Tannoy anyone? Cheviot Legacy vs. Stirling GR

As a follow up, after 100 hours or so the Stirlings have calmed down quite a bit. Still tough for moderately long listening and I'm pointing my finger at my source....although the same defect is true with both my digital and vinyl. Finding time to play at moderately loud volumes is a little hard around here, so break in is slower than I'd like, but Acoustic Zen Hologram II biwire helped (they are breaking in as well). I've been able to move the treble energy to -1.5, so that's moving in the right direction anyway. They are more musically involving (for me) than my Devore which seemed to check off a lot of boxes and were much better in many ways, but left me at a distance. An audio friend described them as "fauve" and I think that fits.

I'm going to stick with this for now and am considering a full reconstruction back to SS and inefficient speakers - like Gamut or Plinius power and Supratek Pre driving Dynaudio Confidence 3 or 5. That's my most familiar ground and sticks in my memory as a sonic delight.

@budburma

I’d definitely have them checked over by a tech before giving up on them (check internal wiring and each driver for continuity and DC resistance, etc). They’re too nice and expensive to not sound wonderful after 100 hours, or really even from hour #1. I still suspect this is much more likely to be internal issue and has nothing to do with supposed burn-in requirements.

Sorry you’re having such a bad experience so far :(

I had Cheviot recently and returned them. In part because they were too large for my space. In part because the definition was muddled to my ear. I’m used to Revels with berilium tweeters which give silky smooth very articulate. Was using PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium HP Integrated and Pass Int -25. Loved the tone from the Cheviot. Bass was wonderful. But any music that was very complex seemed kind of muddled. Think is has to do with the crossover at 1200 (if I remember correctly). It’s asking this 12” driver to go too high and the tweeter to go too low is how I was guessing at it.  They asked me to give it some break in which I did maybe 100 hrs and it did improve. Still on some music seemed less than optimal, but on other music particularly acoustic was wonderful. I miss those speakers now. Still, bottom line they were just too big for my space.  

Checking back in. I found some of the same. The Stirlings sound MUCH improved at 150-175 hrs. They started to change for the better around 100hr. What a relief!

My Leben CS600 at 30wpc is underpowered. It's an amazing sounding piece of gear, but won't suffice. It's hard to judge with the underpowered dynamic compression and it does still fall apart with complex passages. I imagine the class A Primaluna and Pass would take care of that and, to my ear, that's the case with them driven by my friends Primaluna EVO.

The Tannoy are super engaging with whatever that indefinable draw of involvement is that I just call 'musical' for want of a different term. So, I'm thinking of (GULP) selling my Leben....

Pass seems like a good match - I'm consider the INT 60 or a First Watt J2 with a Supratek pre...if the impedances match well. I haven't finished my research there and am open to suggestions!