19 Jan 2013: Petros Kefalas

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The Poem...

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Kipling

One of the most beautiful poems written in the world some say. But what if I told you it was written by a grandfather with no teeth and one eye left, and that, colored yellow!

Because that is exactly what this speaker is. A one eyed grandfather with no teeth, but within it lie the force of music reproduction almost unravelled by speakers many times its price. Would you still buy it? Would you still show them despite what they have within?

The System...

I for one am too shallow to say “I would”. There is no way on earth I could marry a pair of speakers that remind me of when I was young and going to elementary school, because yes, these speakers look like they use the same wood and finish!

I do not know how Petro, our new ACA member came up with the idea that he could get these speakers to play SO well as to make up for their looks!

I have heard these speakers before mind you and the looks and music were on par, so when we were invited to audition our new ACA members system, I was to say in the least reluctant to do the write up. I actually avoided it by staying upstairs with the wives while everyone went downstairs to the listening room. I was summoned by no one else than our VP and couldn't say no to him, so I gave myself courage and told my wife I would be back in 5.

The Session...

I went down the stairs like a Subaru with no wheels. I felt my feet not just heavy but awfully uncomfortable fully knowing I would have to turn around and see the Beasts of Burden.
So I said hello to everyone I hadn’t and took a pen which was sitting there right next to me with a pad, and I knew right then and there, this was going to be the worst night of the year, even though it was the first meeting of 2013.

I honestly didn't look at the set-up carefully. I saw the bulbs, and the turntable and figured that if you had grandpa speakers, what else would you be driving these one eyed cacophonies?

I closed my eyes and tried as hard as I could to take the negative picture I have of these loudspeakers and waited for torture tune number one.
I kept my eyes closed for “Fool for You” and when Nick Cave starting to emanate waves of electricity down my spine with “Black Betty” I re-opened them.

The Sound...

The three dimensionality, the lifelike precision of the voice, the clarity and the SPL of over 105 db astonished me. I have never, ever, in my entire life heard such clarity and musicality from this speaker before, not to mention the many other speakers.

I was almost salivating at the fact that bass was coming out of these speakers at all! I mean, I know it has two ten inchers in the back, but the banana looking woofers honestly don’t seem that they could handle anything but sweet harmonies or at the best some elevator music!

I honestly do not know if Petros is the smartest man in our club or simply the luckiest. How in the world did he get this speaker matched so well? How did he even get bound full of passion to come out by simply matching the right things together to get this result.

I can only bet that the designer of these speakers has not heard them play so well. Had he, he wouldn't have stopped making them.

This set-up by far is the best SETUP in ACA. I don’t care what anyone says about my comment, I stand by it through to the end. This masterpiece of bringing the exact amplifier needed for this speaker, the cabling, the TT and even the digital component simply made both male and female voices sound criminally realistic!

I view my notes now and see that I have on every second line written, AMAZING VOCALS!...In Jazz, Rock and soul music to say the least.

I wish I could say the same about the rest of the music, but I cannot. The room was not ready for such db and there was reverb, over boosting the amp and lower than average room treatment to get the absolute from such an absolute set up.
I will leave things at that, and await until our host brings us back with some of the aforementioned, and I am sure I will take away the last paragraph noted here.

So to sum it up. This set up is literally the best I have heard and is the prime example of what high end can offer you if you have the patience, knowledge and luck to tap into each component and tie them all together neatly. Its vocals are ASTONISHING and put to shame my speakers, to say the least, and they cost double the money! I never got tired of listening to the highs also. They were never harsh, even at loud the loud levels mentioned.

Finally...

So going back to the poem and the grandfather I can only say one thing. If this speaker had a better looking design, it would sound and LOOK like Elvis himself.
That is how good the music is. End of story.