Set-up and installation
Contents
We receive a brand new set of speakers, and so we let them play a bit and let them get used to their new environment. We use them next to our television and immediately notice the exceptionally high intelligibility of the dialogues. We don’t have to turn up the volume to understand what is being said. A second positive experience comes when we listen to some radio. The open character of the loudspeaker is once again (very) clear. You can hear the acoustics of the studio, the crackling of a chair or a voice talking close to the mic. A promising start.
We get the advise from the importer to look for the best setup and we take that advice to heart. Eventually we choose for our small space and place the monitor-speakers relatively close (50cm) to the back wall decoupled by our IsoAcoustics Aperta stands. In our large space we soon noticed that they were not going to make it…
Control
The Hegel H120 and our Benchmark set effortlessly drive the Black 50 but still the sound was not quite right. In the end we choose the fantastic Keces E40 which with its warm sound, in class A, turns out to be the ideal partner and adds some extra ‘oomph’ at the bottom. The better the speaker or component, the more time and effort you have to put in to get it right… We almost used no toe-in this time.Â
The Russell K Black 50 replaces a set of Vienna Acoustics Haydn Jubilee in our second set:
- Keces E40
- Denafrips Ares 2
- Nad M50
- Norstone Stylum 2
- IsoAcoustics Aperta
- Wiring: Supra Sword, Dion DI75, Qed XT40