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Speaker for low volume listening with high WAF

It's that time of life when the large home is no longer needed and a New Orleans French Quarter condo is more exciting. So I'll be saying good-bye to my Wilson watt puppy 7's, wonderful "Big Mac" MC2000 (get the tubes right and this amp is incredible), Hovland HP100, Dodson DAC, Sony SCD-1, Lector CDP 7TL and mucho other stuff I spent years perfecting with tube rolling. Now I'm looking for a very good speaker system that will complement a Luxman L-590AII integrated amp along with a single box cd player. I don't particularly like speakers that are overly warm but prefer accuracy, clarity, wide soundstaging and musical dynamics which the watt pup 7's serves up with the right equipment. I would be interested in hearing from others who live in smaller spaces and share a similar musical taste and bought speakers that mirror my musical taste. Prior to the watt pups (I've owned the 6 & 7's) I had ML Prodigy and Quad ESL 63 stats (fast & transparent but low WAF).
rickjames
chazzbo
1,007 posts
 
P.S. Micro Utopias are small Mini's aren't so.if you could swing that size then add Harbeth or Totem Mani 2's (if you want huge bass)with totally different sound but damn good monitors both.Wish I could say I have heard them at low level (acid test for listening).I know a pair of Audio Physic Sparks did much better in that regard than larger models so think how much you can crank out or not and how much late night listening.Wish more reviewers included that important (to some of us) aspect.Lastly to get funky read Mark and Daniels write ups at 6moons
Chazz
gsm18439
895 posts
 
Several British speakers are designed to be against the wall - especially Audio Note. BTW. . . congratulations on your move to the French Quarter; I am envious and glad that it is recovering.
scpetscott
47 posts
 
I had quad 63s, maggies, meadowlark, soliloquy and the speakers I enjoyed the most were anthony gallo adiva's that I got dirt cheap when Good Guys went under. I would check into some of Gallos new stuff. The Adiva TIs work beautifully on wall and in terms of fitting nicely into a condo and wife factor probably can't be beat.
chazzbo
1,007 posts
 
Oh yeah.Also check out Dali Helicon 300's.Best monitor they make and one tiere down in there line but a guy named Lapierre has an OFFICE system that uses a $12K Mac two chassis pre and 275 power amp plus whole slew of expensive Oval Analysis cables and he thought they matched.Dali's make a hell of a speaker.
Chazz
bokfudo
58 posts
 
ATC, I recently moved to the SCM 12 and have them close to the wall with no ill-effect (sealed design). I am so happy with them I doubt I will ever go to another brand (well never say never...). In short: accuracy, full bodied, dynamic (micro and macro) sound much larger then size implies. Good at any sound level. I hate speakers that sound constipated and for years I considered trying ATC's but hesitated when looking at their specs (low sensitivity, bass rated to the mid 60 HZ) but man was I off. There is no lack of bass, there is no hint of where the tweeter takes over, can't even get them to compress. I have them on a 100 Watt McCormack DNA 0.5 but rarely need to raise the volume to enjoy their dynamic capabilities.

I have tried over 15 brands of speakers including Vienna Acoustic Mahlers (they get silver), many Dynaudio's (they get bronze), legacy audio, paradigm, Meadowlark, mirage, monitor audio, totem,etc. I still give my ATC's the gold!
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