atkinsonrr;155115 Wrote: > Over the years I've made some mistakes I might help you avoid. Speakers > more than any other component have a "sound". > > Give up any notion of putting speakers on a universal scale from "good" > to "bad". Recent research suggests that different people process and > therefore hear music in very different ways. This must be true, as > some systems I have considered unlistenable have been adored by people > whose judgement I respect. BTW this also means you should actively > disregard the "conclusion" from any speaker review. > > You must find what you like. And for less then awful-big money you wont > get it all in a speaker (if then), so you need to be honest about your > priorities. For ME speakers line up along three axes. You might find > the same helpful. Think about it: what aspect of the music really > speaks to YOU. Is it the harmonic richness of a voice like Norah > Jones' or Johnny Hartman's? Is it the feeling of being "inside the > music" that you get when you put on a super well-recorded, > well-produced track?. Is it the visceral impact of the Stones or > Mahler? Once you are well grounded in your priorities, speaker reviews > can be helpful if used to interpret if a speaker aligns with those. > > Narrow down your search by determining if a "boxless" planar design is > for you. The three brands you will most likely run across are > Magnepan, Martin Logan and Quad. Quad planars will be hard to later > augment for surround, so you might rule them out. Planar speakers have > a sound all their own, and if it really floats your boat, it is unlikely > that anything else will do. If for reasons of sound or practicality > these dont do it for you then you can move on. > > I have lived in places like Alaska, rural Scotland and Montana, so I > empathize with the need to sometimes get a bit more direction than "go > listen". So here is where I will stick my neck out and give you brands > to think about. For comparison sake, I will use $2K (new price) as a > max budget. (If you are in the US, take the advice about > Audiogon.com). They are well respected, excel at what they do, and are > exemplary of the different "poles", if you will, of priority in sound. > There are certainly many more brands out there, but these I have either > owned or been very familiar with. If nothing else, you might use these > to anchor your search. > > Harmonic Richness: Vandersteen's Model 2 has been around forever. > There is a reason. It does this rich harmonic thing sooooo nicely. If > looking at planars, Magnepan is voiced in this direction. > > Inside The Music: Spendor gives you the polite British version of this > sound. Good models available under $2k. Detail and spatial cues > galore. They are one of the origial makers of the iconic, > inside-the-music LS3/5a. The more exciting and in-your-face American > version of this sound is Thiel. In planars, the Quad ESL (but way > beyond 2K new). > > Visceral Impact: The classic Klipsch speakers (Klipschorn, Cornwall) > could be had used under $2K. I have heard their recent designs only in > stores, but they seem to carry on this tradition. In planar speakers, > Martin Logans.
Wise words indeed; I agree with everything in this post. The only thing I'll add is that hi-fi shows tend to be a good place to do this first filtering: while the rooms are rarely great acoustically, not least with people talking, heaven forbid, you should get a good idea of what really does it for you. Hi-fi dealers tend to favour a particular sound themselves, and hence have a limited stock in line with what they like. That's why you really do need to look around - try two or three if you can. Don't think that, because you're just spending $2k, you should settle for anything non-ideal. That's a lot of money, and will get you great speakers; they won't be state-of-the-art but they will sound very good indeed. Have fun :) Adam -- adamslim SB3 and Shanling CDT-100, Rotel RT-990BX, Esoteric Audio Research 859, Living Voice Auditorium IIs, Nordost cables ------------------------------------------------------------------------ adamslim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7355 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29736 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
