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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
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

dodger4
61 posts
 
sad to see such a fine sounding speaker brand in the hands of the incompetent and just might not be trained enough personel i say this as there are some fine people in best buy but they should stick to their home theater genre ,,they dont have the quality electronics to audition these with all they have are surround sound receivers which taken in their own environment are ok,,but dont have the ability to have a good speaker brand show what it can do,,,BTW went to an real audio store auditioned a pr of beethoven baby grands powered by marantz sm11s1 amp and what a differnce, wonderful sound i bought the viennas right on the spot..
mrdecibel
3,064 posts
 
When I worked at a high end audio store many many moons ago, we rolled in to the listening room a single pair of speakers at a time from a fabricated closet arrangement. When listening to a pair of speakers with other speakers nearby, you are also listening to the other speakers(particularly the woofers)although at a much lower volume. This is besides everything else that has been stated on this thread.
hesson11
237 posts
 
A while back on another forum (I think) a Sumiko rep said that the entire Mozart design assumes the cabinet cavity will be filled with sand/lead/etc. The message: unless you listen to the Mozart with the cavity filled, you're not listening to the Mozart. I'm guessing Magnolia doesn't bother.

-Bob
sebrof's avatar
sebrof
835 posts
 
I also wonder about the customers, if they believe they are hearing good sound just because they are listening to expensive speakers. If so the store won't change a thing.
I say this because a few years ago I was in a Fry's electronics that sells Bose. There were a pair of (I believe) 701s playing, and they were pushed back so they were touching the wall behind them because the flimsy platform they were sitting on was to shallow, connected to a receiver and a switchbox, in a terrible room filled with speakers. They sounded awful, completely muddled and much worse than they would have if only brought out a couple of feet and placed on the floor. But there was this dude talking to his wife about these awesome speakers and how great they sounded, turning up the receiver with a big smile, like "see, ain't they great?"
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