(I just posted most of these notes in the AE-1 review thread by Edipisreks.)
It was great to meet jjcha and to meet again with Oski, Jahn and Lan.
Ditto everything jjcha said about Oski's living space.
I found the AE-1 to be interesting -- though not my cup of tea -- but I'll need more extended listening with various ancillary components to get a well-rounded picture of it's capabilities.
A few random thoughts are that contrary to some comments made elsewhwere that it's placement of performers/instruments and its soundstage are very accurate, my listening with one recording in particular - Arturo Sandoval Live At The Blue Note (I was present to hear it live) - gave me impression that although the AE-1 separated and placed the performers very precisely, I found it to sound "solid-state" and its presentation unreal.
The Blue Note is a small club with a tiny stage and a powerful sound system. Besides Sandoval's blazing trumpet, there was a grand piano, elec keyboard, powerhouse sax, electric and acoustic bass, drums/percussion and amped guitar, and voices - all heavily amped. All that powerful sound washed back-and-forth and blended in a huge, powerful sound with soloists cutting through it. You could even feel the piano's deep soundwaves in your stomach. There were no neat, clean, discrete, nicely separated instruments to be heard -- as presented by the AE-1.
I also found in that context (iPod lineout or Vaio Laptop-via-USB out > Overture > AE-1) -- with various intereconnects and phones > that the AE-1 seemed to be somewhat mid-bass prominent, whereas the Portaphile V2 (not the latest V2>2) had deeper, more dynamic bass with no mid-bass emphasis. I preferred the PV2's presentation, character, impact and soundspace to the AE-1's.
The Coda+DT Module was very nice and well-balanced. I'd like to hear this one more to appreciate its sound (as a possible home or office unit with the Overture), though it doesn't meet my criteria for portability.
I listened through Beyer DT880/recabled, HP2 (w/"C-cups"?), MS2/recabled, AKG K-4 (power-hungry beast), and Sennheiser PXC250 (noise-cancelling) phones; Zu Pivot, rnb180 and Mr.X interconnects. I personally felt that the AE-1 had to be cranked WAY up to power the AKG K-4 and pretty far up for the DT880.
I will try to get an AE-1 for extended, more discerning and comprehensive listening.
Overall I preferred the Coda+DT Module (with Lan's enhanced power supply) and the Portaphile V2. I didn't listen enough to the SR-71 and will have to do that comparison in the future. One comparison I did note was that the SR-71 still has a much more contiguous sonic spectrum (smooth and well integrated) which was not my impression of the AE-1. Somehow the SR-71 did not sound as good as I've heard it many times in other environments!?
The CHA-47 was very nice. I preferred it to the AE-1, but again I would need more time and dedicated listening to write an adequate description.
BTW - The AE-1 review thread refers to some listeners attributing a "Tubey Sound" to the AE-1! If anything, I round it rather dry and far from tubey.
I guess I could have spent more time with the Gilmore Lite, but I found its sound to be "brittle" and just did not want to keep listening to it.
I would like to hear it in different contexts, though, since it may have lacked synergy with those components.
{Orph-drooooool}
