2. speakers
  3. 167757-93216

Recommendations for speakers that sound great at lower volume levels.

I have a pair of Harbeth SHL5 Plus and they sound wonderful when I crank them up. But at moderate to low volume levels they sound disappointingly flat and unengaging - instruments are less palpable, bass has less bloom, and soundstage has less air and dimensionality. I drive my speakers with a tube integrated - a Line Magnetic 845 rated at 26 watts of power. My Harbeths are rated at 86db. Would a higher sensitivity speaker be helpful? Or how about a good quality small shoebox sized pair of speakers coupled with a subwoofer? Or not. What speakers are going to deliver music you can feel at low volume levels? What say all you wisened audiophiles?
128x128neptune123
migueca's avatar
migueca
112 posts
 
I’ve heard many models from Line Magnetic paired with many different speakers; and I owned the big LM219 (predecessor of your 845) and tried it with some different speakers as well. The best results were always achieved with high efficiency speakers (easy to drive) like Omega, Zu, Audio Note and Tannoy. 
yakbob
477 posts
 
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the Decware ZRock. Seems like a more cost efficient way to low level listening than a speaker swap.
neptune123's avatar
neptune123 OP
24 posts
 
Thanks, yakbob. I just did a bit of reading on the ZRock and it sounds like it could be my solution. They offer a 30 day trial but with a 10% restocking fee, should I return it. Definitely worth a try. I assume they'll work fine with an integrated amp. Thanks!
steve59's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
steve59
1,780 posts
 
Did i mention the persona b yet? Probably, for good reason tho’ $7k for bookshelves is ug, but they can be found for nearly half that including stands and with your front end they should excell, if there’s any way you could home demo a pair?
laylaandsam
19 posts
 
Hello guys,telling the poor man to buy Martin Logan’s,are you kidding,don’t kick the guy when he’s down,atleast now his system sounds good at higher levels,don’t strip him of that too. Don’t get me wrong,mls are wonderful for home theater,but music,ok,not the best advice.An easy way to address your problem is Less Loss makes a transformer winding you hook up to your speaker cables,right before they reach the speaker terminals. Your speaker cable attaches before the winding,then there’s about a foot wire on the opposite side that attaches to your speaker terminals. If I remember right,these change the sensitivity that your amps see from the speakers. The owner brought a pair over to my house,probably four years ago or so. These made my speakers able to really open up,with  much lower power tube amps. It was quite impressive,and sounded beautiful. I didn’t buy them from him,but always thought I probably should have. We went from 210 watt ARC Ref monos to 60 watt Atmosphere monos,and actually they sounded more powerful. I think they were about 1100$ unboxed,or 1500$ with nice finished boxes and speaker terminals. John
More to discover