Ever heard of, any opinions on, these speakers?

It's not easy to find a pair of speakers with a good ribbon tweeter for $1500 even from China, let alone a floorstander.

Loose and boomy bass could easily be the amplification or room placement. How did the bass sound with the Anthem or other SS amp vs. your Marantz 8B?

It was tight with the Anthem. Only once or twice did I notice any boominess. Plus they did not put the spikes in, and it was a foot from the back wall. I pulled it out 2 more feet but not much difference. Probably a 15x15 listening room. Think it might be OK?
Mechans, well, I have the 8B, cost me $1200...in 93. Now I need new speakers and have little denaro. Pokito pessos. These are available. The shop is really an auto audio shop, but a good one, and great guys. Their listening room is secondary, but does have PSB, Paradigm, JL Audio plus the Sinclair.

I plan to post elsewhere to get help finding the most well-recorded jazz double bass CD of all time, and the best-recorded jazz drum kit. Then I'll go back and compare the Sinclair to the PSBs and the Paradigms. They've let me have 5 2-3 hour listening sessions already. This time I will concentrate on their resolving power. If they can hold their own with the PSB and Paradigm, that's good enough. I think after this session I can make up my mind.

Jamie (Zydo), would you terribly mind emailing me at jkk251 at gmail dot com ?

I would really like to ask a couple questions since you have these speakers and are familiar with other brands.

It would be a tremendous help, thanks.

04-22-12: River251
It was tight with the Anthem. Only once or twice did I notice any boominess. Plus they did not put the spikes in, and it was a foot from the back wall. I pulled it out 2 more feet but not much difference. Probably a 15x15 listening room. Think it might be OK?

If it was tight with the Anthem, then the boomy bass issue would foremost be the 8B's higher output impedance and therefore, its damping factor. Tube output stages (especially vintage ones) with a high output impedance translate into bloomy loose bass unless they have an extensively wound transformer with 4-ohm taps.

The 15x15 room would be particularly problematic, as the resonance of a 15' wavelength would be doubled (at least) compared to a room with only one 15' dimension. 75 Hz puts out a 15-foot wavelength. That splits the difference between the D and Db not quite 2 octaves below middle C on a piano. If your room is not square and has different dimensions than the audition room, you can just about count on any resonant modes being elsewhere, and probably not as strong. 3' from the wall *plus* spikes should make a significant difference.

I plan to post elsewhere to get help finding the most well-recorded jazz double bass CD of all time, and the best-recorded jazz drum kit.

Two of the best acoustic bass recordings I've heard (and have) are Modern Jazz Quartet's "The Watergate Blues" on their "Echoes, The Modern Jazz Quartet Together Again 1984", also available on "The Best of the Modern Jazz Quartet," a CD which is still in print and available from Amazon. Watergate Blues is an extended bass solo by Percy Heath, well mic'd and recorded. It's one of my gold standards for plucked acoustic upright bass.

The other is Christian McBride's well-recorded opening to Diana Krall's "All or Nothing at All" on her "Love Scenes" album. Another song on that album, "Peel Me a Grape," is good for hearing a speaker's resolution. A resolving one will easily reveal the reverb added to the mix, and the little special effects (like the popping of a cork) in the song.

Oops, I forgot a couple recommendations for recorded drums.

Earl Klugh Trio volume I. Lewis Nash's drums sound very in-the-room, particularly his brushwork solo on "One Note Samba."

Tower of Power: Direct has very realistically recorded drums using state-of-the-art (at the time) tube microphones and recorded directly from the mixing console to make a 2-channel master. I have this in both LP and CD. Both remarkably capture drums.

Dick Hyman: From the Age of Swing, an HDCD recording made by Reference Recordings and Keith Johnson, inventor of HDCD. Butch Miles (former drummer for Count Basie and chops equal to Buddy Rich) does the drumming.