@james633, NICE TOYS! Thanks for the feedback & guidance! Always appreciated!
Although my sound room (i.e. living room) is fairly good size (i.e. 14' X 23'), for reasons I won't bore you with here, I'm forced to contend with somewhat challenging placement issues. Basically, my system is set up at on end of that space, which is really about 14' X 9' with a right channel corner placement issue and a left channel with a rather large opening behind it (4') to the kitchen/dinning room. It's kind of an open floor plan in a post & beam log home. Good acoustics but sandwiched space. Re-arranging the entire living room would be the way to go but that's not an option. As such, I can't accommodate big speakers or speakers that need to be placed far out into the room (e.g. no more than about 2.5' to 3' from wall behind to baffle) or separated by more than 6 or 7 feet, max. Also, they'd have to be skinny (e.g. no wider than about 9 to 11 inches, max). The speakers I've read about sophisticated enough to handle this cost about as much as a compact car. In my next life, I'll buy or build a home with a more flexible sound room or man cave.
I have to respectfully disagree with you about the F206 lacking bass extension and response, at least compared to the 18 different pairs of speakers I did serious seat-time with for that upgrade. I haven't measured but, in my room, I'm confident I'm getting an honest 40 Hz and likely a little more. There were speakers I demoed that were noticeably a bit "better" but all of them either needed more juice than my MAC MA5200 and/or were more expensive. I'm certain my room acoustics and most of the music I like to listen are why I'm so satisfied with the F206. They actually sound better in my room than they did in a very good sound room at the audio shop I demoed them in. A friend I was with, at the time, agrees and he is a bona fide multi-channel home theater, self-admitted bass head. I've got my F206 32" from a sheetrock wall in back of them to their baffles and separated by just under 6' (on-center driver to driver). That's not optimum, I know, but the best I can do in my room. If I listened to a lot more bass-heavy material and had room for a sub or a multi-channel home theater system, I'm sure I'd agree with you about their bass response. When it comes to that, I'm much less fond of reach and much more partial to accuracy and tightness. Judging from the equipment you have, I'm guessing your are, too. During my last speaker shopping expedition, the best I heard was a pair of traded in Aerial Acoustics 6T powered by a MAC MC275 stack. A pair of Triangle Australe EZ powered by the same MAC stack impressed, as well, but I'm convinced there was something wrong with those trade-ins because of how they dramatically failed with male and female vocals. With musical instruments, they were fantastic! With vocals, however,... well, there just had to be something wrong with that pair. Even the sales person admitted he heard it, too. He tried playing with room placement but nothing helped. Aerial Acoustics 6T or, better yet, the 7t, would be an interesting consideration but not with a MAC MA5200. Those babies just need more juice to shine.
I hear what you're saying about just an amp upgrade yielding only subtle improvement and suspect you are absolutely right about this. Hence, my reticence in this regard.
With respect to a speaker upgrade with the amplification I have now AND the room placement constraints I have to contend with, those I've read about that could possibly deliver the goods cost about as much as an average compact car.
I have a question for you about your 228be. Too big for my room but I'm interested in Beryllium tweeters. Where is the sweet spot or listening position in your sound room? Specifically, how much empty space is there behind it, if any. I've never done serious seat-time with Beryllium tweeters and I'm wondering if they might, in any way, sound like AMT designs. In my experience, going as far back as the original ESS AMT, speakers with AMT tweeters sound best when the sweet spot has plenty of empty space behind it (e.g. at least 6' and, preferably, more). Otherwise, they can become quickly fatiguing. This is yet another room placement issue I have to deal with. My sweet spot, the couch, puts my ears 9' away from the speakers, around 36 to 38 inches off the floor, depending upon how much I slouch, and there is a 7" solid log wall right behind it. Sorry to get so technical but that's the kind of mind I have. It's a curse!
