It’s getting tense here at Thorpe Manor. As I begin writing this editorial on October 15, I’m getting set to cover Audio Video Show 2024, which starts on October 25, on location in Warsaw. It seems like just yesterday I was counting down three weeks until departure, which felt like plenty of time to get my editorial finished, wrap up a review, and pack at my leisure.
Besides the need to get started on the usual trip-related stuff (pick up dry cleaning, buy more Metamucil), I just found out that another pair of man-sized speakers is incoming. Currently, there’s only a single pair of DALI Epikore 9s in North America—and they’re about to land on my doorstep. This is a very good thing, given the wonderful time I had with the Epikore 11s. Gods above, I loved those speakers, as you can no doubt infer from my review.
So, yay! New speakers! All good, right? Well, yes, I’m very much looking forward to listening to this slightly downsized version of a speaker that blew my socks off, but was just a tiny bit too large for my room. The Epikore 9 promises to be the baby-bear, just-right speaker for my room and my life.
One of the speakers is being delivered to me this coming Friday, October 18, by Lenbrook Industries, which distributes DALI in North America. Doug Schneider is picking the other one up from Lenbrook and taking it back to Ottawa to have it measured in the anechoic chamber at the National Research Council. Once that is done, he’ll double back and drive another four and a half hours to drop it off at my place.
The complication here is one that I imagine won’t elicit much sympathy.
Currently in for review are quite possibly the best speakers I’ve ever had the pleasure of evaluating. The equally man-sized Bowers & Wilkins 801 D4 Signatures, which I’m listening to as I write this, weigh 220 pounds each, and, in their Midnight Blue Metallic finish, look as spectacular as they sound. I’ve nearly completed the review, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you, but I still need a week or two to tidy things up. And then there’s packing and shipment to deal with.
As you’ll read, my experience with the 801 D4 Signatures was as close to life-changing as it’s possible to get in this sedentary sport. If I could pick one speaker to live with forever—irrespective of price—I think this would be it. I will be sad to see them go.
But no matter! The Epikore 9s promise to deliver a different kind of excitement, and I’m jazzed that they’re coming. They are brand-new, though, and will need to loosen up a bit before I begin to listen hard.
“Hey Rob,” I said to my newly minted audiophile neighbor after I sent him a link to the Epikore 9s, “how would you like to listen to these speakers?” Rob has had some seriously high-end gear cycle through his house as part of the My Audiophile Neighborhood blog series over on SoundStage! Global. He’s had a pair of YG Acoustics Ascents, some high-end subwoofers from SVS, and a number of supporting components in there, so he’s developed a taste for good sound. Rob heard the Epikore 11s at my house when I reviewed them, and he just loved the sound and the look of those formidable speakers.
So a day after I sent that offer via text, Rob stopped over for a rye and ginger and expressed great interest in my proposal. In fact, he was positively ecstatic, and he began to scheme immediately. “Do you think the Hegel H90 has enough power for them? Or should we get the Kinki Studio EX-M1+ integrated back from Ron?” I took a sip of my drink and reflected with satisfaction at how craftily I had indoctrinated this poor fellow into the sad, sad world of neurotic audiophilia.
I’ll cover the actual insertion of the Epikore 9s into Rob’s house in a future instalment of My Audiophile Neighborhood. For now, I’ve got a few more days of listening to the Bowers & Wilkins 801 Signatures before jetting off to Warsaw. I intend to spend as much time down here as possible wallowing in the huge, juicy soundstage these things project.
And back to Rob for a second—I guess I owe him one. When we were moving the 801s into my room, he smashed his finger right good as we were lifting them over the half-step threshold that was the sole barrier to entry. It was a good one that took a couple of weeks to heal, so enjoy those Epikore 9s while I’m in Warsaw, Rob.
I just heard back from Doug. It’s now October 17, and the Epikore 9 has been measured at the NRC. We won’t have the results back before I submit this editorial, so you’ll have to wait for the review to see how it measures. Given what I know about DALI, I don’t expect any surprises.
