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Am I missing something?

I have a system that I consider wonderful. It consists of Musical fidelity A3.2cr amp/pre, cambridge audio d300se cdp, Music Hall mmf 2.1 turntable, and Monitor Audio Silver 4i speakers on custom stands. I know it is mostly a budget based system, and I have never heard of anyone else saying anything possitive about these speakers, but I couldn't point out a single thing that they do wrong. I have heard Martin logans, sonus faber, vienna accoustics, paradigm, athena, and some others, and I know this sounds crazy, but I like my $850 Monitor Audio Silver 4i's better than them all. I have a very long listening room (almost 30ft by 13ft, speakers on the short wall) and they fill the room with a very pleasant sound. I know there are better speakers out there, but if I was unsatisfied with the other speakers I mentioned, what speakers do you think would fit my listening taste? I know stereophile auditioned my amp/pre with Sonus faber cremonas and said that the combo was "one of the best", and I didn't get a chance to listen to the cremonas, so these may be a good choice. Any other suggestions?
sksfreund
robm321
932 posts
 
Wow, I don't remember a thread with such a strong consensus.

Creeper makes a good point. If you like what you have but feel like you want to better it. Do the "not so fun, at least for some people" stuff and work on speaker placement, room treatment, isolation, etc. It will make what you have better instead of changing the sound.

Rob
opalchip
355 posts
 
Another thing to do, especially with smaller speakers. If you like the sound of one pair, you'll love the sound of two. Try adding a 2nd pair upside down on top of the first pair. Creates a quasi-D'Appolito configuration without much phase cancellation problem if done carefully. There have been a few threads here on that. I have done quite a bit of experimenting with "speaker combining" this and I can say first hand, the results can be incredible.
sksfreund OP
3 posts
 
I guess this brings me to another question. I know my room is less than desirable for speaker placement. It is "L" shaped. When facing my speakers, to the left of my left speaker it is open to my dining room. My right speaker is about a foot and a half away from the wall. That wall has 2 huge windows on it. What can I do to compensate for the large opening to the left? I have very large (floor to ceiling) curtains on the two windows on the right wall, I think that helps on that side. I'd prefer not to drape a curtain across my dining room. Any suggestions?
jay_douglas_2879b79
239 posts
 
the monitors are great
robm321
932 posts
 
sksgreund,

You can experiment with room treatment, but I have the same situation now and I put panels on the side that is closest to the wall and no panels (absorbtion) on the other side since it goes to an opening and there are no reflections coming directly at me. Anyway, it still makes a balanced sound stage even they one side has more reinforcement.
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