Egglestonworks Andra original versus Andra-II

No personal experience but a prior owner told me that the midrange on the original was direct connected, no crossover between you and the music. The company was subsequently sold and the new owners redesigned, and while achieving better bass response lost some of that mid-range magic. This mimics exactly what you hear, but as I say this was related to me by someone who owned and appreciated the design of the original. Can anyone chime in to set the record straight as this speaker line has interested me and it's always a question as to whether version II is an improvement or just different?

I am also interested, if only because I had the opportunity to listen to the original Andra many times. Its direct connected midrange had the most natural reproduction I had heard, and I have been in this audio business since the late 1960s. It ran rings around the then-famoust B&W 802, but its bass was really lacking. I haven't listened to the Andra II.

To answer Myraj. Yes, everything is the same even the height is the same since I used the matching Andra 7" inch stands with my original Andra's which made identical in height and almost identical in overall looks to the Andra-II's.

Jpp59 wrote: "I loved my original Andra's and got frustated at times due to the lack of mid-bass/bass response but loved the midrange and top end. I impressed with the improved bass performance of the Andra-II but feel that something of the magic in the midrange is lost."

And it's abosolutely right. A hint of the differences betweern original Andras and Andras II can be observed by watching at their frequency response curves as published by Stereophile magazine at both Andras' reviews.

The first Andras have a somewhat elevated treble response on axis that is missing in Andras II. Also Andras II go deeper and stronger at lower bass making up for a bass-tilted illusion balance.

Besides all this there's the fact of adding crossover components to mid range drivers which is usually related to a slightly decrease in volume output of the involved drivers.

Of course one can always try removing or bypassing mid-range crossover components and compare resulting speaker "voice" with the crossovered scenario.

Andras are the most "musicians-playing-in-front-of-you" experience producing speakers to my ears.

Happy listening.

Jotam

I was in the mood for some new speakers and spoke with several very knowledgeable people about the andra I's and II's. I got differing opinions in regards to what was actually the better speaker. I did end up getting some II's and I must say am pretty impressed so far.

In the past I have had watt puppy 6's, 7's and Sophias as well as a host of others. I guess the vast majority of speakers out there in these price ranges are pretty good and there are plus's and minus's with all of them.