Ozzzy's Sagatun experience.
Posted: 2014-05-19 16:35
Hidden Systems Lejonklou Sagatun launch premiere.
Saturday the 17th of May is a day I shall never forget. Not only is it the day when I met some lovely people and made some new friends. Twas the day when I heard some fantastic HiFi equipment and it reaffirmed just how good Lejonklou products sound.
Fredrik introduced himself to us, talking about his background, his ideal ology and thinking behind his products and how he tries his utmost to convey his message. There was a simple message in the corner of the room under the Lejonklou name. It read Music Music Music.
Our initial demonstration was using a fully maxed out Linn Klimax LP12, the new Lejonklou pre-amp (Sagatun- pronounced saa ga toon), and Lejonklou Tundra mono power amplifiers into Linn Akubariks. Linn silvers, stock power cables and Linn K200 speaker cable were the bits and bobs that connected it all up.
Fredrik’s initial demo was a crowded house track I’d not heard before. We were given a thirty second blast before the Sagatun was swapped out for a latest spec Linn Klimax Kontrol.
From the brief snippet it was plainly obvious which set up conveyed the most musicality and tunefulness. A second stint on both setups confirmed what I said after the initial hearing. The Sagatun having the ability to play the tune that was simply missing on the KK. This was most noticeable in the bassline. The Sagatun put across the musical message in a way the KK simply did not, it was foot tappingly good, the music flowing along beautifully, sounding both sweet and natural but never forced or too eager. Very tuneful.
The KK by comparison was a touch laboured, slothful almost and actually a little smooth and coloured. However although some people agreed with my observations, there were a few who were undecided. This to me only increased the high esteem in which Lejonklou products are held in my opinion. To have no opinion or to be unsure as to which was better, showed how close to the already well regarded Linn pre amplifier the Sagatun was.
Unfortunately what I didn’t particularly like was the negativity and defensive attitude of a couple of people who attended. I actually found this kind of attitude rather poor. To dismiss and so blatantly put down a product because they were trying to defend or justify their purchases. I personally felt this manner was clouding their view, and as a retailer who can’t sell these products, it looked like said person had decided they were poor and not worthy before the needle had even been lowered onto the vinyl. I really thought this did spoil the atmosphere a bit and I left the room for a while to make some refreshments and freshen up.
Then again could that just be a blunt yorkshireman on a hot day? Either way I can’t help but think twas a shame. Don’t worry Anthony, it wasn’t you mate.
Eager to hear peoples thoughts whether he agreed or not and ask and answer any questions put to him no matter how challenging, Fredrik continued to demonstrate different combinations of source, pre and power amps, only the speakers stayed the same. The big secret that had been discussed previously was out now. Sagatun Mono Pre-amps.
I may be right in saying that this is where Fredrik struggled with a particular issue that was spoiling the sound? For some reason the lovely sound so carefully tuned the previous evening had disappeared somewhere! The culprit was found and ejected- a nasty rogue power lead. Normal service was resumed.
So onward to my favourite part of the day. And this had me hankering and lusting over things I really can’t afford. There were only a few of us left, Fred and Chris were chatting to Charlie1 and Paul and I were chatting in the demo room and I had the controls! Would it be Iron Maiden, AC/DC or even a bit of something really different? I opted for Ed Alleyne Johnson’s incredible purple violin concerto, a few tracks from the original pressing and a few from the anniversary edition.
By now the system had been left as a Klimax DS1, Dual Mono Sagatun pre amps and my little beauty Agnetha, my Tundra stereo driving the passive Akubariks. This set up simply blew my socks off and was the highlight of my day. Not only did it show how great Sagatun monos can be, it showed how bleeding incredible the stereo Tundra is. Yes. INCREDIBLE.
I’d only previously heard Active Akubariks in Yorkshire and wasn’t particularly impressed. The fact that the on board amps technically are more Majik than Akurate didn’t sit too well with me. This along with the fact that they weren’t really that loud and I’d definitely heard distortion via KK at volume 75 and above depending on the recording etc. had me thinking they were totally different speakers.
From the driving pomp of Muse and the resistance to the aforementioned Ed Alleyne, the Linn / Leklonjou combo was loud, clean, musical, powerful and above all tuneful. Hard to believe that little Swedish marvel was driving those speakers so efficiently and so impressively. Paul leant across at one point and said, ‘that sounds better than my solos’. Unbiased praise indeed. I couldn’t stop grinning. This particular Linn/Lejonklou combination certainly matched very well indeed, as I wasn’t expecting a single Tundra to impress with passive Akubariks like this.
By the time Charlie1 off the forum arrived I’d heard all kinds of combinations, I stayed for a while to listen to Fredrik again, from the introduction through to the demo and I was pleased to hear Charlie1 speak with an honest ,open and balanced opinion, on occasions he preferred the Sagatun, some he wasn’t sure, maybe once he even may have preferred the KK, but one word he said describing the KK stuck with me and that’s sluggish. I’m pretty sure Charlie1 will be posting here if he hasn’t already so naturally I’ll look forward to hearing from him and his findings.
Live with Sagatun for a week, whether it’s one or two, but go back to a KK afterwards and I think you’ll be surprised. I do like Linn equipment, don’t get me wrong. It’s beautifully designed and researched, built in the UK and integrates well with their system tier and for streaming I don’t think they can be beaten and for many people it’s almost a religion and they’ll defend it to the hilt. The thing is you see………Fredrik’s equipment IS better.
The Lad from Sweden has done it again.
MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC
That’s all there was.
And that is why it was under his logo.
A huge Thank you to Chris and Fredrik.
And finally it was nice to meet Paul, Simon (lol, no he wasn’t there), Charlie1 and Anthony especially and everyone else I spoke to, sorry I’m a bit rubbish remembering names.
