Topic: GEAR COMP: Schoeps MK41 > Sonosax SX-M2/LS2 v. NBox

[Sean Gallemore]

love the voting results so far.  Our ears are unanimous.

[nexus6]

The 'A sourced' sounds fuller in mid-low and low range.  I sense there is more detail in 'B' high end, or is that an 'illusion' from the missing mid-low and low from 'B'?

ANDY

[dklein]

I reversed the channels on 1 set of waves before doing the listening because of the l/r swap I read about so I don't know how much it changes the results...but for me:

B had a more pleasant bottom end - a little tighter and there was somehow more 'feel' to it even though it didn't seem any louder.
B also had a smoother top end, which I appreciated in this recording.  At all levels and over the 3 tracks, I consistently preferred B.  'A' seemed to be missing precision low down and was a little bit too much up high.  So in matching with the brightness of the 41s, B was it for me.

I have no clue which would be the n-box or the sonosax since I don't really know much about them and have only heard one n-box recording.  It was also with 41s and was placed right by my 184>UA-5 setup.  They were different for sure!  Actually, come to think of it, there was way more bottom end on the 184s so... I'll guess that source 'A' is the n-box.  Another unknown factor would be differences between the pairs of capsules.

Thanks for the comp Brian!   How many months will you beat yourself up over the sloppy work on the channels?    

[Brian Skalinder]

Thanks for the feedback, Andy - check your Hotmail account.  

How many months will you beat yourself up over the sloppy work on the channels?    

Oh, at least several - or maybe even until the next comp.        I've performed a 100 or so hours of bit-perfect testing using my soundcard and ODL-312 / NJB3 and all the devices are bit-perfect.  However, occasionally the soundcard will swap the L/R channels.  I think this is what happend here, but I should've caught it!

Schwill - not so unanimous anymore!  

[Sean Gallemore]

Thanks for the feedback, Andy - check your Hotmail account. 

How many months will you beat yourself up over the sloppy work on the channels?    

Schwill - not so unanimous anymore!   

yeah, well, I'm sure you'll give us the results based on the sound systems used

[Rick]

I prefer A, but I'm not sure why Both sound great to me. I hoping the Nbox is source A for obvious reasons ;-) But I wouldn’t be shocked it was a Sax.


Edit: After to listening to it some more I changed my mind on which one I like more…. B sounds better to me… its just more clearer. The bass sounds tigher to me. I still think source A is the Nbox and Source B is the Sax. Source A sounds like all the tapes I make with my Nbox, but these are using MK41 not MK4 so maybe the Nobx with the MK41 have a tighter bass. If that's the case, I know I'm getting next!

[Sean Gallemore]

I prefer A, but I'm not sure why Both sound great to me. I hoping the Nbox is source A for obvious reasons ;-) But I wouldn’t be shocked it was a sax.

[Rick]

I prefer A, but I'm not sure why Both sound great to me. I hoping the Nbox is source A for obvious reasons ;-) But I wouldn’t be shocked it was a sax.

I actually changed my mind.

[dklein]

After reading everybody elses descriptions, I went back and listened again.  It is so strange that we hear things so differently.  Especially on the bass - again 'B' seemed more authoritative and tight where 'A' was loose and sloppy to my ears (relatively speaking of course - both were good captures).

fwiw, I was listening on a laptop thru an Emagic A62 into my home system (Linn Isobariks / Naim Active electronics).  It may be that some of the bass detail on 'B' is very low in frequency and some people aren't hearing it???

This is quite interesting!

[Brian Skalinder]

Oops, looks like I forgot to post my feedback and the key publicly.  FWIW, my take on the comp:

A TRACKS

• Fuller, more extended bass.
• Smoother, more balanced lower mids.
• Richer highs, better transient detail.
• More detailed across the board.
• Much more coherent soundstage.

B TRACKS

• Punchier / more "hyped" throughout.
• Not as much low bass extension, but tighter.
• Lacking upper-bass/lower mids, and as a result...
• Punchier, grittier more up-front upper mids/guitar.
• Grittier, spittier highs, less transient detail.
• Less detailed over all.
• Lacking the soundstage/coherence of the A tracks.

Overall, I preferred A over B.¹  Final vote tally:

Preferences

• 10/15 | preferred A
• 04/15 | preferred B
• 01/15 | couldn't tell the difference

Gear guesses

Of the 10 preferring A tracks:


• 04/15 | guessed A = Lemosax
• 06/15 | guessed A = NBox
Of the 4 preferring B tracks:


• 02/15 | guessed B = Lemosax
• 02/15 | guessed B = NBox

Source key:

• Tracks A = Lemosax source
• Tracks B = NBox source

¹ Of course, I'm at an advantage in the comps I run because I'm very familiar with the sonic characteristics of my gear - and I chose my gear for its sonic characteristics - so it's no surprise which source I preferred.

[Rick]

The Sax/LS2 is about $500 more right?

[Brian Skalinder]

The Sax/LS2 is about $500 more right?

I don't remember specifically, but in that ballpark, yeah.

[Rick]

I wonder how much different the results would be with MK4 caps instead? Its my understanding that the hypers tend to have tighter bass so the sax (no bass roll) with mk4 might just be to bassy ??

I personally liked the MK41 combo with the Nbox, maybe I should think about picking up a pair



 

[Brian Skalinder]

I wonder how much different the results would be with MK4 caps instead? Its my understanding that the hypers tend to have tighter bass so the sax (no bass roll) with mk4 might just be to bassy ??

I personally liked the MK41 combo with the Nbox, maybe I should think about picking up a pair

Rick - running the test with MK4s was in the plans, but I ran outta time on the gear loan through no one's doing but my own.  The MK4 with the Sax may be too bassy for some - whether the 4s + Sax are too bassy a combo probably depends more on the playback equipment than the recording gear, IMO, though certainly there'd be more bass than the 41s.

I really, really wanted to prefer the NBox as it would've saved me a good chunk of change!  No doubt, it's a great piece of gear - just not for me.  I bet you'd love the MK41s with the NBox, they're my favorite Schoeps cap behind the MK21 (which are favorite, of course, because I just got 'em and have been using 'em a lot!).  The MK41s come up for sale used every so often, keep an eye out here, on Oade, Gearslutz, and TapeOp.

[Brian Skalinder]

The comparison is now available on tapers.org in the gear comparisons directory.