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Seeking tales of speaker demos

I'm in the process of choosing speakers; I'll have some Salk SS6M's to try out once they're built and shipped. Right now, I'm listening to Fritz's Carbon 7 Mk II speakers, and have been rotating through some others — including some less expensive Klipsch RP-600M. I have yet to hear towers in my system, nor speakers with other technologies — baffles, electrostatics, etc.

I'm curious to hear your home-audition stories.
Which speakers did you try in your home with your own gear before making a final selection?
What did you set out to test?
What contrasts (in speaker technology, price point, etc.) were you juxtaposing?
What about your listening preferences was confirmed for you?
What were you surprised to learn?

Or, for those who were married for a while to a set of speakers — but then divorced them for new ones — what did the new one bring to your listening life?

Any other hints, tips about what you did for your home audition are welcome.
128x128hilde45
hilde45's avatar
hilde45 OP
4,974 posts
 
Thanks @lalitk and @verdant for your very helpful comments. I'm copying the gist of them into my auditioning plan notes.
decooney
2,058 posts
 
@b_limo
re: ..."Ribbons and Air Motion Tweeters (amt’s) are very fast and detailed but don’t quite have the decay characteristics that the BE tweeters in the Salks will possess"...
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Hey b_limo,
If you don’t mind sharing your research, which AMT based speakers or drivers have you evaluated and what amplification did you use to evaluate them?


b_limo's avatar
b_limo
2,277 posts
 
@decooney , sorry for no reply, just saw this now.

My experience with AMT’s is limited to the Wharfedale evo 4.4 at RMAF where I listened to them for an hour.  I can’t recall the amplification but I really loved the sound in that room.  They seemed very detailed but didn’t quite have that decay and shimmer ghat some high end beryllium tweeters have, in my opinion.  My other AMT experience is with some Adam Tv5’s that a friend has using a pretty nice dac and treated listening area.  
As far as Ribbons, I had Monitor Audio Gold GX50’s with a Peachtree Nova 220se in addition to a different setup using a bryston 4bst.  I really love the ribbon tweeters in the Monitor Audio Speakers.

Both the AMT’s and ribbons that I’ve heard were fast and detailed.  The Monitors had some nice shimmer and good decay.  From memory, I slightly preferred the Ribbons to AMT’s.  I am a fan of a variety of tweeters as they each have certain strengths and characteristics.  I usually don’t care too much for titanium, but I do like Beryllium, ceramic, Amt’s, Ribbon, planers, plasma...
decooney
2,058 posts
 
@b_limo 
Good to know on all fronts. While I've had a long exposure to AMTs since their original design in the 1970s, some material changes too.  Along with variations of AMTs from different manufacturers available on the market now all sound different from one speaker maker to the next. Fun to compare whenever possible.  Some better than others. Same with ribbons, or at least the ones I listened to over time.  I stopped building speakers and never got a chance to try Beryllium tweets, sounds like fun.  Thx.


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