 Chillout Studio, is a young shop, probably the only independent showroom, meaning not being a distributor dependent shop, in Kraków. Distributors’ shops have it easier. Those are places, where the company can sell the products it imported while earning two profit margins – the distributor and the shop one. And in case needed, it can go deep into rebates no other shop can afford, and still make profit. This is not a good situation, as with that kind of politics other shops that cannot compete with the mentioned in terms of price resign from selling equipment from that company. In consequence, we – consumers – are suffering, because, in difference to what was possible earlier, we have a very narrow catalog of equipment available at one place. To listen to some other we have to go somewhere else. And there is almost no chance to listen to amplifier from shop X and speakers from shop Y. However, this is only a digression, I mentioned it already in the reportage from the opening of Chillout. )
Anyway an independent shop has to go the harder way. On the other hand, as all others reduced themselves to the brands they distribute only, it’s got a huge chance – maybe it will grow to an independent center where there are things to listen to that aren’t anyway else, that cannot be paired together, etc. The keyword is choice. The same word is also adequate for the distributor, that installed himself in Chillout on a sunny June weekend, with his products, the Katowice company RCM. So its owner, Mr. Roger Adamek chose a long time ago: in the center of his interest he put vinyl and tubes. Now it is easy to say, that he chose the right horse, as the mini-renaissance of the black disc allows for some optimism. Also the complete fiasco of the “dense” discs – SACD and DVD-Audio – having the ambition to replace the CD, was only a further booster for the analog fraction, where Mr. Adamek resides. Yes, now it is easy to say that. But just a few years ago, let loose a dozen more, it seemed that the Compact Disc is the past and the DVD will kill off anything else. And vinyl? Don’t joke, vinyl is dead… Only two years ago I had a fierce discussion with the editor in chief of Audio, meaning my boss, regarding stereo, “Siła rozmowy”, where I told, that everything points to the stopping of the cinema expansion and a come back of the stereo. Now, when this is clearly visible, and the big names from the world of electronics return to stereo (Denon, Pioneer, Sony, Onkyo) it is easy to claim that this is evident, but then it was just a lone voice in the desert. And all this is about choice. )
RCM is the vinyl center of southern Poland (and not only that), and also a significant tube mine. This is the only Polish company, besides Ancient Audio, having created its own tube amplifier (Bonasus), that was very successful within the country as well as outside the borders (there it is even more acclaimed than here, but it is not easy to be a prophet in your own country). So it does not surprise, that the weekend with RCM in Chillout passed by under the sign of the black disc, glowing tubes and omnipolar loudspeakers. As this was not the first exposition in Chillout I attended (16Hz and Lyngdorf - HERE), I had an idea about the sonic properties of the showroom. And I must say that RCM prepared the best sounding system I heard there. This was a splendid sounding system, regardless of the place it was set up. I will touch upon that in a moment, but first I need to talk about something else: the Katowice based company approached the exhibition in fully professional way. This is the way expositions are done by experienced companies abroad. No chances taken, zero amateur work, full esteem for the potential listener. Many little things were taken care of, things that are regarded by many companies as something not worth of their interest, an insignificant addition, and that turn the taking the equipment out of the boxes into a presentation. First of all promotion – Chillout was transformed into a branch of RCM, by means of banners, flayers, price lists and other printed materials. Secondly – the system. The presentation of TacT and Lyngdorf showed that to make the show a success, especially in the acoustically quite difficult demoroom in Chillout, some time has to be devoted to the system setup. We put down the equipment, power it up and there is a big chance we won’t get a sound out of it. Mr. Adamek spent a whole day adjusting the system to have it sound and look as it should. SYSTEM )
Now there is time to describe the system. The source was the top (almost, because there is a version with a better platter) turntable Analog One Mk III of the company Acoustic Signature. This is a “heavy” construction, based on large mass, without a decoupled chassis, with a separate motor. The latter is powered from an external generator, also used to change the rotation speed. This is important, as many discs during the presentation rotated at 45rpm. The element connecting the disc mechanically to the platter was a cork disc. The tonearm should be known to the readers of HIGH Fidelity OnLine as we described it in a special edition of our magazine “Made in Japan” from September (No29) 2006 – I am talking about the Japanese, beautifully sounding tonearm Jelco Oil S-Shape 10,5”. The above gramophone was equipped with the cartridge Karat 17D3 from Dynavector. This is an uncommon cartridge – instead of a boron or aluminum pipe holding the needle, we deal here with a very short and rigid plate of ruby… And although in theory it should not work, it sounds brilliantly – in an incredibly precise and thorough way. Combined with the solid turntable from AS and a slightly warm Jelco we got a brilliant combination. The cartridge came out to be problematic due to another issue – it has a very low output voltage, and although it is higher than from my version of the Dynavector, the Karat 24R (0.2mV) still we get only 0.3mV. To amplify that with minimum noise and maximum dynamics we have to employ a suitable gramophone preamplifier. By me it sounded best with the Manley Steelhead, and from less expensive devices with the beautifully sounding preamplifier Phono 2 Ci Mk II of the German company AQVOX. Other preamps had either problems with proper output levels or were unable to take advantage from the splendid resolution of the cartridge. And it turned out, that the next step after the Bonasus in the RCM portfolio is the phonostage. With a separate power supply, with large gain, based on tubes. In Chillout the final project was presented, although without the final enclosure. The amplified and RIAA corrected signal was fed to the mentioned amplifier Bonasus, that drove the omnipolar speakers Bella Luna from Duevel. Cabling and power – Furutech. SOUND )
It is so, that I know most of the elements, because I tested them or have heard them elsewhere. The only variables were the turntable and the phono preamplifier. And the sound that flew from the speakers was superb. The limitations of the room could be heard, but the Duevel handled those without problem. Although they look like sci-fi, still they sound with an incredibly balanced, but also energetic sound, that has nothing too much or too little. The sound stage is incredibly natural, because the speakers disappear completely from the view field, as if they would not exist – the sounds sometimes come from behind the speakers, so clear, that we would like to lean behind those to see what is playing like that. So that is the way presentations should be done. This is the only way to go, when you want to convince people to that kind of equipment, and to vinyl in general. Because in general, the sound was completely different to that what many, even experienced listeners thinks of vinyl. No clicks – here helped the washing of the discs in a special washing machine – almost inaudible passing noise, only at the beginning of the disc and dynamics. It happened, that during the presentation (those were done at each full hour, you had to be on time or wait for the next one) there was a sound production student with me. Because I worked my time as an acoustic-sound producer and have dealt with many graduates of sound production and sound direction, I can safely say, that most of those people do not have the slightest idea about high quality sound. Theoretically they are very well prepared for it, but they had not much to do with practice, and their education ends most of the time on the immortal near field monitors by Yamaha. Because, against appearances, during those studies they are not taught to listen. But this is something for a separate article. This was a splendidly prepared and conducted presentation. After such evenings one comes out turned inside-out and starting to gather money. This was not the best sound I ever heard, but it was very good. And this must be even more underlined, as the room is difficult for sound setup, and the system's price was not stellar. Compared to let us say, Media Markt equipment, then yes, it is madness, but in the absolute scale, compared to other madnesses, this was just the introduction. So if we do not want the audio branch to die, we have to show it from its best perspective, not from the side of the controversial cable problems, accessories, etc., but just to show how music can sound. And the rest will come in time. Equipment used for the presentation:
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