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Vienna Acoustics sounded terrible at Magnolia

I went to check them out, with all the reserve I have when it comes to big box stores, the fact that you can buy VA speakers with their no-interest financing is fairly attractive. I found something quite rare in these stores, a sales-guy who liked and understood sound and music, and he was very helpful.
I listened to the Mozart's in the show room and it was nothing short of appalling. Are those sources that bad? I came back home and looked at the reviews and something must be amiss. The bass was completely disjointed, like a $100 subwoofer with the driver loosened from the rim!! I put in my CD of Beethoven's 4th piano concerto with Claudio Arrau at the Concertgebow and stopped it right away, I though it made Beethoven cry in Heaven! The sound had nothing to do with the actual tonality or notes or anything!!
The sources were Yamaha and Denon receivers in tone defeat. I know they are bad, but that bad?? I did notice the positioning made a big difference, but never got them to sound even decent!
Any ideas? Anyone with any experience? VA owners, what is your experience regarding source sensitivity? BTW, my plan would have been for a NAD 372 as amp.
Thanks
roc_doc
saki70
907 posts
 
I think that some of you are missing out on the actual benefits of BB . You can buy , try and return if you don't like them . How many highend stores will allow you to try something in your system at home , for more than a couple of days , with no financial loss ?

Ya , the setups there are terrible and the CS people are not much better . But I have been in quite a few "highend" stores that have not been any different !

Just my opinion .
lesvan's avatar
lesvan
39 posts
 
I tried to start a thread on my Magnolia expirience.... I never saw it appear...... the big room has glass doors and the sound was crazy for me too, I listened to a pair of Sonus Faber Elipsas powered with Mcintosh........ they had the bass and treble turned all the way up, I put the pre in defeat to clean it up a little......... I expected more but I knew it was the set up and the room, the glass doors which go wall to wall were right behind my ears...... yuck. Everytime I see a serious brand in a big store it creates a stigma, maybe I need to get over that.... any way I do understand your expirience with the Mozart speakers.....
dcstep
1,518 posts
 
I've heard the Mozarts with Rowland and Primare and they sounded very good in both instances. Listening to Beethoven with NAD power should be nice, I'd guess, but I haven't heard your particular NAD.

If you deal with Magnolia, then use the return privilege.

Dave
valinar
473 posts
 
Keep in mind that Magnolia has a 15% restocking on "special order" merchandise. If the speakers you want are not a stock item- they probably are not- find out if they fall under the special order category on the return policy.
As to the VA sound at Magnolia, when I listened to a pair they were driven by Denon multichannel receiver set to the two channel mode. Weak, very weak.
With the proper amplification and set up the sound will be a night and day difference from the store set up.
ndfan
8 posts
 
I recently bought a pair of VA speakers at a shop in Chicago. I only had a Marantz receiver so I unplugged what seemed like a few hundred connections and brought it along to make sure it could push whatever speakers I decided to buy. Making a long story short, the Marantz (SR7500) is big, heavy and fine for movies but it is really, really bad at reproducing two channel music. It simply couldn't drive the VA's.
I ended up buying the Krell integrated KAV400-xi that day also because it would have been a waste of money to buy the speakers otherwise. The difference between the Marantz and the Krell was night and day. I'm familiar with Magnolia and if you ask them to hook the VA's to one of their Mcintosh set up's I'm sure they would oblige. You'll hear a huge difference.

The NAD 372 at 150 per side should do a pretty good job driving the VA's you're looking at. Your best bet is to buy the integrated and bring it in to Magnolia. If you really want to know how the speakers are before you buy, do this. One way or the other, you'll know if those are the speakers for you.

Mike

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