Young audiophile metal head looking to level up speaker choice

@killingforcompany 

I think a class A amp is preferable. They are very efficient, 60 watts/channel will blow your doors off. The Pass XA 60.8 would be perfect. I prefer SS amps in general and really do not know a lot about modern tube amps with the exception of Atma-Spheres which I own. The MA 1s or 2s would be fabulous driving Cornwalls but they are hand wired and very expensive.

I owned Heresy’s for decades and liked them for 70’s metal, though light on bass, but I also owned a Sphinx briefly, and while never connected to the Klipsch, I think you might be right it could be fatiguing. Polk and JBL are classic rockers and will do a nice job, I would lean towards JBL as we thrashed my friend’s dad’s pair back in the day, and they held their composure at high levels. I have owned Polks as well and like their sound for rock music. If I were looking today, I think the Tektons would be of interest for heavy music as well. Good luck, and save some of your ears for later. 

I’m a product of the 80’s and a metal head to the core.

Having bounced around both home and car audio on the higher end for nearly 40yrs I have found speed to be key. Speaking mainly on the bottom end of the frequency spectrum however there is quite a bit on the top end too but it is the lower end that causes the issues.

Among the cone and surround materials I have found the lighter cone materials such as paper with a foam surround to be the best. In an all around speaker I prefer aluminum, carbon fiber or a composite however metal is difficult to keep up with.

My litmus test by far is to use Metallica’s Justice for All CD. The kick drum is digitalized at 50Hz and it is super fast so get ready to hear muddy and sloppy if the speakers are not up to it. There will be a distinct "tick" to the kick drum when at full speed if the speakers are quick and something very different if it is not.

My preference is Cerwin Vega’s AT-15’s and a paper cone 15" sub. Vega’s do need quite a bit of good quality power. For the AT-15’s it’s 300W to get the cones moving well :)

@mofojo

 

Really…… if gonna come hard like that back it up. Where’s your proof of what you are saying?

“Their tweeters are low-rent distortion machines, both in measurements and sound. “

I mentioned their measured performance. One only need look up the measurements conducted by Stereophile and the like, notably with regard to their spectral decay. The performance of those AMTs is not remotely close to that of a high quality tweeter, regardless of type. Likely it’s a cheap Chinese built AMT of a quality similar to a Dayton Audio/Parts Express model.

This character was very evident in auditioning as well, otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered to bring it up. They were some of the harshest speakers I’ve auditioned over the last 15 years. And that was consistent across multiple auditions and systems. The speakers attempt to sound “detailed” with their laser focused, boosted highs. The sort of false detail one gets by cranking an amp’s treble knob. In most of these auditions they were powered by Mac SS amps which have an inherently warmish character, which made the whole experience that much more confounding.

The only way I can imagine these GE Tritons passing muster with Sandy Gross (and some reviewers) is presuming these guys suffer many dB of high frequency hearing loss, as does every man his age (not to pick on older guys as this happens to us all given enough time). But aside from that, they didn’t sound very remarkable by any other metric either. They really left me baffled (pardon the pun), because Sandy has designed some good sounding speakers in previous decades.

I recall in one of Zero Fidelity’s live YouTube broadcasts, a viewer asked Sean his opinion of GE speakers. He essentially likened them to a “modern Bose.”

I wouldn’t go quite that far, as GE’s certainly produce more high frequency energy than do any Bose products. 😄