sgg5e@dale.acc.Virginia.EDU (Stephen G. Graber) (03/19/90)
Well, its a done deal- I prefer the sound of the SP10 to the SP14.
While there are some interesting comparisons between the two in the end it
was an easy choice and what I prefer in the SP10 was immediately apparent
after 5 minutes or so of listening. However I listened back and forth for
much of a weekend in the interest of confirmation and a thorough evaluation.
In the interest of an overall summary one could imagine a continuum
from the detailed but hard, grainy, edgy flat sound of the Motif to the
overly honeyed, somewhat blurred lush sound of the PV9. On such a scale the
ARCs would fall in the middle with the SP14 toward the Motif and the SP10
toward the PV9. Such an oversimplification isn't really fair and doesn't
give one an appreciation for the differences between the 10 and 14 which are
significant and not really subtle.
I preferred the SP10 because of its much greater presence and its much
greater ability to give a sense of layered depth to the sound stage. Its an
astonishing thing to hear and quite hard to describe. However once heard
its very hard to give up. Imagine a soundstage as deep as it is wide, with
the instruments etc. just as clearly placed front to back as they are left
to right. (Almost made me want to listen to the speakers 90 degrees from my
normal listening seat!) That's actually not too great an exaggeration. The
SP10 also sounds softer and lusher than the 14 though you shouldn't get the
impression that the 14 is edgy or grainy- its actually very smooth with a
real liquid quality to its sound. Overall the 14 probably presents more
detail and is just a tad better at both frequency extremes (moreso in the
bass) than the 10- but the 10 is sufficiently detailed and somehow just more
credible. The sense of slam on orchestral crescendos is also greater on the
10 than the 14. As silly as it sounds it was easier to forget I was
listening to a hi-fi system with the 10 than with the 14. Somehow the 14
always managed to remind me that this was only a record after all. (Maybe
thats good- afterall this stuff never really touches "live" for me).
So I kept the 10- I'm wondering what kind of reliability it will give-
surely there must be things other than the tubes that eventually go in these
things. It also wasn't as good a "deal" as the 14. The 14 seems to be a
"hot new product" that should keep its resale value for a while. The 14
with only one tube and all the niceties of being "brand new" would certainly
be more reliable and less maintenance. But then there's the sound, and in
the end that was all that really mattered for me.
HAPPY LISTENING ALL!
Steve Graber work: (804) 924-9976
UVa Dept. Pharmacology home: (804) 973-1283
sgg5e@dale.acc.virginia.edu