Dear all
Here are my first reflections on the LS40. As a reminder, I already own LS25s and I bought the LS25s a couple of years ago as an improvement over Tellurium Ultra Black
in an attempt to avoid the phenomenon of hearing what I want to hear , I always get my wife to have the first listen with me. She is becoming very adept at spotting differences between bits of kit, cables etc! She would surprise her friends (or should that read ‘bore’!) with her experiences of cables making a difference
I digress. For simplicity I only used CDs - Rebecca Pidgeon, Johnny Cash and Queen a Night at the Opera. Just a track from each (it is a faff getting round the back of my amp and speakers but we persisted!). The improvement was immediate. I am generally a bit sceptical about improvements and all that diminishing returns stuff. However this was genuinely an immediate difference.
I could use all those cliched phrases loved by all us Hifi buffs but the ones that best describe the improvements are more detail (as you’d expect) , greater separation and really more layers . What do I mean by all that? On Spanish Harlem you could her the breathing in the close miked singing and greater realism in the string plucking. On a Johnny Cash duet the vocals were more clearly positioned and the percussion (including washboards!) were more vivid and realistic. The Queen track (Love of My Life) also had more of the above but the bit that really amazed me was that I could hear the separate hands playing the piano! Never heard that before!
Are there any downsides? The first impression (noticed even more by my wife) was that the extra detail made the overall sound more ‘bright’. This can be disconcerting and give an impression that the improvement could become tiring to listen to. I’m sensitive to this having owned Focal speakers with beryllium tweeters and having to trade them in. However, it could just be that it is more realistic and my ears need to get used to it. Alan at ABC Audio thinks you need a few weeks to get used to cables (not for burn in - just ear adjustment!) . I don’t think
@steveinspain (or the rest of the queue) will want to wait that long!
I will try them out for a couple more days - it isn’t easy finding time when you have a busy work schedule as
@Cereal Killer also found. I’ll let you know if my ears have adjusted by then!
Overall though there is no doubt that these are a significant level of detail up from the LS25s - and they are already very good. If my ears adjust don’t be surprised if my 25s come up for sale at some point!