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M-Lores or Aon 3: bass/imaging

Ok, yet another thread along the lines of "which speakers should I buy?" (I've read a few thousand of them lately). But my question is really coming from the fact that I've never owned floor-standers before. So I'm sort of paralyzed by the fact that I like the idea of the Tekton Mini-Lores--straight-ahead good design--but I can't audition them. "Money back" -$120 total shipping isn't my idea of money back, on my salary... On the other side of the ring currently are the Golden Ear Aons, which claim the same 38Hz bass response. So, opinions and experiences from people with a deeper background with both kinds of speakers is welcome. If not experience with these models, then experience with the underlying technologies. I'm not sure whether or not conventional wisdom regarding floorstanders vs. bookshelves applies in 2013 with these designs.

Context:
1) I'm running a class-D (solid-state-sounding Icepower) amp, and like it a lot. My listening level is only about 82dB at distance, slow-weighted peaks on an SPL meter. So no need to shake the house. Still, 87dB sensitivity seems a good minimum to be safe. This makes some contenders marginal (Dynaudio, Kef, PSB, Ascend). It suggests Tekton and Golden Ear, in particular, although I'm mainly drawn to both for their bass response spec and other design features.
2) This system will be 2-channel music only. A main goal is to switch the subwoofer off for good, since I've never liked the amount of fiddling I've had to do and haven't ever been entirely comfortable with the result.
3) I'm a sucker for a vast sound stage and good imaging, not too far back (my current Axiom M2v2 speakers put the sound stage someplace way back in the neighbor's house). I also tend to be analytical in most things.
4. Low-E on a bass guitar is about 41Hz, I've read, so this is a good target for the bass freq I'm looking to nail. I want it defined and balanced, not accentuated. But I don't want it just "implied" through harmonics (or else the sub stays on).
5. I've always put on headphones when I want to hear detail, having never owned really top-shelf speakers. I can still do that if I get something really fun from the speakers as a trade off for less detail.

Questions:
1) Reading between the lines, it seems like bass response on floor-standers is reported honestly, while on bookshelves a "38Hz" rating or the like seems really to mean roll off below 60Hz. Is that basically how it goes? E.g., Mini-lores will be flat at 38Hz while Golden Ear Aon 3 would be (to make up a number) like -9dB at 38Hz? The Aons seem to rely on wall reflections to get that bass to you, which might be perfectly fine.
2) Both imaging and air-moving bass are about driver size--or so I've read, and it makes obvious sense. Aon 3 claims 7" mid-range driver; Mini-Lore = 8" wideband driver. Seems pretty close... Comments on either or both of these speakers, based either on personal experience or informed supposition? "They" say the mini-lores are "not the most resolving speaker" etc. Hedge, hedge. Do they stack up to the imaging capabilities of smaller good bookshelves or not?

Note that for the mini-lores, I would need to do vineers and/or grills, so it'll be the same price essentially as the Aon 3s.
That's the pricepoint I'm comfortable with.

I've also auditioned the Sjofn "(The Clue)" speakers, and found them to be terrific as a pro tool, but perhaps actually too detailed and too finicky for a room not furnished around them. I'm still considering them, though. Other than the Clues, I've really never heard outstanding speakers in-depth. I have the Axioms noted above, plus Boston Acoustics A40s from 1986, still in service. That's pretty much my speaker-buying history. I can audition the Golden Ears, but it will be a day trip so won't be doing it lightly. Again, no way to hear the Tektons, but I feel pretty confident about them except for the question mark about possibly lesser imaging (versus the Aons lesser bass?). Thanks in advance for opinions and experiences. I guess this post appears to lean toward the Tektons, but in fact the GEs fit the room better, so I'm still very much open, including being open to not buying anything.
adlevision
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,059 posts
 
Adle,

HAven't heard Sjofn (The Clue) speakers, but I would say your accounting of the Goldenear Aon3s and the Dynaudios is most consistent with my experiences with both to date.

A "good solid apple-bosomed Dutch girl"? Dynaudio is Danish. Close enough?
adlevision OP
11 posts
 
Mapman,
Yeah, I realized my mistake shortly after posting. Somehow "Danish girl" doesn't sound as funny to me, though, and I don't seem to be able to edit the post anyway...
trip
84 posts
 
I think some of you selling the Aon'3 short.
Before judging them in a showroom which IMHO doesn't do them justice, they need a least 100 hrs break in time.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,059 posts
 
"I think some of you selling the Aon'3 short."

Could be. I'd judge them as solid contenders and potential best values at their price point based on limited audition time at a dealer, but would have to listen to them a lot more to say for sure.
adlevision OP
11 posts
 
Yeah, as noted above, my conclusion was really that I'd need to take them home to judge. Too bad I'm too far away to do that easily. But side by side, and presumably broken in in their show room, they were leaner in the mids by intent. I happened to be back in town again yesterday and went back for a second quick listen just to the Aon 3s, this time hearing more in the bass than I recalled (although there was a definite boxiness someplace down there, which I assume was maybe a room mode or else they were too close to the back wall). Plus, I was better able to notice how brilliantly they project acoustic instruments into space. I was using their demo disc this time. Great speakers, for sure. Yet, the overall sound, at least as I was able to hear it in there, turned out not to be for me. It was like the difference between the Aons having a "silver screen" effect versus a color-saturated HDTV, sort of (I visualize strongly when I listen, and that was very much the effect on me). The effect overall really made me uncomfortable, sad to say, and it felt just sort of like the transporter beam hadn't quite finished materializing the musicians on the platform. But again, I've literally listened to my BA A40s for 28 years running, now, plus one or two other speakers that have roughly similar sound in the mids (several designed by Henry Kloss, come to think of it). So I may be too entrenched to readily shake what's familiar to me. The Aons also do have an image that moves around very easily as I moved even a few inches. In a word, delicate.

You know, something just occurred to me. I wonder if the "lack of overshoot" and air of the ribbon tweater urged a particular sound in the mids to keep the whole thing sounding balanced. I'm out of my depth there, though.

And, even as I now await the arrival of the Excite X-12s, I'm actually back to thinking about mini-Lores for the non-subwoofered secondary system in the living room, which would indeed mean disconnecting the Boston Acoustics speakers for the first time since I was 16! ...Did I catch something from touching this board after you guys? Hope not: I'm poor.
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