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First round of auditions disappointing

Well, I finally got out and did some actual listening over the weekend, and I can see that I have quite an adventure ahead of me.

I listened to the Focal Profile 928, Polk LSi15 and a couple of Martin Logan's (Vista and Vantage). The Focal was by far the worst of the bunch; as a matter of fact, it was downright awful, and at a price of $5K for the pair?????????? Good grief...

The Polk LSi15 was better, but far and away from what I expected, given the good press. I use to own Martin Logan Sequel II's, and liked them for their midrange qualities. The newer Logan's were pretty nice, but far too dead in the dynamics department. Very nice rendition of vocals though, and great soundstage presentation.

The more I listened to the typical box speaker, the more I believe that design won't satisfy me. My wife, who is really not "in" to music, commented to me that the Focal sounded "like a box," so there you have it.

I'll probably have to wait until CES, because there is little in the way of "high end" in my area.
seadweller
darkmoebius
900 posts
 
"The more I listened to the typical box speaker, the more I believe that design won't satisfy me."

Sounds like a call for planars or Open baffle speakers - any dipole variation.

Linkwitz Orion
Bastanis Speakers
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newbee
4,767 posts
 
well. I hate to say it but Aball is right. (:-))

About all you can tell when you hear a dealer's set up of a set of speakers of good general reputation that sounds poor is that the dealer hasn't spent much time on set up. Good quality and well set up speakers can sound amazingly good, so much so that less than anal audiophiles can get all they need if they are as careful and attentive in their own home set up. Ditto audio shows.
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undertow
1,033 posts
 
Yeah well what I am gonna say does not matter at this point, but as stated above I could make a pair of 50 dollar sony bookshelfs in a bedroom sound better than anything you probably witnessed at dealers, showroom, or hotelsÂ… You need to find one you are serious enough about and get them home on your equipment and setup according to the way you intend on using them. Its always a big hassle and lots of trial and error work especially with speakers.
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