I had a customer with these a few years ago running off a AR VSi60 and they sounded fantastic! Down sides I agree with in your quote and I'd add they didn't do dynamics very well (think orchestral music, rock etc etc). Otherwise, if you're into mellow listening, they were really good.
A used pair of Fujitsu Ten Eclipse TD712 Z Bookshelf Speakers at TMR
All these recent references to TMR got me window shopping speakers over there again, and I came upon a listing for these rather goofy looking speakers with stands (used) for $3200 (I think they list for around 7k new). They have some dings on them, but still, $3200 and Stereophile said:
I’ll get the negatives out of the way first: The Eclipse TD712z wouldn’t play very loud and didn’t go very low. And that was it.
As I played a variety of CDs and LPs, the system with the Eclipses had a clarity, transparency, resolution, timbral accuracy, and specificity of imaging that were simply breathtaking. The speaker did particularly well with voices, which had a human flesh-and-blood quality, an effect that I suspect was due to the absence of the mechanical resonances present with other speakers.
which, dents and dings aside, really sounds alluring for the price. (I don’t play my system very loud these days, it’s in a small near-field room, vocals are what I really enjoy, and as far as bass--that’s not really my thing anymore either, and I do have a sub, and some day I could alway turn my system into a two-sub-system.)
But the specs!? 6 ohms. Sensitivity: 83.5dB/V/m. Power handling: Rated 35W/Maximum 70W. I have both a 4 and 8 ohm tap on my amp (Cary V12) and it is switchable between 50 wpc triode and 100 wpc ultralinear (I cannot remember the last time I switched it to ultralinear), but on paper a sensitivity of 83.5 and 6 ohm impededance should be a real TOUGH load to drive, right? But why then are the wpc requirements that are listed so low?
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Thanks @sunshdw , I just did a google on the AR VS i60, and 50 wpc did the trick, huh? That's what I was really curious about, as with a sensitivity of 83.5 and being a 6 ohm load, I would have thought they might need some serious wpc to move them. I don't have a real good handle on electrical theory, and I do remember trying to grasp a thread in which sensitivity was discussed and my take away from that discussion was maybe that isn't the number that means the most, it is how low the impedance dips? Meaning that if it was a mostly flat 6 ohms it could be driven with lower wpc? Meaning that my Cary V12 could probably do the trick? However, with all that typed, there is also a thread, running right now, all about speaker sensitivity, and what I am getting out of that is that the number does matter (a lot)? |
I'm no electrical guru either and yeah they sounded pretty darn good. They were in a great room so something fairly large (est 20x25x10) and I sat to listen to a couple demo pieces the client had and I was really impressed. With that said, could they use more power from a solid state? I'm sure they could but I haven't heard that so I can't comment. |
I don’t know that I would have called my preference (now a days) mellow listening, but usually it is a smaller presentation that I listen to and usually it is the vocals that I am most attracted to, so maybe I have actually slid into a state of mellow listening. And I’d keep my B&Ws, so if I felt the need for speed, I could hook them back up. Besides considering their low sensitivity, I guess I am also weighing the fact that the pictures of them show them to be a bit dinged up, and I don’t know that if even if they are about 4k cheaper than brand new that this condition should rule them out for me or not. Kind of like a gear head who sees a 427 Vette (although these are not a Vette) with dings and dents and the numbers not matching that he couldn’t afford otherwise. |