As @PeterR has given me a drum roll or should that be a poison chalice (when talking about a.n.other’s system, musical tastes et al), my conclusions from my visit today were:
1- Something much for the better has emerged from the most recent room treatment changes. In previous visits, to my ears the Facts which have very good reviews came across as very analytical, great separation and detailing but the sound lacked some weight and wasn’t pushing in to the room as I would prefer. A magic ingredient was missing, perhaps a simple misplacement in chasing down the elusive bass-taming dragon. It’s been a long journey for Peter and it wasn’t clear if the fundamental challenge is his Fact 12’s (£’s - yikes if change needed!), the basics of the room (oh no!) and/or the effect of the various treatments installed (already a path to madness per some other posts in this thread 
). So, herald the 505s as an upstart competitor/comparable.
Well to my ears, I’m pleased to report the Facts’ mojo is restored and I can see why so many people like them. We concluded that changes to various bass absorbers were probably the primary reason for this - the speaker positioning hasn’t changed (perhaps a few mil’ but nothing to matter).
There’s probably some opportunity for fine tuning, mild experimentation in positioning but no more IMV. The Facts & the treated room were happy with top-end female vocal (see on re the 505s), bassy blues and far more complex passages. Before, given the absence of some weight to the sound, playing something rock-orientated could lead to a flat-ish sound - no longer. My inner headbanger was duly awakened - Peter knows I like my music edgy and visceral (audience front row).
The Facts don’t reach right down in the bass but they do enough to keep the boogie going, and they do the upper and mid-ranges very well IMO, especially vocals, these facets matching to Peter’s liking for blues music - and this is from a CD555 et al.
They would probably benefit from a bigger room so they can better demonstrate their ability to image, resolve and create a generally bigger soundscape. C’est la vie…….we’d all like this…form an orderly queue at the estate agents post a lottery win.
Of course, the Facts may not be optimal for his room but, based on today’s listening and after the latest changes in room treatments, I think they’d be hard to beat hands down, which has to be the governing criteria for entertaining replacement.
2- The Kudos 505s (had been run-in) - admittedly many variables in play here and I can see why they get good reviews. The differentiating factors to the Facts were:
a- Upper edge of some female vocal (Kristina Train/Alison Krauss) was overly bright, to the point of being tiresome on some tracks. This was a stark contrast to the Facts and may be due to a room facet but it was a red flag. This brightness, almost ‘tizzyness’ sometimes extended in to mid-range too.
I’d rather live with some slight bass issues which arise only every now and again than live with upper-edge zing on female vocals.
b- the detailing and separation wasn’t quite as good as the Facts. It was a bit strange as on some tracks the sound was quite flat, on others there was plenty of wallop from the isobaric bass set-up.
When we re-installed the Facts (bigger cabinet/more drivers), it was apparent from cold the presentation was better. Given the difference in new pricings (~£13k v ~£8k?) and the driver set-ups, this should be the case but one can never assume things.
I know vinyl replay is much less demanding on my room than CD (via a 555) and it struck both of us that having a domestic system which can play CDs of all genres is likely to be challenging, especially as some appear to be relatively low-output and others shout at you from 7pm on the dial, which can create issues of balance in the replay as the volume is increased and, of course (and I’m sure many of us have them), there are the CDs which you think are benign of bass but exactly the opposite is true.
It’s a mad hobby this.
I’m considering getting some ‘treatment’ for my listening room which is quite bright and edgy due to plentiful glass surfaces. A learning from today was that you still need to trust your ears…not all things work out as anticipated.
HL
ATB Peter
