realysm42
06-09-2012, 21:21
Greg from G-point audio kindly arranged a home demo with a couple of bits and pieces, they were the :
*Lampizator (level 2 I think) dac,
*Franc isolation platforms and
*Albedo Geo cables (I'm not 100% sure on this, perhaps Greg can confirm with the cables).
The reason for the ambiguity was the main point of interest for me was the platforms, everything else was supplementary.
First thing we setup was the Lampizator, shame I didn't get a picture of it for scale purposes, it's bigger than my amp! Build quality was impressive. One clever feature was the fact the valves can be reached without having to open the unit (from underneath).
Setup was simple enough; installation of drivers (which weren't too easy to find, the website could do with a cleanup!) but Greg foudn them and e were off.
This is my first experience of valve technology in action, I've never noticed things in my system improving as they heat up but this was certainly the case here. At first it sounded ok, but nothing more than that. 5 minutes later and I was pretty gob smacked by what I heard, compared to my M-dac the music was controlled with more authority, whoever says valves have poor discipline with bass needs to check this thing out. I like drum and bass and it threw out bass with seeming ease and kept everything together with solid timing, the whole while remaining extremely musical, firm but fair for sure.
I was impressed to learn of the number of options available in terms of custom builds, you can choose features you do and don't want, so you don't pay for things you'll never use and can send it back if you upgrade/change your mind in future, an excellent approach allowing the customer to decide on what value looks like to them.
We put my M-dac back in the system and then put in the Franc isolation platforms:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/realysm42/Image1254.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/realysm42/Image1255.jpg
These are the 'skinny' platforms in place. Things to note:
Build quality and finish are superb, I love the sytling, and they just feel like extremely well made products.
They are big! They can also be made to order however.
They are constructed in two parts, the white section is a special resin, I don't know what it is (I don't think I'm meant to :eyebrows:) and the black section is pure aluminium. They aren't just plonked ontop of one another; there are ceramic balls between them. I'm sure Greg can give a better description of them, technically.
The 'fat' ones were considerably thicker in the white secion, apparently the skinny ones are good to 150kg, the fats up to 250; as you might guess I don't need the latter!
Okay so the important bit, how do they sound?
I never knew my speakers had this level of expression in them. My brother was with me when we first heard them and we just looked at eachother as if to say, can you hear what I'm hearing?
I bought some Granite platforms from André on this forum, they upped my sound a lot. I read an article about granite sucking the life out of sound (but is better than nothing, especially in my flat).
This was an entirely different ball game. I always thought it was bollocks when people say the sound stage opened up in front of me (etc). I think it's because I'd never heard it happen before. It did for the first time with these. I just went from genre to genre listening to see how my favourite tunes sounded, classical music to drum and bass, indie, drone; it all sounded incredible.
New detail was revealed at the top, little parts of songs I'd never heard before came out to play and what I had heard before sounded much more together; incredible. The bass from my bookshelfs became more controlled and articulate, vocals sounded incredible, with extra air added to them, I think one of my comments when a particular favourite tune kicked in was "F*cking hell". Articulate I know.
These things aren't cheap. When you factor in the build and what they can do for your system, I wouldn't think twice about including them. The danger for me was always that I was going to like them and I do. It's a pleasure for me to do this write up because I think they aren't a well known brand but honestly, if you use granite, live on suspended flooring or are curious about what your speakers can really do, I urge you to consider these things, I'm never going to sell them (yes I'm keeping the large ones as I plan to upgrade my speakers at some point).
Interestingly, all of the above (with the Franc platforms) was done without my full RDC cone setup under my speaker stands. I later added them and the sound improved again. Also, the speaker stands vibrated more than the speakers themselves when real volume was applied, this had never happened before and showed the huge improvement that the platforms had made to the stands performance (and thus overall sound).
I tried the fat one out under my sub and really gave it some, full bass on some incredibly low end heavy tracks and it made an impressive difference, the floor no longer shook, everything was absorbed by the platform and it sounded a lot cleaner for it. Unfortunately right now I just can't have three in my system. When I can I know where I'll be looking :)
Ah the Geo cable. It's a phono cable. Very attractive build and finish (first good quality phono cable I've ever seen/handled in the flesh). I tried it in place of my TQ black XLR. It was interesting, completely changed the sound. Where the TQ grabs the music by the scruff these took a different approach entirely. They weren't relaxed, but they were calmer and more delicate; things sounded silky and refined. I don't have any jazz and forgot to check my classical (I have one CD of that, lol) but I imagine it would sound great with those genres. Greg said they actually start from scratch with these cables, not just re-badge the stuff, etc.
I'd just like to thank Greg for driving miles to meet me, carry tonnes of gear up 3 flights of stairs and allow me to play music for 3 hours solid whilst checking all of the gear out.
I appreciate his friendly and honest attitude and approach with regards to the gear. Real nice chap to do business with and I thorouhly recommend his services.
(Disclaimer: this is the first kind of indepth review I've ever really written, so apologies if I go off on any tangents or haven't structured it very well, hope it's of some use).
