Visit to Magnolia Proves Interesting


I had a good 2 hours of alone time (wife took the kid to the pool) and ran over to Magnolia.  Let me just note that in the 2 decades that I've been visiting high end audio stores, I've not been too keen on listening at big box stores because the seem to be pushing brands that face serious competition elsewhere. 

I listened to B&W 804s, Martin Logan electrostatics, and Sonus Faber Olympica IIIs through an McIntosh MC452.

Here are my takeaways:

1.  The Sonus Faber sounded better than the B&W 804s through the Mac.  The Sonus Fabers had more of a holographic picture, better bass, and did not try to dissect the music into little pieces for me to put back together, yet I could hear the individual parts well if I wanted to.  The B&Ws were impressive, but sounded a bit clinical in my book. 

2.  Nothing I was hearing by either loudspeaker felt like much of an improvement over what I have--PSB Imagine T2s, running through either a Roksan Radius (Ortofon 2m Black) or Tidal pushed through my Creek Evolution 100A's DAC or through my Bluesound's DAC.   

Now if I were in the market for new stuff (who kind of isn't even when we say we're not), I wouldn't necessarily run to Magnolia.  I happened to be close and it was convenient.  I would, however, potentially consider Mac, B&W and Sonus Faber as possible upgrade paths.  

Well, I left feeling like my Creek integrated and PSB Imagine T2s are just splendid--they compete so nicely with the near $10k Mac and $8K B&Ws and $13k Sonus Fabers.  

That made me feel pretty good.  I am now convinced that my best short term upgrade path--as someone on Audiogon said to me--is to get a better phono preamp than my Creek Sequel.  

It seems, however, that for digital playback I may have reached a pretty good plateau.  The law of diminishing returns is quite real for me right now.  

I'm thinking that Creek, PSB, Roksan and Bluesound--oh wait, don't forget Ortofon--all deserve business because they make superb products for the price...not that they are cheap. 

I'm still thinking about my next upgrade path.  And, I'm ever-so-curious to see what the PSBs would sound like with gobs more power.  All of this said, I'm really in a good spot to just enjoy the music and keep collecting vinyl. 

I welcome any thoughts you all may have.  Thanks in advance to such a wonderful community!








128x128jbhiller
We recently purchased several major kitchen appliances at a local Best Buy. Not that it was planned, but I wandered over to the Magnolia section which in fact was a Design Center store. They had 4-5 listening rooms and my staff person was "somewhat" knowledgeable about audio, but was unfamiliar with my Kharma Midi Grands and Krell FPB 450 mcx monoblocks. He didn’t ask me what I did for a living. I auditioned the Sonus Faber Olympus III’s and then the B&W 803 D3’s with Mac gear.... unfortunately without my own listening material. I was genuinely impressed with the B&W’s. Last time I auditioned B&W were the Nautilus series 802’s 12+ years ago... they’ve come a long way since then. Anyway, long story short, I walked away ordering a REL S/2 sub at 1/2 price for a secondary system. FWIW.
Chlv0ter and jafant, you are mostly correct about the Atlanta hifi market. There are some options you may not know about. I own and operate Wolfsong Audio in Dawsonville. We show a full line of Bryston, Rogue Audio, Ryan Speakers, Kii Audio, Thoerns, Nerve Audio cables, Soundsmith phono carts. And Target A udio stands. Look up Wolfsong Audio and give us a call

(((I would like to learn more about why Audio Alternative merged w/ HiFi Buys?))
  Alan, Owner Audio Alternative took the name on Hi Fi Buys runs a class act operation and is well worth seeking out.
 Many folks that relocated or moved from the Northeast find him to be superb.
 Best JohnnyR 
To Seattle area residence tired of listening to the same stuff we have a nice little shop in Bellingham selling really unique and wonderful sounding products. 

Jim
soundsrealaudio
I would strongly suggest you look into Devore Fidelity and or Vandersteen speakers then consider any change in amplification requirements. 

Your current speakers are very good performers for their price point which means spending considerably more for an improvement that will be satisfyingly worthwhile. 

Devore designs open the door to the possibilities of low wattage amplification. Vandersteen offers what becomes the distinctive presentation of correct time and phase. After living with them you'll begin to notice just how wrong many other dynamic speaker designs are. 

If Best Buy's Martin Logan's become your siren call I'd recommend a must listen to Sanders Sound Systems the entire system.

And please, get Michael Jackson's "Off The Wall" and dance with your child to an uncorrected musical production.