Best High Efficiency Speakers for full bass tone

Altec Valencias would be great with vintage equpmt in a room that size and not break the bank.

I have heard Cathedral speakers at a few Capital Audiofests. I could easily live with and even afford those I think.

I've heard the large Classic Audio Reproductions models that I belive are fairly Hi Eff and seem to do it all very well. Similar in size, cost and retro styling to the large Tannoys.

I have a lot of speakers as I am somewhat of a collector. Currently have Klipschorns, Jbl L200's, Altec VOTT, JBL L220's and as good as they are none comes close to the quality and quanity of bass that my Westminster Royals have. They are very expensive and should give something special at the price. Well they do, top to bottom the most pleasing speakers I have ever owned.

["Looking for something with better bass detail than a pair of extra subs rumbling 60 hz and under."]

I have a pair of Velodyne DD12+ that are extremely detailed, in fact I can't even tell if they're turned on until I turn them off. Or, with the push of a button on their remote, they can thump a kick drum to live levels and beyond all the live long day.

I'm guessing you need to hear a modern subwoofer system properly set up. But hey, good luck with your search.

Tannoy prestige line
the higher up the $$ food chain you go, the more effecient the speaker.

READ THE REVIEW: the top two: TANNOY KINGDOM ROYALS AND WESTMINSTER SEs in Positive Feedback review issue #64

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue64/tannoy_royal.htm

I've heard them and also many of the lower models in the PRESTIGE line ... in a word for all : STUNNING.

I used to live in a loft apt, the area where my speakers were was about 1100 sq ft with high ceilings. My DeVore Gibbon 8's (the original series not the super) had tons of bass. I did use placement and the concrete floor/wall to my advantage. Building material of the internal surfaces plays a big part.

Perhaps something like the Coincident Technology Total Victory V might work? I also wouldn't rule out trying a pair of high quality subs at some point. It's pretty amazing what they can add to most systems, and the newer DSP hardware/software available these days makes integration much less of a problem than it used to be. Best of luck.

What really works in these bigger rooms? Looking for something with better bass detail than a pair of extra subs rumbling 60 hz and under.

I don't know what subs you've been listening to, but that is hardly a fair description of what the better subs do these days.

For that sized room, some powerful articulate subs are exactly what you need. I'm not sure what your budget is, but one or two JL Fathom F212s would do the trick. They are linear, dynamic, deep-reaching, and most of all fast and articulate to blend seamlessly with the main speakers.

Another good candidate is something from Velodyne's DD+ series.

The articulate, musical subs generally have sealed cabinets, sometimes with passive radiators, light and rigid diaphragms, massive magnets and frames, and inert enclosures. Many have tone shaping software for a better fit to the room.

I have a modest pair of floorstanders that were a bit small for my listening area, which is open architecture with a cathedral ceiling. I added a pair of (now out-of-production) Mirage MM8s. They aren't made to plumb to 20 Hz, but with 1200 watts peak and 8" aluminum diaphragms augmented by matching passive radiators, they fill the 32-60 Hz region perfectly. I had to work at placement, phase, crossover and level matching for 2-3 hours to get it to work well, but that was well worth it. I didn't want to give up the small towers because they did so many things well, but didn't put out the bass to energize the space. Adding two compact extremely fast subs did the trick. These things are anything but woofy or muddy.

Lamhorn speakers with AER Mk3 drives. It lacks nothing to my ears.

Larger Triangle Speakers, perhaps even larger monitors like the Genese Trio would be worth a look. Many are reasonably efficient and most are also quite tube amp friendly.

Dear friends: I can read and see from your posts that everyone speaks of bass quantity and almost no one speaks about bass quality that IMHO is the first target in any audio system/room when we are talking about overall bass management.

Bass quantity is an easy task and IMHO serve for nothing with out the quality level. Perhaps no one of you already had the opportunity to hear an audio system where that bass quality management shines.

I heard through my audio years hundred of audio systems going from 5K dollars to 300K dollars and the ones that performs " so so " ( including the very very expensive ones. ) is because its bass management is " so so ". In the other side " humble " systems with first rate bass quality outperform easily audio systems with " bass quantity ".

I repeat: plenty of bass means nothing with out the right quality level. When we have that " plenty of bass " with a high quality bass level performance any audio system will shine as ever. You have to exdperience this " bass management " quality level. IMHO there is no single audio item we can add to our audio system that can gives us the improvement level as to have the right bass management.

Don't have to beleive me, just try it and if you are interested please re-read what I linked.

Just an opinion.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

K-Horns if you have the corners. If not, KLF-30's (if you can find them) are great. I use them as fronts in my HT in a very large room but they do a fine job for 2 channel with an upscale amp.

Zu Defintion 4s. My (overall) space is larger than yours. The bass is deep, tight, defined, and palpable.

Yeah, in a room that size I would agree with most here that you will need horns. K-horns are great, or you could go with some Altec A7's, or one of the newer types like the Avantgardes, etc., though those will set you back quite a bit more. Properly set up, you should have plenty of bass with any of them.

I had a pair of Belle La Scala's and while they were loud, they really lacked detail.

Tpreaves,
Perhaps Buc was alluding to the adverse of lively room acoustics.

02-23-13: Buconero117
If you have some coroners available, K-Horns, by Klipsch. Properly set up you can get to down to 20 hz. Been there, done that.

Buc, WTH does a local gov't official have to do with K'horns? :)

Hartley 24" in Jensen imperial cabinet should do it! Actually, a 15" in the imperial would likely crack your foundation. Check the decware site.
Working on the same issue myself and I wish I had the space for these.
Best,
Doug

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

Dear Astralography: ++++ " full bass tone.....better bass detail .... " ++++

two desired bass management characteristics that are really dificult to achieve.

Good audio system/room bass management IMHO means: accurate neutrality, more easy to write than to achieve.

Please read carefully this link that could help you in what you are looking for:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1117893153&openflup&27&4#27

Yep, Avantgardes will fill that room VERY nicely...

-RW-

Anything from Avantgarde - EQ'd, active subs provide full-range extension and >100dB sensitivity (up to 109dB, depending on model) and will fill a big room with modest tube power. Some very reasonably priced pairs of Unos and Duos on the 'Gon now.

Price range?
My Zu Definition 4's will pump out about as much bass you'll ever need and the high efficiency should fill that room just fine.

Buconero117,
K horns down to 20 Hz? I had those speakers for over 20 years and always struggled to get any good deep bass out of them. Ended up with a Velodyne sub which did the trick. Oh well, maybe I had them set up wrong.

If you have some coroners available, K-Horns, by Klipsch. Properly set up you can get to down to 20 hz. Been there, done that.

You have a nice big room. What amplifiers will you be using?