TheFlash

I have absolutely no need of any more amplifiers. These are absolutely fabulous looking. Pass designs are highly regarded. I've just won the lottery so I'll take them One of the above statements is untrue.

Sorry, Rick, I hadn't realised it was you who posted the link to the review: I would have been far more cutting in my response! When I've got used to the IA-4, I might just have to borrow an ANV-50 again...

Agreed! You’d think if you were looking for £40k, you’d show off their, er, distinctive looks to full effect.

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/123948091393

This review, now online, was in print last year. I had a different experience I'm afraid; I so wanted to love it but it didn't make me smile... like the A21 or like the "pre-loved" IA-4 I subsequently got for £1000 less. Pity, as a good looker and far more sensible!

Track 1:

Smart. Marriage-threatening but smart!

Nice post! The very best upgrade you can possibly make is to attend a Wam show. You know this. Otherwise, what you think might be an upgrade might turn out to be a downgrade or a sidegrade (new word). I feel for you. It is a pity that you have to make so much effort to hear other loudspeakers, partly because "expectation bias" will want you to convinve yourself that whatever difference you hear is an improvement and you haven't "wasted" your time... of course if you don't like what you hear, that is a natural reaction but if you hear something you don't like then you should congratulate yourself for not buying it just on reviews and recommendations. Best wishes, Nigel

We have tenuous - very tenuous - connections to the Coleridge "thing". My wife is a yoga teacher and for the past 10 years or so we have hosted weekend yoga retreats at Nab Cottage nr Rydal http://rydalwater.com/about/. de Quincey lived here and there is a small room off the passageway known, none too fancifully, as the opium den. Coleridge's son Hartley lived and died here. Tim and Liz are fabulous hosts; the place is an English language school for the summer.

For those less well-read Wammers (no, I know: of course we're all well-read!): https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43997/the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner-text-of-1834 It's a sad story. An albatross is harmed during the making of this poem. A mariner is also harmed, though reversibly. But don't let that worry you. Coleridge was a shyte (old spelling) poet. He couldn't even spell "rhyme". Appalling.

I'm like a track stuck on repeat (we used to say like a broekn record but I'm not sure many people know what that means these days!) but here goes: the SCM40's are a fabulous speaker. They do need some "oomph" but given this they perform admirably... ... until you hear the active SCM40A's which are a very special speaker indeed. Here in UK they cost £3,000 more than the passives but sound £10k+ better. Seriously. They rarely come up used as you can't get anywhere near the performance for anywhere near the money. I don't suppose you are able to surprise us all by paying a visit to our annual show in mid-March at Kegworth, central England, are you? If so, you would be welcome to visit my home to here mine. My "preamp" is actually an Arcam A49 integrated so nothing exotic, but the sound is, well, wonderful. Nigel

Great system, good luck with this.

Fabulous. I think @ian917 may still have his DIDiT.

Indeed I have. The more clearly defined “shape” of bass notes is the only significant difference I noted; I’d struggle to imagine anyone who regularly enjoys recorded music not hearing the same difference. To my ears this difference made the hi-res preferable.

Result! Yesterday I reinstalled the original crossovers in the black speakers (you will recall they were used as the basis for clones for the teaks), reinstalled the lower foam and bass reflex port and reattached the marble/granite plinths. Nick popped over today so "we" could re-solder the original drivers. We split the tasks as equitably as ever: Nick did the soldering, I made him coffee , oohed and ahed at how clever he is, and screwed the soldered drivers into place. We carried the blacks and the teaks (which now had 200+ hours on them) from the stable into the lounge and wired them up to the Arcam A49 which had revealed the scale of the performance difference back in November. Blacks first up, teaks to follow. Very similar performance, with the teaks perhaps marginally tighter in the bass. Neither speaker does deep bass but what is there is nice and the overall presentation is extremely enjoyable. Relief! The project is hereby declared a success and further experimentation - swapping of drivers, which may have been required if the blacks had prevailed - is unnecessary. I'd still like to put granite plinths on the teaks as per original spec but this can wait and is straightforward apart from sourcing stuff. The black ones will be the core of my system at Kegworth. They will most likely be for sale. Massive shout-out to Nick @Fourlegs for going well beyond the statutory definition of friendship. EDIT: I forgot to give a Wam shoutout to Willy's HiFi for their wonderful service. Will recommended and provided the excellent replacement/equivalent mid-bass units and more importantly used their extremely clever software to reverse engineer the identically performing crossovers.