*Lampizator (level 2 I think) dac,
*Franc isolation platforms and
*Albedo Geo cables (I'm not 100% sure on this, perhaps Greg can confirm with the cables).
The reason for the ambiguity was the main point of interest for me was the platforms, everything else was supplementary.
First thing we setup was the Lampizator, shame I didn't get a picture of it for scale purposes, it's bigger than my amp! Build quality was impressive. One clever feature was the fact the valves can be reached without having to open the unit (from underneath).
Setup was simple enough; installation of drivers (which weren't too easy to find, the website could do with a cleanup!) but Greg foudn them and e were off.
This is my first experience of valve technology in action, I've never noticed things in my system improving as they heat up but this was certainly the case here. At first it sounded ok, but nothing more than that. 5 minutes later and I was pretty gob smacked by what I heard, compared to my M-dac the music was controlled with more authority, whoever says valves have poor discipline with bass needs to check this thing out. I like drum and bass and it threw out bass with seeming ease and kept everything together with solid timing, the whole while remaining extremely musical, firm but fair for sure.
I was impressed to learn of the number of options available in terms of custom builds, you can choose features you do and don't want, so you don't pay for things you'll never use and can send it back if you upgrade/change your mind in future, an excellent approach allowing the customer to decide on what value looks like to them.
We put my M-dac back in the system and then put in the Franc isolation platforms:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/realysm42/Image1254.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/realysm42/Image1255.jpg
These are the 'skinny' platforms in place. Things to note:
Build quality and finish are superb, I love the sytling, and they just feel like extremely well made products.
They are big! They can also be made to order however.
They are constructed in two parts, the white section is a special resin, I don't know what it is (I don't think I'm meant to :eyebrows:) and the black section is pure aluminium. They aren't just plonked ontop of one another; there are ceramic balls between them. I'm sure Greg can give a better description of them, technically.
The 'fat' ones were considerably thicker in the white secion, apparently the skinny ones are good to 150kg, the fats up to 250; as you might guess I don't need the latter!
Okay so the important bit, how do they sound?
I never knew my speakers had this level of expression in them. My brother was with me when we first heard them and we just looked at eachother as if to say, can you hear what I'm hearing?
I bought some Granite platforms from André on this forum, they upped my sound a lot. I read an article about granite sucking the life out of sound (but is better than nothing, especially in my flat).
This was an entirely different ball game. I always thought it was bollocks when people say the sound stage opened up in front of me (etc). I think it's because I'd never heard it happen before. It did for the first time with these. I just went from genre to genre listening to see how my favourite tunes sounded, classical music to drum and bass, indie, drone; it all sounded incredible.
New detail was revealed at the top, little parts of songs I'd never heard before came out to play and what I had heard before sounded much more together; incredible. The bass from my bookshelfs became more controlled and articulate, vocals sounded incredible, with extra air added to them, I think one of my comments when a particular favourite tune kicked in was "F*cking hell". Articulate I know.
These things aren't cheap. When you factor in the build and what they can do for your system, I wouldn't think twice about including them. The danger for me was always that I was going to like them and I do. It's a pleasure for me to do this write up because I think they aren't a well known brand but honestly, if you use granite, live on suspended flooring or are curious about what your speakers can really do, I urge you to consider these things, I'm never going to sell them (yes I'm keeping the large ones as I plan to upgrade my speakers at some point).
Interestingly, all of the above (with the Franc platforms) was done without my full RDC cone setup under my speaker stands. I later added them and the sound improved again. Also, the speaker stands vibrated more than the speakers themselves when real volume was applied, this had never happened before and showed the huge improvement that the platforms had made to the stands performance (and thus overall sound).
I tried the fat one out under my sub and really gave it some, full bass on some incredibly low end heavy tracks and it made an impressive difference, the floor no longer shook, everything was absorbed by the platform and it sounded a lot cleaner for it. Unfortunately right now I just can't have three in my system. When I can I know where I'll be looking :)
Ah the Geo cable. It's a phono cable. Very attractive build and finish (first good quality phono cable I've ever seen/handled in the flesh). I tried it in place of my TQ black XLR. It was interesting, completely changed the sound. Where the TQ grabs the music by the scruff these took a different approach entirely. They weren't relaxed, but they were calmer and more delicate; things sounded silky and refined. I don't have any jazz and forgot to check my classical (I have one CD of that, lol) but I imagine it would sound great with those genres. Greg said they actually start from scratch with these cables, not just re-badge the stuff, etc.
I'd just like to thank Greg for driving miles to meet me, carry tonnes of gear up 3 flights of stairs and allow me to play music for 3 hours solid whilst checking all of the gear out.
I appreciate his friendly and honest attitude and approach with regards to the gear. Real nice chap to do business with and I thorouhly recommend his services.
(Disclaimer: this is the first kind of indepth review I've ever really written, so apologies if I go off on any tangents or haven't structured it very well, hope it's of some use).