Speaker recomendation

Bache Audio's extraordinary augmented widebanders are my favorite high end speakers.  There are five models ranging from $3K to $15K, and designer/owner Greg Belman will let you try them in your listening room.  I recently replaced my Merlin VSM's with the Bache Metro 001's.

Here is a paragraph excerpted from Laurence Borden's July 2014 review of the discontinued Bache 001 for Dagago. I think it gets to the heart of the augmented widebander advantage:

"In a typical 3-way speaker, the crossover point between the midrange and tweeter is typically between 1 and 2 kHz, which is smack-dab in the region to which our ear is most sensitive. No matter how well designed a crossover might be, the tweeter and midrange drivers invariably differ in their dispersion characteristics, transient response, and distortion characteristics. Making matters worse, the crossover often introduces phase shifts. Although these differences are often not recognized per se (except in especially poor implementations), they become apparent when they are absent, as they are in a speaker based on a wideband driver. As implemented in the Bache Audio speakers, the Tangband covers the range from about 100 Hz to about 10,000, or almost seven octaves. Not surprisingly, they are superbly coherent. As a result, music has a wholeness — or oneness, if you prefer — that makes it seem more lifelike. One has a sense of being more relaxed while listening, a trait I find very desirable in a speaker. Not surprisingly, instruments that span many octaves — like the piano — are especially well served, yet all instruments benefit".

Here's the link to the full review:

https://www.dagogo.com/bache-audio-001-loudspeaker-review

  

@audiotroy -- No, that doesn’t help me understand "your points" at all. It’s an irrelevant and incoherent rambling -- and of course containing yet another ad for the products you carry -- that is a sorry excuse of a defense of an indefensible and harmful act here on Audiogon. Where to start?

"We hear way too many times a recommendation based on some weird product from a company that has not really received the kinds of universal accolades that a product of the price range should receive.
That is not to say that the review based world is purly objective but when a companies products are so rarely shown or reviewed or owned or raved by many reviewers it has a lot to say about the company."

Well I certainly can’t argue with this, mainly beacause I have no idea what it means. But it has nothing to do with what you did here.

"Soix you miss the point, there are other posters who have talked about products we don’t sell and we tell them sure go check them out like the Focal Sopras, and the Magico A3."

Again, this has nothing to do with what you did here.

"As per recommending Legacy, at least they have displaying dealers not that many but if you look at their dealer page at least they have some decent dealers that someone may be able to actually drive to, please let me know how many displaying dealers throughout the country have AZ loudspeakers available for demo?
Soix if you noticed we said the AZ speakers were okay that doesn’t mean we think they are terrrible but ask yourself if the speakers were new would you shell out $25k for a set and even at $12k are there perhaps better alternatives."

And you think I’M the one missing the point here? SERIOUSLY??? You’re once again comparing speakers I recommended to the OP in a relatively negative light to the speakers you recommended here AND SELL!!! You should not be expressing negative opinions on other products and recommendations in any way while you’re promoting your own products here at the same time. PERIOD!!! It’s a pure conflict of interest that makes you look unethical and undermines your credibility here. 

@falconquest -- That I don’t like that audiotroy pushes his products here is irrelevant and you miss the point entirely. The Legacys could be a fine recommendation and I’ve never said or implied otherwise, but again that’s not the point here.

@hifiman5 ...a big +1 to you and a +2 to @soix .  They seem to bash Belles as well whenever they get the opportunity which really displays a sense of idiocy.  Then I realize they’ve probably never even heard Belles.  Never bash anyone’s gear or taste in music I say.  Most of what I’ve seen that they sell is junk!  Oh boy, I guess I broke my own rule.........

Soix you are entitled  to your opinion about us, but you are mistaken. 

The reaon we mention Legacy is that the Focus is one of the very few loudspeakers that is affordable and can play loud enough with enough bass to fill up a giant room and the speakers are attractive and they can be made in many different finish options to fit in with someone's decor and they sound fantastic and they are 95.5 db efficient.

