In my opinion, there's good news and bad news for you, Dodealum...
The bad news is, as you indicated, in Dr. Raines most difficult room, you have yet to really hear the speakers. I think the hardness of the contruction materials contributes to the colder tonal balance. And, as you stated, no back walls do not produce the kind of bass the speakers produce in more conventional surroundings.
The good news is, I believe, if you liked them there, you should REALLY like them in a different room. While I have not had a pair of Studio 7s in my room, we did have a prototype in both his and my rooms, and I had to call him within 15 minutes of firing everything up just to tell him that he had NEVER heard what these babies really sounded like. With my speakers 5' from the back walls, and about 2.5 from the side walls, the low frequencies gave me a true taste of why you would want to implement a real TL bass alignment. I mean slammin bass, where I had been a bit disappointed previously. The overall tonal balance also shifted to be clearly warmer and easier to listen to.
The pair that you heard addressed my complaints to a nice degree, but I still think they would sound appreciably better in my room. Hopefully, you will get to give them a try in Manhattan, though I have no idea what that room and ancillaries are. Please let us know your impressions if that does happen.
Amplification in my system was a pair of AtmaSphere M60 MKIIs, fed directly by a Granite Audio 657 CD player. Cabling was HomeGrown Audio Silver Lace interconnects and Vampire STIII OCC copper speaker cables.
Tom, good to hear from you once again! Yes, I am running the OTLs, but now have a super modified pair of M60 MKIII, with 12SX7 input tubes, massively upgraded power supply, teflon film and foil caps, all the goodies. The improvement in sound is definitely not subtle. The sound is much more relaxed and liquid, along with having increased bass slam, warmth, refinement, detail, lower distortion, etc. It's about as good an amp that Ralph will build, with the addition of the tubes he doesn't generally approve of as they don't meet The 20 Year Rule - though he does concede the superior sonics.
They have been driving Bud's longtime speakers, which he so generously gave to me late last year, a pair of Fried A/6, and a homemade pair of Zalytron designed Cabasse drivered medium sized stand mounted speakers - all to great effect. Also, the amps really deliver much better sound with the Coincident TRS I am using now (for whatever reason, my KT88 tubed Granite monoblocks do not sound very good with this cable).
Based on an incredibly thrilling listening session at a friend's, using my Lowther ceramic magnet PM6Cs in his Lowther designed 36" tall ported cabinets, I will be going with my alnico magnet PM6As in a similar, but larger 44" tall cabinet (no, I don't just listen to Frieds). At that point, I'll try the M60s, but would have no qualms in getting a good 2A3 or 300B amp as well for these babies should the marriage not be ideal.
We ARE going to introduce a minimonitor. It addresses the incessant pleadings of Bud and myself to reintroduce the Beta, and open things up to people who want a smaller speaker, or have less money to spend on a pair of loudspeakers. Dr. Raines wants Fried to symbolize all of the best of what Bud accomplished, so they will be more upscale than the Betas. They will use a true Transmission Line bass loading, and, of course, the first order series crossovers. I feel that the technology in this speaker is a few notches beyond what is normally encountered. Especially, at their price. But, I'm not a techno snob, I focus on sonics. Because of that, I certainly do buy into the inherent superiority of TL and series crossovers. The cabinetry, as I am sure, Dodgealum will attest of the Studio 7, is first rate - better than I'd ever need. The cost will be $1750, which I think represents tremendous value, but who am I to make such a statement?
