Keijo Tanskanen

Foreword

Hifi Guru’s Open Doors event was held during 5.-6.10.2013, in the same weekend as High-End Hyvinkää. Guru has, as far as I can remember, always arranged good sonic performances during their events, actually excellent ones mostly! The results have the background of their own. Hifi Guru is one of the high-end pioneers in Finland and the experience is immediately recognized during their demos. Additionally, they have invested in room acoustics a long time ago, and since that, they are having the fruits of the right decision. The favorable demo room and the high quality product selection give an excellent base for successful open doors.

This time two setups were presented; both of which are described below. Once again, Guru relied on the Magneplanar speakers. Naturally, this tells something of the preferences of the host, but also of the well-known strengths of Maggies. The surprises of the visit were a beautifully integrated dipole subwoofer (Magneplanar) and an affordable phono stage (Creek).

Source:
Burmester 089 CD-player
Clearaudio Performance vinyl player

Preamplifiers:
Burmester 077 line preamplifier
Creek OBH-15 MkII phono stage

Amplifier:
Burmester 956 Mk II monoblocks

Speakers:
Magneplanar MG-20.7
Velodyne DD-15+ subwoofer

Cabling:
Transparent Reference XL MMII signal cabling

Setup 2

Source:
Burmester 102 CD-player
Clearaudio Master Reference vinyl player

Preamplifier:
Burmester Phono 100 preamplifier

Amplifier:
Devialet 170

Speakers:
Magneplanar MG-1.7
Magneplanar DWM dipole woofer

Cabling:
Transparent Super MMII signal cabling

Associated equipment:
Burmester 948 power filter
Burmester stands
Clearaudio Everest stand for the vinyl player
Acapella Fondato Silenzio bases for monoblocks and phono stage

Listening

This time, I’ll write shortly, but hopefully informatively enough. For me, there was nothing very new in the sound performances. I had listened to similar kinds of setups several times before, in Hifi Guru as well, and every time got quite premium results. Some of the writings can be read from the highendnews archives.

The listening results of the Setup 1 reminded me of the fact that MG-20.7 is a tremendous speaker and it works very effectively with Burmester electronics. When Guru played vinyl samples, I did not pay any special attention to the RIAA or to any other component, for that matter. I listened to the music just like before, with the same kind of passion and enjoyment. But now, instead of an expensive Burmester RIAA, there was an affordable Creek OBH-15 Mk II phono stage at work! What an excellent performance from the tiny stage! Naturally, this does not mean that OBH-15 Mk II is as good as Burmester Phono 100. It surely isn’t. Anyway, OBH’s sound quality is surprisingly high and easily enables to forget the rather insignificant lacks which it in spite of all has.

The Setup 2 was even more interesting, just because of the Devialet 170 amplifier and the Magneplanar dipole woofer. The sonic performance was just great. The music flowed homogenously, surprisingly impressively without any disconnections of the bandwidth parts, not even the slightest ones. The dipole woofer was matched superbly and the Devialet 170 amp seemed to be an excellent partner for the speakers. The last bits of punch, transparency and resolution were not quite achieved, but I still enjoyed very much the performance. Especially, I liked the extra muscularity in bass, the overall airiness and smoothness in the music reproduction. Last but not least, as you may know, the great performance is not possible without a great front end. Most of the music samples were played by Burmester 102 CD-player!

Additional information

Lately, I was able to compare Dunlavy SC II speakers to MG-1.7s. As good as the old SC IIs were, the Maggies were even better. Actually, not even a single feature, where Maggies would have lost, was found. Even the bass of the Maggie was more powerful and accurate! I think that this clearly strengthened the previously grown attitudes of the successful R&D made by Magneplanar last years!

Conclusion

The atmosphere at Hifi Guru was open and honest, and the quality of the demos guaranteed. For my demanding and experienced ears, there was nothing very new, but I still fully enjoyed the listening. The kitchen services, including a salami tray, even bettered the experiences. After the visit, I can sincerely recommend MG-1.7 with DWM dipole subwoofer, Devialet 170 and Creek OBH -15 Mk II. Also, the Burmester 102 CD-player made me impressed.

Thanks for the host and see you next time!