Schumakubins Listening Tests
First I played these speakers for a few hours to break them in. These were brand new drivers out the box and as a speaker builder I knew the suspension system (surrounds and spiders) were probably a little stiff and needed some loosening. I didn’t really listen to them closely at this time; in fact I left the room for most of this break in period. Don’t mistake the initial break in of a new driver with some “snake oil” about warming up the electrons every time you play them. After they were broken in I jumped right into my involvement music, Yes, The Ladder.
CD: Yes - The Ladder
Involvement is probably the most important aspect of music
listening. What is the point of
listening to music if the listener can’t get involved? Yes The Ladder is an excellent CD for these
qualities. It
is hard to stop listening to this CD. I can force myself to stop listening
after the first five tracks but I want to keep going. The pace and rhythm along with the energy of
these songs gets the listener completely involved in the music. Jon Anderson’s voice should stand out very
forward in front of the speakers but not too close which is a good test of the
system midrange. The Schumakibins had
very nice tonal balance and Jon Anderson’s voice was nicely forward but not too
forward. Another great quality of this
CD is Steve Howe’s guitar performance; there is a good mix of electric and
acoustic riffs. The upper midrange, referring to the guitar, could have been a
little smoother and there seemed to be a slight lack of detail. But the lower
mids were very smooth and natural sounding. Although Rick Wakeman is not the
keyboardist on this CD Igor Khoroshev does a great job of creating and carrying
the energy that Yes fans are accustomed to. If the system can’t keep up with
the pace and rhythm, the music sounds sluggish and dull which is rare in today’s
audio market. A poor reproduction of the midrange though will also sound dull
leaving the listener uninterested. As I turned up the volume I started feeling
the involvement and the Schumakubins did not disappoint me with any kind of
compression. They opened up nicely.
After several conversations with Pete he kept convincing me not to
expect too much from the low end but from what I heard in these cuts I was
surprised to hear some nice solid low end.
I noticed that the Schumakubins were not meant to play at low volumes. These speakers sounded okay at low volumes but they really didn’t open up until some good hearty wattage was put through them.
CD: Lord of Rings, Return of the
King, Into the West
Annie Lennox’s voice in this song is completely amazing and I’m not the only one who thinks so seeing she won an Academy Award for it. This song has such strong vocals it strains the limits of the midrange. It should be turned up and when she belts out those notes there should never be any edge to her voice. This song, for me, has that "grab ya" feeling that makes me want to keep listening to it again and again. Unfortunately I didn’t completely get that “grab ya” feeling while listening to this track on the Schumakubins.
CD: Enya - Shepherd Moons, Marble Halls
Next up in my audition was Enya’s Shepherd Moons CD. With all of the layers of 
Enya’s voice
in this track it creates a light wispy airiness that should make the speakers
become completely transparent. Also, the detail of the main vocals should stand
out. The sibilance should be heard clearly with every S, but not to be confused
with an over abundance of sibilance or hissing sound. Every breath is apparent
in this recording. The music and vocals
blend together to create a unique sound. Most of Enya’s songs have the same
qualities but this one tends to stand out. The openness of the Schumakubins was
good but the transparency wasn’t as good as I had hoped. Although the detail
sounded better on this CD I think that the speakers would have sounded more
transparent if the detail was improved further. Enya’s voice was nice and high
and the sibilance was very good but there was not enough separation between the
voice layers and the music to create the airy essence. I would have preferred a
more airy and wispy sound but that’s one of the qualities that I personally
like and not everyone has the same likes as me.
CD: Flim & the BB’s - Big Notes,
Heart Throb, Funhouse
Detail and dynamics go hand in hand. When the playing
levels of the recording are soft the same details should be heard as when the
playing levels are loud. The Heart Throb
track does a good job of dynamics and detail.
Every instrument should sound natural from it’s softest notes to it’s
loudest notes. Paying close attention to
the different saxophones used here I should hear every note at every playing
level along with all of the detail in the percussion. The same goes for the
keyboards. The detail in this track for
the Schumakubins was not merged at all, in fact, they sounded quite detailed
and very crisp. I really started to
notice that the lowest octave (20-40 Hz) was not present but it still did a nice
job of playing its capable bass. Again, as I turned up the volume the speakers
started opening up and the sound filled my room very well. The Funhouse track
is one of my favorite test songs; it is completely synthesized on some kind of
IBM. There is so much detail programmed
into this song everything should sound crystal clear from its deep bass up to
its high crisp bell sounds. One other
thing that I like about this track is what I call pseudo imaging. All of the instruments have their position on
the stage but of course there are no instruments. Over years of listening to
this track I know where those sound positions should be. Again, the details were good on this track;
even at moderate volumes. The highs were smooth and not piercing; there was no
harshness. The dynamics sounded slightly subdued.
