Dazed & Confused


Listening to mostly jazz, solo instruments and vocals I find my Martin Logan Spire hybrids to sound awesome, but recently I was listening to some both "Busy" 90’s rock and classical (lots of instruments playing loudly together) and I find the music starts to sound garbled and annoying (to bright), so much so, I turn it off.
I was wondering if you all might have some suggestions on some speakers that would be a little more forgiving with busy/loud music that I could possibly switch over to when listening to different types of music. That is unless I can find speakers that can handle all styles of music, then I would consider taking the hit ($$$) on selling the Spires.

Without getting into room size and dynamics, lets just call it a standard room, I was also looking for something more efficient. The Spires need a huge amount of power (and volume) to sound good. Looking more for something I can listen to loud but also still enjoy the music at a much lower volume if that’s at all possible. Neutral and not to bright.
Living in the sticks, I can’t just jump in the car to go demo speakers. Only once, in the past, did I purchase a set of speakers online and unheard, going solely on the sales person’s recommendations. I learned the hard way to never do that again!

Equipment now: Coda CSiB integrated amp with W4S 2v2 SE Dac running Roon Nucleus.

I also wanted to mention that the Spires have phenomenal base, so much so I sold the 2 subs I was originally using with them. Floor standers and bookshelfs have come along way in SQ these days, but if I need to purchase another set of subs the budget is starting to dwindle.

No vinyl or CD’s, just Tidal.

$3,000 - $5000 budget, new or newer demos.

Thanks for any suggestions or advice you may have to offer!
Paul
high-amp

Short and sweet: I was in love with my old Boston Acoustics T830s for decades. I still respect the hell out of them for natural reproduction of all genres. However, about 3 years ago I replaced them with Canton Ergo 1200DCs. My search is over. Even compared them with Vandersteen  Treo CTs costing boatload more. My search is over. YMMV

PS: I still can't bring myself to part with the BAs. They sit off to the side in my basement. Every once in a while I hook 'em back up. What a great price to performance ratio. Too bad my kids don't appreciate this stuff. I am looking for someone who can really enjoy great speakers. Guess I'll have to consider setting up a system in my garage.

Thanks for sharing 2channel8 

Looks like the 1200DC is no longer in production. They now offer the 690, 670 & the 620DC in the Ergo series. Looks like they may be difficult to test drive on this side of the pond?
Are you still with me Al? I was planning on sending my amp in for a tune-up and I asked CODA about some of your original querries and this was their response:
" 1k was a misprint in some manuals that keeps popping up like a zombie. I even found it on our website after we restored it from a hack.
The input stage of the CSiB preamp can easily be over driven by a DAC with that output level. Best option would be lower the DAC output and use the volume control in the CSiB to increase SPL.

FYI, the standard for balanced input before 'high end audio' got involved was 600 Ohms. The low impedance improved noise reduction. Any properly designed SS amp should not have a problem but that does not mean that some high end amps won't crap out. Again 10k not 1k"

So a misprint, but it seems they still suggest to turn the volume down on the DAC and use the volume control on the amp. Didn't say with balanced or RCA though?
I'm also going to convert to the V1 specs for this amp:
 150 Watts per channel Class AB into 8 Ohms, 300 Watts per channel Class AB into 4 Ohms, Class A ~18 Watts
Just to get more of that Class A!
Hi Paul,

I’m still here :-) And thanks for the update.

Excellent news that the balanced input impedance is 10K, not 1K. So your DAC and almost all other DACs or other source components having solid state output stages will have no problem driving the balanced inputs of the amp. Although a goodly number of components having tube-based output stages would still experience some degree of deep bass rolloff and/or other sonic issues.

... it seems they still suggest to turn the volume down on the DAC and use the volume control on the amp. Didn’t say with balanced or RCA though?

The voltages of the balanced and single-ended outputs of the DAC are both much higher than usual by similar proportions. So the DAC’s volume control should most likely be turned down in either case. And since you have found balanced interconnections to be preferable, it appears that you should continue with that approach, while experimenting a bit to determine an optimal setting of the DAC’s volume control.

And happy holidays to you and your family! Best regards,
-- Al