Get MAGICO M6 would work great in that room.
speakers for a large room
Although the room is 45' x 15' , it is separated into an eating area, a sitting area, and a listening area(15'x15'). However, the ceiling is slanted and high and the separations between the areas is achieved with partitions only. The listening area is well damped with curtains and thick carpet.
Currently I moved a pair of magnepan 3.7i driven by a pair of sanders magtech mono block amplifiers into this room. These amps are rated to 2000w into 4 ohms and I have to be careful not to blow the fuses on the maggies . Preamp is a Schitt Freya +. The sound is superb. Until I set this system up, I really didn't know what people were talking about when they said they could 'see the instruments'. Positioning the maggies 5' away from the back wall is no problem but they cannot fill the room. I added a pair of rhythmic subs and the lower end is better. The imaging does require proper positioning and seating. You cannot really have a good listening experience unless you are in the sweet spot. That limits the experience to two people sitting really close. In addition, they are big and now with the subs, I am getting dirty looks from the boss of the house.
So I am looking for a pair floor standing speakers that can stand up to this room but that might be less imposing. Budget <12k. The walls have heavy curtains, thick rug on the floor so echo is well controlled. The weird asymmetric shape of the room also prevents any boominess. I listened to the B&W 802D but found them harsh (I don't remember the amp that was driving them). I remember a pair of salon2 and they had quite a large sweet spot along with beautiful clarity. Used the salon2 are around 11k. I have looked at (but not listened to) the Golden Ear Triton reference as well as the Triangle Magellan reference and the Gershan avant garde. Revel f228be are also on my list. I would like to keep my amps and preamp.
I mostly listen to vocals, jazz standards, and folk acoustic although I also put on some ambient when I am reading, cooking, etc. I am getting on in years and have noticed fall off in my ability to perceive the upper frequencies but still enjoy listening. No video/movies.
Which speakers would work well with my amps and this big room? I am looking for a bigger sweet spot (soundstage?) , more presence to fill the room a little better without losing the clarity, the realism and the quick response (articulate?) of the maggies.
Currently I moved a pair of magnepan 3.7i driven by a pair of sanders magtech mono block amplifiers into this room. These amps are rated to 2000w into 4 ohms and I have to be careful not to blow the fuses on the maggies . Preamp is a Schitt Freya +. The sound is superb. Until I set this system up, I really didn't know what people were talking about when they said they could 'see the instruments'. Positioning the maggies 5' away from the back wall is no problem but they cannot fill the room. I added a pair of rhythmic subs and the lower end is better. The imaging does require proper positioning and seating. You cannot really have a good listening experience unless you are in the sweet spot. That limits the experience to two people sitting really close. In addition, they are big and now with the subs, I am getting dirty looks from the boss of the house.
So I am looking for a pair floor standing speakers that can stand up to this room but that might be less imposing. Budget <12k. The walls have heavy curtains, thick rug on the floor so echo is well controlled. The weird asymmetric shape of the room also prevents any boominess. I listened to the B&W 802D but found them harsh (I don't remember the amp that was driving them). I remember a pair of salon2 and they had quite a large sweet spot along with beautiful clarity. Used the salon2 are around 11k. I have looked at (but not listened to) the Golden Ear Triton reference as well as the Triangle Magellan reference and the Gershan avant garde. Revel f228be are also on my list. I would like to keep my amps and preamp.
I mostly listen to vocals, jazz standards, and folk acoustic although I also put on some ambient when I am reading, cooking, etc. I am getting on in years and have noticed fall off in my ability to perceive the upper frequencies but still enjoy listening. No video/movies.
Which speakers would work well with my amps and this big room? I am looking for a bigger sweet spot (soundstage?) , more presence to fill the room a little better without losing the clarity, the realism and the quick response (articulate?) of the maggies.
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- 22 posts total
@audiokinesis -- ... Unfortunately most people have a negative impression of "prosound drivers" due to exposure to harsh PA systems which maximize decibels per dollar. The JBL M2 would be an example of a prosound-driver system which maximizes sound quality. One could argue that a bunch of M2’s functioning as a hypothesized PA system wouldn’t necessarily invite more of the "hifi-inclined" into buying prosound speakers, the observation being that what keeps audiophiles from this segment of speakers largely comes down to sheer SPL and the nature of the specific sound mixing at a live venue. I’m sure the M2’s are more hifi-doable than a variety of PA speakers out there, but there are alternatives to be had from the pro sector much more favorably priced than the M2’s that are still extremely capable in a home setting, indeed performing in the same ball park compared to the JBL’s. Pro cinema speakers in particular offer great alternatives, and when driven actively holds a notable advantage (which, to my mind, is a large part of why the the M2’s are so cherished in the first place). The one true downside to pro cinema speakers is their working cloth dressing, so to speak, which is unlikely to gain any glance of approval from earlier mentioned "boss of the house," nor does it invoke serious or even fleeting interest among those looking at a very different segment of speakers intended for the typical, domestic environment. |
@Duke Thank you. What you describe is similar to what Matthew Poes talks about https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMwWYIESOk4 |
Good call, topjetboy! Thanks for posting that; I can see that you’re pretty hard-core. I agree with Matt’s analysis. (Incidentally the time/intensity trading image that Matt is talking about when your link opens up at 17:02 has a mistake: The FAR speaker should be a little bit LOUDER because the rabbit is on-axis of that speaker but well off-axis of the near speaker. This is of course only true for frequencies where the speakers have the desired directional characteristics, but we get our imaging cues mostly from that range anyway so in practice with the right kind of speakers it works despite imperfections.) I learned the cross-firing technique from Earl Geddes many years ago, and there’s a pretty good chance that Earl is Matt’s source as well. Where I depart from Earl and Matt is this: I like to add a bit of relatively late-onset reverberant energy to supplement my highly-directional monopolar main arrays. In my experience the spectrally-correct backwave energy of dipoles can be highly beneficial. With correct set-up, imo that backwave energy does a very good job of presenting the spatial cues on the recording. You mentioned that your Maggies are out five feet - isn’t the spatial improvement you hear in going from two feet to five feet FAR GREATER than can be explained by a few more milliseconds delay? It’s not that your playback room seems marginally bigger; it’s that the spatial signature of the recording venue (whether real or engineered) is dominating over your playback room’s signature, given a good recording. Well, that’s what I’m trying to bring to the table, but in a somewhat more placement-friendly and amplifier-friendly package than Maggies and SoundLabs. Duke |
- 22 posts total