In article ,
Newbie wrote:
You have to appreciate that I can't do what one can in most Americans
cities: throw my speakers in the car and take them to a high-end dealer
for side-by-side comparison.

If that's what they do, they're wrong. You should borrow speakers from
your dealer and check them at home. The room has a vast influence on the
final sound.

--
* What do they call a coffee break at the Lipton Tea Company? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Newbie" wrote in message
...
Michael McKelvy wrote:

My choice would be for Dynaudio and Proac since they use the top 2
drivers made

Do you know which series within each model would be best to look at?
Maybe I have been out of this game for too long but the situation
confuses me. For example, Dynaudio site has Audience,

I would look at eh Audience 122 since you want floor standing speakers, and
I'm somewhat familiar with them. They are a ported version of a kit speaker
they had designed by Joe D'Appolito, which used their aperiodic vents. I
built a pair and they sounded superb, very open and airy with plenty of
detail and bass into the 30-40Hz range.

With speakers it always best to pick a price range and listen. Nothing else
you do to your system will affect it more.

Contour,
Confidence, and Evidence! Every write-up is superlative, leaving no
hint of what is the series aimed at. If you know Dynaudio (or proac)
range, please help!

With Dynaudio there's almost no such thing as a bad speaker, they make great
drivers and designs.

"Keiron" wrote in message
om...
Newbie wrote in message
...
Michael McKelvy wrote:

My choice would be for Dynaudio and Proac since they use the top 2
drivers made

Do you know which series within each model would be best to look at?
Maybe I have been out of this game for too long but the situation
confuses me. For example, Dynaudio site has Audience, Contour,
Confidence, and Evidence! Every write-up is superlative, leaving no
hint of what is the series aimed at. If you know Dynaudio (or proac)
range, please help!


"Ranges" often equate to "price brackets", I believe, price overlaps
are probably quite rare. I'm a Dynaudio user, I have just upgraded
from the Audience 42 to the Contour 1.3mk2 (now deleted,there's also a
1.3SE and 1.4, though not sure if the 1.3SE is still current either).
I have to say the Contours are by a mile the biggest improvement I've
ever made to my system over 20 years. At times they are simply
breathtaking. I got them second hand, mint for £675 and I believe you
can get them about £899 new (if you can find any). In somes respects,
it's hard to imagine how a speaker could be any better. I'd recommend
them without hesitation. They're stand mounters by the way, so factor
in about £100 for stands. (I've never quite understood why people
insist on floorstanders.)

I suspect they like floorstanders because that kind of money for stands
seems extreme IMO. Since stands have only one function, to raise the
speaker to ear level, spending for that function should be able to be had
for a lot less. If the speaker is a tower type like say the Audience 122,
the elevation is already done.

If you have the money and there is a particular aesthetic you are getting,
go for it, but just to raise the speaker to ear level shouldn't cost that
much IME.

"Fella" wrote in message
.. .
Newbie wrote:

Having been away from audio for a long time, I am now looking to
upgrade from KEF 104ab, an speaker, probably similar to Spendor and
Rogers models. I would prefer a floorstander, but not much larger
footprint than my present speakers (ie, no Quads or Maggies). This is
for 2-channel stereo, not home theater.

Please suggest suitable brands and models. Friends have suggeted
Spendor, Proac and Dynaudio. However, I am confused by various "series"
within a brands (don't recall that happening when I shopped last time
but could just be my faulty memory!), eg, should I be looking at
Contour or something else in dynaudio?

All comments and advice appreciated.

I would advise a Sonus Faber. They get their drivers from dynaudio,
scanspeak, etc. Their work is *very* high quality and *very* good looking.
Although loyal to the source (ie, "hifi") their philosophy of the human
ear being the "strictest judge" and that they see home audio reproduction
as an end in itself, and as a form of artistic expression by itself makes
them stand out from all the rest, IMHO. You will get very sweet and
musical sounds when matched with the appropriate gear.

Two more advises:

1) Ignore the "all cd players, amps, speakers, wires, etc, sound the same"
type of borgs lurking around here. Just believe in your own ears.

2) Steer away from sonus faber if you are mostly into heavy metal, hard
rock, etc angry type of music.

The only reason IMO to go with Sonus Faber is looks, since the sound the
impart can be gotten in other brands or in kits.

There is one other speaker I would include in a recommended list, and that
is the VSM from Merlin. The last time I saw one it was $5000.00 U.S. and
used a Top of the Line Dynaudio Tweeter and a Scan-Speak 7" midwoofer.
Absolutely beautiful look and sound.

"Fella" wrote in message
.. .
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

In article ,
Fella wrote:

1) Ignore the "all cd players, amps, speakers, wires, etc, sound the
same" type of borgs lurking around here. Just believe in your own ears.


I'd love to know who you think reckons all speakers sound the same?

Well if some have the audacity to think that all cd players and amps sound
the same why not also speakers?


First lets deal with falsehood of anybody saying all CD players and amps
sound the same. It is that all CD players working the way tehy are supposed
to sound the same. If you have 2 CD players and one sounds different, one
is either malfunctioning or designed to sound someway other than flat.

Same for amps.

As to speakers, they are the weakest link in the audio chain sinc e they are
subject to room interaction and the fact that designs and drivers ahve gross
differences from manufacturer to manufacturer.



