2. speakers
  3. 184961-11209

Do my ears deceive me??

     The money is in the bank, thinking of upgrading speakers, but everything I demo is no better or worse than what I have.   Willing to spend up to $6,000.      Upgraditis??   My main system is Mcintosh MX 134 that I bought in 2003, with a pair of Focal 836v's and a Parasound 5250  (250w/channel) amp I bought around 2012.   I either blew the tweeters or crossover on my 836's, so they are in for repair.   Since I've owned them for 10 years, I was considering new speakers.    The blades are way more than I would spend, but I also demoed the Kef R11s, Martin Logan xtf 200's, Mcintosh XR 100s, and B&W 703 S3.   

       None of them sounded better than what I'm hearing right now from my BP 2006s.    Would I really need to demo them in my room to make a fair comparison??  Or are speakers just not much better than they were 20 years ago?   I know I love detail, and tend to lean towards aluminum tweeters.  I pretty much only listen to classic rock and roll.   Of all I demoed, I really like the B&W 706s.   They sounded much brighter/cleaner than the others.   But they had the reciever set up so I couldn't adjust the treble/bass.  I love a V equalizer curve, and bump up the bass and treble a bit on my home/car systems.   Maybe I just have the good luck of prefering cheaper speakers.   

 

  

fenderu2
doyle3433's avatar
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doyle3433
324 posts
 

@jonwolfpell  I ended up playing with both the tweeter setting and the mid. My setting only -1db on both. So my setting looks like TR1 4.3 TR2 5.1, Mid is MR1 16 and MR2 4.3, IT may be that my living room set up is fairly bright, no carpet and only one love seat.. and it's really just a 14'x14' box. My basement man-cave is completely opposite, one whole wall is sound foam, corner foam up front and tube traps. If I brought the Razz down there i would have likely left it all at factory/Greg Settings. 

I am right with you my friend, First thing I'd do with lotto winnings is wire Greg all the dough for a new set of Vitoria. I got to listen to a prototype while I was there. I can't begin to describe in words what that experience was like. My jaw hurt from hitting the floor. They would be an end game/Holy Grail for me.

kennyc
1,616 posts
 

Seems like the OP is looking for a hot speaker with plenty of bass.  Head scratcher that he’s considering bookshelf Harbeths maybe thinking augmenting the bass w subwoofer?  Agree that GoldenEar may be a top option.  

kennyc
1,616 posts
 

Maybe not related but the HiFi Rose RS520 integrated has a built in equalizer.  

fenderu2 OP
22 posts
 

Well, it's gonna be $600 to fix my Focals.  2 woofers and 2 tweeters.   Seems quit spendy, but I'm going ahead with it.   I know the dealer is kind of screwing me, but I didn't see any other way to fix them.   Didn't really have a way to figure out what was wrong on my own, nor a way to buy replacement drivers.   If I can get another 5 to 10 years out of them, I'm ok with it.   

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