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Please help with speaker choices

Hi all,
Well the room and time has lead me down the road to upgrading speakers. A most exciting time, but alas, filled with choices and no possible auditioning for me.

So I must relie on this communities suggestions and help!!

First the current system:
Nick Doshi Preamp
Nick Doshi modded Lectron JH50
Amazon Referenze TT
Triplanar Tonearm
CDP-Don't have one yet
Focal 1007 Be Monitors-current speakers

Room Size:
21 by 13 with 8ft cellings

Music:
I listen to pretty much everything. Sorry for being so general. In one listening session I may move from Coltrane, to Cannonball Adderly, to Muddy Waters and Johnny Lee Hooker to Lucinda Williams and electric/folk Neil Young. Throw in some Dylan and then move onto the White Stripes, Beck, if I'm real rowdy maybe some Ramones or AC/DC, then come down with some Edith Piaf and a sip of 12 year single malt.

Reason for wantng change:
One is I find this a hobby. For me that means having fun with experimentation. So far I have only owned the Focals.
Two is now that I moved my system against the short wall and facing out to the long part of the room, the monitors seems lacking, like they are too small to fill the space, like it is too much effort. Three is I have nerver had a floorstanding speaker and the prospect excites me. Four is, sitting wise, I can only get about 9 feet near to the Focals. To place them closer puts them right in the middle of the living room. Not really acceptable. At 9 feet, the monitors just not presenting the soundstage I desire. At that distance with monitors, I am just not in the heart of the music.

Also something important to note is I like listening loud, but do not always have that option as my system is in the living room and out of respect for others cannot always listen loud so I must have speakers that offer low volume detail.

My choices so far (more of course welcome)
Sonus Faber Cremona floorstanders
Merlin VSM-Mxe
Verity Fidelio Encore
ATC 20's passive

At the higher end(only consider if HIGHLY recommended)
Verity Parsifal ovation
Sonus Faber Amati Homage

Monitors I might consider
Focal Mini-Utopia Be
Sonus Guarnari Homage

OK, sorry for rambling so much. Obviously I am putting a lot of thought into this. Any input much appreciated!

Peter
mariasplunge
jj2468
280 posts
 
Dear Maria,
I have heard the Cremona on several occasions and I don't think it is up to the quality of your other components.

I own the Guarneris and although I can assure you that with your system the midrange and treble will be wonderful, you should look into whether the Lectron could drive the Guarneri's bass adequately. I've had some difficulty finding the right amp/preamp combination to really make them sing. You may want to take a look at the Amati Homage (budget?). I also second looking at the Verity. Jeff
mariasplunge OP
174 posts
 
Thanks Jeff. Another positive for the verity line. Thats good.
cmk
397 posts
 
When you look for a long term speaker replacement, its always necessary to consider a few key elements :

a) Does the tweeter irritate? Don't mistake artificially "enhanced" detail as the real thing. We often make the mistake of thinking that a speaker is more detailed, but in reality, the upper freqs are boosted in relation to the rest of the spectrum. In the long run, this will lead to listener fatigue.

b) Does the lower-mid bass mask detail? This is one of the most common faults of most speakers, because it is also due to box resonances.

c) Does the speaker communicate the music? This is probably the hardest to achieve. It really depends on your listening tastes. I would suggest that your other half also gets involved, since she has the trained ear.

With your room size, you could easily accomodate a floor stander. Speakers which I think you could consider are :

a) Cabasse Baltic/Thor - yeah I know I'm using them, and I like them. They do go loud and don't break up. They don't have box colorations and the tweeter is very clean and musical. With the sub, you can tune it to your room/music. With the concentric drivers, they are time-alined and consequently throw huge soundstages without getting confused on loud passages.

b) Dali Euphonia MS4/5 - this is a great speaker with crystaline highs. The speakers just disappear and they throw fantastic soundstages.

c) Vandersteen Quattro - a sleeper. If you want to know what's really on the recording, this is one of those speakers. Very reveiling. They thrive on power. Heard them with a 360w amp, followed by a 600w mono and the monos just took the cake.

d) Dynaudio C2/4 - very neutral mids. Require high power to get the best from them.

Of the above, (a) and (b) are easy loads and highly efficient, while (c) and (d) require more amp mussle.

The JM Lab speakers are also good, but I would recommend you go for the floorstander instead of the monitor. I'm not a fan of Sonus as I find them too colored.
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
Pete,

the real time with DIY speakers is in the aesthetics. It just depends on how far one wants to go. There are many open baffle speaker plans that could be built in a few days that sound wonderful. They may look like something you picked up out the back door of your local Home Depot, but they do rival many high dollar speakers. Still, the DIY route is not for everyone.

It sounds to me like your tastes in music are similar to my own. Those whose listening habits run the gamut like ours do place a huge burden on speakers. I can appreciate the demands of classical music but to ask a speaker to sound great on full symphony, bluegrass, jazz, and fully electrified rock is really not fair. But, life is not fair. :)

The Lectron really does have boat-loads of punch for a 50 watts/ch PP amp. I agree that it will handle low efficiency loads but I would warn that one needs to watch for heavy impedance loads. I found that out.
mariasplunge OP
174 posts
 
Dan ed can you clarify for me what "heavy impedence loads means. This is relaitvely new terminolody for me and clarification would be much appreciated.

Cmk, thanks for the recommendations. I enjoy learning more about speakers that are out there, your a and b both being ones I have never thought of. Those Cabasse are crazy looking. Are those classfied as horns? Fantastic and no problem with me recommending speakers you use actively, Thats what I am looking for, knowledgable folks and you obviously know what your talking about if you have experienced it.

Can you give me a better description of the Dali's. Have you used them?

Thanks,
peter
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