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Small room, "budget priced" speaker advice, please

Hi,

I recently sold my dearly beloved, old Vandersteen 2C's here on Audiogon (and I hope SgtPeppers is loving them at this moment!) :-) I did this because in our remodeled house, my new listening room (which will double as a guest room) is just too small for the 2C's. The Spousal Acceptance Factor was just too low. ;-)

I have a PS Audio Elite-Plus integrated amp for power (around 70 W/Ch) and a soon-to-be-shipped-off-for-a-refurb Sota Sapphire for an analog front end (I have "miles" of vinyl)! I will also get a CD player at some point.

For now, I need to find a pair of best-of-breed, truly "budget" speakers. By "budget," I'm talking upper limit of $850/pair. (Gone are my free-spending, single days... I'm a dad now...) :-)

Listening habits: lots of 60's and 70's folk and rock, some jazz, Donald Fagen/Steely Dan, a little classical. Listening volume: not too loud. Sonic preferences: I value transparency and imaging/soundstage. Bass should be accurate above all, as opposed to chest-pounding powerful.

I've looked at Paradigms, which I know are highly regarded at lower price points. Trouble is, our one, local dealer is primarily a TV/home theater outfit, so you're trying to hear them in a showroom crammed with other stuff... you know the drill. I've also hit a high end shop. Listened to a pair of PSB small towers and disliked them; they sounded muddy and veiled to me. Listened to a pair of the smallest Rega's and liked them quite a bit, but would want to go back to listen again. I even wrote to PS Audio for advice; they recommended the "baby" Epos monitors, but they're out of my price range.

Thanks if you've read this far. Knowing how subjective all this is, I'd still welcome any advice you have to offer about what I should try to audition.
rebbi
asa
662 posts
 
Rebbi, thanks for listing your system. I had Vandy 1B's when I was in college many, many moons ago. I think the Music Hall Cd was a good choice and you've got the Sota so your front end is ready to go. The problem will be the circa 80's PS Audio. I'm not an anti-PS Audio guy; in fact, I had a Lambda transport years ago too. But PS Audio amps are a different thing, particularly from the eighties - bright and wiry. The Totem Model One's are a nice speaker and I have heard the same thing: they disaappear, are expansive for what they are, and have a rich midrange. True, a bit inefficient and you need to biwire, but you always will have good resale and they are speakers you can build with, if you choose. But they will translate the PS Audio sound, and, hence, I do not think you will hear them in your home like you did at the dealer's. I know $ is an issue, and you may not be able to spring for a PrimaLuna and speakers at once, but I sure would look at moving from the PS Audio at some point. Maybe a Naim Nait 5 (I would think around $1200 used) or something else. In any event, if you get speakers, I think you are going to hear pretty quick where the weak link is. Then again, there's always something to buy, right?! Good luck with your search.
rebbi OP
1,326 posts
 
Thanks for the recommendations, Asa. Right now, I know pretty well that the PS Audio amp at least has the "juice" to drive a 4 ohm speaker. If the Arro's are so revealing that they expose the Elite Plus to have crappy sound, then, there's something else to save up for, as you say. When the time comes, I'll get back on Audiogon and see what people recommend in a "budget" priced, used amp. I might even try tubes, if I can swing the $ ! ;-)
rebbi OP
1,326 posts
 
Mapman,

The most unique thing about the Vandy's, AFAIK, is that you have the grill cloth "sock" stretched around four corner dowels, and inside is the closest thing to bare speaker guts you can get. They call this a baffle-less design, and it's supposed to eliminate edge diffraction effects; there's no "box," in the conventional sense. Also, the speaker elements are supposed to be time and phase-aligned.

They have lovely bass response — well recorded electric bass sounds like a string instrument, and not low-level mush. When I bought that first system, I carried around my vinyl copy of James Taylor's "That's Why I'm Here" from audio shop to audio shop (this was back when I lived in the NYC area). I listened to the title track over and over and over again for two great audio moments. First, when JT sings the line, "It seems me and Melissa, well we fell out of love," Leland Sklar enters with this swooping bass glissando. Done right, it has "air" around it. The Vandy's got that right. Also, when JT sings "I'm back in touch with my long lost friend," there's a moment when you swear you can hear the wall in back of his head, and his voice is eerily "there." The Vandy's did a good job with that, too.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,457 posts
 
The Vandy's are not a conventional box design.

The Ohms and Vandies share a couple of characteristics I can think of.

First, driver surfaces are decoupled from the cabinets. Second, both strive for phase coherence, Ohm by using a single driver for most of the audible range and avoiding a crossover in the critical midrange.

Do you think at this point that the Totem's or other box designs you've auditioned in your price range can do what the Vandy's can to your satisfaction?
rebbi OP
1,326 posts
 
Mapman,

I dunno about the Totem Arro, because although there are two Totem dealers here in Austin, neither stocks the Arro! So I'm extrapolating from the Dreamcatchers that I did get to hear, and from the copious rave reviews I've read. Everybody seems to agree that their imaging is phenomenal, albeit in that "etched, precise," "great stereo" kind of way. So I'm running on some guesswork and second-hand advice, here!
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