If cost was no factor, what system would you build as your main audio system?

jond 05-13-2018 8:45am
3,120 posts

I think some lovely restored Western Electric gear would work nicely. And field coil open baffle speakers. And a new bigger room for them!

That would be a lot of fun @jond .Did you catch the rare Model 12A & 13A WE speakers at Munich a few years ago from Michael Chung’s private collection?

If cost was no object then..time.. would also have to be added to the package.

As I’d have to be involved in the design of all of it, at all levels. The individual resistive materials need a re-design, and capacitors in all complex physics minutiae, and even the wire itself, and the dielectrics would need a complete re-vamp. Every inch of it.

Then we can get to circuit topology and implementation, all new there as well. And...New cone material designs, new speaker motor designs, and so on.

So much design ideas, so little life available...

@melbguyone No I didn't but that sounds amazing I'm in the US and never been to Munich. My local dealer Deja Vu Audio builds field coil speakers and amps and preamps from vintage WE parts. Also my friend has a pair of the big Shindo field coils, Lafite's maybe? Field coil horn speakers for me are the most lifelike I've heard overall.

@jond I could see Shindo being a great match with repro WE horns. Though the larger models need a big room and tall ceiling to get the best from them. Hence in most real world home situations, I prefer cones & domes and line arrays which are easier to integrate. In larger rooms, panel speakers like refurbed Apogees and Maggies can also come into their own with ’nuff watts.

@melbguyone; @jond Some of the old WE Horns, as I remember, truly were very large and interesting speakers - that presented a large as life stage. I listened to them in a very large room and it was quite evident they could fill and might require, a huge amount of space to do them justice.
In my travels, I also had the opportunity to auditioned a pair of Apogee Divas and the bit smaller Duetta Sigs. and fell in love with both. like the WE Horns, the Divas demanded a very large room and (unlike the WEs) required a serious amount of power. The Duettas Sigs require somewhat less space than the Divas or the WEs and were a bit less demanding of power than the Divas. After a long session of listening to a variety of good music, It seemed the Duetta Sigs did everything right and were very musical and presented a huge and convincing stage. Defiantly still, a speaker very high on my wish list.
For now, I am seriously considering (for the listening area I now have - 14’w x 24’d x 10’ cathedral ceiling with a 10’w x 14’d dining are, open to the left) upgrading from my Maggie 1.7s to the Maggie 3.7is. My Rogue, Cronus Mag. II, has no problem driving the 1.7s but may have to make a serious upgrade in power for the 3.7s. Until I can afford the upgrade - I might have to fall back on my trusty old ADCOM....Jim