BEST SPEAKER THAT COMES TO LIFE AT LOW LISTENING LEVELS


My system is as follows:

  1. Martin Logan 11A Impressions hybrid electrostatic speakers.
  2. Bryston 4B3 cubed power amp 300 per channel into 8 and 500 into 4.
  3. Bryston BP-19 preamp, Chord Qutest Dac & Lumin U2 mini stream.
  4. SVS subs-pair of SB-4000
  5. I listen at 55-60 dbs. Can anybody recommend a speaker with a budget of $15,000.00 per pair that sounds alive and dynamic at low listening levels. My dealer sells, Totem, Triangle and Proac.
  6. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Due to age and ear issues I can listen comfortably at 55-60 dbs and not much louder. 
  7. Thanks in advance for any help that you can provide. 
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I suggest a look at Reference 3A speakers like the de Capo or the Reflector

 

I have the de Capos with a 4 watt tube amp and at 13.5 feet i easily get 56-60 db, can go much louder but its very detailed and full sounding even at lower levels.

Chase Innards, a Motorola Chip I presume for the display and remote, a Philips Chip for the features, zero noise (105 db s/n ratio) useful features.

I just bought this spare unit, I will add a front toggle on/off switch when it arrives, so I can get back to defaults without unplugging it.

 

One unit arrived no good, the little transformer on the power board had come off, it must have been seriously dropped,

 

OP, 

I think it is very resonable to assemble a high end audio system and only listen at very low levels. I listen at lower and lower levels as I have gotten older and enjoy the nuances better and better.

 

I do not have an answer. My system has sounded the better it has gotten. Each upgrade cycle has made it sound better at lower levels. I have heard a couple of vary well know reviewers typically listen in the 60db range. 

I see you have started 5 separate discussions, all come down to this one, revealing that you need to listen at low volumes. Your ear’s sensitivity at low volumes is the source of the lack of body, and perhaps lack of brilliance.

Please trust that Fletcher Munson sensitivity is real, well known, and the solution is easy, some slight signal compensation that is needed by nearly anyone, any speakers, any system, try that 1st, you have some very nice equipment.

I am saying, for me, I don’t need the highs boosted, you might, if so, remember it is a deviation from a speaker designer’s goal (essentially flat at normal volumes), best accomplished by signal compensation, in your case most of the time, but still it can be automatically variable, or manually variable relative to known facts about our hearing. Ignoring this is like a Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Self-Thickening Socks are needed as the Sun moves.

1. L-Pads in the speakers, you would do well with mine, or any vintage speaker that included L-Pads or a Switchable Resistor Network. However, they are best used to adjust in the listening space, for ’normal listening levels’, as they are ’set and forget’, not progressive. I adjust mine, takes about 1-1/2 days of careful work with a SPL Mic and CD with Test Tones. That is for ’normal’ and louder. I’m a big fan of adjustability for a listening space, and/or adjusting for individual ’general’ preferences, but this still does not solve low level listening.

2. Equalizer: I just tried a DBX Clone 31 band dual channel equalizer, it is also ’set and forget’, ’in or out’, I took it out

3. Chase RLC-1 is automatic and progressive, it works, remotely, very much like my Yamaha Receiver which has two volume controls that you manually setup and adjust:, one marked ’volume’ (set it like a preamp, for normal volume, leave it there; and the other marked ’loudness’. start ’flat’, it progressively implements Fletcher Munson bass boost and also boosts highs as you lower the volume, louder than flat, you raise the main volume control, remember to lower it to ’normal. this implementation can work, but I know, and still turn the wrong one, which is why using the Chase and re-setting it to it’s defaults is handy.

As I mentioned, I use the Chase for Remote Volume and Mute when working, thru the ’adapter’ loop.

You can view the photos large enough to see all the details/features of that CR-Yamaha CR-1040 Receiver here, those were the days.

https://www.audiogon.com/systems/11519