High end speakers at low volume

@ricco275 , The Anthem STR is an excellent value. It is well made and offers most of the digital flexibility needed to adjust your system exactly the way you want it. When we only had analog equipment, no tone controls was the standard because analog tone control disrupt the image. This is in no way the case for digital EQ which can be used to improve the image. The STR is a full function preamp and ios very clean. It is not a tube preamp but if you want the sound of tubes get a tube phono stage or tube amplifier. The Preamp's job is to select sources, control volume and in the case of a digital preamp provide room control, bass management, DACs and EQ. The STR does this punching above it's price point. The only caveat is you have to have at least basic computer skills if you want to get into the more advanced capabilities of the STR. Most of the set up is simple.  

The die is cast. I’m writing as listening to my new TAD ME1 in titanium finish.
Now will need to evaluate if the Vitus will stay or go and then fine tune with cables.

big improvement at low volume vs Avalon Idea.

The Loki is a very inexpensive experiment, easily resold. If that works for you, think of all the money you’ll save for some other upgrade someday.

OP,

Congradulations. They look like great speakers. Bet they will sound much better as they break in. Typically I found the sound better at lower levels after breakin.

@ghdprentice wrote:

High efficiency does not equal sounds good at low volumes.

Actually, quite often it does lead to an added level of sonic involvement here (of course, whether it sounds good at lower volumes is relative to the specific implementation of the design, as with any speaker), certainly with horn-loaded speakers. Whether that’s due to how horns interact with the medium of air, the nature of them being more directive, a usually (much) larger air radiation area, less inertia build-up of the cones (= less smear), a frequent combination with SET’s, or other, I don’t know, but high efficiency horn-loaded speakers tend to be more "attentive"/more readily ignite at lower volumes vs. low eff. direct radiation speakers, and it’s not because of a low SPL-complimentary "loudness" curve. Rather it seems to be a factor of their inherent sonic nature (dictated by design principle), gear combination, and how they interact with the acoustic environment. Where low eff. direct radiating speakers excel at lower volumes I’d expect it to be for reasons more related to the frequency curve, being a point source and/or other.

Tone controls definitely not part of the equation. You want as pure and high quality signal as possible to excellent sounding speakers.

Depends on the implementation. Actively configured "tone controls" is really just a configurable crossover that’s already there by necessity, usually in the digital domain, so there’s no subtraction of "purity" here.

The lower the noise floor of the system the less volume reqired.

It certainly heightens awareness and overall hearing acuity at lower SPL’s as well as broadening the perceived dynamic range, which is a good thing.

Putting tone controls in the equation raises the noise floor.

Again, depends.