CD: Terence Blanchard - Malcolm Makes Hajj
“Malcolm Makes Haaj” is all instrumental
and it exemplifies the sound stage and imaging.
It starts with a sax solo just to the right of the center and then goes
into a drum solo to the back of the stage.
After the drum solo finishes the trumpet player starts his solo playing
to the front left of the stage and finally the track finishes with a piano solo
just behind the trumpet player. Good reproduction
places these elements properly from side to side and front to back. The Schumakubins did a very good job of image
placement with all the instruments being heard from where they should although there could have been a bit more depth to the
stage. There was no edginess or
harshness to the sax or the trumpet but I would have liked a little more
realism to their sound. The piano solo
had good pace and overall the stage was nice and high as opposed to hearing
sound from the floor which I’ve heard on many other speakers.
CD: Patrick O’Hearn - Trust
Audiophiles
always give me a funny look when I talk about new age because it is mostly
electronically produced. It can’t really
be used for sound stage or instrument timbre but it can be used for other listening
tests such as bass. New Age music can
reach some really low frequencies and this disc is one of them. The title track is a very repetitive song
with excellent bass extension and some fine details. Good reproduction will have a good balance
between the bass and the upper frequency detail. A boomy system will definitely
show up here but there was nothing boomy about the Schumakubins. They sounded
very well balanced throughout the track.
The
importance of music in the mid-frequency range is extremely high because most
of the music we listen to is in the midrange. Most of the vocals are in the
midrange with male vocals being in the lower midrange and female vocals being
in the upper midrange.
CD: Suzanne Vega - Solitude Standing, Tom’s Diner
This song is sung a cappella and it has a good sense of realism. It has quiet pauses that enable the listener to hear how the room reacts along with noise in the system. When listening it should sound like she is standing right between the speakers. I also like to use Vega’s voice for some of the lower midrange which makes it ideal reference material. Everything sounded right playing through the Schumakubins. Her voice stood out, the balance was good and the quiet parts had no unusual lingering of sound.
CD: Steely Dan - Two Against Nature, Gaslighting Abbie, Janie Runaway
This disk has a vast range of music qualities. It has
the mids of Fagan’s voice which should not be laid back in the slightest. The
detail and timbre of the instruments should be well balanced with the vocals;
there should be no blurring of the sound. The rhythm and pace of Gaslighting Abbie is the kind of song
that really gets your foot tapping. Janie runaway has very authoritative bass
guitar with a great jazz feel. I usually
like to listen to this disk last because it sums up everything about the music to
conclude my listening session. These
tracks sounded exceptionally good through the Schumakubins. The bass guitar was greatly balanced with the
lead guitar and Donald Fagan’s voice fit right into the mix. The sax sounded extremely smooth which is
what I expected at this point of my music auditioning.
I have a few SACDs and my favorite for auditioning is Tchaikovsky’s “Overture of 1812.” The resolution of this music is beyond anything else I own. The digitally recorded cannons will go beyond the testing of virtually any subwoofer if indeed it could survive. The multi-channel recording is superb, only the recording hall’s ambiance is put into the side channels but I focused on the high resolution stereo cut to isolate the Schumakubins. It was hard to go from the multichannel to the two-channel and be completely fair. The speakers, again, were tonally balanced but seemed to lack the realism of the instruments. But as I was writing this article I put on a standard classical baroque CD and on one track there were horns that sounded very real through the Schumakubins. I also tried something a little new; I put on an SACD of Matt Bianco, Matt’s Mood – La Luna, featuring Basia. I am not intimately familiar with this song but I am familiar with Basia’s voice. Her voice was forward and strong and the Schumakubins did a great job of portraying it. The bass was very solid throughout the song and the sax solo sounded like it was right there in the room. Next I put on Nora Jones “Come Away With Me” SACD and again, she sounded like she was right there singing live.
