It's a pretty straightforward setup, four corners, a center channel and a (as we now know) SERIOUS subwoofer. I was a little surprised to see that the inputs run to a separate command unit, sort of an uber-remote that jacks into the woofer with a serial cable. All inputs run into this little controller, not into the woofer as one might expect. Nothing wrong with it, but it's a bit weird. Being picky, I would have preferred some solid ¼" stereo jacks (or even, dare to dream, dual ¼" mono jacks per channel) built into the woofer, rather than the flimsier 1/8" connectors jacking into the command unit. No probems so far, though.
Nothing tricky with the setup, except wall-mounting the speakers is a royal PAIN IN THE ASS. They've angled the brace in such a way as to make it IMPOSSIBLE to screw-mount them with any sort of a long-shanked screwdriver or power screwdriver/drill, you have to grab the old stubby to finish the job. Aggravating.
Electronic: Manitoba, Start Breaking My Heart
No better way to see how the system handles electronic quirky click-and-beep music than this modern masterpiece. I'm soundly impressed. Great fidelity in the high end, and the bass isn't as aggressive on low-bass songs than I was afraid it might be.
Bass: Scorn, Gyral
This is where the system really, REALLY shines. Scorn makes music that sounds like doom and Gyral is among the doomiest of all their albums. Crawling, grinding, thundering bass topped with minimal noise and flourish, and the 5500 made it sound better than any other system I've ever heard it on. Seriously.
Jazz: Charles Mingus, Reincarnations of a Lovebird
...and here's where the frailty comes through. So far, it's been electronic music and the system copes remarkably well. Mingus, though, makes very human music with big ensembles, with lots of activity all over the map. Since Mingus is a bassist, you know the bass will be present – and again, the system handles the bass very, very well – and the high-end stuff is actually very well handled – but the midrange is a bit thin. It's hard to quantify how exactly, but there's a sense of absence there.
Index
RSS Feed
