Topic: Speaker Auditions

[EScott]

I'm currently in the market for a new pair of speakers, so Boswell and I went up to the local hi-fi store tonight to give a listen to a few different sets.  I brought my Cary SLi-80, my Musical Fidelity DAC, Audioquest speaker cables, and Better Cable Silver Interconnects. The 4 CD's we were using were Dark Side, Yo Yo Ma / Enrico Morricone, Feels Like Home by Norah Jones, and Panic in the Streets. 

First up was a pair of Martin Logans.  These didin't even make thru the 3rd disc, the highs were just brutal on my ears.  The imaging was good and the price was right, but I couldn't see myself being at all happy with them in the long run.

Next we hooked up a pair of Sonus Faber Concertos.  Much fuller sound, but these are monitors, and the low end was certainly lacking.

The final pair we heard was the Sonus Faber Grand Piano line.  The sounded the best of the 3 (and of the course was the most expensive), but again, didn't really knock me out of the chair.  The price difference between the monitors and floor speakers is pretty signifigant (almost $2K), and I definitely did not hear that big of a difference.

I am going to try out a pair of the VR4jr's this weekend with the same musical selection and hopefully they will fit the bill a little better.  I am glad I went thru the exercise, I was beginning to think I didn't like the sound of the Cary, but it certainly proved itself tonight.

Boswell also brought a DVD-A from last weekend out with the 722 and it sounded fantastic!

[Tim]

those Sonus Faber are beautiful speakers...

where are you listening to the VR4jr's at?

glad you didn't give up on the Cary... now hurry up and get back out here so you can hear my ASL amp

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

I'll be interested to hear you impression of the JRs.

[EScott]

"where are you listening to the VR4jr's at?"

There's a dealer in Myrtle Beach that has a pair.

"glad you didn't give up on the Cary... now hurry up and get back out here so you can hear my ASL amp"

If I buy these new speakers, I won't be traveling anywhere until 2006. 

[ducati]

Don't miss ProAc if the Cary is floating your boat now...

[ducati]

Oh, and one word of auditioning advice--you don't want a speaker that knocks you out of your chair.  You will hate them later.  What you're looking for is smooth, natural sound that doesn't call attention to itself as a speaker.  That won't stand out in an A/B most times--but it's what you will enjoy most later.

[EScott]

"Oh, and one word of auditioning advice--you don't want a speaker that knocks you out of your chair.  You will hate them later.  What you're looking for is smooth, natural sound that doesn't call attention to itself as a speaker."

Agreed, I was speaking on overall performance and not sound levels.  Although if I could find something that blew a woman's shirt off, I'd have bought them on the spot.

[Tim]

Although if I could find something that blew a woman's shirt off, I'd have bought them on the spot.

did you audition any discs of christmas carols?

[EScott]

"did you audition any discs of christmas carols?"

Not at $200 / hr...

[Tim]

gotcha

[ducati]

"Oh, and one word of auditioning advice--you don't want a speaker that knocks you out of your chair.  You will hate them later.  What you're looking for is smooth, natural sound that doesn't call attention to itself as a speaker."

Agreed, I was speaking on overall performance and not sound levels.  Although if I could find something that blew a woman's shirt off, I'd have bought them on the spot.

I don't think we necessarily agree, so I'll clarify    I mean on overall performance, as well.  Something that "blows you off your chair" is probably too sonically "manipulated" to enjoy for a lengthy period of time.  Case in point--a pair of unnamed (but highly regarded) speakers I auditioned a few years back.  Wow, they really imaged well, were very taut and punchy, and had very clear, extended highs.  I brought them home for home audition against another speaker (that I eventually bought and kept for years) and initially they popped out in my home as well.  But after a week of listening to both, on and off, I began to realize the exciting speaker was exciting so people would buy them in the store--it was fatiguing to listen to, not faithful to the music, and actually LESS enjoyable than the speaker that initially sounded more "dull" in my common 12 hour listening sessions...

Anyway, we may very well agree on this point, I just wanted to make sure   Schlepping all that gear around is valiant...  But don't forget to bring them home and live with 'em for a week or more.

[wboswell]

The best part about the night was the store's employees stopping in to take a look at the Cary...  "I haven't seen one of those in years!"  Didn't speak too well of the store high end expertise, imo.  While tubes are necessarily something that every store should carry, you'd think the employees would have a little experience with them.

Eric had the same sentiments as I.  The Logans had a harsh quality in the upper range that was brutal at times.  They didn't match well at all with the Cary.  The Conciertos immediately fixed the problem and to me, were the most impressive for the size and cost.  For such a small monitor, I wouldn't have expected the LF response they gave, not to mention the all around smoothness of the speaker.  The decay of the HF info was exceptional.  The Grand Pianos were impressive as well, but not so much as I would have expected.  The LF extension was what was lacking the most.  So, for the difference in cost, I felt the Conciertos were the no brainer selection of the evening.  Properly matched with a sealed enclosured sub, these monitors would make me very happy.

I'm very interested in the jr's demo...  I wish I could be there!

[BC]

Next we hooked up a pair of Sonus Faber Concertos.  Much fuller sound, but these are monitors, and the low end was certainly lacking.

Don't forget the option of running a sub with monitor-type speakers. If you get a sub that has some nice equalization features it can help a lot in smoothing out room modes and anomalities, something that might be more difficult to do with two full range speakers.

Take care,
Ben

[ducati]

Which Martin Logans did you guys demo?  The odd impedence dips of the electrostatics can be quite harsh on amplifiers; this can show up as a hardening/glare in the sound as the amplifier can't deliver the current and starts to compress.

[wboswell]

It was either the montage or the mosaic, neither of which I believe is an electrostat.