The Tekton's would also work and are very inexpensive even the DI Se are only $6,500.00 and they would do the job nicely for this gentleman, the only issue with those is they are big and boxy and kind of ugly for most people''s Living Rooms and in our opinion the Tekton's are a bit recessed in the top end and detail department. 

We started with Legacy  for this very reason, high power handling, high efficiency, very deep bass, easy to drive and attractive with a huge sound stage and great detail how many $11k speakers offer all of these options? 

Of course the OP has to like them what is interesting is how many people have heard Legacy at shows and have been blown away by them. 

The other options are much more complicted and probably not Living Room/ Wife acceptable. 

One of the reasons why we post is the complete lack of understanding that many of the forum writters seem to lack.

Not everyone desires a set of giant subs in their Living Room, perhaps the OP doesn't mind but don't you think someone should ask that first?

Carmenc, we never bashed the Acoustic Zen's we didn't say they were terrible we said they are okay. Again if the Zen's were so wonderful you would be reading about them, people would be talking about them seems like they pretty much disappeared from the converstation a number of years ago.

"We hear way too many times a recommendation based on some weird product from a company that has not really received the kinds of universal accolades that a product of the price range should receive.
That is not to say that the review based world is purly objective but when a companies products are so rarely shown or reviewed or owned or raved by many reviewers it has a lot to say about the company."

This is a simple statement, it simply states that  great products generally gain market mommentum, when you can't find almost any mention of Acoustic Zen's products in years that is not a great sign that their products are competitive. 

Yes Soix, I am sure the OP is going to get on a plane and fly to our Jersey City office to purchase a pair of Legacy's from us. I highly doubt he is located near us so please explain how we are selling these speakers agian?

As per bashing Belles, we had Belles gear in house not this series and the sound was not remarkable. Again for all the Belles fan's what have you compared it to have you listened to our recommended amplifier that also has a lush  tube like sound better still it actually has tubes in it. 

Do you want to know of an Aria compettitor that sounds just like an Aria yet costs $600.00 less? It is called a Unison Reserach Primo an 80 watt tube solid state hybrid amp from Italy any of you guys like to do a shootout in our shop with an Aria. By the way, never said the Aria wasn't good we haven't heard one, just the last series which was nincely made but didn't wow us. 

You guys need to carefully read what we write. Saying a product is okay is not bashing it, okay means not bad but not great. 

Yes Carmec, all the brands we sell which are many of the major brands in audio are junk I guess, Conrad Johson, Manley Labs, Lumin, Aurender, Innuous, T+A, Electrcompaniet, Unison, KEF, KEF Reference, KEF Blades, Dali, PSB, Legacy, Quad, Paradigm, JL Audio, Micromega, and ATC, Mytek, Naim, Parasound, M2 Tech, Benz, Lyra, Acoustic Systems, April Music, Cary Audio, Rega, Nottingham, Anthem, Nuprime, Wireworld, Audio Magic, AQ, Nad, Aqua Hifi, and a number of others, yes these are junky brands, what you smoking? 

Before you jump to your erronous conclusions why don't you pick up the phone and actually talk to one of us and see if we can't guide you into better sound who knows you may actually like our suggestions.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

I absolutely agree that it is best for the OP to use a high sensitivity speaker. The Legacy Focus may work, but I don't consider it's sensitivity to be high. The spec is stated as 95.4db (2.83V @ 1m), however since it is a 4 ohm speaker, this is a 2 watt rating. The 1 watt rating should be used for comparison to 8 ohm speakers, and that is 3db lower or 92.4 db. This may still be too high. Stereophile reviewed an earlier version of this speaker that was spec'd at 96db (2.83V @ 1m), but measured 94.5db (2.83V @ 1m), so an actual 1 watt rating was 91.5db.

Using a high sensitivity speaker will increase the probability of accurately reproducing the wide dynamic range of classical music in a large room and also allow use of the current amp, Moon 340i, to achieve this. For that 10k price, IMHO, this should be on the list to consider.

https://positive-feedback.com/Issue62/athenas.htm