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Can you ever go back and be happy?

My audiophile friends and I often discuss if we know any highenders who have great planar speakers (Soundlabs,Apogees,Magnepans) that could go back to a box enclosure speaker and could truely be satisfied with the sound of their system. We believe there is a special quality the way a well designed planar loads a room which just sounds more natural and real to us compared with a baffled speaker design. On to the question. Not including having to down size or change speakers because of $issues or logistics, having to move your sytem to a smaller space etc., have any of you GON members gone from a world class planar to a box enclosed design and were able to really be happy and not long for the "good old planar days". We do not personally know anyone who has ever done it and was truly happy about afterwards. It would be great if any of you fellow GON members can relate to this question through your own personal experience and share your opinions with us.
teajay

Showing 2 responses by larryi

larryi
4,188 posts
 
I've gone from Maggies to Acoustats to Martin Logan, and finally to a big, partially horn-loaded system (S.A.P. J2001). The liveliness, weight and dynamic behavior of my current system swayed me. The other big advantage of my current system is that it is very efficient (99db/w) and easy to drive, so I can use low-powered tube amps. There is nothing quite like low-powered triode amps, provided one has suitable speakers.
larryi
4,188 posts
 
DB,

The S.A.P. J2001s that I own are NOT at all like the current model offered by S.A.P. The model I have was discontinued by the manufacturer who claims it is too expensive to build (at U.S. retail of $22,000 they can't make money?). I have not heard the current J2001 model so I cannot comment on its sound.

The speaker I have has two 12" drivers in a Jensen/Onken bass reflex cabinet. The drivers are very "old school" -- alnico magnets, paper cone, pleated paper surround. On top of the bass cabinet is a magnetically levitated platform that holds a horn midrange driver. A Fostex bullet tweeter is crossed in very high on top. Because the midrange and tweeter sit exposed on the top of the cabinet, they both can be moved around to change the sound. Oddly, moving the tweeter backwards increases the treble response (perhaps because that actually puts the listener closer to being on-axis).

This is a warm, yet detailed and dynamic system that lacks the peaky midrange of many other high-efficiency horn-based systems. However, even with twin woofers and a fairly large cabinet, this system does not deliver really deep bass. I've heard Jensen/Onken cabinets that delivered deep bass, but they were bigger than Sub Zero refrigerators.

One more thing of note, this is an extremely ugly and industrial looking speaker -- not only are all the drivers exposed, the crossover components are in ugly metal utility boxes that sit on top of the speaker. Another odd quirk is that speaker connections are to a terminal strip. I've been too lazy to replace the strip with real binding posts (very easy to do), so my speaker wires are barely hanging on to the speaker by my screwing down on tong of each spade. So much for Italian design and aesthetics.
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