your reviews.
Hoping to time my order for a UK Friday delivery. I think if I order early on Thursday then that will be fine.
Andrew
Andrew Randle
My SEG is here to stay. Yamaha amp switched to Pure Direct. First track, Don’t Misunderstand, Melody Gardot, Currency of Man. A lot is happening at the begin; her voice, an organ, cymbals, a bass line, swelling violins, SEG doesn’t even blink but does an outstanding job in clarity and detail. Heard things I’ve never heard before.
Second track, JK’s drum improvisation. Cymbals crisp and clear, toms and base drum excellent, you can hear kettle resonance. SEG delivers outstanding dynamics, this sounds better to me than Caiman II.
Die Tänzerin (the dancer), Ulla Meinecke. Great rhythm pattern and keyboard sound, surround experience with only two loudspeakers, a deep ‘holographic sounding’ track, Caiman SEG reveals it all.
Bruce Hornsby, Intersections, Song A, C and H. Great analog sounding piano pieces, I feel part of this intimate session, pure earcandy.
I can go on and on but I won’t. In a nutshell, SEG is Caiman II on steroids. The separation ability of individual instruments is what it’s all about, but also dynamics have been enormously improved compared with Caiman. No tone adjustments are needed here. For this SEG, you can draw a cheque.
Location: Royston Vasey
Posts: 217
I'm AndrewR.
Now I'm waiting for the Caiman SEG
Likely to arrive tomorrow.
Andrew
Andrew Randle
Location: Royston Vasey
Posts: 217
I'm AndrewR.
Last edited by AndrewR; 14-05-2018 at 10:28. Reason: update
Andrew Randle
Location: Glasgow, UK
Posts: 2,076
I'm Tony.
Location: Royston Vasey
Posts: 217
I'm AndrewR.
Location: Royston Vasey
Posts: 217
I'm AndrewR.
Hi Baffleport,
Tonally the SEG I have is sounding brighter, with an electronic edge to it - which my Caiman II never exhibited (in fact the Caiman really does sound analogue). There is also less bass heft and decay than the Caiman II.
It could be a burn-in issue.
The 300B SET amplifiers I designed and built have a 50k ohm input impedance and a single set of input sockets to their potentiometers. So it won't be anything to do with switching, sockets and impedance matching.
There are some good points to the SEG (i.e. some additional background detail, treble responsiveness and spatial elements to the sound, maybe a little more tuneful lilt), but they are out-weighed by some tonal shortfalls. Hoping it is a burn-in situation, and that I can report back with an improvement by the end of the week.
Andrew
Andrew
Last edited by AndrewR; 14-05-2018 at 20:00. Reason: Clarification
Andrew Randle
Location: Glasgow, UK
Posts: 2,076
I'm Tony.
That's weird Andrew, right out of the box the SEG I have sounded totally analogue, wonderful in fact, but I've nothing really compare it to DAC wise except a Maplins DAC that I was using for the TV but it sounds like vinyl to me if I compare it to my TT and it sounds about ten times better than FM but totally analogue compared to my FM tuner which is an Arcam T31 and it also sounds like the Arcam DVD27A that I'm using as a transport which is very analogue sounding if you listen to the Arcam with the inbuilt DAC, there isn't much in it though both the SEG and the Arcam are really analogue sounding so much so that when I first listened to the Arcam (only had it about two weeks) I thought about selling it on cause I'm not used to hearing CD sound like a record.
I've had mine for about ten days and I've not noticed any difference really just sounds the same as it did right out of the box and it's been on for most of that time.