Hi Bill, yes, it is indeed me! I appreciate your thoughts in the above post made to sunnyjim on how most Omni's sound with regard to live music, that also sums up a good bit of my thoughts as well, and probably why I do enjoy the Omni thing more than the typical monkey coffins.
Also, I have felt that the Larsen and certainly Shahinian(Obelisk in my case at the time) are better with solid state in general, ones that can deliver a decent amount of current to properly drive them. There are exceptions, and no hard, fast rules here, as I also enjoyed my Larsen 4.2's with Croft Series 7 amplifiers, not powerhouses, but SS though.
Hmmm, maybe I will touch on the Duevel Venus a bit here, but do not want to detract from the OP's question about Larsen here, and besides, pardon the heist of something I believe Richard Shahinian said, "Trying to explain how a speaker sounds is like trying to describe how certain foods taste". I find it difficult at best to put things in terms that mean something to the reader.
At any rate, the Venus is a wonderful speaker, and at similar pricing when I bought them to the Larsen Model 6. They cost a bit more to get here though. And as I mentioned, I still hold the Larsens very highly, and very well recommended! Michael Vamos of Audio Skies is also a real gent and pleasure to deal with, or just talk about music and stuff!
The Venus is built very nicely, typical of most German hifi, quirky looks in some ways too. What I do like about them, is that they seem to be more efficient than just their specifications show. They seem to have a crossover that isn't power robbing, and maintains a real coherence between treble/midrange and bass end. Very smooth and seamless, a fairly easy to drive. My 55 wpc LinnenberG mono's drive them very well, and never seem to run out of gas with them, in a decent sized open plan room(My former listening room, 16' x 15.5' and adjoining half wall to kitchen/dining area). My Croft amplifiers at similar spec also do well with them. And they really shine on the end of an Octave V70SE!
Anyway, as to sound, lets see...Organic. Tone. Drive. All of those oddball buzz words that are used so often, that I have to stop and think at times, what does it really mean? The Venus sounds more like real music to my ears than the Larsen, maybe not by a lot, but it seems more natural, less mechanical or hifi, and the Larsen is a speaker that I don't consider any of those really.
Both the Venus and Larsen are not large speakers, yet the design of each really does a very good job with the bass end to. I would call it fairly even on the bass end of things, both very natural performers. The Venus is solid to slightly below 40 Hz, and I do tend to think the published specs on the Larsen bass end to be just a touch bit optimistic, but it is good regardless. Only the listener can say if it is extended enough. The Venus just feels and sounds as if it has more meat on the bones, a fuller midrange, to heck with specs.
The upper end and midrange on the Venus again, sounds more natural to my ears, the Venus could be considered slightly, very slightly, not as extended in the very upper end as I would maybe like at times, but it is a very small amount of time-and gee, if we had tone controls, shock, horror, we could adjust slightly for that...OMG.
The Venus being more Omni than the Larsen by design, can sound a bit more open in space. This too, can bring about some issues with placement, maybe it isn't quite as "simple" to place as Larsens are, but neither one is a tough thing to get reasonably right. If you are buying an Omni, give it some room, the Venus is a fairly small speaker and doesn't take up a ton of space either, just don't shove it against a wall or corner, although it does need some of the wall boundaries to make it sound right. Every room is different, adjust to taste.
I find where the Larsen are very simple and easy to situate for the most part, the spread being the big thing with them, they are pretty much fit and forget. Yes, you can use the SD footers or a base, I played with both and came to my own conclusions with them, they are just very unfussy, and that is wonderful after having some speakers that drove me nuts trying to get right, tweek this and that. By the time I got around to the Larsen, it was like heaven!
The Venus are very similar, easy to situate, but spending time with them, playing about with speaker to wall distance, brings rewards. Also, while this may seem quite ridiculous, I found that toeing in/out of the bass port on the rear of the speaker(Why I wonder, on this particular model, was the bass port not situated in the center of the cabinet, firing down to the floor? Would seem more ideal, but what do I know?), or swiveling it, with relationship to the wall behind the speaker, you could in effect, slightly tune the bass port and how it interacts with the room. Not huge differences, but there you go.
I also find it interesting when we try to shoe-horn a particular speaker to a certain type of music, and I too have been guilty of this. A speaker doesn't know what it is playing, and certainly within its scope and capability, should just convey whatever is being sent to it. My listening is kind of all over the map, jazz, rock, some country, folk, a little classical, reggae, pop, and these do justice to it all. Sure, maybe if I was in to hip-hop, or rap, something that required huge bass wallop, these might not do. So, there you go. The Duevel, as well as the Larsen do justice to these categories, no problem, again, I just prefer the Duevel a bit more.
At any rate, I like the Duevel. No, I really love them. Are they vastly different to other Omni speakers? No, not hugely, but enough to make these keepers, and I have had my share of Omni speakers over the years to know what I like. Yes, I wouldn't mind hearing the bigger brother/sister, the Bella Luna, but then at the moment, I really do not have room for them, and the Venus just fits and works in my current space which is 11.5' x 14', 9' ceiling.
Also, and lastly, as I have gone overboard and written a novel instead of being simple and to the point, I touch again on build. I am kind of anal about this. The Larsen as well as Ohm and some other speakers, are built to just get the job done, and maybe are a bit utility in build. Nothing wrong with that at all. In fact, it is to be admired in this world of excess these days(Not to mention, keeping something priced right)! But I do appreciate how nicely the Venus is built, the veneers, the saucers made from ply, it just has a nicer look and feel, physical heft to it. It is something that you need not make excuse for having it in a living room. Sure, one pays a little more to hopefully get a little more too.
Anyway, off the Duevel soap box here. They really are great speakers, and if you are fortunate to get to hear them, do so. And I would be remiss if I did not put in a small plug for the North American distributor, Pascal Ravich of Mutine in Canada, as yes, he is the man for Duevel here in the US, and I found buying from him to be simple and no hassle. Just know what you want going in and don't dilly dally around. He prices them to current exchange rates, which is pretty damn great in my opinion, you don't get blasted with the retarded "margins" that most distributor/dealers peg on you no matter what the current rate of exchange happens to be, and yes, everyone needs to make a living, but....Okay, enough said. Sorry for the tangent!
If anyone needs to hear more, let me know, will be happy to carry on elsewhere, and sorry sunnyjim, to have somewhat hijacked your thread here! Apologies! And Bill, hope all is well, take care!
Tim