Ozzzy.
Saturday the 17th of May is a day I shall never forget. Not only is it the day when I met some lovely people and made some new friends. Twas the day when I heard some fantastic HiFi equipment and it reaffirmed just how good Lejonklou products sound.
Fredrik introduced himself to us, talking about his background, his ideal ology and thinking behind his products and how he tries his utmost to convey his message. There was a simple message in the corner of the room under the Lejonklou name. It read Music Music Music.
Our initial demonstration was using a fully maxed out Linn Klimax LP12, the new Lejonklou pre-amp (Sagatun- pronounced saa ga toon), and Lejonklou Tundra mono power amplifiers into Linn Akubariks. Linn silvers, stock power cables and Linn K200 speaker cable were the bits and bobs that connected it all up.
Fredrik’s initial demo was a crowded house track I’d not heard before. We were given a thirty second blast before the Sagatun was swapped out for a latest spec Linn Klimax Kontrol.
From the brief snippet it was plainly obvious which set up conveyed the most musicality and tunefulness. A second stint on both setups confirmed what I said after the initial hearing. The Sagatun having the ability to play the tune that was simply missing on the KK. This was most noticeable in the bassline. The Sagatun put across the musical message in a way the KK simply did not, it was foot tappingly good, the music flowing along beautifully, sounding both sweet and natural but never forced or too eager. Very tuneful.
The KK by comparison was a touch laboured, slothful almost and actually a little smooth and coloured. However although some people agreed with my observations, there were a few who were undecided. This to me only increased the high esteem in which Lejonklou products are held in my opinion. To have no opinion or to be unsure as to which was better, showed how close to the already well regarded Linn pre amplifier the Sagatun was.
Unfortunately what I didn’t particularly like was the negativity and defensive attitude of a couple of people who attended. I actually found this kind of attitude rather poor. To dismiss and so blatantly put down a product because they were trying to defend or justify their purchases. I personally felt this manner was clouding their view, and as a retailer who can’t sell these products, it looked like said person had decided they were poor and not worthy before the needle had even been lowered onto the vinyl. I really thought this did spoil the atmosphere a bit and I left the room for a while to make some refreshments and freshen up.
Then again could that just be a blunt yorkshireman on a hot day? Either way I can’t help but think twas a shame. Don’t worry Anthony, it wasn’t you mate.
Eager to hear peoples thoughts whether he agreed or not and ask and answer any questions put to him no matter how challenging, Fredrik continued to demonstrate different combinations of source, pre and power amps, only the speakers stayed the same. The big secret that had been discussed previously was out now. Sagatun Mono Pre-amps.
I may be right in saying that this is where Fredrik struggled with a particular issue that was spoiling the sound? For some reason the lovely sound so carefully tuned the previous evening had disappeared somewhere! The culprit was found and ejected- a nasty rogue power lead. Normal service was resumed.
So onward to my favourite part of the day. And this had me hankering and lusting over things I really can’t afford. There were only a few of us left, Fred and Chris were chatting to Charlie1 and Paul and I were chatting in the demo room and I had the controls! Would it be Iron Maiden, AC/DC or even a bit of something really different? I opted for Ed Alleyne Johnson’s incredible purple violin concerto, a few tracks from the original pressing and a few from the anniversary edition.
By now the system had been left as a Klimax DS1, Dual Mono Sagatun pre amps and my little beauty Agnetha, my Tundra stereo driving the passive Akubariks. This set up simply blew my socks off and was the highlight of my day. Not only did it show how great Sagatun monos can be, it showed how bleeding incredible the stereo Tundra is. Yes. INCREDIBLE.
I’d only previously heard Active Akubariks in Yorkshire and wasn’t particularly impressed. The fact that the on board amps technically are more Majik than Akurate didn’t sit too well with me. This along with the fact that they weren’t really that loud and I’d definitely heard distortion via KK at volume 75 and above depending on the recording etc. had me thinking they were totally different speakers.
From the driving pomp of Muse and the resistance to the aforementioned Ed Alleyne, the Linn / Leklonjou combo was loud, clean, musical, powerful and above all tuneful. Hard to believe that little Swedish marvel was driving those speakers so efficiently and so impressively. Paul leant across at one point and said, ‘that sounds better than my solos’. Unbiased praise indeed. I couldn’t stop grinning. This particular Linn/Lejonklou combination certainly matched very well indeed, as I wasn’t expecting a single Tundra to impress with passive Akubariks like this.
By the time Charlie1 off the forum arrived I’d heard all kinds of combinations, I stayed for a while to listen to Fredrik again, from the introduction through to the demo and I was pleased to hear Charlie1 speak with an honest ,open and balanced opinion, on occasions he preferred the Sagatun, some he wasn’t sure, maybe once he even may have preferred the KK, but one word he said describing the KK stuck with me and that’s sluggish. I’m pretty sure Charlie1 will be posting here if he hasn’t already so naturally I’ll look forward to hearing from him and his findings.
Live with Sagatun for a week, whether it’s one or two, but go back to a KK afterwards and I think you’ll be surprised. I do like Linn equipment, don’t get me wrong. It’s beautifully designed and researched, built in the UK and integrates well with their system tier and for streaming I don’t think they can be beaten and for many people it’s almost a religion and they’ll defend it to the hilt. The thing is you see………Fredrik’s equipment IS better.
The Lad from Sweden has done it again.
MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC
That’s all there was.
And that is why it was under his logo.
A huge Thank you to Chris and Fredrik.
And finally it was nice to meet Paul, Simon (lol, no he wasn’t there), Charlie1 and Anthony especially and everyone else I spoke to, sorry I’m a bit rubbish remembering names.
Ozzzy.