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The purpose of this review is to give my opinion of what I witnessed and observed based on 3 different days of listening to the SSP-800. Please keep in mind that I have never heard this room before, so I can not say how it would sound under any other variable.
The room:
The room was labeled number 3. I will post pictures at a later time. It was presented as a "theater" room in that all of the walls were basically treated. The room had little ornamentation, and two sets of shelves on either side of the back wall, on opposing sides of the entrance door, which was centered.
The front wall had a 2.35 Stewart firehawk with an automated masking system, though it was never used. I believe the projector was a Runco VX22 with an anamorphic lens used at 2.35 the entire time. The room was setup as a 7.1 system. B&W took the opportunity to make the world premier of the new CT8.4 for LCR speakers. There was two ASW-855 subs, and for surrounds and rears, DS8's were used.
Electronics consisted of two Omega mono's and an Omega Omnicron from Classe for the front three speakers. The back four speakers were powered by a pair of CA-2100's. There was a CDP-502 to present 2-channel audio, which was hooked into the processor via HDMI, a Pioneer BDP-95FD for Blu-Ray, and of course, the Classe SSP-800 was the processor.
Day 1:
I arrived to Seattle on Tuesday and stopped by Definitive. They were in the process of setting up, and allowed me an hour or so in the Classe room while the Runco guys were setting up. He was playing around with different tracks from his own material. A copy of a "fan edited" Empire Strikes back hoth sequence was played, as well as Patton Blu-Ray and a DTS demo disk, including various tracks, such as X-Men 3 when Grey killed Xavier, presented in DTS-MA.
The system sounded quite alive. I realized how much I had missed the Classe sound after using a Krell Showcase the last two months while I wait for my order to arrive.
What I love about Classe that no other brand has ever been able to provide is that the "Classe" sound embraces me, surrounds me and excites me. It is the closest thing I have heard to reproducing a headphone experience. Instead of experiencing listening fatigue after a period of listening, I find that I want to listen more. The quality of the audio moves me, it involves me and it envelopes me completely.
Some may argue that Classe is not that it is too much of this or not enough of that, but what Classe is for me is three-dimensional. It represents audio in a way where you don't feel it is simply coming from some field off in the distance in front of you. You get the impression of depth from any source being listened to.
Day 2:
The doors opened at 5:00pm and I found my way back to the Classe/ B&W room. I was greeted by Dave Nauber, who talked briefly to me about the SSP-800. The demo began. It started with Chris (Don't remember his last name) the VP of B&W, who introduced the new CT8.4. He stated that they are arguably as good as any of their 800 series speakers, but they require a sub for lower regions. The demo was a song off of Led Zeppelin 3. The name slips me at this point. It was very nice to listen to. I was not able to get the prime listening seat, but imaging was still great. Jimmy Page was /is a great producer. This track was played off of the CDP-502. Next, Dave got up and spoke about the new SSP-800. After his brief sales pitch, he played the Blu-Ray of Dave Mathews "crash into you". I'm not a Dave Mathews fan, but it sounded very good. It was Dave and one other guy playing acoustic guitars and it sounded very nice. So much to the fact that I can say that I don't like the guitar strings they were using. I felt he should have used a thicker string, but that is another story in itself. Point being that I picked up on those nuances. The last piece was the Runco demo of Spiderman 3, when the crane goes crazy and the blond chick falls off the side of the building. The overall presentation was very immersive, just as you would expect from a move. You didn't focus on the system, but just enjoyed the movie. Stuff boomed, and panned in a very even and consistent presentation. All very cleanly. The quiet times were dead quiet and the loud times were just right.
Day 3:
The third night I brought some people from Microsoft with me for a listen. They weren't really prepared to start when it did, so they put on the Blu-Ray of Hart's War for us to watch for a half-hour. All I have to say is that is demo material. When the planes are flying around the room, it sounds like they were over-head. I've never seen this movie, but I plan on buying it now.
The rest of the event was pretty much the same with the exception that they changed from Led Zepplin to a blues artist. It was a very nice track, but I don't know who it was and had never heard it before.
For Home Theater, I thought the B&W CT8.4's were fantastic. I was really surprised, and if I was building a dedicated room from scratch, they would definately be near the top of my list. I was mixed on how I felt about them for 2 channel music listening though. I believe I would still prefer a nice marlan head speaker over the CT's.
In conclusion. The SSP-800 is a Classe product. If you are familiar with the sound of the SSP-600/300 and liked it, you will absolutely LOVE the new SSP-800. If you didn't like the SSP-600/300, you won't like the SSP-800. It is as simple as that. Classe did not change their sound for this product. They just took what they had and gave it more.
If you have never heard either of these, I highly recommend that you give it a chance when looking for a new processor. It is stripped of many of the features that some others are offering near its price range, so you will have to decide if the trade-off is worth it or not. I think if you listen to it, you will enjoy it, but the beauty of this hobby is that we can agree to disagree.
