Good speakers at low volume?

I auditioned the Dali Mk II model 400 a while back and compared it to similiarly priced dynaudio, martin logans, mags, focal, b&w, and every other speaker I could find in a 50 mile radius - the Dali made it to my short list. I just don't like the ribbon technology. Another very nice sounding set of speakers were the classic line of Spendor.

One thing you may want to consider is the cabinet construction. What may be of interest - when I auditioned B&W 804s and 803s - the only real difference I noticed was in the sound at low volumes - while I have not bothered to conduct extensive research, my 'gut' feeling was that the cabinet construction made all the difference - particurly since in nearly all other respects the speakers are very similar but there was nearly a 30 pound difference in the weight of the speakers.

I am unfamiliar with the amp you are using. However, the amp does make a difference although less so than the speakers and acoustics. Recently there have been two posts where the persons complained of poor low volume sound and both were using Rotel products. That was my impression also when auditioning speakers driven by Rotel vs other amps. The Rotel had plenty of power, just did not sound good at low volumes. Just something for consideration.

Depending on what music you listen to, the absolute best sounding vocals that I heard in months of auditioning were from a classic spendor driven by a low powered tube amp. If I listened to a lot of vocals I would definitely have that system.

Check out Green Mountain Audio speakers. The Callistos sound excellent at low volumes (specifically, they sound great at the lowest volume possible with an Ayre AX-7e integrated). I would expect the Eos and Eos HD to perform even better.

Glide3. How do you manage to play at low volumes? Which DNM pre amps do you own? Mine had a vicious volume pot (series 3) and as there is one pot per speaker it was really tricky getting it just right with efficient horn speakers.Lovely sound though.

Hi

I like to thank Branislav for this thread. I'm somewhat in the same boat - apartment dweller.

Branislav, does you amplifier have decent volume pot so as to fine tune/adjust the volume when playing? The volume pot on my amp is not that great (something I'm looking into)...

For me my Altmann dac and Altmann integrated amplifier (20W @4Ohms) both run off 12v car battery. In addition I have (apart from the digital cable) Synergistic Research cabling with active shielding.

I have minimal acoustic treatments with, in each corner, a Echo Buster Corner (triangle) and a Cathedral Sound Panel. This has helped greatly in that the bass is much better controlled in the room and helped with the echoes.

The above two points leads to a much quieter background and hence I can hear more and be involved at lower volumes.

I'm not saying change your amps or cables. It's just my observations on how I've, by accident, manage to listen at somewhat low volumes and still enjoy my music.

Btw my speakers are Kef 103/4's, 91 db eff, 4Ohms. The room is small (14,5'x 16). I've still to treat 1st reflection points and rear walls. I'm also looking at other speakers, mostly out of curiosity and so thanks to all the suggestions thus far.

Question for Musicnoise (or anybody who knows) - coming back to the comparison you mentioned of b&w 804 and b&w 803, I'm assuming it was the latter one that played better at low volume right?