Vienna Acoustics sounded terrible at Magnolia

Yes, Vienna speakers have uhrn. . . interesting impedance curves. They work best with amps with very high damping factors (above 400)( or they will sound overly warm. For this reason, class D amps work particularly well with Vienna. G.

Roc_Doc,

All I can say is I don't like the measurements on these speakers (those that I have seen published and not just the wild impedance swings). Not to say that they cannot possibly sound awesome because many people adore them - they surely do sound fantastic well setup (your problem I expect). However, I think people listen to speakers differently - some listen for precision and some listen to "connect" with the music. In the same way, a precision design with awesome flawlwss performance specs may leave some people totally cold. Horses for courses. These may not be your "cup of tea."

Shadorne

Well said.

The last time I bought speakers on audition was Fisher XP10s in the middle 60s. Several years a friend of mine is DC and I went down to Meyer Emco (sp?) To hear early generation of the B&W 801. I was selling them at the time and had mine set up in a live end dead end room in which they sounded great. They sounded so bad there that we had a laughing fit after we left. The sad thing was that the salesman thought they sounded great. To be honest , no commercial business could set up speakers the way I use to , only one pair in the room at a time etc. A store environment is just about the worst place to hear a speaker, but there is no place else to hear them. That said , some make a real effort and some don't.I went to Atlanta in the early 90s to listen to some Apogee Duetta Signatures. They had an exaggerated treble and no bass and were just plain unlistenable. I bought them anyway on the basis of reviews by Martin Colloms and others and they were the best speakers I have owned. I would have a post asking anyone near you to let you hear theirs at their home. It would be beneficial to everyone if we could get up a list of people willing to audition their systems for others and their locations. I can foresee difficulties with this but I would be willing to take part.

Roc doc,

I heard the Vienna Acoustics recently at RMAF and they sounded great. A couple of weeks later, I went into the Bellevue Magnolia to buy a new TV. Just for fun I had a quick listen to the VA's. It certainly did not sound like the same speaker! In the past, Magnolia has permitted home auditions. It never hurts to ask.