A new piece of excitement: last night I was walking down the stairs, and Marlow the dog decided to scamper down beside me. I took a step and stood right on one of his front paws. My foot slipped and I was gone, surfing down about six steps on my back. I lay there for a minute, gathering myself and trying to determine whether I was injured. Everything seemed to work okay, so I figured I was just hurt and there was no need to yell for help. But, goddammit, that hurt. My back is sore today, so it’s ice and anti-inflammatories for lunch. I’m sure I’ll be fine, but I didn’t need this right before getting on a plane for an eight-hour flight.
That dog is living on the edge. Late last year we had him unzipped to retrieve a sock he couldn’t digest, and just last month he broke into Marcia’s medication drawer and ate a full bottle of progesterone gel caps—Marlow was tripping balls all night and part of the next day, and we were not certain he’d make it. But he survived, and now the rat bastard is trying to take me out.
But that’s my worry, not yours. Even so, my now-aching back isn’t going to help me schlep those Epikore 9s up into Rob’s house, or back into mine after we return from Warsaw. Further aggravating my recovery will be the need to manhandle the new BAT REX 300 power amplifier that just this minute landed outside my front door. It’s “only” 70 pounds decanted, but I think I may also need Rob’s assistance.
Friday morning, October 18. As if I needed more excitement, tonight I’m heading to Massey Hall here in Toronto to see “BEAT - Belew/Vai/Levin/Carey Play 80s King Crimson.” I’ve mentioned King Crimson in many of my reviews, and this time period, encompassing the albums Discipline, Beat, and Three of a Perfect Pair, is my favorite by far.
Way back when I was 17 years old, a friend had an extra ticket to the Discipline tour at the Masonic Temple here in Toronto. At that time, I was not familiar with King Crimson, and had only ever heard “21st Century Schizoid Man,” but hey, a free concert? Why not?
While we waited outside the venue, a man walked down the line asking each attendee if they would like to purchase some LSD. My friend and I were old enough to know better but too young to care, and we each took two hits of powerful white blotter acid. The effects came on strong as we entered the hall, and by the time the lights went out and the show started, I was in small squares, fully pixellated.
Now, Discipline was—and still is, I believe—like no other music. Polyrhythmic to an extreme level, with insanely complicated time signatures, repetitive guitars with sliding synchronization, innovative drumming techniques . . . there’s so much going on here. And this concert turned poor young Jason’s head around in a way that still resonates today.
The Discipline concert sent me headlong into a search for more music like that fractal, dissonant, crystalline experience. In a frenzy of association, I latched on to Bill Bruford’s solo work, Talking Heads, Allan Holdsworth, Brand X, and numerous other fringe progressive bands. It was one of the most important formative experiences of my life. So yeah, I’m excited about tonight’s concert, you betcha.
It’s Saturday morning now, and the concert was wonderful. How could it not have been? Steve Vai sitting in for Robert Fripp, Danny Carey of Tool spelling for Bill Bruford, and original members Adrian Belew and Tony Levin keeping it real. I’m going to write about the concert, and about the Steven Wilson remixes of the three ’80s KC albums, in my next For the Record column. Right now, I’m waiting for Doug to deliver the measured Epikore 9 so we can set the speakers up in Rob’s place to give them a right proper break-in. The first one arrived yesterday, but it’s still in the box, and Rob and I will move them both in together. Stay tuned to SoundStage! Global for an update on the installation process, which will appear in My Audiophile Neighborhood.
This coming Tuesday, Doug, Matt Bonaccio, and I will jet off to Warsaw for the start of Audio Video Show 2024, so I need to get my head in the game and start packing for that. I love Warsaw, the Radisson Blu Sobieski Hotel in which we stay, and the show itself. It’s a huge show, and many of the products on display are totally different from anything that ends up in North America—there’s so much to write about. Be sure to check out our coverage on SoundStage! Global.
. . . Jason Thorpe
jasont@soundstagenetwork.com
