SPEAKERS THAT SOUND ALIVE & DYNAMIC AT LOW LISTENING LEVELS


  1. Seeking speakers that sound alive and dynamic at 55 dbs with occasional peaks at 60 dbs. Headphones do not work for me. My ears were just tested and ENT advised my ears are normal for a 72 year old. He said that I have normal age related hearing loss. My ears are uncomfortable when I listen over 55 dbs.  My current system is as follows:

Martin Logan11A impression loudspeakers with 2 SVS 4000 subs. 

Bryston 4B3 Cubed power amp & Bryston BP-19 preamp.

Chord Qutest Dac-with LHY linear power supply.   

Lumin U2 mini  streamer with S Booster power supply.

Before I change speakers I plan to upgrade my DAC to Weiss 204 with Linear power supply, and then purchase Schitt Audio Loki Max equalizer (to boost bass and treble) hopefully to counteract Fletcher Munson Curve.

Finally I was thinking of Klipsch Forte 4 & Cornwall 4, and Frigg 2 by O Audio, as

reviews of all three say they all sound great at low volumes.   I know many say Klipsch is not high end or very revealing, but is there anybody out there that owns or has heard any of the above. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I enjoy this hobby and the great music it brings to the table. I don't want to stop listening and just seeking to find a solution that would allow me to continue musical enjoyment.

Thanks for your thoughts.
 

 

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1. Change amps to perhaps a tube amp or a first watt, an amp designed to sound good at less than one watt, which is where you are listening.

I think that is excellent advice. Give that a shot first.

I don’t know your ML’s, but I can confirm my Yamamoto 45 sounds simply wonderful at 0.2 watts per channel on my Hornings. (I'm guessing; didn't measure the output) 

You have a good front end that deserved more than these Klipsches. These Klipsches never sounded good at low volume or high volume..very deficient. If you can afford and have the space for a Klipsch Jubilee model, it got rescued by Celestion as well as an active solution and started to sound pretty good.

But, if you only have a Forte level budget, try something like this instead, something different, outside of the group think mantra. There are some technical reasons for a horn array like this to meet your low spl detail requirements (or high spl requirements if you decided to party it up someday), but, you could request color of choice for horns and cabinet or whatever, for better WAF.

If it didn’t work, you could return it in 60 days.

 

Finally I was thinking of Klipsch Forte 4 & Cornwall 4, and Frigg 2 by O Audio, as

reviews of all three say they all sound great at low volumes. I know many say Klipsch is not high end or very revealing, but is there anybody out there that owns or has heard any of the above. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I enjoy this hobby and the great music it brings to the table. I don’t want to stop listening and just seeking to find a solution that would allow me to continue musical enjoyment.

Get an equalizer and you can dial down the annoying frequency range and boost treble and bass. You are replicating the function of a loudness button. No other changes required. Another option is to dump your bryston gear and pickup a Luxman 590 integrated. Has tone controls and loudness button. 

The klipsch speakers are quite dynamic, and like many horn-based systems, they sound alive at low volume levels.  But, they are on the crude and rough side.  You would do better by paying up for Volti horn systems.  I would also recommend the single-driver backloaded horn speakers from Charney Audio and the single driver field coil systems from Songer Audio.  Open baffle systems from PureAudioProject also sound good at modest listening levels.  
For more conventional systems that sound quite good at low volume, look at Audio Note speakers.  
The speakers I have recommended are fairly efficient so they eill work well with low-powered tube amps.  These are my favorite kinds of amps and they bring music to life at quite low listening levels.  Brands to look out for include Audio Note, Yamamoto, and Synthesis Audio.  The combination of high efficiency speaker and low-powered tube amps is hard to beat.