2. speakers
  3. 1041041040

Round Two: Best Speakers for LOUD music and rock??

Hi:

ROUND TWO, here we go.......

I listen to mostly rock, classic rock, female vocals, and the occasional dramatic symphony or opera, VERY LOUDLY.

I posted here before, and, taking everyone's comments into account, I purchased a used set of Genesis Vs.

They are great speakers, but failed for me in three critical areas: One, they seem to cause my amps to shut down at much lower volume than my present NHT 3.3s (even though the Genesis are rated as 3dB higher efficiency -- 90dB/4 ohms, as opposed to 87dB/4 ohms for the 3.3s), two, I cannot successfully couple these speakers to my room in such a way as to make the bass taut, dynamic and authoritative, and three, they do not image, in my room, as well as the 3.3s. Not even close.

My main system now consists of:

NHT 3.3s,
NHT SubTwo Subwoofer (60Hz & below only)
Cary 306/200 CD Player,
Sony XA 777es SACD player,
BAT VK5i preamp,
Audio Research M300mkII tube monoblocks,
MIT 750 Shotgun Tube Biwires,
MIT 350 Twin 30' ICs,
AudioZen Silver mkII I/Cs for front end.

I have a LARGE listening room with lots of glass & high sloping ceilings, app. 20x40 ft. w/18' ceilings.

I want to try again to upgrade my speakers, and I am considering a used pair of either Dunlavy SC-Vs, JM Mezzo Utopias, Legacy Focus, VMPS, Montana XP, Revel Ultima Studios, etc., etc.

My system is a tad bright right now, but not objectionably so. The imaging is stellar, and the soundstage depth is good, not great. I want smooth, rich, warm sound, yet detailed and clear, and as I said, I listen at VERY loud volumes for extended periods of time. I MUST have the slam and tight, low bass needed for the type of music I listen to.

Because of the size of speakers involved, I will obviously not be able to hear them with my system 'til I buy them, but, I guess I can just buy a good used pair here on Audiogon & sell them and try another pair if I need to.

Any comments/suggestions?

Thanks - Jeff
jeffj
holzhauer
201 posts
 
Shahinian Diapason. These loudspeakers can play at extremely loud levels. They also have extremely deep powerful bass. They are capable of reproducing a rock drum solo at live levels!!!!! My neighbor thought I had a drum set in my house!! Designed to reproduce the full range of an orchestra. They do vocals exceptionally well also.
Unfortunately, I suspect your great amps wouldn't have quite the power needed to really make these sing. If changing amps is out of the question, the Vandy 5's could be just your ticket.
If volume alone were the highest criteria, I'd go with the Klipsch corner horns.

Disclaimer: I have two pair of the Shahinians. One pair is for sale on this site. I'm in the Chicago area. Your welcome to come for a listen if you like.
jsbail
368 posts
 
You seem to like the 3.3's. I think you should try high powered solid state, like Classe Omega or Levinson 33.
rlwainwright
1,904 posts
 
A pair of Klipschorns and almost any 100 watt/ch. amp should provide the kind of "realistic" volume levels you're looking for, and a lot cheaper than most of the alternatives proposed...
johnk's avatar
johnk
1,975 posts
 
build a oris horn speaker or buy a avantgarde ,horns sound best with rock owned a few of the speakers you listed all sound slow compared to a modern horn stear clear of the old horn designs they are no where near as good as a tactrix horn ,With my dual oris system all my old rock and punk music sounds great could never listen to them on my nonhorn systems .good luck with your quest .
marty9876
120 posts
 
Jeff,

God I must be getting old(I'm 26) to say this. I two have a large urge to go after what you are trying to get but have so far resisted, and it's getting easier. It seems the older I get, each day just a tich, max spl's are no longer a concern. This is good for two reasons, one being the silly little hearing lose issue(this is serious I guess :)) and the other is that most of the high end equipment I have used does not seem to play very loud. Note I said the equipment I have used.

I think to play very loudly, >105db's on average, one needs very good, very expensive gear. The amps need to be huge(>600wpc?) and the speakers need to be very expensive, and be selected carefully, which you are trying to do.

I can't give you and hard answers only that for me, max spl's are slowly becoming a non issue. I seems that on average, great gear seems to only be great in lower(>105db's) volume ranges.

Other than that, listen to Sean, I think he is still chasing the dragon. Probably more like whopping it's ass.

Marty
More to discover