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Best of the small speakers

I'm looking for a small, preferably floorstanding speaker that will integrate well with my current system and room. My main source is a California Audio Labs CL-20 DVD/CD player, through a Rotel RC-995 preamp, into a McCormack DNA 0.5 Deluxe (which will be upgraded to Revision B by Steve McCormack himself in the very near future). My current speakers are Magnepan 1.6QRs. While I absolutely love many of the Maggies traits, they don't seem to integrate well into my fairly small listening space. As far out from the wall as I can move them, about 30 inches, I still get what sounds to me to be a fairly ragged frequency response. For reference, I have pretty electic listening tastes, from baroque to bebop to bluegrass, but the majority of my music is fairly complex, with many simultaneous melodic or rhythmic lines, on both acoustic and electric instuments. Accurate, timbrally-true bass is more far more important to me than rattling the windows. Any suggestions for speakers roughly in the Maggie's price range ($1500-$2500) which you feel would fit well into my system would be appreciated. Just trying to narrow down my shopping list. One speaker which has drawn my attention is the Thiel CS 1.5s, but I know there must be others I am missing! Thanks in advance for the help!!!
bswilliams
hellohifi
120 posts
 
Dunlavy SM-1 monitors are the most impressive monitor we have ever heard. PLEASE compare them to B&W N805 (Stereophile runner up spkr of the year!).
sedond
1,387 posts
 
if ya like the maggies, take carl's advice & go for something sound-absorbent behind them, before buying new speakers. this will help them a lot, especially in a small room. regarding new speakers, other than the vandersteens, which i don't care for, i'd agree w/the others. there's a *ton* of speakers in this price range that are excellent. my personal choice would be to get small monitors on stands, instead of floor-standing speakers. you mite give up a few hz at the bottom, but this should not be much of an issue in a smaller room, & the *rest* of the sound will generally be better - better depth/soundstage/clarity, etc. for example, i really like the hot-rod kestrals, but i like the proac tablette signatures better. i'd *really* like to hear the proac sc1's! other monitor speakers i like are the aerials, the meret ankhs & re's (discontinued, sometimes available used), totems, & diapasons.
bday0000
266 posts
 
Check out the Alon by Accarian line of speakers.
jrt
18 posts
 
Some others worth mentioning are the Arro and Sttaf from Totem Acoustic for floorstanders, but I would concur with some of the other statements about stand mounted monitors. The Merlin TSM SE is a great speaker for imaging and goes down a reasonable bit, as does the Totem Model 1 Signature and even the non-signature version, but the Sig. is a better speaker. Depending on your tastes the B&W N805 and the Sonus Faber Signum are good choices also. As with anything else in your system, try before you buy.
holos
9 posts
 
I truly understand your interest in speakers for smaller rooms. Many high end speakers I've heard do better in larger rooms (in the far field response). I've personally had speakers with larger woofers easily overwhelm smaller rooms with resonant underdamped lows. It's also a basic principle of physics that larger speaker elements (magnetic and electrostatic panels) are more directional and require a greater distance for their natural diffractive spread. An an absence of nearfield wall and ceiling reflections is needed to integrate most speakers properly for correct response and imaging. To many of the excellent sugestions above I'd like to add two of my favorites for smaller rooms: Proac and Spendor. Both can be purchased with silk dome tweeters whose smooth non-resonant highs sound natural and are not fatiguing to the ears at close proximity. Both have surprising lows for their sizes and smooth natural responses in the midrange. Check out ST's audition of the Proac Tablette 2000 Signature in the most recent issue of Stereophile (he compares them to Quad electrostatics). Enjoy! Holos
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