I'll post some pictures later. There were two SSP-800's. One for the Demo, and one that had the top removed for display of the internals.
The room:
The room was labeled number 3. I will post pictures at a later time. It was presented as a "theater" room in that all of the walls were basically treated. The room had little ornamentation, and two sets of shelves on either side of the back wall, on opposing sides of the entrance door, which was centered.
The front wall had a 2.35 Stewart firehawk with an automated masking system, though it was never used. I believe the projector was a Runco VX22 with an anamorphic lens used at 2.35 the entire time. The room was setup as a 7.1 system. B&W took the opportunity to make the world premier of the new CT8.4 for LCR speakers. There was two ASW-855 subs, and for surrounds and rears, DS8's were used.
Electronics consisted of two Omega mono's and an Omega Omnicron from Classe for the front three speakers. The back four speakers were powered by a pair of CA-2100's. There was a CDP-502 to present 2-channel audio, which was hooked into the processor via HDMI, a Pioneer BDP-95FD for Blu-Ray, and of course, the Classe SSP-800 was the processor.
Day 1:
I arrived to Seattle on Tuesday and stopped by Definitive. They were in the process of setting up, and allowed me an hour or so in the Classe room while the Runco guys were setting up. He was playing around with different tracks from his own material. A copy of a "fan edited" Empire Strikes back hoth sequence was played, as well as Patton Blu-Ray and a DTS demo disk, including various tracks, such as X-Men 3 when Grey killed Xavier, presented in DTS-MA.
The system sounded quite alive. I realized how much I had missed the Classe sound after using a Krell Showcase the last two months while I wait for my order to arrive.
What I love about Classe that no other brand has ever been able to provide is that the "Classe" sound embraces me, surrounds me and excites me. It is the closest thing I have heard to reproducing a headphone experience. Instead of experiencing listening fatigue after a period of listening, I find that I want to listen more. The quality of the audio moves me, it involves me and it envelopes me completely.
Some may argue that Classe is not that it is too much of this or not enough of that, but what Classe is for me is three-dimensional. It represents audio in a way where you don't feel it is simply coming from some field off in the distance in front of you. You get the impression of depth from any source being listened to.
Day 2:
The doors opened at 5:00pm and I found my way back to the Classe/ B&W room. I was greeted by Dave Nauber, who talked briefly to me about the SSP-800. The demo began. It started with Chris (Don't remember his last name) the VP of B&W, who introduced the new CT8.4. He stated that they are arguably as good as any of their 800 series speakers, but they require a sub for lower regions. The demo was a song off of Led Zeppelin 3. The name slips me at this point. It was very nice to listen to. I was not able to get the prime listening seat, but imaging was still great. Jimmy Page was /is a great producer. This track was played off of the CDP-502. Next, Dave got up and spoke about the new SSP-800. After his brief sales pitch, he played the Blu-Ray of Dave Mathews "crash into you". I'm not a Dave Mathews fan, but it sounded very good. It was Dave and one other guy playing acoustic guitars and it sounded very nice. So much to the fact that I can say that I don't like the guitar strings they were using. I felt he should have used a thicker string, but that is another story in itself. Point being that I picked up on those nuances. The last piece was the Runco demo of Spiderman 3, when the crane goes crazy and the blond chick falls off the side of the building. The overall presentation was very immersive, just as you would expect from a move. You didn't focus on the system, but just enjoyed the movie. Stuff boomed, and panned in a very even and consistent presentation. All very cleanly. The quiet times were dead quiet and the loud times were just right.
Day 3:
The third night I brought some people from Microsoft with me for a listen. They weren't really prepared to start when it did, so they put on the Blu-Ray of Hart's War for us to watch for a half-hour. All I have to say is that is demo material. When the planes are flying around the room, it sounds like they were over-head. I've never seen this movie, but I plan on buying it now.
The rest of the event was pretty much the same with the exception that they changed from Led Zepplin to a blues artist. It was a very nice track, but I don't know who it was and had never heard it before.
For Home Theater, I thought the B&W CT8.4's were fantastic. I was really surprised, and if I was building a dedicated room from scratch, they would definately be near the top of my list. I was mixed on how I felt about them for 2 channel music listening though. I believe I would still prefer a nice marlan head speaker over the CT's.
In conclusion. The SSP-800 is a Classe product. If you are familiar with the sound of the SSP-600/300 and liked it, you will absolutely LOVE the new SSP-800. If you didn't like the SSP-600/300, you won't like the SSP-800. It is as simple as that. Classe did not change their sound for this product. They just took what they had and gave it more.
If you have never heard either of these, I highly recommend that you give it a chance when looking for a new processor. It is stripped of many of the features that some others are offering near its price range, so you will have to decide if the trade-off is worth it or not. I think if you listen to it, you will enjoy it, but the beauty of this hobby is that we can agree to disagree.
I'll post some pictures later. There were two SSP-800's. One for the Demo, and one that had the top removed for display of the internals.
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