What about it howie? With level matching and 8 hours a day pink noise
listening subjected to the strictest iron curtain double blind tests you
think you would get a sonus faber sound the same as a, say, dynaudio ?


I've never seen this in print anywhere - the writer would be laughed out
of court.

Yes but he would come back.


I'd caution against just relying on your ears without a reference. The
room used for listening in has a far greater influence on the final sound
than any competent amp or CD etc. So what may sound fine in a shop at a
quick audition may well disappoint at home.

You are correct. I should have advised the newbie that (s)he should have
home auditioned any equipment for at least a week before any purchase
decision. That's what I do actually.



Also, IMHO, ... If a speaker sounds
'impressive' on one type of music more than another, it's a poor design.


Well I am not saying that for instance that some death metal vehemence
would sound bad with *spesifically* a sonus faber (it would sound bad
eminating from any old speaker, it wants to sound bad, yes?). What I am
saying is that its just a waste of money and abilities of the sonus faber
speakers to employ them on that kind of material. Sonus faber is designed
to bring out all the subtle inner details, the beauty, the musicality, of
a given piece of music, that IMHO, does not exist in angry music. And
since such music is preferably heard LOUD and with lots of distortion, a
sonus faber would be an overkill, as it were. A pair of cremona costs at
least three times as much as a pair of some average cervin wega!s which
are designed to give what the listeners or angry music want.

My experience with Dynaudio is more with the DIY end of things, so If it were me in your place I'd look and listen to what was
in my price range. The same applies to Proac. The Dynaudio Audience 122 resembles the Dynaudio TWYNN which was sold as a kit
and had a very spacious and detailed sound, with good bass down into the 30's.

I am becoming a bore about mine, as people here will attest. (A 52SE.)

They are among the best speakers I've ever heard and are _perfect_ for
my absolute _love_ of high quality treble.

I've had them a few months now and I still look at them in kinda
awed reverence when I think what they're capable of.

It is astonishing (to me).

NP: All About Eve: "The Pearl Fishermen", "Road To Your Soul".


Martin
--
M.A.Poyser Tel.: 07967 110890
Manchester, U.K. http://www.fleetie.demon.co.uk

"Dodge McRodgered" wrote in message

"Arny Krueger" emitted :

Based on recent listening evaluations, the bang-for-buck leader in
studio monitors could easily be the Behringer B2031A. They would
make very gutsy but nice-sounding speaker/amplifiers for use with
a computer system and/or CD player.

Those do look interesting.

The thing is, who wants to support a company which lifts ideas from
others who do all the hard work??

You mean companies like Mackie whose HR824s are slavish copies of
Genelecs?

Behringer are something else.. many, many, many of their products are
cheap crappy-quality "clones" of products that some other company
sweated over and paid dues in research and development. Both Mackie
and Aphex have successfully sued Behringer for copying PCB's IIRC.

Mackie did not sucessfuly sue Behrninger. There was a secret settlement.

In the case of Mackie, the clincher was Behringer copied an error,
identically, from the Mackie board to "their own" design. *******!

Wrong.

In message , MINe
109 writes
In article , Newbie
wrote:

Stewart Pinkerton wrote:

: I had 104s, and I can assure you that he will have no troble at all in
: this regard. Given our new knowledge of his budget, I'd suggest a hard
: look at the B&W N804, the Spendor S9 and the JMLab Elektra range. Also
: of course the incomparable Quad 988/989 for a completely different
: experience.

Hello Stewart. I appreciate your suggestions. However, I live a small
(expensive but tiny!) big-city apartment. The Quads are out of the
question! I suppose the speakers could be tall, but must have a small
footprint.

One general question I can't even articulate well goes like this: If
you have very good speakers of this age (my KEF's, or BC-1s, Rogers,
etc.), with no obvious breakdown, just old age, is it better to get
them "reconditioned", or has the speaker technology improved so much
that one should replace them?

Are you dissatisfied with the sound? There could be a simple fix by
repositioning them or using room treatments. Maybe you could tell us
about the room: hard floors, high ceilings, square footage, that kind of
thing.

Anyway, what are the best "sleek" speakers that don't need much floor
space?

The Magneplanar 1.6 are tall but only 19" wide and 2" deep.

Stephen

But they need about 1.5 metres of space behind them!
--
Chris Morriss

Anyway, what are the best "sleek" speakers that don't need much floor
space?

The Magneplanar 1.6 are tall but only 19" wide and 2" deep.

Stephen

But they need about 1.5 metres of space behind them!
--
Chris Morriss

And a Krell to drive them?


Martin
--
M.A.Poyser Tel.: 07967 110890
Manchester, U.K. http://www.fleetie.demon.co.uk

In message , Fleetie
writes
Anyway, what are the best "sleek" speakers that don't need much floor
space?

The Magneplanar 1.6 are tall but only 19" wide and 2" deep.

Stephen

But they need about 1.5 metres of space behind them!
--
Chris Morriss

And a Krell to drive them?


Martin

Possibly!
It's odd, I used to have a pair of the small SMGb models, and I couldn't
drive these with my Arcam 8P. Now you may say, 'not surprisingly', but
my much larger MG2.5R panels were quite happy when driven by the 8P.
(Not to huge levels of course, but the SMGb weren't happy even at lower
levels.) The SMGb were OK with a homemade MOSFET o/p amp.
--
Chris Morriss