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Joseph audio perspectives, magico a3, ATC scm40 v2

I am deciding between three speakers for my livingroom setup:

Joseph audio perspectives (v1)
Magico a3
ATC scm40 v2

My living room area is 15ft by 24ft. I need to place the speakers very close to the back wall so i was considering closed cabinet design.

previously i was using ATC scm40v1 and enjoyed its midrange especially male vocals and live music presentation. My setup is prism sound dream da1 as DAC, conran jhonson pv5 tube pre (about to get a schiit freya plus in Aug) and still deciding on amps.

One option for me is to get the ATC40v2.

I auditioned Magico S1 mk2 and Magico S3 mk2 but not yet the A3. S1 and S3 are wonderful sounding speakers with tons of details, great 3d imaging and dynamics, but sometimes a bit too refined and analytical. I would say the mids are just different flavors in S1 and S3 compared to ATCs, but not necessarily better. Also a3’s appearance and weight are not too appealing to me.

I found a used pair of joseph perspectives for $6k. I heard good things about joseph audio perspectives. They look great and are perfect in size and weight for me. Can anyone share their experiences with sonic performance of the joseph perspectives compared to ATC40s, especially in the vocals presentation? Thanks a lot!
128x128yuhengdu_tiger
bander's avatar
bander
503 posts
 
@yuhengdu_tiger Re private messaging: I was thinking of Us Audiomart.
My username there is raptorbander.
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yuhengdu_tiger OP
87 posts
 
@bander  thanks a lot, just PMed.
dznutz
145 posts
 
The Perspectives are very good sounding speakers, but they do have serious limitations.  You have to understand that they are small tower speakers with small drivers.  Jeff has done a great job at making them sound very full and big but with that comes a lot of driver excursion to achieve that output.  This compromises the mid-range, especially the louder you play them.  If you have a medium to large room or you like to listen fairly loud, you'll want to go with a larger 3 way speaker.
prof
3,469 posts
 

dznutz

I agree that someone should have his expectations in check to a degree.The size of the sound and the bass that comes out of the Perspectives is really surprising.  However, yes, we are talking about fairly small drivers (though long excursion, and low distortion).

Not sure what you mean by "compromises the midrange" the louder you play them.  One of the features of the Perspectives is that they remain clear, clean and grain-free even at loud volumes.  That's what I hear, and John Atkinson made a point about that also in his review.

However, I'd say there does seem to be a bit of a limitation in terms of going super loud, where it seems like you turn up the volume but they hit a point where they don't seem to be going much louder.    But, for me, that only just barely begins to happen when I'm cranking them to listen from another room down the hall in my house.  They go louder without strain than I need when in my listening room.

But, yes, if you play really loud you might want a larger speaker, or one with more/larger drivers (well designed of course).
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yuhengdu_tiger OP
87 posts
 
@dznutz Thanks for the input. I don’t listen very loud actually I often listen quite small volume since I am putting the speakers in the living room area where my 2 kids are around. I normally sit either 11 ft or 15 ft from the speakers though.

The dilemma for me is that I can not go for a too large of a pair of speakers (such as atc scm50) since I will have a hard time to get a wife approval. That’s why I limit my options to be small foot print speakers in the first place.

Anyway, I get to audition the perspectives next week and I will see if they will work for me. 
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