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Speakers, confusion, any ideas?

I've just rebuilt my front end after 20 years. I now have HCA-2 amp, MusicHall mmf-cd25 mod level +, and a Carver Sunfire Symphonic reference pre. (yes, Wally at underwood hifi has had some influence on me). The last link are speakers. I have refurbished my epicure 3.0's mids and subs from Meniscusaudio. With their advice, I will still need to replace the tweets, and have the speakers shipped to them for a computer analysis to create the new crossover, have it installed, etc. I have already spent $600.00 on drivers, with about $600.00 to complete the modification/refurbish process. At their current level, I listen, and am just not satisfied. The upper end, especially female vocals and horns are just edgy. I keep wanting to turn it up, but when i get to performance levels they make my ears hurt!!

I suppose the cross over could be the missing key, however, i wonder if my journey is futile.

I've read about three speakers that catch my attention, in no particular order: The Gallo Reference III, Paragdigm Studio 100, and the Theil CS2.4. All have gotten some serious print. Once I make my decision, I dont want to look back. What ever I pick, will probably take me to the next 25 years, hearing loss, diapers, and the true terminal* whatever.

Any ideas?
kyneo
cinematic_systems
282 posts
 
Here are 5 CD's that have a great deal of good music and an eclectic selection of music. Not all tracks are perfect but the range from outstanding to just listenable can help define how fragile or how flexible your system is.

Until the End of the World Soundtrack
Sopranos Sound Track (Original)
The Soul of a Man by Wim Wenders (PBS series The Blues)
City of Angels Soundtrack
Into the Labrynth Dead Can Dance

These are some tracks I use to evaluate systems, notice how old some of the CD's are!

Enya Watermark track 3 "On your shore"
Crash test Dummies God Shuffled His feet track 10 "The Psychic"

Peter Gabriel So Track 6 "Mercy Street"
Megadeth Countdown to Extinction Track 1 "Skin O' my Teeth"
Depeche Mode Violator track 6 "Waiting for the night to Fall"

All of the tracks above accentuate areas that many speakers seem to have difficulty reproducing.

Almost all of my other "test" Cd's are limited "demo" cd's and cd's from Cd Classical magazine. None of my Classical test CD's are available for resale.
ozzy62's avatar
ozzy62
3,211 posts
 
First of all, if you aren't using vinyl when doing these "demos", you aren't really hearing the music.

Second....ok, there really is no second. That's it.

Oz
kyneo OP
23 posts
 
Yo Cin Sys,

Do you have any advice or experience with the Vandersteen 2wq?

Gary
gregm
3,409 posts
 
The upper end, especially female vocals and horns are just edgy
That sounds a lot like a x-over matter to me. As such, Meniscus (and other reputable resellers) are of course experienced enough to offer viable solutions -- better so, with some INPUT from yourself (i.e. your tastes).
Or it could be a tweet-mid mismatch (unusual, but it happens) in which case again, the same people can offer solutions.
I really wouldn't worry (or invest in commercial spkrs) until the spkr project is completed! Cheers
cinematic_systems
282 posts
 
Gary,

No I don't have any experience, but I have heard previous models and I liked the subwoofer.

But I don't want to go any farther because the last 2W I heard was probably 10 years ago.

But I still might be able to help, what is the application? 2 channel, surround? what main speakers and what size is the room (include open adjoining spaces too.
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